. This paper studies equable parallelograms whose vertices lie on the integer lattice. Using Rosenberger's Theorem on generalised Markov equations, we show that the g.c.d. of the side lengths of such parallelograms can only be 3, 4 or 5, and in each of these cases the set of parallelograms naturally forms an infinite tree all of whose vertices have degree 4, bar the root. The paper then focuses on what we call Pythagorean equable paral- lelograms. These are lattice equable parallelograms whose complement in a circumscribing rectangle consists of two Pythagorean triangles. We prove that for these parallelograms the shortest side can only be 3, 4, 5, 6 or 10, and there are five infinite families of such parallelograms, given by solutions to corresponding Pell-like equations.


The end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) dramatically reshaped temperate ecosystems, with many species moving poleward as temperatures rose and ice receded. Whereas reinvading terrestrial taxa tracked melting glaciers, marine biota recolonized ocean habitats freed by retreating sea ice. The extent of sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere during the LGM has, however, yet to be fully resolved, with most palaeogeographic studies suggesting only minimal or patchy ice cover in subantarctic waters. Here, through population genetic analyses of the widespread Southern Bull Kelp (Durvillaea antarctica), we present evidence for persistent ice scour affecting subantarctic islands during the LGM. Using mitochondrial and chloroplast genetic markers (COI; rbcL) to genetically characterize some 300 kelp samples from 45 Southern Ocean localities, we reveal a remarkable pattern of recent recolonization in the subantarctic. Specifically, in contrast to the marked phylogeographic structure observed across coastal New Zealand and Chile (10- to 100-km scales), subantarctic samples show striking genetic homogeneity over vast distances (10,000-km scales), with a single widespread haplotype observed for each marker. From these results, we suggest that sea ice expanded further and ice scour during the LGM impacted shallow-water subantarctic marine ecosystems more extensively than previously suggested.


Human fibrin glue aids physiological healing thereby reducing corneal vascularization and scarring compared with cyanoacrylate tissue adhesive. A 40‐year‐old intellectually disabled man with a corneal melt is reported who was managed successfully using human fibrin glue, alleviating the need for emergency penetrating keratoplasty.


We report the morphology, composition, and interaction mechanisms of silicon surface gratings fabricated with the fourth harmonic (266 nm) of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. We paid particular attention to the laser fluence dependence of silicon grating formation. It was found that at low fluence levels, grating formation was mainly caused by silicon oxidation. However, at high fluence levels gratings were formed with thermal ablation. In the former case, it was found that water vapor, instead of oxygen molecules, in the air was the key species providing oxygen for silicon oxidation. In the latter case, grating morphology was controlled by laser fluence level. These conclusions were supported by the measurement results of atomic force microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and chemical etching. The results of real-time monitoring of grating growth are also reported.


This study aimed to examine the construct validity of the Arabic version of the behavioral intention to interact with peers using an intellectual disability (ID) scale. Rasch analysis was used to examine the psychometric properties of the scale. The sample contained 290 elementary students in Saudi Arabia (56% were girls and 44% were boys). Several parameters were examined: overall fit, item fit, person fit, assumption of local independence, and the scale's unidimensionality. Eight items were rescored, 22 misfit persons were removed, and no item with differential item functioning (DIF) was detected. Disordered thresholds were detected in eight items. The scale demonstrated good internal consistency [person separation index (PSI) 0.80] and fulfilled all the requirements of the Rasch model. After rescoring the eight items, Rasch analysis supported the scale's unidimensionality to measure children's behavioral intention to interact with peers with ID. The Arabic version of the scale, with the proposed scoring, could be a useful tool to measure children's behavioral intention to interact with peers with ID. Further studies with different samples are warranted to confirm the study's findings.


The theory of the abyssal abiogenic origin of petroleum is a significant part of the modern scientific theories dealing with the formation of hydrocarbons. These theories include the identification of natural hydrocarbon systems, the physical processes leading to their terrestrial concentration, and the dynamic processes controlling the migration of that material into geological reservoirs of petroleum. The theory of the abyssal abiogenic origin of petroleum recognizes that natural gas and petroleum are primordial materials of deep origin which have migrated into the Earth's crust. Experimental results and geological investigations presented in this article convincingly confirm the main postulates of the theory and allow us to reexamine the structure, size, and locality distributions of the world's hydrocarbon reserves.


The new regulatory processes in Communication in several Latin American countries are linked to a political reform process called "Latin American progressive left." The latest country to join this reformist trend is Ecuador, where after four years of debate has reached an agreement about this topic. This paper tries to understand the policymaking process. Moreover, aims to know how the debate developed on the new Communication regulation in Ecuador. Through documentary analysis and following the study methodology of policy net works (Scharpf, 1993, Parsons, 2007) the paper aims to know how advanced the policymaking discussion regarding the interests of the different policynetworks, showing the evolution of main issues between the different projects and the final document, and the main themes of interest and discussion during this process, finally establishing what issues were modified and which were more complex to reverse.


Peer-to-Peer(P2P) networks are achieved more and more attention, compared with C/S service mode, P2P is more suitable for distributed data flow processing. This paper concentrates on how to answer continuous rank join query in P2P networks. In the algorithm proposed, the data that cannot contribute the final ranked results will be discarded directly based on pre-computing the minimum values of rank function's attributes. Experiments show that the algorithm ensures the availability of rank query and network traffic is reduced up to 90% as well as.


This open study evaluated the safety, tolerance and efficacy of multiple oral doses of butorphanol tartrate as long-term therapy for moderate to severe pain of various aetiologies. Twenty patients were given doses ranging from four to twelve 4 mg tablets per day for a period of 3 to 201 days (median 87 days). Median pain relief over the entire study was rated as good, very good or excellent in eleven patients (55%) and poor to fair in the remaining nine patients (45%). Global assessments were as follows: good to very good – twelve patients; poor to fair – eight patients. Ten of the twenty patients treated reported side-effects (sedation, light-headedness, dizziness, insomnia and headache) ranging from mild to severe. No drug-related abnormalities with respect to blood pressure, body-weight or laboratory data were evident.


This paper employs the extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) method, a technique imported from the analysis of the iterative decoding of error control codes, to study the performance of belief propagation in community detection in the presence of side information. We consider both the detection of a single (hidden) community, as well as the problem of identifying two symmetric communities. For single community detection, this paper demonstrates the suitability of EXIT to predict the asymptotic phase transition for weak recovery. More importantly, EXIT analysis is leveraged to produce useful insights such as the performance of belief propagation near the threshold. For two symmetric communities, the asymptotic residual error for belief propagation is calculated under finite-alphabet side information, generalizing a previous result with noisy labels. EXIT analysis is used to illuminate the effect of side information on community detection, its relative importance depending on the correlation of the graphical information with node labels, as well as the effect of side information on residual errors.


Capsule Habitat significantly influences nest-site choice, breeding output and daily nest failure rates in Song Thrushes. Aims To describe nesting habitat of a stable Song Thrush breeding population, investigate habitat influence on breeding, and examine what variables influence nest-site selection by comparing habitat variables in nesting sites with random non-nesting sites. Methods Nesting habitat data were collected throughout Ireland in 2001–03 during a detailed study in County Cork and by volunteers across the country. Results Most nests were located 1.3–2.4 m from the ground. Nests built in April were significantly higher than those built in May. Nest-sites were mostly in trees, bushes or hedgerows and we highlight the role of garden habitat for nesting. Clutch size was significantly higher (mean ± sd) on farmland (4.5 ± 0.7) than in garden and parkland (4.0 ± 0.5) and woodland (4.0 ± 0.6). The number of hatched chicks was significantly greater in hedgerows (4.1 ± 0.9) than in trees (3.2 ± 0.7), but not in bushes (3.7 ± 0.9), while the number of fledged chicks was significantly lower in nests in trees (3.2 ± 0.7) than in hedgerows (4.2 ± 0.8) and bushes (3.8 ± 0.7). Daily nest failure rates were significantly lower for nests in trees and partly concealed nests across different nest periods. Nesting sites had significantly denser vegetation than non-nesting sites. Conclusion Dense vegetation is an important deciding factor for Song Thrushes when choosing a nest-site and may be an important consideration in conservation measures striving to maintain or restore Song Thrush populations.


To the Editor.— We have conducted a survey in our office. We simply asked new and old patients if they thought it was a good idea to have a complete skin examination on their first visit. In our welcome letter, new patients received an explanation why we perform complete skin examinations. They were told "it is our medical policy to examine your entire skin surface on the first visit. Only by a complete skin examination can melanomas, symptomless skin cancers that kill young and old alike, be detected before it is too late. Without a complete skin examination many diagnoses can be missed and wrong medications given. By performing a complete skin examination, I and my staff will make positive suggestions for preventing and treating other skin ailments that may be present. The skin is often a window to the inside of your body. A thorough examination tells us much


It was recently reported that, using a T-cell receptor alpha-chain complementary deoxyribonucleic acid probe (pGA5) and the restriction enzyme Eco RV, a 10-kilobase restriction fragment length polymorphism was detected significantly more frequently in patients with ulcerative colitis than in patients with Crohn's disease and controls. This finding had great potential importance, as no gene marker had previously been found to be strongly associated with inflammatory bowel disease. Therefore, an attempt to confirm it in an independent laboratory and patient population has been made in this study. Thirty patients with ulcerative colitis, 30 with Crohn's disease, and 30 healthy control subjects were studied using the Eco RV restriction enzyme and the same T-cell receptor alpha-chain complementary deoxyribonucleic acid probe as was used in the prior report. No 10-kilobase fragment or any other polymorphism using this probe-enzyme combination was found in any of the individuals studied. Polymorphisms were observed with the restriction enzyme Bgl II, but their frequencies did not distinguish between cases and controls. Therefore, there is as yet no evidence for an association between polymorphisms of Eco RV-digested genomic DNA probed with the pGA5 T-cell receptor alpha-chain complementary deoxyribonucleic acid and the predisposition to inflammatory bowel disease.


Medicinal plants, natural colour and spices were examined in vitro for antibacterial effects on the growth of Escherichia coli (EPEC) serotype O:125, Salmonella thyphimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 7644 and Yersinia enterocolitica ATCC 9610. The most effective medicinal plant was Lippia sidoides at concentration of 3 percent (w/v), that added to Trypticase Soya Broth completely inhibited the growth of S. thyphimurium, S. aureus, L. monocytogenes and Y. enterocolitica. Among the spices, the cloves (Sysygium aromaticum) extract had the strongest inhibitory activity on the growth of E. coli, S. thyphimurium e Y. enterocolitica demonstred through the agar difussion technique. Sage (Salvia officinalis) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) extracts inhibited the growth of L. monocytogenes and S. aureus. The nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) extract also prevented the development of L. monocytogenes.


This paper describes the experiments conducted at the JPL Advanced Teleoperator Laboratory recently to demonstrate and quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of various teleoperator control modes in the performance of a simulated Solar Max Satellite Repair (SMSR) task. The SMSR was selected as a test task because it is very rich in performance capability requirements and it actually has been performed by two EVA astronauts in the Space Shuttle Bay in 1984. The main subtasks are: thermal blanket removal; installation of a hinge attachment for electrical panel opening; opening of electrical panel; removal of electrical connectors; relining of cable bundles; replacement of elec_cal panel; securing parts and cables; re-mate electrical connectors; dosing of electrical panel; and reinstating thermal blanket. The current performance experiments are limited to thermal blanket cutting, electrical panel unbolting and handling electrical bundles and connectors. In one formal experiment seven different control modes were applied to the unbolting and reinsertion of electrical panel screv, s subtasks. The seven control modes are alternative combinations of manual position and rate control with force feedback and remote compliance referenced to forcetorque sensor information. Force-torque sensor and end effector position data and task completion times were recorded for analysis and quantification of operator performance.


In this paper, we consider the delay-sensitive power and transmission threshold control design in S-ALOHA network with FSMC fading channels. The random access system consists of an access point with K competing users, each has access to the local channel state information (CSI) and queue state information (QSI) as well as the common feedback (ACK/NAK/Collision) from the access point. We seek to derive the delay-optimal control policy (composed of threshold and power control). The optimization problem belongs to the memoryless policy K-agent infinite horizon decentralized Markov decision process (DEC-MDP), and finding the optimal policy is shown to be computationally intractable. To obtain a feasible and low complexity solution, we recast the optimization problem into two subproblems, namely the power control and the threshold control problem. For a given threshold control policy, the power control problem is decomposed into a reduced state MDP for single user so that the overall complexity is O(NJ), where N and J are the buffer size and the cardinality of the CSI states. For the threshold control problem, we exploit some special structure of the collision channel and common feedback information to derive a low complexity solution. The delay performance of the proposed design is shown to have substantial gain relative to conventional throughput optimal approaches for S-ALOHA.


A technique is developed based on free link concept to construct the available free space between obstacles within robot's environment in terms of free convex area. Then, a new kind of vertex graph called MAKLINK is constructed to support the generation of a collision free path. This graph is constructed using the midpoints of common free links between free convex area as passing points. These points correspond to nodes in a graph and the connection between them within each convex area as arcs in this graph. A collision free path can be efficiently generated using the MAKLINK graph. The complexity of the search for a collision free path is greatly reduced by minimizing the size of the graph to be searched concerning the number of nodes and the number of arcs connecting them. The analysis of the proposed algorithm shows its efficiency in terms of computation ability, safety, optimality, and in supporting robot navigation along the generated path.<<ETX>>


The glyoxalase I gene GLO1 is a hotspot for copy number variation in the human and mouse genomes. The additional copies are often functional, giving rise to 2-4-fold increased glyoxalase I expression and activity. The prevalence of GLO1 copy number increase in the human population appears to be approximately 2% and may be linked to a risk of obesity, diabetes and aging. Increased GLO1 copy number has been found in human tumour cell lines and primary human tumours. The minimum common copy number increase region was approximately 1 Mb and it contained GLO1 and seven other genes. The increased copy number was generally functional, being associated with increased glyoxalase I protein and multidrug resistance in cancer chemotherapy. Glo1 duplication in the mouse genome is found within approximately 0.5 Mb of duplicated DNA. It was claimed to be linked to anxiety phenotypes, but other related discordant findings have doubted the association with glyoxalase I and further investigation is required.


Depression is a prevalent illness in todays society. It changes and influences our entire method of thought and our emotional, cognitive, and everyday behavioral behaviors. It affected over 264 million people, and the proportion increases every day. Mainly when it lasts for a prolonged time, it becomes a severe issue or health topic. It leads the trustworthy person to also malfunction, and that person commits suicide in his final position. There are several causes for depression, though social networking like Facebook, Twitter, and other networking plays a critical role in getting us more depressed. Most people in Asia use Facebook, Twitter, and various chat applications, and there they express their emotions. That is why our research initiative picks social media. Some work has been done on depression but depression detection on the Bengali community is done very rarely. So it has become a strong demand for today. The social media has intialted a study based on depression, tweets, and numerous chat app responses, and gathered Bengali data and projected depression posts and commentaries. Diverse approaches of machine learning have been used to evaluate these data and forecast depression and for algorithm purpose Support vector machine, Random Forest, Decision Tree, K-Nearest Neighbors, Naive Bayes (Multinomial Naive Bayes), Logistic Regression has been used. The desired results can be obtained by adding those algorithms. Moreover, different algorithms send us different results as trends were common, but ultimately the precision was the same for all algorithms applied to our dataset.


We evaluated the inclusion of peeled-mango waste meal as source of carbohydrate in the protein:carbohydrate ratio (CP:CH) on performance and chemical composition of pacama (Lophiosilurus alexandri) juveniles. One hundred and fifty fish ( 11.31 ± 0.96g ) were stocked in sixteen 500 L tanks, fed three times daily (10% of live weight), in a system with water recirculation with biofilter. The treatments consisted of four experimental diets with decreasing levels of the ratio between crude protein and carbohydrate (1.40, 0.94, 0.56 and 0.29), with four replications per treatment. At the end of 60 days, we evaluated animal performance (average weight gain, specific growth rate, total apparent feed intake, carcass yield, survival) and metabolic parameters (glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, plasma albumin and free total amino acids) and liver enzyme alanine aminotransferase activity (ALT). The protein:carbohydrate ratios affected all performance variables (p<0.05), except for survival. The values of metabolic variables have been changed from the increase of the ratio CP:CH (p<0.05), with the exception of cholesterol and plasma albumin. Mango meal be used in a relation of 1.38 CP:CH without harming the performance and metabolism.


The rail track rocket sled (RTRS) national test facility at Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL) has been established to provide simulated flight environment for carrying out aero dynamic studies, terminal studies and kinematic studies of variety of test articles. The sled velocity is a critical parameter in evaluation trials.  This velocity is also used to ensure that the maximum speed and allowable g loading does not exceed the value which the test article will experience under free flight in air1. Overseas, the facilities have been set up to attain velocities ranging from sub-sonic to hypersonic2. The rocket sled at TBRL can be presently accelerated to travel along the rail track at velocities up to 500 m/s and capability is being built to increase velocity beyond 500 m/s. Signals acquired from existing magneto-inductive arrangement have been analysed in the present work. The experiments indicate that with increase in velocity the rate of change of flux increases, the amplitude of induced emf also increases but terminal voltage decreases and shape of the acquired pulse gets distorted. The parameters of magneto-inductive pick up have been modified in such a way that there is improvement in amplitude and shape of the received pulse with increase in velocity. The improved signals have been analysed and simulation results validated with feasible experiments. This paper also discusses issues, challenges and proposes recommendations in improving the sensor for measurement of velocity beyond Mach 1.5. It has been found that it is prudent to reduce the inductance by reducing the number of turns and changing the core from soft iron core to air core which will improve the response of inductive pick up coil at high velocity. Defence Science Journal, 2014, 64(2), pp. 143-151.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.64.5034


•  It is >70 years since the responsiveness of symptomatic metastatic prostate cancer to androgen deprivation was first demonstrated. •  Since those pivotal studies, progress in hormonal therapy of prostate cancer has been marked by several important developments and the availability of various androgen‐suppressing agents. •  Treatment guidelines have continued to evolve with clinical and therapeutic progress, but androgen‐deprivation therapy (ADT) remains the standard of care for non‐localised prostate cancer. •  Because of the long‐term experience (>20 years) and wealth of evidence from the large number of clinical trials, the luteinizing hormone‐releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists are currently the main forms of ADT. •  Treatment strategies should be adapted to the individual patient in terms of timing, duration and choice of agent. •  Prostate cancer remains the most common type of cancer in men and the development of castration‐resistant disease seems inevitable, which together drive the clear and continuing need for new, effective agents for ADT to be used alongside the LHRH agonists.


The article focuses on the high volume of children reported missing to the police in relation to the potential risks posed. It draws on a two-year multi-method research project across one police force that covers four local authorities in England. Most children (93 per cent) were located within a day and often in hours or less. This more everyday aspect of the missing issue is highlighted as different from much research in the field which focuses on children missing for longer periods. Overall, this police force had nearly 10,000 missing persons reports in a one-year period, of which around three-quarters were reports on children. The research found that, although the proportion of children in care reported missing was high (44.9 per cent of incidents and 28.7 per cent of individuals), the great majority of individual children were reported missing from home. The capacity to respond and meaningfully 'risk assess' every case was hampered by the high volume of reports that were outside office hours; the lack of readily shared data about many children; as well as different conceptions of risk across police and social care services.


RCC which stands for regression correlation coefficient is an alternative measure strength of predictive that can be applied to the GLM model in which the distribution of response variable is not only normal. The RCC is constructed based on the definition of correlation coefficient by using generalized linear model (GLM). So, the RCC can be defined as a value that states the strength of the relationship between response variable Y and its conditional expectation given predictor variables E[Y| X ]. The RCC is one measure of predictable power that can satisfies the property like applicability, interpretability, consistency, and affinity. In general, the explicit form of RCC on GLM is difficult to find. However, when RCC is applied to the Poisson regression model and the predictor variables are assumed to be a normal multivariate distribution, an explicit form is found. This explicit form still contains the unknown parameters derived from the Poisson regression model. Therefore, we need to find an estimate of these parameters to obtain an estimator from the RCC. The Poisson regression model which still contains the unknown parameters are estimated using maximum likelihood method. Application of regression correlation coefficient is done in case of maternal mortality rate in Central Java Province in 2015.


The demand for poultry products such as eggs, meat and birds is on the increase daily that the world can no longer depend solely on the natural mode of incubation hence, the need for artificial incubators. But not all countries have stable electricity supply; therefore, there is a need to fabricate other types of incubators that will not be powered by electricity. Hence the choice of kerosene powered incubator. Heat generated by the combustion of kerosene was transferred into the incubator chamber by conduction and circulated by means of a 12 V D.C fan powered by a 12volt battery device. LM35 temperature sensor was used as the temperature sensing device. Both the turning of eggs and heat generated from heat source were controlled by mechanically incorporated driver motors. The LM35 temperature sensor and the two stepper motors were controlled by a PIC16F877 microcontroller. Insulation of the incubator chamber was achieved by lining the inner portion of the incubator with fiber materials. The incubator was designed and constructed using locally available material to reduce cost with little or no dependence on electricity and more user friendly. The incubator was tested with 90 eggs each for the three birds (i.e Chicken, Quail and Turkey). The result obtained shows that quail has the highest hatchability of 93% followed by Chicken with 84.4% and lastly turkey with 70%. The unit cost for the incubator is ₦95,000.00. The above average efficiencies implied that the Incubator performed efficiently and effectively. The birds also look healthy and strong several days after they were hatched.


Received 11 March 2015 Accepted 06 August 2015 Online 31 August 2015 Print 31 August 2015 A 30 year female presented with history of pain abdomen, abdominal distension since six months, diagnosed to have huge hydatid cysts both in right lung and liver. It is unusual to find such large cysts at multiple sites and organs as in this case. There are reports in the literature of staged management as well as simultaneous management of lung and liver hydatid cysts. Though concomitant cysts in right lung and subphrenic liver may be treated comfortably by one stage surgery of "right thoracotomy with phrenotomy", here both cysts were enucleated in the same sitting by a combined thoracic and abdominal approach (thoracotomy followed by laparotomy), as cysts were deep in the visceral parenchyma away from diaphragm. The technique is safe and results were comparable to two stage surgery. Albendazole treatment in post-operative period probably helps to prevent recurrence. This report emphasizes that surgical intervention for hydatid cysts at multiple sites done in a single stage is safe, lessens the financial burden & hospital stay by avoiding multiple anesthesia and surgeries. Corresponding author


Background and Aim : The health concern caused by the respiration of drinking water aerosols containing opportunistic pathogens such as Legionella pneumophila is increasing. This study aimed to investigate the effect of George Fisher's piping system on controlling Legionella pneumophila growth. Methods : A total of 32 samples with a volume of 1 liter per hot and cold water system of the gallery commercial-office complex and selective hospital were collected. Then, filtration, concentration, and heat treatment were performed and cultured on selected BCYE agar medium Results : The culture results showed that 5.8% of George Fisher samples and 37.5% of metal tubes were positive for Legionella pneumophila . Conclusion : Legionella pneumophila stopper pipes and fittings of George Fisher Company have a good ability to control the growth and density of Legionella pneumophila in the indoor water supply system and can be considered a suitable option for use in plumbing and indoor water supply.


The periods in which each new or refined form of artificial lighting have become dominant have presented their illumination as characteristic of the highest state of progress, as a significant stage of development that has lifted humanity out of a state of nature. Meanwhile, the everyday use of lighting has been complex, driven by practicality, expediency and materiality, not linear 'progress'. This paper explores these uses, the reception and meanings attaching to artificial illumination during the nineteenth century, through the lens of Atkinson Grimshaw's Reflections on the Thames (1880). In this painting, situated within a long history of nocturnes and landscapes, we also see an heterogenous interplay of reflected artificial (gas, oil, electric arc) light, each consumed simultaneously within metropolitan culture, itself seen as the apogee of civilisation for the time, all cut through by the tidal river Thames and (natural) moon light. In this painting, we see how a Victorian genre artist, reflecting on the Thames, created a narrative of London as an unsleeping, working Capital, framed by nature, dependent on its forces, illuminated, yet shady, multifaceted, effortful. Summary


Recently, some press articles and opinions have come out that talk about aesthetic problems of glass facades. These problems are summed up in the excessive glare of these facades, raising the temperature in the external areas, and the effect of these facades by dust and storms that pass through the State of Kuwait, leaving a bad impact on them that loses their aesthetic value. I favored this research paper. To determine the extent to which these facades are suitable for the Kuwaiti climate, as there are towers with high-rise glass facades that occupy international ranks in terms of the elegance of the design and the aesthetics of the building. In the research, I wondered whether the process of transferring the use of these facades to our country was carried out without studying the climatic conditions of these countries. Or are there design errors in transportation, or is it a change in the climate, or are these facades suitable for the hot climate with some modifications to suit the climate? And I noticed through the research that most of the research tended to study the modern uses of facade glass in terms of providing comfort to the user and reducing energy. Through its content, the research dealt with a case study of some existing models of towers with glass facades in Kuwait, and conducting analyzes of them and studying the research related to them.


The idea that the hard processes are dominate at the very high multiplicity (VHM) final states creation is considered. For this purpose quantitative realization of the Pomeron, DIS and large-angle annihilation (LAA) mechanism combinations are considered in the pQCD frame. The phase transition (condensation) in the soft pions system is described as the alternative to above mechanism. It is shown that in compared to QCD prediction last one predicts enhancement in the VHM distribution tail.


Statement of the Problem: The prevalence of overweight and obesity has been increasing markedly in recent years. It may influence growth in pre pubertal children. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether increased Body Mass Index (BMI) is associated with accelerated skeletal maturation and dental maturation in six to fifteen years old orthodontic patients in Shiraz, Iran. Materials and Method: Skeletal maturation and dental development of 95 orthodontic patients (65 females and 30 males), aged 6 to 15 years, were determined. Dental development was assessed using the Demerjian method and skeletal maturation was evaluated by cervical vertebral method as presented by Bacetti. The BMI was determined for each patient. T-test was applied to compare the mean difference between chronologic and dental age among the study groups. A regression model was used to assess the relationship between BMI percentile, skeletal maturation, and dental development. Results: 18.9% of subjects were overweight and obese. The mean differences between dental age and chronologic age were 0.73±1.3 for underweight and normal weight children and 1.8±1.08 for overweight and obese children. These results highlighted the correlation between accelerated dental maturity and increasing BMI percentile (p= 0.002). A new formula was introduced for this relationship. There was not any significant relationship between BMI percentile and skeletal maturation. Conclusion: Children who were overweight or obese had accelerated dental development whereas they did not have accelerated skeletal maturation significantly after being adjusted for age and gender.


The relationship between interference and facilitation effects in the Stroop task is poorly understood yet central to its implications. At question is the modal view that they arise from a single mechanism-the congruency of color and word. Two developments have challenged that view: (a) the belief that facilitation effects are fractionally small compared with interference effects, or nonexistent altogether; and (b) the finding that interference and facilitation effects are inversely correlated. Statistical simulations, reanalysis of past data, and two new experiments indicate that facilitation is robust and substantial when congruency is deconfounded from lexicality, and that the inverse correlations are mostly spurious. Instead, interference and facilitation are uncorrelated, or at most weakly but inversely related. Resolution of response conflict and lexical convergence can explain either finding. Modeling and interpretation of the Stroop task must distinguish between nonspecific lexicality-based effects and specific color-word congruency effects.


One crystal plate can be superposed upon another of the same material to produce observable X-ray moire fringes in the simultaneously diffracted beam transmitted through the plates. During alignment it is necessary to determine, and then minimize, the small difference vector between the acting reciprocal lattice vectors. By rigid rotation of the crystal pair about the mean reciprocal lattice vector the Ewald sphere is caused to make various angles with the difference vector. This vector can then be fully determined by measuring its component normal to the Ewald sphere at two or more settings of the sphere.


With the urban trends towards higher density living and "mixed-use" developments, commercial premises are increasingly being located in close proximity to residential dwellings. Restaurants, cafeteria, bar & bistro and 24hour gymnasiums below the residential apartments are some common examples of amenities in a mixed-use development that are often a source of noise annoyance. This paper investigates one such scenario where a commercial kitchen is located below a retirement living residential apartment. Sleep disturbance and noise annoyance were key concerns for the resident, even though the measured indoor noise level within the dwelling achieved the acoustic design criteria. Analysis of the measured indoor noise levels and recorded audio showed that a low frequency noise source was cycling on and off periodically every 8 to 10-minutes. This noise source was generating noise levels at least 10 dB higher at 100 Hz than the residual noise in the apartment, and was considered to be the likely source of noise annoyance and sleep disturbance. The noise was traced to a nearby cool room refrigeration compressor associated with the commercial kitchen below. This paper discusses the investigation undertaken and the noise control measures that were implemented.


Mica minerals are ubiquitous constituents of the Earth's crust, occurring commonly within faults and shear zones. They are widely understood to be weaker than most other silicate minerals across a range of pressure, temperature and strain rate conditions and, as a result, accommodate a disproportionately large amount of strain within lithospheric faults and shear zones. Despite this, the mechanisms and processes which govern mica deformation are not fully understood. This is due primarily to the strong crystallographic anisotropy of micas, which sets them apart from the majority of other minerals. This thesis reports microstructural work carried out on naturally deformed mica-bearing and mica-dominated mylonites from the upper-greenschist to amphibolite facies Cossato-Mergozzo-Brissago (CMB) line and Pogallo line shear zones in North West Italy. The principal objectives are to identify the mechanisms of intracrystalline deformation within micas, investigate the interaction of stress, chemistry and fluids within mica-bearing mylonites and examine how the degree of mica content affects the distribution of strain within polyphase rocks. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images reveal evidence of ripplocations, a novel defect proposed for layered materials, in naturally deformed biotite. Nanoscale lenticular delaminations and bending of biotite lattice planes are observed in en-echelon arrays. These features cannot be explained within the framework of existing understanding of intracrystalline defects within micas as basal dislocations contain no component of c-axis parallel strain. The features closely resemble those resulting from ripplocations, modelled and observed within layered engineering materials, that are theoretically applicable to phyllosilicates. The existence of ripplocations within phyllosilicates opens up ripplocation motion as a potential deformation mechanism in geological phenomena which is able to explain many of the existing ambiguities relating to non-brittle intracrystalline deformation of phyllosilicates. Biotite within the studied mylonites derived from granitic orthogneiss protoliths underwent a dramatic grain size reduction with increasing strain, forming 1-5 μm aggregates. The breakdown was focussed initially at sites of high strain, such as kink band boundaries, grain tips and grain surfaces, but eventually entirely replaced coarse grains. Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) data suggests the fine grains represent a subtly different compositional population to the parent grains, centred on a reduction in Ti. TEM images reveal irregular boundaries between fine-grained biotite and quartz in the matrix, with the transition from coarse to fine grains having occurred in a single stage, with no evidence of subgrain formation. Muscovite in the same thin sections did not undergo the same process. It is suggested that the grain-size reduction occurred by means of a stress-induced, fluid facilitated dissolution-precipitation reaction rather than a purely mechanical recrystallisation mechanism. This process facilitated the formation of an interconnected weak network of fine-grained polyphase material which likely deformed by grain-size sensitive creep, ultimately leading to rheological weakening of the mylonite. While the grain size reduction of biotite is critical to forming interconnected weak networks in orthogneiss mylonites, its occurrence is distinctly less pronounced in mylonites with higher mica content. In these rocks (with mica content up to and over 50%) the mica phase forms an interconnected weak network from the outset of deformation. This enables strain to be distributed more evenly, as the microstructure is dominated by a weak framework, and contrasts with the high strain C' shear bands formed in orthogneiss rocks where biotite grain size has been dramatically reduced. Such a pattern is also evident at the scale of hundreds of metres, with mica-rich rocks forming a 200 m to 300 m wide region of distributed deformation and orthogneiss rocks producing ~50 m wide zones characterised by heterogeneous deformation, high strain shear zones and ultramylonites. It is proposed that strain localisation is most important in rocks with mica content between around 5% - 25%, whereas deformation of rocks with mica content above around 25% promotes more distributed accommodation of strain. In granitic orthogneiss ultramylonites, K-feldspar porphyroclasts are decorated along high stress interfaces by fine grained plagioclase feldspar and a small amount of quartz. The reverse occurs at low stress sites of plagioclase porphyroclasts such as fractures and surfaces in contact with pressure shadows. Microstructural observations and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) data suggest the fine grains have grown topotactically at the expense of the porphyroclasts, indicating that this is a form of mineral replacement reaction controlled by local stress heterogeneities. Molar volume calculations show that the driving force for the reaction may be a re-distribution of volume from sites of high stress to those of low stress, making this process a form of incongruent pressure solution as it involves a phase change. These reactions are facilitated by ionic exchange and local chemical gradients within an aqueous phase and serve to accelerate the transformation of feldspars from coarse, rigid porphyroclasts to fine-grained components of a polyphase matrix.


NASA's Glenn Research Center (GRC) is responsible for the advanced communications for air traffic management (AC/ATM) project. GRC's large-scale CPDLC (controller pilot data link communications) emulation testbed provides the capability to study the impact of data link traffic loads on the NAS communications infrastructure. The testbed provides a means of generating and observing the performance of large scale aeronautical data link communications using different subnetworks. End-to-end ATN (aeronautical telecommunications network) message (CM (context management) and CPDLC) emulation is provided through script-driven, departure-through-arrival scenarios that can support a full range of communications test activities. The capability to use up to 160 aircraft in an experiment, coupled with the testbed's performance measurements, provides the means to assess the number of aircraft that a subnetwork can support and meet the FAA's performance goals.


In this study the relationship between the right and left hemispheres of the brain and criminal behavior was investigated. It was predicted that prisoners scoring higher on the verbal scale than the performance scale of the WAIS-R would tend to commit more analytical thought-out crimes. Those scoring higher on the performance scale may be more impulsive type criminals and tend to commit crimes less thought out. A total of 51 inmates were tested with the WAIS-R. Inmates who scored lower on the verbal scale than the performance scale tended to be more impulsive. Due to the overlap in crimes committed by both types of criminals, it was recommended that future research in this area may include a third category of both impulsive-non-impulsive along with the separation of the 2 categories.


The article aims to assess the entrepreneurship policy-making processes and outcomes undertaken by public institutions involved in entrepreneurship development in Malawi. The specific objectives of the article were to identify the gaps in the entrepreneurship policy-making process currently being used in Malawi and to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of the entrepreneurship policy in the country. A total of eight organisations were purposively sampled and only two accepted to provide an in-depth interview. These public organisations were SMEDI and TEVETA which are involved in entrepreneurship policy initiation and implementation. The interviewees were the management team members of the respective organisations. The study used content analysis and thematic analysis to analyse the interview results as it was qualitative in nature. The findings indicate that the policy process on entrepreneurship is still under review in Malawi and entrepreneurship development is not prioritised by authorities. Entrepreneurship development goals are regarded as secondary goals to national goals. To this day, there has not been much done to improve entrepreneurship education and training and (Small Medium Enterprise) SME development on the ground and this is dating back to 2008 in Malawi. There is no collaboration and coordination among the institutions involved in entrepreneurship development in Malawi. The collaboration and coordination are 'ad-hoc' and 'event-driven' which can be regarded as ineffective. The overall custodian of the SME policy is the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). The other quasi-governmental departments only oversee or undertake policy implementation on behalf of the MoIT. Efforts to interview the Director of SMEs in the MoIT yielded no result.


The surface activity of pepsin-solubilized type I collagen acylated by lauroyl chloride and succinic anhydride was investigated in this article. Compared with native collagen, acylated collagen exhibited better surface activity such as oil absorption capacity, emulsion activity and stability, foam expansion, and foam stability but presented lower water absorption capacity. Acylated collagen also had higher emulsion activity and stability than Tween 80, whereas Tween 80 displayed higher foam expansion and stability than acylated collagen. After acylation, the surface tension of collagen decreased with the storage time increased, the hydrophobicity and the wetting power increased with the increase of the concentration. Meanwhile, the emulsion activity and stability of acylated collagen decreased with the increase of NaCl concentration ranging from 20 to 100 mmol/L. Under neutral pH value, acylated collagen reached higher emulsion activity and stability at acylated collagen concentration of 0.4 mg/mL and lower temperature (<35°C). © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40174.


This talk will focus on recent results by the MILC collaboration from simulations of light hadrons in 2 + 1 flavor lattice QCD. We have achieved high precision results in the pseudoscalar sector, including masses and decay constants, plus quark masses and Gasser-Leutwyler parameters from well controlled chiral perturbation theory fits to our data. We also show spectroscopy results for vector mesons and baryons.


The use of medicinal plants among pregnant women and lactating is a common practice in diverse countries. However, many medicinal plants are contraindicated during pregnancy and lactating, due to various adverse effects, such as teratogenic, embryotoxic and abortive effects, exposing these women, their fetus and babies to health unknown risks. Thus, the purpose of this commentary, was to analyze the perception about the use of medicinal plants by pregnant women and lactating registered in the "baby on board" NGO, Araraquara, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, between 2010 at 2013. The group was constituted by 48 women, between the first and last trimester of pregnancy or whilst breastfeeding. Information was collected during group meetings by oral interview, using a questionnaire, as script. The nature of the study was a qualitative analysis. The results were based on reports about the use of medicinal plants by pregnant women during group meetings: use, indication of use, knowledge about risks. All participants received written and oral information about the study and they gave a written informed consent. The use of medicinal plants is a reality among pregnant and lactating women of the "baby on board" NGO. They reported that they feel that "natural" products are not harmful for their health. The primary information sources for the majority of women about medicinal plants during pregnancy are family, neighbors and herbalists. The plants most cited (in popular name in Brazil) were: senna, chamomile, boldo, lemon balm, lemon grass. They were used mainly for: nausea, heartburn, indigestion, flatulence, intestinal and abdominal pain, anxiety, intestinal constipation and low milk production. The pregnant and lactating women lacked knowledge about the health risks of the use of medicinal plants and herbal medicines in pregnancy and lactation. They also reported difficulties in clarifying some questions about the use of medicinal plants with their doctors. The results of the present study showed that educative actions about the rational use of medicinal plants in pregnancy and breastfeeding could be part of the operating protocols to promote the maternal and child health programs in Araraquara. Thus, our results also suggest the importance of creating institutionalized places, to the implementation of continued education programs about rational use of medicinal plants in pregnancy and lactation. These targeted programs are not only for health professionals, but also for community members, pregnant women and breastfeeding. Our results pointed out the importance of guidance of doctors and healthcare professionals on the scientific studies about medicinal plants and herbal medicines and the risk/benefit of using herbs during pregnancy. Finally, it is noted the importance of the health professionals to inform women of childbearing on risks to their health, as well as on possibilities of utilization of herbs during fertile period, giving special attention to the potential risk of self-medication.


Purposes To evaluate the optical performance of blue-light filtering spectacle lenses and investigate whether a reduction in blue light transmission affects visual performance and sleep quality. Methods Experiment 1: The relative changes in phototoxicity, scotopic sensitivity, and melatonin suppression of five blue-light filtering plano spectacle lenses were calculated based on their spectral transmittances measured by a spectrophotometer. Experiment 2: A pseudo-randomized controlled study was conducted to evaluate the clinical performance of two blue-light filtering spectacle lenses (BF: blue-filtering anti-reflection coating; BT: brown-tinted) with a regular clear lens (AR) serving as a control. A total of eighty computer users were recruited from two age cohorts (young adults: 18–30 yrs, middle-aged adults: 40–55 yrs). Contrast sensitivity under standard and glare conditions, and colour discrimination were measured using standard clinical tests. After one month of lens wear, subjective ratings of lens performance were collected by questionnaire. Results All tested blue-light filtering spectacle lenses theoretically reduced the calculated phototoxicity by 10.6% to 23.6%. Although use of the blue-light filters also decreased scotopic sensitivity by 2.4% to 9.6%, and melatonin suppression by 5.8% to 15.0%, over 70% of the participants could not detect these optical changes. Our clinical tests revealed no significant decrease in contrast sensitivity either with (95% confidence intervals [CI]: AR–BT [–0.05, 0.05]; AR–BF [–0.05, 0.06]; BT–BF [–0.06, 0.06]) or without glare (95% CI: AR–BT [–0.01, 0.03]; AR–BF [–0.01, 0.03]; BT–BF [–0.02, 0.02]) and colour discrimination (95% CI: AR–BT [–9.07, 1.02]; AR–BF [–7.06, 4.46]; BT–BF [–3.12, 8.57]). Conclusion Blue-light filtering spectacle lenses can partially filter high-energy short-wavelength light without substantially degrading visual performance and sleep quality. These lenses may serve as a supplementary option for protecting the retina from potential blue-light hazard. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02821403


Introduction For the last few years, our lab has been attempting to build robots that are similar to humans in a variety of ways. Our goal has been to build systems that think and act like a person rather than look like a person since the state of the art is not sufficient for a robot to look (even superficially) like a human person. We believe that there are at least two reasons to build robots that think and act like a human. First, how an artificial system acts has a profound effect on how people act toward the system. Second, how an artificial system thinks has a profound effect on how people interact with the system.


Since 2012, Chinese investments in the Brazilian agricultural sector have been accomplished through methods other than exclusive land purchase. Among all methods, mergers and acquisitions of traditional agri-food transnationals have been the main choice of some of the Chinese investors, like the giant state-owned enterprise, COFCO. After purchasing two big transnationals, the company became the third largest soybean exporter in Brazil. COFCO's exports have met a growing consumer market in China, providing abundant raw material to the Chinese feed and livestock industry. Notwithstanding, besides controlling and seeking profits from sectors directly linked to China, COFCO has also reproduced and promoted multiple forms of capital accumulation abroad by mimicking methods of recently acquired corporations, and by engaging in diversified industrial and commercial operations across the world. This paper explores the basis of this phenomenon by raising the hypothesis that COFCO "goes outwards"  in order to evade from latent problems of over-accumulation of capital in the sectors it operates in China. Accordingly, the Chinese agriculture has experienced different methods of accumulation, followed by the vertical integration within all segments of the production. Consequently, an increasing concentration of industrial capital in agriculture, as well as its connections to banking capital, has been responsible for the consolidation of huge financialised conglomerates. At the same time, a restructuration of the state sector has constituted dominant and monopolistic forms of capital which has shaped and has been shaped by the process related previously. Finally, these factors combined have been responsible for an increasing over-accumulation of different segments of China's economy. From the perspective of the feed and processing industry, this paper argues that over-accumulation has been solved by exporting capital across global commodity chains. It identifies COFCO as a result of this process, which is one way to explain the main dynamics of COFCO's investments in Brazil.


: We attempted to extract (1 → 3;1 → 6)-s ・ D-glucanfrom the water-Insoluble residue of Hericium erinaceum with proteolytic and chitin degrading enzyme treatments followed by microwave irradiation. Two sets of four commercially available enzymes were used in this study; Actinase E , Proteinase K , Chitinase-RS and Chitinase. The results showed that the enzyme treatment using Proteinase K and Chitinase simultaneously had the most significant synergistic effects on the amount of glucan extracted; 95.5% of the amount of glucan extractable with 5% sodium hydroxide. The structure of (1 → 3;1 → 6)-s-D 田 glucanobtained by this enzyme treatment was different from that obtained by extraction with alkaline solution in that the former was rich in (1 → 6) linkages , whereas the latter was rich in (1 → 3) linkages.


Abstract The effect of specimen gauge section (length×width) was investigated on the compressive behaviour of a T300/924C [45/-45/0/90]3s carbon fibre-epoxy laminate. A modified Imperial College compression test fixture was used together with an antibuckling device to test 3 mm thick specimens with a 30×30, 50×50, 70×70, and 90×90 mm gauge length by width section. In all cases failure was sudden and occurred mainly within the gauge length. Post-failure examination suggests that 0° fibre microbuckling is the critical damage mechanism that causes final failure. This is a matrix dominated failure mode and its triggering depends very much on initial fibre waviness. It is suggested that manufacturing plays a significant role in determining the compressive strength and may be more important as the section thickness of the composite increases. Additionally, compressive tests on specimens with an open hole are performed. The local stress concentration arising from the hole dominates the strength of the laminate rather than the stresses in the bulk of the material. It is observed that the remote failure stress decreases with increasing hole size and specimen width but is generally well above the value one might predict from the elastic stress concentration factor. This suggests that the material is not ideally brittle and some stress relief occurs around the hole. X-ray radiography reveals that damage in the form of fibre microbuckling and delamination initiates at the edge of the hole at ~80% of the failure load and extends stably under increasing load before becoming unstable at a critical length of 2-3 mm (depending on specimen geometry). This damage growth and failure are analysed by a linear cohesive zone model. Using the independently measured laminate parameters of compressive unnotched strength and in plane fracture toughness the model predicts successfully the notched strength as a function of hole size and width.


Logical reasoning process for high school and college students Meng-Lung Lai National Chiayi University, Chiayi, Taiwan, Taiwan Yi-Hua Cheng National Chiayi University, Chiayi, Taiwan, Taiwan Chia-You Liu National Chiayi University, Chiayi, Taiwan, Taiwan Abstract: Logical reasoning is at the heart of math courses. Wason's selection task has been widely investigated to examine students' reasoning; however, previous studies found that few participants could correctly solve Wason's tasks. This study adopted a modified format of the selection task, context-embedded problems, as well as the standard selection tasks to look into high school and college students' reasoning process using eye tracking technology. Results showed that neither the high school nor the college students correctly solved the standard selection tasks, while about half of these participants correctly solve the context-embedded problems. Typically, these participants were only trying to prove the rule true rather than proving the rule false and these two groups did not differ in either accuracy or RT. Additionally, while looking at how participants examined the choices for each question, we found that longer inspection times were more related to selected choices than to rejected choices.


Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Findings
Many firms today opt to seek growth through a diversification strategy. Success becomes likelier when the company is able to access key resources and capabilities and adopts a corporate parenting approach that is both appropriate and highly focused.

Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.


Background: Juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA) is the com m onest autoimmune rheumatic disease in childhood and presents different clinical subtypes. Juvenile chronic arthritis is considered to be of a polygenic nature and its genetic background is still under investigation. The clinical profile of JCA in the Greek population has not been studied completely. This study retrospectively analyzed the clinical and immunological features o f JCA in Greek children presented between 1989 and 1994. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-positive or -negative associations in the different clinical subtypes were also detected. The findings of this study were correlated with those reported from other populations. M ethods and results: Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) anti-ds DNA and anti-extractable nuclear antigen anti bodies were estimated by immunofluorescent and ELISA assays. Human leukocyte antigen typing was performed by microlymphocytotoxicity, using immunobeads. The peak ages of JCA onset were between 2 and 5 years and also between 9 and 12 years. There was a high female predominance in pauciarticular and poly articular groups. The most common disease was pauciarticular (58.7%) followed by systemic (25%) arthritis. The incidence of eye involvement was 12.5% and presented only in the pauciarticular group. Overall, ANA positivity was 53.7%, increasing to 90% in pauciarticular cases associated with chronic uveitis. In the early onset (EOPA) pauciarticular subtype, positive-HLA associations with alleles DR 11 and DR8 were shown. In the late onset pauciarticular (LOPA) group only B27 allele was increased. Conclusions: The results of this retrospective study did not reveal major differences between JCA in Greek children com pared with other Caucasian series.


Shared-disk database systems offer a high degree of freedom in the allocation of workload compared to shared-nothing architectures. This creates a great potential for load balancing but also introduces additional complexity into the process of query scheduling. This report surveys the problems and opportunities faced in scan processing in a shared-disk environment. We list the parameters to tune and the decisions to make, as well as some known solutions and commonsense considerations, in order to identify the most promising areas of future research.


The Conference for Studying the Pharmacopedical Curriculum was inaugurated in 2001, sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. In April 2002, the draft of a new model curriculum was presented to all pharmaceutical schools and key organizations. Finally, the conference drafted the Model Core Curriculum for Pharmaceutical Education and the Practical On-site Training and Graduation Training Curriculum. The Model Core Curriculum for Practical On-site Training was drafted in 2003. The Committee for the Educational Guidance System in Practical On-site Training, established in 2004 by the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan, is a committee for the development of the guidance system for practical on-site training. This committee held two workshops to create an evaluation program for specific behavioral objectives in the Model Core Curriculum for Practical On-site Training. The evaluation program has not yet been proposed. Evaluation programs for eight units presented in the Model Core Curriculum for Practical On-site Training have been proposed. A verification trial has already been performed in several schools/colleges/universities. The evaluation program of the remaining units is scheduled. This symposium introduces the development of the evaluation program and proposes the performance of verification trials.


Experimental realization for phase-locking large arrays of lasers arranged in a variety of 2D geometries is presented. Using our degenerate-cavity coupling between lasers is easily controlled giving rise to a variety of intriguing phase structures.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the value of compound anesthesia of transcutaneous electrical point stimulation and Remifentanil and the efficacy of this method on postoperative acute pain.

METHODS
Sixty cases with vertebral lamina internal fixation decompression operation were selected and randomly divided into 2 groups, an observation group and a control group, 30 cases in each group. The patients in the observation group received compound anesthesia of transcutaneous electrical point stimulation at Hegu (LI 4), Laogong (PC 8), Neiguan (PC 6) and Waiguan (TE 5) 30 min before anesthesia induction with HANS stimulator and then Remifentanil anesthesia. During the operation, the stimulation was lasted for 30 min and ceased for 30 min until the end of operation. The patients in the control group received simple Remifentanil anesthesia. The dosage of the narcotic, changes of both blood pressure and heart rate during operation, before and after extubation and the pain degree, etc. were investigated in the two groups.

RESULTS
(1) The dosage of Isoflurane, (0.52 +/- 0.33)vol%, in the observation group was significantly lower than (1.12 +/- 0.18) vol% in the control group (P < 0.01). (2) Both blood pressure and heart rate during operation, before and after extubation in the observation group were lower than those before operation (P < 0.01), and both the blood pressure and heart rate during operation in the control group were lower than those before operation (P < 0.01). The blood pressure after extubation in the observation group was significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.01), and the heart rate before and after extubation in the observation group was significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.01). (3) The time of extubation and palinesthesia in the observation group were significantly shorter than those in the control group (P < 0.01). (4) In the observation group, the VAS scores after palinesthesia in 26 cases were < 4, and in 4 cases were > or = 5, while in the control group, the scores in 4 cases were < 4 and in 20 cases > or = 5, with a significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION
Compound anesthesia of transcutaneous electrical point stimulation and Remifentanil can reduce the dosage of narcotics, shorten the time of palinesthesia and effectively prevent and treat acute pain after Remifentanil anesthesia.


Abstract Natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NK/TL) is a chemotherapy-sensitive disease, and asparaginase-based chemotherapy has become the standard primary treatment for patients with this malignancy recently. The objective of this study was to evaluate the adverse reactions on blood coagulation of the administered pegylated Escherichia coli (E coli) asparaginase (PEG-ASP) to the NK/TL patients. Clinical data of 71 NK/TL patients (range 13–73 years), who received 239 cycles of chemotherapy treatment containing PEG-ASP in the Hematology Department of Shanxi Province Cancer Hospital of China from January 2016 to December 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. Data of prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), fibrinogen (FBG), and antithrombinIII (ATIII) were obtained at the time points routinely and statistically analyzed. There were statistical differences between the monitored parameters of baseline day0 (the day before use of PEG-ASP, named day0) and those of day3 (the 3rd day after treatment) to day6, and data showed all of the indicators could recover within 21 days. The events included PT prolonged in 33 patients (46.5%), APPT prolonged in 41 patients (57.7%, 20 patients with APTT >60 seconds), FBG decreased in 49 patients (69.0%, 12 patients with FBG <1 g/L), and ATIII decreased in 52 patients (73.2%). The patients' average number of cycles received was 2.3 for PT (>14 seconds), 2.5 for APTT (>35 seconds), 2.7 for FBG (<2 g/L), and 2.6 for D-dimer (>550 ng/mL). Compared with those at day0, PT and APTT prolonged sharply at day3 (P < .05), reached the peak at day12, maintained the prolonged level from day3 to day15, and gradually recovered at day 21. FBG and ATIII significantly decreased at day6 and day3 respectively (P < .05), both of them fell to the minimum at day12, and then returned the normal. The D-dimer levels were no significantly change during the whole treatment course. The APTT >60 seconds or FBG <1 g/L side effects were improved by symptomatic treatment of supplementation of fresh frozen plasma or cryoprecipitate infusion, no concomitant bleeding or thrombotic events emerging. Our data suggested although chemotherapy including PEG-ASP impacted moderately on the coagulation function of NK/TL patients, clinically monitored regularly were necessary and most NK/TL patients can complete the chemotherapy cycles successfully.


Background: In Barbados and the wider Caribbean region, alcohol is widely consumed by adolescents and young
people, including those in secondary schools. The high prevalence of alcohol use, and its potential adverse effects are
a source of concern to policy makers and the general population, which calls for better understanding of the drivers of
this problem. This study thus aimed at investigating whether parental alcohol drinking habit is a predictor of alcohol
use among secondary school students in the country. Methods: The predictor variables and response variables in the
study were categorical, and so descriptive, univariate analysis consisted of computation of frequencies and percentages.
Bivariate analysis using Pearson's Chi Square was done to test for significant differences in the response variables
among groups. Logistic regression modeling was used in multivariate analysis to determine the predictor variables
that were significantly associated with the response variables. Results: Significant associations were seen between
students' age, (P= 0.00), grade (P=0.00), fathers' drinking habit (P=0.00), mothers' drinking habit (P=0.00), and both
past year and past month alcohol use, in bivariate analysis. Logit model shows that students whose fathers drink only
on weekends, sometimes during the week, or every day, respectively, had significantly increased risk of alcohol use in
the past month (AOR= 2.62, 95%CI= 1.81- 3.77; AOR= 1.85, 95%CI= 1.19- 2.85; AOR= 2.18, 95%CI= 1.49- 3.18).
Students whose mothers drink only on special occasion had significantly higher risk of alcohol use in the past year and
past month (AOR= 1.99, 95%CI= 1.06- 3.74; AOR= 2.30, 95%CI= 1.36- 3.89 respectively). Conclusion: Having fathers
who drink only on weekend, sometimes during the week and every day were significantly positively associated with
alcohol use in the past month. Having mothers who drink only on special occasion was a risk factor for past year and
past month alcohol use. However, having mothers who drin


In this research, a single-stage batch adsorber was designed for removal of brilliant green dye (BG) from aqueous solutions using activated carbon derived from date pits (ADPC) based on the Freundlich isotherm which was the best-fitted isotherm model. Experimental work was carried out within the range of 10–50 ppm initial dye concentration to determine the optimum operating conditions which were 55 min contact time, 0.06 g adsorbent mass, 25 °C, and pH = 8. Process kinetics was best-fitted with the pseudo-second order model, which revealed that the intra-particle diffusion stage is the rate-controlling stage for the process. The process efficiency was assessed by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning microscopy (SEM), X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) where the latter showed that the specific surface area of the adsorbent is 311.38 m2 g−1, which gives a favorable maximum monolayer adsorption capacity (77.8 mg g−1). The thermodynamic study proved that BG adsorption on ADPC was physiosorptive (ΔG = −5.86 kJ mol−1) and spontaneous at low temperature (ΔH = −17.7 kJ mol−1, ΔS = −0.04 kJ mol−1 K−1).


We examine whether the two distinct post-earnings-announcement drifts associated with seasonal random walk-based and analyst-based earnings surprises are attributable to the trading activities of distinct sets of investors. We predict and find that small (large) traders continue to trade in the direction of seasonal random walk-based (analyst-based) earnings surprises after earnings announcements. We also find that when small (large) traders react more thoroughly to seasonal random walk(analyst-) based earnings surprises at the earnings announcements, the respective drift attenuates. Further evidence suggests that delayed small trades associated with random walk-based surprises are consistent with small traders' failure to understand time-series properties of earnings, whereas delayed large trades associated with analyst-based surprises are more consistent with a longer price discovery process. We also find that the analyst-based drift has declined in recent years.


Industrial scale processes feature billions of particles and wide particle size distributions. EulerLagrange (EL) simulations of such processes, if at all possible, demand very high computational resources, especially for polydisperse cohesive (wet) gas-particle systems. As a result, it is necessary that the number of tracked particles is reduced with some sort of coarse-graining (CG) [1,2]. Crucial for the imitation of a primary particle system with computational parcels is the correct mapping of the coarsened Lagrangian information onto the Eulerian Grid. Furthermore, it is well known that the fluid grid resolution has a significant impact on aerated powder flow predictions, e.g., the voidage distribution is decisive for the prediction of the drag force [3]. Therefore, a smoothing operation that distributes the exchange fields to the surrounding cells is necessary, since simulations become numerically unstable if the particle size exceeds the fluid cell size. In polydisperse systems the fluid cell size must be based on the smallest particles size to achieve an accurate prediction of mesoscale flow features [4]. Typically, the bigger particles are several times larger than the smallest particles, and subsequently exceed the size of the fluid cell even without coarsegraining. Consequently, a trade-off between (i) modelling wide particle size distributions and (ii) predicting flow features in great details has to be made. Our contribution first introduces an optimal smoothing operation for the flow prediction of monodisperse powders. Thereby the objective function was to recover the same domain-average slip velocity for different coarse-graining ratios in a fully periodic domain. It was found that the optimal strategy is to use a linear relation between the length of the smoothing filter and the parcel size when maintaining the same fluid cell size. Second, the optimal smoothing lengths for monodisperse systems were applied in a polydisperse system. Results for different smoothing lengths and fluid cell sizes are ultimately benchmarked against data from expensive simulations of the primary system. It is demonstrated that deviations smaller than 5% for a range of cohesive regimes and coarse-graining ratios can be achieved when using optimal smoothing lengths and a coarse-graining model based on constant stresses.


The percentage of women students in engineering in Mexico is still low compared to the percentage of women enrolled in higher education institutions in the country, which has achieved parity with male enrollment. It is thus important to understand how gender can shape the experiences of female college students in engineering programs, which was the focus of this study. Findings for this study are presented in two sections. We first describe how female students have an extra burden dealing with the possibility that their performance might confirm the stereotype of female inferiority in math and science and that they may be judged according to that stereotype. Secondly, we describe the challenges faced by female students in engineering colleges in Mexico, namely, a demanding academic curriculum, and competitive and individualistic environment. This study illustrates how successful female students negotiated the gendered expectations in engineering in Mexican engineering programs, and how they use resistance strategies like academic success to become accepted in the male-dominated engineering environment.


Introduction: Hemoptysis is a common but distressing and alarming symptom in a patient. Data related to detail clinical profile and follow up study of hemoptysis are lacking.
Objective: This study was carried out to see the clinical profile of patients with hemoptysis and to study the recurrences in tertiary care centre of province 1 within the study period.
Methodology: This was a prospective observational study conducted at the department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine of Nobel Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Biratnagar, Nepal. The study was carried out between 30th January 2017 to 1st February 2020. For follow up of recurrences of hemoptysis, the patients were asked for regular chest clinic follow up and regular telephone calls made to the patients, in case, patients could not attend the chest clinic for any reason.
Results: A total of 150 patients were enrolled over the last 3 years. Among them 75% were male. The maximum number of patients (27%) were between 31-40 years of age group. Old sequelae of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) (32%) and bronchiectasis (28%) were the commonest cause of hemoptysis. Lung cancer (10%) and active PTB (10%) were other causes of hemoptysis. CT scan of the chest provided the highest (84%) diagnostic yield. Most of the cases were having mild hemoptysis (50%). 17% of the patients in our study had recurrences of hemoptysis.
Conclusion: Old PTB sequelae with bronchiectasis (fibrobronchiectasis) were the commonest cause of hemoptysis. Conservative management worked most effectively in controlling hemoptysis, if used properly.


The results of a deep radio survey at 20 cm wavelength are reported for a region containing the AKARI Deep Field South (ADF-S) near the South Ecliptic Pole (SEP), using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The survey (hereafter referred to as the ATCA-ADFS survey) has 1σ detection limits ranging from 18.7 to 50 μJy beam−1 over an area of ∼1.1 deg2, and ∼2.5 deg2 to lower sensitivity. The observations, data reduction and source count analysis are presented along with a description of the overall scientific objectives, and a catalogue containing 530 radio sources detected with a resolution of 6.2 × 4.9 arcsec. The derived differential source counts show a pronounced excess of sources fainter than ∼1 mJy, consistent with an emerging population of star-forming galaxies. Cross-correlating the radio with AKARI sources and archival data we find 95 cross-matches, with most galaxies having optical R-magnitudes in the range 18–24 mag, similar to that found in other optical deep field identifications, and 52 components lying within 1 arcsec of a radio position in at least one further catalogue (either IR or optical). We have reported redshifts for a sub-sample of our catalogue finding that they vary between galaxies in the local Universe and those having redshifts of up to 0.825. Associating the radio sources with the Spitzer catalogue at 24 μm, we find 173 matches within one Spitzer pixel, of which a small sample of the identifications are clearly radio loud compared to the bulk of the galaxies. The radio luminosity plot and a colour–colour analysis suggest that the majority of the radio sources are in fact luminous star-forming galaxies rather than radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN). There are additionally five cross-matches between the Atacama Submillimetre Telescope Experiment (ASTE) or the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimetre Telescope (BLAST) galaxies and radio sources from this survey, two of which are also detected at 90 μm, and 41 cross-matches with submillimetre sources detected in the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) Public Data release.


AbstractWe formalize a notion of topological simplification within the framework of a filtration, which is the history of a growing complex. We classify a topological change that happens during growth as either a feature or noise depending on its lifetime or persistence within the filtration. We give fast algorithms for computing persistence and experimental evidence for their speed and utility.


Dietary items of the Japanese eel Anguilla japonica inhabiting estuaries were examined by analyses of the gut (stomach and intestine) contents in two areas in Kyushu, western Japan. In a small estuary in Kagoshima Bay, where seven eel guts were examined, almost all of the dietary organisms consisted of Hemigrapsus crabs and Hediste polychaetes, both of which commonly occurred on tidal flats of this site during our survey on the macrobenthic fauna. In another large estuary in the innermost part of the Ariake Sea, where 14 eel guts were examined, 11 macrobenthic species (nine crustaceans, a polychaete, and a gastropod) were found in the gut contents, mostly consisting of mudflat-specific species. The dietary items are almost completely different not only between the two estuaries, but also among three neighboring sites within the large estuary in the Ariake Sea. These results show that Japanese eels feed on various macrobenthic invertebrates inhabiting estuarine tidal flats at each site. The variety of the prey species occupying different habitats indicates that their foraging areas extend to a wide range of estuarine tidal flats from the upper to lower littoral zones. The physalopterid nematode Heliconema anguillae was found parasitic in eel stomachs in both estuaries. The prevalence of the nematode was higher in the estuary in Kagoshima Bay (100%) than that in the Ariake Sea (43%), although the intensity in the former (4-94 nematodes per infected stomach) was comparable to that of the latter (2–96). The relationship between the nematode infection and the dietary items of Japanese eels is discussed.


Introduction Repetitive electrostatic pressurised intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy with oxaliplatin (ePIPAC-OX) is offered as a palliative treatment option for patients with isolated unresectable colorectal peritoneal metastases (PM) in several centres worldwide. However, little is known about its feasibility, safety, tolerability, efficacy, costs and pharmacokinetics in this setting. This study aims to explore these parameters in patients with isolated unresectable colorectal PM who receive repetitive ePIPAC-OX as a palliative monotherapy. Methods and analysis This multicentre, open-label, single-arm, phase II study is performed in two Dutch tertiary referral hospitals for the surgical treatment of colorectal PM. Eligible patients are adults who have histologically or cytologically proven isolated unresectable PM of a colorectal or appendiceal carcinoma, a good performance status, adequate organ functions and no symptoms of gastrointestinal obstruction. Instead of standard palliative treatment, enrolled patients receive laparoscopy-controlled ePIPAC-OX (92 mg/m2 body surface area (BSA)) with intravenous leucovorin (20 mg/m2 BSA) and bolus 5-fluorouracil (400 mg/m2 BSA) every 6 weeks. Four weeks after each procedure, patients undergo clinical, radiological and biochemical evaluation. ePIPAC-OX is repeated until disease progression, after which standard palliative treatment is (re)considered. The primary outcome is the number of patients with major toxicity (grade ≥3 according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v4.0) up to 4 weeks after the last ePIPAC-OX. Secondary outcomes are the environmental safety of ePIPAC-OX, procedure-related characteristics, minor toxicity, postoperative complications, hospital stay, readmissions, quality of life, costs, pharmacokinetics of oxaliplatin, progression-free survival, overall survival, and the radiological, histopathological, cytological, biochemical and macroscopic tumour response. Ethics and dissemination This study is approved by an ethics committee, the Dutch competent authority and the institutional review boards of both study centres. Results are intended for publication in peer-reviewed medical journals and for presentation to patients, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders. Trial registration number NCT03246321, Pre-results; ISRCTN89947480, Pre-results; NTR6603, Pre-results; EudraCT: 2017-000927-29, Pre-results.


OBJECTIVE
To study the effect of resveratrol to the onset and progress of acute lung injury in rat model of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP).

METHODS
The SAP model was made by injecting 4% sodium taurocholate, a dosage of 0.1 mL/100 g, into the biliopancreatic duct. The control group is formed by injecting the equal amount of N. S into the biliopancreatic duct. For treatment group, after induction of the SAP model, the resveratrol was used to injection at a dosage of 0.3 mL/100 g through the penis vein; at solvent group, after induction of the SAP model, injecting the same amount of tween 80 through the penis vein. All rats were sacrificed at 3, 6, 12 hours. The injuries of lung were checked by pulmonary morphology change, the change of protein in bronchi alveolar lung fluid (BALF). The changes of iNOS were analyzed with special method. PECAM-1, TGF-beta1 was also detected by immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS
For pulmonary morphology change, there were more inflammation cells, more pulmonary edema in experimental group than in treatment group. And in experimental group, with the postponement, the amount of iNOS is increasing (P < 0.05). However, in treatment group, the amout of iNOS was significantly less than in experimental group. The same case was that PECAM-1 and TGF-beta1 of experimental group were higher expression than that of treatment group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
Resveratrol can inhibit the expression of iNOS, PECAM-1, TGF-beta1, and reduce the adhesion between inflammatory cells and endothelium cells, so it may reduce the severity of acute lung injury complicated with severe acute pancreatitis.


The DNA G-quadruplex-binding porphyrin TMPyP4·Cu was found to form efficient hybrid catalysts for DNA-based asymmetric catalysis when bound to DNA G-quadruplexes. Nucleobase substitution experiments using human telomere-derived G-quadruplex sequences suggest binding of the porphyrin on the 3'-face.


We examine how country-level labor market characteristics affect corporate environmental disclosure practices and the environmental impacts of firms' operations. Using a sample of firms from 36 countries over the 2005–2016 period, we show that firms domiciled in countries with more developed labor markets have higher levels of environmental disclosure and less damaging environmental impacts than firms in countries with less developed labor markets. In addition, we find that firms operating in countries with better-developed labor markets tend to reduce their environmental impacts through the purchase of goods and services rather than through substantive changes to their own operations. Taken together, the findings suggest that better-developed country-level labor market institutions play an important role in improving firms' environmental disclosure and in reducing their environmental impacts.


In the current work the kinetics of dehydration of ziprasidone hydrochloride monohydrate was studied by nonisothermal thermogravimetry. Ziprasidone hydrochloride monohydrate was heated from 30 to 150° with a heating rate of 5° per min under nitrogen gas atmosphere and weight loss data were collected. Powder X-ray difraction was used to characterize the solid before and after dehydration. The well accepted Coats-Redfern model fitting approach was applied to the thermogravimetry data for the kinetic analysis. Thirteen solid state reaction models were studied; among them one-dimensional diffusion model was found to be the best fit model for this reaction with an excellent correlation 0.9994. The Arrhenius parameters, activation energy, and pre-exponential factor were determined, the values were found to be 28 k.cal/mol and 9.53×1013 sec−1, respectively.


Calpain 7 (also known as PalBH) is a mammalian homologue of the Aspergillus, atypical calpain PalB. Knowledge of the biochemical properties of calpain 7 is limited and its function is not yet known. In this study, we investigated the interactions of calpain 7 with all 11 ESCRT-III-related proteins, named charged multivesicular body proteins (CHMPs), and the subcellular localization of calpain 7. Pulldown assays using stable HEK293T transfectants of Strep-tagged calpain 7 revealed interactions of calpain 7 with a subset of FLAG-tagged CHMPs, among which CHMP1B was selected for further analyses. The N-terminal region containing a tandem repeat of MIT domains of calpain 7 was found to be necessary and sufficient for interaction with CHMP1B. Direct interaction was confirmed by a pulldown assay using recombinant proteins. Fluorescence microscopic analysis using HeLa cells revealed that overexpression of GFP-fused CHMPs or a dominant-negative construct of SKD1/Vps4B caused accumulation of epitope-tagged calpain 7 in a punctate pattern in the perinuclear area. Subcellular fractionation revealed that the most of endogenous calpain 7 is present in the cytosol but a small portion is present in particulate fractions. Punctate fluorescence signals of monomeric GFP-fused calpain 7 partly merged with those of endocytosed tetramethylrhodamine-labelled EGF. These results suggest that calpain 7 plays roles in the endosomal pathway by interacting with a subset of ESCRT-III-related proteins.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between community of place and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Lombard industrial districts in Italy.

Design/methodology/approach

A brief literature review of international authors from the stakeholder approach and Corporate Community Relations (CCRs) field is presented. This paper refers to a survey of Lombard industrial districts conducted by ALTIS. The data were collected via a telephone survey from 834 firms.

Findings

The main finding is that managing CCRs is of major importance for company success. The results of the survey show that there are some tools and actions that Italian industrial district SMEs use to interact with their particular communities of place to develop effective and coherent relationships with their stakeholder groups. Moreover, although the survey shows that though SMEs do implement different CCR activities, they are not able to communicate these effectively through systematic communication strategies. However, the narrow sample includes only a sample of some Lombard districts. Nonetheless, the findings indicate that effective CCR seems to confer competitive advantage based on stakeholder responses and rewards sought.

Research limitations/implications

The framework could assist in supporting CCR developments between industrial districts as various players would know how to improve CCR activities. One further suggestion is that University and Research Centers could have a role to play in creating and communicating codified knowledge concerning community relations in industrial districts, while other public players still have to develop specific tasks in improving infrastructures.

Originality/value

This study is in line with the main focus of CCR, which is in striving to meet stakeholder and societal needs. However, industrial district SMEs have to learn how to communicate their CCR activities from the examples set by large Italian companies. The paper links the notion of CCR with tools and actions to develop meaningful relationships with both community of place and interest. Moreover, considering the survey results, a new framework for local player roles is proposed.


This article was aimed to studying impact of personality traits on intention to entrepreneurship. In order to examining personality traits, the big five model has been used that consists of five dimensions as extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience. Entrepreneurship has been consists of six dimensions as hardworking, risk-taking, self-confidence, creativity, flexibility, and tolerance of ambiguity. In order to collecting data, a questionnaire including 47 items has been designed. Statistical population is university of Isfahan's personnel and sample size is 160 personnel and selected based on available sampling method. In order to analyzing data, descriptive statistic, inferential statistics, ENTER method, and Durbin-Watson test has been used. But also to measuring stability of questionnaires' items, Cronbach's alpha has been calculated for each variable separately. The results of this article indicate that personality traits have impact on tendency to entrepreneurship. Based on these results between all personality traits, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience have impact on tendency to entrepreneurship and these factors could explain 0/533 of entrepreneurship regression. Also Durbin- Watson test results indicate that there is no self-correlation between independent variables. Finally empirical suggestions has been offered for human resources managers and related professionals.


The study aimed to understand the action/interaction strategies adopted by the nursing staff for care to hospitalized children with chronic conditions. Complex Thinking and Grounded Theory were used for theoretical and methodological reference, respectively. There were 18 participants who were organized in three sample groups: nurses, nursing technicians and their families. The semi-structured interview was used and the data analysis followed three stages of coding: open, axial and selective. In this article, the category Signaling attitudes and practices in inter-retro-actions of nursing care and its subcategories were discussed. The nursing team used dialogue, qualified listening, empathy, appreciation of family, teamwork, trust, professionalism, the playful, affection and spirituality as action/interaction strategies for care to hospitalized children with chronic conditions.


How to correctly and efficiently determine small molecules' biological function is a challenge and has a positive effect on further metabonomics analysis. Here, we introduce a computational approach to address this problem. The new approach is based on AdaBoost method and featured by function group composition to the metabolic pathway analysis, which can fast and automatically map the small chemical molecules back to the possible metabolic pathway that they belong to. As a result, jackknife cross validation test and independent set test on the model reached 73.7% and 73.8%, respectively. It can be concluded that the current approach is very promising for mapping some unknown molecules' possible metabolic pathway. An online predictor developed by this research is available at http://chemdata.shu.edu.cn/pathway.


A new mechanism for spatial 1/f power spectra is proposed for a type of open dynamical system. This mechanism has two competing ingredients. One tends to preserve the long-range correlations while the other tends to destroy it. A specific model with this mechanism based on a class of extremely simple context-free grammars is analyzed. In this model replication and transposition are repeated applied to a string of discrete elements. Computer experiments show that for a wide range of parameter values, the model yields spatial power spectra of the form 1/fα with α close to 1. The frequency range spanned by the 1/fα form as well as the exponent α depend on the probability with which replication and transposition operations are applied.


This scientific study makes reference to the modeling, control, and failure diagnosis based on Petri-Net based machine (PN) system. The described system incorporates an automated ophthalmic surgical microscope which is utilized here. The approach for its design and function concerns control logic based applications, particularly, extended Hierarchical Petri Nets GHENeSys and language programming for the coordination of timed continuous activities and the use of CCS compiler. Due to the fact that the control system is based on discrete events, a formal PN system model was adopted. The aim to verify the feasibility of the functional properties and structure of the model is proposed in order to achieve greater efficiency in the control design as well as considering a failure-tolerant control system.