Novel cystathionine mono-oxo acids, S-(3-oxo-3-carboxy-n-propyl) cysteine and S-(2-oxo-2-carboxyethyl) homocysteine, and cyclic amino acid, cystathionine ketimine, have been detected in the urine of a patient with cystathioninuria using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry with an atmospheric pressure ionization interface system and an amino acid analyzer. To determine these cystathionine mono-oxo acids and cystathionine ketimine we took advantage of the selective absorbance at 380 nm of the phenylisothiocyanate-ketimine interaction product. The total concentrations of these compounds found in the urine samples of a cystathioninuric patient and six healthy subjects were respectively 3611.3 and 148.4 micrograms +/- 35.9/g of creatinine. The cystathioninuric patient excreted 20 times more cystathionine mono-oxo acids in the urine than healthy subjects.


Cancer and microbial infectious diseases are considered a global threat. Plants have been investigated across the world to exploit their potential anticancer and antimicrobial effective agents. In this study, two medicinal plant species native to Saudi Arabia, namely; Artemisia judaica and Artemisia sieberi were screened to assess their antioxidant, anticancer and antimicrobial potential activities as well as phytochemical compositions. The collected aerial parts were extracted by maceration with methanol. Cytotoxic and antimicrobial activities were investigated using the MTT and MIC assays, respectively. Free radical scavenging and antioxidant potential were assessed respectively by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) methods. The total flavonoid and phenolic contents of the crude methanolic extract were quantified using standard methods. Artemisia judaica displayed a strong cytotoxicity compared to A. sieberi while both species showed approximately similar bacterial and fungal growth inhibition. In contrast, A. sieberi displayed the highest phenol and flavonoid contents between the two species which was consistent with the higher antioxidant activity found in A. sieberi. It is concluded that both Artemisia species could be a promising source of antioxidant, anticancer and antimicrobial agents.

 Key words: Artemisia judaica, Artemisia sieberi, anticancer, antimicrobial.


Purpose: Clubfoot is among the most common musculoskeletal congenital anomalies. Poor understanding of clubfoot can cause lack of awareness that leads to complications in treating this condition because of late medical intervention. This is considered as a significant public health problem, especially in communities where the burden of clubfoot deformity remains unrecognized. We assessed the level of awareness and knowledge on clubfoot among residents of rural areas and determined the knowledge and attitudes of the public toward the risk factors and general consequences of clubfoot. Methods: This cross-sectional study, conducted from January to July 2021, included the general population of small city and rural area residents. The participants completed a self-administered survey on the web. The questionnaire was pre-tested in a pilot study to ensure comprehension and ease of administration. Results: Altogether, 41.6% of the participants recognized the scientific name of clubfoot in their native language, whereas 38.9% identified the disorder after they were shown a photograph of it. The most recognized risk factors of clubfoot according to the participants were family history (52.2%), complicated pregnancy (46.5%), and medications (43.4%). Only 8.8% of the participants considered casting the initial treatment of clubfoot. Conclusion: An individual's residential area plays a role in their level of awareness concerning clubfoot. Our results suggest that many educational interventions for clubfoot must be provided in rural areas, particularly regarding therapeutic options and plans of care.


Service-based software applications, such as pervasive and ubiquitous ones, are increasingly embedded in our daily lives integrating smart communicating devices. Usually, changes in the execution context of these applications occur unpredictably over time, such as dynamic variations in the availability of the used services and devices, or of the user location and needs. This unpredictable variability in the execution contexts makes impossible to know at design-time the exact conditions under which these applications will be used and the services that will be most suited at a given time. Therefore, the architecture of such applications cannot be fully defined at design-time. These applications must be defined in abstract and flexible ways, allowing incremental composition and dynamic adaptation to their execution context at runtime. In this paper, we present a model-driven approach for designing, developing, executing and managing service-based applications. At design-time, an application is mainly defined by its requirements and goals. The application definition can be extended to add specific functional or non-functional concerns, such as dynamic adaptation, deployment or distribution. At development-time, the application can be automatically and incrementally composed, ensuring its consistency with respect to its definition. At runtime, the application execution is supported and controlled by our runtime environment.


This paper investigates the effects of equity and bond portfolio inflows on exchange rate volatility, using monthly bilateral data for the US vis-a-vis eight Asian developing and emerging countries (India, Indonesia, South Korea, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, and Taiwan) over the period 1993:01-2012:11, and estimating a time-varying transition probability Markov-switching model. We find that net equity (bond) inflows drive the exchange rate to a high (low) volatility state. In particular, net bond inflows increase the probability of remaining in the low volatility state in the case of Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines, whilst they increase the probability of staying in the high volatility state in the case of Indonesia. Finally, net equity inflows from India, Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan towards the US also increase the probability of staying in the high volatility state. These findings can be plausibly interpreted in terms of the "return-chasing" hypothesis and suggest that credit controls on portfolio flows could be an effective tool to stabilise the foreign exchange market.


There are many ways in investing fund in Indonesia, one of them is stock investment. In stock investment, investors will be able to gain return but it does not mean that this type of investment is riskless. The risk can be reduced by building portfolio, which one of the ways a building portfolio is using the Single Index Model. This model divides the risk coming from stock investment into two parts, which are market risk (systematic risk) and unique risk (unsystematic risk). By applying the EGP (Elton, Gruber, and Padberg) Logarithm, can be obtained the propotion of each stock included in the efficient portfolios can be obtained.


Objective: to characterize rodenticide poisoning sold illegally under the name Chumbinho. Methods: this is a descriptive and cross-sectional study by retrospective analysis of epidemiological forms of Toxicological Occurrence of a Toxicological Assistance Center, from 2006 to 2013. Results: 115 forms were analyzed, with an annual average of 14.4 ± 4.8 cases and 35.6% of the records in the fourth biennial. Most poisonings occurred in males (57.3%), aged between 15 and 49 years (78.3%) and suicide attempted (90.4%). It was found clinical severity of cases because 92.1% intoxicated required hospitalization and occurred four deaths (3.5%). Conclusion: the cases of poisoning by Chumbinho increased gradually over the studied years, in males, in an economically active age, and by intentional poisoning. There is a need for greater sanitary inspection in the region, aiming to reduce supply and improvement of guidance to consumers.


Work is a natural part of human life. Such is the phenomenon of death. This study investigate the relevancy of death within the context of the workplace. The goal of this study is to explore to what extent an bereaved employee is a troubled employee within the context of Employee Assistance Programs. The first objective is to conceptualize the death of a spouse and work performance. Secondly to launch an empirical investigation of the impact of the death of a spouse on the work performance of the bereaved employee. This study used a qualitative research mythology. The phenomenology research strategy helped to understand the meaning that the respondents gave to their experience of returning to the workplace after the death of their spouse. The population of this study were all working persons in the North West Province who lost a spouse through death. The sample consist of all working persons in Klerksdorp who lost a spouse through death. The criteria for the sample were persons within the age of 30 and 60 years who work full time that lost their spouse through death during April 2003 and April 2005 and don't stand in a remarriage yet. A semi-structured questionnaire is used to guide the 10 one-to-one interviews as a data collection method. To analyze the data, classification is used to identify four general themes. The findings of the study shows that every aspect of human life is affected by the death of a spouse. The bereaved employee can be a troubled employee, yet the South African workplace is not prepared to deal with death and it's consequences. BYLAAG 2: INGELIGTE TOESTEMMING VORM


We have maintained a transgenic mouse model of hydrocephalus created to overproduce the cytokine, transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in the central nervous system (CNS). The aim of the present study was to estimate the embryonic period when the transgenic mice would develop hydrocephalus, by investigating the chronological developmental changes of the cerebral ventricles. Qualitative analysis of ventricular size was performed on sections cut in the coronal plane of embryos at the 15th (E15) and 18th (E18) embryonic days, and postnatal mice aged 4 days (P4). The presence of the TGF-β1 transgene was determined by performing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. We have examined 24 embryos and 14 postnatal mice. By performing PCR analysis, the TGF-β1 transgene was determined to be present in 16 (42.1%). Five of 16 embryos at E15 carried the transgene, and showed a slight enlargement of the lateral ventricles. Three of 8 embryos at E18 carried the transgene, and had remarkable enlargement of the lateral ventricles. Eight of 14 pups at P4 carried the transgene, and 7 of 8 pups with the transgene developed hydrocephalus. In pups that were positive for the transgene, massive enlargement of the lateral ventricles was observed and there was an associated thinning of the overlying cerebral cortex. These results suggest that congenital hydrocephalus may develop at an important embryonic time period, which coincides with the stage of neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation in the CNS.


The lutropin/choriogonadotropin receptor is a seven-transmembrane receptor and consists of two major domains of similar size, an extracellular exodomain and a membrane-associated endodomain which includes 3 exoloops. The uniquely large exodomain is responsible for high affinity hormone binding whereas receptor activation occurs at the endodomain. However, little is known about the relationship between the exodomain and endodomain. It was reported that hormone binding to the exodomain was improved when the endodomain was truncated. This result suggests that hormone binding to the exodomain was influenced by the endodomain. To test this hypothesis, amino acids of exoloop 2 were examined by Ala substitutions. The binding affinity was enhanced by some Ala substitutions but attenuated by others. These results indicate that exoloop 2 influences the hormone binding to the exodomain. Particularly, the high affinity hormone binding at the exodomain is constrained by a group of amino acids, Ser484, Asn485, Lys488, Ser490, and Ser499. Computer modeling suggests these residues may be positioned on one side of exoloop 2. It also influences the affinity for cAMP induction and the maximal cAMP production in distinct ways, in addition to its influence on the hormone binding affinity. The distinct ways of influencing these functions are sometimes in conflict and compromised to attain the maximal affinity for cAMP induction. As a result, the exodomain attains the maximal affinity for hormone binding when the endodomain is truncated and cAMP induction is disengaged.


In the act of music listening, many people break down musical pieces into chunks such as verses and choruses. Recent work on music segmentation has shown that highly agreed segment boundaries are also considered strong and are described by using multiple cues. However, these studies could not pinpoint the effects of data collection methods and of musicianship on boundary perception. Our study investigated the differences between segmentation tasks performed by musicians in real-time and non real-time listening contexts. Further, we assessed the effect of musical training on the perception of boundaries in real-time listening. We collected perceived boundaries by 18 musicians and 18 non-musicians in 9 musical examples. Musicians also completed a non real-time segmentation task for 6 of the examples. We observed high significant correlations between participant groups and between task groups at a time-scale of 10 seconds after comparing segmentation data at different resolutions. Further, musicians located significantly more boundaries in the non real-time task than in the real-time task for 5 out of 6 examples. We found a clear effect of the task but no effects of musical training upon perceived segmentation.


The peculiarities of parametric optimisation of resonators containing small-scale inhomogeneities are considered. The two most important practical cases are studied in detail: an unstable resonator with small-scale phase inhomogeneities in the active medium and a stable resonator with small-scale amplitude modulations caused by the use of a perforated output mirror.


The growth of RPR in metropolitan optical networks, has been due to the requirement of sub-wavelength granularity and dynamic provisioning between nodes in a 2-ringlet optical network. The solution of creating opto-electro-opto conversion at each node and then processing individually the information being sent on each wavelength leads to expensive equipment cost as well as issues such as strict synchronization and limited bit-rate. Light-trails, on the other hand provides a solution that optically is able to broker the bandwidth between multiple nodes on the same wavelength leading to low cost implementations, while guaranteeing the dynamic bandwidth requirements that are a necessary prelude to provisioning revenue bearing services. A light-trail is a generalization of a lightpath [5], such that multiple nodes on the trail can take part in unidirectional communication within the trail without the need for optical switch reconfiguration. Light-trails can be pragmatically implemented [1] and provide for sub-wavelength optical communication by creating time differentiated flows between individual nodes. In this paper we study the implementation of light-trails to facilitate RPR. Through a simulation study we identify the constraints that affect a light-trail network and how it performs as compared to an RPR network. The intuitive benefit in cost savings using a light-trail network is somewhat offset by the need for aggregation of traffic at the data layer (like RPR) as well as the wastage of bandwidth in the broadcast medium (light-trail).


Coal bursts are a serious dynamic hazard for underground coalmines, and they attract the extensive interest of studies from mining and geotechnical researchers worldwide. More recently, coal-burst incidents were reported in some Australian coalmines as a result of inadequate geological assessment of coal-burst hazards. The coal-burst process is closely associated with the accumulation of elastic energy and the rapid dissipation of kinetic energy. This paper introduces the essential geological conditions for energy accumulation, and the likely precursors for rapid energy dissipation leading to coal burst, which can be used by Australian coalmines to determine their coal-burst risk accordingly. Different energy forms and their transformations during the coal-burst process are introduced in detail in this paper. The dominant geological factors resulting in the accumulation of massive energy are analyzed, and the likely precursors associated with the instant release of elastic energy are discussed.


A collection of ground-motion recordings including accelerograms of the mainshock of the 7 December 1988, Spitak earthquake (M = 6.9, Northern Armenia) has been obtained during the 1988 to 1990 strong-ground-motion network operation. This region of the Caucasus still has a poor database for strong-ground-motion prediction, but the data studied here form a basis for source scaling and attenuation relation study.
 The results show that the acceleration spectra of shear waves recorded at rock sites can be modeled accurately by the Brune source model using a stress parameter of 50 to 100 bar (Spitak area) and 200 bar (events to the North from the Spitak area), and cutoff frequency fmax = 7 to 10 Hz. The anelastic attenuation Q of spectral amplitudes with distance may be described by the form published by Boore (1987) Q = 29.4 [1 + (f/0.3)2.9]/(f/0.3)2 up to distances R = 70 km.
 The comparison of modeled bedrock spectra with observed data (registered at shallow soil deposits) allowed the author to estimate the local site response in terms of frequency-dependent amplification functions. The generalized regional amplification function was used to predict ground motion in conditions of shallow soils. Stochastic simulation of ground motions (peak ground acceleration and response spectra) using the obtained models of source spectra and attenuation shows good agreement with observed data.


Sales force Return on Investment (ROI) valuation with marketing mix frameworks is nowadays common. Sizing discussions then generally follow based on market data and business assumptions. Yet, according to our knowledge, little has been done to embed sales force demographic data (age/experience, tenure, gender etc...) as well as dynamics (especially turnover) in order to investigate the impact of the salesforce characteristics on sales. This paper illustrates such an attempt. It shows that sales force ROI valuation can benefit from a correction on turnover and that optimizing a sales rep hiring policy can unleash additional ROI points. The results are yet heavily dependent in the data structure of the study and their generalization would have to be investigated.


An on-line digital beamforming and detection system has been operating at the Canadian short-period array near Yellowknife since early 1974. The installation followed the renewed recognition of the important contribution this array can make to worldwide detection and location of small seismic events. System design is based on earlier Canadian experience. Daily event detection logs are available in Ottawa via dialed telephone line. Nonlinear beamforming is used to lower the false alarm rate at given detection level, and it is shown to perform as predicted. During the 6 winter and spring months, the detection threshold is mb 4.0 to 4.1 at 50 per cent false alarm rate. During summer and fall, organized surface-wave noise originating on Great Slave Lake raises this level to mb 4.6 to 4.7.


Embryological investigation was carried out on the generation and formation of the embryo sac in the bearing plants of Malus hupehensis Rehd. var. pingyiensis by paraffin section method in order to determine the development characteristics of different embryo sac types. The results indicated that the plants of M. hupehensis Rehd. var. pingyiensis generated anatropous ovule. The macrosporocyte could form tetrad through meiosis that happened 3 to 5 days before full bloom, and only one megaspore near the chalazal end developed into reduced embryo sac. And then most of the reduced embryo sacs aborted and only a few could form 8-nuclei embryo sac till the full blooming stage. The aposporous initials, the nucellar cells in the chalazal end, developed during full blooming stage. Then it grew rapidly to unreduced embryo sac and formed 8-nuclei aposporous embryo sac, which happened 5 to 7 days after full bloom. The aposporous embryo sac might develop singly or numerously to form complex embryo sac, and the generating period of the aposporous initial cells could last about 10 days.


First we introduce a new structure of uniform spaces, called se-uniform spaces, and provide some of their basic properties. Next, we present the notion of a soft E-distance in se-uniform spaces, which is a soft version of E-distance of Aamri and El Moutawakil [M. Aamri, D. El Moutawakil, Acta Math. Acad. Peadegog. Nyhazi., 20 (2004), 83–91]. Then, by using the soft E-distance, we establish some fixed soft element theorems for various mappings on se-uniform spaces, which are the main results of the paper. This is the first kind of such results in this direction. c ©2016 All rights reserved.


B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP)3 and N-terminal proBNP (NT-proBNP) are peptides produced in the heart in response to increased wall stretch and volume overload. As their production and secretion increases in the heart with the progression of heart failure (HF), plasma BNP and its N-terminal counterpart (i.e., NT-proBNP) have emerged as useful and cost-effective HF biomarkers (1, 2). Since the discovery of BNPs in 1988, much effort has been made to precisely determine the BNP and NT-proBNP levels via immunoassays for reliable HF diagnostics. As a result, the measurement of these biomarkers is globally accepted and used as a tool by clinicians to diagnose acute and chronic HF, stratify risk, and monitor response to therapy (3).

HF is a global pandemic that is constantly increasing in prevalence. Unfortunately, the proportion of HF patients with significant obesity has also increased dramatically owing to the increase in obesity in the general population. Recent data suggest an inverse relationship between BNP/NT-proBNP concentrations and body mass index (BMI). Obesity is a risk factor for systemic hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and left ventricular hypertrophy, all of which are conditions associated with an increased prevalence of HF. However, the applications of BNP and NT-proBNP as biomarkers in obese patients are limited, as the relationship between their levels and myocardial stiffness is complex. Considering that the established clinical thresholds are not relevant to distinguish HF from non-HF conditions among obese patients, the interpretation of results and clinical decisions are further complicated.

Thus, a more precise understanding of the interrelationship between BMI and BNP/NT-proBNP measurements is of crucial importance, not only to accurately diagnose HF in obese patients but also to offer the possibility of formulating new therapeutic strategies.

A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the inverse relationship …


Excessive Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) is associated with all known cardiovascular risk factors and is believed to play an important role for the onset of cardiovascular diseases. As a family of multisubunit enzymes complexes, NADPH oxidases deliberately generate superoxide and/or hydrogen peroxide. Evidence shows that NADPH oxidase are the key generators of ROS in the blood vessel wall and other tissues during cardiovascular disease progression. Studies from both human and animal platelet has suggested the role of NADPH-dependent ROS in platelet activation and thrombosis. However, the mechanism of how ROS production is regulated during platelet activation, and the effect of NOX-dependent ROS on platelet function remains unclear.
This study focuses on illustrating the mechanism of how does integrin αIIbβ3 regulate ROS production and NOX activity in platelets. Integrin outside-in signaling is shown to be important for ROS production and NOX2 activation. Data here demonstrated P47phox phosphorylation and ROS production could be induced by integrin-ligation without need for other stimuli, and it is augmented by outside-in signaling activator, MnCl2, while disrupted by selective outside-in inhibitor, mP6. And the absence of β3 is shown to almost completely abolished p47phox activation, even in CRP-stimulated platelets.
In addition, it has demonstrated that NOX1 and NOX2 knockout platelets was defect in stable adhesion, which is not further inhibited by mp6. This could possibly suggest ROS reversely inhibits integrin outside-in signaling. However, platelet spreading is not affected by NOX knockout. Along with previous data showing that NOX1/2 knockout mainly affected platelet granule secretion, and second wave of platelet aggregation, which requires integrin outside-in signaling, we concluded NOX-dependent ROS is important for integrin outside-in signaling and its functional consequences.
Altogether, this study, provided insight as how ROS production in activated platelets is regulated, forming a theoretical foundation for new antithrombotic strategy basing on intervening integrin outside-in pathway-regulated NOX activity.


A self-consistent two-dimensional modelling of microdischarges in devices in which one of the electrodes is covered with a dielectric is presented. The discharge development can be divided into four phases, a Townsend, an ionization wave or streamer, a cathode layer formation, and a decay phase. While during the Townsend phase the initial field strength distribution is hardly distorted, an ionization wave propagates towards the cathode during the following phase. On the wave reaching the cathode, a cathode layer develops. Its radical extension is determined by the increase of the current. During the decay phase the distributions of, for example, field strength and charge carriers are nearly frozen. The discharge fades because of the slow decrease of the field strength within its column. Energy and temperature distributions of microdischarge channels in air at atmospheric pressure are given.


Purpose

This paper aims to assess the utility of an approach to the design of multiple Balanced Scorecards within large/complex organisations, consider the relevance of "emergent strategising" in this kind of strategy implementation and explore project organisation and wider coordination issues that impact this type of work.

Design/methodology/approach

A "research-oriented – action research" approach has been adopted, comprising qualitative observations of an ongoing programme within a major organisation in the Middle East. The case is based on feedback obtained from key actors (participants, facilitators) and the analysis of documentation produced by the project.

Findings

Over four years, the project engaged directly with over 200 managers from the organisation's 35 most senior management units. Its purpose was to align the strategic aims of each unit with those of the organisation and introduce a new form of strategic control. The paper shows that consensus-forming and creation of locally relevant strategic agendas can be usefully and successfully embedded in a large-scale strategic control and alignment programme. The paper notes the large resource implications and duration of such programmes, and the challenges of integrating the resulting processes with those already in place. The paper concludes that for the case organisation, the resource investment appears to have generated useful outcomes.

Research limitations/implications

The project relates to a continuing programme within the client organisation that was not explicitly established before it started as an action-research activity. This has limited and constrained the quality of the information reported.

Originality/value

The scale of the project, the use of design methods that emphasis consensus forming and local relevance provide novel information and insights.


Wavelet thresholding with uniform threshold has shown some success in denoising. For images, we propose that this can be improved by adjusting thresholds spatially, based on the rationale that detailed regions such as edges and textures tolerate some noise but not blurring, whereas smooth regions tolerate blurring but not noise. The proposed algorithm is based on multiscale edge detection and image segmentation and then thresholding the coefficients of different regions with adaptive thresholds.


The formation and tear properties of films made of Resorcin-Formaldehyde-Latex (RFL) are the key factors of interracial adhesive force and anti-fatigue capability between glass cord and rubber. So in this article we discuss the formation and tear properties of films made of RFL used in the fiber reinforced rubber (FRR) composite. R/F, RF/L and different L and it's contents are considered respectively, therefore providing experimental evidences for analysis interracial adhesive and fatigue breakage of FRR composites and giving an optimum recipe of RFL immerging adhesive for the practical production.


In order to control the composition, morphology and size distribution of oxide inclusions in spring steel, the relationship between the content or activity of aluminum and calcium in molten steel and compositions of oxide inclusion precipitated at different temperatures was determined based on thermodynamic equilibrium for spring steel 60Si2MnA, and has been verified by practice. The size distribution of non-metallic inclusions electrolytically extracted from specimens of hot rolled spring steel was determined by image analyzer. The results show that there are a great deal of large inclusions in spring steel produced by the conventional process, and the quantity and the size of large inclusions in spring steel produced by new process are largely reduced. As a result, the fatigue properties of the spring steel produced by new process are highly improved, and the ratio of σ-1/σb is raised from 0.451 to 0.468.


The aim of this study was to analyze the connections between the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the principles of Brazil's Unified Health System (SUS) in the context of the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential implications for population health. This qualitative, cross-sectional, exploratory study collected data from health professionals with experience in emergency and disaster risk management and treatment practices, which were then processed using the Iramuteq software for lexical analysis. The textual corpus was presented through a descending hierarchical classification that resulted in seven classes grouped into three categories: disaster response in the context of SUS; prevention of future disaster risks; and preparedness and recovery actions based on the Sendai Framework and the SDGs. The study highlighted aspects related to the direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges related to disaster risk reduction as advocated by the Sendai Framework, emphasizing the need to strengthen the culture of safety and sustainability within the SUS, which aligns with the ODS and social determinants of health.


Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are complex systems that face a high probability of failure, which require careful development by university management. This study aims at exploring the application of ERP implementation life cycle processes in the context of the higher education sector (HEIs). The study employed a multiple case study approach and semi-structured interviews with a number of information system managers, and other professional services managers across three HEIs from Jordan. Results indicate that ERP implementation life cycle consists of three phases and eight stages. Updating six stages identified in previous research, this study suggests two additional major stages, namely "testing" and "go live." The proposed model in this study can be used by senior management, technical, and academics as clear guidelines while adopting and implementing ERP in the HEIs. Little is known of the application of ERP implementation life cycle processes in the context of HEIs. The study makes a unique contribution in two facets: first, its application to the HEIs with its specific features in comparison to business sector; and second, the study suggests two additional major stages to the traditional phases model for ERP.


In a previous publication, three relatives of patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency from two families were considered to be unusual heterozygotes rather than homozygotes with mild clinical manifestations. Their heterozygosity could now be confirmed by HLA tissue typing.


According to the theory of incomplete contracts, given nonverifiable entrepreneurial project choices together with divergent objectives between an entrepreneur and its outside financier, the entrepreneur can credibly pledge only part of its project outcome for external funding. Meanwhile, entrepreneurial net worth must be put as down payment to ameliorate agency costs. In a real dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents and nonverifiable project choices, endogenous agency costs significantly change the businesscycle pattern in the sense that the model can replicate an important empirical fact, the amplified hump-shaped output behavior. Furthermore, variable asset prices can a ect entrepreneurial net worth and then subsequently change the dynamic features of aggregate output along business cycles.


Increased destruction of red blood cells follows the insertion of ball valves into the heart in most cases. Usually, hemolysis is slight, but in some patients uncompensated hemolytic anemia develops. To study the influence on hemolysis of the mechanical properties of the prostheses, the degree of erythrocyte destruction was evaluated in patients with Starr-Edwards aortic prostheses of different types and size.Fifty-six patients with Starr-Edwards aortic ball valves were examined; 13 had prostheses of the 1200 series with silastic rubber balls, and 43 had valves of the 2300 series with hollow Stellite (metallic) balls. Thirty-one patients had valves with an orifice area of 1.8 cm2 or less; the others had larger-sized valves.The degree of hemolysis was predicted from the serum lactic dehydrogenase activity, which has previously been shown to correlate well with the red blood cell survival. The half-life of 51Cr-labelled red cells was also determined in 16 cases.Hemolysis was significantly higher in patients with Stellite ball valves than in those with silastic rubber ball valves, and red blood cell destruction was more pronounced in patients with small prostheses than in patients with larger valves. Hemolysis was not higher in three patients with paravalvular leakage than in patients with competent prostheses. Valve type and size seem to be the most important factors in producing hemolysis.


A fairly wide class of classical solutions of the Euclidean two‐dimensional Grassmannian and CPN−1 sigma models has been constructed explicitly and elementarily by the present author. Starting from these classical solutions we derive the explicit forms of the Backlund transformations following Harnad et al. Properties of the Backlund transformations for the Grassmannian models are discussed. In particular, a simple interpretation of the Backlund transformations for the CPN−1 model is obtained. Generalization of these results to the noncompact Grassmannian sigma models is straightforward.


In solar powered water heaters, solar radiation falls into and then absorbed by tube collectors which are then used as a source of water heaters for household and industrial needs. One effort to improve efficiency in solar powered water heater systems is b y adding a reflector under the collector. The main purpose of this study is to find out the effect of the reflector on the collector's efficiency during charging period. The tube collector consists of absorber pipes, water pipes, and reflector. While the parabolic reflector is made of stainless to maximize reflection to the collector. In these experiments the water flow was varied 0.48 l/min, 0.59 l/min, and 1.82 l/min. Temperature measurements were carried out at several points: (i) inlet, (ii) outlet and (iii) phase change material (PCM). While, radiation intensity was measured using a pyranometer. The data were compared between heater with and without reflector. The highest collector efficiency was achieved when applying 1.82 l/minute with the maximum col lect r performance with reflector and without reflector is 76.8% and 69.7% respectively. It is be concluded that the use of reflectors can increase the efficiency of tube collectors for water heaters. The outlet temperature was higher by 1.7% than the prev ious result when using water debit of 0.59 l/min . Multitek Indonesia: Jurnal Ilmiah Volume: 14 No. 1, Juli 2020, Hal. 51 58 ISSN: 1907-6223 (print) ISSN: 2579-3497 (Online) http://journal.umpo.ac.id/index.php/multitek Khamdan Khavivi Mahros Darsin, Digdo Listyadi Setyawan. Unjuk Kerja Kolektor Tabung Pemanas Air Pada Saat Charging Menggunakan Phase Change Material (PCM) Dengan Dan Tanpa Reflektor 52 Keyword: Tube Collector, Reflector , PCM


A review is made of studies on occupational cancer conducted in different countries in order to compare estimates of the attributable risks (i.e., the proportion of cancers occurring in the general population due to occupational exposure), and to identify the sources of variation. Estimates vary according to several factors, including different study designs and chiefly, different proportions of exposed workers in the geographical areas that have been investigated. For lung cancer, estimates ranged between 1 and 35%, with values of 10-15% occurring frequently; for bladder cancer, the range was between 1 and 19%. The implications of this variability in prevention programmes are discussed and the problems encountered in the identification and compensation of occupational cancer are examined.


Weakly-Supervised Scene Graph Generation (WSSGG) research has recently emerged as an alternative to the fully-supervised approach that heavily relies on costly annotations. In this regard, studies on WSSGG have utilized image captions to obtain unlocalized triplets while primarily focusing on grounding the unlocalized triplets over image regions. However, they have overlooked the two issues involved in the triplet formation process from the captions: 1) Semantic over-simplification issue arises when extracting triplets from captions, where fine-grained predicates in captions are undesirably converted into coarse-grained predicates, resulting in a long-tailed predicate distribution, and 2) Low-density scene graph issue arises when aligning the triplets in the caption with entity/predicate classes of interest, where many triplets are discarded and not used in training, leading to insufficient supervision. To tackle the two issues, we propose a new approach, i.e., Large Language Model for weakly-supervised SGG (LLM4SGG), where we mitigate the two issues by leveraging the LLM's in-depth understanding of language and reasoning ability during the extraction of triplets from captions and alignment of entity/predicate classes with target data. To further engage the LLM in these processes, we adopt the idea of Chain-of-Thought and the in-context few-shot learning strategy. To validate the effectiveness of LLM4SGG, we conduct extensive experiments on Visual Genome and GQA datasets, showing significant improvements in both Recall@K and mean Recall@K compared to the state-of-the-art WSSGG methods. A further appeal is that LLM4SGG is data-efficient, enabling effective model training with a small amount of training images.


The Streptomyces lonarensis strain NCL 716 hydrolyses starch to produce a mixture of maltotriose (G3) and maltotetraose (G4) along with maltose (G2). The objective of the present work was to determine an optimum cost effective media composition for the production of α-amylase from this strain. The most influential factor was found to be starch while the least influential factor found was peptone by Plackett–Burman method. Peptone amount was kept constant throughout the fermentation. Peptone, which is one of the expensive media components was used at a concentration of 1 g/L, which made the optimum media composition cost effective. A support vector regression-based process model was developed for approximating the non-linear relationship between the fermentation operating variables and the α-amylase yield. Multicanonical Jump Walk Annealing, a stochastic optimization technique is used to obtain optimal operating variables to maximize amylase yield. The maximum amylase activity thus obtained was in good agreement with the experimental values at the optimized levels. The optimum media composition obtained by this method was: yeast extract: 4.53 g/L, starch: 20.246 g/L, K2HPO4: 0.0827%, MgSO4: 0.15%, peptone: 1 g/L. A maximum enzyme activity of 297 U/mL, which was achieved using the above approaches compares well with the activity of reported amylases producing maltooligosaccharides.


Two new species of Laboulbenia from the Philippines are described and illustrated: Laboulbenia erotylidarum on an erotylid beetle (Coleoptera, Erotylidae) and Laboulbenia poplitea on Craspedophorus sp. (Coleoptera, Carabidae). In addition, we present ten new records of Laboulbeniales from several countries in southern and southeastern Asia on coleopteran hosts. These are Blasticomyces lispini from Borneo (Indonesia), Cantharomyces orientalis from the Philippines, Dimeromyces rugosus on Leiochrodes sp. from Sumatra (Indonesia), Laboulbenia anoplogenii on Clivina sp. from India, L. cafii on Remus corallicola from Singapore, L. satanas from the Philippines, L. timurensis on Clivina inopaca from Papua New Guinea, Monoicomyces stenusae on Silusa sp. from the Philippines, Ormomyces clivinae on Clivina sp. from India, and Peyritschiella princeps on Philonthus tardus from Lombok (Indonesia).


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . As an extension of the static photon surface, we propose a new concept, the transversely trapping surface (TTS), as a surface characterizing the strong gravity region of a static/stationary spacetime in terms of photon behavior. The TTS is defined as a static/stationary timelike surface S whose spatial section is a closed two-surface, such that arbitrary photons emitted tangentially to S from arbitrary points on S propagate on or toward inside of S. We study the properties of TTSs for static spacetimes and axisymmetric stationary spacetimes. In particular, the area A0 of a TTS is proved to be bounded as A0 ≤ 4π(3GM) under certain conditions, where G is the Newton constant and M is the total mass. The connection between the TTS and the loosely trapped surface (LTS) proposed by us (arXiv:1701.00564) is also examined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Subject Index E0, E31, A13


Spinal vascular malformations represent a complex group of entities whose treatment paradigm continually evolves. Given the ever-increasing role of endovascular therapy, it is the goal of the authors to review the current literature regarding this therapeutic tool and to provide recommendations guiding management. A thorough literature search was conducted using Medline, with subsequent articles being identified through cross-referencing. The analysis revealed that, since its introduction in the 1960s, endovascular therapy has been used to manage the entire spectrum of spinal vascular malformations, during which period it has undergone considerable technological and technical evolution. As such, embolization has proved of growing therapeutic utility, largely resulting from the mounting evidence supporting its safety and efficacy, in addition to the inherent minimally invasive nature. This alternative to surgical intervention will be increasingly used as first-line therapy in spinal vascular malformations.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate how German dentists adhere to recommendations regarding dental treatment of patients taking antiplatelet or oral anticoagulation therapy for cardiovascular protection.

BACKGROUND
Discontinuation of antiplatelet or oral anticoagulation therapy prior to dental procedures is usually not recommended because the risk of thromboembolic events is higher than that of significant procedure-related bleeding.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
An anonymous questionnaire regarding the handling of and experiences with patients taking aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) or vitamin-K-antagonists (phenprocoumon) was distributed to approximately 4500 dentists attending the national German Dentists Day 2011.

RESULTS
Of 146 dentists who completed the questionnaire 77.4% and 27.6% stated that they perform tooth extractions under continued therapy with aspirin or vitamin-K-antagonists, respectively. When asked regarding the INR or Quick values, they require for tooth extractions in patients taking oral anticoagulants 29.5% of the dentists provided values that were outside the safe range (INR ≤1.5 or ≥3.5) and 90.7% accepted values too old to be clinically reliable. For pain relief after dental procedures, 71.2% of the dentists recommended ibuprofen notwithstanding the fact that it attenuates protective effects of aspirin and 10.2% would discontinue aspirin and prescribe ibuprofen or paracetamol (acetaminophen).

CONCLUSION
Despite similar recommendations the majority of dentists perform tooth extractions in patients taking aspirin but not in patients taking vitamin-K-antagonists. Moreover, a potentially unfavourable drug interaction of aspirin and ibuprofen is frequently not considered. In patients taking vitamin-K-antagonists too many dentists rely on laboratory values that are too old or outside the recommended range.


For the purpose of this paper, large animal species are taken to be those animals that are commonly used  as farm livestock animals namely: cows, pigs, goats, sheep, horses, camelids and deer. The numbers of  procedures in the UK in 2006 involving such animals amounted to around 56,000 out of a total of around 3  million. It may be that human perception of these animals as livestock animals impairs our consideration of  their needs, compared to say those of common pet animals, dogs or cats. As the perception of their environment,  and the potential to suffer, of livestock animals is likely to be similar however, we should not neglect  their needs. The use of large animals in scientific procedures has advantages in some respects – the animals  are in the main domesticated, and are therefore comparatively docile and have been bred to cope with captivity.  Nevertheless they can display aggressive behaviour and are capable of causing significant injury, so an  understanding of their behaviour can reduce risks to staff caring for and working with these animals. This  presentation considers the behaviour of these animals, their needs, signs of discomfort and pain, and means  to ameliorate both their welfare and the safety of staff engaged in their use.Â


The project "KNOTS" is a three-year scheduled project financed by the European Union. The goal is the establishment of regional and international networks of transdisciplinary research as well as the development of transdisciplinary teaching methods. This paper analyses its internal and external communication and dissemination on the basis of qualitative interviews and observation protocols. It theoretically outlines Transdisciplinarity and organizational communication as well as scientific communication. The interviews and the protocol of a dissemination workshop have shown that the dissemination in the KNOTS project could still be described as work-in-progress, evidently seen in the different understandings of dissemination (mainly) and Transdisciplinarity (partly). There was a general confusion about roles, division of work, responsibilities and the topic of dissemination specifically. There is not a mutual strategy for dissemination, but many different approaches. This counts especially for the time before the dissemination workshop. As one might expect, it resulted in mostly negatively reviewed dissemination activities as expressed by the respondents. An effective internal communication, however, as outlined in the theoretical framework, is key to an effective external communication. Furthermore, there did not seem to be a lot of motivation to come up with sophisticated ideas for dissemination, because, as some interviewees mentioned, they thought of dissemination as a kind of chore assigned by the donor. The workshop may have helped to clarify the roles and expectations for each partner and get a better understanding for dissemination and its importance. It appears that the quality and processes of dissemination of project KNOTS will not change fundamentally for the last period of the project. It poses an example of the challenges and issues transdisciplinary projects face in terms of dissemination activities.


Vertical sinusoidal gratings were viewed in masking noise consisting of vertical stripes spread along the horizontal direction. Masking functions were obtained while varying the grating frequency relative to various one-octave-wide bands of noise. These functions closely resemble curves derived from previous experiments on adaptation to gratings. Masking was also measured as a function of the width of a band of noise centered on the grating frequency. Masking increased as the band was widened up to approximately ±1 octave; masking did not increase further when the band was widened beyond this range. The results demonstrate that a grating is masked only by noise whose spatial frequencies are similar to the grating frequency. The experiments provide further indication of the existence of channels in the visual system that are selectively tuned to different spatial frequencies.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Background: Emerging data suggest that post-operative infections may increase esophageal cancer recurrence, possibly accounting for the poor prognosis associated with this malignancy. We have previously shown that lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a gram-negative bacterial antigen, injected into mice increases in vivo cancer cell adhesion to the hepatic sinusoids. However, the influence of LPS directly on the cancer cell is unknown. We thus sought to elucidate the direct impact of LPS and its sole trans-membrane receptor, Toll-Like Receptor 4 (TLR4) on human esophageal cancer cell metastatic potential.

Methods: C57BL/6 mice were prepared for hepatic intravital microscopy and received intra-arterial inoculations with highly metastatic human esophageal squamous cells (HKESC-2; 1.5×106 cells/100μl) pre-incubated in LPS (0.1 μg/ml x 48hrs) or control media. HKESC-2-sinusoidal endothelial cell interactions were quantified with direct in vivo visualization of the hepatic sinusoids. In vitro static adhesion assay was use to measure cancer cell adhesion to fibronectin, collagen I and IV. SB203580, a p38 antagonist, was use to block LPS signaling. Two important adhesion molecules we have previously shown to be involved in the adhesion of these cancer cells to hepatic sinusoids, selectins and sialyl Lewis X (sLeX), were blocked using murine i.v. injection of fucoidin and incubation of cancer cells with blocking antibodies respectively. Results are presented as mean +/− SEM and MWU-test determined significance (* p<0.05).

Results: HKESC-2 cells express TLR4 by flow cytometry and RT-PCR respectively. Immunoblots of LPS incubated HKESC-2 cells revealed increased phosphorylation of p38 MAP Kinase, an intracellular TLR4 downstream signaling molecule. Thus treated cells had a 2-fold increase in vitro adhesion to fibronectin but not to Collagen 1 or 4, an effect that was reversed by inhibition of p38 phosphorylation. Murine hepatic intravital microscopy demonstrated that LPS treated esophageal cancer cells had a 2.3 fold increase in adhesion to sinusoidal endothelium as compared to control (cells/field of view: 33.2+/−3.6 vs. 14.2 +/−0.5)*. This LPS-facilitated in vivo adhesion was attenuated by blockade of selectins and sLeX (7.7 +/− 0.4*; 14.37 +/− 0.8*).

Conclusion: Using a physiologically relevant in vivo model of the early steps of cancer metastasis we have demonstrated that LPS-TLR4 mediated inflammation increased the metastatic potential of human esophageal cancer cells, at least partially through increased selectin-sialyl Lewis X binding. These findings identify LPS-TLR4 binding as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment and prevention of metastasis.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3434.


In this study, we analyzed the quality characteristics of soybean meat using soybean powder from different pre-treatment such as steam and roast condition. Soybean meat was manufactured from fresh (FSM), steamed (SSM) and roasted soybean powder(RSM). Sensory properties were the lowest in FSM, however, hardness, chewness and gumness were the highest in FSM. The L value was the highest in SSM (63.71), the a value was the highest in RSM (10.0) and the b value was significantly different among the samples. Moisture content was similar level in SSM and RSM. Crude lipid and carbohydrate content were the highest in SSM and FSM, respectively. The total amino acid content was 89,863.79 mg/kg in FSM, the highest of them. The total fatty acid content was the highest in SSM at 3916.9 mg/100 g. Biological activity materials, such as total flavonoids, isoflavones were the highest in FSM. The antioxidant activity was higher in SSM than others.


Glass has properties of a liquid. But do glass windows really flow over centuries becoming thicker at the bottom, as is commonly reported? Simple calculations show that the timet taken for a windowpane of heightL0 to increase in thickness byq% due to gravityg is given by t=4μρGL0q100. where the glass has viscosityμ and densityρ. For the small windowpanes common in medieval times this amounts to some millions of years! Thus, window glass behaves as a solid.


We present numerical studies of soliton propagation in a classical Heisenberg chain which contains a disordered binary-alloy segment having impurities of spin different from that of the host with density p. It is demonstrated that the reflected and the transmitted solitons exhibit robust features. The transmission coefficient decreases with increasing soliton energy in the range investigated, and displays a long-tail power-law length dependence with an exponent close to -1. It is also shown that the impurity bonds, which connect neighbouring sites with different spins, are the elementary scattering units which lead to wave interferences important for the soliton propagation.


The objetive of this work was to quantify caftaric acid and cutaric acid in musts and wines during the vinification phases. White grape cultivars Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc (Vitis vinifera) cultivated in Santana do Livramento, RS, and NiAEgara (Vitis labrusca) cultivated in Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, were used in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Content of the†compounds was determined through high performance liquid chromotography in grape crushing, during fermentation and when the wine was ready to be consumed. Generally, the caftaric acid concentrations were higher than the cutaric acid concentrations, in musts as much as in wine. The average quantity of caftaric acid in must, in the three cultivars, was 61.25†mg/L, while in the corresponding wine it was 32.10†mg/L, proving a decrease of this compound during fermentation. A†similar performance was observed for cutaric acid (22.63 and 9.00†mg/L, respectively for must and wine). In samples collected six months after bottling, a decrease was also observed in these two compounds, but in a smaller proportion.


The objective of this thesis is to explore the notion of extended mind, specifically how dynamic social phenomena, such as social interaction, can be seen to constitute a cognitive process. To do this it is explained that not only do representations form in the minds of individuals through an individual's nervous system and body, but that representations can also be seen to form in the minds of individuals through participation in social institutions. The social institution with which this thesis is concerned is exchange, and a case study of Classic Maya ground stone exchange serves as an illustration of how the notion of social institutions as sources of cognition can be applied to the archaeological record. The view of cognition adopted in this thesis is based in part on recent advances in cognitive scientific research, which proposes that cognition arises from dynamical systems to which individuals are attuned. These dynamical systems are thereby considered cognitive systems. Much cognitive research has focused on cognition that arises via the nervous system or motor actions of individuals. This thesis proposes that social systems can be seen to form dynamical systems to which people are attuned and, as such, social systems can also be regarded as cognitive systems or, more accurately, as supra-individual cognitive systems. Supra-individual cognitive systems generate representations a phenomenon I refer to as interiLalization that manifest themselves in the social environment as well as in the individual brain. In turn, once representations become mentally processed by an individual, they can be expressed through action affecting the functional organization of the supra-individual cognitive system I refer to this phenomenon as externalization. One implication of this thesis is that archaeologists can become involved in lines of inquiry that generate hypotheses about representations experienced by people in the past. Representations proposed to have been experienced by people in the past can be rigorously described that is, described in a way that can be critically examined by mathematically modeling and analyzing supra-individual cognitive systems that can be inferred to have existed in the past. In this thesis, the view of cognition I employ and the methodology for realizing this view of cognition constitute the first steps toward a cognitive archaeology that is concerned with the modeling and analysis of supra-individual cognitive systems.


One of the fundamental purpose of sensing information is to immediately respond to any anomalies. In order to make an accurate and cognizant decision, there is a great need for a fault-tolerant wireless sensor network. In this paper, we evaluate two categories of dual-homed routing for providing fault-tolerance in wireless sensor networks, namely dedicated dual-homed routing and shared dual-homed routing. We investigate two dedicated dual-homed routing techniques, namely 1+1 dual-homed routing and 1:1 dual-homed routing. We also develop shared dual-homed routing techniques, namely 1:2 dual-homed routing and 1:4 dual-homed routing. This paper investigates each technique's capability for providing fault-tolerance and its performance in terms of network lifetime, packet loss probability, end-to-end packet delay, and average throughput. Such an investigation will provide a comprehensive understanding about each proposed fault-tolerant technique. This will provide valuable insight for providing grade-of-protection in multi-layer wireless sensor networks by applying different techniques at different layers.


ABSTRACT Haemophilus influenzae is an important cause of invasive disease. The infant rat is the accepted model of invasive H. influenzae disease. Here, we report the genome sequences of six nontypeable H. influenzae strains that establish bacteremia in the infant rat.


Infection by headsmut, caused by Usti/ago kamerunensis, is the major cause of biomass reduction in Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum). In Kenya, this grass is the primary source of fodder for zero grazed livestock, which are an important component of small-holder farm incomes in high potential areas of the country.

Studies were conducted on the biology and ecology of the pathogen, with the objective of developing technologies for management of the disease. A survey in Kiambu District, central Kenya, of Napier grass plots was used to construct a model of smut incidence. Ten agro-ecological and environmental parameters were factored into the model but only altitude, using a quadratic function, was significant. Napier grass at altitudes between 1800 and 2000masl is particularly at risk from the disease. This was the first smut disease correlative model to make use of environmental factors. The presence of the fungus was demonstrated inside the host, and descriptions of ustilospore and sorus characteristics were made. Ustilospores in soil remained viable for less than eight weeks, and those air dried for less than 14 weeks. The infection court was identified as being restricted to germinating buds, which were the only sites on which ustilospores gave rise to appressoria. On other host surfaces, and on agars, sporidia and hyphae were formed.

A disease severity scale was developed, related to biomass reduction in fresh weight of Napier grass stools, that can be used to assess losses in field situations. Using a spore dipping technique, resistance testing of locally available cultivars identified susceptible and resistant types. Evidence was also gained for the possibility of disease remission.

These investigations lead to the production of management options for farmers, that are discussed in view of the increasing importance of the disease in Kenya.


A simple, fast and economic reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been successfully developed and validated for simultaneous determination of an antihypertensive and an antidiabetic drug namely, valsartan and glimepiride in pure form (as API). Before the method development with HPLC, a complexation study was carried out with these drugs by DSC which demonstrated no complexation among these drugs. Therefore, a simple HPLC method was developed and validated according to the guidelines of ICH, FDA and USP with respect to accuracy, precision and linearity. For method development a C-18 bonded silica column (250 x 4.6 mm, 5μ, Phenomenex, Inc.) and the mobile phase comprising 3% aqueous acetic acid in acetonitrile (60:40, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.7 ml/min were used. For accuracy, the recovery was found to be more than 99% for each of valsartan and glimepiride. Intra-day and inter-day precisions of the new method were less than the maximum allowable limit (RSD%i'£ 2.0) according to FDA guidelines. The method showed linear response with correlation coefficient of 0.9993 for valsartan and 0.9981 for glimepiride. Therefore, the developed method was found to be simpler, accurate, reproducible, efficient and less time consuming and can be successfully applied for the simultaneous estimation of valsartan and glimepiride.


: Classical studies define and understand the phenomenon of materialism from the perspective of a person's traits, values, goals, and needs. Although self-concept has always been a clue through materialism research, researchers have recently attempted to synthesize the existing research on self-concept. Relevant studies have shown that materialists' self-evaluation is low and their self-knowledge is inconsistent. Low self-evaluation is characterized by low self-esteem, contingent self-esteem. The inconsistent self-knowledge is manifested by an unclear self-concept, a discrepancy in explicit and implicit self-esteem, and self-disparity (a discrepancy between notions of an ideal and real self). Two recent comprehensive theories– the theory of materialistic escape from the self and identity goal pursuits theory of materialism–suggest that materialism is one's use of material possession as a means of escaping from one's self-awareness or as a means of constructing and pursuing self-identity. By well interpreting the existing research findings, these two theories make up for the lack of integration theories of materialism research. Future research should transcend the materialists' self-deficiency approach and make greater theoretical contributions by borrowing the theories of self-concept.


Two studies examined the general factor of personality (GFP) in relationship to performance on video-based situational tests measuring social knowledge and skills. Study 1 (N = 180 candidates of an assessment center) showed that high-GFP individuals were better able to indicate the appropriate social behavior in a situational judgment test. Moreover, in that study, high-GFP participants were also rated higher by others on leadership skills. Study 2 (N = 153 psychology students) showed that the GFP was related to actual display of social behavior in a situational webcam test. In both studies, high-GFP individuals reported more leadership experience in organizations. These findings support the idea of the GFP as a substantive personality factor that may also be relevant for personnel selection.


The device described responds selectively to those photoelectrons that are formed practically at rest in a gaseous target. The energy discrimination is achieved by accelerating the charged particles to reject those formed with appreciable transverse velocity. When this is used in connection with a light source of continuously variable wavelength over the range 10–20 eV, the resulting threshold photoelectron spectra allow the direct spectroscopic determination of ionization energies within a few millielectron volts. The potential of the method for detection of direct ionization and suppression of autoionization is illustrated by measurements of argon, krypton, and xenon. Simultaneously, ions can also be detected by use of a mass spectrometer. Thus the threshold photoelectron spectrum can be correlated with the photoion spectrum; and it is suggested that the method is applicable to coincidence measurements between electrons and ions.


The existence of a leader is related to the aspects of role models, protection, and decision making. Leaders stand at the forefront of creating the realization of community welfare. The public's initial perception of the figure who is believed to be an ideal leader is often broken by the pattern of policies taken after the election of the figure as a leader. This also applies at the village to provincial levels of government. This social portrait is quite risky because it saves a latent danger in the form of people's disappointment with the leader. Writing this article aims to (1) describe the ideal leader figure coveted by the community and (2) explain the importance of leadership aspects that are able to answer the challenges of the times.This writing is done in descriptive analytical with literature study. The results were obtained: (1) There are aspects that are missed consistently in the community, such as integrity, fairness, and responsibility. The characteristics of positive leaders are able to create public optimism in looking at the future. (2) Leadership based on the foundation of virtuous character is needed in dealing with the dynamics of a rapidly changing era.


Artificial neural networks (ANN), neural networks or artificial intelligence, which can model complex functions. They are useful in predicting the output of two or more independent variables. Further, forecasting the stability of slopes of earth embankment is a very exciting task for civil engineers due to the geology of the region, shear strength, and groundwater of earth embankment in accessing slope constancy. In this paper, a prediction process has been developed for predicting the safety factor (FOS) of slopes by using the ANN. 243 circumstances with dissimilar arithmetical, soil factors of homogenous earth dam and different fluid heights were analysed using multilayer method. Out of these, 70% of cases were used for training the model and 30% for testing the model. The results showed that if we used 70% of testing and 30% for training with one hidden layer is the best choice with R=0.901, in contrast of using all cases with testing, which goes far away from unity.


To study general characteristics, type of disease as well as mode of delivery in pregnant women suffering from heart disease in view of recent development in prevention, diagnosis and management. This study also included the co relation between mode of delivery and severity of heart disease. This was a retrospective study conducted at Grant Government Medical College & Sir J. J Group of hospitals, Mumbai over period of one and half year. Total Forty six pregnant heart disease patients were analysed for age, parity, symptomatology, severity of symptoms & their Obstetric outcome was analysed. Rheumatic valvular heart disease is still predominant amongst all heart diseases. Vaginal delivery is commonest mode of delivery. Severity of disease is not associated with the mode of delivery. Heart disease is genuine risk factor for mother. Recent advances in management of cardiac diseases are associated with favourable maternal outcome and thus improving obstetric carrier of women with heart disease.


Little was known about the small mammal fauna of the Marcal Basin to date, therefore we collected 1,144 Barn Owl pellets from 15 locations in 2017. After the analysis of the pellets, remnants of 3,063 prey items were identified, of which 97.5% were small mammals, belonging to 21 species, while the remaining 2.5% were birds, frogs and insects. Mammal prey items consisted of Cricetidae 41%, Muridae 31% and Soricidae 28%, and in some samples, we found the remnants of European Mole (Talpa europaea), Kuhl's Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii), Hazel Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) and Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis). Small mammal species were classified into four functional groups based on their preferences for urban, open, forest or wetland habitats. We investigated whether their relative abundances match with the proportions of the four habitat types in the assumed Barn Owl hunting ranges (cca. 2 km radius circle) in five sample sites. The relative abundance of small mammal species preferring urban habitats showed concordance with the proportion of the appropriate habitat types in the hunting area in two samples, while such concordance was proved for species favouring open, forest and wetland habitats just in one out of five samples. Small mammal functional groups represented in the prey composition do not directly correspond to the proportion of their typical habitats. We conclude that the abundance of various prey types is not suitable for characterising the landscape within the Barn Owl's hunting range.


Business Improvement Districts: Research, Theories, and Controversies, G. Morcoel, L. Hoyt, J. Meek, andU. Zimmermann THEORETICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES Metropolitan Governance and Business Improvement Districts, G. Morcoel and U. Zimmermann Private Governments: A Polycentric Perspective, S.E. Baer From Town Center Management to the BID Model in Britain: Toward a New Contractualism? G. Lloyd and D. Peel BIDs Farewell: The Democratic Accountability of Business Improvement Districts, B.R. Hochleutner From North America to Africa: The BID Model and the Role of Policy Entrepreneurs, L. Hoyt The BID Model in Canada and the United States: The Retail-Revitalization Nexus, D. Gopal-Agge and L.Hoyt BIDS IN THE UNITED STATES Private Governments or Public Policy Tools? The Law and Public Policy of New Jersey's Special Improvement Districts, J.B. Justice and R.S. Goldsmith Business Improvement Districts in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area: Implications for Local Governance, J. Meek and P. Hubler Business Improvement Districts in New York City's Low- and High-Income Neighborhoods, J.S. Gross Business Improvement Districts and Small Business Advocacy: The Case of San Diego, R.J. Stokes Business Improvement Districts' Approaches to Working with Local Governments, J.F .Wolf Business Improvement Districts in Pennsylvania: Implications for Democratic Metropolitan Governance, G. Morcoel and P.A. Patrick Getting the Max for the Tax: An Examination of Bid Performance Measures, G. Caruso and R. Weber Community Improvement Districts in Metropolitan Atlanta, G. Morcoel and U. Zimmermann Contesting Public Space and Citizenship: Implications for Neighborhood Business Improvement Districts, S. Schaller and G. Modan BIDS IN CANADA, BRITAIN, AND IRELAND The Strategic Evolution of the BID Model in Canada, T. Hernandez and K. Jones British Town Center Management: Setting the Stage for the BID Model in Europe, A. Reeve Business Improvement Districts in England: The UK Government's Proposals, Enactment, and Guidance, M. Blackwell The Adoption of the BID Model in Ireland: Context and Considerations, J. Ratcliffe and B. Ryan Index


This paper investigates the locomotion mechanism and crawling gait of our modular wall-climbing caterpillar robot. The concept of a modular wall-climbing caterpillar robot is inspired by the kinematics of the natural caterpillar. Two kinds of modules, which are attachment module and joint module, were developed. Due to the fixed constraints between the suction cups and wall, the gait of the caterpillar robot engages a changing kinematic chain which is from an open chain to a closed chain, and then to an open chain orderly. The discussion of this paper is focused on the crawling gait adopted by our prototype and on locomotion realization. In the closed chain state, a four links kinematics model is adopted to fulfill the fixed constraints produced by the attached suckers. In the end, a successful on-site tests confirm the above principles and the validity of the climbing gait.


The succession of 38 upper Llandovery-lower Wenlock chitinozoan taxa from graptolitic horizons in the Banwy River section (Powys, Wales) is described. Five new species are named: Bursachitina nestorae, Conochitina leviscapulae, Conochitina mathrafalensis, Belonechitina cavei and Belonechitina meifodensis. A further ten taxa are described under open nomenclature. Seven chitinozoan biozones are recognized in the Banwy River section, three of which (Cingulochitina bouniensis, Conochitina acuminata and Salopochitina bella) are new. The base of each biozone is correlated with the graptolite biostratigraphical scheme as follows: Angochitina longicollis Biozone - upper spiralis Biozone; Conochitina acuminata Biozone - lowermost lapworthi Biozone; Margachitina banwyensis Biozone - upper lapworthi Biozone; Margachitina margaritana Biozone - lowermost insectus Biozone; Cingulochitina bouniensis Biozone - upper murchisoni Biozone; Salopochitina bella Biozone - upper firmus Biozone. The succession of chitinozoan biozones in the Banwy River section is compared with that in other sections which have graptolite biostratigraphical control. This has highlighted the following: (1) the correlation of the base of the dolioliformis Biozone with the graptolite biozonation is imprecise; (2) E. dolioliformis is recorded only from levels after the first A. longicollis in Sweden (although this may reflect previously unrecognized synonymies); (3) the longicollis Biozone may be diachronous, its base correlating with levels low in the Telychian in Sweden, Norway and Estonia and with the upper Telychian spiralis Biozone in Wales and the Prague Basin; (4) data herein and from the Prague Basin indicate that the base of the margaritana Biozone correlates with a level low in the insectus Biozone.


Abstract This article links up the disastrous history of fossil fuels with the celebrated ecology of mangroves. Building on ethnographic and historical research in Puerto Rico and St. Croix, it outlines the often neglected but quite consequential place of crude oil in the Caribbean. Following the construction of what became the second largest refinery in the world, I describe how the imperial energy networks of the United States first came to the Caribbean. Troubling a popular origin story of the Caribbean, colonial and industry leaders voiced a robust critique of the plantation in order to justify the introduction of these enclave refineries. Imperial energy networks welcomed an unprecedented problem to the region: coastal oil spills. The scientific and legal response to these spills brought new attention to the vital relationality of mangroves. Rather perversely, the destruction of the mangroves in the Caribbean—in which crude oil played the leading role—opened mangroves up to new forms of knowledge and care. While many claim that fossil fuels helped cultivate a modern disregard for the natural world, I show how the negative ecologies of fossil fuels also instigated new scientific and political appreciations for the liveliness of the natural world. This story of oil in the Caribbean has implications for scholarly debates around the so-called Anthropocene. Against scholarship that looks at the coming disaster of crude oil as an epochal break in thought and politics, this paper instead describes the long history of acknowledging and managing the disastrous qualities of fossil fuels.


Thermal and electrical behaviors of a poly(epoxy) coating with high electrical conductivity used for aeronautic applications are investigated. The poly(epoxy) used is designed for resin transfer molding (RTM) applications, it have a low viscosity at room temperature (around 1 Pa s) and a high Tg (>160°C). This study details the influence of silver nanowires with a high aspect ratio, on the thermal behavior such as the relative degree of reaction α and the kinetics parameters thanks to dynamic and isothermal differential scanning calorimetry. Conductivity measurements of surface and volume have permitted to determine a very low percolation threshold at around 0.7% in volume. The value of electrical conductivity above the percolation threshold is upper than 102 S m−1 and the lowest surface resistivity was measured around 13 mΩ sq−1 both for 8% in volume of AgNWs. This kind of coating has a great interest for lightning strike protection of aircraft parts due to the high electrical conductivity obtained with a low overweight.


This paper presents the results of simulating the acoustic suppression of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) from a computer model of cochlear mechanics. A tone suppressor was introduced, causing the DPOAE level to decrease, and the decrement was plotted against an increasing suppressor level. Suppression threshold was estimated from the resulting suppression growth functions (SGFs), and suppression tuning curves (STCs) were obtained by plotting the suppression threshold as a function of suppressor frequency. Results show that the slope of SGFs is generally higher for low-frequency suppressors than high-frequency suppressors, resembling those obtained from normal hearing human ears. By comparing responses of normal (100%) vs reduced (50%) outer-hair-cell sensitivities, the model predicts that the tip-to-tail difference of the STCs correlates well with that of intra-cochlear iso-displacement tuning curves. The correlation is poorer, however, between the sharpness of the STCs and that of the intra-cochlear tuning curves. These results agree qualitatively with what was recently reported from normal-hearing and hearing-impaired human subjects, and examination of intra-cochlear model responses can provide the needed insight regarding the interpretation of DPOAE STCs obtained in individual ears.


Accurate estimation of system repeatability is emerging as an important tool in designing new systems, optimizing measurement recipes and selection (qualification) of equipment for process monitoring and characterization. Measurement performance may change significantly as a function of filmstack parameters and the range and type of variation depends on the system, however, there is no common methodology that allows to take into account these variations We use Covariance Monte Carlo (CMC) approach to analyze system performance in multi‐dimensional parameters space. Several objective metrics are presented that would make comparison of different metrology systems performance on specified application easier and more straightforward.


This study examined the relationships between emotional intelligence (EI) and the delinquent behavior (DB) of the students. The level of DB reported by the students is categorized under the headings of crime, drugs, vandalism, pornography and sexual behavior, other misbehavior, and dishonesty. Meanwhile, EI is investigated by looking at the level of EI domains, such as self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy, social skills, maturity, and spiritual awareness. Data were gathered from a sample of 300 secondary school students aged 15 to 18 years in Selangor. The schools they attended were selected from the so-called "hardcore schools," which were identified by Schools Division in the State of Selangor. Two instruments, namely, surveys on the "Behavior of Students" and "Malaysian Emotional Quotient Inventory (R)–Adolescence (MEQI)," were utilized to collect the research data and were analyzed using SPSS 19.0. The data showed that the highest delinquency among the adolescents was misbehavior in school, followed by crime, vandalism, pornography, dishonesty, and drugs. Results also revealed a negative linear relationship between EI (r = −.208, n = 300, p = .001) and DB, implying that adolescents with better EI had lower levels of delinquency. Multiple regression analysis revealed that EI is a significant predictor of DB and self-awareness is the main factor of DB. This study contributes to the knowledge of the importance of EI in understanding DB. EI can be used to identify and discriminate emotional skills among those adolescents who exhibit DB. Addressing the role of EI as a predictor would probably prove to be effective in reducing DB.


A pink-pigmented, non-motile, Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped bacterium, designated RP-2-7T, was obtained from soil sampled at the Arctic station, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway. Cells were strictly aerobic, psychrotolerant, grew optimally at 15-20 °C and hydrolysed CM-cellulose. Phylogenetic analysis based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain RP-2-7T formed a lineage within the family Hymenobacteraceae and clustered with members of the genus Hymenobacter. Its closest relative was Hymenobacter marinus KJ035T (97.6 % sequence similarity). The sequence similarities to other strains were ≤96.9 %. The principal respiratory quinone was MK-7 and the major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified aminophospholipid. The predominant cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1  ω7c and/or C16 : 1  ω6c), anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 1  ω5c and summed featured 4 (iso-C17 : 1 I and/or anteiso-C17 : 1 B). The DNA G+C content was 62.8 mol%. In addition, the average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA-DNA hybridization relatedness values between strain RP-2-7T and closely related strains were lower than species demarcation thresholds. Based on the resuls of genomic, chemotaxonomic, phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses, strain RP-2-7T represents novel species in the genus Hymenobacter, for which the name Hymenobacter polaris sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RP-2-7T (=KACC 21670T=NBRC 114391T).


This task directly supports the corrective measures evaluation for the closure of Solid Waste Storage Area (SWSA) 6 but also supports technology development for the closure of other Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) SWSAs and waste management units. Previous demonstrations have established the effectiveness of dynamic compaction and in situ grouting in stabilizing burial trenches against subsidence, which would otherwise compromise the support of infiltration barrier structures designed to protect buried waste from leaching. In situ grouting with polyacrylamide has also been demonstrated to improve the hydrologic isolation of buried waste. Both of these stabilization techniques have been demonstrated on burial trenches that are situated well above the water table and, hence, are in a chronic unsaturated moisture regime. Further demonstrations of these shallow-land burial trench stabilization techniques are necessary to establish their effectiveness and safety when applied to burial trenches that are chronically inundated with groundwater.


Educator reflective practice is fundamental to quality early childhood education with robust practice benefitting pedagogy and improving outcomes for children. Yet, examination of individual and collaborative reflective practice in experienced professional early childhood teams is scarce. This qualitative case study used an action research design to examine this gap in the literature. Previous research informed the implementation of a Model of Reflective Practice Framework as an intervention incorporating a professional development session and ongoing written support of individual and team educator reflection. An established team of six educators in a regional Australian preschool setting provided data through pre- and post-intervention surveys, individual journal entries, and online collaborations. Manual and computer-assisted thematic analysis was enhanced with evaluation using a continuum of reflection and by examining reflection outcomes. Results indicate improvement in individual and team reflective practice, with additional professional and personal benefits.


Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are new technologies with new complicated features emerging quickly. Technology adoption has been beneficial for many general models. The models help in train the voice user-interface assistance (Alexa, Cortona, Siri). Voice assistants are easy to use, and thus millions of devices incorporate them in households nowadays. The primary purpose of the sign language translator prototype is to reduce interaction barriers between deaf and mute. To overcome this problem, we have proposed a prototype. It is named sign language translator with Sign Recognition Intelligence which takes the user input in sign language and processes it, and returns the output in voice out load to the end-user.


Tropone has been transformed into an optically pure tricyclic system that could serve as an advanced intermediate in the synthesis of ceroplasteric acid. The sequence features a stereoselective Ireland ester enolate Claisen rearrangement followed by an intramolecular nitrite oxide cycloaddition for assembly of an ABC-ring precursor of the target molecule. Efforts to homologate the sevenmembered B ring to the requisite eight-membered system were unsuccessful.


Much has changed since the widespread introduction of statistics courses into the curriculum in the 1960s and 1970s, but the way introductory statistics courses are taught has not kept up with those changes. This paper discusses the changes, and the way the introductory syllabus should change to reflect them. In particular, seven ideas are discussed that every student who takes elementary statistics should learn and understand in order to be an educated citizen. Misunderstanding these topics leads to cynicism among the public at best, and misuse of study results by physicians and others at worst.


An electronic video camera image stabilizer was developed. It eliminates a substantial part of the image instability caused by the involuntary movement of camera holders. The discrimination between image movement caused by unstable hand-holding and that of moving objects becomes possible by developing the following process: (1) dividing the image taken by the camera into four regions, (2) providing two signals to discriminate between the causes of image instability, (3) evaluating these two discriminating signals after they are transformed into reliability values by membership functions, and (4) tuning the membership functions using a simplex method. This image stabilizer was incorporated into a compact video camera and its substantially improved field performance was confirmed.<<ETX>>


Abstract Background Despite consistent interest over the past 2 decades regarding the metabolic effects of body contouring (BC), previous studies are limited by short follow-up periods, small sample sizes, gender-specific cohorts, and assessment of all anatomic regions together. Objectives This study evaluates the changes in glucose and lipid levels over long-term follow up after trunk-based BC and compares postbariatric with nonbariatric patients. Methods The retrospective cohort study included patients who underwent trunk-based BC from January 1, 2009 through July 31, 2020 at West Virginia University. A minimum 12-month follow up was required for inclusion. With BC surgery as the reference point, patients' glucose, hemoglobin A1c, and lipid levels were assessed prior to surgery and at long-term follow up. Change over time was compared between postbariatric and nonbariatric cohorts. Multivariable linear regression models were performed to assess the effect of potential confounding variables on the difference between cohorts. Results Seventy-seven BC patients had glucose levels evaluated during the study period, and 36 had lipid profiles obtained. Average follow up from date of BC was 41.2 months for the patients with glucose follow up and 40.9 months for those with lipid levels. From pre-BC to endpoint follow up, glucose levels mildly increased in all patients. Multivariable linear regression models accounting for age showed nonbariatric patients experience significantly improved total cholesterol levels compared to postbariatric patients (P = 0.0320). Weight loss maintained following BC was not associated with significant differences between cohorts. Conclusions Fasting glucose levels marginally increase in most BC patients through follow up. Nonbariatric patients generally experience more favorable changes in lipid profile following trunk-based BC than do postbariatric patients. Level of Evidence: 3


Summary
While most frogs maximize jump distance as an escape behaviour, toads have traded jump distance for endurance with a strategy of hopping repeatedly. This strategy has enabled toads to expand across the continents as one of the most diverse groups of anurans. Multiple studies have revealed physiological endurance adaptations for sustained hopping in toads, however, the kinematics of their sequential hopping behaviour, per se, has not been studied.
We compared kinematics and forces of single hops and multiple hopping sequences and quantified field performance of hopping behaviours in free ranging toads of three species and discovered a novel aspect of locomotion adaptation that adds another facet to their exceptional terrestrial locomotor abilities.
We found that bouts of repeated hopping are actually a series of bounding strides where toads rotate on their hands and then land on their extended their feet and jump again without stopping. In addition, free-ranging toads appear to use bounding locomotion more frequently than single hops. Bounding in toads has the advantage of maintaining velocity and producing longer jump distances. In comparison to single hops, cyclic bounding steps reduce energy expenditure and appear to provide limb loading dynamics better suited for potential cycling of elastic energy from stride to stride than would be possible with repeated single hops.
This is the first case of the common use of a bounding gait outside of mammals. Bounding adds a key terrestrial locomotor trait to the toad's phenotype that may help explain their history of global expansion and the challenges to modern faunas as introduced toads rapidly invade new ecosystems today.


In a laboratory study of cores from borehole SB-15-D in The Geysers geothermal area, we measured the electrical resistivity of metashale with and without pore-pressure control, with confining pressures up to 100 bars and temperatures between 20 and 150 C, to determine how the pore-size distribution and capillarity affected boiling. We observed a gradual increase in resistivity when the downstream pore pressure or confining pressure decreased below the phase boundary of free water. For the conditions of this experiment, boiling, as indicated by an increase in resistivity, is initiated at pore pressures of approximately 0.5 to 1 bar (0.05 to 0.1 MPa) below the free-water boiling curve, and it continues to increase gradually as pressure is lowered to atmospheric. A simple model of the effects of capillarity suggests that at 145 C, less than 15% of the pore water can boil in these rocks. If subsequent experiments bear out these preliminary observations, then boiling within a geothermal reservoir is controlled not just by pressure and temperature but also by pore-size distribution. Thus, it may be possible to determine reservoir characteristics by monitoring changes in electrical resistivity as reservoir conditions change.


Nios II embedded processor with its flexible design features in the embedded field has been widely used. This paper expounds the resource sharing double CPU processor based on EP2C35F672C8 of the sewage treatment system hardware and control method, and gives the hardware schematic diagram and software design flow chart. The program of the Nios II other system module development has drew lessons from a meaning.


We study the morphology of vicinal surfaces close to the reconstructing Au(111) and the nonreconstructing Pb(111) face. Molecular-dynamics simulations with many-body potentials for gold and lead have been conducted, using (534) as a test vicinal at T ∼ 0.8Tm, where Tm is the bulk melting temperature. It is found that, as a result of surface reconstruction, the gold vicinal surface undergoes faceting, while in lead the vicinal surface remains stable. Our results explain the origin of sharp edges on the equilibrium crystal shape of gold and smooth edges on lead.


Abstract. Automatic extraction of power lines has become a topic of great importance in airborne LiDAR data processing for transmission line management. In this paper, we present a new, fully automated and versatile framework that consists of four steps: (i) power line candidate point filtering, (ii) neighbourhood selection, (iii) feature extraction based on spatial topology, and (iv) SVM classification. In a detailed evaluation involving seven neighbourhood definitions, 26 geometric features and two datasets, we demonstrated that the use of multi-scale neighbourhoods for individual 3D points significantly improved the power line classification. Additionally, we showed that the spatial topological features may even further improve the results while reducing data processing time.


One appeal of emerging markets seems to be centered around the fact that being less developed, they have more room to catch up just by copying developed nations. The data examined in this article show that dilution in emerging markets is more onerous than it is in developed markets. Also, the volatility of emerging markets combined with the lag in dilution creates opportunities for investors.


Crystal morphology and structure are important for improving the organic-inorganic lead halide perovskite semiconductor property in optoelectronic, electronic, and photovoltaic devices. In particular, crystal growth and dissolution are two major phenomena in determining the morphology of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite in the sequential deposition method for fabricating a perovskite solar cell. In this report, the effect of immersion time in the second step, i.e., methlyammonium iodide immersion in the morphological, structural, optical, and photovoltaic evolution, is extensively investigated. Supported by experimental evidence, a five-staged, time-dependent evolution of the morphology of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite crystals is established and is well connected to the photovoltaic performance. This result is beneficial for engineering optimal time for methylammonium iodide immersion and converging the solar cell performance in the sequential deposition route. Meanwhile, our result suggests that large, well-faceted methylammonium lead iodide perovskite single crystal may be incubated by solution process. This offers a low cost route for synthesizing perovskite single crystal.


In this paper, I present and discuss the findings of an intentional and systematic inquiry into the learning motivation of university master's students taking the same course in online and classroom-based formats during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through capturing the students' motivation using Keller's Instructional Materials Motivation Survey at two points during the semester and analyzing the students' course evaluations and the reflective reports of tutors, I uncover various factors influencing students' motivation. Among these are the structuredness of instructions, technical difficulties, perceived effort of the teachers, novelty of tools, and the social relationships between students. I conclude my discussion with a proposition for designing motivating blends for online higher education students.


This paper presents a method of using smart sensors for continuous detection of vital physiological and physical gait signals that can be relayed to a fall prediction algorithm for predicting an imminent faint fall. A novel MEMS based BP sensor will be discussed briefly. Once an imminent faint fall is detected, fall prevention and injury minimization devices will be activated. A body area network consisting sensor circuits utilizing short range ISM communication will be used to enable signal transmission to a processor which acts as a communication gateway as well. This processor would then encode and send the signals via Bluetooth to designated devices to effect inform caregivers or family members.