Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is often perceived as an incurable disease by both patients and their physicians. While the outcome of most solid tumors has improved over the last 20 years, the median survival for patients with PDAC has steadily remained less than 12 months, even with the best therapeutic regimens currently available [1]. Despite the discouraging statistics, approximately 20% of all patients who undergo surgical resection for PDAC survive five years. Among these, a small percentage experience very long-term survival of more than ten years, and in some cases may even experience complete cure [2, 3].

Interestingly, studies have also indicated that this very long-term survival might not simply be the result of early detection. While patients who survive at least ten years tend to be younger and have more favorable pathological characteristics than "conventional" survivors, very long-term survivors can still present with nodal metastases, poor tumor differentiation, and positive resection margins in up to 40% of cases. This suggests that the atypical clinical behavior of PDAC in these patients may be due to unique tumor biology, rather than clinical features such as earlier stage or more complete surgical resection.

In recent years, numerous DNA sequencing studies have unraveled the complexity of cancer genomes and have provided a molecular rationale for the remarkable heterogeneity that is commonly observed among cancers that share identical pathological features. This concept is exemplified by the recent report of a patient with metastatic bladder cancer who experienced a dramatic response to everolimus, resulting in prolonged survival [4]. Genomic analysis of the patient's cancer identified inactivating mutations in the TSC1 and NF2 genes, both of which have been associated with the mTORC1 pathway in preclinical models, thus providing a genetic explanation for the exceptional response and improved survival.

In light of these observations, our group recently analyzed the exomes of a series of well-characterized, pathologically confirmed PDACs from patients who had survived at least ten years after surgical resection of their cancer [5]. Eight carcinomas were subjected to whole-exome sequencing analysis to assess whether somatic mutations in specific genes might explain the atypical clinical course of this particular subgroup of patients with PDAC.

Although a total of 301 somatic mutations were identified in 274 genes (mean of 37.6 non-synonymous somatic mutations per carcinoma), only 5 genes (KRAS, TP53, SMAD4, CDKN2A, and RNF43) were altered in more than one of the eight PDACs. Of these KRAS, TP53, SMAD4, and CDKN2A are previously described commonly mutated driver genes in this tumor type. Interestingly, mutations in RNF43, a tumor suppressor gene that encodes a protein with intrinsic U3 ubiquitin ligase activity, were identified in three of the eight carcinomas (37.5%). Inactivating mutations in this gene have been reported in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN), a non-invasive pancreatic cystic neo-plasm which has the potential to progress to PDAC [6]. In order to determine whether differences in driver gene mutation frequency underlie very long-term survival, we then analyzed 27 additional PDACs obtained from an independent cohort of very long-term survivors using deep targeted sequencing. To ascertain whether cancers in very long-term survivors arose from cystic neoplasms (as suggested by the RNF43 mutations), this targeted analysis focused on genes commonly altered in PDAC, IPMN, and other pancreatic cystic neoplasms, including BRAF, CDKN2A, GNAS, KRAS, PIK3CA, RNF43, SMAD4, TP53, and VHL.

After combining the results of the whole-exome and targeted sequencing analyses, KRAS was confirmed to be the most commonly altered gene in PDACs from very long-term survivors (94%), followed by TP53 (69%), SMAD4 (26%), and CDKN2A (17%). Interestingly, the mutation frequencies of the main PDAC driver genes observed in our cohort was comparable to the frequency that would be expected in conventional PDAC.

Overall, RNF43 mutations were identified in 11% of the carcinomas, as only 1 of the 27 validation cases harbored a mutation in the gene. Although RNF43 mutations were relatively frequent in our cohort, a similar frequency has recently been reported by the International Cancer Genome Consortium in non-selected PDACs [7]. The observation that this gene is in fact not mutated at a higher frequency in cancers from very long-term survivors argues against a direct role for RNF43 in determining improved survival.

Taken together, the results of our study suggest that very long-term survival in pancreatic cancer is unlikely to depend upon small coding somatic mutations in common cancer genes. Although non-genetic mechanisms, such as epigenetic alterations, immunologic differences, or features of the tumor microenvironment, may also be responsible for very long-term survival in patients with PDAC, a genetic basis cannot be excluded altogether. Future studies incorporating analysis of large-scale genomic alterations such as rearrangements, chromothripsis, large deletions or insertions, will be important. Furthermore, it is possible that multiple genes mutated at a low frequency play a role in defining PDACs with less aggressive clinical behavior, perhaps by rendering these cancers more sensitive to therapies or by limiting their metastatic potential. Additional sequencing studies performed on large cohorts of patients, in the context of multi-institutional efforts, will be instrumental in identifying such infrequent genetic events.


In this paper, the authors classified the methods of evaluation of life and human health, physical and mental suffering, identified influencing factors affecting the value of the estimate cost of living on the basis of generalization of extensive theoretical and empirical material of various domestic and foreign publications. From the perspective of human capital theory, various approaches to modeling monetary value of human life are reviewed, for example, the demographic approach, consequential, direct investments in human lived during the interval years, theory of utility to the human society, the cost of risk unit and society's willingness to pay for the damages, as well as costs to society to reduce the risk of premature death of its member.


BACKGROUND
Perioperative nurses are expected to demonstrate strict adherence with asepsis principles to prevent surgical site infections (SSIs) as breaching of these principles poses a serious risk of infection to surgical patients.

METHODS
A descriptive survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 87 perioperative personnel to describe self-reported compliance with the principles of asepsis during surgery.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to examine the practices of perioperative scrub personnel with surgical asepsis.

RESULTS
A sizable percentage of participants indicated that they never or rarely observe breaches in the sterile field during surgery with regards to open suction drain systems (46.6%; n = 41), closed suction drain systems (46.6%; n = 41), suture material (39.7%; n = 35), use of surgical instruments (37.5%; n = 33), and prosthetic implants (56.8%; n = 50). Perioperative scrub RNs were less likely to wear shoe covers during surgical procedures than ORTs (M = 3.42 and 4.17; mdn = 3.00 and 5.00 respectively; p = .026).

CONCLUSIONS
The findings showed areas of compliance and noncompliance with the principles of asepsis. Given that the role of the perioperative nurse is paramount in maintaining surgical integrity, and enhancing positive patient outcomes, strict adherence to surgical asepsis is vital to prevent SSIs and other complications.


PURPOSE: A display device for indicating a widget window in a form which is not interrupted with TV watching and a display system including the same and a display method thereof are provided to supply a service on the widget window without interrupting the user who are watching TV. CONSTITUTION: Data about contents offered from a Widget window is received from an external server(S410). A Widget display pattern is selected(S420). The Widget display screen including one or more widget window is generated(S430). It determines whether a preset critical condition is satisfied a display area of one widget window(S440). If the critical condition is satisfied, the new widget display screen including the new widget window is added(S450).


Typical congeners of the boron Lewis acid tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane, B(C6F5)3, are fluorinated at the aryl groups directly attached to the boron atom. The chemistry of related electron-deficient boranes with fluorination distal to the Lewis acidic center is largely unexplored. The preparation and characterization of tris(5,6,7,8-tetrafluoronaphthalen-2-yl)borane are reported. It serves as a model system that provides sites for further substitution at C-1 and C-3 of the naphthalen-2-yl units. A Gutmann–Beckett analysis of its Lewis acidity revealed that, despite remote fluorination, it is as Lewis acidic as B(C6F5)3. The new Lewis acid performs equally well in C═O and C═N reduction as well as dehydrogenative Si–O coupling involving Si–H bond activation. Adducts with water and a phosphine oxide are crystallographically characterized.


A method for the transformation of living anionic polymerization (LAP) to controlled/living' atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is reported and utilized for the preparation of block copolymers. The macroinitiators, polystyrene and polystyrene-block-polyisoprene containing the 2-bromoisobutyryl end group (PS-Br, M n = 12200, M w /M n = 1.04; PS-b-PIP-Br, M n = 16800, M w /M n = 1.03), were prepared by LAP of styrene and styrene/isoprene, correspondingly, and suitable termination agents. These compounds were used as macroinitiators for controlled/living' ATRP to prepare block copolymers with methyl acrylate (PS-b-PMA), butyl acrylate (PS-b-PBA), methyl methacrylate (PS-b-PMMA), a mixture of styrene and acrylonitrile (PS-b-P(S-r-AN)) and also chain extension with styrene (PS-b-PS and PS-b-PIP-b-PS). The block copolymers were characterized by means of size exclusion chromatography, 1 H NMR and FT-IR spectroscopy.


Organizations are facing tremendous internal and external pressures to change. With this being the trend, being a change agent has become a universal competency for most of professionals. This, on one side, opens up tremendous opportunities for individuals to apply their knowledge and skills for the betterment of the organizations but also exposes the individual to be either becoming open to change or becoming the change agent. However, the change agent has a challenging role with respect to not just being an active partner adapting to change but initiating, driving, and institutionalizing change. This is in line with the Kurt Lewin's three stage process of change where there is unfreezing of the current state, implementing change, and institutionalizing new systems (refreezing) (French and Bell, 2003).


This article considers the 2017 tax reform provision that disallows tax deductions for sexual harassment settlements subject to nondisclosure agreements. It examines the possible effects on sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as remaining questions about the tax provision itself.


This paper explores one aspect of the way in which cult-iconography of the later Iron Age and Roman periods in non-Classical Europe broke the rules of mimetic (life-copying) representation, with, reference to a particular motif: the triple horn. The presence of three-horned images within the iconographic repertoire of western Europe during this period clearly illustrates two aspects of such rule-breaking. On the one hand, the image of the triple-horned bull – well-known in the archaeological record, particularly of Roman Gaul – exemplifies a recurrent Gallo-Roman and Romano-British tradition in which realism was suppressed in favour of emphasis to the power of three. On the other hand, the triple-horned emblem is not confined to the adornment of bulls but may, on occasion, be transferred to 'inappropriate' images, both of animals which are naturally hornless and of humans. Such emblematic transference, with its consequence of dissonance and contradiction in the visual message, on the one hand, and the presence of symbolism associated with boundaries and transition, on the other, suggests the manipulation of motifs in order to endow certain images with a particular symbolic energy, born of paradox, the deliberate introduction of disorder or chaos and the expression of liminality. The precise meaning conveyed by such iconographic 'anarchy' is impossible to grasp fully but – at the least – appears to convey an expression of 'otherness' in which order imposed by empirical observation of earthly 'reality' is deemed irrelevant to other states of being and to the supernatural world.


Let R be a ring such that all left semicentral idempotents axe central and α a weakly rigid endomorphism of R. It is shown that the skew power series ring R[[x; α]] is right p.q.Baer if and only if R is right p.q.Baer and any countable family of idempotents in R has a generalized join in I(R), where I(R) is the set of all idempotents of R.


ABSTRACRT: Over a period of time a number of biomaterials have been developed and are used for hard tissue and joint replacement those are Stainless steel (SS-316L), Co-Cr alloy, Titanium (Ti) and its alloy, ceramics and Polymer especially Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) and Alumina (Al2O3). These biomaterials for its suitable mechanical properties, nontoxic behavior, and bio-compatibility can be used as orthopedic implant materials. Titanium, Ti-6Al-4V (alloy) and SS-316L are widely used as materials for orthopedic implants, due to their advantageous mechanical properties and nontoxic behavior but one of the major drawback of using metallic implants is that they are bio-inert and inside the body they become encapsulated by dense fibrous tissue. This impedes proper stress distribution at the implant bone interface, which can result in an interfacial failure and loosening of the implant and finally lead to crack or fracture in the adjacent bone. Most implants today are made from either titanium-based alloys or alloys made from a mix of cobalt and chromium. Both possess excellent mechanical properties but neither is able to bond with bone. As a result, these metals rub against the bones into which they've been implanted, creating wear and tear that shortens implant lifetimes. Bone cement (Poly methyl methacrylate) is used to improve the implant fixation but it may result in deterioration of the adjacent bone and failure. Calcium Phosphates, specially Hydroxy apatite [Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2] have been widely used as coating materials on metallic implants due to its bio-active nature to facilitate bonding with bone. Plasma-spray technique, in particular, has been widely investigated by many researchers and has been proposed as a reasonable coating method. But during the plasma spraying process, high flame temperature is required which may lead to compositional changes and structural transformation of Hydroxy apatite (HA). So, after this procedure the uniformity of physical and chemical properties as well as bio-activity of Hydroxy apatite (HA) could be lost. What has been needed is a coating that adheres to the metal surface of the implant and also promotes the formation of Hydroxy apatite (the inorganic component of bone) and better bonding with better stability. The glass ceramic coating material developed according to Appen, the best agreement between the calculated coefficient of expansion to match the thermal expansion coefficient with the metallic implants and studied is suitable for coating Ti and SS-316L substrates by conventional vitreous enameling technique. The glass ceramic coating upon controlled heat treatment produces a glass ceramic containing wollastonite as crystalline phase. The adherence of coating on Ti and SS-316L metal surface was tested by 3-Point Bending Moment using INSTRON 5500R. The results indicate that the coatings are strongly adhered to the metal substrates. The Surface roughness, surface reflectance and DTA/ TGA analysis of coating showed a very good result as per the requirement. Further the successful implants need a porous coating that can be fabricated by using different pore formers like naphthalene powder or other organic materials. This new coating technique overcomes the disadvantages of the systematic treatment and might potential solution for such treatment in the long run.


Brebes is one of district in Central Java that has very high pesticide consumption, there are a lot of red onion field in this place. Pregnant women is one of the populations who prone to get intoxication. This is happened because of their involvement in agricultural activities, such as washing equipment / cloth after spraying, removing grass from the plant, looking for pests, watering and harvesting. The objective of this research was to analyze the correlation between pesticide exposures in pregnant women with low birth weight in Wanasari Public Health Center, Brebes. This research used observational research with cross sectional design, which population is the pregnant woman who lives in Wanasari Public Health Center, Brebes. Sample used here are 97 people which is obtained using purposive sampling method. Data was analyzed using Chi-square. The result of statistic analysis showed that there was a correlation between Low Birth Weight and: the participation of pregnant woman in agricultural (p=0.019), the existence of onion inside home (p=0,029), the existence of pesticide inside home (p=0,044), completeness of personal protective equipment (0,044). There was no correlation between Low Birth Weight and: long time of work (0,473), job time (0,074), and personal hygiene (0,118). From this research it can be concluded that the pesticide exposure that contribute low birth weight is the participation of pregnant woman in agricultural, the existence of onion inside home, the existence of pesticide inside home, and completeness of personal protective equipment.


This study is about the French Food Safety Agency, a public institution which was created in 1998, after the so-called « mad cow crisis ». It aims at understanding the origins and the institutional design of the Agency, its organization and functioning, and its impact on food safety regulation. The creation of Afssa is analyzed as the institutionalization of a boundary-organization at the frontier of the two social worlds of politics and science, accountable to each other, involving the participation of actors from both worlds responsible for the management of the science-politics boundary. Using the sociological approach of organizational analysis, the thesis analyses the process by which Afssa has institutionalized itself as a scientific actor through a process of bureaucratization of expertise and also as a political actor, defending the values and interests of public health in the food safety regulation regime. We analyze the mechanisms, the effects and the contradictions of this institutionalization process in order to understand the nature and the scope of the institutional and political change of food risk regulation.


Please cite this article as: Ogielska M, Lanotte P, Lebrun C, Valentin AS, Garot D, Tellier A-C, Halimi JM, Colombat P, Guilleminault L, Lioger B, Vegas H, De Toffol B, Constans T, Bernard L, Emergence of community-acquired Clostridium difficile infection: the experience of a French hospital and literature review, International Journal of Infectious Diseases (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2015.06.007


Distributed optimization is manifesting great potential in multiple fields, e.g., machine learning, control, and resource allocation. Existing decentralized optimization algorithms require sharing explicit state information among the agents, which raises the risk of private information leakage. To ensure privacy security, combining information security mechanisms, such as differential privacy and homomorphic encryption, with traditional decentralized optimization algorithms is a commonly used means. However, this would either sacrifice optimization accuracy or incur heavy computational burden. To overcome these shortcomings, we develop a novel privacy-preserving decentralized optimization algorithm, called PPSD, that combines gradient tracking with a state decomposition mechanism. Specifically, each agent decomposes its state associated with the gradient into two substates. One substate is used for interaction with neighboring agents, and the other substate containing private information acts only on the first substate and thus is entirely agnostic to other agents. For the strongly convex and smooth objective functions, PPSD attains a $R$-linear convergence rate. Moreover, the algorithm can preserve the agents' private information from being leaked to honest-but-curious neighbors. Simulations further confirm the results.


This paper presents an effective design method of the electromagnetic interference (EMI) based on single-phase SiC MOSFET inverter. To ensure the design is targeted and effective, the equivalent noise source impedance of common mode (CM) EMI and differential mode (DM) EMI has been measured and calculated at some specific frequencies according to proper model. Then the parameters of CM part and DM part can be respectively design based on the source impedance. The EMI attenuation ability of the filter designed by this method has been compared to a traditional one in simulation and experiments. The simulation and experiment results have verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Abstract Experiments were conducted at the teaching and research farm of Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilorin, Nigeria to determine the effect of aqueous extract of Peperomia pelliucida and Terminalia catappa on the management of cyst nematode, Heterodera sacchari on some selected rice varieties. A screenhouse preliminary study was first carried out in December, 2014 to assess the pathogenicity of H. sacchari on ten varieties of rice from which five varieties were selected for field trials. The five selected rice varieties were grown on soil inoculated with cysts of H. sacchari. The field experiment was a 5×3 factorial type fitted into a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Soil nematode population, physiochemical soil analysis and phytochemical screening of the tests plants were carried out. Treatment application of aqueous leaf extract were conducted at the 2nd and 7th weeks after transplanting. Data were collected on the plant height, shoot, root weights, yield and soil nematode population. All numerical data were subjected to analysis of variance (Anova) using GENSTAT statistical package 12th edition and where significant differences were observed, means were separated using fisher's protected LSD. Results from the study revealed that treatment combination of P. pellucida and T. catappa singly with FARO 60, FARO 61, and NERICA 8 performed significantly higher (p>0.05) than the other rice varieties for most of the growth and yield parameter measured. Significant differences occurred between shoot, root, and yield weight of treated plants and their control counterparts. There was no significant difference between the two plant extracts used with respect to parameters measured. Treated plants performed significantly higher than the control. Based on the results of the study, paddy farmers experiencing H. sacchari infestation are encouraged to treat the field with P. pellucida and or T. catappa, especially when planting FARO 60, FARO 61, and NERICA 8 as these combinations promise to give higher yield.


Objectives. To characterize the association between potency and comprehensive sexual function. The accurate assessment of sexual function is critical for the evaluation of outcomes after treatment of prostate cancer. The assessments of potency typically used in this context, however, may be oversimplified. Methods. CaPSURE is a large, observational database of men with prostate cancer. Participants complete health-related quality-of-life questionnaires, including the University of California, Los Angeles Prostate Cancer Index, every 6 months after treatment. A total of 5135 men completed at least one questionnaire and did not use medications for erectile function. The men were categorized as potent or impotent based on their ability to have erections and/or intercourse in the prior 4 weeks. Using the remaining questions on the Prostate Cancer Index, sexual function and bother scores were calculated for each group. Results. Of the 5135 men, 27.4% were potent. The mean sexual function scores were 56 and 13 for potent and impotent men, respectively (P 0.0001). The corresponding mean bother scores were 62 and 36 (P 0.0001). The function scores ranged from 0 to 100 and 0 to 92 among potent and impotent men, respectively, and bother scores from 0 to 100 in both groups. Function was inversely associated with age in both groups, but bother did not change among potent men and ameliorated among impotent men. Individual Prostate Cancer Index questions correlated with potency to a variable extent. Conclusions. Although potent and impotent men have divergent sexual function and bother scores after treatment, the wide range of these scores in both groups denotes a complex picture of sexual function. The simple documentation of potency after treatment provides an insufficient measure of sexual health-related quality of life and should be supplemented with more comprehensive measures. UROLOGY 61: 190–196, 2003. © 2003, Elsevier Science Inc. W ith earlier diagnosis as a result of prostatespecific antigen screening, men with prostate cancer are increasingly likely to enjoy extended survival after treatment.1 Quality of life, therefore, has assumed a position of growing importance with respect to both evaluation of treatment outcomes and individual patient decision-making. Sexual function and sexual bother are two of the health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) domains most commonly affected by prostate cancer treatment, as well as by the comorbidity and advanced age faced by many patients with prostate cancer.2 The population-based National Health and Social Life Survey found that erectile dysfunction and decreased libido become more common with advancing age; men 50 to 59 years are roughly three times as likely to report these complaints as men 18 to 29 years old. Other domains, however, such as orgasmic capacity and sexual pleasure, were not affected by age.3 All treatments for prostate cancer This study was funded through an unrestricted, educational grant from TAP Pharmaceutical Products, Inc. G.D. Grossfeld, D.P. Lubeck, J. Ye, and P.R. Carroll are study investigators funded by the sponsor. From the Department of Urology, Program in Urologic Oncology, Urologic Outcomes Research Group, University of California, San Francisco/Mt. Zion Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, California; and TAP Pharmaceutical Products, Inc, Lake Forest, Illinois Reprint requests: Deborah P. Lubeck, M.D., Department of Urology, Program in Urologic Oncology, Urologic Outcomes Research Group, University of California, San Francisco/Mt. Zion Comprehensive Cancer Center, 3333 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94143 Submitted: April 19, 2002, accepted (with revisions): September 5, 2002 ADULT UROLOGY © 2003, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC. 0090-4295/03/$30.00 190 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PII S0090-4295(02)02118-0 are associated with potential impairment in sexual HRQOL4; even patients treated expectantly experience a decline in sexual function after diagnosis.5 The pretreatment potency status has been demonstrated to predict erectile function after both radical prostatectomy6 and radiotherapy7; thus an accurate evaluation of sexual function before and after treatment may help predict the likelihood of an adverse impact on this domain, guide patient decision-making, and measure the impact of treatment on HRQOL. Reported potency rates after radiotherapy and radical prostatectomy have varied widely, from 2% to 86% of men after radiotherapy8–11 and 14% to 82% of men after radical prostatectomy.12–15 This variance may be a result of the limitations of physician-reported outcome assessment, differences in patient populations, and variation in time points relative to treatment at which potency was evaluated. Another major source of divergence, however, is certainly the multiplicity of potency definitions used in contemporary studies. Helgason et al.16 found at least 17 different definitions of potency in the world published studies, generally involving the ability to have erections adequate for vaginal penetration or intercourse.16 The National Institutes of Health Consensus on Erectile Dysfunction defines impotence as "the inability to achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance."17 Such definitions may oversimplify the full picture of sexual function, which also includes libido, orgasm, ejaculation, perception of sexual function, and bother attributable to the level of sexual function. Several objective surveys of sexual function have been described,18,19 but only the sexual function and bother domains of the University of California, Los Angeles Prostate Cancer Index (PCI),20 recently updated as the Expanded Prostate Index Composite,21 have been validated in the setting of prostate cancer,20 as well as in healthy older men without prostate cancer,22 and men of variable ages presenting with erectile dysfunction.23 We aimed to describe the relationship between patient-reported potency and overall sexual HRQOL in a large, national prostate cancer patient set, through a focused analysis of the sexual domains of the PCI. MATERIAL AND METHODS Our patient sample was drawn from CaPSURE (Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urologic Research Endeavor), a longitudinal, observational database of patients with biopsy-proven prostate cancer drawn from a network of urologists at community and academic urology practice sites throughout the United States. Men are recruited consecutively by urologists at each site. At the time of entry and semiannually thereafter, men complete a self-administered survey, including questions assessing HRQOL; they are followed up until death or withdrawal from the study. Additional details of the project method have been previously reported.24,25 As of August 2001, 7379 men had been invited to participate and 7195 (97.5%) agreed. The CaPSURE patient questionnaires include the PCI; for this study, the sexual function and sexual bother scales were extracted. The sexual function domain is assessed with eight questions addressing level of sexual desire, ability to have an erection, ability to reach orgasm, quality of erections, frequency of erections, erections with morning or evening awakening, frequency of intercourse, and overall sexual function, all in the prior 4 weeks. The sexual bother domain is assessed with a single question. Each domain is scored on a scale of 0 to 100 points, with higher values representing better quality of life; higher sexual function and bother scores indicate better function and less bother, respectively.20 For inclusion in the present study, patients needed to have completed at least one questionnaire since primary treatment; questionnaires were ignored if the sexual function and/or bother scales were incomplete. For this study, the first questionnaire completed after treatment was analyzed. Patients were excluded if they were using medications for erectile dysfunction to avoid distortion of the sexual function responses. For the purposes of this study, men were categorized as potent or impotent on the basis of their answers to two questions on the sexual function subscale assessing frequencies of erections and intercourse. Men were considered potent if they reported erections greater than 50% of the time when desired and/or vaginal or anal intercourse at least one time in the prior 4 weeks. All other men were considered impotent. Sexual function scores were then calculated according to answers to the remaining six questions on the PCI. This abbreviated sixitem instrument, scored on the same 0 to 100 scale as the full subscale, demonstrated excellent internal consistency in our data set, with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.91 versus 0.93 for the full eight-item subscale. The demographic and clinical characteristics of potent men were compared with those of impotent men using the chisquare test for categorical variables and the Mantel-Haenszel chi-square test for ordinal and categorized continuous variables. Descriptive statistics were calculated for sexual function and bother scores among potent and impotent men; the mean scores were compared with Student's t test. The impact of age on sexual function and bother was assessed by analysis of variance, and multiple pairwise comparisons among age levels were performed using Bonferroni's analysis. Finally, the ability of each sexual function question to predict potency was tested with logistic regression analysis, and the correlation between each question and potency status was assessed by calculating Pearson's coefficient (r). All analyses were conducted using Statistical Analysis System software, version 8.2 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC).


In a Flying Ad-Hoc Network, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), (i.e. drones or quadcopters), use wireless communication to exchange data, status updates, and commands between each other and with the control center. However, due to the movement of UAVs, maintaining communication is difficult, particularly when multiple hops are needed to reach the destination. In this work, we propose the Stochastic Multipath UAV Routing for FANETs (SMURF) protocol, which exploits trajectory tracking information from the drones to compute the routes with the highest reliability. SMURF is a centralized protocol, as the control center gathers location updates and sends routing commands following the Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm over a separate long-range low bitrate technology such as LoRaWAN. Additionally, SMURF exploits multiple routes, to increase the probability that at least one of the routes is usable. Simulation results show a significant reliability improvement over purely distance-based routing, and that just 3 routes are enough to achieve performance very close to oracle-based routing with perfect information.


The sugars of the D-glucose series such as D-glucose, D-xylose, Af-acetyl-D-glucosamine, and D-glucuronic acid as well as those of the D-galactose series such as D-galac- tose, L-arabinose, 7V-acetyl-D-galactosamine, and d-galacturonic acid are widely distributed in a number of polysaccharides and glycoproteins. NMR spectral anal-yses of these sugars are useful in the structural investigation of such biopolymers. In particular, chemical shifts,1 their changes induced by a shift reagent,3' and coupling constants4~6' in the 'H-NMR spectra of the sugars of the D-galactose series are known to differ from those of the sugars of the D-glucose series,


Within the context of the British labor market, 11 investigations into the mental health impact of unemployment are described. These reveal significant decrements for people of all ages as a result of moving into unemployment, and for middle-aged men additional effects of continuing joblessness. Research into factors mediating the harmful impact of unemployment has covered time since job loss, employment commitment, social relationships, gender, ethnic group membership, social class, local unemployment rate, and personal vulnerability. Findings with respect to each are summarized, and a model of influential environmental characteristics is introduced. Additional British investigations are cited throughout the paper.


Measurements of gas temperature profiles in a large-scale test furnace are made by inverting the measured spectral data at 4.3 μm band with inversion algorithms. A 3.4 m-long stainless steel tube is employed as the test furnace through which flue gas flows. Three inversion algorithms are tested: modified constrained inversion method (MCIM), base function-based inversion method (BFIM) and BFIM-based MCIM (BCIM). The correlated-k (CK)-based WNB model is employed for calculation of spectral intensities during the inversion process. The overall performances of algorithms are scrutinized with the inversion results. To verify the accuracy, the inverted temperatures are compared with measured ones using thermocouples. BFIM is good for initial guess and MCIM is good for fine touch, while BCIM gives fairly good results for all cases considered. Thus, BCIM is considered to be applicable, with good accuracy and capability, to inverse problems in large-scale furnaces.


The Jiuduansha Shoal in the Yangtze Estuary is a natural estuarine shoal with insignificant human interventions before 1998.With the construction of the Deep-water Navigation Channel Project in the North Passage,the head and the northern boundary of the Jiuduansha Shoal were fixed,the distribution of the flow and sediment between the North Passage and the South Passage has been changed,and the exchange of flow and sediment between them has been decreased,simultaneously.Along with the decrease of sediment load from the Yangtze drainage area and of bed-load from the upper channels,the Jiuduansha Shoal has experienced a new change in the characteristics of morphological evolution.At present,the part of the Jiuduansha Shoal above 0-m isobath is accumulating wider and higher gradually.The head of the upper shoal extends rapidly by accumulation and climbs over the training wall,reaching into the North Passage,while its tail extends to the South Passage,and a new flood channel occurs between it and the southern training wall as well as the middle shoal.With respect to the lower shoal,there are erosion in the southeastern end,siltation in the northeastern end,counterclockwise rotation of the longitudinal axis and general increase in elevation,but the displacement of the whole Jiuduansha Shoal is invisible.The morphological evolution of the Jiuduansha Shoal has experienced a significant change,especially the rapid extension of the tail of the upper shoal and the unbalanced local erosion and accumulation at southern side of the shoal.More attention should be paid to keep its stabilization as a national natural reserve.


Li Gonglin's Painting of a Country Retreat is a milestone work in the history of Chinese painting, and Poet Su Zhe composed twenty poems for it. To some extent, the depicted landscape, figures and scenes of activity are associated with Taoist or Buddhist significance. However, the original piece is lost a long time ago, and now only four late copies are accessible. It seems that not all copies are completely faithful to the original work, and the Berenson's version is arguably the top one. Due to the misplacement when the hand-scroll was re-mounted, the intertextuality between images and poetic lines becomes quite puzzling. To re-establish the matching relationship between scenes and calligraphic texts is now a priority to understand this brilliant copy.


Terahertz (THz) emission from resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) is normally obtained under the oscillation condition in which the negative differential conductance (NDC) exceeds the circuit loss. In this study, we show that a relatively broad band THz emission was observed even for RTDs with an NDC smaller than the circuit loss. The observed output power was on the order of 1–10 nW at 1.2–1.9 THz with spectral widths of 50–100 GHz. The observation was reasonably explained by the theoretical calculation based on the shot noise amplified by the NDC. This emission corresponds to the amplified spontaneous emission in optical devices.


Leakage currents raise exponentially with scaling of channel length in MOSFET. As a result overall power Consumption became a severe issue in chip designing. Various techniques have been introduced to reduce these leakage currents. But these currents can't be reduced completely. A simple solution to this issue is to utilize these leakage currents for the circuit operation itself. This is possible with weak inversion circuit or sub-threshold circuit design where the power supply is applied less than or equal to the threshold of MOS transistor. Our approach employs dynamic threshold technique to the sub-threshold circuit technique to improve performance. Simulation results show that our method gives better results than conventional methods.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors affecting continuance usage of mobile payment. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the valid responses collected from a survey questionnaire, structural equation modeling (SEM) technology was employed to examine the research model. Findings – The results indicated that performance expectancy, trust in mobile payment and flow affect continuance usage. Among them, flow has a relatively larger effect. In addition, system quality has strong effects on performance expectancy and flow. Research limitations/implications – This research is conducted in China, where mobile internet is still in its early stage. Thus, the results need to be generalized to other countries that have developed mobile internet. Originality/value – Extant research has mainly focussed on the effects of instrumental beliefs such as perceived usefulness on mobile payment user behavior, and has seldom considered the effect of flow experience. This research tries to fill the gap.


Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are released from all cell types, and carry a wide setup of proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and other cargo. The overall aim of this thesis is to explore EV-based immune therapy, but also to find clues on mechanisms of the inflammatory disease sarcoidosis, and of lung cancer. Exosomes from dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with antigen can induce antigen-specific responses in vitro and in vivo. Study I is an investigation comparing exosomes and microvesicles (MVs), which may complement exosomes therapeutically. We found surprisingly similar phenotypes of the two EV subtypes, including size distribution and immunestimulatory molecule expression. However, when tested in vivo, only exosomes induced a significant antigen-specific CD8+ T cell response. Antigenic restimulations ex vivo did, however, suggested that also MVs had such capacity, and both vesicle types induced antigen-specific IgG production. We further targeted the inflammatory disease pulmonary sarcoidosis in study II and study III with the aim to increase understanding of disease mechanisms, but also to search for disease biomarker candidates, and possible new treatment regimens. Broad proteomic characterizations of exosomes from patients revealed high abundance of proinflammatory molecules including leukotriene (LT)-forming enzymes. Large portions of the complement system were elevated, and we flagged vitamin Dbinding protein as a possible biomarker for sarcoidosis. Functional tests of patient exosomes further suggested that they can engage monocytes and favor release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The effects were partly dependent on LTs, and we could reduce cytokine production using the commercially available LT receptor antagonist Montelukast. Study IV on exosomes in lung cancer is focused on how exosomes may contribute to tumor progression via LTs. Exosomes from pleural effusions of patients favored generation of tumorigenic LTD4, as well as tumor cell migration, which could be reduced using Montelukast. In summary, this thesis highlights the importance of investigating all EV subtypes in both basic and applied research. Further, the ability of EVs to contribute to inflammatory processes in the lungs underscores the potential of EVs in understanding disease mechanisms and finding diagnostic and prognostic disease markers. Finally, all three lung studies IIIV point to the possibility of interfering with LTs in inflammatory conditions, with possible applications also in cancer therapy. POPULAR SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY Synthetical nanoparticles are developed and used in state-of-the-art applications, and offer exciting new technical possibilities. Like many other innovations, nature has its own sophisticated equivalence. Every cell type of your body is capable of releasing nanoparticles fully loaded with cargo that can be shipped to other cells. These biological nanoparticles, or extracellular vesicles (EVs), can be down to 30 nanometers in diameter. This is extremely small considering that the beard of an average man has been anecdotally reported to grow 5-10 nanometers per second! Interestingly, these little entities travel around in you, and based on thousands of published studies, they seem to contribute to many of your biological functions including keeping the immune system in check. Research on EVs isolated from blood, urine, or saliva provides clues about how diseases affect you via EVs, and explores the potential to diagnose diseases based on EVs. Another idea is to use EVs as vaccine or treatment, as they can stimulate your own immune system to fight a virus or tumor. Exosomes are intensely investigated EVs, and in this thesis we tested also another EV type for its ability to stimulate an immune response. We found that both EV types could stimulate immune cells in mice, which suggests that treatments based on EVs should include both EV types. We also investigated exosomes from patients with the lung disease sarcoidosis. These exosomes were enriched in molecules which can induce inflammation, and when testing them on blood cells from healthy volunteers, they indeed induced inflammatory effects. Lastly, we also tested exosomes from lung cancer patients, and found signs that they can help tumor cells to survive and possibly also to spread the cancer. Several of these effects depended on molecules involved in inflammation. We could reduce several of these inflammatory effects using an asthma drug which reduces inflammation, suggesting that this drug may protect from cancer progression, and perhaps can be used in inflammatory diseases. In summary, we show that several EV types should be tested further for their possible use in new treatments, and that they may contribute to inflammations and even cancer in the lungs. LIST OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS I. Wahlund CJE, Güclüler G, Hiltbrunner S, Veerman RE, Näslund TI, Gabrielsson S Exosomes from antigen-pulsed dendritic cells induce stronger antigenspecific immune responses than microvesicles in vivo Sci Rep 2017 Dec 6;7(1):17095 II. Martinez-Bravo MJ*, Wahlund CJE*, Qazi KR, Moulder R, Lukic A, Rådmark O, Lahesmaa R, Grunewald J, Eklund A, Gabrielsson S Pulmonary sarcoidosis is associated with exosomal Vitamin D-binding protein and inflammatory molecules J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2017 Apr;139(4):1186-1194 * Shared first authorship III. Wahlund CJE, Güclüler G, Lepzien R, Smed-Sörensen A, Kullberg S, Eklund A, Grunewald J, Gabrielsson S Sarcoidosis exosomes stimulate monocytes to produce proinflammatory cytokines and CCL2, which can be inhibited by Montelukast Manuscript IV. Lukic L, Wahlund CJE, Gomez C, Brodin D, Samuelsson B, Wheelock CE, Gabrielsson S, Radmark O Exosomes from lung cancer pleura exudates form LTD4, promoting cell migration and survival via CysLT1 Manuscript PUBLICATIONS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS THESIS I. Wahlund CJE, Eklund A, Grunewald J, Gabrielsson S. Pulmonary Extracellular Vesicles as Mediators of Local and Systemic Inflammation. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2017 Apr 26;5:39 II. Schmidt A, Zhang XM, Joshi RN, Iqbal S, Wahlund CJE, Gabrielsson S, Harris RA, Tegnér J. Human macrophages induce CD4(+)Foxp3(+) regulatory T cells via binding and re-release of TGF-β Immunol Cell Biol. 2016 Sep;94(8):747-62 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AM Alveolar macrophage APC Antigen-presenting cell BALF Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid


Accompany with the progress of social informationization,transformation occurs in talents training mode of high education.The teaching and learning way is improved attributed to the learning theory of Constuctralism and postmodernism as well as the learning method of self-learning、collaborative Learning.In order to enhancing the quality of education,our country is brought out "national high-quality course" which might bring the heat of open-resource network course construction in high education.This article researches on high-quality course and takes statistical analysis and content analysis as researching method.It starts from the introduction about 1100 high-quality courses among 2003-2006 and lays heavy stress on modularize construction and running quality of open-resource network courses which can be used.Finally,it summarizes the actuality of high-quality course and seeks the problem of them so that proposes suggestions for the construction of high-quality courses in high education and provides reference of cultivating talent and educational reform for future studying.


Long QT syndrome (LQTS) refers to a group of "channelopathies"–disorders that affect cardiac ion channels. The "family" concept of syndromes has been applied to the multiple LQTS genotypes, LQT1-8, which exhibit converging mechanisms leading to QT prolongation and slowed ventricular repolarization. The 470+ allelic mutations induce loss-of-function in the passage of mainly K+ ions, and gain-of-function in the passage of Na+ ions through their respective ion channels. Resultant early after depolarizations can lead to a polymorphic form of ventricular tachycardia known as torsade de pointes, resulting in syncope, sudden cardiac death, or near-death (i.e., cardiac arrest aborted either spontaneously or with external defibrillation). LQTS may be either congenital or acquired. The genetic epidemiology of both forms can vary with subpopulation depending on the allele, but as a whole, LQTS appears in every corner of the globe. Many polymorphisms, such as HERG P448R and A915V in Asians, and SCN5A S1102Y in African Americans, show racial-ethnic specificity. At least nine genetic polymorphisms may enhance susceptibility to drug-induced arrhythmia (an "acquired" form of LQTS). Studies have generally demonstrated greater QT prolongation and more severe outcomes among adult females. Gene-gene interactions, e.g., between SCN5A Q1077del mutations and the SCN5A H558B polymorphism, have been shown to seriously reduce ion channel current. While phenotypic ascertainment remains a mainstay in the clinical setting, SSCP and DHPLC-aided DNA sequencing are a standard part of mutational investigation, and direct sequencing on a limited basis is now commercially available for patient diagnosis.


Posterior circulation infarct is a normal disease seen in the cerebral ischemic stroke,and it′s discovered in recent years that diabete mellitus,as a risk factor of the disease,has been in the ascending trend.It is gradually known that migraine can induce posterior circulation infarct,so the same risk factor has different risk grades in different positions.Meanwhile we should choose the pertinent treatment for posterior circulation infarct.Here is to make a review on the independent risk factors of posterior circulation infarction and the treatment status.


The article presents an interview with Dr. Mario Luis Small about his works and contributions to social network analysis. The conversation revolves around four topics: first, the linkages between his research on urban communities and the current validity of the social capital approach. The second section discusses multiplexity in personal social networks as well as the shortcomings of a deductive approach to this subject. Third, the interview considers the effects of the contexts of interaction for the analysis of discussion networks. The final part of the interview provides recommendations regarding the interpretation of the information obtained from a name generator


Ultrafine-grained ceramics have been synthesized by the production of ultrafine (2-20 nm) particles, using the gas-condensation method, followed by their in-situ, ultra-high vacuum consolidation at room temperature. These new nanophase ceramics have properties that are significantly improved relative to those of their coarser-grained, conventionally-prepared counterparts. For example, nanophase rutile (TiO/sub 2/) with an initial mean grain diameter of 12 nm sinters at 400 to 600/degree/C lower temperatures than conventional powders, without the need for compacting or sintering aids. The sintered nanophase rutile exhibits both improved microhardness and fracture characteristics. These property improvements result from the reduced scale of the grains and the increased cleanliness of the particle surfaces and the subsequently-formed grain boundaries. Research completed on the synthesis, characterization, and properties of nanophase ceramics is reviewed and the potential for using the nanophase synthesis method for engineering new and/or improved ceramics and composites is considered. 21 refs., 5 figs.


Present study reports the effects of operating conditions on the mixing of two co-axial streams. Produced mixing layers between the co-axial streams are investigated numerically in the developing regions. Closed form governing equations of the mixing layer flow are solved using Fully Implicit Numerical Scheme (FINS) and Tridiagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA). Calculations are made for the mean and turbulence properties, and spatial mixing deficiency (SMD). Obtained results show that increase in flow width does not correspond to increase in spatial mixing while increased level of centerline velocity, centerline concentration, mean vorticity, turbulent shear stress and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) corresponds to increase in spatial mixing.


One third of patients with chronic radiation enteritis will require surgery. There is, however, no consensus on the best surgical strategy. The long‐term results of intestinal resection vs a `conservative' procedure, including stoma, bypass, and/or adhesiolysis, were reviewed with special reference to reoperation rates and the ultimate need for long‐term parenteral nutrition.


Vinyl polybutadiene rubber was prepared with aged Ti(OC 4H 9) 4-Al(i C 4H 9) 3 system as catalyst. The effect of aging conditions such as aging temperature and time on the polymerization was studied. The results showed that the catalyzing activity will increase while the dosage of Al decrease if the catalyst was aged; the catalyzing activity of Ti Bd Al triad aging was always higher than that of Ti Al dimerous aging; the optimal aging conditions were Ti ∶Bd∶ Al = 1∶20∶20 aging 1h at 70℃. Compared with when the catalyst component fed one by one or aged under room temperature the molecular weight and 1,2 polybutadiene content of the product were higher while the gel content was lower.


Aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) was involved in the initiation and progression of human cancers. Here, we found that miR-539 was down-regulated in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. Decreased expression of miR-539 was significantly associated with the lymph node metastasis of breast cancer patients. Overexpression of miR-539 inhibited the proliferation and promoted apoptosis of breast cancer cells. Moreover, highly expressed miR-539 significantly suppressed the epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) and sensitized cells to cisplatin treatment. Mechanistically, miR-539 was found to target the specificity protein 1 (SP1) and down-regulated the expression of SP1 in breast cancer cells. Consistently, knockdown of miR-539 increased the expression of SP1. The expression of miR-539 and SP1 in breast cancer tissues was negatively correlated. Restoration of SP1 significantly attenuated the inhibitory effect of miR-539 on the proliferation of breast cancer cells. Taken together, our results indicated the tumor suppressive role of miR-539 in breast cancer by targeting SP1, suggesting miR-539 as a promising target for the diagnosis of breast cancer.


ABSTRACT This paper brings together the discussions on international resource trade and immigration. Following Wenar's analysis of the resource curse, the aim is to challenge the conventional view on immigration that asserts the right of states to have discretionary control over these policies. The paper shows that more liberal immigration is required as an additional remedial policy to persons harmed in unjust trade. The right to self-determination and territorial rights, which are used as the basis for the exclusion of immigrants, are in the context of this analysis constrained by both attentiveness to harm and the charge of inconsistency. Both rights, which are protected domestically, are violated by the unjust 'might makes right' trade rule in the international context, causing harm to people in resource exporting countries. This inconsistency presents a challenge to the moral plausibility of the conventional view in the context of the resource trade.


Thispaperpresents atechnique forautomaticwill perform lowlevel operations. Ifwewanttobuild such generation ofimageprocessing architectures basedon asystem weneedtodevelop IPsforthelowlevel tasks that artificial NeuralNetworks (NN)forrealtimevision wouldbeintegrated inaSoC,eventually withoneormore applications inordertoreducethehardware design processors. Here,thedesign ofIPsturns tobea very effort. Thegenerated datapath canbereusedwith important activity inorder toenable theSoCintegration. different functions. A highthroughput isobtained with However, thedevelopment ofdedicated IPscanbeatime oneoutput pixel beingproduced ateachclock cycle for consuming activity, mainly ifeachparticular system needto eachinput pixel, allowing VGA stream processing. NN customize manymodules toperform eachtask. usedisMLP,trained byback-propagation.


WiFi is being considered as an attractive option in providing low cost Internet connectivity to rural areas, and thereby reducing Digital Divide with urban areas. Most of the WiFi-based Long Distance network architectures extend Internet to rural regions through a single gateway node which is connected to high speed Internet. If the gateway node fails in such single gateway-based rural networks, the entire network gets collapsed. In this paper, we propose a reliable and low-cost WiFi based rural network architecture using multi-gateway concept. The proposed network architecture also allows load balancing among the available gateways. In such multi-gateway architecture, the network recovers from gateway failure and reestablishes the ongoing communication within 2-4 seconds time. The simulation results in NS-2 validate the claims of the paper Keywords—Digital Divide, WiFi, WiFi based Long Distance Networks


Knowledge of the shock remanent magnetization (SRM) property is crucial to interpret the spatial changes in magnetic anomalies observed over the impact crater. This study reports the spatial distributions of SRM intensity and stability of single‐domain titanomagnetite‐bearing basalt based on the SRM acquisition experiments using a two‐stage light gas gun with Al projectiles, remanence measurements for divided subsamples, and impact simulations. The SRM properties systematically change with increasing pressure, and three distinctive aspects are recognized at different pressure ranges: (1) constant intensity below 0.1 GPa, (2) linear trend as intensity is proportional to pressure up to 1.1 GPa, and (3) constant intensity and increasing stability above 1.9 GPa. The SRM intensity and stability distributions suggest that the crustal rocks containing the single‐domain titanomagnetite originally had an SRM intensity distribution according to the distance from the impact point, which changed depending on the remanence stability after the impact.


Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability UC Berkeley Peer Reviewed Title: Manufacturing — Its Evolution and Future Author: Merchant, M. Eugene, TechSolve Dornfeld, David, UC Berkeley Wright, Paul K, UC Berkeley Publication Date: Series: Consortium on Deburring and Edge Finishing Publication Info: Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability Permalink: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/36d27692 Additional Info: Merchant, M. E., Dornfeld, D. A., and Wright, P., K. (2005), "Manufacturing — Its Evolution and Future", Trans. North American Manufacturing Research Institute, vol. 33, pp. 211-218 Keywords: manufacturing evolution, holonic manufacturing, systems, digital factory, example, IT case studies Abstract: The paper highlights events of manufacturing's evolution and metamorphosis over a period of 60 years (as noted by the first author) and offers some observations on key developments and activities. It includes the reflections of professional activities of the first author and discussions of how manufacturing is evolving to accommodate the current and expected trends in manufacturing technology. Three specific software environments relative to developments in the design-to- manufacturing cycle are described. These lead into a perspective of what may now lie ahead, relative to enterprise issues, human system interactions, and the fully integrated "digital factory." Copyright Information: All rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. Contact the author or original publisher for any necessary permissions. eScholarship is not the copyright owner for deposited works. Learn more at http://www.escholarship.org/help_copyright.html#reuse eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide.


Nowadays, media and media logic have become important and inherent elements in everyday practices of public administration and policy making. However, the logic of the media is often very different from, and conflicting with, the logic of political and administrative life. So the question of how public managers experience and deal with media attention is more relevant than ever. An analytical sketch of the literature on the relationship between public managers and media provides three main categories of literature (public relations, agenda, and mediatization tradition). These three categories are used to develop statements (so-called Q-sort statements) to capture the way public managers experience their relationship with the media. A group of managers involved in oversight then sorted these statements into order of preference. The research reveals three different groups of managers who show different attitudes to media attention and whom we have labeled as adaptors, great communicators, and fatalists.


A metallization scheme consisting of Ti/Al/Mo/Au with excellent edge acuity has been developed for obtaining low-resistance ohmic contacts to n–GaN. Excellent ohmic characteristics with a specific contact resistivity as low as 4.7×10−7 Ω-cm2 were obtained by rapid thermal annealing of evaporated Ti/Al/Mo/Au at 850 °C for 30 sec in a N2 ambient. Additionally, no degradation in specific contact resistivity was observed for these contacts subjected to long-term annealing at 500 °C for 360 h.


Because of its simplicity in structure and easiness to process,orifice rotameter is widely used in recent years.But compared with cone rotameter,orifice rotameter has poor linearity and high pressure loss,especially for large-diameter orifice rotameter.This paper proposed a new structure of double-cone orifice rotameter.The computational fluid dynamics(CFD) method was used to determine the optimal parameters of double-cone structure.The prototype based on optimized structural parameters had been developed to conduct real flow tests,and the experimental data was obtained.Experimental results showed that the linearity of DN100 dual-cone orifice rotameter was increased by about 50% compared with the single-cone structure and the pressure loss was reduced by 8%.Not only was the performance of orifice rotameter significantly improved,but also the correctness of the simulation results was verified.


In this paper we have studied slow motion of a porous spherical shell in a spherical container at the instant it passes through the center of the spherical container. Container is filled by a viscous incompressible fluid. Flow outside the porous spherical shell is governed by the Stokes equation and inside the spherical shell by the Brinkman equation. Analytical solution of the problem is obtained by using continuity of the velocity and normal stress and jump in tangential shear stress at the interface of fluid and porous shell as boundary condition. Exact expression of the relevant hydrodynamical quantities such as stream lines, velocity, pressure, wall correction factor and drag on surface of the sphere are obtained. The influence of various parameters such as stress jump coefficient, permeability parameter and separation parameter on the wall correction factor and drag force has been discussed and exhibited graphically.


Purpose: To report 2 cases of branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO) associated with Behçet disease (BD). Design: Small case series. Methods: Review of two patients' charts, fluorescein angiography, and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Results: The authors report two young patients, diagnosed with BD, who developed decreased vision secondary to BRAO for the first patient and cilioretinal artery occlusion associated with branch retinal vein occlusion for the second patient. In the two cases, artery occlusion was associated with active intraocular inflammation. Conclusions: BRAO, with subsequent transient or permanent visual impairment, is an additional ocular complication of BD.


AbstractStakeholder involvement in watershed management decisions remains challenging, particularly when one is relying upon modeling efforts as one of the primary means to understand and communicate the complicated processes controlling a natural riverine system. To determine how to meet the instream water quality standards as required by the total maximum daily load (TMDL) program, a QUAL2Kw water quality model was developed and calibrated for the Jordan River, Utah. To improve transparency, increase stakeholder engagement, and reach agreement more effectively, a collaborative approach was taken to calibrate the model that included Utah Division of Water Quality (UDWQ) staff, consultants, key stakeholder representatives, and independent experts. The study reach of the Jordan River flows 83 km from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake through the urbanized Salt Lake Valley in Utah. Several segments of the river have been listed by UDWQ as impaired for a number of constituents, but the present effort focuses ...


*Katherine Carlson is an artist living in Eugene, Oregon. Currently pursuing a BFA in Photography at the University of Oregon, she also holds a B.S. in Biology and a B.A.in General Art. She specializes in alternative photographic processes, but also engages with text, performance, and any other medium that best illustrates her ideas. Fascinated by the many facets of vision, memory, and illusion, she uses art to explore the divide between physical and mental experience. Her work can be found online at www.katherineanncarlson.com. Art Feature—"Cryographics Series"


Technology in the form of enterprise equipment exists today which enables any vehicle equipped with appropriate client equipment to report information from itself to a distant server not local to the vehicle. Data from properly equipped ground based vehicles can then be collected, sorted, and mined for key operational indicators, which can accurately describe vehicle sub-system operation. A server application can then apply business, technical, or industry rules to determine if certain trends, anomalies, or other degrading health conditions exist completely or initial signs of failure are present. Using this approach, the definition and practical application of Remote Diagnostics is the intent of this paper.


This paper introduces using GLancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) with corral seeds for synthesizing nanodots and nanolines. GLAD is an advanced physical vapor deposition technique for creating three dimensional nanostructures. GLAD is commonly combined with pre-determined seeds on the substrate to create periodic nanofeature arrays; the seeds are usually artificial nucleation sites to rearrange the deposition patterns. However, the concept of corral seeds is different: the incident vapor will be depositing both on and inside the sacrificial layer of the corrals that consist various shapes; the desired nanostructures are grown from the overlapped deposition areas inside the corrals while the substrate rotates, depending on the shape of the corrals, and eventually will be remaining on the substrate when the sacrificial layer of the corral seeds is removed. The thickness of the sacrificial corrals along with the incident angle of the vapor define the shadow areas and deposition areas inside the corrals on the substrate. In this paper, three types of corrals are introduced: circular corrals, dumbbell corrals, and line corrals. The different nanofeatures of nanodots, limited-length nanolines and wafer-length nanolines created by different shaped corrals are presented. The fabricated nanodots and nanolines are potentially used in various optical and sensing applications. The two-step fabrication process of preparing corrals and GLAD provides numerous benefits for the synthesis of the nanofeatures.


A WIDE variety of governmental agencies are cur rently engaged in encouraging Canadians to adopt a healthy way of life. More inter-agency co-operation might well improve community impact, as might a careful theoretical analysis of the determinants of health behaviour. However, the changing of attitudes and social norms is inevitably a slow process, and a steady investment of public funds may be needed for 15 to 20 years before the intrinsic rewards of a healthy life-style have a substantial influence on community behaviour.


Vasa gene homologs of tiger puffer(Takifugu rubripes, Tp‒vasa)and grass puffer(T. niphobles, Gp‒vasa)were cloned and characterized for use as a molecular marker of germ cells in these species. Analysis of the nucleotide sequence revealed that open reading frames of Tp‒ and GP‒vasa comprise 1,872 bp(encoding 623 amino acids)and 1,869 bp(encoding 622 amino acids), respectively. These deduced amino acid sequences contained arginine‒glycine or arginine‒glycine‒glycine motifs and eight conserved motifs belonging to the DEAD‒box protein family, and showed highly similarity and identity with vasa homologs of other teleosts. Tissue specific expressions of Tp‒ and Gp‒vasa were detected in testis and ovary. In situ hybridization analysis showed that Tp‒ and Gp‒vasa mRNA expressed in oogonia and oocytes in the ovary, and spermatogonia in the testis, while it was not detected in the primary and secondary spermatocytes, spermatid, spermatozoa or gonadal somatic cells. These findings suggest that Tp‒ and Gp‒vasa should be useful for studies of germ cells specification and differentiation in Takifugu puffers.


The spatial distribution of the energy emitted by GaAs lasers having Fabry‐Perot resonators was investigated. In general, the diodes emit several fan‐shaped beams of comparable magnitude at angles up to 10° with respect to the normal of the mirrors in the junction plane. These beams have widths from ¾° to several degrees in the plane of the junction and about 10° in the plane perpendicular to the junction. The radiation patterns are usually asymmetric about the normal to the polished faces of the diode and this asymmetry is mirrored on the opposite side of the diode. We conclude that because our Fabry‐Perot mirrors are not perfectly parallel, the most prevalent modes of our diodes illuminate the radiating surface with phase and intensity distributions which vary strongly along the junction. This variation is frequently nearly periodic.


Here we report a novel reactive sputtering method, called two-stage high rate reactive sputtering method, its principles, and apparatus setup, and the results of optical properties of thin films obtained by this method. Then two typical antireflection coatings, one with an intermediate and homogeneous layer and the other with a gradient layer, have been successfully produced by this method. Their spectrum performances and microstructures are also presented.


Modernism and the Postwar In their Santa Monica exile, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno began to develop a cluster of philosophical fragments under the impact of emerging knowledge about the Nazi death camps. Published six years later in 1947 as Dialectic of Enlightenment, this book contains one of the fiercest, most unsen timental indictments of the constitutive role that violence, sacrifice, and repres sion have played in Western modernity. Nazism appears here not as the outbreak of primitive irrational forces in the midst of civilization—a view that held sway in the West for many years after the war—but as the logical end point of a culture of rationality traced back all the way to Homer's Odyssey. It is a story of Western civilization gone awry. Though over the top in its rhetoric of exaggeration and lack of historical and political differentiation, Horkheimer and Adorno's work has helped bring the dark, destructive side of modernity fully into view. In their book, the two refugees have nothing much to say about the modernist arts, but Thomas Mann, a fellow exile in California, acknowledged the umbilical cord that tied modernism itself to the dark side of modernity. Mann


The current pipe fitting forming process is characterized by more than one equipment and gradually formation processes. Therefore, a servo control scheme of the integrated NC machine of pipe fitting is designed. The following works have been done: design the integrated NC machining processes and structure, and design a novel servo control scheme for the machining equipment. The automatic integration processing of pipe fittings is operated by the SCC control system. It could fulfill the integration NC machining and any combination of processing just by putting the pipe into the entrance of the machine artificially. The integrated equipment can realize the integrated numerical control, combine the whole processes willfully, and enhance the process quality. This scheme can be used for the pipe fitting forming in the air conditioning, the water heater, the refrigerator, or the automotive industry.


ALIEN is a knowledge based system that modelizes the economist's behaviour. It is used at the French Statistical Institute and at Eurostat. It can be seen as an assistant that helps economists to write economic diagnosis in natural language as well as a human economist could do.
ALIEN is very useful for analysis in very large data base and/or for regular diagnosis. It studies the shape of all series in an application, the instantaneous relationship and determines what is important and what is not.
ALIEN is used under a user friendly software (DARWIN) developed for Windows 95. DARWIN builds text generation with ALIEN, but also constructs graphs and tables, helps the user to analyze the data base and the semantic of an application. Last, DARWIN builds a nice layout of the mixed comment, graph and table with WINWORD or an equivalent software


The largest source of analytical error in natural gas is distortion of the composition during sampling. Sampling clean, dry natural gas, which is well above its Hydrocarbon Dew Point (HCDP) temperature is a relatively simple task. However, sampling natural gas that is at, near, or below its HCDP temperature is challenging. For these reasons, much attention is being focused on proper methods for sampling natural gas which have a high HCDP temperature.


Purpose To study the effect of bone peptide injection on neonatal rat osteoblast proliferation,and alkaline phosphatase activity.Methods Cultured rat osteoblasts were added into 75,150,300,600 and 1200 μg/L bone peptide injection respectively.Proliferation of osteoblasts 1-6 days in culture was measured by MTT.Alkaline phosphatase activity of cultured bone was collected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 6,9 and 12 days.Results Compared with control group,1-6 days,cell growth in bone peptide 150-1 200 μg/L was faster(P0.05) in a dose-dependent manner,while bone peptide 300 μg/L promoted the cell proliferation most evidently.Alkaline phosphatase activity bone peptide was higher in 75-1 200 μg/L group for 3,6,9 and 12 days of bone culture(P0.05).Alkaline phosphatase activity in 300 μg/L bone peptide was the strongest.Conclusion Bone peptide injection can increase the intracellular alkaline phosphatase activity and accelerate the proliferation of osteoblast activity.


Given the large number of databases on the Internet, it is increasingly diicult for users to identify the databases relevant to their queries. Instead of broadcasting a given query to all databases, one would like to intelligently select only a small subset of databases for evaluating the query in order to reduce the amount of network and I/O overheads. This problem, also known as query routing, can be divided into three sub-problems known as database selection, query evaluation, and result merging. In this paper, we address the database selection problem for routing bibliographic queries. By clustering bibliographic records and summarizing their statistics, we are able to construct a knowledge base for each database and use it for database selection. We have proposed diierent database selection techniques based on diierent combinations of clustering algorithms and database ranking formulas. All these techniques have been experimented using carefully constructed bibliographic databases and their results are reported in this paper.


Recent historic research has shown that during the second half of the eighteenth century there was a probably considerable production of octants (Hadley's quadrant) on the Friesian island of Föhr, a small community of seamen and farmers.1 A number of these instruments have been preserved, and some contain the name of an owner, often a captain of a Dutch or German whale ship. This article briefly describes Föhr and its relationship with the Dutch Republic in the second half of the eighteenth century, deals with the introduction and diffusion of the octant, then takes a closer look at the examples from Föhr and their makers, including the quality of the instruments and the market they were produced for.


Urbanski, J. A., Wochna A., Herman A., 2011. Automated granulometric analysis and grain-shape estimation of beach sediments using object-based image analysis. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 64 (Proceedings of the 11th International Coastal Symposium), ���� – ����. Szczecin, Poland, ISSN 0749-0208 This work presents an automated, image-analysis based method for determining the grain characteristics of sandy, unconsolidated beach sediments. The main purpose of the study is to develop an efficient and reliable alternative to the traditional, very laborious sieving analysis. Moreover, the method should provide a wide range of features characterizing the sediment, including the grain-size distribution and the main geometric measures of the grains. The method proposed here is based on the Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) techniques available in Definiens Developer 7 (DD7). They are applied to high-resolution digital images of sand grains placed on a light box screen. The main stages of the algorithm include a multi-resolution segmentation of the image, separation of the background from the remaining objects and a method of distinguishing between separate grains and their agglomerates, based on the so-called elliptic-fit feature of DD7. In the final, calibrated algorithm, the probability of grain clusters being incorrectly classified as separate grains is less than 3%. The results obtained with OBIA are compared with those obtained by sieving for 22 sand samples. The statistical analysis of the grain-size distributions obtained with both methods showed that in most cases they give very similar results, especially for narrow size distributions with a clearly pronounced peak. For samples with a wider range of grain sizes, and/or with more irregular grain shapes, the differences are larger and depend on the details of the method in which the grain-size distribution is calculated from the data provided by OBIA.


The effects of aqueous extract of Gummara of the Phoenix Dactylifera (AEGPD) and aqueous extract of Lactuca (AEL) on the corrosion inhibition of mild steel in 1M HCl solution were investigated by weight loss measurements at temperature range (30 – 60 ̊ C). Results obtained showed that the percentage inhibition increases with the increasing of inhibitors concentration and decreases with the increasing of temperature. At a concentration of 2 g/L, the percentage inhibition reached about (93.82% and 95.81%) at 30 ̊ C for (AEGPD) and (AEL); respectively. The thermodynamic functions of dissolution, activation energy and adsorption processes were calculated and discussed. Adsorption of the two inhibitors was found to follow the Langmuirs adsorption isotherm.


a series of studies of flow in the vicinity of quasi-stable eddies produced by separa tion at boundary angularities. Professor in the present paper the deter mination of the mean and secondary patterns of axi- symmetric flow for two comparable boundary forms: the abrupt inlet and the blunt shaft. Measurements available for analysis included the distributions of mean velocity, mean pressure, longitudinal and radial inten sities of turbulence, turbulent shear, and longitudinal intensity gradient. Through use of the equations of momentum and of energy for the mean and the secon dary motion, the measured distributions were adjusted to yield the required balance of the essential terms in the equations, thus yielding results in general accord with physical requirements. There are presented in the form of the flow patterns themselves, supplemented by curves of variation of the individual momentum and energy terms throughout the regions of separation. Of particular significance is the interrelationship of tur bulence production, convection, and dissipation, and the. fact that a relatively small amount of turbulence energy is required locally to produce a large overall change in flow pattern. Two final diagrams indicate the variation of the terms of the Bernoulli equation extended to include the effects of turbulence and energy dissipation.


This article is mainly to explore the implementation of the 9/19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement and arms control, indispensable for the transition to an inter-Korean peace regime for the denuclearized Korean Peninsula and peaceful permanent coexistence of the two Koreas considering the unusual and unique division of the Korean Peninsula. The main purpose of arms control on the Korean Peninsula is to maintain peace and promote peaceful unification by resolving military tensions between the two Koreas. To achieve this aim, the two Koreas should develop arms control into a structural configuration that conforms to the efforts towards the peace treaty and the operational one that reduces military threats, such as the dismantlement of North Korea' the two Koreas should development programs as well as massive conventional forces, based on Confidence Building Measures (CBM) in the military. Discussions on arms control and a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula should determine the pace of these discussions vis-a-vis North Korea's denuclearization. South Korea's military should preemptively prevent North Korean provocations and minimize damages in the event of a conflict with the implementation and verification of these agreements.


Reaction of the triruthenium pentahydride complex {Cp*Ru(μ-H)}3(μ3-H)2 (1; Cp* = η5-C5Me5) with acetylene was investigated, in which the μ3-ethylidene−μ3-η2(∥)-ethyne complex {Cp*Ru(μ-H)}3(μ-CMeH){μ3-η2(∥)-CHCH} (2) was produced via formation of the intermediary bis(μ-vinyl) complex {Cp*Ru(μ-H)}3(μ-η1:η2-CHCH2)2 (3). An α-C−H bond of the μ-ethylidene ligand of 2 underwent oxidative addition upon thermolysis to yield the μ3-ethylidyne−μ3-η2(∥)-ethyne complex (Cp*Ru)3(μ-H)2(μ3-CCH3){μ3-η2(∥)-CHCH} (5), which showed fluxional behavior of both the μ3-ethyne and the hydride ligands. Further C−H bond cleavage of the μ3-ethylidyne ligand, affording the μ-vinylidene−μ3-η2(∥)-ethyne complex (Cp*Ru)3(μ-H)(μ3-CCH2){μ3-η2(∥)-CHCH} (6), was also investigated. Treatment of 5 with an excess amount of acetylene resulted in C−C bond formation at the Ru3 core, and the μ3-ethylidyne−μ3-η3-diruthenaallyl complex (Cp*Ru)3{μ3-η1:η3:η1-C(H)C(H)CCH3}(μ3-CCH3)(μ-H) (7) was obtained. The molecular structures of 5 and 7 were determ...


Objective: To determine whether asking general practitioners to offer chlamydia screening at the same time as Pap screening increases chlamydia screening rates.


Numerous sensors are involved in sensing almost everything around us in a cyber-physical system. They generate heterogeneous data which are diverse in format and protocol. Prevailing standards formally define sensor data encodings and provide syntactic interoperability but failed to provide semantic capability required for searching, reasoning, querying on sensors and their observations. The paper extends IEEE SUMO and Onto Sensor to create an ontological structure that captures various sensor concepts and their relationships. It logically classifies sensor information into four major sensor knowledge representation (1) hierarchy (2) data (3) function and (4) data exchange. The proposed sensor ontology has been extended for energy meter as an energy sensor. The represented semantic can be captured through Protégé 4.3.0 and subsequently by OWLXML. Reasoning on the sensor data can be carried out using SWRL.


The title compound is solvothermally synthesized from a mixture of Al(OPr)3, H3BO3, and diethylenetriamine in the presence of HF as mineralizer and H2O/pyridine as medium (autoclave, 180 °C, 7 d, 35% yield).


The paper introduces technology,equipment and key technical parameter of high-intensity wire and rod plant in Xuanlong.Focus on the characteristics of its technology and equipment,for example,regenerative heating furnace with combine type of walking-beam,high speed wire rod mill,controlled rolling and controlled cooling.


Abstract This paper examines SPAM consumption in the Philippines within the context of glocalization. Specifically, it considers the ways in which this global product has been indigenized by Filipinos as both a commodity and a cultural symbol. Of particular significance is the emergence of SPAM within the country's burgeoning fast-food scene. The recent opening of a restaurant chain serving a SPAM only menu illustrates how a global product can be reimagined and reinvigorated by local populations in new and surprising ways.


ABSTRACT Shooting ranges continue to pose environmental and human health risk due to the accumulation of toxic Pb emanating from munitions. Remediation of Pb pollution at shooting ranges has been carried out through application of various techniques of which chemical stabilization is the most common. In some instances, field chemical stabilization has achieved Pb decontamination of the soils to concentrations below the maximum contaminant limits as set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and World Health Organization (WHO). However, the effectiveness of chemical additives to Pb stabilization depends to a great extent on the physicochemical properties of the soils. This review aims to: (i) discuss the effectiveness of chemical stabilization towards Pb remediation of polluted shooting range soils, (ii) establish the chemical reactions that take place between Pb and the chemical amendment and (iii) understand the influence of the soil physicochemical properties on the effectiveness of the chemical amendment.


We encounter a lot of information and images internet sites make it possible for us to search for a lot of information and images. In the present internet era, we lead an another life in cyberspace. Cyberspace by internet is a part of our lives but it close not concord with real life. Internet users enjoy their lives slightly different from their real lives by the use of image which has visual identity avatar, like their other selves. Though the space between reality and virtual has many problems, it is true that it become a new culture. Unsatisfied desires dominate users thoughts and behaviors more intensively in virtual than in reality. Individual identity is visualized and created in various types by avatar this study tries to show the way which image represents individual identity by avatar on the basis of domestic avatars. Through questionnaire and the comparison of game and avatar, we can know the designs and the demands which users and avatar producing companies want. This study has on important meaning in satisfying users various desires and lives through avatar.


Aim:  We evaluated the reproducibility of an elevated luteinizing hormone (LH) level or elevated LH/follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH) ratio in different phases of the menstrual cycle in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Furthermore, we evaluated the influence of cycle days and body mass index on LH levels using different days from menses or withdrawal bleeding.


Objective This study was aimed to investigate the clinical signficance of probable positive results of treadmill exercise test.Methods 58 patients with confirmed or suspected coronary heart disease,underwent coronary angiography and treadmill exercise test.The results were analyzed comparatively.Results Among 58 patients,the number of patients with positive result of coronary angiography turned out to be 42 cases,72.4%,the other inclded 8 cases with negative results,2 cases with unsmooth vessel wall,3 cases with nearly normal vessel,1 cases without apparent stenosis,and 2 cases with myocardial bridge.Conclusions There were 72.4% with positive results of coronary angiography among the patients with probable postive results of treadmill exercise test.It was necessary for the patients,who were suspicious positive of treadmill exercise test,to have coronary angiography in time.It would be good for those patients to have effective diagnosis and therapy in time.


In this review, we highlighted the use of N,N-dimethylformamide dialkylacetals as building blocks for the synthesis of a wide variety of heterocyclic systems. We also showed that these compounds can be used as an alkylating and dimethylaminoalkenylating reagents of organic compounds possessing an actived methyl and methylene groups, as well as an amino group


PURPOSE: A method for manufacturing a CIGSe/CISe thin film by the selenization of CIGS/CIS nano particles is provided to improve the efficiency of a solar cell by inducing the high densification of a CIGSe thin film due to lattice expansion. CONSTITUTION: Cu-In-Ga-S or Cu-In-S compound nano particles that are precursors are manufactured(S1). Slurry including precursor nano particles is manufactured(S2). A CIGS or CIS precursor thin film is formed by coating a substrate with the slurry(S3). The precursor thin film is dried(S4). The precursor thin film is thermally processed using vapor selenium(S5). [Reference numerals] (AA) Start; (BB) Is it a desirable thickness?; (CC) End; (S1) Manufacturing CIGS or CIS nanoparticles; (S2) Manufacturing CIGS or CIS nanoparticles based slurry; (S3) Coating slurry with a non-vacuum state; (S4) Drying; (S5) Thermal process with selenization and high temperature


Conclusion Multi-cultural studies always provide a richness and opportunity but difficulties for maintaining standardization. While it is possible to run international studies that yield poolable datasets, it requires intensive planning and set-up work in order to safeguard the quality of the data. Common Protocols vs. Site Differences Each site designed their study to meet the requirements in the LIDO Protocol. There were design features set by protocol requiring compliance across sites, and there were areas where each site could design the best methods for their settings.


Based on observations made in one of many existing senior high specialized government schools specifically in SMAN 20 Batam where English is a compulsory subject, the writer found that speaking motivation and confidence is still lacking, as well as a lack of technology exploration. By combining technology and face-to-face instruction, the method of blended learning (BL) used in this study utilizes Classroom Action Research (CAR) method. In addition to the pre-test and scoring rubric of the CAR cycle, Live Worksheet is provided as a breakthrough to solve the shortcoming by executing the online interactive platform as a post-test (final evaluation). As a result, of the Live Worksheet implementation of the blended learning CAR method, 90% of students of a representative 10th senior grade class have increased their speaking motivation and confidence, with 3 out of 5 speaking skill elements such as grammar structures, fluency, and pronunciation showing improvement skyrocketed to 80 points, contrast to the low pre-test result of 60 points for each element.


social construct (128). Still, White develops how this novel also functions as a response to Zola, the Patriarch ofFrench Naturalism. In Chapter 6, White exposes the sexual and the political anologies in two Naturalist novels: Hennique's Un accident de M. Hebert and Zola's Paris. Hennique's text illustrates the corrosive forces ofadultery amongst the bourgeoisie, with its self-indulgent behavior and its insensitivity to the conditions and concerns of the lower classes, while Zola's text couples the implosion of the decadent aristocracy through incest and the explosions of the anarchist movement infin de siècle Paris. The book ends with two diametrically opposed texts, Bourget's Un Divorce and Charpentier's Une Honnête Femme. Un Divorce rejects the motif of adultery as trivial and underscores the dilapidating consequences of divorce on each family member while simultaneously reasserting traditional values. Une Honnête Femme focuses on female desire and "sex for pleasure rather than for reproduction" (186). This is an important literary and cultural study on the representation of the family infin de siècle France, which contributes significantly to the research done in the field. The carefully selected novels and shorter text forms clearly illustrate the different discourses on the dysfunctional family. The beautifully executed interpretations ofthe novels are a pleasure to read which is enhanced by the ironic style White uses.


In multiclass classification problems we face the challenge of having many binary classifiers. Consulting this large number of classifiers might be confusing and time consuming. In this paper, we propose a new framework for training and prediction in multiclass problems. In this framework, we perform traditional training. Next we map training examples to prediction models. Finally we produce the Example Classifier (EC). In prediction a new example is passed through the EC to determine the appropriate classifier which in turn makes the last prediction decision. We conduct experiments comparing our framework with one-VS-one and Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) using Support Vector Machines. Additionally, we compare our model with well-known ensemble models, namely, AdaBoost and Bagging, Our results indicate that prediction accuracy is comparable to other methodologies with the advantage of consuming less prediction time.


This paper deals with a data-acquisition system that has been specifically developed for a long-term monitoring of ten different photovoltaic plants. The main goals of the system consist in estimating the drift of the plant components, mainly photovoltaic modules and power inverters, and comparing the performance of the ten plants, which are based on different technologies and architectures. Owing to these goals, the traceabilityassurance of the obtained measurements is mandatory, hence the data-acquisition system has been designed to be easily calibrated and, if necessary, adjusted to compensate for measuring-chain drifts. In addition, the measurement uncertainty, which has to be suitable to distinguish the behaviour of the different PV plants, has to be stated for each of the estimated parameters. A brief description of the data-acquisition system is provided and its measurement capabilities are highlighted in terms of measured quantities and expected uncertainty. Results that refer to a period of thirty months are also reported.


In this paper a method for the rejection of frequency domain outliers is proposed. The algorithm is based on the work by Huber on M-estimators and the concept of influence function introduced by Ha ...


The article presents an analysis of the variability of air parameters quality realized in the two cycles measured (03.2013 and 11.2014). The measurements were made during 1.5 years in selected educational building from the 70s. Measurements in each cycle research were carried out in two classrooms, before lessons and directly after they are finished and outside the building. The research included an assessment of the physical air quality (the air temperature, relative humidity, CO2 concentration) and microbiological contamination (the general count of mesophilic bacteria, the general count of psychrophilic bacteria, the count of staphylococcus (Staphylococcus) mannitol positive (type α) and mannitol negative (type β), the count of Pseudomonas fluorescens bacteria, actinobacteria (Actinobacteria), as well as the general count of microscopic fungi). Additionally, air samples were taken to determine the concentration of dust in the classroom before lessons and immediately after their end. The quality of the physical air correlated with the abundance and activity of students in classrooms. The measurement results of microbiological contaminations were compared with the Polish requirements (PN), in order to classify the degree


We study CP violation in the process e + e − → t ¯ tν ¯ ν at an e + e −-TeV collider. As the source of CP violation we assume a two-Higgs doublet model with an explicitly CP-noninvariant Higgs potential. Sizeable CP-odd observables originating from the sub-process reaction, W + W − → t ¯ t, may arise as a result of finite width effects of the neutral Higgs particles. CP T constraints due to final (initial) state interactions are also taken into account. Numerical estimates of the CP asymmetry are given.