Novel Coronavirus Disease of 2019 or COVID-19 has striked the world again with an even more intense second wave. The association of poor mental health found with COVID-19 has been advocated by various resources. But very few studies have been done on the actual infected population. This research was carried out in the Psychiatry Department,Civil Hospital Sector 6, Panchkula, Haryana to find the prevalence of depression and anxiety among the COVID-19 positive patients. COVID-19 positive patients (n=4120) were telephonically called for mental health screening to look for the manifestation of either depressive behavior or anxiety using PHQ-9 and GAD- 7 (respectively). The results showed the prevalence of anxiety (1.06%) among the infected population to be higher than current prevalence rate (0.57%) among the general Indian population for Generalized Anxiety Disorder but lower rate of depression (1.35%) as compared to the prevalence rate among the general population (2.7%). The study supports the direct impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of the infected patients.


Background: Although subepithelial connective tissue graft (CTG) has been reported to be a predictable procedure for root coverage, the impact of smoking on the long-term outcome of periodontal plastic surgery is unclear. Hence, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of smoking, on a long-term basis, on the stability of gingival tissue following CTG treatment of gingival recession.Methods: Twenty-two defects were treated by CTG in canine and premolar Miller Class I and II gingival recessions (11 smokers and 11 non-smokers). The following clinical measurements were obtained at baseline and at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after surgery: plaque and gingival indexes, extension of gingival recession (GR), probing depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL), and gingival thickness. Individuals smoking ≥20 cigarettes/day for ≥5 years were considered smokers.Results: Data analysis demonstrated that both groups presented similar plaque and gingival indexes (P >0.05), and an intragroup analysis sh...


This document proposes two new TLVs within the body of the OSPF Router
Information (RI) Opaque LSA, called Routable IPv4 Address TLV and
Routable IPv6 Address TLV. Here the OSPF means both OSPFv2 and OSPFv3.


Objective: To describe the working conditions and the health profile of Higher Education teachers working in the Serra Gaucha region, Materials and Methods: This is an analytical descriptive study of a quantitative nature involving 28 teachers who work in different institutions of higher education. The data collection took place through a self-administered instrument, made available virtually. later, the data were analyzed in a descriptive way. The study took place only after approval by the ethics committee of the Virvi Ramos Cultural and Scientific Association and respecting resolution 466 of 2012. Results: the research indicates predominance of the female gender, the level of education that stands out is the master's degree, the most frequent hiring regime is the hourly, a large part of the respondents perform other paid activity besides teaching, among health complaints, the nervousness, musculoskeletal pain and digestive problems are the most common among teachers. Final considerations: It is highly relevant to understand the difficulties faced by teachers in the performance of their work and the consequences attributed to the quality of teaching, which directly interfere in the development of society since it is through a quality education that establishes the progress of the country.
Keywords: Teachers. Working conditions. Health profile.


on content. Critics of Corregidora as well as of Jones's other work have reacted to what they perceive as the "negative" images she presents of black men and women, and of black life in general. In The New Republic, Darryl Pinckney calls Jones's novels "indictments against black men" (27) and in a review of Eva's Man for The New York Times Book Review June Jordan accuses Jones of presenting negative images of women, particularly black women:


The risk-elimination construction of Tangjiashang Landslide Dam created during Wenchuan Earthquake in Sichuan Province was carried out in accordance with a scheme of discharging the dammed water in the landslide dam-lake through a diversion trench,for which a detailed construction plan was studied and made on the aspects such as maintenance and commissioning,marshalling and construction composition,transportation etc.of all the equipments concerned,and then the excavation of the diversion trench was ensured for the successful risk-elimination of the dam.


To assess gaps in the representation of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity among coastal fishes in Mediterranean marine‐protected areas (MPAs).


This paper presents the results of harmonic analysis and harmonic filter design for a grid-connected aluminum smelting plant. Harmonic-penetration-analysis studies are carried out to determine the system resonance frequencies and the individual and total harmonic voltage distortions for a wide range of possible system operating conditions including scenarios with N-1 and N-2 generation, an outage of a harmonic filter, and an outage of a rectifier transformer. A conceptual harmonic-filter-design procedure for the filters required for the smelting plant is presented. The suitability and robustness of the proposed harmonic filter configuration in terms of the filter's component current and voltage ratings and corresponding rms values are investigated.


Within the context of high childhood obesity prevalence, there is a concern that community efforts intended to reduce childhood obesity may lead to unintended adverse outcomes.


Objective To examine the association between tea drinking and susceptibility to breast cancer. Methods A hospital-based case-control study was conducted. Breast cancer cases( n = 464) and nontumorous patients( n = 464) were recruited from two affiliated hospitals of Sun Yat-sen University between April 2012 and September 2013. Each individual was interviewed with a questionnaire including socio-demographic factors,dietary habits,menstrual and reproductive histories,disease and family histories,living habits and physical activity. A multivariate unconditional logistic regression model was used to estimate the association between tea drinking and breast cancer risk. Results The average age for cases was( 46.78 ±10.36) years( mean ±SD) and for controls( 46.58 ±10.84) years. Two hundred and nineteen cases( 47. 2%) and 263 controls( 56. 7%) had the habit of often drinking tea. The logistic regression analyses were adjusted for age,family income,physical activity,passive smoking,coffee drinking,family history of breast cancer in a first-degree relatives,and history of benign breast disease. A significant negative association was found between tea drinking and breast cancer risk( OR = 0. 74; 95% CI,0. 56-0. 97). The frequency and amount of tea drinking had dose-response relationships with breast cancer risk( all Ptrend 0. 01). Further analyses revealed that only oolong tea drinking had a negative association with breast cancer risk( OR = 0. 62; 95% CI,0. 42- 0. 93),and the risk decreased with the increased amount of oolong drinking( Ptrend 0. 05). Stratified analysis by menopausal status showed that the significant negative association between tea drinking and breast cancer risk were found in postmenopausal women( OR =0. 58; 95% CI,0. 36- 0. 94). Conclusion Tea drinking was negatively associated with breast cancer risk. This potential protective effect may be restricted to oolong tea drinking women and postmenopausal women.


The process of creating and fostering an institutional environment where everyone feels valued, welcomed and respected requires a change effort that must be comprehensive, systematic and continuous. This article will discuss the major management issues related to building and sustaining a diverse workforce in academic livraries. The management landscape surrounding diversity is dotted with political consent that is often at odds with judicial approval, but effective management of diversity in the academy requires close correlation between the two. And, this is not the case at present. This article will frame the issue in both social and legal terms, discuss the higher education context of the management issue, discuss diversity management in the academic library within the context of higher education, examine the lexicon of the issue, outline management strategies related to the issue, and draw a series of conclusions related to the management of diversity


In this article we analyse the signs of variation and change of the nominal classification system in Bribri. In this language, nouns are assigned to nominal classes related to parameters such as the shape of the referent (flat, round, long) or its human character, among others. The class is realized by means of suffixes attached to the numeral roots, therefore it has been conceived as a system of numeral classifiers. However, the paradigms show formal differences up to certain numbers. For this reason, it has been suspected that, due to the shift process of the language, some classes have lost their own marking in some cases. In order to evaluate this hypothesis, we turned to the oldest descriptions and discursive corpus. In addition, we collected current date on the linguistic competence of several speakers. The examination of the historical documentation shows that the paradigms have not lost their marking since the end of the 19th century. On the other hand, the current data show that the tendency of change linked to the shift process consists of extending the marking of the flat class to others.


There're some important issues on medical coverage for immigrant workers,a kind of special social groups under such background that China is building a socialist harmonious society and improving the social security.This paper points out some problems on medical insurance institutions of immigrant workers from the viewpoint of compatibility between mobility and their employment characteristics of immigrant workers and social medical insurance institutions based on the facts of cur-rent medical insurance.And it suggests the path to improve the medical insurance institutions of immigrant workers.


In this paper, we propose shading functions to the appropriate focused beamforming for near-field target estimation. This near field shading functions are based on Chebychev and Manning windows. In order to obtain the optimum sensor weighting values with the help of the proposed shading technique, we assume that the sensor positions associated to the non-uniformly distributed array are precisely known. We calculate a series of sensor weighting values from the FFT operation of given shading functions in time domain. By applying the shading weights on the sensor array, we can see that the level of sidelobe becomes diminished and the performance of estimating range and azimuth gets improved. In addition, we propose a non-uniform structure in terms of frequency bands, which may minimize the attenuation of incoming signals.


High oleic soybean oil (HOSBO) is a shelf‐stable oil that provides broad versatility for both solid fat and liquid oil applications for food preparation. The impact of replacement of HOSBO for alternative solid fat and liquid oils on cardiometabolic risk factors is largely unknown. This randomized, diet‐controlled, crossover trial was conducted with four treatments: 1) HOSBO, 2) soybean oil (SBO), 3) 80:20 blend of HOSBO and fully hydrogenated SBO (FHSBO), and 4) 50:50 blend of palm oil and palm olein ("palm blend") to measure the lipid, lipoprotein, and other cardiometabolic factor responses to use of these oils under typical food preparation methods. Subjects (n=60) were randomized to a sequence of the 4 treatments and fed a controlled diet containing 50% of their total fat from the treatment (total dietary fat = 35% of energy). At the end of each 29‐day treatment period, blood samples were collected on 2 days and a 24 hr urine sample was collected. Concentrations of atherogenic markers [LDL cholesterol (LDLc), ApoB, Non HDL cholesterol, LDL particles] were higher after consumption of the palm blend compared to HOSBO and the other treatments (overall treatment P <0.0001). LDLc and ApoB were higher after consumption of the HOSBO compared to SBO (P=0.01, P=0.02, respectively). There was no significant difference in these atherogenic markers between the HOSBO+FHSBO blend and the HOSBO. Thus, replacement of up to 20% of HOSBO with FHSBO provides solid fat functionality with no change in atherogenic markers. Consumption of the palm blend increased HDL cholesterol (HDLc) and ApoAI compared to all other treatments, with no differences among the other treatments for HDLc and ApoAI. Ratios of total cholesterol‐to‐LDLc and LDLc‐to‐HDLc were highest after consumption of the palm blend compared to the other treatments (P <0.0001). Triglycerides, fasting glucose, and blood pressure were similar across all 4 treatments. HOSBO, an important option for replacement of solid fat and liquid oils in multiple food applications, maintains or improves lipid and lipoprotein profiles in humans compared to alternative functional fats.


This paper presents a method using genetic algorithm to tuning the PID control system parameters.Frequency domain is used as the objective function,making the method more practical.According to this idea,C language is used to design the various parts of the genetic algorithm,such as encoding,fitness function and genetic operators and so on.Finally,the actual example is calculated and the results are simulated in the Matlab.The simulation result shows that: the method is rapid and effective.


An algorithm is proposed for research into the symmetrical properties of theoretical and mathematical physics equations. The application of this algorithm to the free Schrödinger equation permited us to establish that in addition to the known Galilei symmetry the free Schrödinger equation possesses also the relativistic symmetry in some generalized sense. This property of the free Schrödinger equation permits the equation to be extended into the relativistic area of movements of a particle being studied.


Abstract. Small object detection is always a hot research direction in the field of computer vision, and widely used in traffic, production, industry, and other fields. A neural network for detecting small objects based on original Cascade RCNN is proposed. First, we modify the traditional feature pyramid network and introduce multi-branch dilated convolutions to enhance the feature information of the small target. Second, the feature extraction networks in original Cascade RCNN are replaced with multi-layer deformable convolution networks, which can better adapt to the geometric variations of detection target and huge size span of the objects in the same scene. Finally, Soft non-maximum suppression is also integrated into the network to avoid problems in dense object detection. To verify the practicability of our proposed network, we apply it to the garbage detection system. The experimental results show that compared with original Cascade RCNN and other commonly used target detection networks, our proposed method, with a recall rate >0.98 as well as mean average precision up to 0.964, performs better not only in small object detection but also in industrial applications.


A novel MRI method, DIFRAD‐FSE (diffusion‐weighted radial acquisition of data with fast spin‐echo), is demonstrated that enables rapid, high‐resolution multi‐shot diffusion‐weighted MRI without significant artifacts due to motion. Following a diffusion‐weighting spin‐echo preparation period, multiple radial lines of Fourier data are acquired using spin‐echo refocusing. Images can be reconstructed from the radial data set using a magnitude‐only filtered back‐projection reconstruction algorithm that removes phase errors due to motion. Results from human brain imaging demonstrate the ability of DIFRAD‐FSE to acquire multiple radial lines of Fourier data each TR period without significant artifacts due to relaxation and to produce high‐resolution diffusion‐weighted MR images without significant artifacts from motion. Magn Reson Med 42:11–18, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Design, fabrication, and performance of a micromachined millimeter wave Rotman lens are presented. To achieve wide instantaneous bandwidth with ±30° scan range, five different transmission lines with carefully designed transitions are monolithically integrated within the same process. Theoretical bandwidth of over 70 GHz is verified with a narrower bandwidth W-band measurements of VSWR (<;2.75:1), and 65-115 GHz measurements of realized gain (5-11 dBi), 3 dB beamwidth (20°-40°), and beam-peak locations in E-plane. Demonstrated results indicate that wideband Rotman lenses can now be engineered for emerging millimeter and submillimeter wave applications.


Knowledge transfer is a critical activity in every organization and an essential component of knowledge management. Previous research has identified that of the four key knowledge management processes (i.e. creation, storage/retrieval, transfer, and application) transfer is discussed most often in the literature. What remains unclear is the nature and structure of knowledge transfer. Research in knowledge transfer has foundations in a variety of reference disciplines. This paper outlines research-in-progress in developing a model to improve our understanding of knowledge transfer. A proposed three-dimensional model with axes of channel richness, organization level, and context is discussed and illustrative examples of recent research are provided.


Retinoic acid syndrome (RAS) can be a life-threatening complication in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) undergoing induction therapy with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA). Incidence of RAS has been reported ranging from 2% to 30%. It has been suggested that patients with leukocytes >5 x10 9 /L at presentation are at high risk for the development of RAS. The impact of RAS on long term outcome is still a matter of controversy. We analyze the incidence, prognostic factors and outcome of RAS in 733 patients with newly diagnosed APL enrolled in the PETHEMA LPA96 and LPA99 trials (175 and 558 patients, respectively). Induction therapy consisted of ATRA and idarubicin, followed by three consolidation courses of anthracycline monochemotherapy. In the LPA99 trial, ATRA was added in each cycle of consolidation, except for low-risk patients. In the LPA99 trial, all patients received RAS prophylaxis with oral prednisone (0.5 mg/kg). Temporary discontinuation of ATRA and treatment with intravenous dexamethasone were recommended at the first signs of suspected RAS, in both trials. Definite RAS was defined as the presence of at least four of the following criteria: unexplained fever, respiratory distress, radiological pulmonary infiltrates, pericardial/pleural effusion, hypotension, renal failure, and weight gain over 5 kg. Overall, 87 patients (12%) experienced RAS, after a median of 6 days of ATRA (range, 0 to 46). Forty-seven cases (54%) occurred from days 0 to 7, 4 (5%) from days 8 to 14, 32 (36%) from days 15 to 30, and 4 (5%) from days 31 to 46. The main clinical signs were pulmonary infiltrates (83%), fever (80%), weight gain (74%), pleural effusion (63%) and renal failure (49%). ATRA was discontinued in 63% of patients. RAS was associated with age >50 years (41% vs 29%, p=0.02), serum level of creatinine >1.4 mg/dl (9% vs 3%, p 5x10 9 /L (46% vs 32%, p=0.01). Leukocytes >5x10 9 /L and creatinine >1.4 mg/dl remained as independent prognostic factors in multivariate analysis. The incidence of RAS was not statistically different between the LPA96 (without prednisone prophylaxis) and LPA99 trials (15% vs 11%, p=0.16). RAS was associated with induction death (26% vs 7%, p 60 years, leukocytes >10x10 9 /L, RAS, male gender and serum creatinine level >1.4 mg/dl at presentation were independent prognostic factors for induction death. Patients developing RAS had a higher cumulative incidence of relapse (CIR) in the LPA96 trial (40% vs 15%, p 5x10 9 /L and serum creatinine level >1.4 mg/dl are at high risk for development of RAS, which is an adverse prognostic factor for induction death. The negative impact of RAS on CIR among patients treated with the LPA96 trial was not observed in the LPA99, in which patients received additional doses of ATRA for consolidation therapy.


In the general practice course at Copenhagen University, students record videos of their consultations in general practice. At university, the videos are discussed with a teacher and peers. Simulated video consultations were produced to support learning. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of adding simulated consultation videos to standard teaching.
Final semester students (N=587) were assigned by the university to six groups and received more online teaching material one step at a time. A questionnaire and a test video consultation measured the change in students' ability to identify patient-centered elements in a consultation pre-and post-course. Effect sizes were calculated as the difference between the pre-and post-course measures divided by the mean-variance before the course.
The overall teaching effect size (ES) was positive (0,67). A high average ES of 0.94 was found for the communication questions, which included most of the patient-centered elements. Introducing simulated video consultations did not increase awareness of patient-centered elements. However, an increase in clinical skills was demonstrated.
Showing simulated video consultations from general practice increase the students awareness of clinical cases in general practice and can be supplement to the clinical teaching.


With the gradual improvement of artificial intelligence technology, image processing has become a common technology and is widely used in various fields to provide people with high-quality services. Starting from computer vision algorithms and image processing technologies, the computer vision display system is designed, and image distortion correction algorithms are explored for reference.


Content-Based Video Copy Detection consists in retrieving all the modified versions of an original document in a video collection. It relies on two tasks: content description, for extracting one or many fingerprints from a video document, and similarity search, for determining the set of extracted fingerprints that make a close match. For the similarity search task, a copy detection system usually relies on a metric distance for measuring the degree of similarity between fingerprints. The metric properties represent a tradeoff between efficiency and effectiveness for a similarity search. A metric distance allows the use of well studied indexing structures. However, the metric properties restrict the similarity model that can be used for comparing two objects. For the present thesis, the main focus will be on researching similarity models for video sequences that do not necessarily comply the metric properties. In particular, we plan to research multi-metric and non-metric similarity measures for fulfilling effective and efficient detection. The issues involved in video copy detection (visual transformations, local and global fingerprints, temporal dimension, and approximated searches) make this problem a relevant topic for researching new similarity models.


The development of millimeter wave TWTs at the 20 to 150 watt level in the frequency range from 24 to 45 GHz has proceeded using low perveance, high beam voltage designs to minimize magnetic field requirements and to maximize the size of the small millimeter wave helix. Representative of these millimeter wave TWTs is the CPI 6193A6 which provides 50 watts of saturation power over the 26 to 40 GHz range with 30 dB gain. The TWT operates at 12 kV and is 12" long. For many applications, the ideal millimeter wave amplifier would be a combination of technologies-a millimeter wave power module-offering small size and weight, high efficiency, high gain, low noise figure and low voltage operation and the integrated packaging of the microwave power module (MPM), with millimeter wave frequency performance. This paper will describe CPI's current work on millimeter wave power modules.


A series of stable structures of the protonated ammonia clusters(NH3)nH+(n=1~8) and their total energies are obtained,after possible geometries have been optimized with the Gaussian 03W suite of programs using density functional theory with the B3LYP functional and the 6-31+G(d) basis set.The result shows that a proton and an ammonia molecule form an NH4+ core ion,and the other ammonia molecules are bound to four H of this core ion by hydrogen bonds in the form of ammonia chains.All the hydrogen bonds are mezzo forte ones.Besides,the stability of the clusters is studied with the second difference of the energies.Finally,the average binding energies were caculated,and the result shows that the average binding energies decrease with the increasing of clusters size.


S.O.D., who have announced their reunion earlier this year, and Megaforce Records have announced a new re-issue of the bands classic album Speak ...


In this paper we present a decentralized control law for a mobile sensor network with different sensing radii to form a barrier that spans over a corridor with optimal coverage. Instead of using a gradient-descent approach which may only settle to a local minimum, we show that there exists a cost function whose global minimum is achieved when the sensor network reaches the optimal barrier configuration via consensus. Taking into account the heterogeneous sensing capability and input saturation, the proposed control law not only can drive the agents to the desired optimal configuration but also avoid collision and preserve the order of the sensor placement. Analysis and simulation are carried out to verify the result of the algorithm.


Diabetes is a fast growing non infectious disease affecting people of both developed and developing countries across the globe. Treatment of diabetes mellitus requires multisystemic approach to control the disease and prevent complications. Existing oral antidiabetics though potent, exhibit multiple adverse drug reactions and side effects. Berberine would prove to be an effective alternative to these drugs as it offers protection from systemic complications and has minor side effects. This review attempts to compare the efficacy of berberine and metformin as antidiabetic and their role in deterrence of diabetic complications. Berberine scores over metformin as a antidiabetic by certain pharmacological mechanism like alpha glucosidase reductase inhibition, release of GLP 1, modification of gut microbiota, inhibition of enzyme dipeptidyl pepetidase 4 and as a insulin mimetic. Lipid lowering action and effect on polycystic ovarian disease is more superior with berberine than metformin. Thus it can be concluded that berberine can be superior to metformin in management of diabetes and in prevention of its complications.


The digitalization of our society is moving quickly, and we all want to keep up with it. This puts a lot of pressure on schools to teach programming and computational thinking in the education. For ...


In the current social and labor framework, due to the situation of economic crisis that affects all the current structures of society, one aspect that is considered of great importance and relevance in the demand of job profiles, is creativity basis as a factor to achieve a different and added value for growth and the resolution of different types of challenges. Creativity creative provides the person with problem-solving ability, skills to maximize synergies and group performance as subject point of growth and, finally, the contribution of added value through the situational reframing of different scenarios and ideas. In this key, this master's project aims to make a firm proposal and design activities which allow the creative improvement in the subject Iniciacion a la actividad empresarial y emprendedora.
The research is based on a literature review, in order to contrast what has been already studied by other authors around the creativity, the current situation of the subject its problems and its prospective future. As a nuance, affirmed that the theoretical framework will develop a deductive study of the context of the creative process, through to creative teaching and, later, these three keys are linked with entrepreneurial and intraemprendedora competition. Within the latter, three capabilities referred to in the second paragraph will be developed.
On the other hand, at the operational level, we will perform an initial quiz on a non-representative sample of 20 students of Iniciacion a la actividad empresarial y emprendedora, in order to know the weaknesses of the model of teaching and how they conceive it. The same thing will be done, but in interview format with the professor of the subject and two more of the Economics Department to know the position and the conception of the subject by the faculty who related to the subject under study. With the results obtained, we will proceed to the implementation of four activities for creative development (SCAMPER, Edutainment, Analogies and WebQuest) for a fortnight. Finally, as a way of assessment, we will collect the valuation of each of the activities by the students, regarding the awareness of skills object of the project, and finally the appreciation of the optimal educational experience which is rooted in the learners in this format of activities for the development of the didactic units of the subject.


Objective: To review the application of free flap in the reconstruction of oral and maxillofacial defects in 106 cases.Methods: 106 cases recieved free flaps from June 2007 to June 2010 were reviewed.There were 67 males and 39 females at the age of 24~77 years old.Immediate transplantation of free flap was performed in the 106 cases for the reconstruction of oral and maxillofacial defects following tumor removal(in 103 cases) or trauma debridement(in 3 case).Results: Flaps survival was observed 103 cases(97.1%).Vessel thrombosis occurred in 4 cases,successful emergency treatment was achieve in 2 cases and failure in other 2.Flap failure in 1 case was caused by the use of too small flap.Conclusion: The free flaps is a preferable choice for the reconstruction of oral and maxillofacial defects,especially for the defects after the excision of the tumors.


Peptide drug delivery has been of considerable interest for the past 10 to 15 years, due in part to the availability of therapeutic proteins on a commercial scale. The advent of biotechnology and advances in peptide synthesis have made the synthesis of small peptides almost routine. These two factors augmented by the development of receptor-based screening procedures have led to a large number of drug discovery programs focused on peptide-type drugs. For the purposes of this review, we define a peptide-type drug as a drug composed of amino acids or amino acid analogs whose synthesis is based on some analogy with natural peptides or proteins. The focus of this report is principally oral delivery because this is the preferred route of drug administration, though comparative results for other routes are presented. Oral drug absorption is usually considered to be drug absorbed into the systemic circulation. This is the most relevant definition for the majority of drugs that are active by parenteral administration. However, the most basic definition of drug absorption would be drug absorbed into the gastrointestinal tissue, because once past the intestinal mucosal cell brush border, the drug may be considered to be in the body. This view emphasizes that the processes limiting systemic availability must also


s:The content of Pb in hair from 531 normal children of 1~8 years old, in serum from 290 normal children, in hair and serum of 287 children with mininal brain dysfunction and 251 children with pica was determined and compared. The results are(1)the levels of Pb of children who suffered from pica and minimal brain dysfunction are higher than that of normal children.(2)the level of Pb in hair is high while the level of Pb in serum is high too.(3)the content of Pb between hair and serum of children with pica is notable positive relation.


The invention provides a power supply structure for improving universality and reliability and applicable to an SOC verification platform, and is used in the field of integrated circuit verification test platform development. The power supply structure powered by a unified 6V DC power source comprises a tunable multi-voltage output module, a tunable negative voltage module and a power-up sequence control module and can supply power for circuit modules of DSP/MCU, FPGA, LCD and touch screen, digital-to-analog conversion, operation amplification, radio frequency and the like. The power supply structure has very high universality and reliability, is capable of improving the adaptation range of the whole SOC verification platform and can be rapidly adaptive to the changes needed in verification; and meanwhile, through the arrangement of the tunable multi-voltage output module and the power-up sequence control module, possible damage, due to power-up surge, on chip IO or devices as well as the failure of a power-up reset signal are prevented, thereby improving the reliability of the whole verification platform.


Smart technology has applied in various fields, one of them is called smart home, the smart home concept itself is a dwelling equipped with network communication system that connects to different services and an electronic device that allows to monitored and accessed from another place. Smarthome system for home security developed for this research consist of two different module. The first module called detection module and second is called notification module, the detection module consists of camera sensor raspberry pi3 V2 and web server to stored an image. and the notification module consist of raspberry pi3 mini computer and module SMS sim800sl that can send a notification in case of an emergency at home to your android smartphone.


─Groundwater is a vital source of water for the needs of human, animals, and plants, not least in Bogowonto Downstream Watershed, Purworejo Regency. Bogowonto Downstream Watershed is a region which near with international airport development planning in Temon District, Kulonprogo Regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta. Along with this international airport development planning is absolutely necessary studies about the use of groundwater allocations in support of the region development. This research uses Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies to make groundwater potential mapping. The imagery which used in this research is Landsat 8 imagery to interpret land parameters, such as rock type, landform, lineament, soil texture, and landcover. The other datas which used in this research is Geology Map, Rupabumi Indonesia Map (Topographic Map), and Soil Map as references of identification. The method used in this research was scoring method in which each parameters rated in accordance with the effect of the groundwater potential resulting land unit for analysis of groundwater potential. The result from this research are groundwater potential map distribution in Bogowonto Downstream Watershed, precisely in Bagelen, Purwodadi, and Ngombol Districts. The higher potential of groundwater located in flat area, which is in Districts of Purwodadi, Bagelen, and Ngombol. The medium potential of groundwater located in coastal area, which is in Districts of Puwodadi and Ngombol. The lower potential of groundwater located in hilly area, District Bagelen. Keywords—Potential of groundwater, Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System.


Echo cancellation as an effective technique for echo control on telephone circuits is burdened by the appearance of carrier frequency offsets and phase jitter in some echo paths. In this paper we present a digital phase-adaptive structure for cancellation which will automatically compensate for echo path frequency offsets as large as 0.001 of the sampling rate without any reduction in return/loss enhancement.


The entorhinal cortex is an important region for a transformation of the egocentric scene into
 the allocentric scene, despite the lack of discussion of its neural mechanism in the literature. In this study,
 object arrangement from a novel viewpoint is estimated from a computational model based on a recent
 finding of entorhinal "grid cells" that represent a metric space of the environment in multiple scales. In
 the model, the grid cells are hypothesized to integrate imagery motion signals and visual scenes where
 the retinal image is mapped to a top view scene. Results of computer experiments demonstrated that the
 representation of grid cells allows an estimation of object arrangement from a novel viewpoint by using
 imagery motion signals. It suggests that grid cells produce the integrated metric space of visual scenes and
 motion signals during the spatial imagery.


With the increasing interest in prophylactic typhoid vaccine inoculations, the question frequently arises as to what is the best method of judging the protective power created in the serum of the vaccinated individual. It has been claimed by Leishman1that there is a certain relation between the appearance of the agglutinating and the bactericidal power in the serum of vaccinated individuals. Therefore, the agglutinating power of a serum is probably some indication of its protective power. The work on which this paper is based has consisted of the study of the agglutinating power in the serum of typhoid fever patients, the development of typhoid agglutinins in rabbits' serums, and the effect of their serums on that of other rabbits. In Osler's "Modern Medicine," it is stated that almost all cases of typhoid fever sooner or later develop in their serum the power to agglutinate theBacillus


With the advent of industrial and service industries in the past centuries, the agricultural sector has been pushed into the background. Developed countries have quickly realized the importance of the agricultural sector and have returned to providing the necessary support to the agricultural sector. However, because of a preference in the industrial sector over the agriculture sector developing and underdeveloped countries have not been successful in either industry. This is because agricultural products, whether direct or indirect, are the sources that most of the industrial sector uses as raw material for producing finished goods. Pressured by developed countries and international institutions on these developing and underdeveloped countries has influenced policies of less support for agriculture, which resulted in more imports creating a dependency on foreign countries. For many years Turkey's governments have worked to shrink the agriculture sector while expanding the industrial and service sectors. When we add to the mix irresponsible outsourcing policies and the need to be part of a global market, much of the service sector are now owned by foreign companies and the foreign trade deficits have reached critical proportions. Bad policies has lead Turkey to be dependent on imports in the agricultural and livestock sector. Reducing support for agriculture, reduced farming, agricultural employment decreased and increased migration from rural to urban areas rapidly. In the study, the relationship between agricultural support policies and migration from rural to urban is analyzed. According to this, there is a positive relationship between agricultural support policies and migration from rural to urban areas. Increasing agricultural subsidies to stopping or reversing migration from rural to urban should be restructured depending on national interests, employment growth and the productivity of rural areas, not based on agricultural land or relative to the amount of production.


The international development direction of technique and equipment of stainless steel sheet and strip areanalyzed. Among them, the newest developing situation of mill are especially introduced. The general and constructionsituation abode it in our country are introduced too. Mean while. the paper point out our stainless steel industry canbe quickly developed under the current market situation.


Several authors have carried out physico-chemical analyses of the raw water of Beni Haroun dam, since its exploitation, and others continue to do so. In this work, we have presented a synthesis of 16 years (2003-2018). The temporal variation of their quality depends on several parameters, such as climate, socio-economic development and population growth around its tributaries. The elements studied are: pH, EC, TDS, and in (mg/l) Ca++ , Mg++ ,Na+ , K+ , Cl- , SO42- , HCO3- , NO3- , NO2- ,NH4+ and PO43- , as well as organic parameters such as: COD, BOD5 , dissolved O2 and some heavy metals (μg/l) : Pb, Cd, Zn, Fe, Cr, Cu and Mn.
The results of this publications collection allows us to note that the Beni Haroun dam raw water presents a variable quality in time, according to the seasons, and mainly the hydric contribution resulting from the precipitation, which induces a dilution of the various chemical elements. The air temperature modifies that of water, which affects the modification of the biological parameters. The conclusion common to all authors is the obligation to undergo a preliminary treatment, to this raw water, before its use for consumption and irrigation.


This paper presents the mechanical design and testing of a 2-DOF flexure-based compliant stage. The prismatic joints are first discussed. To obtain high resonance frequency and decoupled property, the stage composed of four parallel chains with symmetrical configuration should be employed. Finally, an experimental platform is set up to test the cooperative tracking performance. The experimental trajectory is in good agreement with the desired trajectory under various input frequencies. It shows that the maximum tracking error exhibits an increase from 0.8% to 2.7%. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed compliant stage possess good tracking performance under 100 Hz, which also validates the reasonability of the stage.


ObjectiveTo study the effect of Cad-Ⅱ gene(OB-Cadherin) transfection on the adhesion and proliferation of human marrow mesenchymal stem cells(hMSCs) cultured on xenogeneic demineralized bone matrix.MethodsThe Cad-Ⅱ gene was transfected into hMSCs,and those without transfection served as control group.Then they were seeded onto the xenogeneic demineralized bone matrix respectively and cocultured in vitro.The densities of seeded cells and adhesion rate was measured,the adhesion with bone matrix complex was also observed by contrast microscopy and electron scanning microscopy.And the cell proliferation was measured with MTT method.ResultsThe 2 groups of hMSCs adhered to the surface and inner walls of bone matrix,and spread extensively,with no significant difference in cell proliferation between them.But in the transfection group there were more adhesion cells on the scaffolds,and the adhesion rate(84.5%) was significantly higher than that in control group(71.7%,P0.05).ConclusionThe Cad-Ⅱgene transfection may enhance the seeded cells adhesion to scaffolds,but has no obvious effect on cell proliferation.


The polarization properties of macroscopic Bell states are characterized using three-dimensional quantum polarization tomography. This method utilizes three-dimensional (3D) inverse Radon transform to reconstruct the polarization quasiprobability distribution function of a state from the probability distributions measured for various Stokes observables. The reconstructed 3D distributions obtained for the macroscopic Bell states are compared with those obtained for a coherent state with the same mean photon number. The results demonstrate squeezing in one or more Stokes observables.


Longan fruit are susceptible to chilling injury, where the injured peel exhibits discoloration due to water-soaking and enzymatic browning. This peel discoloration is dependent to a large degree on the composition of the phenolic compounds. Yet, the main classes of phenols in longan peel remain largely uncharacterized. In order to further characterize these classes of compounds, and to begin investigating the differences in these compounds resulting from chilling injury, two varieties ('Daw' and 'Biew Kiew') were subjected to cold storage. Peels of the stored fruit were freeze-dried and extracted with 80% aqueous methanol. HPLC, coupled with photodiode array (PDA) and mass spectral (MS) analysis, provided evidence of a large number of UV-absorbing compounds in longan peel, the majority of which are phenolic compounds. Subsequent fractionation of these compounds by size-exclusion chromatography effectively separated several main classes of phenolic compounds, including ellagic acid conjugates, flavone glycosides, and a set of other phenols with unknown structures, but which were grouped together because of their similar MS, UV and IR spectra. HPLC analysis of acid hydrolyzed extracts of longan peel showed that the majority of the flavones were glycosides of quercetin and kaempferol. Similar analyses also showed evidence of ellagic acid glycosides. The spectral properties of these compounds are reported, and several of the main classes of phenols in longan peel are described. Longan ( Dimocarpus longan Lour.) is a tropical, non-climacteric fruit that has a short shelf-life, and must be harvested when their skins become yellow-brown and their flesh reaches optimal eating quality (Pan and Zhang, 1999; WaraAswapati et al., 1994). Furthermore, longan fruit are susceptible to chilling injury, where the peel exhibits discoloration due to water-soaking and browning (Wang, 1990). Rates of peel browning have been shown to be dependent upon the concentrations of the phenolic compounds, the enzymatic activity of polyphenol oxidase, and oxygen levels (Kader, 2002; Lin et al., 2005; Nicolas et al., 1994; Su et al., 2005). The phenols in longan peel have been previously reported to include gallic acid, ellagic acid, acetonylgeraniin A and B, and corillagin (an ellagitannin) (Hsu and Chyn, 1991; Rangkadilok et al., 2005). Yet in this current study, HPLC-PDA-MS analyses of longan peel extracts show far greater numbers of compounds than those previously described. The objective of this study was to provide an initial characterization of the main classes of phenols in the peel of chilling-injured Daw and Biew Kiew longan fruit. This characterization will contribute to the understanding of the biochemical transformations in the peel resulting from chilling injury during postharvest storage. Materials and Methods Fruit source. Longan fruits cv. 'Daw' and 'Biew Kiew' were harvested from a commercial orchard in northern Thailand. The maturity index of fruit was 18-19% total soluble solids. Uniform fruit were selected and the pedicles were cut into 0.5 cm in length. Two kilograms of fruit were packed in cardboard boxes and stored at 5°C or 10°C in an incubator (Low temperature incubator, MIR-553, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd., Japan), with 90-95% relative humidity (RH) using a data logger (Temperature and Humidity Recorder, HiTemp 102 RH, Barnstead/ERTCO Thermometers Co., Inc., USA) for recording temperature and RH. Three replicates of 20 fruits were used for each control and chilling-injury treatment. The longan fruit pericarps were submerged in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80°C (Deep Freezer -86°C, MDF-U71V, SANYO, Japan) until extraction for chemical analysis. Sample extraction. Peel (10 g) of chilling-injured and of non-chilling injured longan fruits (cv. 'Daw' and 'Biew Kiew') were freeze-dried and refluxed in 200 mL 80% aqueous methanol for 24 h. The extracts were concentrated to 15 mL with a rotary evaporator at 40°C under reduced pressure. Size-exclusion P2 chromatography . Peel extracts from 15 fruit were combined and dried by SpeedVac concentration (Savant, Farmingdale, N.Y.). The dried, combined extract was dissolved in 20% aqueous ethanol, filtered through a 0.45 μm syringe filter, and applied to a Biogel P2 (BioRad, Hercules, Calif.) size-exclusion column (30 × 2.5 cm i.d.). The phenolic compounds were eluted with 20% aqueous ethanol at 0.5 mL·min -1 . Elution of the phenols was monitored at 280 nm, and phenolic content was monitored by HPLC-PDA-MS in every 3 rd tube. Acid hydrolysis . Acid hydrolysis was performed according to Mabry et al. (1970) with slight modifications. P2 column fractions (5 mL) were added to 5 mL of 2N HCl, heated at 100°C for 1 h, cooled, and neutralized with 2.5 N KOH. The hydrolyzed samples were concentrated by a SpeedVac concentrator for 1 h, and passed through a C18 Sep-Pak (Waters Corp., Milford, Mass.) cartridge pre-washed with methanol and deionized water. Phenolic compounds bound to the C18 Sep-Pak were eluted with methanol and analyzed by HPLC-PDA-MS. High pressure liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLCMS) . An Alliance 2695 (Waters, Milford, Mass.) liquid chromatography system was used with a Waters 996 PDA detector. *Corresponding author; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Ti-Mo-Si alloys have gained the attention of biomedical industry due to specific strength and corrosion resistance and the best biocompatibility among metallic materials used in medical prostheses. In order to characterize the material, the experimental determination of elastic matrix, mechanical wear and the probability of appearance and propagation of thin cracks are imposed. Thus, resonant ultrasound spectroscopy and acoustic emission as non-invasive methods and complementary methods as SEM, EDX are involved, to choose the best concentration of elements with the aim of mechanical properties improvement.


AIM:To study the influence of hawthorn leaves flavonoids on electrocardiogram (ECG), NO and malondialdehyde (MDA) of myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury in rats. METHODS: Myocardial ischemic reperfusion injury models were established by occluding the left anterior descending branch of coronary artery for 30 min and removing the ligation later to reperfuse for 60 min in vivo. Different dosages of hawthorn leaves flavonoids(12.5, 25.0, 50.0 mg/kg) were administered by i.p. 10 min before the onset of ischemia. ECG was observed continuously and ST segments were measured. The concentrations of NO in blood serum were detected and the contents of MDA in myocardium were assaied in the same time. RESULTS: ST segments of ECG were relieved significantly treated with hawthorn leaves flavonoids (12.5, 25.0, 50.0 mg/kg). NO concentrations were increased and MDA contents were decreased significantly in the different dosages groups compared with control group. CONCLUSION: Hawthorn leaves flavonoids has protective effects on myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury.The effect were possibly attributed to increasing concentrations of NO and anti-lipid peroxidation.


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................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. vi Publications arising from the thesis ........................................................................ viii Timeline of work on the thesis: 2010 – 2018 ............................................................ ix


Background The SAPHO (Synovitis, Acne, Pustulosis, Hyperostosis, Osteitis) syndrome is a relatively rare clinical entity characterised by a wide range of dermatological and musculoskeletal manifestations. Treatment is largely empiric since guidelines do not exist. Biologics have been used in cases refractory to conventional treatment. Objectives To systematically review all cases of patients with SAPHO syndrome treated with biologics to date. Methods We performed a systematic electronic search (PubMed) using the key words SAPHO combined with any of the following: treatment, biologics, anti-TNF, infliximab, adalimumab, etanercept, certolizumab, golimumab, IL-1, anakinra, canakinumab, IL-17, secukinumab, IL-23, ustekinumab, IL-6, tocilizumab, abatacept, rituximab. The only limit set was English language. The computerised search was supplemented by a manual one on the reference lists of the retrieved articles. The search identified 461 articles; the abstracts of these articles were assessed in order to identify studies related to the therapeutic use of biologics in patients with SAPHO syndrome. Only 36 articles fulfilled the search criteria and were included in the analysis. Results We identified 64 cases treated with biologics (44 with TNF blockers, 7 with IL-1 blockers, 12 with biologics targeting the IL-23/IL-17 axis and 1 with tocilizumab). Data support a positive effect of anti-TNF treatment in SAPHO with a response rate in bone and joint manifestations of 95.4%. Skin disease also improved in 21/29 cases (response rate 72.4%). Data related to IL-1 inhibition in SAPHO are encouraging with most patients (6/7) exhibiting a significant response in musculoskeletal manifestations (response rate 85.7%). However, IL-1 inhibition is not effective in skin manifestations. Ustekinumab seems to have some efficacy with 2/4 patients responding in skin and 3/5 in bone/joint manifestations. Data related to IL-17 blockade indicate efficacy in skin disease with 4/7 patients responding (response rate 57.1%). Joint/bone manifestations improved in 2/7 patients (response rate 28.6%). Conclusions In SAPHO patients not responding to conventional treatment, TNF blockers should be the first choice. In patients failing TNF blockers, IL-1 inhibitors and biologics targeting the IL-17/IL-23 axis could be used. Disclosure of Interest None declared


In agricultural cooperatives, each member has three characters of an owner, a user, and a management person. But today, the character of the member as a management person is weak. In oeder for agricultural cooperatives to develop stably, a management sustem based on active participation of the members must be built up. This paper takes up the Hadanoshi Agricultural Cooperative (abbreviated to JA Hadano in the following) as a case. In JA Hadano, direct democracy is aimed for and each member's activity is performed actively. The purpose of this paper is considering the reform direction of JA management through a case analysis. The conclusions are as follows. Firstly, the basic direction of management reform was clarified. The consciousness "JA cannot be reformed" is deeply ingrained in the members with broadening of JA, diversification of its members, etc. We pointed out that the educational activity as OJT was important for changing such consciousness. Secondly, the characteristic of the organizational management in JA Hadano was clarified. In this JA, direct democracy, such as adoption of a system of general meeting, the discussion meeting in spring and autumn, is aimed at. As the result, the organizational climate, such as "speaking", "listening", are formed. We point out that democratic control is practiced under these organizational climates in JA Hadano. Thirdly, the characteristic of the organizational management in the strawberry sectional meeting was clarified. In this sectional meeting, a sustem is built to give its members wide management responsibility. And the member is not dependent on the employee thoufhtlessly. We pointed out that this sectional meeting is managed by member's condominium under the strong awareness of member as a management person.


The submitted contribution is focused on the issue of resolutions of the United Nations Security Council adopted pursuant to Chapter VII of the UN Charter in context of international terrorisms. In particular it is dealing with Resolution 1267 (1999) and following and the consequences that are reflected inter alia in the judgment Kadi v. European Commission and Council EU or in the case Nada v. Switzerland nowadays holding before European Court of Human Rights.


The purpose of this study was to examine grand battement devant in three conditions: at the barre, in the centre, and traveling. The primary focus was to consider weight transfer in the three conditions, and to examine utilisation of the trunk and lower extremity muscles. An extensive review was done in the dance science literature to determine what previous research had been done related to this subject, and to establish what preliminary work might be needed. As indicated by the literature, in order to achieve this research, it was necessary to develop a dance-specific method for the normalisation of surface electromyography data. In phase one of the research, a dance-specific portable anchored dynamometer was developed and tested. The PAD allowed for the collection of maximum voluntary isometric contractions (MVICs), which could then be used to normalise the sEMG data. In phase two of the research, the grand battement was tested in the three conditions, at the barre, in the centre, and traveling. Forty female dancers volunteered (mean age 30.0 ± 13.0 yrs, mean height 1.63 ± 0.06 m, mean mass 59.0 ± 7.4 kg, and 13.9 ± 13.3 yrs of training in ballet and/or modern dance) and were placed in three groups (Training level): beginner (n = 12), intermediate (n = 14) and advanced (n = 14). Dancers executed five grand battement devant in each of the three conditions (Condition) in randomized order. Data were collected with a 7-camera Vicon motion capture system, two Kistler forceplates, and surface electromyography (EMG), using eight muscles bilaterally. Kinematic data were analysed in three intervals: stance to battement initiation, initiation to battement peak, and peak to end. Four variables were investigated: centre of gravity of the full trunk, centre of gravity of the pelvis, centre of gravity of the upper trunk, and centre of mass. EMG data were analysed in four events: stance, initiation, peak, and end. For weight transfer, the main effect of Condition was significant for all


Extensive and inexpensive quarrying operations have been done on a large scale in Gebel Attaqa area, Eastern Desert of Egypt, where the main source of dolomite deposits is located. The production line of the working crushers at Gebel Attaqa produces primary building and pavement aggregate types and fine quarry residues as a waste byproduct. These residues are in huge quantities that cannot meet the requirements of the safe disposal which does not exceed 25 % of the total accumulated amount forming a burden on the surrounded environment. So, it was suitable to try to utilize it as a ceramic tile raw material for both economical and environmental purposes, as well as sustainability, by keeping the natural resources for the coming generations. A basic mixture with the same composition as that used in industry was prepared. The basic mixture raw materials and the waste were analyzed by XRF. The waste was investigated by DTA and TGA. Suggested mixtures were prepared, where the waste replaces limestone in the basic mixture as 3, 5, 7, 9% (total replacement) by weight. The tile specimens were prepared for each sample; as glazed and unglazed. Both molding and firing were required to be exactly as the industrial conditions. So, the tile samples were lab prepared then fired in the production line of the factory. Physical and chemical properties of fired samples were tested according to ISO 13006 and harmonized ES 3168 – part 6. In addition, other vitrification parameters were measured as linear firing shrinkage, loss on ignition and hardness. Fired samples of the proposed mixtures were characterized by XRD and SEM techniques. The best results were obtained for the total replacement of limestone by this waste, which is recommended.


The key problem of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation both in theory and practice is how to reasonably quantify the weights of different evaluation indexes in the fuzzy system. In this paper a new approach is proposed to directly construct the judgment matrix in analytic hierarchy process according to the fuzzy relative membership degree matrix of single evaluation index. On this basis, a new method namely analytic hierarchy process-fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE-AHP), which can be used to check and correct the in consistency of judgment matrix by means of accelerated genetic algorithm and to calculate the weight of the elements in the judgment matrix, is established. The application shows that this method is universal, stable and the calculation result is objective.


The K-to-12 science curriculum promotes the use of Inquiry-Based Science Learning (IBSL) as a pedagogy to achieve scientific literacy. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the conventional education approach in migration to new normal. This sequential explanatory research was conducted to explore the students' challenges encountered in IBSL in Online Distance Learning Modality (ODLM) at a public integrated high school. Stratified random sampling was used to select the 261 students as respondents from Grades 7 to 12. Researchers-developed survey questionnaires was administered online. Descriptive statistics was employed to analyse the collected data. Results revealed that majority of the students encountered not much challenges in learning resources, competence to technology tools, online self-efficacy, teachers' pedagogy, motivation, and support system. However, specific indicators received higher mean, implying that certain challenges still existed. To further explore such challenges, in-depth interview was conducted among 12 purposively selected participants. Thematic analysis was utilised to interpret the data. Results disclosed other domains of challenges. Some students experienced limited interaction and received minimal assistance among peers. Meanwhile, lack of constant communication impeded continuous science learning. Fundamental science topics were not rigorously discussed, while the absence of experiments resulted to poor laboratory skills. Furthermore, online science pedagogies were not fully utilised. Challenges are evident; hence, these findings provide pedagogical insights to enhance the use of IBSL in new learning modality. An action plan is hereby proposed to reduce the challenges in IBSL in ODLM.


For face verification on unspecific persons, most approaches are based on the single similarity between the test face and the claimed client face. This paper proposes a novel verification algorithm using competitive prototypes, including both the claimed client face and the competitive negative samples representative of other classes outside the client set. The test sample is matched with each competitive prototype, and matching scores are combined for a final decision. Three schemes of applying competitive prototypes are designed, tested and compared with the similarity-based verification approach on several databases, features and classifiers. Experiments demonstrate that they are useful for the verification on unspecific person and they improve the verification performance by reducing the error rate.


We reconsider the Euler-Lagrange equation for the Skyrme model in the hedgehog ansatz and study the analytical properties of the solitonic solution. In view of the lack of a closed form solution to the problem, we work on approximate analytical solutions. We show that Padé approximants are well suited to continue analytically the asymptotic representation obtained in terms of a power series expansion near the origin, obtaining explicit approximate solutions for the Skyrme equations. We improve the approximations by applying the 2-point Padé approximant procedure whereby the exact behaviour at spatial infinity is incorporated. An even better convergence to the exact solution is obtained by introducing a modified form for the approximants. The new representations share the same analytical properties with the exact solution at both small and large values of the radial variable r. PACS number(s): 11.10.Lm, 12.39.Dc, 02.30.Mv


This paper deals with the results of numerical simulation of the fast atmospheric pressure discharge in strongly non-uniform configuration of a tip-to-plane diode filled with nitrogen and oxygen mixture. The simulation is based on the advanced hydrodynamic discharge plasma accounting also gas photoionization. It was shown that in the absence of photoionization discharge develops unstable and photoionization suppresses this instability. Theoretical results fits the existing experimental data for the spatial discharge structure and the current/voltage discharge characteristics.


The theory of acoustic paramagnetic resonance (APR) for the ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{2+}(3{d}^{4})$ ion at cubic crystal sites with octahedral coordination is developed for comparison with data by Marshall and Rampton for ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{2+}$ in MgO. An analytic model that takes explicit account of random strain is obtained and shown to predict in a simple way both the angular dependence of the resonance lines and the asymmetric line shape found experimentally. Although most ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{2+}$ ions experience distortions of effectively orthorhombic symmetry, the apparent presence of a tetragonal distortion at the site of the relatively few acoustically active ions is shown to result from the conditions of the experiments, in which the random strain splitting of the ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{2+}$ levels is typically larger than the acoustic energy quantum. Using this model, we show that the data for ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{2+}$ in MgO may be accounted for quantitatively if the ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{2+}$ is subject to a dynamic Jahn-Teller effect for which the tunneling splitting $3\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ is large compared with the spin-orbit splitting of the $^{5}E$ state. This interpretation differs from one proposed previously by Fletcher and Stevens, in which a much smaller value for $3\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ was obtained. It is shown that from presently available data one cannot yet determine $3\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ or other Jahn-Teller parameters of the system with any certainty. The theory of a dynamic Jahn-Teller effect for a $^{5}E$ state is developed in a general way to encompass the regime of weak Jahn-Teller coupling, which would be applicable to APR experiments on ${\mathrm{Fe}}^{2+}$ in tetrahedral coordination, while also including the limit of strong coupling in which the adiabatic approximation used by Fletcher and Stevens is applicable.


ABSTRACT Consensus is building around the need for transitional justice to secure redress for corporate human rights abuses. However, there has been less scrutiny of the transitional justice mechanisms to be deployed in pursuit of corporate accountability. This article therefore questions the extent to which truth commissions and restorative justice theory can serve the aims of corporate accountability in the context of transitional justice. To do this, the article examines the Business Hearings held by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in particular focusing on the interactions between the Congress of South African Unions and Anglo American Corporation. The findings reveal how the rhetoric of restorative justice was used as a basis for reintegrating business into post-apartheid South Africa, whilst denying the need for reparations. The article concludes by addressing key lessons learnt, and warns against relying on truth commissions as a basis for delivering corporate accountability within transitional justice.


OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: The purpose of the current study is to determine predictors of linkage-to-care (LTC) outcomes among patients screened for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the emergency department (ED). The study is one of the first to report the impact of factors influencing medical eligibility for HCV treatment. By establishing predictors of linkage outcomes, we hope to characterize patients at highest risk of being lost to follow-up. This information can be used to guide the development of targeted interventions and optimize linkage efforts at institutions with similar programs. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: In 2013, we implemented an opt-out HCV screening program targeting baby boomers presenting to the ED. The screening program was expanded in 2015, and all patients who presented to the ED (an academic ED with 73,000 annual visits) between 2015 and 2018 were offered an HCV antibody test. Confirmatory RNA tests were ordered for all patients with a positive screening test, and those with confirmed infection were contacted (when possible) by a linkage coordinator, who sought to facilitate linkage to outpatient care. Patients were followed until they had been successfully linked to care or were lost to follow-up; successful linkage was defined as a patient attending a scheduled HCV clinic visit. Linkage outcomes (linked vs. not linked) among confirmed cases were analyzed based on previously described LTC barriers, sociodemographic factors, and factors influencing HCV treatment eligibility. Binary multiple logistic regression was used to model the relationship between predictors and LTC outcomes. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Between August 2015 and June 2018, 48,947 patients were screened for HCV, yielding 4,026 positive results. HCV infection was confirmed in 1,798 patients, 1,651 of whom were eligible for the current study. By July 2018, 884 eligible patients (53.5%) had been successfully linked to care. Odds of linkage failure were decreased among patients with known linkage barriers including mental health disorders (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.28; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.21-0.37), active substance abuse (aOR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.47-0.91), and 'competing' medical comorbidities (aOR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.21-0.47); however, odds of linkage failure were increased in the presence of medical comorbidities leading to ineligibility for HCV treatment (aOR, 21.71; 95% CI, 7.02-67.13). Decreased odds of linkage failure were also found among patients belonging to the baby boomer population (aOR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.46-0.91) and individuals with HBV co-infection (aOR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.14-0.94). Finally, odds of linkage failure were increased among patients without health insurance (aOR, 1.952; 95% CI, 1.01-3.79) and with public health insurance (aOR, 2.140; 95% CI, 1.08-4.24). While African-American patients exhibited decreased odds of linkage failure in bivariate analyses, this association was not significant in the multivariate analysis. Variables ultimately found not to be predictive of linkage outcome included race, ethnicity, gender, homelessness, and incarceration. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: In contrast with current trends in the literature, our analysis found that patients with any of three well-described linkage barriers (mental health disorder, active substance abuse, and 'competing' comorbidities) exhibited decreased odds of linkage failure. It is possible that knowledge of these barriers by linkage personnel led to increased persistence of efforts for such patients, resulting in improved linkage among patients with these barriers. However, another possibility is that individuals with factors such as a mental health disorder or medical comorbidity were more likely to experience a clinical encounter, during which discussions about HCV treatment could take place. It is also possible that other contributing factors were unaccounted for by our analysis, such as internal programmatic issues, patient education and income levels, marital status, or other 'destabilizing' factors that would reduce a patient's likelihood of being contacted by a linkage coordinator. While patients with general medical comorbidities were less likely to experience linkage failure, patients who were ineligible for HCV treatment due to a medical comorbidity were significantly more likely to experience linkage failure. While this finding is intuitive, it is nonetheless troubling, as we would expect patients with severe medical comorbidities to benefit greatly from health counseling, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, or other resources available through linkage. As a result of this finding, we intend to adapt our approach to medically ineligible patients, emphasizing the availability and potential usefulness of such resources. It is unsurprising that uninsured and publicly insured patients were less likely to be successfully linked to care, as HCV treatment continues to be associated with significant financial costs for such patients. However, it is also possible that confounding factors such as education and income level, which were not included in our analysis, would be more predictive of patients' ability or willingness to undergo HCV treatment. More research is needed to improve linkage-to-care for patients with HCV. In the near future, we intend to conduct an internal evaluation, as well as a positive deviance analysis of other LTC programs, to determine additional ways to improve linkage outcomes for all patients screened for HCV in the ED.


BW 58-271, a pyrrolopynimidine, is a potent hypnotic agent as measured by the dose required to cause loss of righting reflex in mice. BW 58-271 is about 3½ times as potent as hexobarbital in this test. As with many central nervous system (CNS) depressants, barbiturate anesthesia in rats is potentiated by BW 58-271. The compound possesses a local anesthetic action when applied to the isolated frog sciatic nerve, but is less potent than lidocaine. Intravenous doses of 4 mg/kg or more in anesthetized cats cause block of the spontaneous electrical activity of the electroencephalogram (EEG) lasting for several minutes. These periods in which no electrical activity is recorded are interspersed with bursts of high voltage waves. Evoked cortical activity as measured by the primary positive visual evoked potential is not blocked by 4 to 8 mg/kg of BW 58-271 i.v., but the latency of the waves is increased. In contrast to the primary positive evoked potential, later positive waves (up to 250 msec) are depressed more than negative deflections. The effects on latency of the primary waves and the depression or block of the late waves coincide with EEG suppression. These changes are not the result of hypotension, since comparable falls in blood pressure from tetraethylammonium chloride and spinal cord section do not cause similar EEG or evoked potential changes.


This study describe about the acts of politeness forms of realization and fulfillment of follow politeness and students' perception of politeness among educators of SMP Negeri 1 Teras and SMA Bhineka Karya 3.
The purpose of this study was to determine how the realization and implementation of follow politeness politeness principle spoken by educators as well as students' perception of politeness used by the educational staff at SMP Negeri 1 Teras and SMA Bhineka Karya 3 Boyolali.
This study used a qualitative descriptive method, the data collection techniques in this study using the listening, writing and recording techniques, techniques of data analysis in this study using a unified method ekstralingual. The data source of this research is SMP Negeri 1 Teras and SMA Bhineka Karya 3 Boyolali. In this study utterances used by educational personnel have met the politeness principle of Leech.
The results of the realization of linguistic politeness follow everything done and said politely. Being the result of the application of and compliance with the principle of linguistic politeness all available data indicate that what was said and done have fulfilled the maxim theory Wisdom, Generosity, praise, humility, Welfare and sympathy. Students perception to acts of politeness after questionnaire has the result that a lot of students which suggests the utterances of the most frequently used in communication between speakers and opponents said all use polite language.


The main objective of this paper is to construct and test fractional order derivatives for the management and simulation of a fractional order disorderly finance system. In the developed system, we add the critical minimum interest rate d parameter in order to develop a new stable financial model. The new emerging paradigm increases the demand for innovation, which is the gateway to the knowledge economy. The derivatives are characterized in the Caputo fractional order derivative and Atangana-Baleanu derivative. We prove the existence and uniqueness of the solutions with fixed point theorem and an iterative scheme. The interest rate begins to rise according to initial conditions as investment demand and price exponent begin to fall, which shows the financial system's actual macroeconomic behavior. Specifically component of its application to the large scale and smaller scale forms, just as the utilization of specific strategies and instruments such fractal stochastic procedures and expectation.


Motivated by the discrete multi-rate Kaufmann–Roberts recurrence relations, we derive a functional equation (FE), which covers nonintegral states. This FE implies a unique effective step parameter d, which defines an equivalent one-level recurrence depth, or bit-rate, at each state under progress. This state-dependent depth results from the equality requirement of the multi-rate and the one-level model in the moment-generating function transform domain. By this method it is possible to model d by a few moments of the original multi-rate statistic. In this case we obtain an explicit FE solution covering the entire (global) state space. Next we verify that the resulting state probability density incorporates iteratively enumerated discrete state probabilities, including the state-dependent depth. With a system capacity C the iterations then need time complexities between O(C) and O(C2). In contrast to this each FE state, is performed at a time complexity O(1). By the efficient coverage of the whole state space, fast optimizations of multi-rate networks and multi-resource systems can be improved. Copyright © 2003 AEI.


Background  Narrow band imaging is a new endoscopic technology that highlights mucosal surface structures and microcapillaries, which may be indicative of neoplastic change.


ABSTRACTION Ronny. A. Barito, Fakultashukum, University 17 August 1945, Samarinda Kalimantan East. Account To Sue Contractor Of Damage Building And Its Legal Consequences In Agreement Contract Government Project. [In] guiding by Double Elviyanti [of] Mas, SH, M.Hum and of Dr. H. Abdul Rokhim, SH, M.Hum. Intention of this research [is] accounting to sue contractor to employer To the result of building in work agreement of contruksi otherwise as according to bestekof[is Solving of dispute if there are to [do] not according to result of building of akiba mistake of contractor sub [party/ side]. An agreement of contract in fact represent a[n agreement by which contractor side and employer  side is binding itself each other to execute an work at the price of is certain. Solving of dispute to the to do not according to result of building with bestek can be [done/conducted] in so many way of like passing konsoliasi, mediasi, body of arbitrase, deliberation and or through justice


Nowadays, nanoscale materials are increasingly popular in academic and industrial research. It is expected that the combination of nanoscale materials with other material can contribute more benefits. The use of nanoscale materials often require their dispersion in variety of liquids, to enable them to become part of the liquid product, also known as nanofluids. For example, one of the applications is the nanoparticles dispersed with transformer oil in oil-immersed transformer application. Traditionally, mineral oil is used as dielectric liquid and cooling medium in power transformer. In this paper, dielectric strength of ester oil when mixed with nanoparticles is investigated. For that purpose, AC breakdown voltage test is compliance with ASTM D1816 standard is performed. Statistical analysis and high dimension visualization have been done to analyse and compare the result between fresh ester oil taken from tank and the similar ester oil that mixed with nanoparticles. The results suggest that ester oil mixed with nanoparticles of 0.02 % by volume performs well compared to other samples.


ABSTRACT This study explored the perceived external and internal issues that may have an effect on collaborative ventures designed to provide vocational rehabilitation services to persons with substance use disorders. Participants in the study were professionals from substance abuse (SA) treatment and vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies in 1 state located in the north central United States. Analyses revealed SA professionals to have higher perceptions of their abilities in working with clients with substance use disorders than did VR professionals. In addition, participants ranked 10 potential barriers to employment for individuals with substance use disorders and provided 3 potential barriers to collaboration. The rankings of potential barriers to employment for clients with substance use disorders were similar for the 2 groups; however, SA professionals placed more emphasis on internal barriers, whereas VR counselors placed more emphasis on external barriers. The most frequently reported barriers to...


Mechanical alloying (MA) is a potential processing method for various equilibrium and non-equilibrium alloy phases such as supersaturated solid solution, metastable crystalline, amorphous, quasi-crystalline phases, nanostructures. Compared to conventional high temperature material processing such as melting and casting, improvement of solid solubility limit results from mechanical alloying at room temperature. The solid solubility increases with increase in milling time due to enhanced stress assisted atomic diffusion during particle refinement and reaches a saturation level at higher milling time. The extension of solid solubility is attributed to thermodynamic, dynamic or kinetic factors such as high dislocation density due to severe plastic deformation during particle refinement and enhanced diffusivity during MA. The review aims to discuss the insight of MA than other non-equilibrium processing in terms of achieving higher solubility, reasoning and mechanism of solubility improvement during MA of different alloy systems.


Objective India is experiencing an increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Mobile health technology may be a strategy to reduce the risk of cardiometabolic disorders. This paper reports on the effect of a mobile health intervention on cardiometabolic risk factors. Methods The mobile health and diabetes intervention was a 12-week reality television-based mobile health program application delivered via videos, short message service and infographics through a smartphone application followed-up weekly by health coach calls. mobile health and diabetes was conducted in a randomized control trial mode randomized controlled trial methodology in three Indian cities (Chennai, Bengaluru and New Delhi) with participants recruited via community screening events. This paper looks at the pre–post changes in cardiometabolic risks among the participants and the place of demography in influencing these. Results The mobile health and diabetes intervention group experienced a small reduction in waist circumference (1.8 cm) compared to the control group (0.5 cm, p < 0.05) and a greater decrease in systolic blood pressure (2.7 mmHg) compared to the control group (p < 0.05). The improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors were more pronounced in individuals with obesity, although overall effects were very modest Conclusions Cardiometabolic risk factors can be reduced with a mobile health application using human coaching, especially in obese individuals, but the improvements are small. To be more effective and clinically meaningful, intensive engagement with the participants is probably required.


In this paper some methods of construction of balanced bipartite block (BBPB) designs are obtained which are based on incidence matrices of the known balanced incomplete block (BIB) designs and two-associate-class partially balanced incomplete block (2-PBIB) group divisible (GD) designs. The obtained results are given with examples to show how they can be applied.


With the deepening of the reform of the power system, electricity sales companies are required to explore new business models and provide multi-faceted marketing programs for users. At the same time, with the reduction of energy storage (ES) costs and the gradual maturity of technology, user side ES, especially Battery ES, has become an effective means for enhancing users' power supply reliability and reducing electricity bills. Battery ES, as the standby power supply, has a vast user side application. The configuration of ES can help users to ameliorate power quality and reduce electricity cost. It is a critical strategy for electricity sales companies to improve their competitiveness as well. Firstly, this paper analyzes the user side ES and introduces the user side ES development status and relevant policies. Then, we establish an ES configuration optimization model based on the cost–benefit system. To determine the optimal ES capacity of the system's storage capacity, non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm with elite strategy (NSGA-II) is used as the method solving model. Finally, according to the cost-effectiveness of ES and the period of a contract signed by users, a price package with ES configuration is designed for users to choose.


The heat pump system with a refrigerant-filled evaporator consists of a standard air-to-air or air-to-liquid heat pump that utilizes a solar panel as the evaporator. A combination of solar energy and convection heat transfer acts as the ''free'' energy absorbed by the collector/evaporator. In this paper, the seasonal performance of such systems for industrial applications will be presented. Performance of collector/evaporator heat pumps will be compared with alternative heat pump and solar systems. The benefits of covered and coverless collector/evaporators will be discussed. Results to date have shown that refrigerant-filled collector heat pumps do not perform as well as conventional heat pumps at small collector areas but have as much as 15% performance improvement over conventional heat pumps at an appropriate collector area.


The placement of institutions of higher education involves a group of problems pertaining to the territorial distribution of labor. This approach to the problem is especially important today since we are faced with a number of basic questions concerning supplying the country with a skilled labor-force. In particular, we must achieve a substantial increase in the scientific potential of higher education and the efficiency of its use.


Advance in manufacturing the electrostatic septum deflector, the first stage of the nuclotronextraction system, and the second one consisting of two Lambertson magnets with SC windings is described. The proposed method allows one to decrease the leakage magnetic fields disturbinga circulating beam from five to six times. The bump coils for the dipoles with a wide aperture are described, as well.


An historical perspective upon personality research methods is presented and scholarly resources are reviewed to encourage historical perspective-taking among personality psychologists

The historical perspective demarcates five periods in the development of personality research methods (1) the pre-identity era, (2) the pre-World War II era, (3) the post-World War II era, (4) the contemporary era, and (5) within the contemporary era, the current situation FOT a set of basic research methods in personality, three types of development are identified Laboratory methods, observer judgments, personality scales and inventories, and projective techniques illustrate continued development, biographical/archival methods and field studies illustrate interrupted methods, and reputational analysis by use of naturalistic observational assessment illustrates arrested development

The methodological pluralism evident in the history of personality research and inherent in its scientific agenda has not been fully realized, although current trends are encouraging Recommendations for promoting integrative methodological pluralism are made regarding research planning, institutional arrangements, and graduate research training programs


This study is focused on examining the use of information and communication technology among the factors that contribute to the psychological stability of the aged. To identify the appreciation and experience of information and communication technology, we have itemized mobile technology and internet technology which are the most broadly utilized technologies by the elderly, and suggested a methodology to measure the effects that information and communication technology have on their psychological stability. We surveyed more than 100 people over 55 year old in Seoul. The findings of the study showed that the group of users who use wired internet and mobile technology are less depressed and have more self-esteem than the group of non-users. It was also shown that the more skilled they are at utilizing the technology, the less feelings of depression and loneliness, and the more self-esteem they have.


This research study tries to understand the relevance of four dimensions (viz., support, team-building, goal emphasis and help with work) of Leadership incorporated by Likert (1967) to identify and classify System 1 to 4 by conducting intensive study of six organizations in India. Data, regarding different aspects of Leaders' actions/practices/behaviors which resulted in employees' perception, were collected using Likert and Likert (1976) questionnaire. The study came to the following conclusions and findings that in the country like India any leadership is a category of behaviors. A leadership style is a combination of specific practices through which leaders contribute. Not all actions/practices of a leader that are generally considered as positive or with good intentions from the leaders' point of view or from the academic angles are equally perceived from same angles by employees. The four dimensions (viz., support, team-building, goal emphasis and help with work) of Leadership are perceived differently by employees in India into four new dimensions of practices or actions or category of behaviors (viz., Expressive Environment Facilitator, Non-Bossy, Democratic and Expectancy Pressure by the leader). These four new leadership dimensions are derived using the Principal Component Analysis from the grounds up approach. The organizations need to look at the leadership practices from the perspective of employees' perceptions. A leader is not only what a leader does but also how those actions are perceived and that must also be taken into consideration. All these four new dimensions are the contribution into the leadership practices and theory.


Agriculture is the main occupation undertaken by majority of population in India. The Indian farmers produce food grains for entire population. Growing population needs constant increase in quantity and quality of agriculture produce. This is possible only by adopting improved technology in production and plant protection. Hence, technology intervention is at every stage of production and food processing is needed. Timely and suitable plant protection measures directly improve quantity and quality of agriculture produce. Effective result oriented plant protection mainly involves early detection of pest and diseases and suitable control measures. The entire human population consume products of food grains like cereals and millets as their staple food. This paper aims at summarizing common image processing methods to identify plant diseases and how it could be improved using nature inspired algorithm.


The eutrophication pollution of Lin Jiang river control by canna indica,cyperus alternifolius planting in the artificial floating rafts with taoli was studied. Removal rate of N,P,COD nutrition salt and so on by canna indica and cyperus alternifolius and the growth situation were investigated. The result indicated removal rate of N,P,COD by canna indica and cyperus alternifolius artificial floating rafts are 51.3%,44.7%,26.7% and 46.6%,40%,25% respective. Nutrition salt removed quantity of the artificial floating rafts was higher than that of plant itself,which exhibits the importance of root system in the artificial floating rafts control technology.


with the problematics of territory yet its possibilities, resonances and implications for the geographical discipline (and the wider social sciences) cannot be understated. Another reviewer could not have summed it up more aptly, that is, '[The Birth of Territory] is not only a major work of scholarship in the history of ideas, and that it sits with Traces on the Rhodian Shore, The Geographical Tradition and Geographical Imaginations as central works for studying the history of geographical ideas' (Kearns, 2014).


The present invention provides a stable and concentratable silicon wafer polishing composition including water; an abrasive; cations represented by chemical formula I; piperazine or a piperazine derivative represented by chemical formula II; and optionally a pH adjusting agent, wherein the composition shows at least silicon removal rate of 300 nm/min. Moreover, provided are methods for manufacturing and using a stable and concentratable chemical/mechanical silicon wafer polishing composition.


Handling volumetric attacks and high loads is fundamental for Domain Name System (DNS) resolvers. While one can often scale up resources to cope with high loads, this costly solution is not always viable. Thus, our work revisits the design of DNS resolvers and maps the design decisions that most impact the resolver's robustness to high loads and volumetric attacks. Our work suggests a novel resolver composed of deadline-aware queue management, optimized cache policy, and high-load handling mechanisms. An evaluation with real DNS traces shows a consistent improvement of 21% in a high load scenario and by 40% under an NXDomain attack when compared with the best alternative method.


The explosive and steady growth in online learning has created seismic shifts education and in faculty's teaching methods and modalities. As a result of the continual market demand for online educational options, counseling faculty are increasingly expected to create, teach, and manage online courses. In some educational settings, this is done with little or no professional development or institutional and financial support for the teacing faculty members. Designing courses to prepare counselors requires instructors to address various learning styles in the digital environment through the offerings of their learning management system.  Assessing students informally and formally can increase understanding, engage digital learners, and prepare counselors for the use of technology in their professional practice. Further, course development requires instructors to discover innovative ways to create a platform for social presence outside of discussion boards. This article offers creative approaches that counselor educators can adopt when designing courses, creating a classroom community, and engaging with students in an online educational environment.


Abstract : The U. S. Navy, in fulfilling its mission, requires a tremendous amount of skilled manpower. A significant percentage of this population is frequently assigned outside their respective skill areas. The resulting skill deterioration incurred during these assignments affects the amount of retraining required to reestablish currency and insure fleet readiness. This study suggests potential approaches for determining skill loss as the initial step for decision-markers in specifying the degree of retraining necessary. To this end, an extensive literature and agency survey of skill retention and related topics was conducted to identify areas where further research is required. Also, two conceptual models of possible retraining systems are formulated and discussed. Finally, recommendations are submitted which have implications in the areas of Reserve training, manpower planning, and personnel management. (Author)