The history of ideas is most prominently understood as a highly specialized group of methods for the study of abstract ideas, with both diachronic and synchronic aspects. While theorizing the field has focused on the methods of study, defining the object of study – ideas – has been neglected. But the development of the theories behind material culture studies poses a sharp challenge to these narrow approaches. It both challenges the integrity of the notion of abstract ideas and also offers possibilities for enlarging the scope of the ways in which we can study ideas historically. It is proposed here to regard ideas as mental relations deeply connected to human communication by both thinking and doing. This connection of ideational thought to human production and behavior is a deep foundation for the history of ideas as an interdisciplinary historiographic means of understanding moral life.


Parental care of a similar nature has been noted in three species of Leptodactylus from two groups (ocellatus group: L. ocellatus and L. insularum; melanonotus group: L. validus). In these species, the female remains with the foam nest throughout development and then accompanies a school of tadpoles until metamorphosis. In addition, in L. insularum, tadpoles form densely packed schools of hundreds or thousands of individuals reminiscent of many Bufo species. In a two month study in Gamboa, Panama, I examined whether parental care in L. insularum involved aggressive behavior and whether schooling behavior of tadpoles was stimulated by high densities and predators. Adult behavior was monitored daily nocturnally and diurnally, throughout the study. I performed two experiments with tadpoles. First, I tested whether tadpoles at different densities had different likelihood to form schools. Second, tadpoles were tested at two densities, with and without predators to see their schooling response. I found evidence of parental care, noting several schools of tadpoles with attendant adults. Furthermore, aggressive behavior by adults, including vocalizations, in the presence of tadpoles was noted on three occasions. In tadpoles the formation of schools was dependent on density. In addition insect predators acted as a stimulus to school formation in experiments at two tadpole densities.


The suitability of human settlements is critical for quality of life and regional development. As comprehensive evaluations and research on the suitability of human settlements are lacking, a comprehensive evaluation of human settlements in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) was carried out in 2020 by combining natural and human environmental elements based on multi-source data such as digital elevation models, Landsat remote sensing images, meteorological station data, and points of interest, other multi-source data, and constructions of the human settlements' suitability indexes. The results showed the following: (1) The spatial suitability of the natural environment in the YRD is significantly affected by the topographic conditions and distance from the sea, showing an increasing spatial differentiation from southwest to northeast, with Shanghai and Yancheng having the best natural environment suitability. (2) The suitability of the human environment in urban areas is better than that in non-urban areas and shows a decreasing trend from the south to the north circle. Shanghai, Zhoushan, and Huaibei have the best human environment suitability. (3) The comprehensive suitability of human settlements includes both the spatial differentiation characteristics of the suitability of natural and human environments. Shanghai and Zhoushan have the mosy comprehensive suitability for human settlements, while Huaibei and Xuzhou have the worst. (4) Land with a comprehensive suitability for human settlements of greater than 0.580 accounts for 23.60% of the total and contains 30.08% of the population and 32.31% of the economy, indicating that areas with a high suitability index have been fully utilized, and the populations and economies with human settlements suitability have a high degree of matching.


The formation of long-lived collision complexes and the irregular, chaotic dynamics of such systems is studied for a simplified billiard-type model. The model describes the collinear collisions of an 'atom' with a 'molecule', which can be temporarily vibrationally excited. Assuming square-well interactions the system reduces to a polygon billiard, whose classical dynamics is determined by discrete mapping equations. Closed form results can be obtained by using the theory of interval exchange transformations. The nature of irregular dynamics for this scattering system is clarified and the complicated structure of the collisional lifetime function-dependent on the initial conditions-is analysed in detail.


In this paper, a novel genetic algorithm operator based on the sensitivity information extracted from a parallel layer perceptron (PLP) is presented. This hybrid approach aims at improving the genetic search using a gradient-based operator working parallel to the original algorithm, without the extra cost of sensitivity evaluation. This gradient information is extracted from a PLP, since direct gradient evaluation in electromagnetic models is usually prohibitive. Some results are presented, considering one analytical test function and two electromagnetic problems, and they show the effectiveness of the proposed operator.


In this paper, a generation expansion planning model and a transmission expansion planning model are proposed to inform investment decisions from the perspectives of generation companies and ISOs, respectively. Interactions between large-scale wind integration and transmission system planning are analyzed, and a new computational procedure of system expansion planning that coordinates generation and transmission investment is presented. The cooptimization of energy and ancillary services markets is considered to capture the impacts of wind power on the operation of the electric system. Benders decomposition is employed to reduce the overall computation time.


In this study, machining characteristics of polymer composite consisting of banana fiber and silicon carbide (SiC) as reinforcements and epoxy resin as matrix are investigated. Reinforcement phases consist of raw banana fiber powder sieved to 100 microns size of 1% (w/w) and SiC powder of 1% (w/w). The conventional machining process is carried out on the fabricated composite samples by considering the depth of cut, feed rate and speed as influential parameters. The central composite design (CCD) is used to design the experiment based on response surface methodology (RSM). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to study the influences of the depth of cut, feed rate and the speed on the material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness. The results reveal that the feed rate is the most influential parameter for minimizing surface roughness and maximizing MRR. It is observed that the feed rate plays an important role in determining the surface roughness and MRR followed by the depth of cut and speed. The optimized parameters for maximum MRR and minimum surface roughness are also obtained.


The structural and electronic properties of SrSi2 under pressure were investigated by using the planewave ultrasoft pseudopotential technique which is based on the first-principles Density Functional Theory (DEF) with Generalized Gradient Approximation (GGA). The pressure dependence of the lattice parameters is smooth. As the pressure increases the lattice parameters decrease exponentially. The electronic structures of SrSi2 show that the top of the valence band is determined by Si 3p states, the bottom of the conduction band is determined by Sr 3d states. It is observed that at ambient pressure no bands cross the Fermi level, which suggests that the system is non metallic. On the other hand the effect of pressure on the electronic properties of SrSi2 indicates that with the increase of pressure, SrSi2, being a narrow-gap semiconductor at ambient pressure, transforms a metal at around 20 GPa.


This brief presents the design and implementation of an 8-bit adaptable processor core to be part of the power-throughput-area efficient Multimedia Oriented Reconfigurable Architecture (MORA). Here i am presenting the architecture and programming model for the reconfigurable processor, aimed at multimedia applications. The MORA is a MIMD machine consisting of a 2-D array of Reconfigurable Cells (RC) with a flexible reconfigurable interconnect network. Apart from its performance, the distinguishing feature of MORA RC is its design support for programmability. The implementation detail and simulation result for the single MORA processor is presented here. Reconfigurable processors combine the speed of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and the flexibility of classical digital processors. Application-specific circuits are used to migrate computer systems from workstations to handheld devices that need real-time performance within the budget for physical size and energy dissipation. However, these circuits are inflexible as any modification requires redesign and re-fabrication, which is both expensive and time-consuming considering the complexity of recent embedded platforms. Therefore, reconfigurable architectures that can be dynamically reconfigured and reused over several platforms have been suggested.


In the present study, we summarize the role of the shared and independent (epi)genetic background between endometrioid carcinoma (EC) and clear cell carcinoma (CCC), two histological subtypes of endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer (EAOC). Using the PubMed database, we conducted a literature review of various studies related to the malignant transformation of endometriosis. Both endometriosis and EAOC face potential environmental hazards, including hemoglobin (Hb), heme and free iron, which induces DNA damage and mutations. Although EC is distinguished from CCC due to different morphologies, both represent common environmental profiles and maintain the similar (epi)genomic abnormalities with multiple overlaps and share similar molecular signatures. By contrast, EAOC also has disease-specific gene signatures corresponding with each histological subtype: Estrogen receptor promotes EC cell proliferation ('go') and hepatocyte nuclear factor-1β (HNF-1β) induces CCC cell cycle arrest ('stop') under oxidative stress conditions. This model underscores a subtype-dependent 'go or stop' dichotomy, possibly through better ability to adapt in a changing environment. It was found that cyst fluid Hb and iron concentrations were significantly lower in EAOC when compared to benign ovarian endometrioma (OE), supporting the hypothesis that the redox imbalance plays a key role in the pathogenesis of EAOC. There are at least two phases of iron carcinogenesis and tumor progression: The initial wave of iron-induced oxidative stress and DNA mutations would be followed by the second big wave of subsequent synthesis of the antioxidants, which diminishes cellular oxidative stress capacity, increases apoptosis resistance and promotes tumor initiation and progression. Special emphasis is given to novel pathophysiological concepts of malignant transformation of endometriosis.


The preparation of silver sheathed Bi(Pb)-2223 multilayered tapes, fabricated by a new route-called the 'accordion folding method'-and through intermediate rolling and sintering processes, is reported. The electrical properties of these tapes were determined by transport Jc measurements in applied fields up to 23 T and up to 0.5 T, at 4.2 K and 77 K respectively. Multilayered tapes, having up to ten high-temperature superconducting layers, exhibited large transport current capabilities Ic up to 300 A and critical current densities as high as 8.8*103 A cm-2 at 77 K in self-field. Magnetic Jc values, calculated from magnetization loops in a wide range of temperature, are in accordance with transport measurements below 30 K. Electrical and magnetic properties were also correlated with the processing parameters and compared with those of monofilamentary tapes.


Cocaine is an addictive drug that affects more than 14 million people globally, according to the United Nations. This paper is a conceptual meta-analysis of numerous studies that tested the effects of psychopharmacological therapy along with behavioral therapy in the treatment of cocaine addiction. It is hypothesized that cocaine dependent individuals treated with a combination of psychopharmacological and behavioral therapies will be less likely to use cocaine. Measurements of cocaine use throughout the experiments were generally assessed by urine screenings. Results indicate that there is more evidence that a combination of psychopharmacological and behavioral therapies will reduce cocaine use. There are no indications that any specific type of psychopharmacology is more effective than others. This literature review suggests that, while there is no specific category of medication that is most effective in the treatment of cocaine addiction, more studies should be conducted, as it is a promising option that could be utilized along with behavioral therapy.


The purpose of this study was validate the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scale-2(PKBS-2) and develop the Korean version PKBS-2(K-PKBS-2) through the phases of concept and statistical review. For this purpose, this study conducted PKBS-2 for teachers with 1,119 young children in Jeonbuk province. During the factor structure review, according to the results of exploratory factor analysis, 30 items and 4 factors(social interaction, social cooperation, social compliance, and social independence) in social skills scale and 40 items and 4 sub-factors of 3 factors(internalizing behavior, externalizing behavior, and interpersonal emotional behavior) in problem behavior scale were extracted. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis, the model fits of social skills and problem behavior scales were higher than the original test and very high reliability and internal consistency were produced. During external Korean J. of Child Studies Vol. 35, No. 4, 79-101, August 2014 DOI:dx.org/10.5723/KJCS.2014.35.4.79 www.childkorea.or.kr pISSN1226-1688 eISSN2234-408X 2 Korean J. of Child Studies Vol. 35, No. 4, 2014 80 factor review, convergent validity and discriminant validity were verified. After cultural specificity and cultural universality between PKBS-2 and K-PKBS-2 were discussed, K-PKBS-2 was presented as e scale which is very useful for the screening, prevention, and intervention program plan of challenging behavior behaviors in young children in Korea.


This paper analyzes environmental implications of using wood as domestic fuel, using as study case the rural area of Usme, Bogota, Colombia, from three aspects: socio-cultural, ecosystem issue and technological. Through field work, conducted surveys and information collected by direct experimentation in some kitchens in the area, were identified the impacts that the use of firewoodfor cooking has on the health, the economy and the cultural issues that define their use in this area. Also were identified and characterized the woody species most used for cooking. The paper concludes that wood is an ecosystem service and thus is seen by the peasants, who prized it by the taste of food but they recognized that it generates health problems, especially among women and children. Was identified that many families are buying wood, either because they have no time to collect it or because of the distances they must travel along their region. The most used woods are Eucalyptus, Pine and remnant of carpentry including Formic with MDF, a material that has not been reported in Colombia, it raises the need to study the impacts of its combustion.


Background: Anti-HER2 therapy contributes to improvement of the clinical outcome in HER2-positive patients. However, current studies have reported the resistance to trastuzumab. To diagnose HER2 expression level, immunohistochemical (IHC) method with 3,3'-diaminobenzidine (IHC-DAB) staining is widely used, but is not quantitative and classifies tumors into only 4 categories. Additionally, the epitopes of trastuzumab and most antibodies used for IHC-DAB are different. These problems might induce a gap between diagnostics and therapeutic efficacy. To improve the method for cancer patients' HER2 status, we developed a novel IHC method with trastuzumab conjugated with fluorescent nano-particles quantum dots (QDs) by single-particle imaging using tissue samples from patients with clinical information. Methods: We prepared two kinds of QD-conjugated antibody complexes for IHC with QDs (IHC-QD). One was a QD-conjugated trastuzumab, the other was a QD-conjugated human IgG for control. We performed the several steps of antigen-antibody reaction by two kinds of QD-conjugated antibody probes for 37 human breast cancer specimens. The QD signal reflected HER2 expression level was observed by the optical system that consisted of an epi-fluorescent microscope with EM-CCD camera. Results: We successfully obtained the images of only QDs signal by the image analyses, and calculated the number of QD particles in a cell and defined it as IHC-QD score that reflects the level of HER2 protein expression in cancer cells. In comparing IHC-QD scores with IHC-DAB scores, cases with a score of 0 and 1 by IHC-DAB had low scores of IHC-QD (0.01-0.67), being in narrow range. On the other hand, those with a score of 2 varied widely, with IHC-QD scores of 0.06 to 16.98, and those with a score of 3 also varied, from 0.18 to 18.81. In some of the sample with IHC-DAB score of 2 and 3, the binding of trastuzumab to these cancer cells is very weak although they are candidate for trastuzumab therapy in present HER2 diagnostic criteria. In comparison between FISH and IHC-QD scores, the straight-line approximation curve shows that both quantitative scores, FISH (0.96-8.76) and IHC-QD (0.01-18.81) are well correlated (R = 0.83, p Althogh the sample size was small, this result suggests that the IHC-QD score has a potential role as predictive factor for trastuzumab therapy. Conclusion: We performed the precisely quantitative IHC using trastuzumab-conjugated QDs and single-particle imaging analysis, and propose using IHC-QD as a predictive factor for trastuzumab therapy. This new diagnostic method would be expected to contribute to the development of a therapeutic strategy. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr P3-05-16.


Analog crossbar arrays comprising programmable non-volatile resistors are under intense investigation for acceleration of deep neural network training. However, the ubiquitous asymmetric conductance modulation of practical resistive devices critically degrades the classification performance of networks trained with conventional algorithms. Here we first describe the fundamental reasons behind this incompatibility. Then, we explain the theoretical underpinnings of a novel fully-parallel training algorithm that is compatible with asymmetric crosspoint elements. By establishing a powerful analogy with classical mechanics, we explain how device asymmetry can be exploited as a useful feature for analog deep learning processors. Instead of conventionally tuning weights in the direction of the error function gradient, network parameters can be programmed to successfully minimize the total energy (Hamiltonian) of the system that incorporates the effects of device asymmetry. Our technique enables immediate realization of analog deep learning accelerators based on readily available device technologies.


The self-fluxing pellets containing coal possess an independent self-reducing and self-slag-making system. A high metallization rate can be achieved without external reduction condition at high temperature, and it looks like a micro-blast-furnace by itself. The essential condition to use it is to supply heat to the pellet rapidly and uniformly and keep it at a certain temperature. Microwave heating can meet the need of rapid and uniform heating. The results show that the temperature of the pellet with a certain weight increases as the microwave power increases. The heating rate of the pellet is increased from 9.17 K/min (5 kW) to 71.65 K/min (15 kW).


Background: Anti-infective treatment of pneumonia, as estimated via Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, is the important indicator for monitoring growth towards Millennium Development Goal 5. Worries about legitimacy of the current gauge led to the assessment in urban and rural areas in Pakistan. Methods and results: Caretakers of 970 offspring under 6 years old by pneumonia in addition 990 children without pneumonia remained distinguished in urban and rural areas and assigned for DHS/EDIM questions three months or one and a half months later. The study physicians established a pneumonia conclusion as a baseline standard; anticipatory capability of the DHS/MICS inquiries also additional estimation devices to distinguish pneumonia respondents from other cases was assessed. The results obtained in both locations demonstrated imperfect discriminatory strength, with no distinction between a 3or 5-week examination. The unique examples of affectability and explanatory power shifted widely from one study site to the other (affectability 67.8% and 46.7%, and specificity 69.5% and 71.6%, for the DHSs of Pakistan and Bangladesh, individually). Approved antitoxins for pneumonia were actually studied by about 66% of the guardians using DHS questions, rising to 73% and 83% in Pakistan, separately, using a drug overview and point-by-point survey. Conclusion: Monitoring of pneumonia drug treatment is fundamental to national and global projects. Current and new strategies (video and pneumonia score) proposed for distinguishing pneumonia based on maternal examination inadequately distinguish among pneumonia and children by pneumonia. In addition, those methods have little respect for distinguishing offspring which has true pneumonia. Therefore, the reported rates of antitoxic treatment in those offspring are not the legitimate intermediate marker of pneumonia treatment rates. Those outcomes have significant ramifications for programme adherence, and it is proposed that information from Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys not be used to determine anti-infective treatment rates in young people with pneumonia.


Urbanization and poverty have a two-way relationship. Using fixed-effects regression and panel data from household surveys, we estimate the effect of urbanization on income and consumption expenditure of rural households in Vietnam. Then we propose a simple estimate method to estimate the effect of urbanization on rural poverty. It is found that a one percent increase in urbanization leads to a 0.54 percent increase in per capita income and a 0.39 percent increase in per capita expenditure of rural households. In addition, a one percentage point increase in urbanization helps rural households decrease the poverty rate by 0.17 percentage point. However, we find an effect of urbanization on consumption of unhealthy goods: urbanization increases household expenditures on tobacco and wine.


Background Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) is predominantly used as a plasticizer inplastics to make them flexible. Extensive use of phthalates in both industrial processes and other consumer products has resulted in the ubiquitous presence of phthalates in the environment. In order to better determine the level of pollution in the environment and evaluate the potential adverse effects of exposure to DBP, immunoassay for DBP was developed. Methodology/Principal Findings A monoclonal antibody specific to DBP was produced from a stable hybridoma cell line generated by lymphocyte hybridoma technique. An indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (icELISA) employing direct coating of hapten on polystyrene microtiter plates was established for the detection of DBP. Polystyrene surface was first oxidized by permanganate in dilute sulfuric acid to generate carboxyl groups. Then dibutyl 4-aminophthalate, which is an analogue of DBP, was covalently linked to the carboxyl groups of polystyrene surface with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC). Compared with conjugate coated format (IC50 = 106 ng/mL), the direct hapten coated format (IC50 = 14.6 ng/mL) improved assay sensitivity after careful optimization of assay conditions. The average recovery of DBP from spiked water sample was 104.4% and the average coefficient of variation was 9.95%. Good agreement of the results obtained by the hapten coated icELISA and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry further confirmed the reliability and accuracy of the icELISA for the detection of DBP in certain plastic and cosmetic samples. Conclusions/Significance The stable and efficient hybridoma cell line obtained is an unlimited source of sensitive and specific antibody to DBP. The hapten coated format is proposed as generally applicable because the carboxyl groups on modified microtiter plate surface enables stable immobilization of aminated or hydroxylated hapten with EDC. The developed hapten coated icELISA can be used as a convenient quantitative tool for the sensitive and accurate monitoring DBP in water, plastic and cosmetic samples.


At the Université de Montréal, a four-week rotation in radiology is part of the core curriculum for students in their fifth and final year of medicine. The objective of this undergraduate radiology clerkship is to prepare the future physician to use efficiently the resources of radiology and nuclear medicine in patient care. Specific goals and methods used to achieve them are described and analysed.


Levinson's and Carroll's historical theories are among the most interesting contemporary answers to the problem of knowing what art is. Although both authors believe that we cannot ignore the relation between art and its own history in order to understand the nature of art, their projects have very different ambitions. Levinson seeks a real definition of art, capable of dealing with every possible case. Carroll, who believes that Levinson's project faces many difficulties, proposes just a criterion to identify works of art, thus providing a characterization or nominal definition of art. In this paper my aim is to present and discuss, albeit succinctly, these two philosophical theories about the nature of art, and to determine whether they fulfill their own ends.


Functional response models differ in which factors limit predation (e.g. searching efficiency, prey handling time, digestion) and whether predation behaviour is governed by an internal physiological state (e.g. satiation). There is now much evidence that satiation is a key factor in understanding changes in foraging behaviour, and that many predators are effectively digestion limited. Here, we ask if predation in a predatory arthropod can be explained from satiation-driven behaviour alone, or if behaviour is also influenced by the density of prey other than via the effect of prey ingestion on satiation. To address this question a satiation-based predation model is formulated, for which parameters are estimated on the basis of observations on digestion rate, satiation-related prey searching rate and prey capture behaviour, basically under high prey density conditions. The model predictions are subsequently tested against longer term predation experiments carried out at high and low prey densities. Since satiation can easily be linked with egg production, these tests are carried out both for predation and oviposition. The predatorprey systems under study consist of females of two predatory mite species (Neoseiulus barkeri and N. cucumeris) and the larvae of two thrips species (Thrips tabaci and Frankliniella occidentalis) as their prey. For N. barkeri foraging on T. tabaci, the model gives good predictions at both high (4 larvae cm1) and low (0.11 larvae cm2) prey densities. For N. cucumeris foraging on F. occidentalis, the predictions hold at the high prey density, but are too low at low prey densities. Thus


We propose a general and versatile framework that significantly speeds-up graphical model optimization while maintaining an excellent solution accuracy. The proposed approach, refereed as Inference by Learning or in short as IbyL, relies on a multi-scale pruning scheme that progressively reduces the solution space by use of a coarse-to-fine cascade of learnt classifiers. We thoroughly experiment with classic computer vision related MRF problems, where our novel framework constantly yields a significant time speed-up (with respect to the most efficient inference methods) and obtains a more accurate solution than directly optimizing the MRF. We make our code available on-line [4].


The performance of an alkaline fuel cell is investigated using three different fuels, e g., methanol, ethanol and sodium borohydride. Pt/C/Ni was used as anode whereas Mn/C/Ni was used as standard (Electro-Chem-Technic, UK) cathode for all the fuels. Thus, the alkaline fuel cell is used for multi-fuel system. Fresh mixture of electrolyte, potassium hydroxide (5M), and fuel (2M) was fed to and withdrawn from the AFC at a rate of 1 ml/min. The anode was prepared by dispersing platinum and activated carbon in Nafion® (DuPont USA) dispersion and placing it onto a carbon paper (Lydall, USA). Finally prepared anode sheet was pressed onto Ni mesh and sintered to produce the required anode. The maximum power density of 16.5 mW/cm2 is obtained at 28 mA/cm2 of current density for sodium borohydride at 25 °C. Whereas, methanol produces 31.5 mW/cm2 of maximum power density at 44 mA/cm2 of current density at 60 °C.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


Passive margins preserve the terrigeneous sediment resulting from its erosion, and as such, record the dynamics of its relief variation. The thermal evolution of the stretched lithosphere, surface processes (erosion/sedimentation) and flexural isostatic compensation induce vertical movements of the passive margin that can also be altered by the superposition of vertical movement induced by flow in the mantle or tectonically driven deformation. Our objective is to quantify the expression of these different types of vertical movements in the stratigraphic architecture of passive margins basins. The novel aspect of our approach is to integrate the evolution of both domains in erosion and in sedimentation, in a 3D framework involving state of the art numerical modeling tools of the thermo-mechanical evolution of the lithophere and advanced concepts in sequence stratigraphy. Flex3D provides us with a useful tool to determine the influence of surface transfer processes on the temporal and spatial evolution of post rift vertical movements of a passive margin in a framework including the flexural isostasy and the 3D thermal evolution of the margin. To discuss this point, we simulated the evolution of a cylindrical passive margin. For sake of simplicity, we assumed (i) an equal stretching distribution for the lithosphere and the crust (=); (ii) that the crust density is homogeneous along the margin, i.e. the oceanic crust portion in the model is approximated by a crust with a continental crust density c and a standard 7 km thickness. We performed 4 sets of simulations: (i) one set without surface processes; (ii) one set with surface processes but no distinction between marine and continental domains; (iii) two sets with surface processes and distinction between marine and continental domains with either low values or high values. These simulations illustrate how significant the impact surface processes on the flexural response of the lithosphere is and, as a consequence, on spatial and temporal distribution of vertical displacements. Indeed, for simulation using the reference geometry, erosion is necessary to produce uplift: surface transfer induces the an uplifting coastal relief associated with a fast and narrow maximum of subsidence at the stretched/ "oceanic" crust transition. This coastal relief is actually very rapidly eroded (during the first 10 Myr of simulation). In the following evolution, the coastal relief remains absent despite some uplift in the corresponding domain suggesting that it is controllef by the balance between the flexural response and erosion/sedimentation. Also, the relaxation of the initial thermal anomaly progressively increases the stretched lithosphere thickness resulting in: the decrease in vertical motion and denudation/sedimentation rates as well as the increase in the wavelength of the flexural response of the lithosphere i.e. in the wavelength of the deformation (subsidence/uplift spatial distribution). The differentiation between "continental" and "marine" surface processes produces a more complex flexural response that is to say spatial and temporal distribution of vertical displacement: some areas potentially evolving from subsidence to uplift as the wavelength of the deformation changes. For low Kdc/Kdm values, the early subsidence pattern forms a "coastal" basin in addition to the main basin. This area then evolves into an uplifting domain eroding away the sediments preserved in that basin and transferring them into the main basin. For very low values of Kdc/Kdm, this basin is not entirely eroded after 140Myr of simulation. Candidat - 3D Candidat - ISOSTASIE Candidat - MARGE PASSIVE Candidat - MODELISATION GEOLOGIE - SEDIMENTOLOGIE Candidat - SUBSIDENCE GEOLOGIE - TECTONIQUE Tomaison : 12 Localisation : BAT 14B : OSUR Type publication interne : Congres


A method of unpolarized laser pulses shaping is reported. The basis of the method is the use of an hybrid optical bistable device with nematic liquid-crystals, similar to the one previously reported by us. A sample of the input light constrols, by an asymmetrical electronic comparator, a 1 x 2 electro-optical total switch. The output pulses are reshaped and maintain the same polarization properties as the input light. From triangular input light signals, symmetriacl and asymmetrical output pulses have been obtained. The minimum pulse width achieved was 0.1 msec. A representation of the output versus input light signals gives an hysteresys cycle in the asymmetrical case.


Reactive power optimization in power system can not only reduce power loss, but also improve voltage quality. It is a mixed optimizing question, which its operating variables include the continual and the separate, its solved process is quite complex. The genetic algorithm (GA) is used to solve this problem, but the GA easy to fall into local optimum problem with the increasing of system size, the key to improve the performance of the global convergence of GA is believed to apply the algorithms to deal with the diversity of population scientifically and better tactic of searching the global optimal solution. So the genetic simulated annealing algorithm and niche technique are integrated to search for the best solution of reactive power optimization problem. The simulation results of the standard IEEE-6 bus power system had indicated that the new improved niche genetic algorithm (INGA) can not only efficiently avoid possible non-convergence of GA and improve evolution speed and has better global optimization ability, but also improve the computing speed and stability of the algorithm. It was proved to be efficient and practical during the reactive power optimization.


Gastrocnemius contracture may be a significant cause of many foot disorders. Gastrocnemius tension can be estimated clinically by measuring maximum ankle dorsiflexion during full knee extension. Such measurements, when made with currently available goniometric devices, are subject to high levels of intra- and inter-observer variability. We have designed a device to more consistently measure ankle dorsiflexion, using three dimensional tracking sensors on the leg and foot. The applied dorsiflexion torque is kept constant by a computer, and the computer also monitors hindfoot position to maintain a neutrally aligned foot during testing. Repeated measurements on 26 feet were taken to determine the consistency of the device. The correlation coefficient for the measurements was 0.96, indicating very low intra- observer variability. The standard deviation of the repeated measures was 2°. Based on the 95% confidence interval, the device can be considered accurate to within 4°. Given this accuracy, this instrument could be used to assess gastrocnemius tension, its role in foot pathology, and the effectiveness of surgical lengthening. Compared to other currently available measuring devices, this instrument is the most reliable in estimating ankle dorsiflexion, since it is capable of controlling hindfoot position and applied dorsiflexion torque, and it can be easily constructed by other laboratories.


360 laparotomies in mechanical bowel obstruction were performed in a five year period at the Department of Surgery of the University Hospital, Basel. The overall mortality rate was 50/360 = 14%. The most frequent cause of death was cardio-respiratory insufficiency (19/50 = 38%) and postoperative peritonitis (15/50 = 30%). The most common etiology of bowel obstruction and the corresponding mortality rate was adhesion (151/360 = 42%; mortality 8.5%), large bowel cancer 83/360 = 23%; mortality 13.0%) and incarcerated hernia (57/360 = 16%; mortality 10.5%). The interval between onset of symptoms and hospitalization and between hospitalization and operation in the nonfatal group was 19 days and 28 hours respectively, and in the fatal group 26 days and 21 hours respectively. In conclusion, early surgical intervention in bowel obstruction and a meticulous technique for anastomosis when bowel resection is necessary are the most important factors in improving the results.


In this paper, we introduce an real time video based face recognition framework at security zone. The created framework recognizes subjects(e.g., travellers/customer) while they are entering a security entryway. Uncontrolled varieties of facial appearance because of occlusion, changing brightening, posture or expression of non cooperative subjects should be handled to correct recognition. To achieve this goal, the framework first detects and tracks the eyes for registration. Then registered subject faces are classified by a local appearance based face recognition algorithm individually. In next step by outcome of confidence scores from each classification are progressively combined to get the identity estimate of the all sequences. We propose three unique measures to weight the contribution of all frames individually to determine the general classification. These are distance to model, distance to second nearest representative, and their composition. We have closed set identification experiments on a database of 125 subjects and the result show that the our framework is capable to get more than 92 percent of correct recognition rate.


Objective To evaluate the safety profile of ixazomib combined with lenalidomide and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) in clinical practice in Japan through an all-case post-marketing surveillance. Methods This was a nationwide non-interventional observational study conducted in Japan. The study included all patients who received ixazomib from May 24 to September 24, 2017. Ixazomib was administered to RRMM patients according to the Japanese package insert. All enrolled patients were observed until the completion of the sixth treatment cycle or until ixazomib discontinuation. The patient treatment course, including adverse events (AEs), was reported. Results The safety analysis set included 741 patients; the median age was 71 (range 35-92) years old, and the median number of prior treatment lines was 3 (range 1-30). Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) occurred in 572 (77.2%) patients, most commonly being thrombocytopenia (49.9%), diarrhea (29.2%), and nausea (12.4%). Serious ADRs occurred in 193 (26.0%) patients, most commonly being thrombocytopenia (9.9%) and diarrhea (5.9%). Thrombocytopenia, severe gastrointestinal disorders, infections, skin disorders, and peripheral neuropathy were prespecified as ADRs of clinical importance; the frequency of these ADRs (grade ≥3) were 28.5%, 9.4%, 7.4%, 2.2%, and 1.3%, respectively. Treatment discontinuation was most common with thrombocytopenia and severe gastrointestinal disorders (49 and 43 patients, respectively). Eleven patients died due to ADRs (16 events). Conclusion These results suggest that ixazomib has a tolerable safety profile in clinical practice in Japan. However, close AE management for thrombocytopenia and gastrointestinal disorders should be considered.


Animal diseases that develop spontaneously in a limited subpopulation can provide powerful models of human disease because they provide a means to investigate the interaction of a broad range of biological and environmental etiologic processes. In contrast, with experimentally induced animal models, the etiology of the model is inherently fixed, and can only speak to a limited subset of those involved in the human disease. 'Barbering' (abnormal whisker- and fur-plucking behavior) in mice resembles human trichotillomania (compulsive hair plucking) in that barbering mice pluck focused areas of hair, and engage in post-plucking manipulatory and oral behaviors. We performed a cross-sectional epidemiologic survey of a population of 2,950 laboratory mice to further assess the face validity of barbering as a spontaneous model of trichotillomania. Patterns of hair loss and demographic and etiologic risk factors were recorded for each mouse, and were analyzed by use of logistic regression. Barbering paralleled trichotillomania in terms of phenomenology, demography, and etiology. Thus, similar to trichotillomania, barbers predominately plucked hair from the scalp and around the eyes and the genitals; barbering was female biased, and had its onset during puberty; and etiologic factors included reproductive status and genetic background. Therefore, barbering has excellent face validity as a model of trichotillomania, and may represent a refined and non-invasive model, especially for studies of the complex genetic/environmental etiologies of this disorder.


Activating mutations in the anaplastic lymphoma receptor tyrosine kinase (ALK) represent important therapeutic targets in neuroblastoma, a common childhood cancer that accounts for 15% of all pediatric oncology deaths. One of the more common mutations, ALKF1174L, is sensitive to the sole FDA-approved ALK inhibitor, crizotinib, only at high doses and mediates acquired resistance to crizotinib in ALK-rearranged cancers. To identify compounds that would synergize with crizotinib to increase cytotoxicity in neuroblastoma cells, we devised a high-throughput small molecule synergy screen using the ALKF1174L-dependent SH-SY5Y cell line to compare cell viability between screen compound alone and screen compound in combination with crizotinib. Compounds ranged from those with clinical approval and known therapeutic indications to those with only predicted bioactivity. Of ∼10,000 compounds screened, the most recurrent hits included adrenergic and dopaminergic neurotransmitter receptor inhibitors. Validation studies with a candidate dopamine receptor D2 antagonist, chlorpromazine, resulted in increased cytotoxicity when combined with crizotinib over that of either single agent alone. These studies support further pre-clinical efforts to explore the therapeutic potential of combining crizotinib with neurotransmitter receptor inhibitors in ALKF1174L-mutated neuroblastoma. Citation Format: Nathan Moore, Srunphut Pukma, Nathanael Gray, Rani George. A high-throughput chemical screen identifies synergistic activity between neurotransmitter receptor inhibitors and crizotinib in ALK-mutated neuroblastoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 790. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-790


Li(n = 2) to H*(n = 2,3) and Li*(2p, n = 3) charge transfer and excitation processes are studied in the medium-energy range 0.1-10 keV. The static model includes a basis of 26 molecular states. The lithium atom is described using a model potential and the semiclassical impact parameter method with straight trajectories is used for the dynamical simulation. A common translation factor is included to account correctly for the electron translation movement. For this collision system, we calculate the total cross sections and probabilities for the different capture and excitation processes. The calculation reflects a Lyα radiation enhancement for the capture to H*(2p) from Li*(2p). A strong alignment effect in the capture processes to H*(2) is also shown and evaluated through the alignment parameter A(n = 2,3). Finally, we provide a mechanism through the non-adiabatic radial and rotational couplings, showing the importance of the H*(3) and Li*(3) states in this collision.


The roots of Halophila ovalis are sheathed by root cap cells up to 2 mm above the meristem tip, and carry prominent root hairs. Air lacunae differentiate schizogenously close to the apex, where they are first occluded by material which stains heavily with toluidine blue, but some appear empty within 300 μ of the apex, offering a path for gaseous diffusion to the apical region. As a root matures the lacunae, which differentiate centripetally, contribute approx. 22 % of the root cross sectional area, as compared with about 65 % due to cortical cells.

Sieve tubes differentiate before xylem elements. Casparian strip formation and xylem differentiation are approximately synchronous, suggesting that these structures are involved in the uptake and transport of materials.


A new phase-extension procedure has been applied to isomorphous replacement data and shown to yield improved phases and maps compared with standard solvent flattening operating on a full set of centroid phases. In this procedure, a starting subset of core phases is selected based on the sharpness of the phase-probability curves. Phase extension using solvent flattening as the density-modification procedure is then carried out, gradually adding additional phases. In tests with known protein structures, the mean phase errors for the output expanded phase sets were reduced by 3-9 degrees and the corresponding map correlation coefficients were increased by 0.05-0.18 relative to phase sets from standard solvent-flattening procedures. With SIR data, the lowest final mean phase errors were approximately 58 degrees and the corresponding map correlation coefficients were in the range 0.53-0.68.


Purpose
Recent studies regarding auditor experience generally focus on auditor overall experience in accounting, auditing, finance and related fields (Hardies et al., 2014), auditor sector and domain experience (Bedard and Biggs, 1991; Hammersley, 2006), auditor experience as CPA (Ye et al., 2014; Sonu et al., 2016) or big N experience (Chi and Huang, 2005; Gul et al., 2013; Zimmerman, 2016) or auditors' international working experience (Chen et al., 2017). But there is little attention paid to where auditors obtained their experience from? And how do auditors with government experience affect audit quality (AQ)? This paper aims to present the effect of auditors with government experience on AQ.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors used Turkish publicly traded firms in Borsa Istanbul between the year 2008 and 2015 to test the hypothesis. The sample comprises 1,067 observations and eight years. Two main proxies of government experience are used in this paper. The first proxy is auditor's government experience in the past. The second proxy is the continuous variable which is "the logarithmic value of the number of years of government experience". Further, auditor overall experience in auditing, accounting, finance and other related fields are also used as a control variable. Audit reporting aggressiveness, audit reporting lag and discretionary accruals are used as proxies of AQ. Besides this, the authors adopted the model to estimate the probability of selecting a government-experienced auditor, and they presented the regression results with the addition of inverse Mills ratio.

Findings
The main findings are consistent with conjecture. Government-experienced auditors do not enhance AQ. They are aggressive, and they complete audit work slowly and they cannot detect discretionary accruals effectively. Spending more time in a government agency makes them more aggressive and slow, and they do not detect earnings management practices. The Heckman estimation results regarding the variable of interest are also consistent with the main estimation results. In addition, the authors found in predicting government-experienced auditor choice that family firms, domestic firms and firms that reported losses (larger firms, older firms) are more (less) likely to choose government-experienced auditors.

Research limitations/implications
This study has some limitations. The authors used a small sample to test the impact of government-experienced auditors on AQ because of data access problems. Much data used in this study were collected manually. Earnings quality was calculated using only discretionary accruals. Real activities manipulation was not used as the proxy of AQ in this paper. The findings from emerging markets might not generalize to the developed countries because the Turkish audit market is developing compared to Continental Europe or USA.

Practical implications
The findings are considered for independent audit firms. Audit firms may employ new graduates and train them to offer more qualified audit work for their clients. The results do not mean that government-experienced auditors should not work in an audit firm, or that they should not establish an audit firm. It is clear that government-experienced auditors provide low AQ in terms of audit reporting aggressiveness, audit report lag and discretionary accruals. But as they operate more in the independent audit sector, they will become successful and provide qualified audit work. One other thing we can say is that it is perhaps better for government-experienced auditors to work in the tax department of independent audit firms.

Originality/value
This paper tries to fill the gap in the literature regarding the effect of auditor experience on AQ and concentrates on a different type of experience: Auditors with government experience.


This article was prepared based on the Community Service Institute (PKM) of the 2019 PLN Institute of Technology which was carried out in the field of sports facilities for residents of RT002 / 05 BTN Cantiga Petir Cipondoh Tangerang with problems of frequent illegal connection or theft of electricity from electric poles for street lighting and there are still locations that require street lighting. The Purpose of Community Service Activities (PKM) This is so that the public can know the use of Solar Electricity for the community and as an implementation with theory and practice is applied to the public about the development of solar electricity technology in current energy. Through this activity, the community of Cipondoh Lightning Cantiga residents learned about the use of solar electricity for the surrounding community to turn on the PJU Lights in the RT 002/05 BTN Cantiga Petir Cipondoh Tangerang Sports Field.


We introduce a second order in time modified Lagrange-Galerkin (MLG) method for the time dependent incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The main ingredient of the new method is the scheme proposed to calculate in a more efficient manner the Galerkin projection of the functions transported along the characteristic curves of the transport operator. We present error estimates for velocity and pressure in the framework of mixed finite elements when either the mini-element or the P 2/P 1 Taylor-Hood element are used.


A quantitative analysis was carried out on the induction and maintenance of homograft tolerance in the CBA → C3H strain combination of mice. These strains share the H2-histocompatability locus. The results indicate that the incidence of tolerance, as measured by the ability of neonatally injected C3H mice to accept CBA skin grafts for 2 months or longer, decreases proportionally with spleen cell doses of less than 2 million. One-eighth million CBA spleen cells will induce 22% tolerance. CBA lymph node cells are slightly less capable in inducing tolerance than spleen cells. F1 hybrid lymph node cells are equally as effective in inducing tolerance as parental homologous lymph node cells. When the duration of tolerance is determined the results suggest that the length of the tolerant period cannot be correlated to the initial size of the donor cell population. The duration of tolerance is variable, even within groups of mice injected with equal cell doses of homologous spleen cells. Tracing the fate of donor cells by radioautography during the early phases of tolerance and by the "chimera" test during the later stages, indicates that the injected donor cells settle primarily in the spleen and lymph nodes of the tolerant host. Donor cells can be detected by chimera analysis, during all stages of graft acceptance, graft contraction, and even shortly after graft rejection. The results are discussed in the light of the hypothesis that in the CBA → C3H strain combination of mice, induction and maintenance of homograft tolerance is dependent on a critical balance between the immune potential of the host and the size of the donor lymphoid cell population.


Research has typically supported the concern that health services utilization increases with aging. Yet most health services utilization studies have focused on the use of 1 as opposed to all health services, the use of health services over 1 year as opposed to a longer period, and the use of health services during the 1970s or 1980s. Current, comprehensive utilization studies are needed in order to better inform health policy and health services decision-making. This study was designed to compare the health services utilization of 3 groups of seniors: those residing in long-term-care (LTC) facilities, those receiving home care, and those neither institutionalized nor receiving home care. Individual-anonymous and population-based inpatient hospital data, ambulatory care (day surgery, outpatient clinic, and emergency room) data, and physician services data collected by the health ministry of the Canadian province of Alberta over a 2-year period were analyzed using descriptive and comparative statistical tests available in the SPSS computer program. With the exception of physician and LTC services, LTC residents were the least likely to use health services. Furthermore, and despite concerns that LTC residents may be stigmatized or rationed with regard to access to tertiary care, the data indicate that LTC residents are not disadvantaged in terms of type or scope of hospital services. These and other findings suggest an appreciation for LTC in managing both the health and the care needs of the oldest seniors. The findings also raise concerns about the adequacy of formal home care and of the health care received by the well elderly.


This study assessed differences in headspace flammability for summertime gasolines and new high-ethanol content fuel blends. The results apply to vehicle fuel tanks and underground storage tanks. Ambient temperature and fuel formulation effects on headspace vapor flammability of ethanol/gasoline blends were evaluated. Depending on the degree of tank filling, fuel type, and ambient temperature, fuel vapors in a tank can be flammable or non-flammable. Pure gasoline vapors in tanks generally are too rich to be flammable unless ambient temperatures are extremely low. High percentages of ethanol blended with gasoline can be less volatile than pure gasoline and can produce flammable headspace vapors at common ambient temperatures. The study supports refinements of fuel ethanol volatility specifications and shows potential consequences of using noncompliant fuels. E85 is flammable at low temperatures; denatured ethanol is flammable at warmer temperatures. If both are stored at the same location, one or both of the tanks' headspace vapors will be flammable over a wide range of ambient temperatures. This is relevant to allowing consumers to splash -blend ethanol and gasoline at fueling stations. Fuels compliant with ASTM volatility specifications are relatively safe, but the E85 samples tested indicate that some ethanol fuels may produce flammable vapors.


Legislative committees have fascinated scholars and reformers for more than a century. All acknowledge the central strategic position of committees in legislatures. The consensus, however, centers on empirical regularities and stylized facts, not on explanations. We seek to explain why committees are powerful. We formulate an institutionally rich rational-choice model of legislative politics in which the sequence of the legislative process is given special prominence. Committees, as agenda setters in their respective jurisdictions, are able to enforce many of their policy wishes not only because they originate bills but also because they get a second chance after their chamber has worked its will. This occurs at the conference stage in which the two chambers of a bicameral legislature resolve differences between versions of a bill. A theory of conference politics is offered and some evidence from recent Congresses is provided.


In the late 1980s, the software industry in Japan grew rapidly not only in the 'global city' of Tokyo but also in some rural areas. In short, it was dispersed from the global city to other areas in Japan. In the late 1990s, however, the software industry became concentrated mainly in Tokyo, unlike the late 1980s. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the background of that concentration within the context of international trade.Two hypotheses were examined as driving forces of that concentration. 1) In the late 1980s, software firms in Tokyo outsourced software business to rural areas in Japan where a low cost labor force was available. In the late 1990s, however, software firms in China and India provided lower costs than the rural areas of Japan. Thus, it was expected that software firms in Tokyo outsourced software not to the rural areas in Japan, but to overseas software firms. 2) As the demand for producer services by Trans National Corporations (TNCs) located in the global city grew with the economic globalization of the 1990s, it was anticipated that demand for software would increase in the 'global city' of Tokyo rather than in the rural areas.First, the performance of an extended shift-share analysis on the software industry revealed that the import substitution effect is rarely seen in the Japanese software industry although labor costs are significantly reduced by outsourcing to China and India. One reason for limited overseas outsourcing is that electronic devices made by Japanese manufacturers need highly skilled workers. Embedded software in electronic devices like mobile phones and digital cameras need highly skilled workers most of whom live in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The demand for skilled workers for high value electronic manufacturing products prevented further outsourcing of the software overseas and facilitated the concentration of the software industry in Tokyo. Second, the extended shift-share analysis of TNCs growing demand for software shows that export-led job growth became evident in the late 1990s. The correlation coefficient between export-oriented job growth and software job growth is significant at the 1% level. The high demand for software in the 'global city' and the decrease in government public works investment in rural areas have greatly contributed to the concentration of the software industry in Tokyo in the late 1990s. That helped shift software demand from the rural areas in Japan to the 'global city', Tokyo.With a governmental income transfer policy from urban to rural areas, the software industry grew relatively all over Japan. However, the growth gap between the urban and rural areas was mainly aggravated by economic globalization and the minimal government policy in the 1990s.


We present a generic method for recurrently using the same parameters for many different convolution layers to build a deep network. Specifically, for a network, we create a recurrent parameter generator (RPG), from which the parameters of each convolution layer are generated. Though using recurrent models to build a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) is not entirely new, our method achieves significant performance gain compared to the existing works. We demonstrate how to build a one-layer neural network to achieve similar performance compared to other traditional CNN models on various applications and datasets. Such a method allows us to build an arbitrarily complex neural network with any amount of parameters. For example, we build a ResNet34 with model parameters reduced by more than 400 times, which still achieves 41.6% ImageNet top-1 accuracy. Furthermore, we demonstrate the RPG can be applied at different scales, such as layers, blocks, or even sub-networks. Specifically, we use the RPG to build a ResNet18 network with the number of weights equivalent to one convolutional layer of a conventional ResNet and show this model can achieve 67.2% ImageNet top-1 accuracy. The proposed method can be viewed as an inverse approach to model compression. Rather than removing the unused parameters from a large model, it aims to squeeze more information into a small number of parameters. Extensive experiment results are provided to demonstrate the power of the proposed recurrent parameter generator.


ABSTRACT The water absorption, chemical resistance, and biological properties are contributing factors to the overall performance of bio-composites, especially for outdoor applications. The functional properties of bio-composites are dependent on the interfacial bonding mechanism, which is controlled by the surface modification and processing parameters of natural fibers. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the potential of enhancing the mukwa/polylactide (mukwa/PLA) interface through an economic and ecological surface modification of recycled mukwa wood fibers via alkali-laccase modification. The fabricated bio-composites intended for making durable farm poles for semi-arid conditions of Southern Africa were characterized via water absorption, chemical resistance, thickness swelling, hardness, and thermal properties. Less thickness swelling and water absorption were found on the alkali-laccase/PLA composites. The less-dense (1.09 g/cm3) alkali-laccase treated composites showed better chemical resistance. Much swelling of the composites was observed on the 40% nitric acid (HNO3), while 60%NaOH shrunk the composites and PLA by <3.5%. The laccase/PLA bio-composite showed a maximum thermal stability of 733 °C. The activation energy (Ea) optimized on the laccase/PLA composite with the highest of 104 kJ mol−1. Maximum crystallinity of 45.8% was achieved on the untreated/PLA composites. The alkali-laccase modification maximized the hardness of composites with 35.45 HV on alkali-laccase/PLA.


BALB/c mice (H-2d) given 10 Gy total body irradiation (TBI) followed by 10(7) bone marrow (BM) and 10(6) spleen cells from C57BL/6 (H-2b) donor mice received recombinant cytokines intraperitoneally (IP) twice daily. The effect on neutrophil recovery rate, graft-v-host disease (GVHD), and survival was assessed. Four reagents were used: granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF), interleukin-1 (IL-1) and IL-4, both alone and in combination. The most effective combination for increasing the circulating absolute neutrophil account (ANC) above the control value at day 7 posttransplant was the combination of G-CSF and IL-1 (mean ANC 2.4 +/- 1.6 x 10(9)/L as compared with control value of 0.07 +/- 0.05, P less than .02), followed by G-CSF alone (mean ANC 1.1 +/- 0.2, P less than .0001), the combination of GM-CSF plus IL-1 (mean ANC 0.8 +/- 0.3, P less than .002), and the combination of G-CSF plus GM-CSF (mean ANC 0.8 +/- 0.3, p less than .005). At day 10 posttransplant, the most effective combination in raising the ANC was the combination of G-CSF plus GM-CSF (mean ANC 7.5 +/- 2.3 as compared with control value of 3.5 +/- 1.1, P less than .01), followed by G-CSF alone (mean ANC 6.9 +/- 2.1, P less than .02). At the doses used, neither G-CSF nor GM-CSF had a deleterious effect on the incidence or severity of GVHD; indeed, GM-CSF was associated with improved survival. In contrast, IL-1 at doses greater than or equal to 100 ng twice daily caused marked early mortality, and there was a suggestion that IL-4 at doses of 500 ng twice daily resulted in increased late mortality, possibly owing to exacerbation of GVHD. This model appears to be of value for exploring the use of hematopoietic growth factors before they are used clinically in marrow allograft recipients.


--Plantings in Georgia and Florida were established with slash pine seedlings of three genetic types: selections improved for high gum yield (IHGY), selections with improved growth and form (IGF), and commercial stock (CS). Under adverse environmental conditions in Florida, IHGY survived best at age 3, CS next best, and IGF poorest. Survival was more than twice as high in Georgia at age 4; it was uniformly high except for IGF seedlings from one nursery. Significantly more fusiform rust was found in CS than in IHGY or IGF stock. IHGY had 44.8 percent more volume than CS at age 10; no lo-year-old IGF were available for comparison.


Speech intelligibility in rooms is influenced by room acoustics effects and by the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of the speech and ambient noise. Several measures such as useful-to-detrimental sound ratios and the speech transmission index predict the combined effects of both types of factors. These measures were evaluated relative to speech intelligibility test results obtained in simulated sound fields. The use of simulated sound fields made it possible to create the full range of combinations of room acoustics and S/N effects likely to be found in rooms for speech. The S/N aspect is shown to be much more important than room acoustics effects and new broadband useful-to-detrimental ratios were validated. Useful-to-detrimental ratios, speech transmission index measures, and values of the articulation loss for consonants were all reasonably accurate predictors of speech intelligibility. Further improvements to these combined measures are suggested.


In the upcoming article eight new members of the dynamical systems of class C and F are investigated via numerical integration. Although four configurations of the state matrices are familiar with the chaos generation the others are hypothetic and complete the study. The aim of this paper is to discover and describe different canonical representations for a given set of the differential equations, i.e. existing mathematical model. Individual dynamical systems are distinct from the viewpoint of the geometry of the associated vector field. The motivation for discovering the new mathematical models capable to produce a complex dynamics including chaos is both pedagogical and practical. The latter case is obvious since the new system can be easier to be implemented as an electronic circuit or has other advantage like simpler location of strategic orbits.


Background: 2022 will see an increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Jombang City, ranking it second in East Java with 1388 PLWHA, 20 cases of mother-to-child HIV transmission during childbirth, 12 HIV (+) cases, 8 AIDS cases, and 100 fatalities. The Independent Practice Midwife (BPM) is the linchpin of a healthcare organization that has the potential to grow into a network of expectant mothers. Midwives are qualified to serve as health educators for expectant women who exhibit habits that increase their risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. In a qualitative study in Jombang City, the aim of this study was to determine the program to develop midwives' ability as health educators for expectant mothers in an effort to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission.
Method: This study is qualitative and employs an in-depth interviewing methodology. Up to 8 stakeholders served as primary informants, while 2 NGOs and 10 BPM employees served as secondary informants. analysis of data using the content analysis approach.
Results: Because national guidelines for preventing HIV transmission from mother to newborn have been popularized, stakeholders have implemented a policy that uses standard technical programs for midwifery practice. Midwives have received training in APN, PI, and STIs, but due to funding restrictions, they have never received training in HIV/AIDS counseling. There is no such thing as BPM; only the central IBI does monitoring and assessment, which is done only through monthly reports. The coordination of NGOs, KPAD Regional Child Protection Commission, Public Health Office, The Indonesian Midwives Association, and BPM in the execution of monitoring and evaluation is insufficient, and only IBI is carried out, unplanned, carried out at any moment if it is going to prolong the practice permit. BPM has not yet received special supervision. Coordination amongst stakeholders during the implementation of supervision is insufficient. In an effort to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, health education facilities for pregnant women in BPM have been provided with posters, flipcharts, and MCH handbooks. There are four VCT clinics and three PMTCT clinics.
Conclusion: Program to improve midwives' abilities as health educators for expectant mothers in an effort to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS at BPM (independent practice midwives) Jombang City. In order to improve coordination between stakeholders (KPAD Regional Child Protection Commission, Public Health Office, and IBI The Indonesian Midwives Association with BPM in monitoring and supervision, train counselors for BPM (independent practice midwives), and have midwives become more motivated to provide IEC and continue to improve professionalism in providing midwifery services, advocacy is required to the Regional/ Legislative Council


A number of recent mechanical property studies have sought to validate atomistic and multiscale models with matching experimental volumes. One such property is the ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT). Currently no model exists that incorporates both external and internal variables in an analytical model to address both length scales and environment. Using thermally activated parameters for dislocation plasticity, the present study attempts a small piece of this. With activation energy and activation volumes previously determined for single and polycrystalline Fe-3% Si, predictions of DBTT both with and without atmospheric hydrogen are made. These are compared with standard fracture toughness measurements similarly for samples both with and without atmospheric hydrogen. In the hydrogen-free samples, average strain rate varied by four orders of magnitude. DBTT shifts are experimentally found and predicted to increase 100 K or more with either increasing strain rate or exposure to hydrogen.


Background/Aims : Indomethacin inhibits both cylooxygenase-1 (COX-1) and COX-2, whereas meloxicam selectively inhibits COX-2. We evaluated the effect of indomethacin and meloxicam on the gastric mucosa and serum concentration of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-αin rats. Methods : Eighty rats were administered with indomethacin and meloxicam. They were divided into 30 min and 3 hours groups according to the time interval between the administration and the evaluation of gastric mucosal damage and serum concentration of TNF-α. Each group (n=40) was equally subdivided into 5 groups: control, indomethacin 3 mg/kg and indomethacin 30 mg/kg, meloxicam 3 mg/kg and meloxicam 30 mg/kg. The gastric damage score was assessed by gross observation and the concentration of serum TNF-αwas measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Results : At 3 hours after the administration, the gastric mucosal damage more was significant in the indomethacin administered group of a dose (3 mg/kg or 30 mg/kg) than in the other groups (p<0.05). The meloxicam group of a dose of 30 mg/kg revealed a significant gastric mucosal damage, as compared to the control. Gastric mucosal damage was correlated well with the serum level of TNF-α(r=0.759: p<0.001). Conclusions: Considering gastric mucosal damage, selective COX-2 inhibitor, meloxicam, seems to be relatively safe at a low dose as compared to non-selective COX inhibitors. (Kor J Gastroenterol 2000;35:554 - 561)


The review deals with the application of gas detectors in combination with the thermoscanning of adsorption layers in thin layer chromatography for the recording of the results of the separation. Attention is concentrated on a combined method, based on the use of cylindrical thin layer chromatography and a fiame-ionisation detector; which fulfills two functions simultaneously: thermoscanning of the adsorption layer with separated organic compounds and detection of the thermoscanning products. The prospects for the development of the method are discussed. The bibliography includes 179 references.


Background

The purpose of the study was to assess the student learning outcomes of English in Action's (EIA's) School Based Teacher Development programme, in terms of improved English language (EL) competence, against recognised international frameworks (specifically, the Graded Examinations in Spoken English (GESE) (Trinity College London [TCL] 2013), which map onto the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Trinity College London 2007)). Measurably improved student learning outcomes are the ultimate test of success of a teacher development programme. A secondary purpose of the study was to explore whether there was any related increase in teachers' EL competence.

English Proficiency Assessments 2013 is a repeat of the study on the pilot EIA programme (Cohort 1) (EIA 2012).

The students and teachers of Cohort 2 are sixfold greater in number (4,368 teachers, compared with 751 teachers, in schools). To enable this increase in scale, the programme has been delivered through a more decentralised model, with much less direct contact with English language teaching (ELT) experts, a greater embedding of expertise within teacher development materials (especially video), and a greater dependence upon localised peer support.

This report addresses two research questions:
1. To what extent do the teachers and students of Cohort 2 show improved post-intervention EL proficiencies, in speaking and listening, compared with the Cohort 1 2010 pre-intervention baseline?
2. To what extent has the programme been successful in repeating the 2011 post-intervention improvements in EL proficiencies seen in Cohort 1, at the much larger scale of Cohort 2?


SUMMARY: Protein synthesis and phosphorylation were studied in Metarhizium anisopliae. Calmodulin (CaM) and CaM-target proteins were found in conidia and germlings of M. anisopliae. Conidial uptake of [35S]methionine and [32P]orthophosphate and their incorporation into protein was massively reduced by known antagonists of CaM, depletion of intracellular Ca2+ by ionophoresis or antagonism of Ca2+ with La3+, agents which prevented nuclear division and germination. Inhibitors of C-kinase (H-7) and cyclic-nucleotide-dependent kinase (H-8) selectively repressed phosphorylation of a 27 kDa protein but did not affect the profile of protein synthesis nor change germination frequency and mode of growth. By contrast, inhibitor and ionophoresis studies on mycelia showed that extracellular secretion of proteins but not protein synthesis was Ca2+-dependent. Protein phosphorylation in mycelia was also Ca2+-dependent/ CaM-independent. CaM antagonists stimulated phosphorylation of 17 and 33 kDa polypeptides. Most proteins in mycelia were phosphorylated at serine and threonine residues. However, immunoblotting with anti-phosphotyrosine serum revealed prominent bands at 34.5 and 38 kDa. The 38 kDa protein was detectable on isolated plasma membranes. Our results suggest that M. anisopliae possesses stimulus transduction pathways similar to those known in plant and animal systems.


Transformer, one of the latest technological advances of deep learning, has gained prevalence in natural language processing or computer vision. Since medical imaging bear some resemblance to computer vision, it is natural to inquire about the status quo of Transformers in medical imaging and ask the question: can the Transformer models transform medical imaging? In this paper, we attempt to make a response to the inquiry. After a brief introduction of the fundamentals of Transformers, especially in comparison with convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and highlighting key defining properties that characterize the Transformers, we offer a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art Transformer-based approaches for medical imaging and exhibit current research progresses made in the areas of medical image segmentation, recognition, detection, registration, reconstruction, enhancement, etc. In particular, what distinguishes our review lies in its organization based on the Transformer's key defining properties, which are mostly derived from comparing the Transformer and CNN, and its type of architecture, which specifies the manner in which the Transformer and CNN are combined, all helping the readers to best understand the rationale behind the reviewed approaches. We conclude with discussions of future perspectives.


: The objective of this article is to identify the most effective industrial communication tools for Moroccan Small and Medium Industries (SMI). To do this, we first noted the marketing communication tools presented in the literature review, then we carried out a statistical study on PMI. In the sample are companies that have worked in the electronic mechatronics and mechanical industry member of the CE3M cluster and companies operating in the same sector but which are not members of the mentioned cluster. The objective of the empirical study is to recognize the product communication practices most used by Moroccan SMIs, as well as the interest they take in the concept of "cluster", in particular, the contribution or the benefit. in terms of reputation, and visibility on the market based on those of the cluster. After an analysis of the results, we were able to put forward recommendations essentially to allow the benefit of visibility on the national and international market and to carve out a place in a highly competitive industry.


Picking the reflection horizon is an important step in velocity inversion and seismic interpretation. Manual picking is time-consuming and no longer suitable for current large-scale seismic data processing. Automatic algorithms using different seismic attributes such as instantaneous phase or dip attributes have been proposed. However, the computed attributes are usually inaccurate near discontinuities. The waveforms in the horizontal direction often change dramatically, which makes it difficult to track a horizon using the similarity of attributes. In this paper, we propose a novel method for automatic horizon picking using multiple seismic attributes and the Markov decision process (MDP). For the design of the MDP model, the decision time and state are defined as the horizontal and vertical spatial position on a seismic image, respectively. The reward function is defined in multi-dimensional feature attribute space. Multiple attributes can highlight different aspects of a seismic image and therefore overcome the limitations of the single-attribute MDP through the cross-constraint of multiple attributes. The optimal decision is made by searching the largest state value function in the reward function space. By considering cumulative reward, the lateral continuity of a seismic image can be effectively considered, and the impacts of abnormal waveform changes or bad traces in local areas for automatic horizon picking can be effectively avoided. An effective implementation scheme is designed for picking multiple reflection horizons. The proposed method has been successfully tested on both synthetic and field data.


The incidence and prevalence rate of chronic inflammatory disorders is on the rise in the pediatric population. Recent research indicates the crucial role of interactions between the altered intestinal microbiome and the immune system in the pathogenesis of several chronic inflammatory disorders in children, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and celiac disease (CeD). Here, we review recent knowledge concerning the pathogenic mechanisms underlying these disorders, and summarize the facts suggesting that the initiation and progression of IBD, T1DM, and CeD can be partially attributed to disturbances in the patterns of composition and abundance of the gut microbiota. The standard available therapies for chronic inflammatory disorders in children largely aim to treat symptoms. Although constant efforts are being made to maximize the quality of life for children in the long-term, sustained improvements are still difficult to achieve. Additional challenges are the changing physiology associated with growth and development of children, a population that is particularly susceptible to medication-related adverse effects. In this review, we explore new promising therapeutic approaches aimed at modulation of either gut microbiota or the activity of the immune system to induce a long-lasting remission of chronic inflammatory disorders. Recent preclinical studies and clinical trials have evaluated new approaches, for instance the adoptive transfer of immune cells, with genetically engineered regulatory T cells expressing antigen-specific chimeric antigen receptors. These approaches have revolutionized cancer treatments and have the potential for the protection of high-risk children from developing autoimmune diseases and effective management of inflammatory disorders. The review also focuses on the findings of studies that indicate that the responses to a variety of immunotherapies can be enhanced by strategic manipulation of gut microbiota, thus emphasizing on the importance of proper interaction between the gut microbiota and immune system for sustained health benefits and improvement of the quality of life of pediatric patients.


The paper presents a patient who was first diagnosed with hypertension just a few days before developing gout. Hypertension occurred along with the hyperuricemia last year after curing the patient of gout. Hyperuricemia was initially symptomatic and manifested as gout; later it was without its specific symptoms but was always associated with hypertension. Just a month after correction of the patient's previous diet, the levels of uric acid and blood pressure were normal or at pre-hypertensive values. Our case supports the concept of the predictive role of uric acid in the genesis of essential hypertension and emphasizes the application of an adequate diet in the therapy of some forms of hypertension. Acta Medica Medianae 2011;50(3):49-53.


We draw on fixed-event and fixed-horizon survey expectations to better understand macro-economic forecasting behaviour. Fixed-event forecasts facilitate testing for herding behaviour,while fixed-horizon forecasts lend themselves to modelling the effects of consensus forecasts on individual forecasts. By pursuing these two approaches simultaneously for each individual forecaster, we can determine when the significance of the consensus forecasts in explaining an individuals forecasts is consistent with enhancing forecast accuracy, and when it reects strategic behaviour in response to other motives.


With the rapid socioeconomic development of China, mega-cities with a population of more than 10 million have gradually emerged, with frequent urban floods and atmospheric pollution as well as other disasters. For better weather forecast and disaster prevention and mitigation in mega-cities, in 2016, China Meteorological Administration organized the " MegaCity Experiment On Integrated Meteorological Observation in China (MEMO)", in which continuous and quantitative observation of aerosol profiles in mega-cities by aerosol lidar is one of the important parts. To ensure the quantitative comparability of the aerosol lidar data, the Meteorological Observation Center of China Meteorological Administration launched the first calibration experiment of aerosol lidar network in MEMO at the Beijing Southern Suburb Observatory in September 2017. 6 lidars participated in the calibration and statistical analysis was used for the calibration of key subsystems such as transmit/receive channel, data acquisition. After calibration, the relative standard deviation of backscattering coefficient in 532nm channel is reduced from 90.8% to 20.4% in height range of 1-2 km, and from 244.3% to 35.9% in height range of 2-5 km.


A convenient protocol for the preparation of 5-phenyl-10,15,20-tris(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin, a water-soluble porphyrin with unique aggregation properties, is described. The procedure relies on the one-pot reductive deamination of 5-(4-aminophenyl)-10,15,20-tris(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin, that can be in turn easily obtained from 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin by a known three-step sequence involving mononitration, nitro to amine reduction and sulfonation of the phenyl groups. This method provides the title porphyrin in gram scale, and compares very favorably with the up to now only described procedure based on the partial sulfonation of TPP, that involves a long and tedious chromatographic enrichment of the final compound. This has allowed us to study for the first time both the use of its zwitterionic aggregate as a supramolecular catalyst of the aqueous Diels–Alder reaction, and the morphology of the aggregates obtained under optimized experimental conditions by atomic force microscopy and also by transmission electron cryomicroscopy.


Introduction Neisseria gonorrhoeae shows increasing resistance to first line empirical treatment, which demonstrates the need for robust methods to evaluate antibiotic treatment regimens. Antibiotic efficacy is traditionally determined in vitro by measuring minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs). Time-kill curve assays for N. gonorrhoeae have been difficult to standardise. We developed a new time-kill curve assay and used pharmacodynamics functions to analyse the relationship between antibiotic concentration and bacterial net growth rate. Methods We used a defined medium (Graver-Wade medium) and grew bacteria in 96-well microtiter plates. To measure colony forming units over a time course of six hours, we used a previously described drop plate method and spotted 10 µl droplets on chocolate agar with a multichannel pipette. The assay was validated using 16 reference strains, representing diffent clades of the N. gonorrhoeae phylogenetic tree. We then studied a highly sensitive strain isolated in 1954 in Denmark in detail. Penicillin G, spectinomycin, gentamicin, tetracyline, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, cefixime and ceftriaxone were examined in concentrations from 0.016× to 16×MIC. A pharmacodynamic function was fitted to the net bacterial growth rates at each concentration, resulting in four parameters that describe the pharmacodynamic properties of each antibiotic. Results Our time-kill curve assay was reproducible for all the N. gonorrhoeae strains tested. Ciprofloxacin and spectinomycin induced the strongest bactericidal effect during the first six hours. Tetracycline and chloramphenicol were the only antibiotics that showed a purely bacteriostatic effect. Differences in the shape of the pharmacodynamic functions illustrate the time and concentration dependent properties of the antibiotics. Conclusion We developed a standardised, robust and quality-assured time-kill curve assay for N. gonorrhoeae . Pharmacodynamic functions allowed classification of nine antibiotics according to their antimicrobial properties. These methods can be used to investigate new antibiotic regimens and help to improve dosing strategies. Disclosure of interest statement This work was supported by SystemsX, Switzerland, Orebro County Council Research Committee and the Foundation for Medical Research at Orebro University Hospital, Sweden.


Decades ago the humanization of work is always an issue in vogue and gaining strength especially when accompanied by economic growth. The aim of this study is to analyze the variables that impact the individual's satisfaction with their wor k, their motivation to the task and perceived quality of work life in general in a large retail c ompany Centennial Minas Gerais. To achieve this goal, the technical procedure used was a case study , using a quantitative analysis of data obtained from questionnaires based on the Model of Hackman and Oldham (1974). 400 questionnaires were administered to 39 closed-type questions, with answ ers on a Likert scale ranging from 0 to 10. The focus of the study were employees of the company's sales points where they are almost 80% of the workforce. The network has 3260 employees in direct contact with the end customer. The results highlight the need to rethink the company's current pay practice, to review the processes of extrinsic feedback and the possibility of granting autonomy t o its employees. Also suggested that in all functions there is dissatisfaction with pay in the first place. It is noticed that in the short term, this


This study was design to identify the causal agent of Horsegram yellow mosaic disease and to investigate the pathogenicity of Horsegram yellow mosaic viruses (HgYMV) infective clones. The samples were obtained using standard method from the two main horsegram growing areas of Bangalore, Karnataka State of India. The viral DNA from horsegram plants exhibiting severe symptoms was amplified by PCR. An isolate of HgYMV1 and HgYMV2 were associated with severe symptom phenotype from HgYMV. Full-length clones of DNA-A and DNA-B genomic components were constructed and attempts were made to introduce homologous (HgYMV1/HgYMV2) combinations of DNA-A and DNA-B genomic components into Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Inoculation of linearized constructs containing full-length clones or partial head-to-tail dimers of DNA-A and DNAB genomic components resulted in the introduction of DNA-A genomic components into the host plant. However, these combinations of genomic DNA component were not detected in the inoculated plants bombarded using the gene gun. Thus, this study was unable to confirm the pathogenicity of HgYMV infective clones using N. benthamiana as model plant. Keywords: Horsegram, Begomovirus, yellow mosaic viruses , Particle bombardment, Gene gun


Forty-three randomly selected farms located throughout South Island, excluding the Nelson region, were surveyed for anthelmintic usage and for sheep nematodes resistant to anthelmintics. Most farmers had used both benzimidazole and non-benzimidazole broad-spectrum drenches on their properties in previous years. Sheep were being drenched, on average, 5.6 times within their first year of life but much less frequently thereafter. Commercial interests played the dominant role in helping farmers formulate their drenching policies. On each farm 24 numbered ewe replacement lambs, born during the spring of 1980, were sampled for faeces at the beginning of the trial to provide material for egg counts and larval cultures. The lambs were weighed and divided into three groups of eight. One group received thiabendazole (TBZ) at 66 mg/kg, the second levamisole (LEV) at 8 mg/kg while the third remained untreated as controls. All were resampled 4 to 10 days later. On 32 (88%) of the 40 farms where drenching trials were successfully carried out during autumn 1981, the faecal egg count depression (FECD) following treatment with either drench was 100%. On one farm TBZ was less than 100% effective as gauged by FECD. LEV proved to be less than 100% effective on 7 farms. On one farm the FECD was less than 80%, on 2 between 90% and 95% and on 4 between 95% and 99%.


We used data obtained from wedding announcements in the New York Times newspaper from 1971 through 2005 ( N = 2,400) to test 9 hypotheses related to brides' decisions to change or retain their maiden names upon marriage. As predicted, a trend was found in brides keeping their surname, and correlates included the bride's occupation, education, age, and the type of ceremony (religious versus nonsectarian). Partial support was found for the following correlates: officiants representing different religions, brides with one or both parents deceased, and brides whose parents had divorced or separated. There was mixed support for the hypothesis that a photograph of the bride alone would signal a lower incidence of name keeping. Results indicated that 14 out of the 30 hypothesized directional planned comparisons were statistically significant after Bonferroni adjustment.


A punched card procedure for a general weighted least squares solution to successive intervals is described. Use of zero weights permits application of this procedure to cases of incomplete data. The procedure outlined suggests use of an IBM Type 101 statistical sorter for obtaining frequency counts. Conversion of frequencies to normal curve deviates and assignment of weights is accomplished on a gang punch. The main procedure is an iterative process with repetitive cycles of computation using a calculating punch, Type 602-A, and a tabulator. A numerical example is given to illustrate the machine sequences. The example employs data collected by Saffir (8). The resulting scale values and discriminal dispersions are approximately linearly related to corresponding values found by Saffir (8) and Gulliksen (6).


Control valve stiction is considered as one of the main sources of control loops nonlinearities which impacts plants profitability. In turn, this phenomenon hinders the plant from being operated at optimal conditions. Therefore, an efficient and accurate stiction quantification algorithm is required for accurate stiction compensation and timely scheduling of control valve maintenance. This research investigates the robustness and recommends improvements to the previously developed stiction quantification approach by Zabiri et al. The approach was tested under several operating conditions which were simulated in five case studies by using MATLAB software. The case studies investigated the impact of a wide range of stiction values, controller tuning, disturbance, time delay and noise on the quantification approach. The algorithm was found to be robust since it quantified the correct values of stiction regardless of the operating conditions. It was found that the accuracy of the quantification results depends on the process model accuracy, number of data samples and the search resolution. A number of improvements were recommended and validated by simulation in order to further enhance the current quantification approach. As conclusion, the algorithm can be applied on any type of process due to its robustness.


In a business environment and marketplace that continuously evolves requires a management methodology that is well situated toward dealing with a dynamic business landscape. Managers across industry lines must be able to proactively guide and lead the organization through a competitive situation that shifts on an almost quarterly basis. conducive to meeting these shareholder and stakeholder requirements. Adhocracy, a management philosophy based on allocating resources and personnel to projects and initiatives that are priorities, and doing so in a dynamic manner, appears to offer a solution to this dilemma.


We report the development of a novel optical switching technique consisting of a silica microsphere optical resonator coated by a conjugated polymer. A 250-/spl mu/m diameter silica microsphere was coated by dipping into a toluene solution of poly(2,5-dioctyloxy-1,4-phenylenevinylene). The resonator properties were characterized by evanescently coupling 1.55-/spl mu/m light propagating along a stripline-pedestal antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide into optical whispering gallery modes (WGMs) of the microsphere. WGM resonant frequency shifts as large as 3.2 GHz were observed when 405-nm pump light with a power density of /spl sim/10/sup 4/ mW/cm/sup 2/ was incident on the microsphere. The time constant of the observed frequency shifts is approximately 0.165 s, leading us to attribute the frequency shift to thermooptic effects. As microsphere resonators with WGM linewidths less than 2 MHz (corresponding to cavity Q>10/sup 8/) can be easily fabricated, initial measurements indicate that such a system is capable of thermooptically switching the WGM resonant frequency at speeds on the order of 100 ms.


The present study is an attempt to analyst the various forms of gender discriminations in sports among the International as well as National sportswomen. The history of women athletics goes back to ancient civilization; it is not a recent phenomenon. Women are occasionally forbidden from competing, which led them to create their own games. Sports have a universal appeal. It does not discriminate based on things like race, gender, caste, or color. Sports participation emphasizes both overall development and health. Men used to participate in most games, sports, and athletic events back in the day, but today's women face, any restrictions, including those are physical, mental, social, cultural, and more. Women have advanced significantly in many areas of life in the past century. Today, women can hold employment, own property, and play professional sports. Women in India are making every effort to hear in the male-dominated sports industry, even though you may not hear crowds for their goals or see media outlets devote all their primetime slots to covering their matches. We will trace how race and gender function in the society continue to be hampered by the absence of an intersectional perspective. The main aim of the research is to explore and analyze the critical situation, struggle, and psychological conditions of Indian and Black Sportswomen.