The study assessed the use of indigenous communication media among rural dwellers of Osun state to determine their knowledge level. Specifically, indigenous communication media that are often utilized by the rural dwellers were identified and socio-economic characteristics were described. Key informants and other 120 respondents were interviewed using interview schedule from two communities in each of the six administrative zones of the state. Data analysis was carried out using frequency counts, percentage, mean, standard deviation. Data analysis showed the mean age of respondents to be 47±7 years and 65% of them were male. Majority were literate. The findings revealed that majority had low knowledge about indigenous communication and more so, most of this communication had gone to extinction except on few cases such as use of proverbs, folklores and songs in which they were highly knowledgeable..Key informant interview showed that coded symbols were phasing out. The study concluded that the use of indigenous communication media was being gradually phased out. It recommends that Indigenous Original Research Article Adesoji and Ogunjimi; AJEA, 7(6): 405-413, 2015; Article no.AJEA.2015.141 406 communication media that are often used should not be abandoned in the face of modern communication media, and those that are abandoned should be used so that people, especially the young, would get used to them.


According to the survey on the human resources demands of hotel industry in shanghai, this paper tries to set the training goal and location of higher vocational education of hotel management major, obtain the basic quality and ability that students should have.


I. The name earned early notoriety from L. Ambivius Turpio, the actor who performed in all the plays of Terence. It appealed to Lucilius: quid tibi ego ambages Ambivi scribere coner? Also to Wilhelm Schulze, duly citing the Lucilian reference. In the sequel the nomen failed to enlist proper regard. Three persons bore it, diverse in life and rank: a tavern keeper on the Via Latina, a gourmet writer, a procurator governing Judaea. To the first and to the third, erudition in the recent time denies recognition; and the second through inadvertence misses his place and period. The Ambivii call for redemption. The venture will lead along circuitous or devious paths, 'per ambages', in the pursuit of names and identities. From that operation various instruction accrues on the flank. II. First, a casual notice in the criminal record of a family of the better sort at Larinum. Cluentius and his slaves, so it was alleged, had made an assault on 'Ambivium quendam, coponem de via Latina' (Pro Cluentio 163). Traditional texts remained content with that name. Not so long ago recourse to manuscripts produced 'A. Bivium'. It was adopted in two standard editions. Had editors given a thought to nomenclature, they might have conceived some disquiet. Absent from the repertorium, the nomen appeared to lack attestation. In itself no bar, to be sure. The dense forest of local Italian nomenclature carries plenty of unique specimens. Reassurance could be sought from 'Bivellius' and 'Bivonius'.


A neural network-based backstepping adaptive control method is proposed for high-precision attitude stabilization systems of mine-hunting sonar with nonlinear friction torque and the load disturbance.The neural network is used to estimate the unknown nonlinear friction torque on line,and then a backstepping adaptive controller is designed to compensate the estimation error of neural network and the load disturbance.Finally,the Lyapunov method is applied which proves that the proposed adaptive controller could guarantees the stability of the closed-loop system,and the convergence rates can be adjusted by selecting the appropriate parameter values.Simulation results show that,the dynamic and static performances and the robustness of the system are improved under the proposed control method.Compared with the dual-loop PID control,the tracking accuracy is increased more than three times.


As software engineering is a socio-technical research field, there are a myriad of research methods that researchers need to consider. Method choice determines different tradeoffs in terms of generalizabity, realism and control, among other attributes. In this paper, we reflect on the methods which tend to dominate software engineering research, and consider how humans tend to be involved in our research. We consider two years of ICSE proceedings and find that a majority of studies use computer simulation methods relying on trace measures rather than active human participation. This choice leads to a low level of control over extraneous factors. We question whether our method choice is out of convenience, or whether this choice reflects the kinds of research results our community values.


The TRIGA 2000 re ac tor Bandung is pro posed to con vert from rod-type fuel to plate-type fuel be cause there are no man u fac tur ers in the world that still pro duce rod-type fuel. Cal cu lat ing the safety pa ram e ters and their re li abil ity re lated to re ac tor op er a tion has be come an im por tant thing to do. The ob jec tive of this study was to per form the re ac tor tran sient cal cu la tion of TRIGA 2000 that uses plate-type fuel. The re ac tor core mod i fi ca tion is based on the ca pa bil ity of the ex ist ing pri mary cool ant sys tem, with out chang ing its flow rates. Ther -mal-hy drau lics cal cu la tions re lated to re ac tiv ity in ser tion ac ci dent and loss of flow ac ci dent were an a lyzed us ing EUREKA2/RR, MTR-DYN, and RELAP5 codes. The cho sen loss of flow ac ci dent sce nario is a de crease in flow caused by a sud den stop of the pump power sup ply, while re ac tiv ity in ser tion ac ci dent is con ducted by the with drawal of con trol rods with max i mum re ac tiv ity in ser tion of 32.33 (cid:215) 10 –5 s –1 . The cal cu lated pa ram e ters are re ac tiv ity, re ac tor power, and tem per a ture of the cool ant, clad ding, and fuel in the hot test chan nel po si tion. In gen eral, from a safety point of view, those com puter codes were ca pa ble of per form ing the tran sient cal cu la tions with ap pro pri ate re sults. Based on the cal cu la tion re sults, dur ing the tran sient con di tion of both re ac tiv ity in ser tion ac ci dent and loss of flow ac ci dent sce nario, the re ac tor op er a tion safety pa ram e ters do not ex ceed the al low able safety limit.


Duetothemodelling error amodel-based controller generally works better withthemodelthanwiththemodelled plant. This difference between theperformances canbemade small bywlecting amodel that isaccurate atthecloewd loop relevant frequencies. Inthis paper itisshownthataniterative approach ofidentification andcontrol design canlead to amodel that ismuchbetter suited forfeedback design thana model resulting fromaplain openloopidentification. Inthis iteration eachidentification isperformed suchthat acertain closed loop criterion function isminimised. Eachcontrol design stepemploys thelatest identified model toconstruct an LQGcompensator. Theperformance requirements aregradually increased during theiteration.


This paper presents specialized code generation techniques and runtime optimizations for developing light-weight XML Web services for embedded devices. The optimizations are implemented in the gSOAP Web services development environment for C and C++. The system supports the industry-standard XML-based Web services protocols that are intended to deliver universal access to any networked application that supports XML. With the standardization of the Web services protocols and the availability of toolkits such as gSOAP for developing embedded Web services, new opportunities emerge to integrate embedded systems into larger frameworks of interconnected applications and systems accessing dynamic resources on the Web ranging from hand-held and embedded devices to databases, clusters, and Grids.


Introduction/Purpose IMS3 demonstrated no significant difference between treatment with IV-rtPA alone or IV-rtPA plus IA therapy. However, the trial included only earlier generations of thrombectomy devices and did not evaluate the efficacy of newer devices. Here, we present data on an "IMS-III-Like group" from The North American SOLITAIRE Acute Stroke (NASA) Registry, a repository database of the newer generation Solitaire Stent-retriever. An exploratory analysis was performed to compare these results to the IMS3 IV and IV/IA groups. Materials and Methods The investigator-initiated NASA Registry recruited sites to submit data on consecutive patients treated with Solitaire-FR. A cohort similar to the IMS-III IV-rtPA+Solitaire-FR population (NASA-IMS3 Matched Group (NIMG)) was identified and compared to the recently published results of the IMS3 IV and IV/IA groups. Good clinical outcome was defined as a 90-day mRS ≤2. Successful recanalisation was defined as TIMI ≥2. SICH was defined as any parenchymal haematoma, SAH, or IVH associated with a worsening of the NIHSS score by 4 or more within 24 hours. Results 354 acute ischaemic stroke patients were enrolled in the NASA Registry from 24 centres. The cohorts were comprised of: 156 NIMG versus 434 and 222 in the IMS3 IV/IA and IV only groups, respectively. Baseline demographics were similar between cohorts: Median age 70 (NIMG); 69 (IMS3 IV/IA); 70 (IMS3 IV). Initial median NIHSS was higher in NIMG (19) compared to the IMS3 IV/IA (17) and IMS3 IV groups (18). mTICI > 2b rate was 69.9% in NIMG versus 39.6% in the IMS III IV/IA. Interestingly, mTICI 3 rate was 41% in NIMG vs 2.2% in the IMS III IV/IA group. The 90-day mRS outcome was available in 88.5% (138/156) of NIMG patients. A good outcome of mRS?2 was demonstrated in 51.5% (71/138), compared to 40.8% (169/415) in IMS3 IV/IA and 38.7% (83/215) in IM3 IV alone groups. 90-day mortality was 24.6% in NIMG versus 19.1% and 21.6% in IMS3 IV/IA and IV alone groups, respectively. Abstract O-003 Table 1 NASA IMS III IMS III Characteristic IV-tPA+Solitaire IV-tPA+IA IV-tPA Only (N=156) (N=434) (N=222) Age-yrs.(median, range) 70 (28-100) 69 (23-89) 68 (23-84) Male sex - no. (%) 80 (51.3) 218 (50.2) 122 (55.0) Black race - no. (%) 27 (17.6) 51 (11.8) 19 (8.6) A Fib - no. (%) 66 (42.6) 153 (35.3) 70 (31.5) HTN 114 (73.5) 319 (73.5) 171 (77.0) DM 35 (22.6) 94 (21.7) 54 (24.3) CAD 40 (25.8) 102 (23.5) 72 (32.4) NIHSSi - (median, range) 19 (9-40) 17 (7-40) 16 (8-30) SBPi - (mean±SD) 143.3±26.9 148±21.3 147.3±24.0 mRS ≤2 (N 138 vs 415) 71/138 (51.5) 169/415 (40.8) 83/215 (38.7) mTICI ≥ 2b-3 109/156 (69.9) 126/318 (39.6) NA mTICI 3 64/156 (41.03) 7/318 (2.2) NA sICH 18 (11.6) 27 (6.2) 13 (5.9) Death within 90 days - no. (%) 34/138 (24.6) 83 (19.1) 48 (21.6) Conclusion In the NASA registry, the NASA-IMS3 Matched Group (NIMG) demonstrated a higher rate of good clinical outcome (51.5%) compared to the IMS3 IV/IA (40.8%) and IV alone (34.6%) groups. Disclosures R. Nogueira: None. A. Castonguay: None. R. Gupta: None. C. Sun: None. C. Martin: None. W. Holloway: None. N. Mueller-Kronast: None. J. English: None. I. Linfante: None. G. Dabus: None. T. Malisch: None. H. Bozorgchami: None. A. Xavier: None. A. Rai: None. M. Froehler: None. A. Badruddin: None. T. Nguyen: None. M. Taqi: None. M. Abraham: None. V. Janardhan: None. H. Shaltoni: None. A. Yoo: None. A. Abou-Chebl: None. P. Chen: None. O. Zaidat: None.


32 BUILT ENVIRONMENT VOL 44 NO 1 segregation, and urban renewal have shaped contemporary access to housing and public spaces for marginalized people, materializing health disparities between Nashville's diverse racial populations. In the 1950s, Nashville became one of the first cities to receive federal funding for urban renewal. Urban planners and public health officials demolished neighbourhoods and displaced poor people of colour in the name of health and beautification. Today, Nashville's emphasis on liveability through LEED-certified green buildings, public festivals, bicycle shares, gyms, raw vegan restaurants, and 'health and wellness' retail communities conveys a progressive vision of the good city as a place that affirms and optimizes life (figures 1 and 2). But as the 'It City' attracts new residents, locals are again concerned that with rising rents, the city's new white, middle-class, active, and youth-centred image Since gaining a reputation as an American 'It City' in 2012, Nashville, Tennessee has experienced explosive rates of growth, estimated at 80–100 people per day (Ward, 2016). Urban planners, architects, and city offi cials have responded to potentially-sprawling growth by promoting 'liveability' and 'healthy cities' initiatives, which focus on urban density, walkability, farmer's markets, Complete Streets, and sustainable design. New bicycle lanes, residences, and offi ce spaces hope to att ract Millennial-generation knowledge workers, particularly young people who migrate from sprawling metropolises in search of hip compact cities. As one developer describes it, the goal is to create a 'center of technologyenabled commercial, residential, research and retail activity catering to the idea that mindful healthy living can be made easy' (Cambridge Holdings, 2017). But for this mid-sized southern US city, histories of slavery, racial Enlivened City: Inclusive Design, Biopolitics, and the Philosophy of Liveability


The article deals with the comparison between Multiple Linear Regression models vs supervised Artificial Neural Networks in the prediction of academic performance in the form of grades of the Ser-Bachiller evaluation of Ecuador, period 2018-2019. This by testing assumptions and calculating adequacy measures to identify the best prediction method. To meet the objective, information from the results of the Ser-Bachiller tests of Ecuador in the 2018-2019 cycle whose database is located on the official website of the National Institute of Educational Evaluation was used. There were 514852 students evaluated from all over the country. With this information we compared models that predict the scores in the domains of Mathematics, Linguistics, Science and Social Sciences, through factors associated with academic performance of Institutional, Pedagogical, Psychosocial and sociodemographic type.


We believe that Africa's human
communities and biological ecosystems
are currently highly vulnerable
to accidental damage to their drinking water
and can be protected only by means of enforceable
regulatory controls. Such controls
should be based on chemical and microbiological
criteria set in conformity with ongoing
biomonitoring and ecological and epidemiological
studies. This article outlines some of
the bioassays available for the purpose.


Studies were conducted in Georgia, Illinois and Maryland, representing three geographical regions of the United States, to determine the dose range of the orally active progestin, allyl trenbolone (RU-2267), for effective synchronization of estrus in swine. Animals that had displayed estrus at least once were group-fed for 18 days 5, 10, 20 or 40 mg of RU-2267 incorporated into a daily diet of 1.8 or 2.3 kg of feed. The numbers of gilts given each respective dose were eight, eight, eight and seven in Georgia, and six, five, six and six in Illinois. Five pigs received each dose in Maryland. Five primiparous sows were also treated with each dose in Maryland. Estrus was checked daily with a boar, and ovaries were examined by laparotomy 4 to 10 days after the estrous period following treatment or 15 to 24 days after the end of treatment in those animals that failed to display estrus. In Maryland, the interval from end of treatment to estrus (interval to estrus) differed (P<.05) between gilts (5.4 -+ .3) and sows (6.0 -+ .2) fed the 20-mg dose; but no other age differences were detected, and, as a result, data for gilts and sows were combined. The percentage of animals displaying a post-treatment estrus (estrous response) and the average number of corpora


The use of Javanese language to interact in Semarang neighboring community
is common. They tend to use Javanese in daily communication. Sometimes there
were swear words in the conversation. Swear words are used to express feeling. The
feeling is usually expressed by using swear words to show admiration, anger,
disappointment and even surprise.
Swear words become a common thing, if spoken by adult although they are
impolite and inappropriate to be heard or spoken. However, it becomes uncommon
thing and strange, if swear words are spoken by children. Society in kp. Jagalan
tengah, kel. Gabahan usual use swear words in their daily conversation. Children can
spell swear words fluently and clearly into their conversation. Swear words on
children are usually aimed to peers, family members even adult or their parents.
Meanwhile adult usually swear to their children, things or other adult. This study is
conducted to find the reasons behind this phenomenon.
The data of this research was taken from some conversation among children
and their parents who use swear words in daily communication. The conversation
was recorded then transcribed and classified into some parts. Then they were
analyzed based on theory.
The result of the research shows that in daily informal conversation children
and parents use swear words with different reasons. In this research the writer found
some situations which trigger them use to swear words. In addition, the parent
influence children to use swear words, because parents use swear words in any
situation and every where with some reasons.


The use of the equation f = km/α E, correlating number of degrees of freedom m of polymer segments between cross-linking nodes in polycondensation networks to the energy of interaction polymer segment/polymer segment, both within the same polymer and at different polymers interfaces, hence directly 'in situ' in a lignocellulosic joint, through measures of deflection in bending by dynamic thermomechanical analysis, yields a number of consequences of interest in the field of polycondensation hardened networks and of their process of hardening. From this equation, regression equations correlating only two parameters are obtained. The use of these equations allows the easier determination of the parameters which are more difficult or lengthy to obtain by experimental means. The process of networking, hence of the reaction of polycondensation between the gel point and complete hardening of the network, can be followed by the determination of the average number of degrees of freedom m of the polymer segments between cross-linking nodes obtained through these equations. This is all the more useful as it allows the following of the progress of networking of thermosetting adhesive and in particular of the more difficult to follow networking of oligomeric tannin adhesives 'in situ' in the wood joint.


Environmental-friendly flame-retardant GM-1 for cotton fabrics was synthesized with dimethyl methylphosphonate, phosphoric pentaoxide and pentaerythritol. Cotton fabrics were finished with flame-retardant GM-1, cross-linking agent of citric acid/maleic acid and catalyst of sodium hypophosphite. The influences of flame-retardant GM-1, polycarboxylic acid, catalyst of sodium hypophosphite and curing conditions on the flame-retardant effect were investigated. Experiments resulted in the optimal conditions as flame-retardant GM-1 400 g/L, polycarboxylic acid 60 g/L, catalyst 30 g/L and curing conditions 180 ℃×3 min. The finished fabric featured good flame retardance and durability.


Analysis of data from 1394 undergraduates at a large southeastern university were used to assess the degree to which the stereotype that "men are dogs" (sexually-focused cheaters) is justified. Results suggest that this stereotype is unjustified since the majority of males: (1) define behaviors from kissing to anal sex as cheating: (2) predict that they will not cheat on their partners: and (3) report never having cheated on a partner. However, compared to those of the women, the frequencies with which men report cheating are high. Approximately one-in-five males in a "monogamous" relationship reported having had oral sex and/or vaginal intercourse with someone else (22.2% and 19.7% respectively) and withheld this information from their partners (thus leaving the partners vulnerable to STD/HIV infection). Implications and limitations of the study are identified. ********** Ask a university female to characterize the sexual behavior of the typical college male and you may hear that "men are dogs," or some similar sentiment, implying that they have the reputation for being sexually focused, lying cheaters. "They have no principles and are always after the next score. " So goes the stereotype. But what is the reality? Compared to women, to what degree does the sexual behavior of men justify the reputation men have as "dogs"? What might data on college men who cheat reveal and what are the implications for educators in higher education? Previous research has provided some support for the stereotype that men are sexually focused and sometimes not very discriminating in their sexual behavior. National data on interviews with 3432 adults revealed that men reported thinking about sex more often than women (54% vs. 19% reported thinking about sex several times a day), reported having more sexual partners than women (5% vs. 2% reported having had five or more sexual partners in the previous year), and reported having orgasm during intercourse more often (75% vs. 29%) (Michael, Gagnon, Layman, and Koala. 1994). In addition, not only do men report viewing sex more casually than women (Lenton and Bryan, 2005), they are more hedonistic in their sexual values (O'Reilly, Knox, and Zusman, 2006). For example, compared to women, men are more willing to have intercourse with someone they have known for three hours, to have intercourse with two different people within a six-hour period, to have intercourse with someone they do not love, and to have intercourse with someone with whom they do not have a good relationship (Knox, Sturdivant and Zusman, 2001). Data and Analysis This study is based on data provided by 1394 undergraduates enrolled in freshmen health education classes at a large southeastern university who responded to 33 items on a questionnaire (approved by the Institutional Review Board of the university). Respondents completed the questionnaire anonymously (the researcher was not in the room when the questionnaire was completed and no identifying information or codes allowed the researcher to know the identity of the respondents). The primary purpose of the research was to compare gender differences in regard to perceptions of what constitutes "cheating" behavior, gender differences in predicted sexual behavior, gender differences in actual sexual behavior, and gender differences in disclosing one's infidelity. Cross-classification was conducted to determine any relationships with Chi Square utilized to assess statistical significance. The nonrandom convenience sample of 1394 undergraduates included 35.7% (545) males and 60.3% (849) females. The median age was 19. Most (59%) were first-year students with 28.4% sophomores, 9% juniors, 2.2% seniors and .5% "other" Regarding race, 75.4% reported that they were white (not Hispanic), 13.5% Black (not Hispanic), 1.9% Hispanic or Latino; 3.1% Asian or Pacific Islander; .2% American Indian or Alaskan Native and 2.9% other. …


We present a review on myelopathies. We introduce each category of etiologies by a case study, followed by a short review of the different causes of myelopathies in this category. We elaborate on clinical presentation, laboratory workup, imaging and treatment. This extensive review elaborates on myelopathies caused by demyelinating diseases, infectious agents, connective tissue diseases and vasculopathies, neoplasms, toxic substances, metabolic derangements and the idiopathic myelopathies. Interesting images are incorporated in this review.


PURPOSE
The aim of this review article was to provide an overview of the scientific and patent literature on the different synthesis pathways of modified polyacids suitable for application in a new class of restorative dental materials.

METHODS
The literature based on patents and publications from 2009 to 2018 of Dentsply Sirona in cooperation with Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, was reviewed and summarized.

RESULTS
Multiple approaches towards the development of polymerizable acid polymers have been introduced and their strength and weaknesses were discussed. A target structure and the respective synthesis were developed allowing the formulation of a restorative dental material with unique properties, such as high mechanical strength paired with good adhesion properties.

CONCLUSION
From a variety of hydrolytically stable acidic polymers, the most promising versions were selected and used for the product development of Surefil one (Dentsply Sirona).


Background: Heart failure (HF) makes it difficulty in adapt to disease and treatment in the elderly. Therefore, social support is crucial for the care of people wi th HF. Loss of social support might lead to mental health problems like anxiety disorder and depression. Aim: This research aimed to evaluation of the relations hip between social support and depression ın the el derly with heart failure Methods: The study sample comprised 112 elderly people who visited the cardiology clinic and polyclinic of a university hospital in Izmir/Turkey. Data were coll ected by using the "Introductory Information Questi onnaire", "Multidimensional Scale for Perceived Social Suppor t" and "Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form". Results: The average age of elderly was 71.34±7.18 years. The mean value for geriatric depression scale-short form and total multidimensional scale for perceived social support was 8.90±3.80 and 51.06±10.87, respectively. No significant correlation was found between the perceived social support and the level of depression (r=−0.02, p>0.05). Depending on whether they lived together or not (p<0.03) and on the hear t failure functional class (p<0.01), a significant difference was found in the distribution of the mean value of the total geriatric depression scale-short form. Conclusion: The study suggests that the mean value of depressi on is at a level adequate for a diagnosis of depression, the level of perceived social support i s on a moderate level and that there is no signific ant relationship between perceived social support and t he mean value of depression.


In this paper we empirically assess bankruptcy as a legal process. We examine a comprehensive reform to corporate bankruptcy law in Mexico, which streamlined the legal process and limits on litigation. Then we outline the ways in which bankruptcy law design affect a series of outcome variables. Using a hand-coded data set from court dockets, we measure procedural speed, recovery rates of creditors' claims, and violations to the absolute priority rule (APR); we also track and compare litigation throughout the bankruptcy process. Our investigation of the reform finds: (1) a decrease in the average time spent in bankruptcy from 7.8 to 2.3 years; (2) an increase in average recovery rates from 19 to 32 cents on the dollar; and (3) a decrease in the frequency of APR violations from 29 to 2 percent. Structural and administrative changes explain about 50 percent of the improvement in our outcomes variables, while changes in the regulation of the process, particularly on the ability to litigate, explain the remaining portion. More precisely, strategic litigation is strongly associated with lower recovery rates and longer procedural times. The results are not driven by censoring bias and are robust to time, firm, and court-specific considerations. Our findings suggest bankruptcy law reform should be focused on simplifying the legal process, introducing statutory timelines, and restricting litigation.


The purpose of the present study is to estimate male adult mortality by Widowhood Method using the secondary data for female marital status of Bangladesh. The male life table has been constructed from the number of persons surviving at an exact age x (lx) values obtained for linking male infant mortality as well as male adult mortality. Age specific death rates (ASDRs), crude death rate (CDR) and crude birth rate (CBR) for male has been estimated. Moreover, an effort has also been given concentration to fit some mathematical models to age structure, ASDRs and lx values for male population. Model validation technique, cross validity prediction power (CVPP), is applied to those mathematical models to test out either they are suitable or not. It is seen that the life expectancy at birth and CDR for male in 1961 are 43.43 and 21.80 respectively. And ASDRs show traditional U shape pattern. It is found that age distribution of population follows modified negative exponential model containing three parameters. And, ASDRs and the lx values follow 4 th degree polynomial model. Moreover, it is investigated that the stability of R 2 of these models is more than 95%.


To establish the microscopic model of the compound ${\mathrm{BiCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{PO}}_{6}$ is a challenging task. Inelastic neutron scattering experiments showed that the dispersion of this material is nondegenerate suggesting the existence of anisotropic interactions. Here we present a quantitative description of the excitation spectrum for ${\mathrm{BiCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{PO}}_{6}$ on the one-particle level. The solution of the isotropic frustrated spin ladder by continuous unitary transformations is the starting point of our approach. Further couplings such as isotropic interladder couplings and anisotropic interactions are included on the mean-field level. Our aim is to establish a minimal model built on the symmetry-allowed interactions and to find a set of parameters which allows us to describe the low-energy part of the dispersion without assuming unrealistic couplings.


An annotated synopsis of the genus Polypodium of Russia and adjacent countries (former USSR) is presented. Nine species are recognized, original identification key is prepared and three new sections are described. For each species, morphological description and distribution within the territory in question is given. Rare species are mapped.


............................................................................................................................... xvi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 1.1Background Information ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Problem Statement .......................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Justification ...................................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Aim of Study .................................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................................ 5 1.6 Objectives of the study ..................................................................................................... 5 1.6.1 Main Objective.......................................................................................................... 5 1.6.2 Specific Objectives ................................................................................................... 5 1.7 Null Hypotheses ............................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................... 7 2.1 Maternal Nutrition Knowledge ........................................................................................ 7


[1] Relatively little research has been undertaken on the use of digital elevation models to recognize the spatially variable glacial imprint of a landscape. Using theoretical topographies and a landscape evolution model, we investigate to what extent the hypsometric analysis of digital elevation models may be used to recognize the glacial signature of mountain ranges. A new morphometric parameter, which we term the hypsokyrtome (from the Greek: ipsos = elevation, kyrtoma = curvature), is derived from the gradient of the hypsometric curve. The efficacy of the hypsometric integral and hypsokyrtome is tested through the study of the Ben Ohau Range, New Zealand, whose glacial imprint has been described previously. With a numerical model we further test the geomorphic parameters in describing the morphologies of regions subject to diverse climatic and tectonic conditions. The hypsokyrtome is highly sensitive to glacial erosion, and the maps produced provide insights into the spatial distribution of glacial erosion. We use SRTM data and focus on two alternative geomorphic settings: the European Alps and the Apennines. The former has been affected by both fluvial and glacial erosion while the latter mainly exhibits a fluvially dominated morphology. The correlation between elevations with increased glacial erosion and Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) suggests the prevalence of a "glacial buzz saw" in the Alps, indicating that climate may put a limit on alpine topography.


A phosphonous dichloride carrying 2,4-di-t-butyl-6-methoxyphenyl as a novel sterically protecting group was prepared and converted to an unsymmetrical diphosphene, which reacted with sulfur to give the corresponding diphosphene sulfide and thiadiphosphirane. The phosphonous dichloride was reduced to the corresponding primary phosphine, which was sulfurized to a dithioxophosphorane. The dithioxophosphorane reacted with benzophenone to give thiobenzophenone.


Educational standards for pedagogical education suggest the formation of a set of competencies during the development of a particular educational program. The aim of this work is to identify the problems that appear in the implementation of these standards in the light of the transition to the Bologna system. It is noted that for the modernization of the Russian education system it is important to review the governance arrangements, and it is also necessary to improve the work of the teaching staff, i.e. completely change the teaching methods. As an example of realization of personality-oriented paradigm of education a comparative analysis of American and Russian education system is given. It is noted that the personality-oriented education should be designed so, that the student could master all the competencies identified in the federal state education standards, moving along individual learning paths and picking up the number of credits corresponding to the amount of credit units. For these purposes, when designing educational programs, it is necessary to invite prospective employers, quality assurance specialists, and to take into account the opinion of the students. A comparison of the professional standard of teacher and educational standard of Bachelor on the example of trainign teachers of mathematics is given. The conclusion is made that the work load of the professors should also be measured in credit units.


Threading dislocations caused by coalescence of GaN islands in the initial stage of low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth is reduced by buffer layer annealing. Unlike the atmospheric pressure MOCVD, high nucleation density in low-pressure MOCVD makes it difficult to form large isolated islands which enhance the lateral growth. Herein, it is demonstrated that a buffer layer is transformed into isolated islands by thermal annealing and the threading dislocations can be reduced by controlling the density of isolated islands. Nitridation of sapphire modifies its surface energy and enhances the nucleation during buffer layer deposition resulting in a buffer layer with small grain size. Through thermal annealing, the as-deposited buffer layer with small grain size is transformed into isolated islands with (0001) facet on a flat (0001) surface, which enhance the lateral growth at high temperature. Longer nitridation and shorter buffer layer deposition lead to lower density of islands resulting in lower dislocation density. The sample with low dislocation density showed strong band-edge PL emission with low yellow band emission.


Sir We read with interest the report of Haak et al. (1994) regarding treatment of adrenocortical carcinoma with mitotane and agree with the authors' conclusion thit .adjuvant mitotate does not influence survival of patients.' As the authors point out, several groups, including our own (Venkatesh et al., 1989), have recommended further study of the potential efficacy of mitotane in the adjuvant setting based on outcome trends and theoretical considerations derived from retrospective analyses of clinical data of patients with adrenocortical cancer. We have recently reported the outcome of 19 patients with regional disease who were treated at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center between 1988 and 1991 and who had no evidence of residual disease after primary surgery (Vassilopoulou-Sellin et al., 1993). In our study, neither disease freedom nor survival was favourably influenced by adjuvant mitotane; although not statistically different, both disease-free interval and survival were shortest in the treated group. In our experience, it was extremely difficult for these patients (without evidence of measurable disease) to tolerate more than 2 g day-' after the first few months. While mitotane remains an effective tool for the management of patients with metastatic or unresectable disease, it is difficult to recommend its use in the adjuvant setting.


Stolarsky's invariance principle quantifies the deviation of a subset of a metric space from the uniform distribution. Classically derived for spherical sets, it has been recently studied in a number of other situations, revealing a general structure behind various forms of the main identity. In this work we consider the case of finite metric spaces, relating the quadratic discrepancy of a subset to a certain function of the distribution of distances in it. Our main results are related to a concrete form of the invariance principle for the Hamming space. We derive several equivalent versions of the expression for the discrepancy of a code, including expansions of the discrepancy and associated kernels in the Krawtchouk basis. Codes that have the smallest possible quadratic discrepancy among all subsets of the same cardinality can be naturally viewed as energy‐minimizing subsets in the space. Using linear programming, we find several bounds on the minimal discrepancy and give examples of minimizing configurations. In particular, we show that all binary perfect codes have the smallest possible discrepancy.


In order to achieve the ideal welding effect in the process of laser brazing,controlling energy in focus is a key factor.Therefore,testing energy is particularly important.A new type of testing device was designed for energy of laser pulse in this paper.By using it,pulse energy of KJG-1YAG-400A laser welder was measured.The calorific models were established for the device,and the analysis of thermal loss was conducted.Running curves were obtained between thermal couple resistance and time after the device absorbed laser energy.After test data was amended,the relationship among single pulse of laser energy,pulse width and current was revealed.It was shown that the testing methods and device are practicable for testing pulsed laser energy under the condition of medium accuracy requirement,and test difficulty is reduced,test cost is saved.


species ),which were dominant and /or characteristic species ofcoastal sand dunes inthe warm temperate zone 垣 Japan. The buoyancy and the viability oftheir disseminules in sea water (simulated by 3.45% sodium ch 重oride solution )were examined in a laboratory, Fruits of Fimbristylis eric (〜α did not 且oat in sodium chloride solution 、 suggesting that this specles wouLd not be di g. persed by sea currents . Grains of lschaemum anthephoroides and Zoッ∫ノα ma ぴ ostachya 月oated for about ten to twenty days, suggesting tl〕at these species would l〕e capable of djspersion by s.・ea currents for a short period . Fruits or seeds of th ・ ・ themative c ・ asta1 plants , i.e. Lathyrus ノαρ・nicus , Gle加 ia iittoraiis , Ca!ystegia s・ldαnelia, Vitex rorundifolia , Ixeris ,レifedetia prostrata, Carex kobomugi and Carex pumila, continued to 且oat and remained in sodium chloride solution for at least  wo months , suggesting that they would have high potentia 正 t ' or thalassochory. On the other hand, disseminules of three aliell species , Oenothera laciniata , Diodia teres and Lotium rig 〜dum , did not 刊oat in the solution , sLlggest 至ng that these alien specieg . would not be dispersed by sea currents . However, these alien species can also be distrib しLted in inland habitats, and they can be dispersed血om inland seed sou エce to coastal sand dune areas .[f fragmenta匸ion of coast 〜 takes place artificially and disrupts the structure or meta populations , native coastal plaRts which have limjled capacity fo1 ' thalassochory will disappear , since their disseminules wouid not be able to migrate again following extinction of the local population.


ABSTRACT Despite extensive studies on ethical data use and algorithms, little is known about the ethical perspectives of tech workers – insiders of a profession that heavily relies on data and algorithms. Nor have there been sufficient cross-national comparisons of their perspectives. Relying on interviews with 98 tech workers in China and the US, this paper is guided by two questions: (1) What are tech workers' perceptions of big data ethics, and (2) what are the cross-national similarities and differences in China and the US? The study found that there are cross-national similarities in tech workers' cautious enthusiasm about the applications of big data in their work, as well as in their complex and ambivalent ethical perspectives on the use of big data in government digital surveillance. The main cross-national differences occur in tech workers' perceptions of whether big data may reinforce social inequalities. US-based tech workers are concerned about the reinforcement of race and gender-based inequalities through the use of big data, whereas their colleagues in China are optimistic that the use of big data may reduce income-based inequalities across geographical regions. The study's findings have implications for how to leverage tech workers' influence and promote the ethical use of data and algorithms.


Conflicting reports have led to confusion regarding secular trends for obesity in the United States. But even if data suggesting a plateauing of obesity rates offer some encouragement, obesity prevalence remains unacceptably high and has serious health implications.


The need for lightweight components, reduced cost, and improved efficiency in modern manufacturing has led to increasing interest towards hybrid polymer-metal components with optimized characteristics. This has resulted to development of new components with tailored properties for application in aerospace, energy generation, medical and electronics as well as for consumer goods. Laser Assisted Metal to Polymer (LAMP) joining is a modern technique used in joining metals to polymers by irradiation of a laser beam to the metal-polymer interface to melt the polymer for bonding. During the LAMP process, excessive heat could lead to degradation of the polymer while insufficient heat could lead to uneven melting. These results to improper joints, and therefore, there is a need to regulate the amount of heating in the process. Delivery of the thermal energy by the laser beam is affected by parameters such as laser beam power, scanning speed, the absorptivity of the materials, and the contact pressure at the interface. To attain uniform temperature distribution and optimum temperature values for proper melting of the polymer, a careful selection of these parameters is essential. In this paper, a finite element model is developed to investigate the influence of different laser parameters on temperature distribution at the interface during LAMP joining. This model is used to predict the depth and width of the molten zone, and temperature distribution within the heat-affected zone. Simulation runs are carried out for the joining of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) polymer and stainless steel plate (SUS304) materials. Their common application in LAMP joining provides the motivation to use them as case study for this research.  From the analysis, it is seen that increasing laser power and decreasing laser scan speed leads to the increase of the interface temperatures and dimensions of the molten zone. A comparison is made for the predicted width of melt with experimental bond width. The results for the range of parameters used are in good agreement and have a maximum deviation of 6%.


The scene classification of high spatial resolution (HSR) imagery involves labeling an HSR image with a specific high-level semantic class according to the composition of the semantic objects and their spatial relationships. As such, scene classification has attracted increased attention in recent years, and many different algorithms have now been proposed for the cross-scene classification task. However, the recently proposed scene classification methods based on deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) still suffer from domain shift problems, because of the training data and validation data not following the assumption of independent and identical distributions. The employment of generative adversarial networks has been found to be an effective way to bridge the domain shift/gap. However, the existing cross-scene classification methods do not use the classification information in the target domain, and the domain classifier is task-independent for different scene classification tasks. In this article, to solve this problem, domain adaptation via a task-specific classifier (DATSNET) framework is proposed for HSR image scene classification. Task-specific classifiers and minimizing and maximizing, " i.e., minimaxing," of the classifier discrepancy are integrated in the DATSNET framework. The task-specific classifiers are proposed to align the distributions of the source domain features and target domain features by utilizing task-specific decision boundaries in the target domain. In order to align the two task-specific classifiers' feature distributions, minimaxing the defined discrepancy between the different classifiers in an adversarial manner is proposed to obtain better task-specific classifier boundaries in the target domain and a better-aligned feature distribution in both domains. The experimental results obtained with different remote sensing cross-scene classification tasks demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a significantly improved performance compared with the other state-of-the-art remote sensing cross-scene classification algorithms.


or does not promote cancer of the stomach. Between 1922 and 1934 he operated on ninety-four cases of cancer of the stomach in a hospital in Trondhjem. In twenty-six of these cases dyspeptic disturbances, interpreted as those of chronic gastritis, had lasted for more than five years before the onset of signs of cancer. The average age of these twenty-six patients was between 54 and 55 years, and the average duration of their symptoms of gastritis was between fourteen and fifteen years. The average duration of their cancer symptoms was four and a half months. The corresponding figure for the patients without a history of gastritis was between five and six months. The second investigation consisted of re-examining, in 1934, the 120 cases diagnosed as chronic gastritis between 1922 and 1929. Only those cases were considered in which the patient's age was over 30 at the time of the first examination. It was found that in the interval eighteen had developed


Abstract. Automatic registration of medium-resolution remote sensing images of coral reefs, particularly those without artificial facilities, faces two challenges: difficulty in identifying the same coral reefs in different images and instability of the fine-tuning process. To overcome these challenges, we propose an automatic registration method that combines morphological information pairing with constrained iterative fining. This method comprises three steps. First, the contours of the coral reefs were extracted using level set method. Subsequently, the same coral reefs in the two images were identified and paired based on morphological similarities and relative locations. Finally, iterative fine registration with a constrained strategy was performed by controlling abnormal changes in the geometric center to further improve the registration accuracy for every pair of coral reefs. The proposed automatic registration method was validated using a Landsat5 image acquired on April 15, 2005 and a HJ-1B image acquired on May 4, 2010. Compared with the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) method and the SIFT with Random Sample Consensus method, the proposed method showed good performance in the automatic registration of coral reef images.


The electrical, physical, and barrier properties of PVD refractory metal carbide (TiCx, TaCx, and WCx) thin films were investigated for Cu metallization. The 60-nm thick TiCx, TaCx, and WCx exhibit a resistivity of 1200, 385, and 227 /spl mu//spl Omega/-cm, respectively. Although XRD and sheet resistance measurements indicate that the thermal stability of TaCx is about 50-100/spl deg/C higher, the maximum stability temperature based on the diode leakage data is about the same among all three materials.


A new Kongsberg-Simrad EM120 multibeam echo-sounder has been installed aboard Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Research Vessel Roger Revelle in January 2001. This system can map reliably a 20 km swath of seafloor in 4000 m water depth with 191 soundings per ping. Such a wide swath width demands highly accurate (<0.05/spl deg/ rms) roll information from a motion sensor, and makes estimating sounding accuracy across the swath an interesting challenge. It is shown that good accuracy estimates can be obtained by collecting data on station under control of the GPS-aided dynamic positioning system usually available on most modern long-range oceanographic vessels. A number of motion sensors, with rms roll accuracy specifications ranging from 0.05/spl deg/ to 0.01/spl deg/, were tested with the EM120 sonar on station in 3800 m to 4000 m water depths. Unexpectedly, they yielded roughly the same depth uncertainty as a function of receive beam angle. This result might be explained by synchronization errors between the attitude data and the sonar data leading to beam pointing errors, other types of beam pointing errors, a range of roll accuracy narrower than specified for the motion sensors, or a combination of these factors.


High purity silicon carbide(SiC) powder for semi-insulating SiC single crystal growth was synthesized.The results show that the size of Si powder,the temperature and time of the synthesis process effect the composition of the products.The phase composition and morphology of the products were investigated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy(SEM).The results show that the composition of SiC powder depends on the surface area of Si powder.The ratio of α-SiC and β-SiC depends on the synthesis temperature and time.Glow discharge mass spectroscopy(GDMS) was used to evaluate the impurity concentration.


The OECD together with the Norwegian government organised the workshop, Performance-Based Funding for Public Research in Tertiary Education Institutions: Country Experiences, to do a stocktaking of the performance-based research funding systems (PRFSs) now in place in a number of countries. This chapter outlines the main topics discussed at the workshop, emerging key policy issues and possible next steps for work on this subject.


(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)Introduction: aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy in early 20th century*To readers of the present journal and to researchers of Chinese aesthetics, Zhang Yinlin ... (1905-1942) is not a familiar figure. After all, he is best known as an historian, and he produced few works on Chinese art.1 However, in 1931, Zhang - then a philosophy student at Stanford University - wrote a 13,000-character treatise laying out the basis for the discipline of calligraphy criticism. Although he entitled this treatise 'A Preface to Chinese Calligraphy Criticism' ... ('Preface' hereafter), much of the text concerns wider issues in aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy. Before introducing Zhang's 'Preface', it is necessary to contextualise this work by briefly reviewing writing on Chinese calligraphy aesthetics during the first decades of the twentieth century.Following the introduction of Western aesthetics at the turn of the century, theoretical writing on art had undergone a paradigm shift in Chinese academia. As far as Chinese calligraphy was concerned, the publishing of Kang Youwei's ... (1858-1927) Guang yizhou shuangji ... (Expanding on Two Oars of the Ship of Art) in 1891 marked the end of traditional calligraphy criticism2, and Wang Guowei's ... (1877-1927) treatise 'On the Position of the Refined in Aesthetics' in 1907, to many contemporary calligraphy theorists, initiated modern calligraphy aesthetics, or modern Chinese aesthetics at large. Wang's article bore the stamp of Western formalist theory, that all beauty is in essence formal beauty that lies in the symmetry, variety, and harmony of form.3 His treatise, however, dedicated only a small paragraph to calligraphy, in which he labelled it an 'inferior art' (dideng zhi meishu...).The 1920s was the first golden period of modern Chinese aesthetics. In 1920, Liu Renhang ... (1884-1938) translated the first foreign book on aesthetics, Jinshi Meixue ..., or Modern Aesthetics, originally written in Japanese by Takayama Chogyu (1871-1902).4 Following that, more than a dozen books on aesthetics were published during the 1920s, being either translated works or original works by Chinese scholars.5 Concerns discussed by Chinese aestheticians were often the same as those covered in Western aesthetics at the same time, such as aesthetic feelings, form and content, and aesthetic judgement. These new conceptions or categories were destined to reform calligraphy criticism in China. An early example was Liang Qichao's ... (1873-1929) speech 'A Guide to Chinese Calligraphy' (Shufa zhidao ...), delivered at Tsinghua University in 1926.6 Liang's talk was much influenced by Western aesthetic ideas, such as Kant's view that judgements of beauty are disinterested. Liang proposed that the beauty of Chinese calligraphy lies in four aspects: beauty of lines, beauty of light7, beauty of power, and expression of personality. Published as an article late in 1926, Liang's paper exerted a considerable influence within China's academia at the time, which can be partly confirmed by Zhang Yinlin's frequent reference to it in his 'Preface'.The study of the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy began to thrive in the 1930s. Many scholars, most of whom had studied in Western countries, started to pay attention to the field. Zhang Yinlin's 'Preface', serialised in the Literary Supplement of Da Gong Bao, was most probably the first paper on calligraphy aesthetics published in the 1930s. Deng Yizhe ... (1892-1973), who had studied literature and aesthetics at Waseda University (1907-1911) and Columbia University (1917-1922), wrote his first article on calligraphy aesthetics in 1937. Entitled 'Appreciation of Calligraphy' (Shufa zhi xinshang ...), Deng's article divided all art into two types: decorative art and pure art, the latter's purity arising from the free expression of the artist. For Deng, Chinese calligraphy was a pure art. In contrast to Zhang's overt Occidental perspective, Deng's article integrated Western aesthetic concepts implicitly. …


Objective To investigate the effects of azithromycin on airway remodeling and the expression of transforming growth factorβ1 (TGF-β1) in asthmatic mice.Methods BALB/c male mice were random divided into 3 groups:control group(A),asthma group (B),and azithromycin treated group (C),with 10 mice in each group.Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was collected to count the number of white blood cells and eosinophilic granulocytes EOS.The morphological parameters of the bronchi were measured by computer image analysis and the pathologic changes of the bronchi and lung tissue were observed by HE staining.The expressions of TGF-β1 were detected by immunohistochemistry.Results The number of EOS in B group was significantly higher than that in control group(8.12 ±0.54 vs 0.70 ±0.40;8.12 ±0.54 vs 0.87 ±0.25,P <0.01).WAt and WAi and WAm in group C was significantly lower than that in group B (10.15 ±0.95 vs 15.36 ±0.85,4.16 ±0.32 vs 10.64 ± 1.03,3.77 ±0.15 vs 7.97 ±0.17,P <0.01)but higher than that in group A.The expression of TGF-β1 in group C was significantly lower than that in group B but higher than that in group A.TGF-β1 expression of lung tissue in C group was significantly correlated with EOS,(r =0.840,P <0.01) and WAt(r =0.735,P <0.01) and WAm (r =0.870,P <0.01).Conclusion Azithromycin inhibited airway remodeling in asthmatic mice,which might possibly be achieved through inhibiting the expression of TGF-β1.

Key words:
Azithromycin/PD; Asthma/DT/ME/PP; Trachea/PP/DE; Transforming growth factor beta1/ME


The following study will be aimed at determining the achievement of the point per set in the Cuban youth beach volleyball players game, during the National Championship of 2018. This will allow future competitions greater autonomy, providing them with the necessary tools to get oriented and identify important elements of the linking of the typical phases of the game with its application in the competitive activity itself, and in this way achieve a consistent performance based on the current demands of the sport.For the investigation the author uses the empiric method: the search of information, the documental revision, and the observation. For this purpose were used theoretical methods like analytic-synthetic and historical-logical. It shows that typical phases of game 2 is the most importance in the achievement of the point per set.


[Introduction] Mn4N is a promising material for current induced domain wall motion devices because of its perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) with a large uniaxial anisotropic constant (Ku~10 kJ/m) and a small spontaneous magnetization (MS~100 kA/m) [1]. Besides, it consists of only light and abundant elements. We recently achieved an ultrafast domain wall motion (vDW = 900 m/s) at a current density of approximately 10 A/m for Mn4N nanowires driven by only spin transfer torque without any external magnetic field [2]. We anticipate that the in-plane tensile distortion of Mn4N films causes the PMA [3]. (La, Sr)(Al, Ta)O3 (LSAT) has a larger lattice constant than Mn4N, and thus we expect in-plane compressive distortion in Mn4N films when grown on an LSAT substrate. However, no group has reported the epitaxial growth of Mn4N films on LSAT(001) substrates. [Experiment] 30-nm thick Mn4N films were grown on LSAT(001) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) using a solid Mn and a radio-frequency N2 plasma at various substrate temperatures (TS) of 450−800C. After the growth, Ti cap layers were deposited in-situ on the Mn4N films to prevent oxidation. The crystalline quality of grown films was evaluated by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and out-of-plane and in-plane X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The film thickness was evaluated by X-ray reflectivity. Magnetic properties were measured by vibrating sample magnetometer at room temperature (RT). Anomalous Hall effect (AHE) measurement was performed by physical properties measurement system at RT to evaluate Ku. [Result & Discussion] Streaky RHEED patterns and Kikuchi lines along LSAT[100] azimuth were observed for the samples grown at TS = 700−800 C in Fig. 1. On the other hand, the samples grown at TS < 650 C showed the ring patterns, indicating poly-crystalline structures in their surfaces. Figure 1 also shows the out-of-plane XRD profiles. Epitaxial growth of Mn4N was confirmed for samples grown at TS = 700−800 C. The presence of tensile distortion was confirmed even in Mn4N films on LSAT(001) from out-of-plane and in-plane (not shown) XRD patterns. Figure 2 shows the TS dependence of MS and Ku. The samples grown at TS= 700−800 C showed PMA. Based on these results, we succeeded in the epitaxial growth of highly c-axis oriented Mn4N films with PMA on LSAT(001) substrates at TS = 700, 750 and 800 C. Especially, Ku becomes the largest at TS= 750 C. We plan to investigate the relationship between Ku and the ratio of lattice constant c/a.


In this paper, a multiobjective genetic fuzzy system (GFS) to learn the granularities of fuzzy partitions, tuning the membership functions (MFs), and learning the fuzzy rules is presented. It uses dynamic constraints, which enable three-parameter MF tuning to improve the accuracy while guaranteeing the transparency of fuzzy partitions. The fuzzy models (FMs) are initialized by a method that combines the benefits of Wang-Mendel (WM) and decision-tree algorithms. Thus, the initial FMs have less rules, rule conditions, and input variables than if WM initialization were to be used. Moreover, the fuzzy partitions of initial FMs are always transparent. Our approach is tested against recent multiobjective and monoobjective GFSs on six benchmark problems. It is concluded that the accuracy and interpretability of our FMs are always comparable or better than those in the comparative studies. Furthermore, on some benchmark problems, our approach clearly outperforms some comparative approaches. Suitability of our approach for higher dimensional problems is shown by studying three benchmark problems that have up to 21 input variables.


Considering aging power system infrastructures in conjunction with increased electricity trading activities, there is a strong need for future investments in electricity grids. Technological progress has made available a number of different investment alternatives, ranging e.g. from "standard" reinforcements of existing transmission capacities to the installation of Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS). This paper proposes a framework for comparing different investment alternatives. The approach relies on an optimal power flow (OPF), where system security is explicitly considered by means of a novel formulation for a security constrained optimal power flow (SC-OPF). For evaluation purposes several indicators are proposed, such as the loading of transmission lines, the total generation costs and the overall dispatch depending on different consumption levels. In a first case study the installation of shunt and in-series FACTS devices are compared. The paper is concluded with a sample valuation assessing whether to invest in a Thyristor-Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC) or in a line reinforcement, i.e. additional line capacity.


S A N F R A N C I S C O — Normalization of CA 125 levels after one cycle of chemotherapy is a significant predictor of recurrence-free and overall survival in women with high-risk, early-stage epithelial ovarian cancer, based on data from 350 patients. "Identifying subsets of early-stage, high-risk patients with good prognosis may improve the individualization of care," said Dr. John Chan in a presentation of the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) study results at the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists annual meeting. Previous research has shown that prechemotherapy levels of CA 125 are predictive of 5-year overall survival, but there is a lack of data on patterns of normalization in CA 125, said Dr. Chan of the cancer center at the University of California, San Francisco. Reviewing data from GOG study 157, a multicenter, randomized, phase III trial, Dr. Chan and colleagues assessed the clinical impact of CA 125 normalization patterns. CA 125 levels of 35 IU/mL or less were considered normal. All patients had one of the following types of epithelial ovarian cancer: stage IA/IB grade 3, stage IC, or stage II. The patients had previously undergone primary surgery, and all received either three or six cycles of carboplatin/paclitaxel chemotherapy every 21 days. Overall, 74% of the patients achieved normal CA 125 levels after one chemotherapy cycle, and 88% reached that threshold after two cycles. The recurrence-free survival rate was Major Finding: The recurrence-free survival rate was 81% in patients who had normalization of CA 125 after one cycle of chemotherapy, vs. 65% in patients who had CA 125 normalization after two cycles. Data Source: A Gynecologic Oncology Group study of 350 women with early-stage epithelial ovarian cancer. Disclosures: Dr. Chan has served on the speakers bureau for Ortho Biotech Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Rustin said he had no financial conflicts to disclose. V IT A L S


Einstein's general relativity with both metric and vielbein treated as independent fields is considered, demonstrating the existence of a consistent variational principle and deriving a Hamiltonian formalism that treats the spatial metric and spatial vielbein as canonical coordinates. This results in a Hamiltonian in standard form that consists of Hamiltonian and momentum constraints as well as constraints that generate spatial frame transformations—all appearing as primary, first class constraints on phase space. The formalism encompasses the standard coordinate frame and vielbein approaches to general relativity, and the constraint algebra derived herein reproduces known results in either limit.


A series of coumarin-based thiosemicarbazones and their metal complexes have been synthesized and their in vitro potency against urease was evaluated. Single crystal X-ray crystallographic studies were carried out for compound 14 to investigate the solid state self-assembly which showed a preference for the S-conformation owing to intramolecular hydrogen bonding. An in vitro urease inhibition assay revealed coumarin-thiosemicarbazone 12 as the most potent inhibitor (IC50 value of 2.23 ± 0.14 μM) compared to thiourea, used as standard (IC50 value of 21.25 ± 0.15 μM). Similarly, compounds 4, 6, 7, 9, 15 & 16 showed excellent urease inhibition activity with IC50 values ranging from 4.15 ± 0.17 to 16.95 ± 0.12 μM. Furthermore, compounds 3, 8, 11 & 13 also showed good activities (IC50 values ranging from 33.86 ± 0.12 to 43.12 ± 0.19 μM) against this enzyme. However, the metal complexes of these compounds showed low activity against urease. Molecular docking with the most cogent ligand against urease was also performed to assess the putative binding mode of the synthesized compounds. Potent compound 12 can serve as a potential lead for further chemical tuning towards drug candidate development.


Volumes 37 and 38 of the journal Medieval English Theatre, are given over to a collection of essays reflection the special interests in the field of early drama of their dedicatee, John J. McGavin. They include essays on the records and narrative of early drama in England, and especially Scotland, and on spectatorship and audience reception.


The synthesis of a vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) from acetylene hydrochlorination is a highly attractive coal-based route using mercury chloride (HgCl2) as the catalyst. On reducing the use of mercury and with increasing concerns about environmental issues, searching for alternative catalysts has gained interest in recent years. However, to achieve high yield and stability using a mercury-free catalyst in this reaction is a substantial challenge. We approach this question by probing a Cu-added AuCs/AC catalyst working as a highly active, stable and cost-effective catalyst for this reaction. Introducing Cu into the catalyst significantly increased the activity and stability compared to a bicomponent AuCs/AC catalyst, underscoring a remarkable synergistic effect of the three metals. The particularly remarkable enhancement of activity was observed for the catalyst with a Au/Cu/Cs weight ratio of 1 : 1 : 4 (Au = 0.25 wt%), which provided a high turnover frequency of 73.8 min−1 based on Au. Further experiments showed that the AuCuCs/AC catalyst delivered a stable performance during a 600 h test with the conversion of acetylene maintaining more than 98.8% at a C2H2 gas hourly space velocity of 50 h−1 and the estimated lifetime exceeding 6540 h. After a careful characterization of the AuCuCs/AC catalyst and additional catalytic tests, we concluded that the observed enhanced catalytic performance could be associated with the enhanced dispersion of Au particles, the stabilization of Au in the state of Au3+ and facile substrate C2H2 molecule desorption. Compared with the commercial high content HgCl2 catalyst (Hg = 12 wt%), this low content AuCuCs/AC catalyst (Au = 0.25 wt%) has similar activity, higher stability, relative low cost and environmental friendliness, meaning it has potential as an alternative to the HgCl2 catalyst for commercial production of VCM.


The protection of critical infrastructure is a growing concern within the transportation industry. Raytheon is developing a system architecture and design for a perimeter security system that specifically addresses this issue for large facilities such as airports, seaports and rail facilities. The architecture uses the DoD's Architecture Framework guidelines. It employs a multi-sensor approach, including ground surveillance radars and cameras, to detect, assess and track perimeter incursions. It is designed to operate 24/7 in all weather conditions. A command and control center provides timely and accurate situational awareness to facility security personnel responsible for monitoring and managing incidents. Mobile communications also provide situational awareness to first responders in the field. The architecture supports integration with existing security systems, such as access control and closed circuit television, to centralize security monitoring for the entire facility. This architecture is the basis for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Perimeter Intrusion Detection System for four airports, including John F. Kennedy International. Raytheon's system engineering process as applied to the perimeter security application is described, with focus on the key early process phases of threat analysis, operational concept generation, system requirements analysis, and system architecture and design development. Key technical parameters, including probability of detection and nuisance alarm rate, that drive the system design and cost are also discussed. Raytheon has found that the quality of the system engineering effort directly determines the quality of the resulting system and its ability to satisfy the customer's mission needs.


OBJECTIVE To quantify the role of BMI and metabolic dysfunction in the risk of development of type 2 diabetes in patients at high risk or with manifest vascular disease. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 6,997 patients participating in the prospective Secondary Manifestations of ARTerial disease (SMART) cohort study were classified according to BMI and metabolic dysfunction, defined as three or more of the modified National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) metabolic syndrome criteria (waist circumference replaced by hs-CRP ≥2 mg/L). Risk of type 2 diabetes (assessed with biannually questionnaires) was estimated with Cox proportional hazards analysis. RESULTS During a median follow-up of 6.0 years (interquartile range 3.1–9.1 years), 519 patients developed type 2 diabetes (incidence rate 12/1,000 person-years). In the absence of metabolic dysfunction (≤2 NCEP criteria), adiposity increased the risk of type 2 diabetes compared with normal-weight patients (HR 2.5 [95% CI 1.5–4.2] for overweight and HR 4.3 [95% CI 2.2–8.6] for obese patients). In the presence of metabolic dysfunction (≥3 NCEP criteria), an increased risk of type 2 diabetes was observed in patients with normal weight (HR 4.7 [95% CI 2.8–7.8]), overweight (HR 8.5 [95% CI 5.5–13.4]), and obesity (HR 16.3 [95% CI 10.4–25.6]) compared with normal-weight patients without metabolic dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS Adiposity, even in the absence of metabolic dysfunction, is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Moreover, presence of metabolic dysfunction increases the risk of type 2 diabetes in all BMI categories. This supports the assessment of adiposity and metabolic dysfunction in patients with vascular disease or at high risk for cardiovascular events.


This research focuses on monitoring and transferring logs of operations performed on a relational database, specifically PostgreSQL, in real-time using an event-driven approach. The logs generated from database operations are transferred using Apache Kafka, an open-source message queuing system, and Debezium running on Kafka, to Redis, a non-relational (No-SQL) key-value database. Time-consuming query operations and read operations are performed on Redis, which operates on memory (in-memory), instead of on the primary database, PostgreSQL. This approach has significantly improved query execution performance, data processing time, and backend service performance. The study showcases the practical application of an event-driven approach using Debezium, Kafka, Redis, and relational databases for real-time data processing and querying.


In this paper, a checkerboard metasurface is designed to achieve the radar cross section (RCS) reduction within a wide frequency band. The basic meta-atoms are printed on a substrate plane with two choices of layer thickness, and destructive interference are obtained by adjusting the geometry parameters of the meta-atoms. The combination of multiple layer thicknesses increases the range of the phase cancellation and improves the ability to control the electromagnetic waves of the planar target. Based on the optimized multielement phase cancellation (OMEPC), the designed metasurface can realize a 10 dB RCS reduction in a wideband from 4.8 to 19.6 GHz with a ratio bandwidth ($f_{H}/f_{L}$) of 4.08:1 under normal incidence for both polarizations. In addition, a 10 dB RCS reduction performance can be preserved under wide-angle oblique incidences under TM wave. The estimated and simulated results are in good agreement and prove that the proposed metasurface can realize wideband cancellation interference in its style sheet. This work is a verification to prove that the increase of layer thickness can expand the bandwidth for RCS reduction apparently compared with a single layer.


Advances in medical technology have led to a substantial increase in the number of medical assist devices implanted in the human body. The pacemaker is one such device which aids cardiac functioning. Even as the number of pacemakers implanted each year reaches into millions worldwide, finding an efficient power source for them still remains a challenge. The average life span of a pacemaker battery is seven years. A cardiac patient thus requires several surgeries to replace the battery throughout his lifetime. The search for an alternate power source for pacemakers is hence critical. This paper reviews the use of nanogenerators as a power source for pacemakers and is focussed on Piezoelectric nanogenerators using PMN-PT, ZnO and PZT. Based on a technology that converts mechanical or thermal energy from small-scale physical change into electricity, nanogenerators are an emerging option to power electronic devices. Nanogenerators have varied applications in bio-medical and other fields. The use of nanogenerators has enabled doctors to implant a new generation of devices. These devices have the capacity to stay powered for a long time with minimal body invasion. A major benefit of using nanogenerators is their ability to convert kinetic energy from bodily movement into electricity. Kinetic energy within the body is a naturally occurring and continuous source of renewable energy. Thus utilizing this source of energy to power devices proves to be beneficial to the body as well as to the environment.


The article is devoted to the study of Abay's creativity as a historical precedent personality in the context of his ethnopedagogical, historical and translation discourses. Purpose of the work: identifying the essence of Abay's main discourses, analyzing them, determining the contribution of the precedent personality to the historical process of the formation of ethno-identity, as well as clarifying the degree of precedence of the personality and his texts. In the process of analysis, a complex method was used, based on the combination of discursive-historical, cognitive-discursive, and pragmatic-communicative approaches, the method of sociological survey. The results obtained include: description of Abay as a precedent historical personality, widely known for his legislative, social and political activities; a comprehensive analysis of the historical discourse of Abay, the discourse of biy (in Kazakh language), its extralinguistic, cognitive, pragmatic, linguo-stylistic components have been identified and described; the historical character of Abay's translation discourses is established, a comprehensive analysis of such a discourse is carried out, the precedent of the text of Abay's translations is noted. It is concluded that Abay Kunanbaev not only acted as an active historical person who managed to influence the actualization of historical events and their promotion, but also as a poet, translator, who created various discourses (historical, translation, literary). Abay's translation discourse acts as a kind of historical discourse - historical and literary discourse, since it has signs of historicity (created by a historical person, it reflects the features of the historical era). Therefore, these discourses can be analyzed based on a complex discursive-historical and cognitive-discursive approaches.


Numerous stage models have attempted to clarify management priorities during the early stages of companies. However, a need for more focused and context-specific studies exists. This study seeks to clarify the early stages of technology-intensive companies in Thai and Finnish contexts. To summarise the research questions, the authors ask: What early stages do technology-intensive companies face based on recent empirical literature? How do the experiences of managers in early-stage technology-intensive companies relate to assumptions of such stage framework? What viewpoints should be considered when using stage framework in Thai and Finnish contexts? To answer these questions, this study devises a four-stage framework describing early stages of technology-intensive companies and reflects it through ten case studies in the two contexts. The framework was found to be applicable in both contexts; moreover, an analysis of context-specific viewpoints is also provided. It is necessary to recognise these viewpoints when using this framework in the Thai and Finnish contexts.


The nonlinear discrete event dynamic systems (DEDS) are the systems described by min-max functions, and commonly exist in computer science, control theory, operations research, etc. Structure problems of nonautonomous and nonlinear discrete event dynamic systems are considered, and some new results which lay some foundations of control theory of nonlinear discrete event dynamic systems are described. By constructing the white graph and white condensation, the canonical structure and two necessary and sufficient conditions for reachability and observability are obtained, and their matrix representations are given.


Objective To analyze retrospectively the clinical effects and side effects of conformal radiotherapy combined with NP chemotherapy and NP chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.Methods 76 patients with Ⅲ and Ⅳ stage non-small cell lung cancer were grouped.Chemotherapy group consisted of 31 patients,treated with NP chemotherapy.The NP regimen includes Navelbine(25mg/m2,d1,d8) and DDP(25mg/m2,d1-3),repeated every 21 days.Radio-chemotherapy group consisted of 45 patients,receiving three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy(3-DCRT) combined with NP chemotherapy.Conventional fraction 3-dimentional conformal radiotherapy was performed,using 15MV x-rays from linear accelerator,after 2 cycles of NP chemotherapy,with total dose 36 to 66 Gy.Then,two more cycles of NP chemotherapy were performed.Prophylactic supraclavicular irradiation was delivered,using 8MeV Electron Beam with total dose of 20 to 30Gy.Results The overall response rate(RR) was 57.8% in the radio-chemotherapy group,with 3 patients achieved complete responses,32.3% in the chemotherapy group,there was a significent difference(P0.05) between RR of the two groups.In the radio-chemotherapy group,RR was 65.6% in patients with squamous cell carcinoma,41.7% in patients with adenocarcinoma,there was a statistical difference(P0.05) between RR of the two types.RR of the stage ⅢA,ⅢB and Ⅳ was 83.3%,61.1% and 33.3% respectively,there were statistical differences(P0.05) among RR of the three stages.RR was 60.1% in the patients with initially diagnosed,20.0% with recurrence,P0.05.In the chemotherapy group,there was no statistics difference(P0.05) between RR of patients with squamous cell carcinoma and with adenocarcinoma,patients of stage ⅢB and Ⅳ,patients in initially diagnosed and in recurrence.Medium time to progression(TTP) was 178 days(60-446d) in the radio-chemotherapy group,while medium TTP was 82 days(25-233days) in the chemotherapy group.Toxicity side effects in the radio-chemotherapy group were more than those in the chemotherapy group.Major toxicity side effects included bone marrow suppression,gastrointestinal side effects,radiation pneumonitis and radiation esophagitis,all of which could be relieved by corresponding measurements.Conclusion The response rate of comformal radiotherapy combined with NP chemotherapy is higher than NP chemotherapy alone for advanced non-small cell lung cancer,with tolerable toxicity side effects,and longer TTP.


Sodium pertechnetate (Tc-99m) can accumulate in the uterus and result in a false-positive Meckel's scan. Early, intense activity in the pelvis, which diminishes with time, should alter the physician to the possibility of uptake by the female reproductive organs. Ultrasound, TCT, or radiographic examinations may be necessary when findings are equivocal.


Research results of opinion of group experts, parents and students (schoolchildren) about importance of the subject area «Technology» in a school, an interest to «Technology», important for life parts of «Technology», modern technologies for teaching in schools are described.


We construct a class of ℓ$\ell$ ‐adic local systems on A1$\mathbb {A}^1$ that generalizes the Airy sheaves defined by N. Katz to reductive groups. These sheaves are finite field analogues of generalizations of the classical Airy equation y′′(z)=zy(z)$y^{\prime \prime }(z)=zy(z)$ . We employ the geometric Langlands correspondence to construct the sought‐after local systems as eigenvalues of certain rigid Hecke eigensheaves, following the methods developed by Heinloth, Ngô, and Yun. The construction is motivated by a special case of Adler and Yu's construction of tame supercuspidal representations. The representations that we consider can be viewed as deeper analogues of simple supercuspidals. For GLn$\mathrm{GL}_n$ , we compute the Frobenius trace of the local systems in question and show that they agree with Katz's Airy sheaves. We make precise conjectures about the ramification behavior of the local systems at ∞$\infty$ . These conjectures, in particular, imply cohomological rigidity of Airy sheaves.


Starting from the higher-order nonlinear Schredinger equation(NLS) that describes the propagation of picosecond optical pulse in optical fibers,we investigate the transmission characteristics of Gaussian optical pulse in the dispersion-managed fiber by using FFT split operator method,which we think will be helpful to provide some theoretical suggestions for high-bit-rate optical fiber transmission system.


The demo presents an indoor surveillance system based on real-time locating system (RTLS) and ambient intelligence. Four modules using different machine learning methods are used together in order to detect unusual or suspicious human motion behavior in an indoor high-security environment.


Abstract In the present work, Cordyceps militaris fruiting body was used as protein and natural fibrous structure source to prepare animal free patty. The effects of beating process on the structural and textural properties of patty were also evaluated. The results found that C. militaris fruiting body based patty prepared with beating process, showed bright yellow in color, with a uniform and smooth surface, and without obvious crack, before and after cooking. The beating process disrupted the connective tissues in fruiting bodies, let more protein dissolve, and left the un-soluble fiber structure. This helped to form a fibrous structure and good gel matrix in patty, which mainly contributed to the high hardness, chewiness, adhesiveness, and sensory score. Such C. militaris fruiting body based patties also had a good nutritional quality with high protein and essential amino acid content, as well as a special nutrient of cordycepin.


Lecturer, Department of Islamic Studies, Bauchi State University, Gadau, Nigeria Abstract: Education should aim at the balanced growth of the total personality of man through the training of man spirit, intellect his rational self, feeling and bodily senses. Islamic education aims at establishing the fundamental purpose for human creation on this earth and the hereafter. This paper intends to present "Historical perception of education for the Muslims community before the colonial era in Nigeria" The paper employed analytical and historical research method. The paper is significance because it encompassed the vital areas for this research. It also highlights and discusses the Qur'anic school and the method of instruction in reading skills, learning environment, organizing resource and graduation ceremony. The research finding recommends the implementation of


A fault area based PMU configuration and fault location method is proposed.According to the system observability based requirement on PMU during the fault process,the fault configuration areas of the whole power grid under assumptive faults are partitioned,and the fault configuration area based integer linear programming of PUM is carried out.When fault occurs in power grid,according to responses of additional differential currents in all fault areas the real-time fault area can be determined,and the virtual current method is used in real-time fault areas to accurately locate the fault.Case analysis shows that the proposed method can realize the topological system observability of faulty network by the configuration with a few PMUs to provide the reference for the construction of reliable and economic monitoring system of a strong power grid;the fast response of fault areas makes it possible to rapid lock the faulty zone and to prevent the maloperation due to cascaded trip out.The proposed fault location technique is suitable to various types of faults and fault positions as well as to various structures of transmission lines.


Scientific writing is an essential tool that all researchers, teachers, etc., should be used to properly disclose their results. The aim of this study was to...


STATIC INITIAL TANGENT SHEAR MODULI OF CYLINDRICAL SPECIMENS OF DRY SAND MEASURED BY A SENSITIVE INSTRUMENT FOR AMPLITUDES OF DEFORMATION OF 10-3 RADIANS, PEAK TO PEAK AT THE ENDS OF SPECIMENS, CORRESPONDED TO PUBLISHED DYNAMIC MODULI. FROM THESE RESULTS, IT IS CONCLUDED THAT THE RATE OF LOADING HAS NO EFFECT ON INITIAL TANGENT SHEAR MODULUS. PREVIOUSLY REPORTED DIFFERENCES BETWEEN STATIC AND DYNAMIC VALUES OCCURRED BECAUSE THE APPARATUS USED FOR THE STATIC TESTS WAS NOT CAPABLE OF ACCURATE MEASUREMENT OF THE SMALL DEFORMATIONS USUAL IN DYNAMIC VIBRATION TESTS. /NAPA/


The general dispersion relation for electromagnetic surface waves on a plasma-vacuum interface, recently derived by Rowe (1991), is applied to the case of a cold magnetised plasma bounded by a vacuum. It is illustrated how the dispersion relation and the surface wave fields may be determined in practice, and some general results are given. It is remarked that a plasma of this type satisfies the consistency conditions which were derived for the general theory by Rowe. These general results are then used to reproduce the dispersion relation of Cramer and Donnelly (1983) for low frequency surface waves in an electron-ion plasma. This example illustrates the general principles of the theory. A major difference between the derivation in their paper and the calculation of this paper is that in the former the plasma was assumed to be infinitely conducting whereas here the plasma is strictly assumed to have finite conductivity.The transition to infinite conductivity, which involves a slight extension of the general theory to include surface currents, is thus also discussed.


The article gives a brief analysis of the main conceptual approaches to the content development of the course "Russian language and speech culture" and ways to implement them. It is argued that the process of learning requires the integration of professionally oriented and communicative approaches as an important condition for the effective formation of future specialists' professionally-communicative competence. It is proved that the communicative and pragmatic aspects are implemented in practice only occasionally, unsystematically, despite the insufficient level of communicative knowledge and skills of students. The author proposes an original methodology of professionally oriented training course "Russian language and speech culture", which is based on interdisciplinary integration as a holistic unity of content (knowledge and skills) and procedural (experience) component, collectively providing active learning. The article emphasizes that effective cooperation of course "Russian language and speech culture" with general professional and special disciplines is achieved by extracting the professionally-communicative educational main body, which includes integrative topics, integrative content and other interdisciplinary educational elements, converging course with the specifics of students' future profession. Also some of the ways, methods, principles are described, which allow to carry out interdisciplinary integration in the classroom effectually, provide an opportunity to fully realize the metadisciplinary function of the Russian language in higher education and to subdue the process of learning to the communicative needs of future professional activity. It is proved that the implementation of interdisciplinary integration in the University course "Russian language and speech culture" realizes speech training based on the trinity "language-profession-identity", provides synthesis of speech, professional, and intellectual development of students, as well as acquiring knowledge of the future profession values.


Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer and related cause of mortality among Hispanics, yet susceptibility has been understudied. BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA) mutations explain less than one‐half of hereditary BC, and the proportion associated with other BC susceptibility genes is unknown.


A voluminous literature exists concerning the biosynthetic pathway of amino acids containing sulfur in microorganisms. By the extensive studies on biochemical mutants, isotope competition method or the isolation of enzyme systems, the generally accepted pathway of cysteine synthesis in sulfate assimilating microorganisms is summarized in the following scheme 1-6) APT-sulfurylase APS-kinase SO4--->adenosine-5'-phosphosulfate(APS) * 3'-phospho-adenosine5'-phosphosulfate SO3--* s---cysteine N 7 5203 Concerning the formation of sulfide from sulfite, Wainwright7' has reported that the sulfite-reducing system of yeast contains six different proteins. Lezius8' obtained only one enzyme which reduces sulfite. Mager9' and Kemp et al.10' have demonstrated the existence of a NADPH-liked sulfite reductase from Escherichia coli. Yoshimoto11 obtained MVH-linked sulfite reductase from Aspergillus nidulans. On the other hand, there has been very little work on the biosynthetic pathway of cysteine in higher plants12~. In particular there is no report on the sulfite reducing system of higher plants. This paper describes the presence of a soluble sulfite reductase in leaf extracts of higher plants. Further experiments on the reaction mechanism and purification of the enzyme will be published elsewhere.


A general BCS Ansatz based on the Generator Coordinate Method is proposed to study pairing properties in superconducting grains. The formalism is applied to the pairing Hamiltonian where we reproduce the exact solution in the weak, crossover and strong pairing regimes.


Media research is a vexing enterprise. Trapped in the borderlands between social science and the humanities, the study of media and communication bears the liabilities of both. We have to contend with all the challenges that sociologists and literary scholars face: the subjective baggage of the analyst, her struggle to interpret unstable meanings, the strange fact that her descriptions double back on the reality she purports to merely describe. Those are our challenges too, but we face them with special ferocity. The stuff that we study—internet memes, for example, or self-learning algorithms—are characterized by ceaseless churn. Even the categories we use, like "audience" or "content" or "producer," get washed away by the pace of change. There is nothing fixed or frozen to linger on; everything we study is on the move, looping, dynamic, and messy. The word itself, "media," gets at this fundamental instability: a medium is something in between, the airy space in the interstices of solider things. So we can't pretend to be a "science," not in the confident sense at least. We are better off, as media scholars, submitting to our inadequacy. This means humility as a disposition of principle. Everything we say is tentative and revisable—good enough, at best, for the moment. But not for the next.


We present the quadratic and cubic normal forms of a nonlinear control system around an equilibrium point. These are the normal forms under change of state coordinates and invertible state feedback. The system need not be linearly controllable. A control bifurcation of a nonlinear system occurs when its linear approximation loses stabilizability. We study some important control bifurcations, the analogues of the classical fold, transcritical and Hopf bifurcations.


This paper reviews the nature, characteristics, trends, and problems associated with shipping line services as regards movement of cargos from one port of origin to other port of destination. Over the years, these critical services have never been encouraging due to some inherent problems associated with ship owners, shipping company, consignees, consignors and the freight forwarders as it relates to cost of freight, which is not in the interest of the importers. The paper also analyses the critical challenges and opportunities of the shipping lines in terms of freight costs and movement. There is need therefore for the study to look also on the problems/ challenges and opportunities of shipping line services in Nigeria which came as a result of the slow rate of growth of the Maritime industry in Nigeria and the need to critically analyse the situation. The maritime industry being one of the world's most international industries is the bedrock of development. Primary and secondary data were used in the work. Interviews were also conducted which where necessary and questionnaires were administered to the respondents. The questionnaires were distributed among the staffs of Maersk Nigeria limited and Ideke Shipping limited. 89 out of the 100 distributed were returned. In analysing the data, comparisons were made by the use of percentages and ratios. Chi-square test of independence was used to determine if there is any significant relationship between the activities of pirates and the profitability of shipping lines. It was then discovered that there is a significant relationship between government policies and shipping operations, between the activities of pirates and the profitability of shipping lines and that adequate cargo handling machines leads to faster turn-round time of vessels.


In this paper, the characteristics of three difierent types of high impedance surfaces (HIS) to be used as ground planes for low proflle wire antennas are investigated and compared: a mushroom-like surface, which is the classical example of HIS with connecting vias, and two surfaces with no vias, one of which is anisotropic. Both the simulation results and the measurements verify that the high impedance behaviour is successfully accomplished around the resonant frequency. In order to complete the study, return loss and radiation pattern of a horizontal dipole placed above the surfaces are analyzed.


In the developed countries it is talked about energy saving from the second half of the XX century, when the world community is faced with the phenomenon of the oil crisis. He was the main motivation for energy savings. But despite this, Russia is involved in this process have been recently. The situation in the energy component of our country becomes more and more tense every year. And, if not to change the population relation to energy saving as to an indispensable condition of available and comfortable accommodation, the serious energy crisis in the country will come already soon. Problems of limitation of non-renewable natural resources and deterioration of an ecological situation are discussed at the international and state level, and there is it in the conditions of an unstable economic situation that, in turn, conducts to increase in prices for energy resources, and, therefore, to increase of tariffs for rendering utilities. As for our country the most important is energy saving in life and in housing sector, all these factors force to look for new and to improve already existing ways of preservation of energy resources. These motives induced us to make the analysis of influence of thickness of a heater on economy of thermal energy.