This article outlines the preparation of manganese-doped copper nanoparticles (Mn + Cu NPs) using Vinca rosea (L.) leaf extract as a convenient and environmentally friendly substance. UV–vis, FT–IR, XRD, SEM–EDAX, and DLS instrumental techniques were employed to describe the physical and chemical properties of synthesized V. rosea extract-mediated Vr-Mn + Cu NPs. The synthesized Vr-Mn + Cu NPs were observed to be monodispersed and spherical, with an average size of 412 nm. The plant extract includes a variety of phytochemical components. The Vr-Mn + Cu NPs also have potential antioxidant and antibacterial properties against selected pathogens. The green synthesized Vr-Mn + Cu NPs showed a maximum inhibition zone of 16.33 ± 0.57 mm against E. coli. For dye degradation, MR, EBT, and MO showed the highest degradation percentage capabilities with Vr-Mn + Cu NP-based adsorbents, which were determined to be 78.54 ± 0.16, 87.67 ± 0.06, and 69.79 ± 0.36. The results clearly show that biosynthesized Vr-Mn + Cu NPs may be employed as an antioxidant, antibacterial, photocatalytic dye degradation, and catalytic agent, as well as being ecologically benign.


This paper would presents the formulation and application of a genetic algorithm based strategy for the determination of optimizing joint angles in a given search space for 3 armed planar manipulator system that would contribute to a productive and a quality way of material handling and processing. The system would adopt the advantage of Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimize its performance in terms of path control and accuracy. Once a path is being generated and given as input to the robot, the manipulator's end tip moves along that specified path. The main idea of this paper is to design a continuous path model for the indigenously developed 3 armed planar manipulator during its maneuvering from one point to another point or during pick and place operations in a workspace avoiding all the obstacles in its path of motion. The paper presents simulation results obtained based on the information of the target's position and the manipulator orientation.


Myocardial fibrosis is associated with some clinical diseases and pathological processes,such as hypertension,myocardial infarction,viral myocarditis and so on.However,the pathogenesis of myocardial fibrosis remains unclear.More and more studies suggested that interleukin-1(IL-1)plays a critical role in myocardial fibrosis.IL-1has several biological effects on cardiac fibroblast,stimulating fibronectin to increase,interfering with the expression of matrix metalloproteinase and upregulating angiotensin II type 1 receptors.Then myocardial fibrosis is induced.Besides,IL-1 can also block the process of myocardial fibrosis induced by hypertension.


The utility model relates to an active tension straightening wire-paying machine, wherein, a box type frame seat is provided with a straightening frame and a speed-regulating frame; the straightening frame is provided with a guide wheel and a proofing straight wheel; the speed-regulating frame is provided with a potentiometer, a movable wheel, a stationary wheel, a slide block and a hammer which are connected with each other by chains; the frame seat is provided with motive force and a driving member thereof, an active drawing wheel, a tension braking wheel, a wire winding wheel, a wire pulling water box, a wire pulling die in the wire pulling water tank, an electronic-controlled box in the wire pulling water tank, and a wire output wheel in the wire pulling water tank. The utility model is widely applied to paying the automatic wire with wire diameter of 0.3-4 mm. The utility model has the advantages of convenient installation, balance and stable wire-feeding speed, constant tension, smooth surface, no easy breaking, etc. The utility model is an ideal novel wire-paying machine.


Abstract This article describes a method for predicting the outcome of National Hockey League (NHL) games. We combine a model for goal scoring and yielding, and one for penalty commission, in a Markov-type computation and a simulation model that produce predicted probabilities of victory for each team. Where these differ substantially from the market probabilities, we make "bets" according to a simple strategy. Our return on investment is both positive and statistically significant.


Couple to the rapid development of cryptography, the strength of security protocols and encryption algorithms consumingly relies on the quality of random number. This paper presents a new and security random number generator architecture. The philosophy architecture is based on SHA-2 (512) hash function whose security strength ensures the unpredictability of the produced random numbers. Furthermore, an FPGA-based implementation of architecture is described. The proposed architecture is a flexible solution in many applications taking into account the performance, power consumption, flexibility, cost and area.


We present an inverse analysis of the Maricá Calibration Range data, located in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. As a gamma-ray detector does not admit a fixed field of view, there is significant overlap between successive fields of view. For this reason, standard height and sensitivity corrections may lead to incorrect estimates of the concentrations of the radioelements, thus a practical solution is to invert the data. By inverting the airborne gamma-ray spectrometric data we obtained smoothed results compared to the conventional procedure, especially in potassium and uranium channels. Introduction The airborne gamma-ray spectrometry (AGRS) processing is a tool for geophysical–geological mapping to aid both mineral exploration and the gathering of lithological information (e.g., Davis & Guilbert, 1973; Grasty, 1979; Charbonneau, 1991; Graham & Bonham-Carter, 1993; Dickson & Scott, 1997, Gnojek et al., 2018). The gamma-ray spectrometry method measures the relative abundance or concentration of potassium (K), uranium (eU) and thorium (eTh) in rocks and weathered materials up to 30–45 cm deep by detecting the gamma radiation emitted by the natural radioactive decay of these elements (Dickson & Scott, 1997; Minty, 1997; Wilford et al., 1997; Wilford, 2002; IAEA, 2003). The main sources of gamma radiation are derived from the disintegration of potassium 40 (K), uranium 238 (U) and thorium 232 (Th) series. As the spectral windows of K, U and Th overlap due to Compton scattering, each spectral window will also contain some effect from the other two radioelements. To suppress this effect is necessary to apply the stripping correction, which makes use of spectral ratios called stripping ratios. They are calculated experimentally using concrete calibration pads containing known concentrations of K, U and Th. The calibration process usually consists of four concrete pads with known concentrations of potassium, uranium, and thorium. Ideally, three of these pads should provide pure potassium, uranium, and thorium spectra so that the interfering effects of these elements can best be determined. A fourth low-radioactivity pad is required to remove the effects of background radiation from the surrounding ground, the equipment, cosmic radiation, and radon decay products in the air (Grasty et al. 1991). They are exposed one at a time to the aircraft, being positioned right below the crystal pack being tested (Fig. 1). Figure 1 – Calibration pads. a) Background; b) Potassium, c) Thorium and d) Uranium (Modified from CPRM, 2011). The airborne measurements are made at an established height, and the elemental count rates should be converted to estimates of the elemental concentrations on the ground by a 'sensitivity factor', depending only on the primary radiation and the nominal height above the ground level (IAEA, 2003). A gamma-ray detector does not have a fixed field of view since it can receive radiation from any angle (Grasty et al., 1979), which can result in significant overlap between successive fields of view. The sensitivity correction is applied on a point-by-point basis, despite the fact that the 'field of view' of an airborne detector can be a circle of up to 700 m diameter on the ground, depending on the height of the detector (Minty & Brodie, 2015). An alternative to suppress this overlap is to invert the airborne data to elemental concentrations on the ground, considering the attenuation of gamma-ray signal with the increase of the source-detector distance (flight height), the radioelement sources distribution in ground and the detector response (Minty & Brodie, 2015). Classical AGRS inversion techniques (e.g. Kogan, 1971; Tammenmaa et al., 1976; Gunn, 1978; Crosley & Reid, 1982; Schwarz, 1992) are being revisited to contemplate the detector field of view and signal attenuation (Billings et al., 2003; Minty & Brodie, 2015; Druker, 2017). Inversion Methodology In the case of airborne gamma-ray spectrometry, an elementary source is considered as a radioactive rod (Fig. INVERTING AIRBORNE GAMMA-RAY SPECTROMETRY DATA ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sixteenth International Congress of the Brazilian Geophysical Society 2 2). It is also convenient to admit the gamma-ray source as infinite, both laterally and in depth. Figure 2 – Schematic representation of a gamma radiation of a rod (Modified from Kogan, 1971). Following Kogan (1971), the intensity of a prismatic source of cross-sectional area [a,b] x [-w,w] is found by integration of the intensity due to an elementary rod as follows: J = J0 h 2π ∫ ∫ exp(−μ1r) ds r3 w


The invention provides a moistening and moisturizing lipstick which takes seed oil and vegetable wax as main components and is added with beneficial components of natural plant essence and the like. The moistening and moisturizing lipstick is non-toxic and nonirritating, and can enable lips to be moistened and shine.


To investigate the gender and socioeconomic disparities in the global burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) due to glomerulonephritis from 1990 to 2019.


Abstract Few studies have compared hyperbenthic communities among estuaries, in either New Zealand or elsewhere. This study presents the results of a single late summer survey of the lower reaches of 26 estuarine systems along the Otago coastline from the Clutha River to Oamaru, comparing hyperbenthic communities among both permanently open and intermittently closed estuaries. Intermittently closed estuaries are periodically closed from the ocean because of the formation of a berm across the mouth. A total of 33 taxa were captured with mysids and amphipods, the most widespread hyperbenthic taxa, being common in both permanently open and intermittently closed Otago estuaries. The mysid, Tenagomysis novae-zealandiae, and amphipod, Paracalliope fluviatilis, were widespread, found in 74% and 68% of all estuaries sampled, respectively. In contrast, most other taxa were present in relatively few estuaries, with 17 species recorded from only 10% of estuaries. There was a significant difference in the community composition among permanently open and intermittently closed estuaries. The results highlight the potential sensitivity of New Zealand estuarine communities to management regimes that may alter their open/closed status.


Urban farming is becoming an important activity among the urban dwellers in most developing countries. It is not only to ensure full utilization of the available space for agriculture, but also for sustaining the need of food among the urban dwellers. Since the related campaign and concept of urban agriculture are quite new in Malaysia, the objective of this study is to investigate the intention of urban dwellers towards practicing urban agriculture especially among the strata households. A multistage sampling technique involving stratified sampling was used to select the respondents. A face-to-face interview was carried out using structured questionnaires distributed to 400 respondents. The descriptive analysis, factor analysis, and binary logistic analysis were applied to analyze the data. The results of the study show that respondents have positive perceptions on urban agriculture and most of them have intentions to practice urban agriculture in the future. Factor analysis generated four latent factors that prescribe respondents intention to practice urban agriculture. These factors were positive attitude towards urban agriculture concept, confidence in practicing urban agriculture, societal environment and role model influences. A binary logistic analysis model was used to determine the socio demographic characteristics, and the extracted factors from factor analysis influenced the urban dwellers to practice urban agriculture. The results indicate that age, gender, educational level, and household size with the four latent factors mentioned previously were the likely factors that will influence urban dwellers to have intention to practice urban agriculture.


In the scope of the current research, authors have developed an approach to accelerate the synthesis of realistic images with bidirectional ray tracing based on the consecutive usage of the photon maps and backward photon (imphoton) maps. In the presented approach the photon maps are used to account for the possible sources of caustic illumination, while the imphoton maps are used to account the indirect illumination. The caustic photon maps are built for points of the first diffuse event after the occurrence of at least one specular event at the path of the forward ray. As the caustic illumination is accounted in the photon maps it became possible to shift the imphoton maps farther from the first diffuse event of the backward ray and build the imphoton maps for the second diffuse event. The algorithm was optimized to be used on a modern multiprocessor workstation with the non-uniform memory access pattern. By using the three-level threads hierarchy that combines synchronous, semi-synchronous, and asynchronous components authors have achieved an additional image synthesis speedup. The ray tracing methods were based on physically correct laws of light propagation, which allows performing physically correct modeling and image synthesis for optically complex scenes containing optical devices. The presented image synthesis methods were implemented and integrated into the computer system of photorealistic rendering. The sample rendering results are presented.


We present a scenario for the variability of the microquasar GRS 1915+105. This starts from previous works, leading to the tentative identification of the Accretion‐Ejection Instability as the source of the low‐frequency Quasi‐Periodic Oscillation of microquasars and other accreting sources. We follow the physics of this instability: its conditions (the magnetic field and geometry adapted to MHD jet models), its instability criterion, and its consequences (cooling down of the disk, heating and excitation of the corona). Comparing them to the observed properties of the source, in particular the detailed properties of its spectral states, we first derive a model for the ∼ 30 minutes cycles often exhibited by GRS 1915+105. In our model this is a limit cycle determined by the advection of poloidal magnetic flux to the inner region of the disk, and its destruction by reconnection (leading to relativistic ejections) with the magnetic flux trapped in the vicinity of the central source. We show how it leads to na...


The budgetary process is an important undertaking in any organization, and one which demands much time and effort of the organization's administrators. The main task of the administrators of any organization is to manage the organization so that the goals and objectives of the organization are met. The administrators must create, plan, organize, motivate, communicate, and control in order to accomplish this task. The budgetary process requires that important decisions be made so that the allocation of resources within the organization is in keeping with the goals of the organization, and enables the accomplishment of its objectives effectively and efficiently. Prentice, in her LJ Special Report on library financial management, points out the managerial problem facing library administrators today:


At the outset of the 1997 financial crisis in East Asia, the quest to find a more suitable exchange rate policy has become an urgent policy challenge facing the East Asian economies. One of key policies agreed under Thailand's August 1997 Letter of Intent (LOI) with the IMF was to adopt a more flexible exchange rate policy. The implementation took place in the early months of the crisis, but most of these Southeast Asian economies, including Thailand, have re-adopted their pre-1997 crisis rigid exchange rate policy in early 1999 (McKinnon, 2001). To grasp this "fixing for your life" phenomenon (Calvo and Reinhart 2000a and 2000b), we test the impact of real exchange rate volatilities of Thailand's baht against the Japanese yen and the US dollar on the performance of the country's bilateral exports and imports with Japan and the U.S. from 1970 to first quarter of 1997.


In today's world, agriculture is the most important source of growth. It is an essential component of both economic and social life. Plant disease is becoming an important field in India, in the literal sense of the word. In the past, disease detection systems were designed for monocot or dicot plant families. Gradually, as scientific and special to some science or trade progress, more safe, good, ready, and working well methods are offered and have undergone growth for early detection of plant disease through the smallest wide space for turning time. We have instrumented a careful way to show monocot and dicot disease in this paper. Our methodical approach aids in the treatment of the disease by reducing the number of errors. To detect plant leaf disease, we took three steps. It primarily takes three forms: first, breaking down the leaf into parts, then removing the points, and finally, ordering. It has come to be part of the acted-on part of plant leaf using the k-means quince into group's expert way in the breaking down into parts process. The material's feel, appearance, and color are revealed after it is broken down into primarily form parts. Finally, the information gleaned from the features is applied to the order using the Support Guide Machine to detect plant disease.


In 1961 Tullio Regge provided us with a beautifullattice representation of Einstein'sgeom etrictheory ofgravity.ThisReggeCalculus(RC)isstrikingly dierentfrom them oreusualnitedierenceandniteelem entdiscretizations ofgravity.In RC thefundam entalprinciplesofGeneralRelativity areapplied directly to a tessellated spacetim e geom etry.In this m anuscript,and in the spiritofthisconference,wereexam inethe foundationsofRC and em phasize the centralrole thatthe Voronoiand Delaunay latticesplay in thisdiscrete theory.In particularwedescribe,forthersttim e,a geom etricconstruction ofthe scalar curvature invariant at a vertex.This derivation m akes use of a new fundam entallattice cellbuilt from elem ents inherited from both the sim plicial(Delaunay)spacetim eand itscircum centricdual(Voronoi)lattice. The orthogonality properties between these two lattices yield an expression forthe vertex-based scalarcurvaturewhich isstrikingly sim ilarto the corre- sponding and m ore fam iliarhinge-based expression in RC (decitangle per unitVoronoidualarea).In particular,we show thatthe scalarcurvature is sim plyavertex-basedweightedaverageofdecitsperweightedaverageofdual areas.W hatism oststriking to usishow naturally spacetim e isrepresented by Voronoiand Delaunay structuresand thatthe lawsofgravity appearto be encoded locally on the lattice spacetim e with lesscom plexity than in the continuum ,yetthe continuum isrecovered by convergencein m ean.Perhaps these prom inentfeaturesm ay enable usto transcend the detailsofany par- ticulardiscretem odelgravitation and yield cluesto help usdiscoverhow we m ay begin to quantizethisfundam entalinteraction.


Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become significant commodities in all aspects of life of all age groups in human beings. ICT's have revolutionized the field of food sector, companies, banking sector, health, IT sector, social media etc. Use of ICT in the classrooms of Kindergarten (KG) to Post Graduate (PG) can create innovative atmosphere which reduces the distance between the teachers and students. ICTs help to monitor and evaluate various activities such as exams, admissions, evaluations, results, teaching, alumni network, day to day office work, records of staff and students attendance etc. This work is an attempt to make understand ICT is useful in KG to PG to enhance the quality education.


The load behavior observed during a series of field tests is presented. A staged fault test was conducted in November, 1978 by closing a circuit breaker into a three-phase short-circuit on a 230 kV circuit in the Bismarck, North Dakota area. The behavior of a portion of the Bismarck load was recorded at a 41.6 kV bus and analyzed. The voltage at the same bus was varied by using a voltage regulator before and after the staged fault test, and the load behavior during these tests was also recorded and analyzed.


A novel dispersion model different from the conventional one is introduced to enhance supercontinuum generation in dispersion-flattened/decreasing fiber. The results show that supercontinuum spectrum generated in this fiber is by far wider than that in the conventional one,whose flat width can be nearly 1000 nm. The results further show that both the fiber parameters such as peak chromatic dispersion, dispersion differential constant and dispersion decreasing coefficient and the pump pulse parameters including pulse width, soliton order, frequency chirp are crucial to the flat ultra-wideband supercontinuum spectrum generated in this fiber.


The article is devoted to topical, including little-studied aspects of the implementation of the Food Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation. The price "shock" in the consumer market at the end of 2020 provoked a situation of food insecurity and confirmed the need to rethink the priorities and goals of the Doctrine and focus on ensuring access to adequate nutrition for all groups and strata of the Russian population. Along with methodological questions regarding the criteria, goals and objectives of ensuring food security laid down in the Doctrine, the article raises the problems of practical implementation of this document and concludes that there are no relevant tools and levers of economic policy in the subject area. The article concludes with a concise summary of practical recommendations for making changes and additions to the Doctrine, as well as to strategic planning documents and regulations that ensure its implementation. The external reaction to the first results of the special operation in Ukraine confirms the need to strengthen food sovereignty in practice, not limited to import substitution. Further special studies in this direction are needed with the fixation of their results in the updated version of the Food Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation for the medium term.


A 74-year-old Japanese woman with no remarkable medical history reported lower extremity oedema for 4 months before visiting our hospital. She presented with breathing difficulty at admission and subsequently reported coughing and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea 1 month prior to admission. Chest radiography revealed cardiac dilation and bilateral pleural effusion. Chest and abdominal CT and PET revealed nodules and enlargement of the right paratracheal lymph node in the right lung, abdominal lymphadenopathy, and pericardial and pleural accumulations of fluid. Adenocarcinoma was detected during pleural effusion examination. The patient was diagnosed with cT2aN3M1b stage IV pulmonary primary adenocarcinoma following a bronchoscopic examination. Cardiac tamponade was suspected based on a systolic blood pressure of 90 mm Hg, pulse of 120 bpm and oxygen saturation of 90% on room air; therefore, a cardiac puncture without continuous suction was performed. Following puncture, the radiolucent pockets representing …


Abstract. Despite the increased incidence of fibrotic diseases with advancing age, little is known about the role of aging in these pathologies. Recent studies have proposed that senescence is an anti-fibrotic mechanism that promotes fibrosis resolution through apoptotic clearance of senescent cells. However, all of these studies were performed using young mice. It is not known whether the fate of senescent cells is altered in the context of aging. Here, lung myofibroblasts were isolated from young (2 month) and aged (20 month) mice, and cells were cultured ex vivo. Cells were treated with apoptotic stimuli and cellular viability was assessed. Senescent myofibroblasts exhibited increased resistance to cell death as compared to myofibroblasts isolated from young mice. Secreted factors from young myofibroblasts restored susceptibility of senescent myofibroblasts to cell death. These findings challenge the concept of cellular senescence as an anti-fibrotic mechanism and offer proof-of-concept that the fate of senescent cells may be altered in the context of aging. These studies provide insight into therapeutic treatment strategies for pathological fibrosis associated with aging.


As a complement to a companion paper, which gives an overview of the simulation techniques, this paper describes in some detail the Direct Method of harmonic assessment, which is the technique used in most commercially available harmonic software. Also presented is a methodology for the solution of harmonic problems.


The Practice Research Network (PRN) in Maryland is a Interventions and Practice Research Infrastructure Support Project supported by NIMH that extends the historically close collaborative relationship between the University of Maryland Department of Psychiatry and the State Mental Hygiene Administration. This project focuses on the relationship between University-based investigators and participants in the Public Mental Health System using the local mental health authorities which are known as Core Service Agencies as the point of contact. Project staff serve as liaisons among the various components of the system. The PRN has succeeded in identifying a broader range of research subjects by establishing contacts with provider agencies and stakeholder groups. It has also focused on addressing some of the myths and fears about research by meeting with consumer and family groups and by arranging for investigators to present their research projects to stakeholders. This approach to developing a statewide network in support of mental health research can serve as a model for other state and university partnerships. The Maryland public mental health system (PMHS) values collaborative relationships among all system stakeholders. This is reflected by broad involvement of multiple groups at all levels of decision-making and policy implementation. In keeping with this value, collaboration has also been a hallmark of the relationship between the Mental Hygiene Administration (MHA), the state mental health authority, and the University of Maryland School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. (1–3) In the past decade, the Division of Services Research within the Department has traded on the collaborative relationship to expand research within the public mental health system. This column describes the Practice Research Network (PRN), a special project designed to facilitate widespread participation in research. It offers to other State mental health authorities and other academic research departments a lesson in collaboration,


We introduce a systematic approximation for an efficient evaluation of Born–Markov master equations for steady state transport studies in open quantum systems out of equilibrium: the energy resolved master equation approach. The master equation is formulated in the eigenbasis of the open quantum system and build successively by including eigenstates with increasing grandcanonical energies. In order to quantify convergence of the approximate scheme we introduce quality factors to check preservation of trace, positivity and hermiticity. Furthermore, we discuss different types of master equations that go beyond the commonly used secular approximation in order to resolve coherences between quasi-degenerate states. For the discussion of complete positivity we introduce a canonical Redfield–Bloch master equation and compare it to a previously derived master equations in Lindblad form with and without using the secular approximation. The approximate scheme is benchmarked for a six orbital quantum system which shows destructive quantum interference under the application of a bias voltage. The energy resolved master equation approach presented here makes quantum transport calculations in many-body quantum systems numerically accessible also beyond six orbitals with a full Hilbert space of the order of ∼106.


The presence of tellurite resistance gene operons has been reported in several human pathogens despite the fact that tellurium, as well as its soluble salts, are both rare in nature and are no longer in use as antimicrobial agents. We have introduced the cloned terWZA-F genes from an uropathogenic Escherichia coli isolate into another clinical E. coli isolate that was shown to be ter-gene free. The presence of the introduced genes increased the level of potassium tellurite resistance, as well as the level of resistance to oxidative stress mediated by hydrogen peroxide; and prolonged the ability of particular strains to survive in macrophages. We therefore propose that the contribution of tellurite resistance genes to oxidative stress resistance in bacteria is at least one reason for their presence in the genomes of a broad range of pathogenic microorganisms.


On the basis of analyzing the current situation of Yangzhou overseas tourists source market,the article di- vides Yangzhou overseas tourists source market into the first goal market,the second goal market and the opportuni- ty market,and from the determination of the strategic concept,the formulation of strategy development,the rich traveling product mix and the enhancement of internationalization degree four aspects puts forward some tactics of developing Yangzhou overseas tourists source market strategy.


[Asu1, 7]-eel calcitonin ([Asu1, 7]-ECT) was not absorbed well from rat rectum. Although an unstirred layer may exist as a diffusion barrier for [Asu1, 7]-ECT absorption, transport through the epithelial cell membrane is the limiting step for [Asu1, 7]-ECT absorption. Coadministration of 0.33M phenylalanine enamine of ethylacetoacetate (PheEtAA), 0.17M diethylethoxymethylenemalonate (DEEMM), 0.6M sodium salicylate (SA), or 0.05M sodium p-chloromercurylphenyl sulfate (p-CMP) increased the rectal [Asu1, 7]-ECT absorption significantly. In particular, PheEtAA and DEEMM resulted in a more than 180 times greater AUC of [Asu1, 7]-ECT compared to that when [Asu1, 7]-ECT alone was administered rectally, and these two adjuvants were more effective than SA and p-CMP on the rectal [Asu1, 7]-ECT absorption, though all four adjuvants coadministered at the above concentration with sodium cefmetazole caused similar increases of rectal cefmetazole absorption.


If George Farquhar knew, as these lines from his prologue to David Crauford's Courtship A-la-Mode indicate, the futility of trying to bolster the popularity of a bad play by its prologue, his career as a prologist and epilogist must have reinforced his scepticism. Besides the five prologues and four epilogues he wrote for his own plays, Farquhar wrote at least three prologues and two epilogues for other authors' plays, plus two occasional prologues and one occasional epilogue, a total of ten known prologues and seven epilogues.


Brown rice (Oryza sativa) is a highly nutritious staple food that contains anthocyanins in addition to carbohydrates, fat, protein, fiber, and minerals. Anthocyanins serve as antioxidants, playing a crucial role in plant and human health. Efforts to improve rice production, particularly upland rice production, are always coupled with efforts to increase production of brown rice. The majority of brown rice is produced from upland rice. There has been no effort to manufacture brown rice before today. Therefore, efforts to expand upland rice production with native cultivars are inextricably linked to efforts to boost upland rice output of red rice. Upland rice is brown rice consumed without going through a grinding process or the process of removing the bran and bran from the endosperm of the rice. Rice is only ground into broken rice so that the husk is still attached to the endosperm and has high nutritional value. Strong body immunity and excellent health levels are needed. One of them is by consuming healthy food that is available locally and has become a daily food menu, it only needs to increase production and processing efforts so that it is always healthy. Upland brown rice can be planted as an intercrop to maximize land use for plantation crops, so it has the potential to be developed in Southeast Sulawesi because there is still a lot of unused land or land that has not been used optimally. Therefore, in the context of providing healthy food and functional food based on upland red rice, which farming families can reach, and close to the location of the farmers' livelihoods, it is necessary to increase brown rice production through the introduction of brown rice cultivation technology as a garden plant and also as a family medicinal plant.


The colon tumor microenvironment has a high concentration of H2 S and glutathione, which is highly immunosuppressive and adverse to multiple therapeutic methodologies such as ferroptosis. Here, we report an engineered microbial nanohybrid based on Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Cu2 O nanoparticles to specific colon tumor therapy and immunosuppression reversion. The as-prepared E. coli@Cu2 O hybrid can accumulate in tumor sites upon intravenous injection, and Cu2 O nanoparticles convert to Cux S by consuming the endogenous H2 S, which exhibits strong photothermal conversion at NIR II biological window. Furthermore, E. coli@Cu2 O is able to induce cellular ferroptosis and cuproptosis through inactivation of glutathione peroxidase 4 and aggregation of dihydrolipoamide S-acetyltransferase, respectively. Photothermal-enhanced ferroptosis/cuproptosis achieved by E. coli@Cu2 O reverses the immunosuppression of colon tumors by triggering dendritic cell maturation (about 30%) and T cell activation (about 50% CD8+ T cells). Concerted with immune checkpoint blockade, the engineered microbial nanohybrid can inhibit the growth of abscopal tumors upon NIR illumination. Overall, our designed microbial nanohybrid can achieve tumor-specific photothermal-enhanced ferroptosis/cuproptosis and immunosuppression reversion, showing promise in precise tumor therapy in future clinical translation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Active noise control (ANC) is often discussed in the context of reducing noise in vehicles. The acoustic reverberation of typical vehicle cabins makes the application of ANC to quieting interior noise a stiff challenge. While some ANC approaches take advantage of the modal structure of reverberant enclosures to provide reduction throughout the enclosure, these approaches become infeasible for many frequency bands of practical interest because of increasing modal density with increasing frequency. For high‐bandwidth, diffuse fields, noise reduction is achieved locally by specifying a quiet zone within the enclosure. Experimental results for broadband, local quieting in a diffuse field using a multichannel ANC system are presented. The reverberant enclosure is an ordinary room, measuring approximately 1.4 m×2.4 m×2.4 m and containing a seated operator with six microphones defining the quiet zone near the operator's ears. The control system uses a single reference signal and two error channels to drive four ...


Benefit–cost analyses are critical to support U.S. agencies' programmatic decision making. These analyses are particularly challenging when one of the benefits is adversary deterrence. This paper presents a framework for calculating the value of deterrence related to countermeasures implemented to mitigate an attack by an adaptive adversary. We offer an approach for partitioning the benefit of countermeasures into three components: (1) threat reduction (deterrence), (2) vulnerability reduction, and (3) consequence mitigation. The benefit of a countermeasure is measured by the expected value of countermeasure implementation (EVCI) attributable to a specific countermeasure. It is based on the concept of expected value of imperfect control, defined as the difference in the expected values of alternatives with and without countermeasures. The EVCI represents all the benefits of implementing the countermeasure and is derived from three sources: (1) changes in attack probability (threat reduction from deterrence), (2) changes in detection probability (vulnerability reduction), and (3) changes in the distribution of attack outcomes (consequence mitigation). We partition the EVCI and estimate the portion attributable to each of these three sources to quantify the unique benefit of each. We provide two applications of the partitioning methodology using examples from the published literature that examine countermeasures designed to protect commercial aircraft against man-portable air defense systems. The proposed framework provides an approach for explicitly accounting separately for deterrence, vulnerability reduction, and consequence mitigation in benefit–cost analyses. It provides quantifiable insights into how countermeasures reduce terrorism risk. Funding: This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under [Grant Award 22STESE00001-02-00]. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This award was made to Northeastern University and the University of Southern California is a sub-awardee. This work was also supported by the National Science Foundation [Grant 2027296] awarded to Decision Research.


A low energy positron accumulator was constructed at RIKEN for the purpose of confining an electron-positron plasma. The use of 5 mCi 22Na RI source with a standard solid Ne moderator and N2 buffer gas cooling resulted in a low energy positron yield of ∼ 3 × 105 e+/s. So far, 2 × 106 positrons have been accumulated in 120s.


The Author refers the results of a research about the use of selenium as an integrator of broilers feeding. Added to ration at the doses of 200 and 300 p.p.b. (from 1 to 60 d of age)selenium has improved the weight gain (resp. 10.00% and 16.00%), the feed utilization (resp. 13.00% and 20.00%), the dressing percentuage (resp. 4.50% and 8.00%), the meat yield (resp. 11.00% and 21.00%), meat digestibility (resp. 3.70% and 6.00% of digestible protein after in vitro pepsinic digestion) and tenderness (resp. - 28.50% and -45.00% of connective tissue after in vitro tripsinic digestion), the skin pigmentation. At lower dose (100 p.p.b.) selenium doesn't seem to have any appreciable effect.Regardless to the dose selenium has not shown positive or negative effects on the health status.


Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) services can benefit greatly from the availability of mobile broadband communications in disaster and emergency scenarios. While undoubtedly offering full control and reliability, dedicated networks for PPDR have resulted in high operating costs and a lack of innovation in comparison to the commercial domain. Driven by the many benefits of broadband communications, PPDR operators are increasingly interested in adopting mainstream commercial technologies such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) in favour of expensive, dedicated narrow-band networks. In addition, the emergence of virtualization for wireless networks offers a new model for sharing infrastructure between several operators in a flexible and customizable manner. In this context, we propose a virtual Public Safety (PS) operator that relies on shared infrastructure of commercial PPDR networks to deliver services to its users. We compare several methods of allocating spectrum resources between virtual operators at peak times and examine how this influences differing traffic services. We show that it is possible to provide services to the PS users reliably during both normal and emergency operation, and examine the impact on the commercial operators.


As a National Trade and logistics city and the core city in southern Shandong Province, Linyi adhere to fostering the development of new formats and enhancing the development of new power, pushing forward the internationalization of the mall. The smooth construction of overseas malls makes the foreign trade development more outstanding. Internationalization makes many business personnel improve their language literacy and skills. Getting across their requirement and creating corresponding training routes for them is necessary.


The coupling of an electron to an electromagnetic field is usually described by U(1) gauge fields in the Hamiltonian, whose gradient and curvature yield the electric and magnetic fields, respectively. We apply this gauge field formalism for two cases: i) electrons traveling through a medium with a spatial moment texture, and adiabatically relaxing along the local moment orientation, and ii) in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Having obtained the Abelian U(1) and non-Abelian SU(2) gauge fields corresponding to the two cases, we apply the generalized Maxwell's relation to derive the resulting spin electromotive force (e.m.f.). Finally, we analyze the spin e.m.f. effect in an exemplary domain-wall system in a ferromagnetic nanostrip.


Diffusion-weighted imaging contains information of tumor cellularity, and useful to predict high grade transformation in low grade glioma and tracking response for anti-angiogenic therapy. Perfusion-weighted imaging shows blood volume and blood flow of the tumor, and benefits in tumor grading, monitoring treatment response, and also survival prediction. 2hG MR spectroscopy is useful in predicting IDH mutation noninvasively. This talk contains biophysical view point of tumor imaging, connecting the biology and MR physics in the brain tumor. Relevant research using advanced imaging technique will be given to expand knowledge, and demonstrable cases will be shown.


【Objective】The study is to explore the application of pulsed light technology in bayberry juice processing.【Method】 The effect of different pulsed light treatment and hot treatment on polyphenol content,color and antioxidant activities in bayberry juice was evaluated by spectrophotometry and colorimeter.【Result】 The results showed that the degradation of anthocyanins in bayberry juice was significantly increase by pulsed light treatment(P0.05),and more reduction in anthocyanin content was observed with the increase of pulsed light energy.However,the content of total polyphenols were significantly increased as the increase of plused light energy(P0.05).The effects of pulsed light treatments on the antioxidant activities in different anti-oxidation systems of bayberry juice were inconsistent.The scavenging effects of bayberry juice on · DPPH were increased with the increase of pulsed light energy,which showed great negative correlation with the content of anthocyanins(R2=0.848 6),whereas,the scavenging activities of bayberry juice on superoxide anion and hydroxyl free radicals were decreased.【Conclusion】 Compared with the traditional heat sterilization,pulsed light treatment is a better way to keep the active compounds and quality of bayberry juice.Results indicated that pulsed light technology had a good application prospect.


The heat decompose mechanism of HTPB propellant was discussed in micro-structure. A meso-hotspot physical model was established combining chemical kinetics, heat transfer, and AP interface evolving. The proceeding of Heat Decompose of HTPB propellant was simulated. The results show that simulation results were consistent with experimental results. The nature of heat decompose processing of HTPB propellant was discovered.


Before a new drug can be put on the market, a thorough assessment by governmental bodies is necessary. First of all the drug must overcome a pre-clinical stage including: extraction or synthesis, pharmacological and toxicological study in vitro and on laboratory animals. Permission is then requested from the Ministry of Health to begin experiments on humans. The stages of clinical experiments are also valid for other types of therapeutic procedures such as the association of drugs, surgery and diagnostic investigations or tests. In general all these stages are grouped together in study protocols, which must follow precise rules with regard to their writing out and application if governmental and scientific authorisation is not be denied. However, it is necessary to adapt the protocols to each experimental situation, the one constant point being that experiments should be started very cautiously on a small number of carefully-studied patients in order to arrive at a large-scale assessment.


In the present work an analogue method to find the unsaturated (air-gap) inductance of the energized phase of a SR motor, on-line, has been developed. The air-gap inductance is an indirect indicator to the rotor position and this fact has been used to decide the turn-on instant of the next phase by comparing it with a reference value of inductance that is equivalent to a reference position. The method eliminates the need for a shaft mounted encoder, has the advantage that it requires no extra inputs other than the voltage and current of the presently energized phase and does not depend on the level of saturation of the magnetic circuit. Further, the self inductance being quite large as compared to mutual inductance between phases, this method is more robust than the methods which depend on the measurement of mutual inductance for position sensing. The effect of saturation on self inductance has been taken care in an interesting and simple way. This is considered to be a significant contribution. Contrary to the methods found largely in literature the present method is implemented with analogue devices thereby eliminating the need for fast digital processors.


Due to the increasingly new communication technologies and growing traffic demands, dy-namic spectrum allocation method becomes insufficient to guarantee the satisfaction of main wireless com-munication requirements such as spectrum and energy efficiency. In order to meet different requests, rate splitting multiple access (RSMA) has been recently presented as a generalized multiple access technique. In this study, we design a novel RSMA resource management scheme based on the cooperative bargaining game theory. According to the fundamental ideas of pessimistic utilitarian and optimistic max-min bargaining so-lutions, we can leverage a mutual consensus among different network users to improve the total system per-formance. Based on our interactive bargaining approach, the proposed scheme adaptively controls the spec-trum and power resources in the RSMA system. To get a desirable fair-efficient solution, our bargaining strategy can make control decisions in a coordinated manner while ensuring the relevant trade-off between conflicting criteria. Under the diverse RSMA traffic scenario, the numerical simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed scheme over the existing state-of-the-art protocols. Finally, some open issues are spotted to shed lights on the need for further studies and future research efforts.


The finite element model of moving frame of large ring radial rolling equipment is established.With the model,the deformation of moving frame is studied and it is found that:Both the effect of the whole thickness of moving frame and that of the thickness of its rib on the strength and stiffness are significant.Meanwhile,the effect of the whole thickness on moving beam is bigger that of the thickness of its rib.According to the result of FE simulation,the structure of the moving frame is optimized and the optimized frame can be satisfied with the requirement of application.


I have the honor to report that three British subjects have been tried and convicted here under the following circumstances. During the night of the 9th–10th of February a drunken affray took place at the Stuttgart railway terminus between four young foreigners (three of them English) and some railway porters. No one was much hurt.


Quality of life after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) for cancer of the head of the pancreas depends on multiple factors. Handling of the pancreatic remnant is a decisive factor for the success of the operation. The aim of the study is to assess quality of life of patients with cancer of the head of the pancreas undergoing pylorus-sparing PD and reconstruction with pancreaticojejunostomy (PJ) versus pancreaticogastrostomy (PG). Material and methods. An analysis was performed for 115 patients with malignancy of the head of the pancreas who underwent surgical treatment in the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery Medical Academy of Silesia between 2004 and 2006. Quality of life was assessed with the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-PAN26 forms. These questionnaires were mailed to 34 patients at least 6 months after PD. The 20 patients who returned correctly completed questionnaires were divided into two groups. Group I included 14 patients after PD with (Traverso or Imanaga) PJ. Group II included six patients after PD with Flautner PG. Results. The study groups were homogeneous with respect to age, gender, preoperative and intraoperative factors, and complications. Better quality of life was observed in group I with respect to the cognitive functions, general fatigue, and insomnia scales., Group II exhibited better quality of life with respect to the physical functioning, social functioning, life activity, general health, dyspeptic symptoms, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, respiratory disturbances, lack of satisfaction with own appearance, taste changes, liver symptoms, decreased muscle strength, indigestion, dry mouth and treatment of emergent side-effects scales. Conclusions. Patients in the study group following PD and Flautner PG exhibit markedly better quality of life.


We find a set of exact eigenfunctions which provide the energy spectrum for the quantum N-body Calogero-Sutherland model for fermions or bosons with SU( nu ) spin degrees of freedom moving in a harmonic confinement potential. The eigenfunctions are explicitly constructed as a simple product of the Jastrow wavefunction for the ground state and the Hermite polynomials introduced to generate the excited states. The corresponding energy spectrum is given by a sum of the correlated ground-state energy and of the excited-state energy for SU( nu ) free particles in a harmonic well.


About 50% of pregnant women suffer from Pelvic Girdle Pain (PGP) [1]. PGP is reported as the most common cause of sick leave, with up to 32% of women having to take leave during pregnancy. The condition also carries a high risk of injury as the risk of falling increases by 27% during the third trimester [2,3]. The pain is significant and localized in the posterior region of the pelvis, between the posterior iliac crest and the gluteal fold, particularly in the vicinity of the Sacroiliac Joint (SIJ). It may include the pubic symphysis [4,5]. Etiologies of PGP are multifactorial and affect the joint stability of the SIJ. The "self-locking" mechanism explains how shear in the SIJ is prevented by the combination of the anatomical features (form closure) and the compression generated by muscles and ligaments which can be accommodated to the specific loading situation by a self-bracing mechanism (force closure) [6]. PGP appears to be related to hormonal and mechanical factors which have an impact on force closure leading to instability, by a slightly larger range of movement in the pelvic joints [7,8]. Women with PGP suffer from significant impairments during daily activities. Pain manifests mainly in the evening, indicating that pain starts or increases after activities. Standing or sitting, walking and daily activities become limited [4].


The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of nursing college students' knowledge and attitudes about patient safety on self-efficacy. The participants comprised 186 students in a nursing college. Data collection was from September 22, 2020, to October 24, 2020. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, an independent t-test, a one-way ANOVA, the Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple regression through the SPSS 25.0 Program. Nursing students' knowledge of patient safety was 10.62±1.86 points on average, out of a total of 16 points. Attitudes toward patient safety and self-efficacy were an average of 3.72±0.45 points and an average of 3.71±0.65 points, respectively, out of 5 points. The relationship between knowledge and attitude about patient safety and self-efficacy was positively correlated. The effect on self-efficacy is attitude toward patient safety, satisfaction with a major, school practice, and clinical experience. The explanatory power was 14.4%. In conclusion, it is necessary to develop educational programs for patient safety that apply smart technology in order to enhance the self-efficacy of nursing students.


In order to apply the traditional traffic assignment model in the actual network, firstly this paper distinguishes the impact of intersection delay between different steering on traffic assignment by changing the topology of network. Secondly this paper presents a modified dijkstra algorithm based on the changed topology of network and presents a modified traffic assignment algorithm based on the modified dijkstra algorithm. Lastly this paper gets the result of traffic flow assignment by employing Matlab based on the modified traffic assignment algorithm. The result shows that the proposed algorithms are feasible.


The convergence of digital technology and the emergence of Web 2.0 have radically changed the nature of the digital content sector. This paper, building on a theoretical base of Evolutionary Diffusion Theory and business model analysis, initially summarises and updates the findings from the EC 5th Framework SimWeb project. It then argues the position that 21st-century technology providers are increasingly playing the major role in the content delivery market space - especially in the music industry - to create and ensure long term interoperability between the different stakeholders in the digital content value network.


This paper presents adaptive wide null steering for a digital beamforming (DBF) array with the versatile and powerful genetic algorithm. In this approach, the complex weights of a DBF array are directly coded as the chromosomes for the GA. The GA is able to precisely suppress the sidelobe level, using multiple deep nulls-collectively termed as a wide null-to cover a stretch of azimuth directions. Depending on the prescribed depth of the desired suppression, its proximity to the main beam and the width of the wide null, the original sidelobe level (SLL) of the beam pattern can be maintained. More importantly, this GA approach is applicable for arrays of any configuration, as shown by the numerical results.


This study examined the factor structure of the Organizational Health Inventory (OHI) scale among Omani teachers. There were four factors assumed to represent the OHI (principal influence, academic emphasis, morale, and initiating integrity). Testing the scale reliability was another aim of this study. A random sample (n=458) of Omani teachers was considered. The short version of the scale has 30 items. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the sample data. The model is good fitted to the data. Across gender, the invariance of the structure was tested, and the parameters of the model were invariant. Consequently, the two genders were compared via multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with gender as an independent variable and subscales. The female teachers were found to more likely show principal influence, academic emphasis, and morale than the male teachers, who instead, were more efficacious than the female teachers in dealing with institutional integrity.


Objective To investigate the lipids level of healthy people of Iron and Steel Works for the purpose of providing references for some cardiovascular disease prevention.Methods Four kinds of blood lipids(TC,TG,HDL-C,LDL-C) from 56 764 healthy population were determined by TOSHIBA TBA-40FR biochemistry autoanalyzer.Results The abnormal blood lipids levels of TC,HDL-Ch,LDL-Ch were detected for the people was 26.6%,27.5% for male and 24.4% for female.The blood lipids level of many people were higher in old age people than in younger one.The most highest level of blood lipids presented in the age group of 50 to 60 years old.The overall blood levels of TC,TG,HDL-Ch and LDL-Ch were higher in women than in men.The level of HDL-Ch was higher in women than in men in every age groups.The level of TG was higher in men than in women.The levels of TC and LDL-Ch were higher in men than in women before 50 years old.But the results of the opposite presented after 50 years old.The levels of TG was higher in men than in women before 55 years old.But the results of the opposite presented after 55 years old.Conclusion The abnormal rate of blood lipids was relatively high.Blood lipids was changed with gender and age.Blood lipids level play very important role for good health.So people should have a reasonable diet and living habits and take exercises to control blood lipids level for healthy demands.


For criminalized people, particularly those who have been recently incarcerated, applying for and maintaining public assistance—cash aid and/or food assistance—is an immediate and crucial element of survival. Yet relative to a substantial body of research that documents pathways into and out of carceral citizenship, this aspect of postincarceration work has received little scholarly attention. Likewise, frontline welfare workers are often simplistically portrayed as gatekeepers who restrict poor people's access to public assistance. In this article, we make visible the intersection of welfare and criminal-legal involvement by examining how criminalized clients are understood by welfare workers in one large, densely populated California county. Our data come from a larger ethnographic study of women's postincarceration experiences of public institutions and include in-depth interviews with 19 frontline welfare workers and participant observation of welfare offices. We find that (a) criminal-legal awareness varies among welfare workers; (b) workers engage in substantial invisible labor, in large part to counteract the carceral logics of the welfare system; and (c) in absence of professional training, workers draw heavily on their own situated knowledge to manage the challenges of their work. Contextualizing these findings within a broader trend toward the deprofessionalization of welfare workers, we argue that the training and education of this workforce, particularly around criminal-legal issues, is an important avenue for social work advocacy.


This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Generalized Total Least Squares (GeTLS EXIN) Approach GeTLS Stability Analysis Neural Nongeneric Unidimensional TLS Scheduling Accelerated MCA EXIN Neuron (MCA EXIN+) Further Considerations Simulations for the GeTLS EXIN Neuron ]]>


Abstract Effect of manganese with three different valence states on carthamin formation was studied by using freshly collected flowers from dyer's saffron (C. tinctorius) capitula. At 1-10 hm concentration, these cations accelerated markedly the carthamin formation induced by endoge nous enzyme(s) in the detached floral tissues. The acceleration was obviously dependent on the valence state of the test metals, more pronounced by Mn(VII) or Mn(III) than by Mn(II) at a series of given ionic strengths. On a 1 μм level, Mn(VII) and Mn(III) accelerated the pigment accumulation by faster of 9 and 8, resp. than Mn(II) during 5 min incubation at 30 °C. Mn(VII) and Mn(III) acted on both fresh and boiled florets, while Mn(II) exerted preferentially its activity on intact materials. Possible im plication of manganese ions on the enzyme-cata-lyzed carthamin formation are discussed.


Breast cancer is a major health problem worldwide. Current standard practices for treatment of breast cancer are less than satisfactory because of high rates of metastasis. Arsenic trioxide (As2O3), which induces demethylation of DNA and causes apoptosis, has been used as an anti‐tumor agent. Little is known, however, regarding its anti‐metastatic effects. The microRNA‐200c (miR‐200c), which is frequently lowly expressed in triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs), inhibits metastasis by inducing the mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET). Here, we report that As2O3 attenuates the migratory and invasive capacities of breast cancer cells, MDA‐MB‐231 and BT‐549. Notably, As2O3 induces an MET in vitro and in vivo, as determined by the increased expression of the epithelial marker, E‐cadherin and decreased expressions of mesenchymal markers, N‐cadherin and vimentin. Moreover, As2O3 up‐regulates the expression of miR‐200c through demethylation. Over‐expression of miR‐200c enhances the expression of E‐cadherin and decreases the expressions of N‐cadherin and vimentin. Further, in MDA‐MB‐231 cells exposed to As2O3, knockdown of miR‐200c blocks the As2O3‐induced MET. Finally, in MDA‐MB‐231 and BT‐549 cells exposed to As2O3, knockdown of miR‐200c decreases the As2O3‐induced inhibition of the migratory and invasive capacities. By identifying a mechanism whereby As2O3 regulates miR‐200c and MET, the results establish the anti‐migration/invasion potential of arsenic trioxide. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Cyclic amidines are prepared in 3 steps from an aromatic aldehyde, isobutyraldehyde, and urea. The amidines 1 and 2 are readily resolved using chiral cyclic phosphoric acids.


The present invention discloses an electronic device and the battery assembly, comprising an electronic device and a battery, an electronic device includes a first aperture, the engaging means is formed with a ^^ mechanism, a casing member comprising a housing member an engaging member, the engaging member includes a pivot member disposed in the body casing, and a main body disposed on the exposed portion and the hatched biasing member adjacent the first opening is provided in a card body and the hook, for hooking a battery hook provided in the tab hole card, urging portion for urging the actuator body is rotated so that hook from latching holes.


Experiment study was conducted to recover scheelite resouce existing in lode and adjacent wallrock of an antimony mine.Using sodium carbonate and water glass as depressants and E07 as collector,scheelite was floated at room temperature without an adjustment on the antimony flotation technique.The results from the closed circuit bench test show that,scheelite can be comprehensively recovered along with the production of the antimony concentrate,while the WO 3 grade and recovery of the scheelite concentrate can reach 70.08% and 86.25%,respectively.


It is known that the action of ozone on polymers results in the formation of free radicals. This study involves the initiating capability of ozone in reaction with powdered isotactic polypropylene (PP). The chemical reactions are presented on graphs.


In abstract Heisenberg's inequality (see~[2]),the commutator [A,B] may have too small adomain and be not closed. By changing the usual definition of commutator into that in a kind of weak sense,this paper gives a sufficient condition,which is more convenient than and completely different from that in [4],for some class of self-adjoint operators to avoid these shortcomings.


The possible optimization methods of the sapphire growth technology on the basis of time are considered in this article. The practical methods of crystallization cycle reduction developed by authors are suggested. The relation between the crystallization time and the crystals defects level was established.


Experimental results are presented concerning the dynamic behavior of a crosslinking polymer near the gel point, focusing on the exponents which govern the frequency dependence of the real and imaginary parts of the shear modulus. It is found that there is only one moment during the networdk formation at which these two exponents are identical, while this behavior is predivted during a time period including the gel point. Nevertheless, the exponent value found is not far from the percolation and rouse model theories


Abstract Normal medical students received either allopurinol or nortriptyline. To quantitate changes in rates of drug metabolism produced by allopurinol or nortriptyline administration, the plasma half-lives of antipyrine or bishydroxycoumarin were determined both before and 24 hours after the last dose of allopurinol or nortriptyline. Allopurinol and nortriptyline each markedly prolonged the plasma half-lives of antipyrine and bishydroxycoumarin; large individual variations in prolongation times were observed. In rats, allopurinol and nortriptyline each reduced the activity of hepatic microsomal drug-metabolizing enzymes and slightly lowered the level of cytochrome P-450. These results in rats support the interpretation that in man prolongation of antipyrine and bishydroxycoumarin half-lives after allopurinol or nortriptyline pretreatment is produced by reduced rates of drug biotransformation in liver microsomes. Lowering of the usual dose and close monitoring of blood levels of drugs given simultaneousl...


Many engineering students are not motivated to learn or apply computer programming in their courses. Partially, this is due to computer science topics being pushed upon them rather than students learning them as needed. A senior-level video game design class was offered as a technical elective. This class combined a "humanities" viewpoint of video game design (e.g. gaming psychology and theory of fun) with the "technical" side of computer programming. Students compared and contrasted two games and wrote a critical analysis of another game. Most of the course was spent conceptualizing, planning and creating a video game. Groups learned the required programming skills as needed to implement their vision. Students completed a survey about their experience in the course. Students found the course exercised their creative skills, motivated them to learn more programming and provided them with experience in project management.


Acute urinary retention is an uncommon diagnosis in childhood, and is associated with a variety of causes. Congenital bladder diverticula, occurring almost exclusively in boys, is not a rare entity. However, acute urinary retention is an extremely rare complication of congenital bladder diverticulum. A boy with acute urinary retention caused by obstructing bladder diverticula is presented, and the surgical approach is discussed.


Intrusion Detection System plays important role in network security as it detects various types of attacks in network. An Intrusion Detection is an important in assuring security of network and its different recourses. Intrusion detection attempts to detect computer attacks by examining various data records observed in processes on the network. Here, we are going to propose Intrusion Detection System using data mining technique: Support Vector Machine (SVM).Here, classification will be done by using SVM and dataset used for effectiveness verification purpose is NSL-KDD Cup'99 dataset .The SVM is one of the most successful classification algorithms in the data mining area, but its limitation is its long training time. Discretization technique is applied before applying classification to improve the performance of SVM. Discretization is the process of converting numerical attributes into nominal ones. The experiments carried out shows that proper discretization of dataset and proper selection of SVM kernel function can increase the performance of SVM in terms of high accuracy of attack detection and reduce long training time of SVM to few seconds. Thus our proposed approach improves SVM classification process.


When applying various concentrations of NaCLO4 (0.15–7 m) to tendon fibres from rat tails, we found denaturation beginning at 2 m, and with increasing concentration a linear increase of the maximal contraction tension and an exponential shortening of the contraction time down to a minimal value of 7.5 min. In a second group of experiments we investigated the weight changes of tendons of old (26–30 months) and young (8 months) rats treated with 5 m NaCLO4 and compared the weight curves and the tension curves. We found an increase in weight up to 900% as the tension decreased. This indicates a connection between the swelling and the relaxation of collagen fibres. Other solutions of neutral salts (5 m NaCLO3, NaCl; 15 m NaCLO4, NaCLO3, NaCl) tested on young and old tendons did not produce any tension nor other visible changes. The weight curves show an immediate increase up to about 200% which remains constant and which is low compaired with the effect of 5 M NaCLO4. The reason for the contraction of tendon fibres seems to be the denaturation caused by the increased lipophilia of the aqueous salt solutions, while the relaxation is merely the result of the subsequent swelling of the collagen fibre.


PURPOSE: Provided is a physical therapy apparatus allowing cream and gel type of herbal drugs to permeate the skin through an absorption cup and ultrasonic horn which can be fixed to a human body. Therefore, the apparatus gives various therapeutic effects such as vibration, warmth, massage or the like by controlling an ultrasonic waves generating mode, ultrasonic waves frequency number and absorption amount, etc. CONSTITUTION: The physical therapy apparatus comprises: a control part for controlling a micro controller board(21) and outputting to an LCD(24); an ultrasonic waves generating board(22) for inducing vibration by the micro controller board; an absorption part(23) comprising a vacuum pump(16), filter(17), a manipulator(18), a solenoid valve(19) and an absorption board; and a treating device(30) for generating vibration and applying drugs. The treating device contains an upper plate and a lower plate thereinside and a plurality of absorption cups and an ultrasonic horn are placed on the lower plate.


HE PATHOLOGICAL alterations occurring in T primary or recurrent carcinomas of the human breast undergoing regression during estrogenic or androgenic hormonal therapy have been described previously.4 These effects were the basis of an hypothesis for the site and mechanism of action of the hormones in producing the observed tumor changes. The pres-ent report presents further histological and histochemical investigations of breast cancer correlated with response of tumor to hormonal therapy. The details of the clinical response in these patients have been reported else-where.13. 18


In this work we report on the electrical properties of Y2O3 dielectrics grown on silicon (001) substrates at low oxygen background pressure by molecular beam epitaxy. Using metal-insulator-semiconductor capacitors, it is shown that as-grown samples are characterized by a large number of interface states coupled with insulator traps. Annealing in forming gas improves the electrical behavior of the samples, especially those grown at low temperatures, having typical interface state density of the order of 1012 cm−2 eV−1. Overall, the electrical response depends on the structural quality of the interfaces and especially on the presence of a uniform SiOx interfacial layer. The permittivity κ of the Y2O3 films was found to be rather low (κ∼9), which is attributed mainly to deviations from stoichiometry and the associated generation of oxygen deficiencies in the metal oxide.


The rib turbulators attached on the inner walls of rectangular ducts enhance heat/mass transfer remarkably, and diverse conditions have long been investigated such as angle-of-attack, the height of ribs, rib-to-rib pitch and so on. In the present study, the effects of the discrete ribs on heat/mass transfer in a duct were investigated and compared with those of the full ribs. For the two angles-of-attack of 45 and 90 degrees, the two types of discrete ribs were considered. The mass transfer experiments by means of the naphthalene sublimation technique were performed to acquire detailed heat/mass transfer coefficients at the Reynolds number of 30,000. The hydraulic diameter(Dh) is 67.3㎜ and the aspect ratio of the test duct is 2.04 with the ribs of 5㎜ high. The discrete ribs have the distributions of the mass/heat transfer coefficients more complicated and uniform to some degree than the full(or continuous) ribs. As the number of discrete ribs increases, these trends become more apparent. The effects of the discrete ribs on heat/mass transfer enhancement are conspicuous at the angle-of-attack of 90 degrees. Hence, heat/mass transfer coefficients increase 23 percents on the average and the hot spot area adjacent to the downstream face of the ribs become narrow, compared with those of the full rib case.


For the provision of rapid and convenient means for the examination of luminescent solids by oscillographic methods, the possibility of producing square-wave light pulses from a gaseous discharge has been investigated. Decay curves sufficiently accurate for the estimation of half-life periods and for the study of gross effects could be obtained by interrupting the D.C. supply to the discharge by means of a small vibrator.


1000kV ultra-high voltage (UHV) transformation devices, which supporting structures have been obviously modified in aspects of outside dimension and load capacity compared to those of low-voltage transformation device, are more susceptible to earthquake damage. The height of these device have exceeded the standards regulated by Code for Seismic Design of Electric Power Installations (GB 50260-96) and Seismic Design Guidelines for Electrical Device in Substations (JEAG5003-1998), etc., and a special research needs to be conducted on the value range of the dynamic amplification factor of such transformation device supporting structures under seismic action. A 1000kV loop system is taken as an example for analysis of seismic response, and the result show that the value range of dynamic amplification factor of the supporting structures in the existing standards could not meet the seismic requirements of the UHV transformation device supporting structures. The obtained results provides a valuable reference for the seismic analysis of UHV substation engineering.


This study is an essay on the prosodic hierarchical structure of Korean speech description. The main idea is illustrated by the complex relation between grammatical morphemes, word order, and prosody of the language. The aim is to describe the prosodic hierarchy of the speech, that which represents a structural organization of the syntagmatic units of the sentence. The present argument is thus to present the Korean prosodic unit from two consecutive approaches: grammatical morphemes are prominent in Korean; and following verification, the prosodic structures become evident in relation to them. It is shown that the grammatical morphemes / , and are prosodically prominent in read and spontaneous speech. These particular units are where the prosodic contours become evident, thus making it possible to organize the hierarchical structure based on their features. The two experimental studies show the role of prosody. The first shows the relation between prosody, length, and surface syntactic structure. The second experience verifies the redundancy between grammatical morphemes and prosody.


We develop a piezoelectrically actuated, one-dimensional photonic and phononic crystal nanocavity fabricated from aluminum nitride. High-quality piezo-optomechanical nanobeam cavities with optical Qo of 1.2 × 105 and mechanical Qm over 10,000 are obtained.


For most of us, the phrase "all the colors of the rainbow" conjures an image of the natural rainbow1 as a paragon of color variety and vividness. Indeed, both our language and art often invoke the rainbow as a color palette without peer.2 Yet as a color standard, the rainbow has an oddly contentious history. For example, arguments about the number of rainbow colors date to antiquity, with observers as keen as Aristotle3 (who favored three colors) and Seneca the Younger4 (who favored an indefinite number) among the disputants. That this disagreement still persisted in Georgian England2 (and indeed to the present) hints that the rainbow poses special perceptual problems.


The Dielectric Wall Accelerator (DWA) is an approach for manufacturing particle accelerators that can be an order of magnitude more compact than conventional accelerators. To realize the associated high level of electric field gradient it is necessary to develop and characterize materials that can maintain electric fields in excess of 100 MV/m (=1MV/cm). This high value for the breakdown strength must be maintained for many thousands of pulses under conditions of voltage reversal. The present work reports the performance of a candidate composite material composed of high dielectric constant nanoparticles dispersed in an epoxy matrix loaded to achieve a dielectric constant = 10. The effect of peak voltage on number of pulses that can be sustained is given. In addition the effects of electrode gap spacing and charging rate are explored.


"luna," and that labelled "dies" supports a circle with rays of light streaming from it and containing a figure inscribed "sol."I' In English manuscript art similar symbols are used for the sun and the moon in the crucifixion miniature in a manuscript from Winchester, British Museum, Cotton MS. Titus D. XXVII.2 But once more, there is no really close resemblance, for the objects held by the St. John's College angel contain no figures and both are held by the same person. The St. John's College drawing would, therefore, be an unusual way of representing day and night, but not an impossible one. A very similar representation is found in the Bury St. Edmunds Psalter, a manuscript of the second quarter of the eleventh century.3 This drawing (P1. 63b) shows a bearded man -not an angel-holding a globe in each hand. That in the right hand is inscribed "dies." That in the left hand is divided across the centre by a double line and is too rubbed to read an inscription. The figure stands upon a coiled serpent, an allusion to the psalm verse, "Tu confregisti capita draconis" (Psalm lxxiii. I4), and illustrates the words, "Tuus est dies et tua est nox, tu fabricatus es auroram et solem" (Psalm lxxiii. i6). It is true that in the Bury Psalter the symbols of night and day are held by a man, and not by an angel as they are in the St. John's College manuscript, but the composition of the two drawings is very similar. We have, therefore, a double connexion of the St. John's College drawing. The angel holds an object which is used elsewhere to symbolize the light in drawings of the separation of the light from the darkness at the creation of the world; he holds a second object which is like the first, only in reverse; a similar figure, holding two objects of which one is labelled "dies" appears in the illustration to a psalm which describes the creation of the world and above all of day and night, light and darkness. It is, therefore, possible that the angel of the St. John's manuscript holds the symbols of day and night or of light and darkness, as does the figure in the Bury Psalter illustration, and that he is taken from some series of creation pictures. BARBARA RAW


Abstract To improve the representation of the land surface in their operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, the Meteorological Research Division of Environment Canada (EC) is developing an external hydrometeorological modeling and data assimilation system. The objective of this study is to verify the improvement in simulating snow cover extent (SCE) and snow water equivalent (SWE) over the Canadian Rockies with this new modeling system. This study will be an important first step in determining the optimal configuration of the land surface model and atmospheric forcing for a future operational implementation. Simulated SCE is compared with the Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) analysis, while simulated SWE values are verified against a series of manual snow survey sites located within the Canadian Rockies. Results show that land surface model simulations of SCE and SWE were sensitive to precipitation forcing. Simulations at both low and high resolution forced with EC'...


Bordin, J.O., Smith. J.W.. Hayward. C.P.M., Warkentin, T.E., Wasi. P. & Kelton, J.G. (1995) Bacterial-associated improvement of platelet counts in two patients with chronic and unresponsive idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura with normal platelet survival studies. British Journal of Haematology, 90, 332-335. Proctor, SJ . &Jackson, G. (1990) Recombinant alpha 2b interferon in refractory idiopathic thrombocytopenia. BZood, 75, 1 7451746. Proctor, S.J., Jackson, G., Carey, P.. Stark, A., Finney, R., Saunders, P., Summerfield. G., Maharaj, D. & Youart. A. (1989) Improvement in steroid-unresponsive idiopathic immune thrombocytopenic purpura after short-course therapy with recombinant a 2 b interferon. Blood, 74, 1894-1897. and half of the remainder a transient response (Proctor & Jackson, 1990). We have seen a post-infective rise in platelets in one patient who had previously responded to a@N and in three others not treated with this drug. None appeared to be bacteraemic. Patient 1. A 6 7-year-old woman with chronic, steroidresistant ITP had previously responded to (YEN. She responded to a second course given to cover a hip replacement. Following successful operation a second replacement was planned. The platelet count fell to 142 x 109/l. Before further IFN could be given she developed a severe influenze-like illness. 10d later the platelet count had risen to 450 x 109/1 without any treatment. Surgery went forward uneventfully. 2 months later the platelet count had fallen to 250 x 109/l. Patient 2 . An institutionalized schizophrenic with chronic ITP, initially partially responsive to steroids, developed a severe influenze-like illness associated with facial herpes. Within days of this illness platelets rose from 30 to 453 x 109/1 without any treatment, falling back to 30 x 109/1 within a further week. Patient 3. A 2-year-old girl with chronic ITP developed fever, cough, vomiting, diarrhoea and an inflamed ear drum, but no leucocytosis. Blood cultures were sterile. Antibody titres to a range of viral respiratory pathogens did not rise. She responded clinically to amoxicillin. Platelets rose from 5 to 137 x 109/1 within a week, and remained at 127 x 109/1 for a further week before falling to 15 x 109/1 a week later. Patient 4. A 4-year-old girl with chronic lTP developed an influenza-like illness with fever, malaise and cough. Her platelet count rose from 2 x 109/1 to 242 x 109/1 within 5 d without treatment. 2 weeks later it had fallen to 150 x 109/1 and thereafter fluctuated between 10 and 100 x 109/l. Immunofluorescence of nasopharyngeal secretions during the acute phase of her illness revealed parainfluenza virus type 3 . None of these patients had had a splenectomy or platelet survival studies done. It is possible that none has decreased platelet survival. The infections in the first two were probably viral in origin. The third patient may have had a viral or bacterial infection, but did not have a bacteraemia. The last had a proven viral infection. If Bordin et al (1995) are right in their hypothesis, and if our patients' transient rises in platelet count were caused by the same mechanism, the stimulus is not restricted to bacteraemia. In addition, the similarity of the behaviour of these four to the response to therapeutic aIFN raises the possibility that a viral infectionassociated surge of endogenous interferons may contribute. It remains unclear whether a surge of platelet production or a temporary improvement in survival occurs, but interferons should probably be added to the list of putative mediators of this response.


This work presents two new algorithms for performing constraint satisfaction. The first algorithm presented, DMaxWalkSat, is a constraint solver specialized for solving dynamic, weighted constraint satisfaction problems. The second algorithm, RDMaxWalkSat, is a derivative of DMaxWalkSat that has been modified into an anytime algorithm, and hence support realtime constraint satisfaction. DMaxWalkSat is shown to offer performance advantages in terms of solution quality and runtime over its parent constraint solver, MaxWalkSat. RDMaxWalkSat is shown to support anytime operation. The introduction of these algorithms brings another tool to the areas of computer science that naturally represent problems as constraint satisfaction problems, an example of which is the robust coherence algorithm.


A 3D mesh models digital watermark scheme based on 3D MAX was proposed. In 3D MAX, object was transformed to mesh model. The vertexes and faces of mesh model were analyzed. The watermark was embedded in vertexes which were associated with smaller acute angle of right triangle. It used the LSB method to embed watermark. The experimental results show that the scheme's load is little, time complexity is low and the scheme's invisibility is good. Moreover, the scheme can be used in practical application. It can protect the copyright of 3D works.


Abstract This article describes year two of an ongoing Goals 2000 Preservice Technology Infusion Project that sought to prepare higher education faculty, K–12 teachers, and preservice teachers to integrate technology into their instruction to facilitate a dynamic, constructivist vision of technology integration. Results indicate that project activities facilitated (1) increased proficiency in technology applications and instructional methods among all participants and (2) faculty integration of technology in education courses. In addition, higher education faculty and preservice teachers felt that project activities enabled a constructivist view of technology integration, as they now see technology as an instructional tool used to engage students in meaningful learning.


ROESY pulse sequences are presented and evaluated to identify bound waters in the cyclic tetrasaccharide. The first experiment incorporated the double‐pulsed field gradient spin‐echo (DPFGSE) for selective water excitation at the initial portion of the pulse sequence. Although long, shaped pulses were used in DPFGSE to achieve the highly selective excitation of water resonance that is very close to resonances of the cyclic tetrasaccharide, the approach was not effective because of the loss of sensitivity. Concomitant use of long delays and moderate length of shaped pulses in the portion of DPFGSE gained more sensitivity. A simple approach incorporating spin‐echo with long delays instead of DPFGSE also afforded a sensitive spectrum. Practical aspects of these ROESY experiments are illustrated using the cyclic tetrasaccharide cyclo‐{→6}‐α‐D‐Glcp‐(1→3)‐α‐D‐Glcp‐(1→6)‐α‐D‐Glcp‐(1→3)‐α‐D‐Glcp‐(1→). Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


tion in a strict order of progressive sequence. One fact may be regarded as of importance in the offspnng of the fourth generation; that, in every case, where they resulted from the male alliances, there was a more or less rapid return to the normal, whereas, on the female side, AS represented by I. A. only, one finds her child, if anything, more deformed than any of the others. It would be interesting to know, in the case of her having any more children, whetber they would be still more ill-formed. It appears, in fact, that, just as the seed of a delicate plant may, when planted in a rich soil, develop into a well proportioned tree, so, in like mauner, a healthy woman miay arrest the downward tendency, in spite of impregnation with the seeds of degeneracy; whereas, even the seed of a hardy one may, if placed in poor mould, not strike root, or, if it do, may grow up dwarfed and abortive; 8o, alsO, a woman, born of a decaying family, will give a poor nidus for the production of s'healthy offspring, even though her husband be of good normal standard.


Community education is not only a new trend of educational development,but also an important way to improve community building and community development.To develop adult education in new residential areas of county towns,it needs to combine with the demand of residental peasants closely and take project construction as its breakthrough,to establish and support civic groups and carry out a variety of activities,to explore cuiriculum with community characteristics and develop human resources well,to make the most of modern distance education to enrich and optimize the community adult education.


A theoretical formulation for a two-point correlation function of high-redshift objects is investigated. While all the cosmological observations are carried out on a light-cone, the null hypersurface of an observer at z=0, the clustering statistics has been properly defined only on the constant-time hypersurface. We develop the theoretical formulation for the two-point correlation function on the light-cone, and derive a simple approximate expression relevant to the discussion of clustering of high-redshift objects. As an example, we present a prediction of the two-point correlation function for the SDSS quasar catalogue.


This paper aims to study the current Brazilian market of Exchange-Traded Funds, known as ETFs, and point out the growth opportunity of these products in the country and its ability to help diversifying portfolios.
According to Yahoo! Finance, the SPDR, the most active ETF in the American market, that replicates the S&P 500 index had an average daily trading volume around 133 million stocks in the last three months, in other words, almost 40% more than the 96 million most active stocks, the ones from Bank of America. Thus, there is still a great opportunity for growth of these products in the Brazilian market, whereas in the same period the PETR4 stocks traded daily around 62 million stocks compared to 5 million of BOVA11, most traded ETF on the BM&FBovespa.
To ensure the viability as investment instruments, ETFs have to be able to replicate with high adhesion the proposed index, and for that reason, this paper will focus on the largest traded ETFs in trading volume from the Brazilian market, which are BOVA11 and PIBB11, and intend to replicate the Ibovespa3 and IBrX504 respectively, to know how well they replicate it.
Three models will be used with the objective to compare those ETFs, which were proposed by Frino and Gallagher (2001), and aim to analyze the tracking error of each one to its respective benchmark. Thus, when the work is to be completed, we can verify which of the two ETFs best replicates the proposed index.


The reaction under autogenic pressure at elevated temperature (RAPET) technique is proposed for synthesizing a series of metal phosphide nanoparticles such as MoP, MoP2, Cu3P and CuP2 at 850∘C for 3.50h by reacting selectively the transition metal powders with elemental phosphorus. The obtained products are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A reaction mechanism is suggested based on the experimental results.


A series of Eu3+-doped polyimide nanocomposites were successfully prepared via the solution process. X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetric analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, transmission electron microscopic analysis, universal testing, and ellipsometry were used to characterize the nanocomposites. TEM results indicated that rare earth particles were homogeneously dispersed in the polyimide matrix with a size of about 20 nm. The introduction of the rare earth complex led to an increase in the glass transition temperature, thermal stability, size stability, and a marked increase in the tensile strength and storage modulus. The addition of the rare earth complex also increased the refractive index of the nanocomposites. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 86: 2707–2712, 2002


A variety of (GaAl)As/GaAs heterostructure injection lasers have been fabricated with two pairs of heterojunctions, the inner pair for carrier confinement and the outer pair for optical confinement. Asymmetrical versions of this design have given, at one extreme, threshold current density Jt at 300 K as low as 500 A/cm2 and at the other extreme far‐field angular beam widths to the half‐power point of 15° with Jt<1000 A/cm2, for 500‐μm‐long sawn cavity lasers with reflectors on one face. The incremental quantum efficiency from one end of 300‐μm‐long lasers with reflectors was over 40%. The peak optical power from lasers of 100 μm width was up to 3 W for 200‐ns pulses. The temperature variation of threshold over the range 290–355 K was Jt355/Jt290∼1.5. Double‐heterostructure lasers with narrow active layers and 20% AlAs confinement steps gave almost comparable performance in Jt and beam width (650 A/cm2 for 33° and 1200 A/cm2 for 15°), but the linearity of light versus current was poorer, the temperature sensitivity of threshold was Jt355/Jt290⩾2, and efficiency also dropped with temperature. The optical distribution has been calculated for various multilayer heterostructure waveguides and related both to the far‐field beam width and to the threshold current. A universal gain/current density relation for the active layer has been deduced from the measurements and agrees reasonably with published theory.


The past decade has seen the emergence of a range of exciting models for school improvement. But many teachers and principals remain unconvinced of their worth, questioning whether they can be sustained in the face of challenges such as constant staff turnover, inconsistent supervisor expectations, and seemingly cataclysmic systemic priorities. Added to that is the 'new broom principal' mind-set- 'I'm the new broom, sent here to sweep the place clean. I'll let you know when I have decided what is best for you and how to proceed from there.'
Thus, we take the clear position that whatever successes are achieved must be sustained if they are to have significant educational value. But how, one might ask, are the processes that result in enhanced school outcomes most successfully consolidated in a school's structure and culture? As a first step in answering this critically important question, we look inside the workings of a school where hard-earned successes were indeed embedded for the
benefit of future generations of students and teachers.


The Malmquist index is one of the most significant indices for the economists in evaluating the efficiency growth of all the units. Up to now, lots of models have been introduced to develop the productivity index based on DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis). All these models have their own advantages and disadvantages. One of the most famous models is the Malmquist productivity index. One of the most important objections of this model is the mathematical complexity of it. For example, four different models should be solved to evaluate productivity progress of one Decision Making Unit (DMU) in two different years. So, if the DMUs or the evaluating years are increased, the mathematical complexity would increase, as well. In this study, it is tried to introduce a model with less complexity, which can also make possible to compute productivity and technology changes in a simpler way. Therefore, a more acceptable analysis would come up, too.


The purpose of this paper was to study the effects of iron sulfides which had been formed in marine deposits under an anaerobic condition on the chemical compositions and the soil forming processes of soils in East Fukuda Polder. These polder soils examined contained a large amount of soluble salts; especially chlorides constituted the dominant salt among them. Sulfates content was also high and soluble salts appeared to accumulate in surface layers. Air-dried surface soils showed fairly strong acidities, due to the presence of soluble acid compounds formed in the course of oxidation of iron sulfides contained in these soils. The content of FeS2 was found to be between 0.305% and 1.682% as SO3 in the original soils ; and 10% HCl sol. CaO contents were very poor. Soil reactions and soluble salts were determined after the incubation of soils during several weeks at 30℃ under the condition of the moisture content of field capacity. Consequently, in all soils, the pH value became extremely acid, and total solids and water soluble sulfates were greatly increased in the incubated soils; and a relatively good correlation was found between decreased pH values and increased sulfates contents in the incubated soils. It has been concluded that iron sulfides had a marked influence on the chemical compositions of soils and on the prospective soil forming processes of these polder soils.