Biomass has been recognized as a renewable energy source alternative to fossil fuels, because it doesn't increase CO2 amount in the atmosphere. Among various ways of woody biomass use, IGCC power generation is known as the most possibly efficient technology. In the process, biomass is firstly pyrolyzed and the produced volatile and char are secondary converted; hence it is necessary to know the production process and yields of pyrolysis gas, tar, producing char and char gasification kinetics for effective energy conversion. In this study, many woody biomass species (four softwoods, nine hardwoods and four barks) were pyrolyzed at 1000 °C at the rapid heating rate up to around 1000 °C /s. Then the produced char is gasified in an experimental fluidized bed. After that, the produced char was gasified by CO2 at 1000°C. We computed char conversion and its rate from CO production rate with time and conversion rate was plotted against conversion. Different gasification rate curves are found for various biomass samples. The gasification rate of char was evaluated by the first order rate constant based on the volume reaction model. Hardwood char gasification rates were faster than those of softwood samples. Most of the gasification rates of char from the bark samples were nearly same as those of woody part samples. As for the hardwood, the char produced from biomass with lower compressive strength generally gave faster reaction rate.


A process for fluid catalytically cracking a hydrocarbon feedstock containing at least one bio-renewable feed fraction using a rare earth metal oxide-containing, high zeolite-to-matrix surface area ratio catalyst is disclosed. The catalyst comprising a zeolite, preferably a Y-type zeolite, a matrix, at least 1 wt% of a rare earth metal oxide, based on the total weight of the catalyst. The zeolite surface area-to-matrix surface area ratio of the catalyst is at least 2, preferably greater than 2.


From the Publisher:
Based on extensive testing of Office 2000, due to be released in the Spring of 1999, I feel very confident in asserting that Microsoft will continue to roll over the Office suite market. In most corporations I'd look for a wholesale switch from Office 95 and 97 to Office 2000, over a remarkably short period of time - it really is *that* much better. Experienced Office users who try Office 2000 won't be willing to go back to the earlier versions, and for good reason: each of the applications has several key new features that will pay for the upgrade in days or (at most) weeks. Yes, the emphasis in Office 2000 lies in Web integration. But even if you never use the Web, Microsoft has created dozens of compelling new capabilities that every Office user will want, and ultimately need, to get their work done.
Beyond Office 2000 the crystal ball grows a little murkier. I, for one, hope that Microsoft concentrates on three areas. First, there's a crying need to make the pieces of Office work together better: even in Office 2000 it's ridiculously difficult to bring a name from Outlook into a Word document, for example; using the painfully slow NetShow to deliver a PowerPoint presentation will tax the patience of a saint. Second, Microsoft needs to listen to its customers better, to smooth out the hundreds of niggling little problems that bedevil us all - from email inboxes that can't be shared in Outlook, to automatic Excel formula "corrections" that clobber perfectly good formulas, to Word paragraph numbering schemes that fall far short of legal offices' needs. Third, Microsoft has an enormous amount of work to do to make the Office package more consistent - a "template" should work the same whether it's in Word or Excel or PowerPoint or FrontPage; a text search that's valid in Word should also work in Publisher or Outlook.
Will Microsoft be able to rise to the challenges of 2001 and beyond? Frankly, I'm not overly optimistic. Now that Office has effectively taken over the office suite marketplace, Microsoft may grow less paranoid, and devote too few resources to the "Office 10" design and development effort. That would really be a pity, as there's so much work left to do, so many things that could and should be improved. The only real competition for the next version of Office will be the older version - and that does not bode well for us consumers.


The adrenal glands of 41 fresh stillbirths were studied and a 'stress response' pattern could be seen in 28. In these glands the stress response was characterised by compact cell change, lipid depletion, excess pyroninophilia, and dilatation of the very prominent granular endoplasmic reticulum. Scattered areas of cytolysis of cells, especially of the definitive cortex, gave rise to the commonly seen cystic (pseudofollicular) change and it was obvious that cells undergoing lysis were severely 'stressed'. In 2 infants there was a 'clear cell reversal' pattern. Histological and ultrastructural changes of the stress response were not identified in 11. Infants of low birthweight score were somewhat more commonly represented in the group that did not show a stress response. Cytolytic changes accompanying a stress response were commoner in immature infants. It is argued that cystic (pseudofollicular) change in the adrenal cortex of the newborn signifies a previous stress reaction.


Continuous inhalation of coal dust among coal workers leads to a variety of disorders. The present study aims to evaluate the potential oxidative stress associated with coal dust generated from coal mining activities among exposed workers through the antioxidant enzyme system, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione (GSH). In this study cohort, intensive coal mine workers were assessed for antioxidant variations. Blood samples were collected from dust-exposed workers (engaged in different activities at coal mines; n = 311) and residents of the same city (nonexposed, control group; n = 50). The workers' exposure to coal dust was categorized based on working area (administrative group, surface workers, underground workers), working hours (up to 8 h and more than 8 h), and time of service. The results showed significantly altered activities of SOD, CAT, and GSH among the whole exposed group and its categories compared to the control group. A significant difference was also observed between high- and low-exposure groups. Statistical analysis revealed a negative correlation between antioxidant activity (catalase and SOD) and coal dust levels. Besides, coal exposure was associated with the time of service, smoking status, and dietary habits. The findings of this study reveal higher oxidative stress among highly exposed coal mine workers (underground workers > surface workers > administrative group > nonexposed group), and longer working hours have more pronounced adverse effects on workers' health.


In a recent online paper Vachard & Le Coze (2021) pointed out that the Mississippian foraminifer Urbanella Malakhova, 1963, is a homonym of a protozoan described by Schepotieff (1912). Vachard & Le Coze (2021) proposed that Malakhova's genus name be replaced by Banffella Mamet, 1970, that they consider to be a junior synonym as suggested by Reitlinger (1981). Loeblich & Tappan (1987) rejected that synonymy, a conclusion supported by a later morphological study of Urbanella (Brenckle, 1997). Urbanella and Banffella, based on comparison of their type species (Quasiendothyra urbanaMalakhova, 1954, and Endothyra? banffensisMcKay & Green, 1963), share almost no morphological features and are not synonymous as discussed in the following paragraphs. A new name Urbanellina is proposed herein to replace the homonym Urbanella Malakhova, 1963.


Abstract The world is witnessing a major public health crisis in the wake of the third coronavirus strain pandemic, a novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2). Although initially thought to be a pure respiratory pathogen, recent reports have highlighted not only the extrapulmonary effects of the virus but also, importantly, the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) effects. Various studies have looked into the effects of this novel coronavirus infection (coronavirus-19 disease [COVID-19]) on GIT involvement with reports of more frequent involvement than previously expected. With feco-oral transmission, debate being conclusively proven with fecal samples testing positive for COVID-19 and longer shedding time, it only underlines the importance of GIT involvement. Moreover, the presence of other GI diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, with COVID-19 infection might wreak havoc leading to poor patient outcomes.


In this paper, we propose an enhancement to the conventional Round Robin DNS load balancing technique which allows a single domain name to be associated with several web server IP addresses in a rotated order in a server cluster. Once the DNS server resolves the domain name to one of the web server IP address, the subsequent requests from the same client will be sent to the same server regardless of the current condition of the server. However, this conventional load balancing technique has a few disadvantages; Firstly, the DNS server is unaware of the status of web servers whether their services are available or not. Secondly, making changes to the DNS records can take days to propagate across the local DNS caches because the conventional DNS server will not delete their cached DNS records until the time to live (TTL) expires. Lastly, DNS server assumes all web application servers to have equal capability to offer their services without taking into account of the server's load and performance level. In this paper, a new approach is presented to enhance the DNS load balancing services to be more intelligent in load distribution. The DNS server is taking consideration of the status of the servers and will be distributing the services requests based on the performance matrix of the servers in the cluster.


During molecular distillation in a falling film apparatus, temperature and concentration of the more volatile components undergo a marked decrease in axial and radial directions, due to the distillation in vacuo. The gradients produce changes in the rate of surface evaporation and separation efficiency along the flow path. A theoretical study of this problem is presented for binary mixtures. The respective differential equations for heat and mass transfer in the liquid film are solved numerically. As the results demonstrate, the aspect ratio of an apparatus should be large when a high separation is required and small when a high distillation rate is more important.


A major problem for TCP connections over wireless links is that errors introduced by the wireless channel interfere with the TCP protocol, leading to reduced data rates and power wastage. Based on accurate simulations for the TCP and IEEE 802.11 MAC protocols, we discuss recipes to optimize transmission. It is argued that the best approach is to restrict modifications to the mobile device. While this requires separate solutions for the uplink and downlink, the results of optimization are then available when roaming into any WLAN obeying the relevant MAC protocol. Simulation results show that the combination of specific strategies with a vertical interaction between the protocol layers can lead to the required improvements, giving a promising approach to enhance the performance of wireless mobile terminals.


High frequency squeal noise can be generated when a railroad vehicle runs a sharp curved section; this noise causes environmental complaints and excessive wear on the wheel and the railroad track. In this paper, curved squeal noise experiments on a commercial railway were carried out to investigate this phenomenon. The relationship of the squeal noise pressure level, the frequency characteristics, the railway running speed, and the modal behavior of the wheel were investigated. At the same time, the lateral motion of the wheel relative to the rail was captured using a video camera; wheel movement was calculated when the noise was generated. queal noise occurred at the highest level at the inner front wheel; this phenomena is considered to be related to the lateral vibration response characteristics of the wheel. It can be seen that the magnitude of this squeal noise is not directly related to the increase in vehicle speed.


This paper presents the results of tests using a prototype pump-integrated port fuel injector that is designed for small gasoline engines. The unique construction of the injector eliminates the need for a separate feed pump. The device is intended as a solution to meet the upcoming emission norms similar to Euro 6 standards, to be implemented in Asian countries. In particular, the Indian two-wheeler market which produces around 20 million vehicles annually [1], migrates to Bharat Stage VI (BS VI) emission standards in the year 2020. This market is largely cost-driven and currently most of the motorcycles use carburettors as fuelling systems. It is expected that the adoption of port fuel injection would be inevitable to meet the BS VI emission norms. To minimize the increase in cost due to such a change, a new injector is developed, which integrates the fuel pump within the injector, making the system simple and compact, while calling for no change in the fuel tank. Usage of a solenoid actuator in the injector design, enables closed-loop fuel quantity control. In the injector, fuel is pressurized in a pumping chamber, and the pressurized fuel is then injected through orifices to produce a spray in the intake port of the engine. This injector was tested on a 200 cc motorcycle engine, using a steady state dynamometer. The performance and emission results were encouraging and the same are reported in this paper.


Fertilization of horticultural plants significantly contributes to increased yield but also affects yield quality. Nitrogen, potassium, and sulphur, which belong to the main macronutrients, can have a large effect on the chemical composition of edible parts of plants. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of the rate of nitrogen as well as of the rate and form of potassium on the accumulation of dry matter, N-NH4, N-NO3, Fe, Zn, Mn, and Cu in the leaves of garden rocket grown in a greenhouse during the spring period. These macronutrients were applied at the following rates (in g . dm -3 of medium): 0.3 and 0.6 N in the form of Ca(NO3)2; 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 K in the form of K2SO4 and KCl; 0.4 P; 0.2 Mg; as well as the following micronutrients (in mg · dm -3 of medium): 8.0 Fe (EDTA); 5.1 Mn (MnSO4 · H2O), 13.3 Cu (CuSO4 · 5H2O), 0.74 Zn (ZnSO4 · 7H2O), 1.6 B (H3BO3); 3.7 Mo (NH4)6Mo7O24 · 4H2O). The increased rates of nitrogen and potas- sium caused significant changes in dry weight (DW) of rocket plants; its higher propor- tion was found when the lower rate of N was applied, compared to the higher rate. The in- creased rate of N increased the content of N-NH4 and N-NO3, whereas the rising amount of K in the medium resulted in a decrease in the amount of N-NO3 in the plant material studied. Plants fertilized with the lower rate of nitrogen accumulated more iron and zinc as well as less manganese than plants that received more of this nutrient. Plants fed with the highest rate of K accumulated the largest amount of iron, while the largest amount of manganese was found in plants that received the lowest amount of this nutrient. The ap- plication of K2SO4, as a source of potassium, contributed to an increased accumulation of iron, whereas the application of KCl resulted in an increased concentration of manganese in rocket leaves.


Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) enable efficient gene silencing through RNA interference (RNAi) mechanisms. The RNAi machinery relies on an RNA-guided nuclease, Argonaute-2 (Ago2), which preferentially selects a single strand from an siRNA duplex. Complementarity between the selected strand and an RNA target strand leads to silencing through cleavage. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent approval of two siRNA drugs has reignited optimism for RNAi therapeutics. Despite this recent success in the field, off-target effects are still a major concern; however, chemical modifications have shown promise in mitigating some off-target gene silencing. To evaluate the impact of novel chemical modifications on strand selection, we developed a quantitative polymerase chain reaction-based assay that is compatible with several pre-existing siRNA libraries and was used to characterize chemically modified siRNAs. siRNAs bearing azobenzene and propargyl modifications at the central region of the passenger strand significantly improved strand selection. On the other hand, folic acid-modified siRNAs improved strand selection best when placed at the 3' terminus. This study highlights the development and utility of a convenient method to evaluate the impact that novel chemical modifications have on strand-specific gene silencing of siRNAs.


More than 400 unique TEM -lactamase variants have been identified (1). Many are derived from one or more mutations at a limited number of positions in TEM-1, the first TEM enzyme to be described (2). Recently, network analysis by Zeil et al. disclosed a second cluster of TEM variants derived from TEM116 (1). What is so special about this -lactamase that it has become a second progenitor of this ubiquitous enzyme family? Since the 1990s, TEM-116 has been described worldwide to occur in a variety of Gram-negative organisms and to be encoded by conjugative plasmids of various sizes (3–8). Although TEM116 has been characterized microbiologically as an extended-spectrum -lactamase (ESBL) by some investigators (3, 4, 6, 7), other data do not support this designation based on biochemical and microbiological profiles (9–11). It has been linked on plasmids to the ESBL PER-2, which has an indistinguishable isoelectric point (12) as a possible source of confusion. Other well-established TEM enzymes, whether ESBLs or not, have not given rise to unique clusters of offspring (1). The defining mutations in TEM-116, V84I and A184V, lie in different chains separate from the active site. What is curious about TEM-116 is that blaTEM-1 was engineered in the 1980s to result in precisely these amino acid changes by removing PstI and HincII restriction sites from the wild-type gene to facilitate antibiotic selection using blaTEM in M13 phage and pUC series plasmids as cloning vectors that came to be widely used in molecular biology (13). The 861 nucleotides of some reported blaTEM-116 genes are completely identical to the constructed blaTEM gene in pUC vectors. This is concerning because certain commercial Taq polymerase preparations used in PCRs to characterize -lactamases have been contaminated with exogenous DNA, in particular with blaTEM-116 DNA, suggesting that their use might lead to the erroneous description of TEM-116 in organisms that do not contain it (14). Zeil et al. identified more than 50 TEM variants derived from TEM-116 (1). Almost all contain both mutations. Exceptions are TEM-171, with V84I alone, and TEM-181, with A184V alone, which consequently may be intermediate steps between TEM-1 and TEM-116. TEM-116 had to be present in bacteria to evolve as it has. Despite concern about contaminated reagents, the centrality of TEM-116 in the TEM family network, its wide geographical dissemination, and its establishment on multiple plasmids indicate that TEM-116 is now a naturally occurring enzyme.


Composite thin films of molybdenum disilicide-silicon carbide (MoSi2-SiC) have been deposited via rf magnetron sputtering onto molybdenum substrates. An intermediate layer was deposited in the presence of nitrogen gas and evaluated as a potential diffusion barrier layer. The composite films have been characterized using X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Auger electron spectroscopy. The as-deposited films were amorphous but crystallized into nanometer-sized grains after annealing under vacuum at 1000°C for 30 min. There was a significant amount of interdiffusion between the film and substrate, which resulted in the formation of subsilicides such as Mo5Si3 and MoSi3, as well as Mo2C. The films that were deposited via reactive sputtering in a nitrogen ambient were amorphous in both the as-deposited and annealed conditions. Significantly fewer second phases were detected with the presence of the intermediate layer, which suggests the potential use of the nitrided (MoSixNyCz) layer as a high-temperature diffusion barrier layer for the silicon and carbon.


Striking investor and stock market behaviour have been recurrent items in the worldwide press for the recent past. Crashes and hypes like the Internet bubble are often hard to explain using existing finance frameworks. Therefore, the authors provide a complementing multitheoretical framework that is built on existing finance research to describe and explain investor?s behaviour and stock market dynamics. This framework is built on three main components: needs, decision making theory, and (social) network effects. This framework will be used to build a future simulation model of investor behaviour and to generate stock market dynamics. A brief outline of the design of these simulation experiments will be given.


This study aims to determine the cognitive abilities of children in counting activities in kindergarten Taqifa Bangkinang. This research is a classroom action research (PTK) which is scheduled to take place in two cycles. The first cycle executed 2 times face to face. Each cycle contains the main points of planning, implementation, observation and reflection. The data in this study is data collected by observation and documentation. As for travel writers in analyzing the data in this study is to use the technique of quantitative descriptive analysis of data obtained and presented with what then the data is analyzed using numbers. To determine the percentage results the authors using the following formula (Anas Sudijono, 2004):.  After analyzing the results of the initial test, which has been known that a child's cognitive ability is low ie with a percentage of 46% as attached in the appendix. So to improve the cognitive abilities of children, use of learning Media playing card numbers. The conclusion from this study that the cognitive abilities of children in counting activities increased with the media playing the card number of children aged 4-5 years in kindergarten Taqifa Bangkinang, more details as follows: a child's cognitive ability prior to action by the percentage of 46% with a low category, then the cycle I get a percentage of 58% is also considered to be still not optimally with adequate or medium category and the second cycle gets a percentage of 87% with a very high category and considered to be the maximum.


The inflammatory cell infiltrates in human dental periapical granulomas were studied through the demonstration of receptors (R) for fragments C3b and C3d of the complement component C3, C3bR and C3dR were detected in cryostat sections by the closed chamber hemadsorption technique. Sheep erythrocytes sensitized with rabbit IgM antibody and coated with human C3B or C3d were used as indicator cells. Of the 62 granulomas studied, 23 showed strong or moderate C3bR activity, and weak C3dR activity was detected in 5 out of 25 specimens. The C3bR activity was abolished by treatment with 0.25 mM periodic acid, indicating that carbohydrate is a part of the C3bR. Using an antiserum to C3R as first layer in indirect immunofluorescence experiments, the C3R was localized to cell membranes. The low C3dR activity indicates that a minor part of the mononuclear cells in the human periapical granulomas were B lymphocytes.


High frequency pressure driven modes have been observed in high poloidal beta discharges in the Princeton Beta Experiment Modification (PBX-M). These modes are excited in a non-axisymmetric equilibrium characterized by a large, low frequency mt = 1/nt = 1 island, and they are capable of expelling fast ions. The modes reside on or very close to the q = 1 surface and have mode numbers with either mh = nh or (less probably) mh/nh = mh/(mh-1), with mh varying between 3 and 10. Occasionally these modes are simultaneously localized in the vicinity of the ml = 2/nl = 1 island. The high frequency modes near the q = 1 surface also exhibit a ballooning character, being significantly stronger on the large major radius side of the plasma. When a large mt = 1/nt = 1 island is present, the mode is poloidally localized in the immediate vicinity of the X point of the island. The modes occur exclusively in high beta beam heated discharges and are likely to be driven by the beam ions. They can thus be a manifestation of either a toroidicity induced shear Alfven eigenmode (TAE) at q = (2mh+1)/2nh, a kinetic ballooning mode, or some other type of pressure driven (high β) mode. Most of the data are consistent with the theoretical predictions for the TAE gap mode. Since the high frequency modes in PBX-M, however, are found exclusively on or in the immediate neighbourhood of magnetic surfaces with low rational numbers (q = 1, 2,...), other possibilities are not excluded


The pseudocirculant matrices have been found to be a very useful tool in the analysis and design of communication systems, e.g., precoding systems and discrete multitone transceivers. In these systems, a scalar channel P(z) is recast into a pseudocirculant channel matrix. Many important channel properties have been derived from the Smith form and the decomposition of pseudocirculants. In this letter, we will show that the Smith form of a pseudocirculant matrix can be given in terms of the zeros of the underlying finite-impulse response (FIR) channel P(z). Once the zeros of P(z) are known, the Smith form of the corresponding pseudocirculant matrix can be obtained in closed form.


We present a narrow-linewidth diode laser with optical feedback from a high-finesse two-mirror nonconfocal cavity. The laser's full-width-at-half-maximum linewidth is reduced to 100 Hz, and its instantaneous linewidth to 30 Hz in the Lorentzian fitting. To the best of our knowledge, it is the narrowest linewidth ever achieved with the optical feedback method. The laser phase noise has been significantly reduced by more than 50 dB in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 10 kHz. Our experiment demonstrates the efficient laser linewidth reduction and phase noise suppression by the optical feedback technique.


Change-readiness is the ability of an information systems (IS) organization to deliver strategic IT applications within short development cycle times by utilizing a highly skilled internal IS workforce. This paper examines two important questions: What are the design elements of a change-ready IS organization? How can transformations to such designs be effectively managed? Insights to these questions are generated through a case study of the conceptualization and implementation of an innovative organization design within a large IS unit at Bell Atlantic, a Regional Bell Operating Company. First, a rich description is provided of the components (strategy, structure, processes, people skills, reward systems) of a centers of excellence (CoE) design that has yielded measurable gains in IS performance. Then, an analysis of the two-year implementation of this CoE design is provided in terms of anticipated and unanticipated change actions, as well as a summary of "lessons learned." The conclusion describes the design as a model worthy of consideration by other IS managers for developing change-readiness IT capabilities. Comparisons with other models for the IS organization are then drawn.


There are increasing real-time live applications in virtual reality, where it plays an important role in capturing and retargetting 3D human pose. But it is still challenging to estimate accurate 3D pose from consumer imaging devices such as depth camera. This paper presents a novel cascaded 3D full-body pose regression method to estimate accurate pose from a single depth image at 100 fps. The key idea is to train cascaded regressors based on Gradient Boosting algorithm from pre-recorded human motion capture database. By incorporating hierarchical kinematics model of human pose into the learning procedure, we can directly estimate accurate 3D joint angles instead of joint positions. The biggest advantage of this model is that the bone length can be preserved during the whole 3D pose estimation procedure, which leads to more effective features and higher pose estimation accuracy. Our method can be used as an initialization procedure when combining with tracking methods. We demonstrate the power of our method on a wide range of synthesized human motion data from CMU mocap database, Human3.6M dataset and real human movements data captured in real time. In our comparison against previous 3D pose estimation methods and commercial system such as Kinect 2017, we achieve the state-of-the-art accuracy.


Recent studies indicate that young English-speaking children do not have a general understanding of the significance of SVO (subject-verb-object) order in reversible sentences; that is, they seem to rely on verbspecific formulas (e.g., NPpu$her form of the verb PUSH NP ushee) to interpret such sentences (Akhtar & Tomasello, 1997). This finding raises the possibility that young children may be open to learning non-SVO structures with novel transitive verbs. This article reports an experiment to test this hypothesis in which 12 children in each of three age groups (two-year-olds, three-year-olds, and four-year-olds) were taught novel verbs, one in each of three sentence positions: medial (SVO), final (SOV), and initial (VSO).The younger age groups were equally likely to use the novel (nonEnglish) orders spontaneously as to correct them to SVO order, whereas the oldest children consistently corrected these structures to SVO order. These results suggest that English-speaking children's acquisition of a truly general understanding of SVO order may be a gradual process involving generalisation (learning) from examples. The findings are discussed in terms of recent data-driven learning accounts of grammar acquisition.


It has been widely accepted that philosophers of science wrote a "swansong" for positivism during the second half of the 20th century. Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson, major contributors in the fi eld of economic methodology at the time, the argument goes, never refl ected the demise. Therefore, positivist roots are still to be found in infl uential theoretical concepts developed by mainstream economists. Specifi cally, I present the hypothesis of rational expectations and the theory of effi cient markets as two signifi cant outcomes of a "high tide" of positivist thinking in economics. However, quite a large number of scholars currently share the view that the two concepts contributed in a non-negligible manner to the development leading to the fi nancial crisis culminating in 2008 and 2009 and should be replaced by behavioural or other approaches. The article thus asks, in quite a novel way, if the crisis - seen by many as an empirical rejection of both the concepts - can also be seen as a milestone in the development of methodology of economics.


We present a self-contained and modern survey of some existing quasi-sure results via the connection to the Brownian sheet. Among other things, we prove that quasi-every continuous function: (i) satisfies the local law of the iterated logarithm; (ii) has Levy's modulus of continuity for Brownian motion; (iii) is nowhere differentiable; and (iv) has a nontrivial quadratic variation. We also present a hint of how to extend (iii) to obtain a quasi-sure refinement of the M. Csorgo--P. Revesz modulus of continuity for almost every continuous function along the lines suggested by M. Fukushima.


Molecular imprinting technique is used for preparing molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) membranes of desired recognition site, selectivity and porosity. The novelty of present work is to use a new approach for preparing imprinted monolith membrane, to study the effect of membrane porosity generated due to molecular imprinting on irreversible thermodynamical characteristics like membrane potential, ion transport, fixed charge density and permselectivity. It seems significant in developing membranes of desired selectivity and porosity for the removal and recognition of templates molecules. MIPs of potent herbicides isoproturon and 2,4-d were prepared by radical polymerization using methyl methacrylic acid (MAA) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as functional monomer and cross linking agent. The polymer synthesis took place on a microporous support, which form hydrogen, covalent and ionic bonds with templates in order to form MIP membranes. The significance of this work is to discuss transport study of MIP membranes after creation of molecular recognition sites within the coated MIP. The MIP membranes were studied using theory of irreversible thermodynamics and by evaluating contact angle measurement, surface energy, ion transport study, perms electivity and fixed charge density of the membranes.


The study aimed to examine the mediating role of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in the relationship between the dark triad (DTC) and intention to leave (TOI). A sample of 412 employees, with a minimum of five years of experience, were selected from various sectors in Turkey. Participants completed self-report measures and data analyzed with SPSS 26.00 and Smart PLS 4. The results revealed significant positive effects of DTC on TOI. On the other hand, OCB demonstrated a negative effect on TOI. Furthermore, DTC hurt OCB. The mediation analysis demonstrated that OCB played a significant mediating role in reducing the effect of the DTC on TOI. The findings underscore the detrimental influence of DTC on TOI among employees across diverse sectors in Turkey, emphasizing the importance of fostering OCB as a means to mitigate the negative consequences of DTC on TOI.


Substances extracted from the leaves of aloe plants have been reported to have antiviral effects against enveloped viruses in in vitro test systems. In the present studies, we have assessed the antiviral activity of partially purified extracts prepared from the gel portion of leaves of Aloe barbadensis Miller against human cytomegalovirus (CMV) by plaque inhibition tests (PIT), flow cytometry and morphometry assays. Six test extracts of gel filet portions of aloe leaves were prepared; i.e. R1 from immature leaves harvested in the early summer, S1 from mature leaves harvested in the autumn, F1 from S1 after freezing at −20°C, and R2, S2 and F2 which were ethanol treated extracts of R1, S1 and F1, respectively. When test aloe extracts were added at various concentrations during the course of infection with CMV, R1, S1 and F2 at concentrations of 10−1 inhibited plaque formation. The addition of S1 to the medium between 12 and 36 h after initiation of CMV infection, a time of high DNA synthesis, caused the most effective plaque inhibition. Flow cytometric and morphometric analyses revealed no significant differences in aloe extract treated, CMV infected cells compared with non‐aloe treated CMV infected control cells. The results suggest that a major mechanism of inhibition of CMV infection by aloe extracts is through interference with DNA synthesis.


The vase life of cut dahlia (Dahlia × hortensis Guillaumin) flowers is generally short. Petal senescence is known to be divided into petal wilting, withering, and abscission. Petals with ongoing wilting were isolated from the inflorescence and supplied with water using 10 cultivars to clarify the type of petal senescence of dahlia. Based on the recovery of fresh weight and appearance of petals, senescent types could be categorized into three types: petal senescence in two, six, and two cultivars were categorized into abscission, abscission with withering, and wilting types, respectively. The pulse treatment with silver thiosulfate complex (STS) significantly extended the vase life of 7 out of 10 cultivars. Moreover, pulse treatment with STS followed by continuous treatment with GLA, which was comprised of glucose, isothiazolinone germicide, and aluminum sulfate, increased the relative fresh weight of the five dahlia cultivars more than pulse treatment with STS. Therefore, this combined treatment is available to extend the vase life of cut dahlia, irrespective of the senescent types.


In this paper, the projection location constraint is exploited to reduce ambiguous correspondences in trinocular systems. The inherent matching problems associated with the spurious features produced by overlapping among targets, the periodic structure of objects and the occlusion features were solved. The projection location constraint can be achieved by the deviation-to-distance transformation and the optimal epipolar constraint. The deviation-to-distance transformation transforms the location deviation of the extracted feature on an image plane to a maximum distance between the potential corresponding features and the epipolar line on another image for restricting the searching area of correspondences. The optimal epipolar constraint is obtained by adjusting the camera model before systems start to work. With the deviation-to-distance transformation and the optimal epipolar constraint, the arbitral area for searching the potential corresponding features can be made reasonably small. This not only saves computational time but also results in fewer ambiguous correspondences. In practice, the importance of the paper is that it proposes a very easy adjustment of camera geometry to simplify the most troublesome matching problem encountered in stereo systems. All the discussions and derivations are based on the geometry of the camera model and the mapping between the locations of the 3D features and their projection locations on the image planes. The non-ambiguity probability of the trinocular system is derived theoretically and verified by experimental results. >


EDM has two serious disadvantages that the material removal rate (MRR) is low and the surface roughness is poor, so much theoretical and experimental work has been done. The ultrasonic vibration electrical discharge machining (UEDM) can improve the MRR in small hole machining, but the mechanism and application of UEDM is still arguable. The experiments are done in D703F (high velocity electro discharge small hole machine). A transducer and horn are attached between the spindle and the electrode. The horn and the tool electrode are connected together by a chucking appliance. With the electrode vibrating, the UEDM is achieved. The comparison experiments of the MRR and the surface roughness are carried out with different electricity parameters (such as electric current, pulse duration, etc.) and different electrodes. The experimental results show that the reference point for UEDM is found and the new theory is proposed to explain the MRR increase and the value of surface roughness decreases.


Data outsourcing is a major component for cloud computing that allows data owners to distribute resources to external services for users and organizations who can apply the resources. A crucial problem for owners is how to make sure their sensitive information accessed by legitimate users only using the trusted services but not authorized to read the actual information.

We address the problem with role-based access control to enforce selective access to outsourced data without involving the owner in the access control authorization. The basic idea is to combine cryptography with authorizations, data owners assign keys to roles that will enforce access via encryption. A formal role-based access model is designed to analyse the translating an authorization policy into an equivalent encryption policy. The paper also investigates the affect of role hirarchy structure in the authorization process. The comparisions to other related work are presented. Finnaly the future work are introduced.


India's massive population, of which ample number are living below poverty line, make it all the more important to understand the relationship between population pressure, changes in land use and environmental degradation in the country. Agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors account for about a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. In recent years there has been a growing concern that changes in climate will lead to significant damage to agriculture, industrial and market sectors. It is becoming ever more apparent that climatic changes are occurring non-uniformly across various ecosystems and regions. General Circulation Models (GCMs), Geographic information systems (GIS) and crop simulation models are powerful and highly complementary tools that are increasingly used for predictive analysis of such changes. As human and the environment sub-systems are closely linked, human land-use and management activities can lead to changes in the functioning of ecosystem processes. A variety of simulation models like CERES, APSIM and GROWIT have been developed during the past years to simulate changing land-use and land-cover pattern. This paper gives an account of simulation modeling over land use systems and its applicability for eastern region of India.


This study aims to analyze the meaning of Hukmullah (God's law) in the QS. Al-Maidah 49-50. This study is important considering the many efforts made by Islamic-Fundamentalist group to clash Pancasila's law with God's law. This research answers two question: First, what is the meaning of God's law and jahiliyyah's law in the QS. Al-Maidah 49-50. And Second, how is the relevance of QS. Al-Maidah 49-50 with the current law in Indonesia. To answer this question, Abdullah Saeed's Contextual Tafsir is used. The result is that the Jahiliyyah law refers to discriminatory law based on lust and social status, while Allah's law refers to justice and egalitarianism. Thus, by using Abdullah Saeed's term, the verse has an instructional value, with universal message. It is not a specific command that obliges formal Islamic Law in the state system. In the current era, the existing law in Indonesia has been based on the principle of justice. This principle of justice is one of the points in the ideology agreed upon since the beginning of the founding of the Indonesian nation, namely Pancasila. The precepts is: Social Justice For All Indonesian People. This research is limited to the meaning of hukmullah in QS. Al-Maidah 49-50, so that this research can be developed further to find the meaning of hukmullah in other surah in the al-Qur'an.


INTRODUCTION
Broca aphasia presents with impaired expression of spoken and/or written language and is often caused by infarction in the Broca area in the frontal lobe. We present a case of Broca aphasia that was initially interpreted as confusion.

CASE PRESENTATION
A 76-year-old woman was brought to the Emergency Department because of confusion and slurred speech that began in the morning. The patient had an extensive history of alcohol abuse, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension and had recently quit drinking 5 days earlier. The patient appeared confused, answering questions with "I don't know," but had no signs of agitation. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain confirmed a recent infarct involving the left frontal and occipital lobes, coinciding with the Broca area. The patient was able to communicate via writing and eventually made an uneventful recovery of speech.

DISCUSSION
This case demonstrates a patient without the display of stereotypical signs of stroke, yet that was the underlying condition leading to her aphasia. It is important for clinicians to be aware that a stroke can present with isolated findings such as language deficit or confusion.


The purpose of the study presented in this paper and the accompanying paper [Smits et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100, 3865-3881 (1996)] is to evaluate whether detailed or gross time-frequency structures are more relevant for the perception of place of articulation of prevocalic stop consonants. To this end, first a perception experiment is carried out with "burst-spliced" stop-vowel utterances, containing the Dutch stops /b,d,p,t/ and /k/. From the utterances burst-only, burstless, and cross-spliced stimuli were created and presented to listeners. The results of the experiment show that the relative importance of burst and transitions for the perception of place of articulation to a great extent depends on place and voicing of the stop consonant and on the vowel context. Velar bursts are generally more effective in cueing place of articulation than other bursts. There is no significant difference in the effectiveness of /p/, /t/, and /k/ transitions, while /b/ transitions are more effective than /d/ transitions. The release burst dominates the perception of place of articulation in front-vowel contexts, while the formant transitions are generally dominant in nonfront vowel contexts. The bursts of unvoiced stops are perceptually more important than the bursts of voiced stops.


With the remarkable increases in the assets under management of private equity firms, the standard compensation arrangement of a 2% management fee plus 20% carried interest has raised concerns of a misalignment of interests between limited partners (LPs) and general partners (GPs). Using a proprietary data set that includes detailed fund terms of 210 PE buyout funds with vintage years between 1989 and 2012, the authors summarize the findings of their recent study of the evolution of fund terms. The authors report that PE fund terms have been remarkable mainly for their resistance to change, and that the only important force for bringing about reductions in percentage management fees has been the recent increase in fund sizes. But the modest cuts in management fees that have accompanied the increase in fund sizes have done little to address what appears to be a conflict of interest between LPs and GPs over the optimal PE fund size. As one possible solution to this conflict, the authors analyze a recent innovation by Bain Capital that involves considerably smaller management fees (say, 1%) and larger carried interest (as high as 30%). According to the authors, such terms have a good chance of becoming the new industry standard for two reasons: First, LPs have become increasingly "professionalized," which has led to greater focus on GP compensation and ways of realigning their interests with LPs'. Second, the "signaling" benefits for those GPs willing to distinguish themselves by offering terms like "1 and 30" could encourage more GPs to move in this direction. In the authors' words, "For all but the most reputable and established PE firms, those GPs that do not offer the new terms may well be seen as signaling little confidence in their ability to do what they're being paid to do: namely, produce above‐market returns."


Long-span roof with span larger than height always has a complicated three-dimensional curve. Wind pressure on the roof is often influenced not only by the atmospheric turbulence, but also by the "signature" turbulence provoked in the wind by the structure itself. So it is necessary to study characteristics of flows around the roof. In this paper, three-dimensional numerical simulation of wind-induced pressure has been performed on a long-span flat roof by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software--FLUENT. The flow characteristics are studied by considering some parameters, such as wind direction, span-height ratio, roof pitch, flow characteristics, roughness of terrain. The simulation is based upon the Reynolds-averaged equations, in which Reynolds stress equation model (RSM) and SIMPLE technology (Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equations) have been used. Compared with wind tunnel tests, the computational results have good agreement with the experimental data. It is proved that the results are creditable and the method is feasible.


The general principle for a quantum signature scheme is proposed and investigated based on ideas from classical signature schemes and quantum cryptography. The suggested algorithm is implemented by a symmetrical quantum key cryptosystem and Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) triplet states and relies on the availability of an arbitrator. We can guarantee the unconditional security of the algorithm, mostly due to the correlation of the GHZ triplet states and the use of quantum one-time pads. PACS: 03.67.Dd, 03.65.Ud. firstname.lastname@example.com firstname.lastname@example.com


A light-weight one-cycle EDAC (timing error detection and correction) technique is proposed to eliminate timing margins resulting from process, voltage, temperature and aging (PVTA) variations. The collaborative approach applies TEDPI (timing error deletion programming interface) to pre-detect most of the errors through an offline error prediction model, and pre-correct them at compilation time by using a specially designed error avoidance instruction. Experimental results based on a three-stage commercial processor show that TEDPI has improved peak performance of the traditional EDAC system by 15.6% and reduced the energy consumption by 4.4% with less than 0.71% area overhead.


Prior research has identified individual characteristics that distinguish business owners from non-business owners. The researchers tested their contention that not every successful business owner can be characterized by such typical 'entrepreneurial' characteristics. Multiple analysis of variance on a unique data set of 194 business owners in the hospitality industry revealed that several individual characteristics discriminated between entrepreneurs and small business owners. Entrepreneurs possessed higher levels of independence, tolerance of ambiguity, risk-taking propensity, innovativeness, and leadership qualities, but not of market orientation and self-efficacy. It is concluded that 'entrepreneurial' characteristics identified in the literature may be useful predicting a specific type of business ownership. However, other criteria need to be developed in order to describe other groups of business owners operating in the service industries.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of different warm-up protocols (post activation potential model warm-up (PAP) and static stretching model warm-up) on jumping performance in male athletes. Forty-five male athletes (Age: 22.22±1.83 yrs; Height: 175.97±5.93 cm; Weight: 76.98±11.42 kg) volunteered to participate in this investigation. The athletes who participated in this study were randomly divided into three groups; Post activation potential group (PAPG) (n=14), static stretching group (SG) (n=14) and control group (CG) (n=17). Initial measurement values of jumping test for all athletes was made followed by 5 minutes passive rest after 5 minutes warm-up at 8 km/h on a treadmill. The second measurements of the athletes were performed 48 hours after the first measurements. In analyzing the data, a two-way repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. The results indicated that significant group x time interactions were observed for jumping test scores in the athletes subjected to different warm-up protocols. As a result; post activation potential warm-up method leads to an acute increase in squat jump and 10 reps repetitive vertical jumping height (p<0.05), while static warm-up method causes a significant decrease (p<0.05).


Guided wave tomography method based on Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) is developed for accurate and high resolution reconstruction of the wall loss on the plate-like structure. The forward model is solved by a full-wave equation in a 2D acoustic model and is used to predict the waveform of guided waves through the defect. The inversion is based on local optimization of a waveform misfit function between modeled and measured data and is iterated from low frequencies to high frequencies. The resulting wave velocity maps are then converted to thickness maps by the dispersion characteristics of selected guided modes. The performance analysis of the FWI algorithm is carried out by both numerical simulations and experiments. The results suggest that the FWI method is capable to reconstruct the thickness map of irregularly shaped defects as well as multiple defects accurately on a 10 mm thick plate. The resolution and the accuracy of FWI algorithm are discussed by the reconstruction of defects with various shapes and sizes.


Should we use build and deployment teams on large projects? Build and deployment work often emerges as a specialization on project teams. This specialization becomes important on medium to large projects as the complexity of deploying code and configuring enterprise environments increases. However, how do we coordinate the work of this team with the work of the development teams and how do we ensure this team helps the development team that it serves rather than hinders it? In this report we share the experience of an eight person distributed agile build team on a large bespoke software project at an investment bank. The report spans the formation of the team from the USA, the UK and India to the adjournment of the team after finishing the deployment to production on time without fuss. Topics include: how we worked in a distributed agile 8-10 person team in San Francisco and London, how we used agile methods to track build and deployment tasks; how we worked in iterations, estimated the work for each iteration, and tracked velocity over time.


Abstract- The addition of new buildings especially in the shopping center building is often the case, it aims to develop activities in old shopping buildings that are considered to have potential in maintaining or improving the quality of a shopping center, but the development can be a problem if in the initial development of a shopping center has no plans for adding or thinking about the second stage of development for some time to come. As a result, the designer must be able to create a connection circulation path in the building design that looks united between the old building and the new building into a unified whole, but there are several factors that must be adapted to the condition and state of the old building so that the resulting building can be continuous with each other. This research will discuss about the circulation inside the shopping center building, especially on the continuity between circulation pattern of old building and new building of shopping building. The object used is electronic shopping center Istana Bandung Electronic Center or often called BEC located at Jalan Purnawarman no 13-15, Bandung. Qualitative method is done by collecting data from object of study in the form of plan, documentation of picture or photo, study of literature, theories, and so on. Quantitative methods are carried out by listing the mobility of visitors within the building, especially in the path of meeting the circulation patterns between old and new buildings in the BEC shopping area. The purpose of this research is to know the continuity of circulation pattern between old building and new building as one shopping center, seen from the ease of visitor mobility inside the building, and to know and to evaluate the effectiveness of combined circulation pattern between old building and new building inside shopping area Istana Bandung Electronic Center. Key Words : continuity, circulation patterns, ease of visitor mobility, shopping center.


Modeling systems based on graphical formalisms, such as Statecharts, has become standard practice in the design of embedded devices. Using paradigms established so far often results in complex models that are difficult to comprehend and maintain. To overcome this, we present a methodology to support the easy development and understanding of complex Statecharts. Central to our approach is the use of secondary notations to aid readability. We employ an automated layout mechanism to transform any given Statechart to a Statechart Normal Form. The Kiel Integrated Environment for Layout is a prototypical modeling tool to explore our editing, browsing and simulation paradigms in the design of complex reactive systems. An empirical study on the usability and practicability of our Statechart editing techniques, including a Statechart layout comparison, indicates significant performance improvements in terms of editing speed and model comprehension compared to traditional modeling approaches.


Robert Elliott is Professor of Counselling in the Counselling Unit at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. He is co-author of Facilitating Emotional Change and Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy. He recipient of the distinguished career award of the Society for Psychotherapy Research and of the 2008 Carl Rogers Award of the Division of Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association.


In this paper, we propose a new feature selection scheme that can contribute to an ICA-based feature extraction block for speech recognition. The initial set of speech basis functions obtained in independent component analysis (ICA) training phase, has some redundancies. Thus, finding a minimal- size optimal subset of these basis functions is rather vital. On the contrary to the previous works that used reordering methods on all the frequency bands, we have introduced an algorithm that finds optimal basis functions in each discriminative frequency band. This leads to an appropriate coverage of various frequency components and easy extension to other data is also provided. Our experiments show that the proposed method is very useful, specifically in larger vocabulary size tasks, where the selected basis functions trained using a limited dataset, may get localized in certain frequency bands and not appropriately generalized to residual dataset. The proposed algorithm surmounts this problem by a local reordering method in which contribution of a basis function is specified with three factors: class separability power, energy and central frequency. The experiments on a Persian continuous speech corpus indicated that the proposed method has led to 17% improvement in noisy condition recognition rate in comparison to a conventional MFCC-based system.


Identification of victims is one of the most significant concerns while investigating the scene of occurrence but due to the delay in time of identification it becomes difficult for the authorities to enable identification. The use of modern forensic techniques including the knowledge from disciplines like forensic anthropology, toxicology, post blast residue analysts, forensic odontologists so as to speed up the investigation. The paper reviews the role of a forensic anthropologist in the Disaster victim identification, on and off site. The use of radiographic techniques in order to know the biological profile of the deceased as well to assist relocation in case of a fragmented body. In the current scenario, the forensic involvement of experts though has been increased in identifying the victims, but still there needs to be more deployment at ground zero in order to increase proper investigation. Disaster victim identification is a multidisciplinary approach and so collaboration from all the disciplines is needed so as to render justice.


firstname.lastname@example.com Abstract Objective to validate the London Handicap Scale on populations from diverse cultures by comparing handicap perceptions in Mainland (Sichuan) Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese and UK subjects. Method utility ratings of 10 real life health scenarios were given by a group of healthy and disabled Sichuan Chinese subjects. The ratings were then correlated with published scale scores of HK and UK subjects on the same scenarios. Setting a university for older persons in Sichuan and the 4th Hospital of Sichuan University. Subjects two hundred and one Sichuan Chinese (mean age: 63.3 years) comprising of healthy (31.8%) and disabled individuals with stroke, fracture, cancer or other chronic conditions (69.2%) were recruited in the study. Results overall ratings for health scenarios were found to be highly correlated between Sichuan Chinese and UK subjects ( r = 0 . 85 ; P < 0 . 0005), and between Sichuan and HK Chinese subjects ( r = 0 . 98 ; P < 0 . 0005), with the exception of scenario J. Interesting differences in valuation were also observed between Sichuan subgroups in three scenarios. Self-perceived health status of the Sichuan Chinese can be accurately reflected by the severity of their handicap as measured by the London Handicap Scale LHS ( r = − 0 . 39, P = 0 . 000). For Sichuan Chinese, the economic domain of handicap was rated with poorer scores compared with the other domains. Conclusion the international notion of handicap, or limitation in participation, applies across different cultures and is also valid in mainland Chinese. UK, HK, and Sichuan subjects share similar perception on selected handicap scenarios. The London Handicap Scale is useful for health evaluation and outcome assessment for elderly of different


The purpose of this dissertation is to study some of the vulcanization characteristics of rubber-bound antioxidants such as G-1, [N-(3-methacryloyloxy-2-hydroxypropyl)-N'-phenyl-p-phenylene diamine] and acryl, acrylamide & acrylester substituted hindered phenols. The influence of these antioxidants upon vulcanization characteristics in NR and SBR compounds in the presence of vulcanizing accelerators such as MSA, TT, DM, M & D was evaluated by means of Oscillationg Disk Cure Meter. The comparison was also made between the influence of rubber-bound antioxidants and that of conventional non-reactive antioxidants such as N-alkyl substituted PADA series. Regarding the influence of reactive type antioxidant G-1 mixed with accelerator TT upon vulcanization characteristics, rapid onset of vulcanization and higher degree of cross-linking were discovered, whereas in the case of accelerator M and DM, the result was slow onset of vulcanization and lesser degree of cross-linking. The comparison of vulcanizing characteristics among acrylic substituted hindered phenols as antioxidants was made under several vulcanization accelerator systems. Under such systems, MSA-S combined accelerator caused the onset of vulcanization to slow down and lowered the degree of cross-linking. Finally in the case of hindered phenol derivatives containing longer substituent, the delayed onset of vulcanization and the lowered degree of cross-linking could be discerned.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the relationship between sleep respiratory events and hypoxemia following obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) and its clinical significance.

METHOD
Forty-five patients suffered from snoring and suspected of sleep breathing disorders were measured by a Chinese version of Epworth Sleepiness Scale and tested by polysomnography all night long. Some ordinary polysomnographic parameters were recorded in all cases as well as the delay period of desaturation which means the duration from the beginning of sleep respiratory events to the beginning of the following desaturation.

RESULT
Forty-five patients were all suffered from obstructive sleep respiratory events. The mean delay period of desaturation in group of middle OSAHS was longer than that in group of normal snorers (P<0.05) as well as mild OSAHS (P<0.05). The mean delay period of desaturation in group of severe OSAHS was much longer than that in group of normal snorers (P<0.01) as well as mild OSAHS (P<0.01). But there is no significant difference between normal snorers and patients with mild OSAHS (P>0.05), and the difference between patients with middle OSAHS and patients with severe OSAHS as well (P>0.05). The mean delay period of desaturation had a positive relationship with AHI (r = 0.608, P<0.01) and a negative relationship with lowest SaO2 (LSaO2) (r = - 0.543, P<0.01). The relationship between total scores of the 7 questions of Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS7) with the mean delay period of desaturation (r = 0.689, P<0.01) was significantly higher than that with AHI and LSaO2 (r = 0.486, P<0.01; r = - 0.422, P<0.01).

CONCLUSION
The delay period of desaturation is a sensitive parameter which describe oxygen desaturation following obstructive sleep respiratory events. The mean delay period of desaturation in group of middle and severe OSAHS was much longer than that in group of normal snorers as well as mild OSAHS. Furthermore, the mean delay period of desaturation has a closely relationship with AHI and LSaO2. And it was highly associated with ESS7 than AHI and LSaO2. Based on it, the mean delay period of desaturation may provide valuable information in evaluating the severity of the patients with OSAHS. It may evaluate the severity of daytime sleepiness better than AHI and LSaO2.


Presenilins or PSENs homologues are widely expressed across eukaryotes. Two PSEN are expressed in humans where they play a crucial role in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Each PSEN can be part of the γ-secretase complex that has multiple substrates such as Notch or the amyloid precursor protein (AβPP) which gives the Aβ peptides composing the senile plaques during AD. PSENs also interact with various proteins independently of their γ-secretase activity. They can then be involved in numerous cellular functions, which makes their role in a given cell and/or organism complex to decipher. We settled the sea urchin embryo as a new model to study the role of PSEN. PSEN is present in unduplicated form and highly similar to that of humans. Our results suggest that its expression must be precisely tuned to control the course of the first mitotic cycles and the associated Cai transients, gastrulation execution and, probably in association with ciliated cells, the establishment of the pluteus. We suggest that it would be relevant to study the role of PSEN within the GRN deciphered in the sea urchin.


For the taxed goods, the actual freight is generally determined by multiplying the allocated freight for each KG and actual outgoing weight based on the outgoing order number on the outgoing bill. Considering the conventional logistics is insufficient to cope with the rapid response of e-commerce orders to logistics requirements, this work discussed the implementation of data mining technology in bonded warehouse inbound and outbound goods trade. Specifically, a bonded warehouse decision-making system with data warehouse, conceptual model, online analytical processing system, human-computer interaction module and WEB data sharing platform was developed. The statistical query module can be used to perform statistics and queries on warehousing operations. After the optimization of the whole warehousing business process, it only takes 19.1 hours to get the actual freight, which is nearly one third less than the time before optimization. This study could create a better environment for the development of China's processing trade.


Strawberry clover when growing vigorously is difficult to distinguish from white clover. Its stoloniferous growth and creeping habit resemble that of white clover, the leaf colour is similar, but the distinguishing features are the longer and narrower leaflet of the strawberry clover with the veins of each leaflet very much branched and more closely spaced than in white clover. The flower heads differ also. The flower heads of white clover are usually white, but some may have a pinkish tinge. Strawberry clover flowers are slightly pointed and mostly pinkish to white, closely resembling a ripening strawberry; hence the name strawberry clover. As the flowers ripen the florets of white clover turn down toward the ground, whereas in strawberry clover the whole flower .head develops a characteristic "bladdery" appearance with further resemblances to the' fruit of the common strawberry plant. Strawberry clover seed is larger than that of white clover, but slightly smaller than that of red clover. The seed colour. may vary, but is principally reddish brown or yellow, distmctly flecked, with dark markings.


Although ageing predisposes tendons for various pathologies, the effect of ageing on tendon stem/progenitor cells has received little attention. In this study, we compared tendon progenitor cells from patellar, Achilles and tail tendons derived from young (8-12 weeks old) and mature (52 weeks old) rats. The mean number of progenitor cells/ mg was reduced with age in all three tendons and this reduction reached statistical significance in both Achilles and tail tendons. As determined by colony-forming-unit-fibroblasts assays, mean colony number and size were both statistically unchanged with age in patellar and Achilles tendons. In contrast, both colony number and size were significantly reduced in cultures derived from mature tail tendons relative to those derived from young tail tendons. While colonies per mg tissue were reduced with age in all three tendons, this reduction was only statistically significant for tail tendon. Lipofuscin and ROS content in cell progenitors were unchanged with age in all 3 tendons. Conversely, carbonyl content was significantly increased and telomerase activity significantly decreased in mature tail tendon cells relative to young tendon cells. These data suggest that, in the first year of life, rat Achilles and patellar tendons suffer relatively little oxidative damage. In contrast, tail tendons experience an increase protein oxidation, a decrease in telomerase activity and a substantial reduction in progenitor cell numbers. That the source and age of tendon progenitors used influences the quality and density of the progenitor cells isolated from it has important implications for clinical strategies aimed at tendon repair.


The mammalian SWI/SNF, or BAF complex, has a conserved and direct role in antagonizing polycomb-mediated repression. Yet, BAF appears to also promote repression by polycomb in stem cells and cancer. How BAF both antagonizes and promotes polycomb-mediated repression remains unknown. Here, we utilize targeted protein degradation to dissect the BAF-polycomb axis in embryonic stem cells on the timescale of hours. We report that rapid BAF depletion redistributes both PRC1 and PRC2 complexes from highly occupied domains, like Hox clusters, to weakly occupied sites that are normally opposed by BAF. Polycomb redistribution from highly repressed domains results in their decompaction, gain of active epigenomic features, and transcriptional derepression. Surprisingly, through dose-dependent degradation of PRC1 & PRC2 we identify both a conventional role for BAF in polycomb-mediated repression and a second mechanism acting by global redistribution of polycomb. These findings provide new mechanistic insight into the highly dynamic state of the Polycomb-Trithorax axis.


Ninety-four patients, 22 males and 72 females, from 11 to 71 years old, with an average of 25 years, presenting the hepatosplenic form of Schistosomiasis mansoni were treated with a new anthelmintic drug — praziquantel — to investigate its efficacy and tolerance. In addition to the hepatosplenic form of the disease, 14 patients had the cardio-pulmonary hypertensive or cyanotic form and 16 had already been submitted to splenectomy. Two oral doses — 1 x 30 and 2 x 25 mg/kg body weight — were compared. Side-effects were noticed during the first two days following the drug administration but usually of mild intensity and short duration. The most frequent and, at times, more severe were abdominal pain or discomfort, diarrhea, headache, dizziness and nausea. Fever was present in 19.2% of the cases and urticaria and pruritus in two patients. The laboratorial investigation of liver function showed, in some cases, slight enzymatic alterations (AST, ALT, y GT) 24 hours after medication, but without any major significance. No urinary, blood glucose or hematological changes have been detected, except, for the commonly seen increase of eosinophyls on the 7th and 30th day, related to the death of parasites inside the organism. Likewise, no abnormality was noticed in the electroencephalografic study. In the electrocardiogram it was observed in two patients a slight and transitory modification on the ventricular repolarization. With regard to the parasitological cure, it was observed in 62 patients Who have finished the 6 months control period, a total cure rate of 80.6%. With 30 mg/kg single dose this cure rate was 76.7% and with 25 mg/kg b.i.d. 84.4%. The non-cured patients, on the other hand, have shown a marked reduction in the number of S. mansoni eggs eliminated in the feces. Furthermore, five of these patients Were retreated six or more months afterwards with the same initial dose, achieving 100% negative stool examinations. The Authors believe that administering a higher dose, like 60 mg/kg, it would be possible to accomplish, in addition to good tolerance, a greater percentage of parasitological cure. The long-term clinical and laboratory improvement, observed 6 and 12 months after treatment, is worthy of note.


What do NEA coaches, foster children, and astronomers have in common? The answer: data mining. In the past year, KDD (knowledge discovery and data mining) has taken center stage in advanced technology groups around the world. The first generation of KDD applications are seeing the light of day. The author interviewed data miners from the foster care system in the state of Washington, assistant coaches in the US National Basketball Association, investigators with the US Department of the Treasury, consultants at NCR, and the principal astronomer of the largest sky survey ever undertaken.


To investigate the mechanism of chaotic phenomena, we conduct a research on the dynamics of one-dimensional chaotic maps. In this paper, we construct a topological tool which applies to general multimodal maps for the first time. Then we analyze the dynamics of critical orbits with this tool, revealing that the critical orbits behave somewhat periodically. We analogize the iteration of maps to a one-sided shift, and give a probability explanation of Lyapunov exponent by Ergodic Theory, which provides a numerical computation method to calculate this exponent.


The objective of this study was the oral administration of trimetoprim sulfamethoxazole as a prophylactic therapy in Bennett's Wallabies (Macropus Rufogriseus) through the use of operant conditioning. In the study participated 15 animals of different gender and age, all of them living at "La Aurora" National Zoo in Guatemala City, Guatemala. The investigation was divided in 2 stages, first the desensitization and conditioning of the animals and second the oral administration of the drug. Results indicated that 76% of the population had a positive response to the desensitization and conditioning, however only 20% consumed the 100% of the dose. In conclusion the operant conditioning is an excellent tool for desensitizing and creating a routine with zoo animals, but further investigation is required to determine the efficiency of the administration of an oral treatment on this species.


A simple method for measurement of scattering coefficients in the microwave junction without matched termination is described. The method is based on the observation of incident, reflected and scattered waves when an RF wave packet is injected for the microwave junction. The application of the method to the multijunction grill for driving the plasma current is presented with comparison to its theoretical prediction.


The sensitivity of kilometer-scale terrestrial gravitational wave interferometers is limited by mirror coating thermal noise. Alternative interferometer topologies can mitigate the impact of thermal noise on interferometer noise curves. In this work, we explore the impact of introducing a single folding mirror into the arm cavities of dual-recycled Fabry–Perot interferometers. While simple folding alone does not reduce the mirror coating thermal noise, it makes the folding mirror the critical mirror, opening up a variety of design and upgrade options. Improvements to the folding mirror thermal noise through crystalline coatings or cryogenic cooling can increase interferometer range by as much as a factor of two over the Advanced LIGO reference design.


Inorganic materials are receiving significant interest in medicine given their usefulness for therapeutic applications such as targeted drug delivery, carriers of active pharmaceutical and medical imaging.
However, the poor knowledge of the side effects related to their use is an obstacle to their clinical translation. For the molecular drug development, safe-by-design has become as a novel pharmaceutical strategy that allows a reduction of the costs and an acceleration of the translation of research to market. In the case of materials, the application of such approaches is hampered by a poor knowledge of how the physical and chemical properties of the material trigger biological response.
Hemocompatibility is a crucial factor for those materials that are intended for medical applications. In particular, the formation of agglomerates is a serious side effect that may induce occlusion of blood vessels and thrombotic events. Additionally, nanoparticles can interfere with the coagulation cascades where they have been reported to induce both pro- and anti-coagulant properties where their properties like size, shape and surface charge have been see to be critical parameters.
Here, we developed two sets of tailored carbon and silica nano/submicron-particles with three different sizes (100-500 nm) with the purpose of investigating the role of surface curvature and chemistry on platelet aggregation, activation and adhesion.
We show that that large carbon nanoparticles, but not small carbon nanoparticles or silica nanoparticles, have a strong tendency to form aggregates both in plasma and blood, as a consequence of the formation of a protein corona and not of platelets activation. Substantial differences were found in the composition of the protein corona depending upon the chemical nature of the nanoparticles, while the surface curvature plays a minor role. On the other hand, coagulation proteins were abundant in the corona of both silica and carbon nanoparticles.
The results presented herein suggest that vessel occlusion and formation of thrombi in vivo may occur through independent mode of action (MoA), differently affected by the physico-chemical properties of the materials.


ADA subtype polymorphism in nine aboriginal populations (Gaoshan) of Taiwan was studied by means of the IEF method. A new ADA variant allele, ADA*Taiwan1, was in a high allele frequency in two Gaoshan populations, the Amis and the Paiwans. Another new variant, ADA*Taiwan2, was found in only one case of heterozygote in the Saisiats. Allele frequencies of a common allele, ADA*2, in the Paiwans and the Amis were the highest among the Asian populations so far studied.


The installation of a new intrusion detection system (IDS) is, of course, expected to improve site security. However, depending upon the way the system is used, it can, over time, actually degrade security. Proper use, control, and maintenance of the IDS is critical if site security is to be maintained. This paper discusses several operational issues that should be addressed in order to use an IDS effectively. Several anecdotes from the author's experience are given to illustrate proper and improper use of an IDS. Improper operational use of an IDS can render it ineffective. Applying these tips can help keep the IDS operating at peak performance


C-axis-oriented YBa2Cu3O7-y (YBCO) films have been formed on (111)-oriented Al films using the pulsed-laser deposition method. The (111)-oriented Al films, which are grown at room temperature, are effective for the formation of a crystallized YBCO film on an amorphous substrate. Before YBCO film formation, the Al surface was oxidized in (O2+8% O3) gas atmosphere to create an AlOx layer on the top surface of the Al film. This AlOx plays the role of a buffer and seed layer which has a periodic potential of atomic order corresponding to the Al(111) plane. The optimal substrate temperature for YBCO deposition was 590° C. The Tc(onset) and Tc(zero) of the YBCO film formed on Al/glass were 90 K and 75 K, respectively.


A review on the use of bile acids as hosts for molecular recognition and enantioresolution is presented. The optical resolution of different classes of organic derivatives, i.e., lactones, aliphatic alcohols, sulfoxides, epoxides, ketones, cyclic amides, cyclic carbonates, and sulfites, may be obtained by host-guest enantioselective inclusion complexation. The salient aspects of the enclathration process, including X-ray diffraction results, are discussed.


OBJECTIVES
This study examined the prevalence of cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) among hand therapists. Factors such as hand therapy tasks and number of years spent performing these tasks were examined in their contribution to CTD symptoms of the upper extremity.

STUDY DESIGN
Of the 356 questionnaires distributed to registrants at the 1996 Hand Conference, 195 (55%) were returned. A t-test was used to determine whether the number of years spent practicing hand therapy was a significant factor in the development of CTD symptoms among hand therapists.

RESULTS
Of the 195 respondents, 73% reported they had previously experienced CTD symptoms, and 46% reported they were currently experiencing CTD symptoms. A significant difference was found (P < 0.05) in the development of CTD symptoms with regard to number of years practiced.

CONCLUSION
The work practices of hand therapists place them at risk for developing CTDs. Hand therapists who spend more years practicing are more likely to incur CTDs.


Adolescent suicidal behavior is a global public health issue; however, genetic studies are sparse and diverse. A review of the current knowledge on the genetics of adolescent suicide based on an electronic search of two databases is being presented, following PRISMA guidelines. After identification, screening, and exclusion, 17full-text articles based on original studies were included for the review. Studies indicate significant heritability for suicidal behavior. Aggression was found to be associated with higher rates of suicide attempts within families. Possible genetic variants, environmental changes, their interaction, and the timing of these interactions appear to be critical in deciding the suicidal behavior. Several candidate genes and pathways have been implicated with a focus on neurotransmitters, neurotrophic processes, stress response system, and the immune system. From the results, the serotonergic system seems to be the most plausible system explaining anxiety, impulsivity, depressed mood, and adolescent suicidal behavior. However, inconsistencies for serotonergic genes were also reported for adolescent suicidal behavior which largely reflected the ethnic and phenotypic variation. The serotonin transporter variant was significantly associated with depression and suicide attempts while serotonin receptor gene variants were significantly associated with suicide ideation. Tryptophan hydroxylase variant had a significant association with suicide attempts, hopelessness, and impulsivity scores. Majority of the studies had a small sample size, and the lack of consensus on genetic studies reflected the phenotypic and ethnic variation. We need to develop a consortium for ethnic-specific observation by considering both genetic and epigenetic background and develop a consensus strategy to resolve phenotypic diversity for adolescent suicide.


We cal culate excited state dynamics of an aggregate of three molecules according to four different master equation theories of the second order in the system-bath interaction. Special attention is paid to ability of the theories to explain long-lasting coherent system dynamics. Two-dimensional coherent electronic spectra are calculated using methods of non-linear spectroscopy and the effects of coherent dynamics on the spectra is discussed.


Viscoelastic hydrogel microfibers have extensive applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, however, their viscoelasticity is still difficult to be directly characterized because microfiber-specific measuring system is lacking for quantitative studies. In this paper, we develop a two-probe micro-stretching system to quantitatively investigate viscoelasticity of the microfiber by evaluating the storage and loss modulus: E' and E″. A liquid bridge-based fixation method enables single microfiber to be easily fixed to be stably stretched by a two-probe actuator. Afterward, multi-frequency stretching force loading is automatically implemented based on real-time force control, and the resulting stress and strain in the frequency spectrum are measured to evaluate the E' and E″ of pure GelMA, alginate-GelMA composite and GelMA core-alginate shell microfibers. The measured E' and E″ are verified by the response of NIH/3T3 fibroblast cells to the composite microfibers with different alginate concentrations. Moreover, benefiting from the low-damaged stretching process, our system can also detect the difference of the E' and E″ between two cellular processes including growth and differentiation of the aligned mesenchymal stem cells in the same one core-shell microfiber. These results all show that our proposed system provides a valuable reference tool for biomaterials design, the study of cell-matrix interaction and disease etiology from the perspective of mechanics.


An overview is given about the possibilities to design air core magnets (magnets without an iron yoke) of very different shape for different applications. A "Magnet Design Facility" (MDF) was developed to design interactively magnets in order to get quick response. The computer codes used are shortly outlined, and different examples are given to show the wide variety of magnet types which can he easily handled. In addition, several examples of designed and/or constructed magnets or magnet systems are shown designed by using MDF.


Compared sixth graders' AIDS concerns before and after Magic Johnson announced that he tested HIV-positive. Examined perceptions of self/other vulnerability (optimistic bias) using questionnaires (Study A) and interviews (Study B). Also examined AIDS worries mentioned in open-ended interviews (Study C). Studies A and B revealed a substantial degree of optimistic bias. Study C showed that AIDS is a prime concern of school-age students, mentioned under free or context-cued conditions by about 50%. There was little detectable effect of the publicity; the sole before--after difference in three studies was one increase in self- and other-vulnerability to AIDS--an increase attributable, with marginal significance, only to girls. Discussed implications for health promotion and differences between assessment approaches.


We have recently expressed the structure constant of atmospheric turbulence in terms of the oceanic turbulence parameters, which are the ratio of temperature to salinity contributions to the refractive index spectrum, rate of dissipation of kinetic energy per unit mass of fluid, rate of dissipation of the mean-squared temperature, wavelength, Kolmogorov microscale, and link length. In this paper, utilizing this recently found structure constant and the fourth-order mutual coherence function of atmospheric turbulence, we present the fourth-order mutual coherence function to be used in oceanic turbulence evaluations. Thus, the found fourth-order mutual coherence function of oceanic turbulence is evaluated for the special case of a point source located at the transmitter origin and at a single receiver point. The variations of this special case of the fourth-order mutual coherence function of oceanic turbulence against the changes in the ratio of temperature to salinity contributions to the refractive index spectrum, the rate of dissipation of kinetic energy per unit mass of fluid, the rate of dissipation of the mean-squared temperature, the wavelength, and the Kolmogorov microscale at various link lengths are presented.


We report the effects of protonation on the structural and spectroscopic properties of 1,4-dimethoxy-2,5-bis(2-pyridyl)benzene (9) and the related AB coploymer poly(2,5-pyridylene-co-1,4-[2,5-bis(2-ethylhexyloxy)]phenylene) (7). X-ray crystallographic analysis of 9, 1,4-dimethoxy-2,5-bis(2-pyridyl)benzene bis(formic acid) complex 10, and 1,4-dimethoxy-2,5-bis(2-pyridinium)benzene bis(tetrafluoroborate salt) (11) establishes that reaction of formic acid with 9 does not form an ionic pyridinium salt in the solid state, rather, the product 10 is a molecular complex with strong hydrogen bonds between each nitrogen atom and the hydroxyl hydrogen in formic acid. In contrast, reaction of 9 with tetrafluoroboric acid leads to the dication salt 11 with significant intramolecular hydrogen bonding (N-H.O-Me) causing planarization of the molecule. The pyridinium and benzene rings in 11 form a dihedral angle of only 3.9 degrees (cf. pyridine-benzene dihedral angles of 35.4 degrees and 31.4 degrees in 9, and 43.8 degrees in 10). Accordingly, there are large red shifts in the optical absorption and emission spectra of 11, compared to 9 and 10. Polymer 7 displays a similar red shift in its absorption and photoluminescence spectra upon treatment with strong acids in neutral solution (e.g. methanesulfonic acid, camphorsulfonic acid, and hydrochloric acid). This is also observed in films of polymer 7 doped with strong acids. Excitation profiles show that emission arises from both protonated and nonprotonated sites in the polymer backbone. The protonation of the pyridine rings in polymer 7, accompanied by intramolecular hydrogen bonding to the oxygen of the adjacent solubilizing alkoxy substituent, provides a novel mechanism for driving the polymer into a near-planar conformation, thereby extending the pi-conjugation, and tuning the absorption and emission profiles. The electroluminescence of a device of configuration ITO/PEDOT/polymer 7/Ca/Al is similarly red-shifted by protonation of the polymer.


In the foreseeable future, China will likely continue its coal-dominated energy strategy. To ensure cleaner operations, improve mining safety, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, China has made a strong development plan to recover and utilize coalbed methane (CBM) and coalmine methane (CMM) since 2006. However, at the end of the 11th Five-Year plan in 2010, the output of CBM/CMM fell short of the planned targets. The disputes over the mining rights of CBM/CMM between local coal groups, central state-owned oil and gas companies, local governments and central governments significantly impeded development. This case study looks into these disputes and tries to unfold the complex relations between central and local actors in China's energy governance. This report begins by introducing the background behind CBM/CMM recovery disputes and the central ministries involved in regulating or promoting CBM/CMM development. It then analyzes the historical and legal causes of disputes in Shanxi province, the attempted efforts to resolve the disputes, and the impact of the conflict on local environment and energy use. The report then discusses proposed solutions and finally gives further analysis on issues of China's energy governance. In order to achieve its 12th Five-Year plan target in clean energy development, energy efficiency and greenhouse reduction, China should strengthen its energy and environment governance system to ensure targets will be met. Realizing a strategic policy requires serious consideration of the dynamic relations among powerful actors and the interests of local governments and the state-owned companies. It also requires new tools to improve the ability for regulators in Beijing to regulate and coordinate action on CBM/CMM.


This study describes genetic variability in the BoLA-DRB3 gene in Iranian native cattle (Bos Indicus and Taurus) and relationships between these breeds. This is the first study of genetic polymorphism of the BoLA-DRB3 gene in Iranian native cattle. We examined exon 2 of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II DRB3 gene from 203 individuals in four populations of Iranian native cattle (52 Sarabi, 52 Najdi, 49 Sistani, 50 Golpayegani cattle) using the hemi-nested PCR-RFLP method. We identified the 36 previously reported alleles and one novel pattern (*eac). Analysis of the frequencies of the various BoLA-DRB3.2 alleles in each breed indicated that DRB3.2*52 in Sarabi cattle (23%), DRB3.2 *14 and *24 alleles in Najdi cattle (13%), DRB3.2 *8 allele in Sistani cattle (22%) and DRB3.2*16 allele in Golpayegani cattle (14%), were the most frequent alleles. Allelic frequencies ranged from 1 to 23% among the 36 alleles and there were some alleles that were found only in Iranian cattle. Effective number of alleles in the four breeds was estimated to be 7.86, 11.68, 7.08 and 3.37 in Sarabi, Najdi, Sistani and Golpayegani, respectively. Observed heterozygosities were the highest in Sarabi (94%) and Najdi (94%). A population tree based on the frequency of BoLA-DRB3.2 alleles in each breed suggested that Najdi, Sarabi and Golpayegani cattle clustered together and Najdi and Sarabi were the closest breeds. Sistani cattle differed more from these three breeds. These new data suggest that allele frequencies differ between Iranian cattle breeds.


Abstract Since the summer of 2001 archaeological excavations have been underway at the Syrian Catholic monastery of St Julian of the East (Dayr Mar Elian al-Sharqi), Qaryatayn. This monastery dates, according to historical sources, from at least the twelfth century although there are indications that elements of the complex may date from a much earlier period. This contribution outlines the preliminary results of the first three seasons of small-scale excavation, placing the monastery within a broader historical and geographical context, and emphasising the continued ideological importance of the site as a multi-faith pilgrimage destination. The paper frames some of the key methodological and theoretical research questions posed by monastic archaeology in the Christian east, and outlines the goals for the completion of a project that is, within the realms of late antique/early medieval archaeology, unusual in its scope and emphasis, as well as making accessible the preliminary results in anticipation of m...


The role of corticosterone in the changes of insulin receptors of rat adipocytes during hypokinesia was investigated. Three groups of adult male Wistar rats (1. intact; 2. adrenalectomized; 3. dexamethasone treated) were exposed to hypokinesia for various period. The plasma levels of corticosterone, insulin and glucose and the binding of insulin (125I-TyrA-14 monoiodoinsulin) to isolated adipocytes were determined. A significant increase of plasma corticosterone level and a decrease of insulin binding to adipocytes were found in rats exposed to hypokinesia for one day. After 3 and 5 days of hypokinesia the corticosterone level in plasma was decreased to the concentration observed in the control animals. Also the binding of insulin to adipocytes returned to the values found in control group. In adrenalectomized rats exposed to hypokinesia no changes of insulin receptors in adipocytes were noted. The treatment of rats with dexamethasone (both, the intact and adrenalectomize ones) resulted in a decrease of insulin binding in fat cells. These results showed that an increase of corticosterone in plasma after the short term exposure to hypokinesia or the injection of dexamethasone to intact or adrenalectomized animals are followed by the decrease of insulin receptors in adipocytes suggesting that glucocorticoids participate in the regulation of insulin receptors in adipocytes during short term hypokinesia.


Intergenerational justice not only requires the adoption of best practices and policies, but also the prevention and repression of deleterious and morally blameworthy human behaviour which have severe impacts on the long-term health, safety and means of survival of groups of individuals. While many international crimes have indirect consequences on the well-being of present and future generations, it cannot be said that existing international criminal law is currently well-placed to directly and clearly protect intergenerational rights. As such, the development of a new type of international crime, crimes against future generations, may be a promising avenue for implementing intergenerational justice. Such a crime would penalise acts or conduct that amount to serious violations of existing international law regarding economic, social and cultural rights or the environment.


After introducing commutativity concept and summarizing the relevant literature, this work is focused on the commutativity of feedback conjugates. It is already known that a linear time-varying differential system describing a single input-single output dynamical system is always commutative with its constant gain feedback pairs. In this article, it is proven that among the time-varying feedback conjugates of a linear time-varying system, constant feedback conjugates are the only commutative feedback pairs and any of the time-varying feedback conjugates cannot constitute a commutative pair of a linear time-varying system.


To assess the quality of life (QOL) in patients with breast cancer receiving mass screening, a collaborative matched case‐control study was conducted in nine hospitals throughout Japan. A total of 122 patients detected by mass screening (study group) and 226 patients found in out‐patient clinics (control group) were assessed psychosocially on the basis of questionnaire information. The incidence of patients with early stage breast cancer was significantly higher in the study group than in the control group (P<0.05). Chest wall pain was observed in 35.2% of the study group and in 46.5% of the control group (P<0.05). Although control patients were more optimistic than study group patients, disturbed daily life and anxiety about recurrence were a little more frequent in the former group than in the latter. In particular, shoulder stiffness was frequently seen in the control group (P<0.05). Early detection and information do not create anxiety in mass screening patients (P<0.01). We should recommend mass screening to patients to detect early stage breast cancer and provide better QOL.