Eye tracking has been used successfully as a technique for measuring cognitive load in reading, psycholinguistics, writing, language acquisition etc for some time now. Its application as a technique for automatically measuring the reading ease of MT output has not yet, to our knowledge, been tested. We report here on a preliminary study testing the use and validity of an eye tracking methodology as a means of semi-and/or automatically evaluating machine translation output. 50 French machine translated sentences, 25 rated as excellent and 25 rated as poor in an earlier human evaluation, were selected. 10 native speakers of French were instructed to read the MT sentences for comprehensibility. Their eye gaze data were recorded non-invasively using a Tobii 1750 eye tracker. The average gaze time and fixation count were found to be higher for the "bad" sentences, while average fixation duration and pupil dilations were not found to be substantially different between output rated as good or bad. Comparisons between BLEU scores and eye gaze data were also made and found to correlate well with gaze time and fixation count, and to a lesser extent with pupil dilation and fixation duration. We conclude that the eye tracking data, in particular gaze time and fixation count, correlate reasonably well with human evaluation of MT output but fixation duration and pupil dilation may be less reliable indicators of reading difficulty for MT output. We also conclude that eye tracking has promise as an automatic MT Evaluation technique.


There is a prevalent assumption that the phenomenal character of a mental experience is an ontological property existing as part of the fabric of the world. This implies that the problem of explaining the phenomenal property of a mental experience is a metaphysical one. Contrary to this assumption, the present paper argues that phenomenal properties of mental experiences are the results of our epistemological perspectives of the world. Consequently, the paper contends that in developing issues for African Philosophy of Mind, care must, ab initio , be taken to avoid the metaphysical pitfalls of considering phenomenal characters or properties of mental states to be part of the fabric of the world. Key words . Consciousness, phenomenal property, mental experience, raw feels, qualia , Metaphysics, African Philosophy of Mind Thought and Practice: A Journal of the Philosophical Association of Kenya (PAK) New Series, Vol.3 No.1, June 2011, pp.131-143


ABSTRACT Two-component oxygenases catalyze a wide variety of important oxidation reactions. Recently we characterized a novel arylamine N-oxygenase (PrnD), a new member of the two-component oxygenase family (J. Lee et al., J. Biol. Chem. 280:36719-36728, 2005). Although arylamine N-oxygenases are widespread in nature, aminopyrrolnitrin N-oxygenase (PrnD) represents the only biochemically and mechanistically characterized arylamine N-oxygenase to date. Here we report the use of bioinformatic and biochemical tools to identify and characterize the reductase component (PrnF) involved in the PrnD-catalyzed unusual arylamine oxidation. The prnF gene was identified via sequence analysis of the whole genome of Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5 and subsequently cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The purified PrnF protein catalyzes reduction of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) by NADH with a k cat of 65 s−1 (K m = 3.2 μM for FAD and 43.1 μM for NADH) and supplies reduced FAD to the PrnD oxygenase component. Unlike other known reductases in two-component oxygenase systems, PrnF strictly requires NADH as an electron donor to reduce FAD and requires unusual protein-protein interaction with the PrnD component for the efficient transfer of reduced FAD. This PrnF enzyme represents the first cloned and characterized flavin reductase component in a novel two-component arylamine oxygenase system.


ABSTRACT A theoretical approach of a hierarchical spatial framework concept for spring habitats is presented in this paper. The concept is based on existing classifications of running water and on empirical studies of spring ecosystems. Hierarchical spatial categorisation is applied to study spring areas of forest ecosystems in low mountain ranges of Germany. A spatial concept for springheads is designed to aid the illustration and understanding of functional, structural and process relationships on different scales. Here, multiple geographical dimensions and hydrological scales and their terms are compared in an integrated system. This integrated approach is needed if a water body is to be studied as an ecosystem rather than just a hydrological system. The goal of this hierarchical spatial framework is to establish a conceptual foundation for the study of fauna-microhabitat relationships and for the analysis of the substrate preference of the invertebrate fauna of spring ecotones. This paper presents a surface water typology for patchy forest springs with different habitat types. Most of these habitat types of the 152 investigated springs are dominated by organic substrate types as micro habitats (74.7 %) with subdominant mineral substrate types. Therefor the most dominant habitat type (HT) is "CPOM dominated, Psammopelal abounded" HT (19.7 %), followed by the HT "Macrophytes dominated, Psammopelal abounded" (13.2 %) and the HT "CPOM dominated, Microlithal abounded" (9.9 %). More underrepresented habitat types are pure mineral substrate types (10.5 %) like the HT "Psammopelal dominated" (5.9 %). There were also less artificial habitat types (7.2 %), because the study focused on undisturbed spring habitats inside the field survey.


During the dozen years or so that I have served as a biostatistical consultant to the editors of JAMA , the most frequent comment I have made in my reviews is the simple, straightforward question, "Can the authors provide any rationale or statistical power considerations underlying their choice of sample size?" From this experience, I infer that lack of adequate justification for sample size is a major statistical limitation that pertains to many of the manuscripts submitted to JAMA . I greet with great enthusiasm any attempt to disseminate more widely the message of proper statistical planning of a research endeavor, particularly in regard to choice of study size. Hence, I am delighted to see the article by Arkin and Wachtel entitled "How Many Patients Are Necessary to Assess Test Performance?" appear in this issue ofThe Journal. 1 The article breaks no new statistical ground. Essentially, the authors apply standard textbook


The concept of a hereditary etiology of malignancy in man has long been a controversial idea in both medicine and genetics. Differences of opinion stem not only from the complexity of the cancer problem itself, but also from the complicated nature of man with his long generation-interval, small number of progeny, marriage customs, natural history of disease, and psychological features, all of which make him an exceedingly poor subject for genetic studies. No small wonder, therefore, that pioneering studies in cancer genetics were initially concentrated on mice,'+ bird^,^^^ rabbits,gJO cattle,l1312 and monkeys13 (TABLE 1). The systematic study of cancer genetics in man is a relatively recent discipline. Historical reviews on the subject have been compiled by Clemmesen,14 Jacobsen,15 Woolf,ls and Anderson and as~ociates.1~ As early as the beginning of the nineteenth century and probably even earlier, physicians were speculating upon a hereditary etiology for human malignancies.'* The question, "Is cancer hereditary?" was sent to all English physicians in 1802, but with no apparent results. Bashfordlg in 1908 was one of the first investigators to emphasize the critical role of cultural, geographical, environmental, and ethnic factors in human cancer (TABLE 2) . Indeed, he stressed these factors to the extent of detracting from the importance of inherited factors. He believed that more valid information would result from the study of acquired factors. WaalerzO was one of the first investigators to utilize controls (spouses and their relatives) and mortality statistics in tabulating results from a large population of cancer patients. He also emphasized the importance of endogenous as well as exogenous factors in carcinogenesis. Other pioneering investigators in the cancer field, including Martynova?l Wassink,B Macklin,23,24 Penrose,25 Oliver,26 Woolf,lG VidebaekF7 Busk,28 C o ~ k a y n e , ~ ~ Clemmesen,14 Lockhar t -M~mmery ,~~ Dukes,31 Griffith and S o r ~ b y , ~ ~ and Gardner,33 conducted controlled studies in search of a hereditary etiology for malignancies. Emphasis in these studies was primarily on the inheritance of cancer of specific sites, most frequently, cancer of the breast. The first investigation of cancer of multiple sites in families ("cancer families") with emphasis on careful pathological correlation was that of Warthin in 1913.34 He reinvestigated one family (Family G ) in 1925.35 Later this family was updated by his colleagues, Hauser and Weller, in 1936.36 This report presents our experience with six "cancer families." Details concerning these families will be presented to serve as prototypes for our concept of a hereditary multiple-cancer syndrome.


We report on the outcome of children with Philadelphia positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (Ph+ ALL) treated on the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) trial for childhood ALL, MRC ALL 97, between January 1997 and June 2002. Forty‐two (2·3%) patients were Ph+. Nineteen (45%) had <25% blasts in bone marrow (BM) within the first 2 weeks of treatment and were defined as a good response group (GRG), the others as a poor response group (PRG). Thirty‐six (86%) achieved first complete remission (CR1) at the end of induction, of which 28 underwent BM transplantation (BMT). The median follow‐up was 42 months (range, 21–84). The 3‐year event‐free survival (EFS; 52%, 95% CI, 36–66%) was a considerable improvement on the previous MRC UKALL XI trial (27%). EFS for the GRG and PRG were 68% (43–84%) and 39% (18–59%), respectively (P = 0·03); presenting white cell count <50 × 109/l (P = 0·02) was predictive for overall survival. Changes in the MRC ALL97 trial within the study period resulted in some Ph+ ALL receiving daunorubicin and either prednisolone or dexamethasone during induction. Though the use of daunorubicin during induction was not a prospective study question, EFS was significantly better for those whose induction included this drug (P = 0·02). Steroid randomization was not stratified for Ph+ ALL patients and was not predictive for EFS. BMT in CR1 appeared to reduce the risk of a subsequent BM relapse. These results show significant improvement on previous MRC trials; future therapeutic strategies should include early intensive therapy and BMT in CR1.


Although we are familiar with common British plants that are poisonous, such as Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade) and Aconitum napellus (monkshood), the two most poisonous plants in the British Flora are Oenanthe crocata (dead man's fingers) and Cicuta virosa (cowbane). In recent years their poisons have been shown to be polyacetylenes (n-C2H2). The plants closely resemble two of the most common plants in the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae), celery and parsley. Unwittingly, they are ingested by naive foragers and death occurs very rapidly. The third plant Anamirta derives from South-East Asia and contains a powerful convulsant, picrotoxin, which has been used from time immemorial to catch fish, and more recently to poison Birds of Paradise. All three poisons have been shown to block the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system in the human brain that normally has a powerful inhibitory neuronal action. It has also been established that two groups of sedative drugs, barbiturates and benzodiazepines, exert their inhibitory action by stimulating the GABA system. These drugs are the treatments of choice for poisoning by the three vicious plants.


Nobody should have a monopoly of the truth in this universe. The censorship and suppression of challenging ideas against the tide of mainstream research, the blacklisting of scientists, for instance, is neither the best way to do and filter science, nor to promote progress in the human knowledge. The removal of good and novel ideas from the scientific stage is very detrimental to the pursuit of the truth. There are instances in which a mere unqualified belief can occasionally be converted into a generally accepted scientific theory through the screening action of refereed literature and meetings planned by the scientific organizing committees and through the distribution of funds controlled by "club opinions". It leads to unitary paradigms and unitary thinking not necessarily associated to the unique truth. This is the topic of this book: to critically analyze the problems of the official (and sometimes illicit) mechanisms under which current science (physics and astronomy in particular) is being administered and filtered today, along with the onerous consequences these mechanisms have on all of us. The authors, all of them professional researchers, reveal a pessimistic view of the miseries of the actual system, while a glimmer of hope remains in the "leitmotiv" claim towards the freedom in doing research and attaining an acceptable level of ethics in science.


The De-Ka Kopertis X Canteen is one of the businesses that was just opened in April 2021 by the KPN Kopertis X cooperative management for the period 2021-2023. Previously this cooperative was only engaged in the savings and loan business, although this cooperative was founded in 1992. The canteen Business (Kantin DeKa) serves members in terms of providing breakfast and lunch for members who work in the LLDIKTI X office, as well as guests who are underweight. at the LLDIKTI X office. Apart from providing lunch and breakfast, there are also various snacks, such as fried foods and other cakes. There are only a few types of fried foods, so the canteen's income is less. The purpose of this service program is to empower the canteen with creativity in various processing of oyster mushrooms. The methods are Socialization about various processed snacks of oyster mushrooms, especially Crispy oyster mushrooms and oyster mushroom Rissoles. Workshop/training on making Crispy and Oyster Mushroom Rissoles. Assistance for canteen employees in making these various mushroom snacks until they become skilled. The result at the time of socialization increased partners' knowledge of oyster mushrooms and their processing, which was marked by an increase in post-test results of 90% from the average pre-test value of 21.4%. The increase in the income of the De-ka canteen per day is approximately Rp. 312,000. The manager's creativity-by processing oyster mushrooms into various snacks is an effort to empower De-Ka canteen to increase income.


In recent years, economic globalization and technological development have contributed to a substantial rise in the integration of financial markets. Research findings in this area have indicated that a financial shock in one market can easily be transmitted to other markets globally. Especially, recent experiences showed that financial markets of some developing economies may even be more vulnerable to financial shocks than the emerging markets. There are several reasons, such as current account deficits, instability of local currencies, weaker financial institutions, for this situation. Contrary to the popular perception, this may be due to the lack of knowledge and prejudices of international investors about some emerging markets. This study evaluates and compares the financial soundness of 18 countries selected on the basis of the "Fragile Five" countries. The soundness of the financial structures of these countries has been evaluated based on the soundness of their financial institutions. The findings indicate that the countries with the weakest performance in the selected period are not the "Fragile Five" countries when compared with the countries in the whole sample.


Multiferroicity as one of favorable topics in condensed matters and materials physics has been receiving attentions since 1950s. Intensive research activities, however, were revived by two milestones as accomplished in 2003, sustaining for more than ten years. One of the milestones is the preparation of epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films and demonstration of the magnetoelectric effect. The physics at the multiferroic domain level is believed to fill the gap between the phenomenological theories and microscopic mechanisms. The other goes to the colossal magnetoelectric effect in manganite TbMnO3, which has paved a roadmap towards a class of multiferroic compounds with substantial significance of physics. Unveiling every particular features the explorations on multiferroic thin films and heterostructures, while those discoveries associated with multiferroic compounds evidence a model scenario of touching those hidden physics and enhanced properties. A substantial review of the state-of-arts and future perspectives benefits not only to the community of multiferroic researches. In this article, as an introduction of this special section on multiferroicity, we present a brief review of those icebergs and beyond coordinating the multiferroic researches in the past decade. It is our expectation that the golden decade is a long period of division and multiferroicity will be eventually a unique story with impacting, and surely, self-consistent physics.


SLN124, an N‐acetylgalactosamine conjugated 19‐mer short interfering RNA, is being developed to treat iron‐loading anemias (including beta‐thalassemia and myelodysplastic syndromes) and myeloproliferative neoplasms (polycythemia vera). Through hepatic targeting and silencing of the TMPRSS6 gene, SLN124 increases endogenous hepcidin synthesis. This is the first clinical report of an siRNA targeting a component of iron homeostasis. This first‐in‐human, phase 1 study assessed the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of single ascending doses of SLN124 (1.0, 3.0, and 4.5 mg/kg) in healthy volunteers. Twenty‐four participants were randomized in three sequential cohorts of eight subjects, each to receive a single dose of either SLN124 or placebo (6:2 randomization), administered subcutaneously. There were no serious or severe adverse events, or discontinuations due to adverse events, and most treatment‐emergent adverse events were mild, including transient mild injection site reactions, resolving without intervention. SLN124 was rapidly absorbed, with a median tmax of 4–5 h across all treatment groups, and largely eliminated from plasma by 48 h. Plasma concentrations increased in a greater than dose proportional fashion between treatment groups. In all SLN124 groups, a dose‐related effect was observed across iron metabolism markers, and across erythroid markers, SLN124 resulted in increased plasma hepcidin levels, peaking around Day 29, and consequent dose‐related sustained reductions in plasma iron and transferrin saturation with decreased reticulocyte production, MCHC, and MCV. Results suggest duration of action lasting up to 56 days after a single SLN124 dose, on hepcidin and hematological parameters of iron metabolism (serum iron and TSAT).


Understanding the human spirit, the thinking, motivating, feeling aspect of a person, need not entail supernatural reference in any more than a boundary sense. Methodological naturalism accounts for many putatively supernatural experiences in terms of naturalistic and scientific research. Fairy tales have natural functions, naturalistic accounts of miracles can have moral and spiritual power, and neuropsychological research can have value in understanding experiences of ghosts, apparitions, and presences. Even beliefs in personal immortality, at odds with current neurobiology, may serve a range of psychological functions and may raise more moral questions than they answer. Naturalistic accounts can make spiritual explorations possible where supernatural answers provide epistemic barriers.


We present two methods for computing two-time correlation functions or Green's functions from real time bold-line continuous time quantum Monte Carlo. One method is a formally exact generalized auxiliary lead formalism by which spectral properties may be obtained from single-time observables. The other involves the evaluation of diagrams contributing to two-time observables directly on the Keldysh contour. Additionally, we provide a detailed description of the bold-line Monte Carlo method. Our methods are general and numerically exact, and able to reliably resolve high-energy features such as band edges. We compare the spectral functions obtained from real time methods to analytically continued spectral functions obtained from imaginary time Monte Carlo, thus probing the limits of analytic continuation.


Abstract : With financial support provided under the AFOSR sponsored Window-on-Science program, Dr Gary Tuck of the University of Queensland, Australia spent a two week tour at Ionospheric Modeling and Remote Sensing Branch, Phillips Laboratory in Hanscom AFB, MA for the purpose of carrying out preliminary discussions with Phillips Lab's gravity group personnel on use of the terrain correction methods. The report provides a scope of Dr Tuck's research in which he is intended to work together with Phillips Lab personnel during his continuing stay at Phillips laboratory this year and part of the next year. The two research areas discussed by Dr Tuck in this report are (1) detailed gravimetric surveying to locate underground structures and (2) the use of air-born gravity gradiometry to avoid oncoming terrain. (MM)


A simple model of the development to large amplitude of the m=1 (helical) mode in the Z pinch is described. It is shown that the large inductance changes associated with this instability, and the interaction between the pinch and the external circuit play crucial roles in the phenomenon. A criterion for the 'most unstable' wavelength is given. The absence of long wavelength modes, and the origin of the rapid expansion, observed in this type of instability, are explained


Autoimmune hepatitis occurs in genetically susceptible individuals as a result of loss of immunological tolerance to hepatic autoantigens that can be precipitated by environmental triggers. The clinical manifestation is usually insidious but can be also acute with liver failure. The diagnosis is made on the basis of antibody positivity, elevated immunoglobulin G levels and interface hepatitis on liver histology. Induction of remission is achieved with high-dose steroids in the majority of cases, and maintenance of remission with azathioprine. Treatment withdrawal is achievable only in a small proportion of patients. Patients with acute liver failure unresponsive to steroids or those with end-stage liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma may require liver transplantation. Variant forms of overlapping autoimmune hepatitis with either primary biliary cholangitis or sclerosing cholangitis are associated with worse outcomes. New insights into the pathophysiology of the disease may provide novel therapeutic targets and a more individualized approach to treatment of autoimmune hepatitis.


Supracondylar humerus fractures are common pediatric injuries; the preferred treatment for displaced fractures is closed reduction and percutaneous pin fixation. We present a technique for closed reduction and pinning using prone-patient positioning. Prone positioning facilitates fracture reduction and safe pin placement while avoiding elbow hyperflexion. We prefer this technique to the commonly described method of fracture reduction and pinning with the patient supine.


Higher Education (HE) is in a state of transformation, with the economic recession leading to an even greater emphasis on graduate outcomes. Despite a proliferation of literature relating to under-represented groups 'getting ready for', 'getting into' and 'staying in' HE, less attention has been devoted to how they 'get on', post graduation, particularly in the long term. Existing UK research suggests that graduate opportunities are influenced by pre-entry characteristics, institution attended and subject studied. However it is noted that the majority of studies focus on first destinations (six months after graduation). This reflects the first six months after graduation and single outcomes. As a result this ESRC-funded study investigated graduates' long term trajectories up to four years after graduation. The mixed methods study focused on graduates from three different types of degree awarding institutions in North Wales and on three specific subjects – chosen for contrast and convenience. Half of the sample self identified as being non-traditional students. The study revealed that those graduates who defined themselves as being non-traditional students were more likely to have multiple outcomes or be in temporary employment, to have disrupted trajectories and lack social networks. This has serious implications for wider issues of social justice within education.


Abstract High-temperature tribology of steel components is typically characterized by high friction and excessive wear, which need to be addressed. In the present study, the tribological properties of an alkali borate were evaluated in a steel contact by ball-on-disc testing over a wide range of temperatures (600–800 °C) and loads. The compound exhibits good lubrication performance consistently throughout the whole testing range. On the rubbing disc, the formation of a tribofilm with a hierarchical structure is the determining factor for the friction-reducing and wear-inhibiting capacity of the lubricant. Worn surfaces were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cross-sectional observations of the tribo-interface were accomplished by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) coupled with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) was employed to generate an elemental depth profile of the lubricated surface.


H2S produced in small amounts by mammalian cells has been identified in mediating biological signaling functions. However, the in situ trapping of endogenous H2S generation is still handicapped by a lack of straightforward methods with high selectivity and fast response. Here, we encapsulate a semi-cyanine-BODIPY hybrid dye (BODInD-Cl) and its complementary energy donor (BODIPY1) into the hydrophobic interior of an amphiphilic copolymer (mPEG-DSPE), especially for building up a ratiometric fluorescent H2S nanoprobe with extraordinarily fast response. A remarkable red-shift in the absorption band with a gap of 200 nm in the H2S response can efficiently switch off the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) from BODIPY1 to BODInD-Cl, subsequently recovering the donor fluorescence. Impressively, both the interior hydrophobicity of supramolecular micelles and electron-withdrawing nature of indolium unit in BODInD-Cl can sharply increase aromatic nucleophilic substitution with H2S. The ratiometric strategy based on the unique self-assembled micellar aggregate NanoBODIPY achieves an extremely fast response, enabling in situ imaging of endogenous H2S production and mapping its physiological and pathological consequences. Moreover, the amphiphilic copolymer renders the micellar assembly biocompatible and soluble in aqueous solution. The established FRET-switchable macromolecular envelope around BODInD-Cl and BODIPY1 enables cellular uptake, and makes a breakthrough in the trapping of endogenous H2S generation within raw264.7 macrophages upon stimulation with fluvastatin. This study manifests that cystathione γ-lyase (CSE) upregulation contributes to endogenous H2S generation in fluvastatin-stimulated macrophages, along with a correlation between CSE/H2S and activating Akt signaling pathway.


The article examines the unusual language the French nobility use to describe Joan la Pucelle in Shakespeare's 1 Henry VI . Throughout the play, the French struggle to generate satisfactory ex - pressions of gratitude towards their unconventional champion. Eventually, they settle on envi- sioning a future where Joan is commemorated with a splendid monument combining the secular magnificence of a pyramid and the religious glory of a saint's shrine. In effect, the nobles regale the living Joan with elaborate promises about how they will honor her memory once she is dead. The French choose this peculiar brand of admiration because they fear that all of their conventional models of hero-worship cannot contain a figure as transgressive as Joan. Instead, they must leap forward imaginatively, to a point after she has finished leading France to glory and has died, a point where they can commemorate her without confronting the troublesome ways she disrupts their patriarchal authority. The article examines both the implications of the French nobles' ac - tions in the play and the reasons that this particular usage of tomb imagery does not appear else- where in early modern English drama.


A simple synthesis of a polyaromatic receptor (i.e., duplexiphane) containing two adjoined Delta-shaped cavities is accomplished via an intramolecular (double) McMurry coupling, and its structure is established by X-ray crystallography. The binding of silver cation to duplexiphane showed that it binds only a single silver cation with significantly higher efficiency (>100 times) than a model compound containing only one pi-prismand-like cavity, and the single silver cation hops intramolecularly between the two adjoined cavities in duplexiphane.


Russian dissertations' review case study related to the use of stabilometrics shows research opportunities for any selection of dissertations that can be used to study qualifying papers of different levels and profiles. The sample of 64 works including 58 Candidate's dissertations and 6 Doctoral dissertations represents non-random purposively chosen sample. The analysis of a considerable number of observations involving a total of 9869 participants shows that stabilometrics is mainly applied in neurology and rehabilitation medicine; the study is also focused on the definition and exploitation of diagnostic potential of the technique. A typical dissertation work has about six findings — sample median and quartiles: Me = 6 (5; 7). A total of 366 findings are obtained. Quantitative characteristics of dissertations and candidates' publications are described; profiles of typical works are drawn up. Five groups are singled out according to types of dissertations of the proposed sample; these five groups are connected to medical diagnostics, medical monitoring of body conditions, development of theoretical models, studying the physiology of sensing system, and the use of biofeedback for support reaction in training and treatment. Major organizations, Dissertation Councils, experts and capacity for the development of national stabilometrics are provided in the study. The works were presented to 41 Dissertation Councils at 32 organizations operating in 18 cities of Russia. The majority of thesis defenses took place in Moscow (25) and Saint Petersburg (11). Fifty-nine specialists from 37 leading institutions participated in scientific advising of 64 works; 117 persons acted as opponents. An average of 6 dissertation works were prepared a year. The findings of the theses of the specified period, achievements and shortcomings as well as the unification of this method are discussed in the paper.


Discrepant drinking (i.e., differences in alcohol use) and perpetration of intimate partner violence in same-sex female couples were examined. Self-identified lesbian participants were recruited from market research firms and reported on their own and their partner's alcohol use and their own perpetration of psychological aggression and physical violence at baseline, then 6 and 12 months later. Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed that discrepant drinking predicted participants' subsequent perpetration of psychological aggression but not physical violence. Both psychological aggression and physical aggression predicted subsequent discrepant drinking. Consistent with findings in heterosexual couples, differences in alcohol use appear to be a risk factor for relationship aggression.


Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) is a widely distributed high-elevation species in western North America that is threatened primarily by an introduced disease and other disturbances. In British Columbia, this tree is a component of harvested forests, yet knowledge of post-harvest survivorship and factors that promote successful retention is lacking. Our objectives are to describe the temporal attrition of retained mature whitebark pine trees and to identify factors that likely influence survivorship during the critical initial post-harvest period. We assessed five separate harvest units in southeastern British Columbia. Dendrochronological investigation revealed that retained trees experienced high annual mortality rates (3–16%) across harvest sites during the initial five-year post-harvest period. By eight years post-harvest, retention survivorship ranged from 17–80%. After eight years post-harvest, mortality rates drastically declined. The preponderance of fallen stems oriented towards the northeast suggests that storm system events arriving from the Pacific Ocean are the most significant drivers of blowdown. We estimate that survivorship is positively associated with shorter tree heights and longer crown lengths, a lack of disease cankers, a greater presence of rodent wounding, and higher numbers of surrounding retained trees. We found little effect based on slope and aspect. As these trees are an endangered species, harvest operations should be practiced cautiously in associated forests. We recommend carefully selecting retention trees, ensuring an adequate number of neighbor trees, and orienting retention patches to avoid predominant storm wind directions.


The study aimed to analyze the relationship between oil price changes and all components of total spending in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the period 2000-2018, to determine which of the spending components are most related to oil price changes and to evaluate the performance of the financial policy followed in the Kingdom during that period, and the study used both approaches analytical descriptive and standard approach to achieve this goal, and the study found an average direct correlation of (0.52) between changes in average oil and government final consumption spending, and a moderate direct correlation also between average oil prices and private consumption spending of (0.43). And a moderate to strong positive relationship between average oil prices and government investment spending estimated at (0.65), and a moderate to strong inverse relationship between average oil prices and external spending in the Kingdom, estimated at (-0.67), and the study demonstrated the existence of a direct causal relationship between oil price changes. The study also demonstrated the government's final consumption spending in the Kingdom in the short term, using Granger tests of causation, With no direct causal relationship in the short term between average oil prices and the rest of the components of total spending, and by using simple linear regression analysis between each of the average oil prices as an independent variable and between all spending components as variables separately to test the relationship in the long term, it is proved that oil prices explain Simple to moderate changes in the components of total spending, which indicates that the Kingdom, like most oil-producing countries, has adopted, during the past few decades, anti-economic financial policies, away from the negative effects of instability of oil prices, especially with regard to investment spending, which in turn is reflected in the completion of Continuous successive development plans and maintaining near-sustainable economic growth rates.


Abstract Objective : To examine the risk of injury to the head and the effect of wearing helmets in bicycle accidents among children. Design : Case-control study by questionnaire completed by the children and their carers. Setting : Two large children's hospitals in Brisbane, Australia. Subjects : 445 children presenting with bicycle related injuries during 15 April 1991 to 30 June 1992. The cases comprised 102 children who had sustained injury to the upper head including the skull, forehead and scalp or loss of consciousness. The controls were 278 cyclists presenting with injuries other than to the head or face. A further 65 children with injuries to the face were considered as an extra comparison group. Main outcome measures : Cause and type of injury, wearing of helmet. Results : Most children (230) were injured after losing control and falling from their bicycle. Only 31 had contact with another moving vehicle. Children with head injury were significantly more likely to have made contact with a moving vehicle than control children (19 (19%) v 12 (4%), P<0.001). Head injuries were more likely to occur on paved surfaces than on grass, gravel, or dirt. Wearing a helmet reduced the risk of head injury by 63% (95% confidence interval 34% to 80%) and of loss of consciousness by 86% (62% to 95%). Conclusions : The risk of head injury in bicycle accidents is reduced among children wearing a helmet. Current helmet design maximises protection in the type of accident most commonly occurring in this study. Legislation enforcing helmet use among children should be considered.


Microenvironmental or stromal influences on tumor formation and growth have become an active area of research. The use of mouse models of human cancers to study the role of the microenvironment will yield unique insights into this aspect of tumor biology and should identify novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of human cancers. In the following, the author review the natural history of two pediatric brain tumors, optic pathway glioma in neurofibromatosis type 1 and medulloblastoma in Gorlin's Syndrome, whose patterns of growth suggest that microenvironmental factors are essential for tumor formation. Each of these brain tumors is faithfully modeled in genetically engineered mice and the use of these mouse models to investigate the role of the microenvironment should yield exciting new insights into this important field of study.


Background An increase in the incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) during the acute phase of myocardial infarction (AMI) has been observed. But it is still unclear whether the implications of new-onset AF on in-hospital and long-term prognosis are of similar magnitude. Methods Using data from the CBD Bank study, 3,824 consecutive AMI patients, without prior AF, were analyzed. During the index hospitalization, all patients were monitored by continuous cardiac monitoring, twice daily performed 12- or 18-lead ECGs and timely ECG checks when cardiac symptoms occurred. Follow-up visits were routinely scheduled after discharge. Primary outcomes were all-cause death and cardiovascular death occurring during hospitalization and long-term follow-up. Secondary outcome was MACEs during hospitalization. Results During the median hospital stay of 9.0 (7.0, 11.0) days, new-onset AF was documented in 133 (3.48%) patients; 95 (71.43%) patients had AF attacks within 3 days following AMI. Independent risk factors associated with new-onset AF were older age, larger left atrial diameter, higher level of NT-proBNP, and primary PCI. New-onset AF was found to be significantly associated with in-hospital all-cause death (OR 4.33, 95%CI: 2.37-7.89, P < 0.001), cardiovascular death (OR 4.10, 95%CI: 2.18-7.73, P < 0.001), and MACEs (OR 2.51, 95%CI: 1.46-4.33, P = 0.001). A total of 112 new-onset AF and 3,338 non-AF patients were followed up for 1,090 (365, 1,694) days after discharge. There was no significant association between new-onset AF and long-term all-cause death (HR 1.21, 95%CI: 0.77-1.92, P = 0.406) or cardiovascular death (HR 1.09, 95%CI: 0.61-1.97, P = 0.764). Conclusion New-onset AF following AMI is strongly associated with an increased risk of adverse in-hospital prognosis, but it does not affect prognosis in those who survive until hospital discharge.


FPA immunoreactivity was elevated in 14 out of 15 patients with disseminated neoplasia. Two of the patients showed signs of DIC, two had clinically evident thrombosis and one a positive 125I-fibrinogen uptake test suggesting thrombosis. Infusion of heparin produced a prompt fall in FPA levels. FPA immunoreactivity correlated well with the turnover of intravasal 125I-fibrinogen. The results confirm that the RIA of FPA provides a specific and quantitative index of the conversion of fibrinogen into fibrin and indirectly of the thrombin action in vivo.


Federated Learning (FL) is a promising privacy-preserving distributed learning framework where a server aggregates models updated by multiple devices without accessing their private datasets. Hierarchical FL (HFL), as a device-edge-cloud aggregation hierarchy, can enjoy both the cloud server's access to more datasets and the edge servers' efficient communications with devices. However, the learning latency increases with the HFL network scale due to the increasing number of edge servers and devices with limited local computation capability and communication bandwidth. To address this issue, in this paper, we introduce model pruning for HFL in wireless networks to reduce the neural network scale. We present the convergence analysis of an upper on the l2 norm of gradients for HFL with model pruning, analyze the computation and communication latency of the proposed model pruning scheme, and formulate an optimization problem to maximize the convergence rate under a given latency threshold by jointly optimizing the pruning ratio and wireless resource allocation. By decoupling the optimization problem and using Karush Kuhn Tucker (KKT) conditions, closed-form solutions of pruning ratio and wireless resource allocation are derived. Simulation results show that our proposed HFL with model pruning achieves similar learning accuracy compared with the HFL without model pruning and reduces about 50 percent communication cost.


Constructing small molecule systems that mimic the functionality exhibited in biological reaction networks is a key objective of systems chemistry. Herein, we report the development of a dynamic catalytic system where the catalyst activity is modulated through a dynamic covalent bond. By connecting a thermodynamically controlled rearrangement process to resolution under kinetic control, the catalyst system underwent kinetic self-sorting, resulting in amplification of a more reactive catalyst while establishing a catalytic feedback mechanism. The dynamic catalyst system furthermore responded to catalytic events by self-perturbation to regulate its own activity, which in the case of upregulation gave rise to systemic autocatalytic behavior.


Head injuries are often associated with intracranial foreign bodies that require decision making on the need for certain surgical treatment. Intraventricular foreign bodies are rare, so the question of surgical tactics is still open.

OBJECTIVE
To summarize the experience of treating the wounded with intraventricular foreign bodies.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Treatment outcomes in victims with foreign bodies in lateral ventricles are presented. Searching in the e-Library, PubMed, Google Scholar databases included the following keywords: «penetrating wounds», «foreign bodies», «cerebral ventricles», «gunshot injury», «ventricular foreign bodies». We analyzed data on the treatment of victims with intraventricular foreign bodies.

RESULTS
Three victims underwent surgery, and foreign bodies were removed from the occipital horn of the lateral ventricle, third ventricle and temporal horn of the lateral ventricle. Conservative approach was preferred in 1 case. Follow-up ranged from 1 month to 7 years, GOS score - 3-4 points. Disability was due to severe injury and not associated with surgical treatment per se. We found 16 publications matching the searching criteria. Treatment methods varied from standard surgical approaches to stereotactic management. The indication for removal of foreign bodies was their migration through the ventricular system and occlusive hydrocephalus. None patient had neurological aggravation.

CONCLUSION
Intraventricular foreign bodies are rare and present certain difficulties in choosing the method and timing of treatment. Indications for their removal are migration, occlusive hydrocephalus and infectious complications. The method of removal is determined depending on location, magnetic properties, nature of injury, surgical preferences and other factors.


With the rapid development of modern data collection and data warehouse technologies, data mining is becoming more and more a standard practice. Accompanying this trend, preserving privacy in certain data becomes a challenge to data mining applications in many fields, especially in medical, financial and homeland security fields. We present a class of novel privacy-preserving data distortion methods in the collaborative analysis situations base d on wavelet transformation, which provides an effective and efficient balance between data utilities and privacy protection beyond its fast run time. We also provide a new privacy breach algorithm in the collaborative analysis which could threaten the data privacy, even with the distorted data values, in the single basis wavelet transformation case. Thus, we further propose a multi-basis wavelet data distortion strategy for better privacy preser ving in these situations. Through experiments on real-life datasets, we conclude that the multi-basis wavelet data distortion method is a very promising privacy-preserving technique.


Specimens of two notopterids, Papyrocranus Afer and Xenomystus Nigri were collected from Osse River at Ikoro between December 2002 and August 2003 and examined for morphometric features, condition factor and food and feeding habits. The standard length of P. Afer ranged from 13.7-38.1 cm and X. Nigri , 8.3-16 cm. The mean condition factor of P. Afer was 0.96 and X. Nigri was 1.18. Generally, specimens of higher standard length had lower condition factor than those of lower standard length. A significant negative regression (P P. Afer the average proportion of anal fin base length to the standard length was 74.90%, while in X. Nigri the mean proportion of the anal fin base length to the standard length was 79.86%. The proportion of the serrated belly to the standard length was however greater in P. Afer (13.31%) than X. Nigri (10.39%). The occurrence method showed that in P. Afer , aquatic insects constituted 92.86%, shrimps (57.14%), worms (50%) and fish (35.71%), while in X. Nigri , the percentage occurrence of aquatic insects was 75%, worms (62.5%), molluscs (43.75%), detritus (37.5%) and shrimps (1.25%). The numerical method showed that in P. afer the aquatic insects dominated with 34.21 %, followed by fish (26.32 %), shrimps (21.05 %) and worms (18.42 %), whereas in X. Nigri , the worms dominated with 56.82 %, followed by molluscs (26.52 %) and aquatic insects (15.15 %). The adaptive significance of ventral serration and the extensive anal fin base in the feeding ecology of these species is discussed. Keywords : Belly midventral serration, extensive anal fin base, feeding ecology, morphometric features. Tropical Freshwater Biology Vol. 16 (2) 2007: pp. 9-19


This paper argues the importance of an exploratory study prior to hypotheses testing in any causal-effect or explanatory predictive behavioral research. It proposes a stage of eliciting salient factors using a framework from theory of planned behavior. The paper opted for an exploratory study by firstly examining 12 academic research of online shopping behavior in Indonesia.  Secondly, using the open-ended questions given to 30 respondents, the paper explored reasons respondents shop or not shop online. Those immediate responses were documented and termed as salient factors.  Thirdly, the salient factors were then combined with foregone factors based on literature reviews.  The final set of factors was chosen as predictive variables in order to provide more accurate potential antecedents for predicting and explaining online shopping behavior. The paper provides sound and practical guidance in eliciting salient factors and formulating a final set of factors in causal-effect/explanatory predictive behavioral research on online shopping behavior.  It suggests that academic research should place importance on the stage of eliciting salient factors. Foregone factors are used to strengthen the choice of predictive variables.  Both salient and foregone factors are necessary for the final set of factors in such online shopping behavior studies. The paper includes implications for the online vendors and government agencies to promote e-commerce. This paper fulfils a need to conduct exploratory study on online shopping behavior to understand such phenomenon of high internet penetration yet low rate of online buying behavior by focusing on salient factors of the studies.


This study is to isolate some fungi from rotten vegetable to produce useful enzymes for commercial purpose and study the biosorption capacity of the fungi. Penicillium sp., Penicillium roqueforti, Aspergillus sp. 1, Aspergillus sp. 2, Aspergillus sp. 3 and Aspergillus sp. 4 were isolated from the rotten vegetables. In this study, the extracellular enzymes screening tests were performed for all six strains of fungi and lead (II) ions biosorption by biomass from three black molds and Aspergillus sp. 1 was performed. All the fungi isolated were able to produce the extracellular enzymes, where the Penicillium roqueforti had produced the highest -galactosidase and cellulase. The fungus with the highest xylanase acitivity was Aspergillus sp. 3 isolated from onion. The fungus with the highest lead removal efficiency was used for adsorption isotherm and kinetic studies. The lead removal efficiency of four different strains of fungi were carried out at the experimental conditions of initial lead (II) concentration 50mg/L, biomass dose 2g/L, contact time 24 hours, agitating speed 150rpm and room temperature. The remaining lead (II) ions in the samples were measured by using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. At pH 4.0 ± 0.1, the Aspergillus sp. 1 had the highest lead (II) removal efficiency among all four strains; the removal amount was 42.585 ± 0.000 mg/g. The biosorption equilibrium for Aspergillus sp. 1 cost about two hours at experimental conditions of pH 4.0 ± 0.1, initial lead (II) concentrations ranged from 20mg/L to 100mg/L, biomass dose 2g/L, contact time 12 hours, agitating speed 150rpm and room temperature. The Aspergillus sp. 1 possesses high biosorption capacity for the lead (II) ions and Freundlich isotherm model and Pseudo-second order kinetic model can used to describe the reaction better than the other models were used in this study.


Fucoidans represent the sulfated heteropolysaccharides that possess a wide range of important pharmacological properties. The properties of a fucoidan depend on several factors, including the molecular weight and the way of extraction. However, the selection of an optimal depolymerization method is necessary to enhance its therapeutic applications. Reducing the molecular weight of fucoidans will make it possible to use them in creating nanoparticles and nanocarriers for, among others, the targeted drug delivery. The molecular mass of the polymer can be changed by means of various methods of depolymerization. In this work, the possibility of application of ultrasonic destruction for decrease in the size of fucoidan molecules for the purpose of expansion of opportunities and spheres of their therapeutic application is considered. This is one of the simple and effective methods of depolymerization of fucoidan, which leads to a decrease in molecular weight without significant structural changes in macromolecules. In addition, methods and potential applications of the ultrasonic extraction of fucoidan from seaweed and the possibilities of their combination are discussed, as well as other physical or chemical methods of extraction.


Research on resource-bounded agents has established that rational agents need to be able to revise their commitments in the light of new opportunities. In the context of collaborative activities, rational agents must be able to reconcile their intentions to do team-related actions with other conflicting intentions. The SPIRE experimental system allows the process of intention reconciliation in team contexts to be simulated and studied. Prior work with SPIRE examined the effect of team norms, environmental factors, and agent utility functions on individual and group outcomes for homogeneous groups of agents. This paper extends these results to situations involving heterogeneous groups in which agents use different utility functions. The paper provides new illustrations of the ways in which SPIRE can reveal unpredicted interactions among the variables involved, and it suggests preliminary principles for designers of collaborative agents.


Considerable public funding is provided for research and development intended to improve the management and use of shared natural resources, such as water. In Australia, the Land and Water Research and Development Corporation (LWRRDC) and Environment Australia are significant providers of such funds. These providers tend to judge the value of R&D projects supported by them on the basis of whether or not significant technology transfer and adoption takes place. Researchers involved in these projects are expected to be the prime movers of such transfer. However, it seems that research funders have been guided by over-simplified models of processes of technology transfer and by false analogies with the transfer of industrial technology. There has been a failure to recognise that much of the new technology developed to improve the management of shared resources, such as water, affects the supply of social or collective commodities, a factor which materially alters the technology transfer process. Here, processes of transferring publicly funded intellectual knowledge are discussed and modelled, dynamic patterns of adoption of new technology are considered along with factors influencing adoption rates and barriers to adoption, particularly when the supply of social or collective commodities such as water, are involved. Some points from the analysis are illustrated by observations from a sample of LWRRDC-supported research projects.


PURPOSE
To compare the vocal self-perception and vocal complaints reported by two groups of students of the pedagogy course (freshmen and graduates); to relate the vocal self-perception to the vocal complaints for these groups; and to compare the voice quality of the students from these groups through perceptual auditory assessment and acoustic analysis.

METHODS
Initially, 89 students from the pedagogy course answered a questionnaire about self-perceived voice quality and vocal complaints. In a second phase, auditory-perceptual evaluation and acoustic analyses of 48 participants were made through voice recordings of sustained vowel emission and poem reading.

RESULTS
The most reported vocal complaints were fatigue while using the voice, sore throat, effort to speak, irritation or burning in the throat, hoarseness, tightness in the neck, and variations of voice throughout the day. There was a higher occurrence of complaints from graduates than from freshmen, with significant differences for four of the nine complaints. It was also possible to observe the relationship between vocal self-perception and complaints reported by these students. No significant differences were observed in the results of auditory-perceptual evaluation; however, some graduates had their voices evaluated with higher severity of deviation of normalcy. During acoustic analysis no difference was observed between groups.

CONCLUSION
The increase in vocal demand by the graduates may have caused the greatest number and diversity of vocal complaints, and several of them are related to the self-assessment of voice quality. The auditory-perceptual evaluation and acoustic analysis showed no deviations in their voice.


In this paper, we deal with the algebraic thinking from the perspective of 'process'and 'object' aspects. Generally, mathematical concepts have come from the concrete process. We consider the origin of algebra as the arithmetic calculations. Also, the concept of school arithmetic is beginning from actions or procedures. However, in order to develop the alge- braic thinking and to apply this thinking, we have to see the history of algebraic thinking, and find this duality. Next we investigate various researches relating to the 'process-object duality'. Theses studies suppose that the concept formation and thinking process should be started from the process-object duality. Finally, we reinterprete many difficulties in algebra - equals sign, variables, algebraic expressions, and linear equations, the principle of permanence of form- from the perspective of the process-object duality.


Compressing the ECG signal is considered a feasible solution for supporting a system to manipulate the package size, a major factor leading to congestion in an ECG wireless network. Hence, this paper proposes a compression algorithm, called the advanced two-state algorithm, which achieves three necessary characteristics: a) flexibility towards all ECG signal conditions, b) the ability to adapt to each requirement of the package size and c) be simple enough. In this algorithm, the ECG pattern is divided into two categories: "complex" durations such as QRS complexes, are labeled as low-state durations, and "plain" duratio ns such P or T waves, are labeled as high-state durations. Each duration type can be compressed at different compression ratios, and Piecewise Cubic Spline can be used for reconstructing the signal. For evaluation, the algorithm was applied to 48 records of the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database (clear PQRST complexes) and 9 records of the CU ventricular tachyarrhythmia database (unclear PQRST complexes). Parameters including Compression Ratio (CR), Percentage Root mean square Difference (PRD), Percentage Root mean square Difference, Normalized (PRDN), root mean square (RMS), Signal-to-noise Ratio (SNR) and a new proposed index called Peak Maximum Absolute Error (PMAE) were used to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the algorithm. Eventually, the results obtained were positive with low PRD, PRDN and PMAE at different compression ratios compared to many other loss-type compressing methods, proving the high efficiency of the proposed algorithm. All in all, with its extremely low-cost computation, versatility and good-quality reconstruction, this algorithm could be applied to a number of wireless applications to control package size and overcome congested situations.


In this paper, we present a high throughput and low latency LDPC (low-density parity-check) decoder implementation on GPUs (graphics processing units). The existing GPU-based LDPC decoder implementations suffer from low throughput and long latency, which prevent them from being used in practical SDR (software-defined radio) systems. To overcome this problem, we present optimization techniques for a parallel LDPC decoder including algorithm optimization, fully coalesced memory access, asynchronous data transfer and multi-stream concurrent kernel execution for modern GPU architectures. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed LDPC decoder achieves 316 Mbps (at 10 iterations) peak throughput on a single GPU. The decoding latency, which is much lower than that of the state of the art, varies from 0.207 ms to 1.266 ms for different throughput requirements from 62.5 Mbps to 304.16 Mbps. When using four GPUs concurrently, we achieve an aggregate peak throughput of 1.25 Gbps (at 10 iterations).


Improvement of existing highway systems, such as maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction, is accompanied with lane closure at work zones. Such lane closure causes road user costs for traffic congestion and delays at the work zones. A robust method is developed in this research to support strategic decisionmaking on lane closures. At this stage, the research focuses on a common situation—closing a segment of one lane in one direction on a four-lane highway. The method divides a work zone into arriving-, entering-, passing-, and leaving-zone and classifies the flow of vehicles as arriving-, in-, through-, and out-flow. Thereby, it accounts for traffic congestion and delay due to speed reduction, upstream queue, and speed recovery. Based on dynamic simulation technique, the method simulates the flow of vehicles and measures congestion and delay at work zones. The new method would benefit engineers in planning highway system improvement projects.


Context: Luminosities of hot components in symbiotic binaries require accretion rates that are higher than those that can be achieved via a standard Bondi-Hoyle accretion. This implies that the wind mass transfer in symbiotic binaries has to be more efficient.
Aims: We suggest that the accretion rate onto the white dwarfs (WDs) in S-type symbiotic binaries can be enhanced sufficiently by focusing the wind from their slowly rotating normal giants towards the binary orbital plane.
Methods: We applied the wind compression model to the stellar wind of slowly rotating red giants in S-type symbiotic binaries.
Results: Our analysis reveals that for typical terminal velocities of the giant wind, 20 to 50 km/s, and measured rotational velocities between 6 and 10 km/s, the densities of the compressed wind at a typical distance of the accretor from its donor correspond to the mass-loss rate, which can be a factor of $\sim$10 higher than for the spherically symmetric wind. This allows the WD to accrete at rates of $10^{-8} - 10^{-7}$ M(Sun)/year, and thus to power its luminosity.
Conclusions: We show that the high wind-mass-transfer efficiency in S-type symbiotic stars can be caused by compression of the wind from their slowly rotating normal giants, whereas in D-type symbiotic stars, the high mass transfer ratio can be achieved via the gravitational focusing, which has recently been suggested for very slow winds in Mira-type binaries.


High-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data have been widely used in marine environmental protection, marine environmental monitoring, and marine traffic management. Ship detection is one of the important parts of SAR data for marine applications. This letter focuses on the feature analysis of ships in high-resolution SAR images and proposes an improved optimizing algorithm for ship detection. A fast block detector is designed to extract sea clutter in a uniform local area, and then a constant false alarm rate detector is employed. Based on the kernel density estimation of ships, aspect ratio, and pixel points, ships are identified. TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed images are used to test our algorithm. The experimental results show that this algorithm can be implemented with time-saving, high-precision ship extraction, feature analysis, and detection.


Although perceived by candidates and parties as important in affecting political outcomes, the link between spending and success in multi-candidate, multiparty election campaigns remains unproven. Not only are there relatively few studies of campaign spending effects in multi-party systems, there are none examining the effect under the Single Transferable Vote (STV) electoral system. Our study examines spending effects in the Irish local elections of 1999 using STV with district magnitudes between 3 and 7 seats, contested by a median of 10 candidates in each district. Using detailed data on 1,838 candidates from 180 local constituencies and 30 councils, we provide precise estimates of the relationship between campaign spending at the candidate level in each district and electoral success, including the probability of winning. In a context where spending is miniscule relative to other contexts, and takes place under a completely different electoral system, our results echo previous studies from other contexts showing a strong effect of challenger spending and only weak effects of incumbent spending. Once allowance is made for the endogeneity of incumbent spending, however, we find a much less substantial difference between the effectiveness of spending by challengers and by incumbents, except on the marginal effect of spending on the probability of winning, where challenger spending is shown to be much more important.


Abstract. Bioethanol is a renewable energy source as an alternative to fossil fuels. Bioethanol is produced from starchy biomass in the U.S. such as corn. However, a cheaper non-food value source is needed. In this context, wastes of industrial potato processing plant were utilized as carbon source for ethanol production. On the other hand, to reduce the cost of ethanol and improve the effectiveness of the process, cell immobilization was employed. Plastic composite supports (PCS) are solid supports that were used to stimulate biofilm formation in bioreactor (a.k.a. biofilm reactor) during microbial production of value-added products. Therefore, in this study, PCS were employed to promote the cell population and biofilm formation in the reactor. Response surface methodology was used to evaluate the various growth conditions, pH, temperature, and agitation, for enhanced ethanol production in biofilm reactors. The optimum conditions were found to be 4.2 pH, 34 °C, and 100 rpm agitation. An optimum ethanol concentration of 37.05 g/L ethanol yield, giving a 92.08% theoretical yield was achieved. The results indicated that biofilm reactors can enhance the ethanol fermentation from industrial potato wastes.


This paper details the development of a multi-agent cognitive system intended to optimize networking performance in the lunar environment. One concept of the future of lunar communication, LunaNet, outlines a complex network of networks. Challenges such as scalability, interoperability, and reliability must first be addressed to successfully fulfill this vision. Machine intelligence can greatly reduce the reliance on human operators and enable efficient operations for tasks such as scheduling and network management. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other automated decision-making techniques can be used to allow network nodes to intelligently sense and adapt to changes in the environment such as link disruptions, new nodes joining the network, and support for a diverse range of protocols. Cognitive networking seeks to evolve these technologies into an autonomous system with improved science data return, reliability, and scalability. In this paper, we study four main areas as a means to further develop cognitive networking capabilities: networking protocol development, analysis of wireless data for modeling and simulation, development of algorithms for a multi-agent system, and spectrum sensing technology.


Group-velocity mismatch between the pump and probe pulses is shown to limit the minimum duration of ultra-short pulses synthesised through the generation of multiple Stokes and anti-Stokes sidebands in a Raman-active medium preliminary excited by a short laser pulse. The group delay of pulses involved in short-pulse synthesis in a Raman-active gas can be reduced by using a hollow fibre with a properly chosen inner diameter, gas pressure, and waveguide modes. The number of Stokes and anti-Stokes sidebands in the nonlinear response of a Raman-active gas can be considerably increased under these conditions, opening the way to substantially reduce the duration of light pulses synthesised using this method.


Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an idiopathic multi-systemic autoimmune disease that covers a wide array of clinical and laboratory findings. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a simple onsite available recently emerged inflammatory marker which is evaluated in different inflammatory conditions such as infection, athero-embolic disease, malignancies and autoimmune disease. In this study we aimed to investigate any relation between disease activity and NLR of the SLE patients with renal involvement. In this study we retrospectively analyzed hematological and laboratory parameters of SLE patients with renal involvement during both in active disease and in remission period. We investigated 36 SLE patients with renal involvement in their active and remission period of the disease. Mean proteinuria and serum albumin level of the patients at active disease period were 5.26 ± 2.92 gr/day, 2.58 ± 0.71 gr/dl in orderly. Mean proteinuria and serum albumin level of the patients at remission period after cessation of intensive immunosuppression were 0.77 ± 1.59 gr/day, 4.08 ± 0.58 gr/dl inorderly. Mean NLR at active disease period of the patients was statistically significantly detected higher than at remission period (6.11 ± 5.89, 2.65 ± 1.53, p=0.00). We detected that SLE patients with renal involvement has a high NLR during disease activation and statistically significantly lower NLR at remission period. We offer to investigate NLR as a disease activity marker for SLE patients with renal involvement via prospective randomized large scaled studies.


Patients with post-transfusion, community-acquired or hemodialysis-acquired non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH) were tested for antibody to hepatitis C virus (HCV) during acute-phase and resolving or chronicized illness. HCV appears to be involved in most cases of post-transfusion and hemodialysis-acquired NANBH, but only in 40% of community-acquired NANBH. Second generation HCV antibody assays are more specific and sensitive, favoring early detection of HCV seroconversion and identification of HCV-antibody-positive individuals years after exposure to the virus.


: Background: Mutations in the neurofibromin 1 ( NF1 ) gene are associated with clinical manifestations of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Objective: To clarify the relationship between NF1 variants and disease phenotype. Methods: Peripheral blood samples were collected from a patient and her relatives and genomic DNA was extracted for next-generation sequencing (NGS) to detect potential variants; the results were validated by Sanger sequencing. Results: A novel frameshift variant c.4508_c.4509delAT (p.Asn1503fsTer26) was detected in exon 34 of the NF1 gene in the patient and her daughter, but not in any other (healthy) family member. This c.4508_c.4509delAT (p.Asn1503fsTer26) frameshift variant of NF1 may underlie NF1 in this family. Conclusions: This finding expands the spectrum of pathogenic mutations of the NF1 gene, which could aid genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis.


This one-volume edition contains the complete collection of Coward's twenty short stories, spanning fifty years of his working life. Written with Coward's inimitable poise and wit, the stories variously describe back-stage intrigues, Hollywood champagne breakfasts, suburban romances and gossip round the captain's table. He reveals himself as a consummate prose stylist demonstrating why, for all his success in virtually every other field of entertainment, he returned again and again to the short story.


Community's perception of land degradation by erosion is a key social factor that is important in deciding options for controlling soil losses. Therefore, understanding Community's knowledge and their perception and factors that influence their land management practices are of paramount importance for promoting sustainable land use in the study area. Community of the study area have good perception of soil erosion in general and its causes, indicators and the area of their plot of land vulnerable to soil erosion in particular. Moreover, they have good traditional and modern measure of soil conservation methods. However, various hindering factors such as lack of capital, poverty, small size of their land and other socio-economic and physical factors were observed which obstacle to apply the SWC technologies. In addition, Community's perception of importance of modern SWC technologies was very high. However, the way of their perception seems wrong. Because, they perceive that modern SWC is government strategy to rehabilitate highly degraded area through campaigns rather than method of soil conservation on the agricultural land. They consider that the structure occupy large area that it hinder them to fully utilize their highly fragemented farmland due to high dependency on agriculture. Therefore, it is recommended that good policy and strategies by the government, corrective intervention from any concerned organizations aimed at this issue as well as the community's participation on encouraging farmers' participation in soil conservation practices are very important to solve current soil erosion devastations   and   environmental   deterioration   of   the   study   area.

 Key words: Participation, perception, soil erosion.


This paper discusses the analysis of the effect of taxes and subsidies and ZIS (Zsakat, Infaq and Sedekah) to the reduction of poverty in Indonesia in the period 1994 to 2013. The variables used in include taxes, subsidies, ZIS and poverty of the State of Indonesia. The method used in this thesis is a multiple regression method along with the classical assumptions. This study aims to determine the relationship between variables taxes, subsidies and ZIS against poverty. In addition, this study also aims to look at the variables which play a role in reducing poverty. The results using multiple regression analysis, it appears that all the independent variables are not significant and have adjusted R-square is nice. Next to the classical assumption test, based on the results of research there is a violation of classical assumptions in this research is the Normality.


Fever is one of the symptoms of a person with Covid-19. Body temperature must be checked e before entering crowded areas such as schools, offices, shops, and hospitals. It is a mandatory protocol that must be done. One of the tools that can be used to check body temperature is a thermal camera. Thermal cameras have the disadvantage of a high temperature reading error. This is because the thermal camera used has a low resolution. This study aims to reduce the value of the temperature reading error on the thermal camera using the linear regression method. The linear regression method is able to reduce the error rate of temperature readings by 5.27% at 36 ° C reading. The reduction in reading error also occurred by 5.27% at 37 ° C and 6.44% at 38 ° C. Based on the results obtained, this study shows that linear regression can be applied to thermal cameras and provides a decrease in the error rate of temperature readings on thermal cameras


Coronavirus (Covid-19) has great impacts on the education industry so much that it has introduced revolutionary trends into the education industry that have potentials to usher in fundamental and desirable changes. The desirable impressions of coronavirus in the education landscape are so visible that many stakeholders pray that it will be unthinkable for any reasonable state to return to the practices in the education industry prior to the coronavirus pandemic. One desirable change brought about by the coronavirus pandemic is online teaching and learning. Using the philosophical methodology, this paper discusses the prospects of online teaching and learning. The paper establishes that online teaching and learning is advantageous to teacher, learners and administration of educational institutions. It helps to improve the professional development of the teacher and through this way grows the teaching profession, enables teachers and learners to revisit what had been taught and learnt, makes teaching and learning more flexible and more convenient for both the teacher and the learners, saves cost for management, enhances effective documentation by management. The paper among other things recommends that the sense of collaboration the education industry witnessed during this period should be sustained and teacher education should be repositioned to integrate those revolutionary changes popped up during this period into the curriculum of teacher education institutions.


The heliospheric magnetic field (HMF) is controlled by solar activity, as established by measurements over the last few decades, but its characteristics when the sun was quiet for prolonged periods, such as during Gleissberg or Maunder minima, are not known. Titanium-44, produced in meteorites, provides a monitor of the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) flux and allows estimation of the modulation effect of the sun for the period 1883 to 1992. The titanium-44 activity is consistent with the expected value, but the increase, due to the last Gleissberg minimum, is four times greater than expected for a GCR modulation based solely on sunspot numbers. This result implies that the HMF was weaker than at present and as a result the GCR flux (for energy greater than 1 gigaelectron volt) was higher between 2.2 to 3.6 protons per square centimeter per second per 4π steradians at 1 to 3 astronomical units in solar cycles 12 to 15.


Initial imperfections of columns are often assumed to have the shape of the first buckling mode. In this technical note, the imperfection has the shape of the second mode. An elastica analysis is performed, and numerical results are obtained for two cases with the use of a shooting method. For the example of a pinned column, bifurcation occurs at a load slightly higher than the critical load for the perfect system. With further increase in load, the deflection changes smoothly from an antisymmetric shape with one node to a shape with no nodes. For the cantilevered-column example, a limit point occurs just beyond the critical load for the perfect system, and the equilibrium shape jumps from one state to another. As the load is increased further, the deflection passes smoothly to the other side of the column and loses its inflection point.


In these recent years, many organizations have started to consider the importance of green manufacturing and take steps towards this new responsibility. Manufacturers try to achieve an end of life, a cost-effective and a green solution, enabling them to answer effectively to the future legislation regarding responsibility of their products. In this context re-manufacturing, as a solution for green manufacturing, can be defined as the reconstructing or reassembling of a used product by using a combination of process. In order to be feasible, re-manufacturing should answer not only to the legislation, but also it should be profitable for the companies. So, from the phase of conception, it is necessary to design the products such that they can be easily disassembled, cleaned, tested, and re-assembled to have a new life and a new value. Design for re-manufacturing is a new domain of research which try to bring the efficiency through the design while increasing the profitability of the companies. This paper tries to study the literature of design for re-manufacturing and it gives an overview of the existing approaches and models of the design for re-manufacturing. Its aim is showing how the design contributes to re-manufacturing. This research could be used as a guide for future research in the domain of design for re-manufacturing or design for green manufacturing.


In human and canine renal histological studies of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), the etiological agent is rarely found in situ. The objective of this study was to evaluate PCR in identifying the etiological agent in spleen, liver, lymph node, and kidneys of VL-seropositive dogs. Twenty-five symptomatic (case group) and 15 asymptomatic (control group) VL-seropositive dogs of different breeds, sexes, and ages from Teresina, Piaui State, Brazil, were used. Serologic diagnosis was made by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and indirect immunofluorescence test. Animals were subjected to euthanasia and necropsy. Renal fragments were immersed in buffered formaldehyde solution. Spleen, liver, lymph node, and kidney samples were collected and frozen at -70oC until DNA extraction. After dehydration and diaphanization, renal fragments were infiltrated and embedded in paraffin, cut at 3 µm, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin (HE). DNA amplification used an automatic thermocycler with specific Leishmania primers. All case-group dogs and 2 controls showed positive results in spleen, liver, or lymph node PCRs. There was a significant difference by Fisher exact test. In symptomatic seropositive dogs, renal histopathological evaluation showed one animal (4%) with amastigote forms of Leishmania in inflammatory infiltrate, and kidney PCRs detected Leishmania DNA in eight animals (32%). The conclusion was that PCR is more precise than the conventional histopathology in detecting the Leishmania parasite in kidney.


INTRODUCTIONStudents learning in tertiary institutions all over the world have undergone tremendous transformation, especially since the advent of information and communication technology (ICT) (Bassey et al, 2007).There is a shift from traditional approach of teacher directed to modern methods where computer technology plays a significant role. ICT has promoted learning and made it more meaningful, where students can stay even in their homes orClassrooms and receive lectures without seeing the lecturer. The aspect of ICT that has brought about this revolution in students' learning is e-learning. (Bassey et al, 2007). Elearning in its broadest sense refers to any learning that is electronically enabled.In a slightly narrower sense, it is learning that is enabled by the application of digital technologies such as web pages, videoConference systems and CD-ROMs. Many higher education institutions adopt web-based learning systems for their e-learning courses. However, there is a limited empirical examination of the factors underlying the adoption of web-based learning systems (Abbad, 2009). Successful implementation of a system and adoption by learners requires a solid understanding of user acceptance processes and ways of persuading students to engagewith these technologies (Abbad, 2009). Measuring attitudes has an important role in analyzing consumer behaviour because it is a known fact that there is a strong connection between attitude and behaviour. Specialists have discovered that attitude indicates in a certain degree, the possibility of adopting certain behaviour (Bertea, 2009).Talking about e-learning, a favourable attitude shows a greater probability that learners will accept the new learning system. Factors such as patience, self-discipline, easiness in using software, good technical skills, abilities regarding time management impact on students attitude towards e-learning. Thus, the attitude can be positive, if the new form of education fits the students' needs and characteristics, or negative if the student cannot adapt to the new system because he does not have the set of characteristics required (Bertea, 2009). Bad elearning perception may be due to lack of understanding, lack of communication, and lack of trust or conflicting agendas in appropriate use of technology. Some goal coaching and awareness exercises are probably needed to strengthen people's perception. It is important to realize that learners are both emotional and intellectual; and emotions have much effect on people's perception and what they do (Ndume, 2008). Technology acceptance is defined as "an individual's" psychological state with regard to his or her voluntary or intended use of a particular technology". Developers and deliverers of e-learning need more understanding of how students perceive and react to elements of e-learning along with how to most effectively apply an e-learning approach to enhance learning (Park, 2009).In addition, knowing students intentions and understanding the factors that influence students belief about e-learning can help academic administrators and managers to create mechanisms for attracting more students to adopt this learning environment (Park, 2009). According to (Olaniyi, 2006), in Nigerian universities such as Obafemi Awolowo university (OAU) and National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), the commonest type of e-learning adopted is in form of lecture notes on CD-ROM which can be played as at when the learners desire. The challenge of this method is that the number of students per computer in which these facilities are available are un-interactive as compared to when lectures are being received in the classroom. These universities mentioned above adopted the use of intranet facilities; however, this is not well maintained because of incessant poor electricity supply challenge and high cost of running generating set. Most students in Nigeria go to the cyber cafe but becausethere are people of diverse intentions on the net at the same time, and the bandwidth problem, a multimedia interaction cannot be done. …


We present an application of the method of lines (MoL) for the analysis of a finite array of microstrip patch antennas loaded with dielectric layers on a cylindrical structure. New formulas are given in cylindrical coordinates to describe multiple, stacked layers without causing an increase in the difficulty or complexity of the analysis. We show that this model is not only numerically efficient, compared with other numerical methods, but also, shows a very good accuracy with respect to experimental results and has no limitation on antenna array geometry and excitation. Finally, some numerical results for both radiation and mutual coupling are presented.


Precambrian quartzo-feldspathic gneiss was encountered at an elevation of —3616 feet in the Herman 1A well drilled in southeastern Erie County, Ohio, by the Amerada Petroleum Corporation. The five samples of this gneiss that were studied exhibit vary- ing degrees of gneissose foliation. In order of decreasing abundance, microcline, plagioclase, quartz, and biotite together account for an average of 75% of the mineralogy. Greenish saussuritized plagioclase in layers and veins is abundant in three of the samples. Based on the presence of minor amounts of garnet, a plagioclase composition of An 36 , and the location of the well, the gneiss is considered to lie within the Grenville orogenic belt of high-grade, regionally metamorphosed rock.


Recently media that is used on mathematic study is just board and printed book. Usually teacher uses, modelling tool to visualize study objects like geometry, but students must be in alternatively to fulfill that demand requires application which can deliver 3-dimension geometry to emphasize students understanding of volume and surface area. This research will implement based tracking marker method on textbook and develop geometry study application based on augmented reality, it is called "Magic Boosed". The existence of AR combination technology, then geometry which will be taught by teacher to elementary school student will be more interesting and make students are easier to learn shape and geometry formulas, this is evident from data analysis test on student learning improvement using kolmogorov-smirnov testing.


We define the Lukasiewicz Transform by mean of the partition of unity defined in [4] and semimodules over the semiring reducts of an MV-algebra. Then we describe the "Lukasiewicz Transform Based" (LTB) algorithm for image processing, showing some results of its application.


The worldwide incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the major histological type of primary liver cancer, is heterogeneous due to the variable prevalence of etiological factors, indicating a correlation of HCC risk with genetic variations among individuals. Among long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) located in the chromosome 8q24 loci and involved in the carcinogenesis are colon cancer associated transcript 2 (CCAT2) and cancer susceptibility candidate 8 (CASC8). In this study, the association of CCAT2 and CASC8 gene polymorphisms with the occurrence of HCC was explored between 397 HCC patients and 1195 controls. We found that carriers of rs6983267 GG in CCAT2 were more susceptible to HCC, with the odds ratio (OR) and adjusted odds ratio (AOR) being 1.532 (95% CI, 1.103–2.129; p = 0.011) and 1.627 (95% CI, 1.120–2.265; p = 0.033), respectively. Moreover, for patients stratified by age (under 65), gender (male only), or status of drinking (habitual drinkers), a protective effect of CASC8 rs3843549 on presenting high Child–Pugh scores, metastatic vascular invasion, or large-size tumors was observed in a dominant model. Collectively, our data reveal association of CCAT2 and CASC8 gene polymorphisms with the occurrence and progression of HCC.


Summary Against Th omas Mormann's argument that diff erential topology does not support Carnap's conventionalism in geometry we show their compatibility. However, Mormann's emphasis on the entanglement that characterizes topology and its associated metrics is not misplaced. It poses questions about limits of empirical inquiry. For Carnap, to pose a question is to give a statement with the task of deciding its truth. Mormann's point forces us to introduce more clarity to what it means to specify the task that decides between competing hypotheses and in what way such a task may be both in practice and/or in principle impossible to carry out.


BACKGROUND: The date palm fruit (Phoenix dactylifera L.) has been known for many health benefits, but its antihyperlipidaemic activity still remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate effects of Birhi date palm fruit, "Khalal" and "Tamr", on serum lipids, body weight and food intake in cholesterol-fed rats. METHODS: Sixty male Sprague–Dawley rats were assigned into 5 cholesterol-free (control) or 5 cholesterol-supplemented (experimental) diets containing 0%, 5% and 10% of either Khalal or Tamr and given ad libitum to the rats for 6 weeks. Serum total cholesterol (TC), low- and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C and VLDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides (TG) were then quantified and other biological parameters were assessed. RESULTS: Compared to control, cholesterol induced significant (p < 0.05) increase in serum LDL-C, TC/TG ratio and atherogenic index and decrease in TG and HDL-C/LDL-C ratio, whereas other lipid fractions, food intake and weight gain were unchanged. In all rats, none of the studied variables were appreciably affected by dates feeding, except for increased (p < 0.05) and linearly responded (r 2 = 0.348, p < 0.01) atherogenic index induced by Khalal. Lipid variables and their calculated ratios that were increased or decreased by cholesterol remained unaffected by dates feeding. CONCLUSON: In normal or cholesterol-fed rats, Birhi Khalal or Tamr exert little or no effect on serum lipids and are ineffective to counteract the atherogenic effect of cholesterol.


Cell-Free Synthesis of Proteins with Unnatural Amino Acids: Exploring Fitness Landscapes, Engineering Membrane Proteins, and Expanding the Genetic Code Song Min Schinn Department of Chemical Engineering, BYU Doctor of Philosophy Unnatural amino acids (uAA) expand the structural and functional possibilities of proteins. Numerous previous studies have demonstrated uAA as a powerful tool for protein engineering, but challenges also remain. Three notable such challenges include: (1) the fitness of uAA-incorporated proteins are difficult to predict and time-consuming to screen with conventional methods, (2) uAA incorporation in difficult-to-express proteins (e.g. membrane proteins such as G-protein coupled receptors) remain challenging, and (3) the incorporation of multiple types of uAA are still limited. In response, we pose cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS), a rapid and versatile in vitro expression system, as a platform to explore solutions to these challenges. The "cell-free" nature of CFPS enables it to accelerate protein expression and tolerate extensive modifications to its translational environment. In this work, these advantages were utilized to address the aforementioned challenges by: (1) rapidly expressing and screening uAA-containing proteins, (2) incorporating uAA in functional G-protein coupled receptor in the presence of membranemimicking lipid additives, and (3) engineer the translational environment extensively towards multiple uAA incorporation.


OBJECTIVE
To asses the efficacy of adjuvant endocrine therapy in ER-positive breast cancer patients after radical mastectomy.

METHODS
369 estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer patients were divided into two groups after radical mastectomy: 1. Endocrine group (N-194). The postmenopausal patients in this group received oral tamoxifen (TAM) for five years and the premenopausal patients were first treated with bilateral ovary ablation and, then, given TAM for five years. 2. The chemotherapy group patients (N-175) received CTX + MTX + 5-Fu + VCR + DXM) (CMFVP) or CTX + MTX + 5-Fu (CMF) multi-drug chemotherapy.

RESULTS
Postmenopausal patients in the endocrine and chemotherapy groups gave disease-free survival rates (DFSR) of 78.4% and 45.4% (P < 0.01). Their overall survival rates were 83.3% and 52.9% (P < 0.05). The premenopausal patients gave DFSR of 72.8% and 35.7% (P < 0.01), and their overall survival rates were 80.7% and 60.6% (P < 0.05). But, no significant difference was observed in the stage I patients and those having > or = 8 axillary lymph node metastases (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION
For ER-positive breast cancer patients, the adjuvant endocrine therapy gives results superior or equal to multi-drug chemotherapy after radical mastectomy.


Spacecraft formation flying is an attractive new concept in international aeronautic fields because of its powerful functions and low cost. In this paper, the formation design and PD closed-loop control of spacecraft formation flying in elliptical orbits are discussed. Based on two-body relative dynamics, the true anomaly is applied as independent variable instead of the variable of time. Since the apogee is considered as the starting point, the six integrating constants are calculated. Therefore, the algebraic solution is obtained for the relative motion in elliptical orbits. Moreover, the formation design is presented and both circular formation and line formation are provided in terms of an algebraic solution. This paper also discusses the PD-closed loop control for precise formation control in elliptical orbits. In this part, the error-type state equation is put forward and the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) method is used to calculate PD parameters. Though the gain matrix calculated from LQR is time-variable because the error-type state equation is time variable, the PD parameters are also considered as constants because of their small changes in simulation. Finally, taking circular formation as an example, the initial orbital elements are achieved for three secondary spacecraft. And the numerical simulation is analyzed under PD formation control with initial errors and J_2 perturbation. The simulation results demonstrate the validity of PD closed-loop control scheme.


• At least 12 European Union member states used publicly created asset management companies (AMCs), otherwise known as a 'badbanks' to respond to the recent financial crisis. This tool remains an option for future bank resolutions under the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive.• We assess the design of AMCs in the recent crisis and why their form has changed. Through its role as definer of statistical concepts used under the Stability and Growth Pact, Eurostat has affected the design of AMCs. Increasingly stringent rulings on whether AMCs count as debt have pushed member states to create similar types of AMCs, namely those with majority private-sector ownership.• We argue that privately owned AMCs act differently to publicly owned ones. In particular, private AMCs usually impose larger haircuts on the price they pay for the assets they acquire. This haspositive benefits for how profitable the AMC will be and how much it will help in avoiding the creation of zombie banks and zombie badbanks.• There are important caveats. The effect of Eurostat's accounting rules on decision-making is stronger in countries with more strained budgets. Also, when the public owns a failed bank, Eurostat rulesare likely to have little impact on AMC ownership decisions. Governments tend to use publicly owned bad banks to resolve publicly owned failed banks. This is because it is difficult to compel private sector involvement in these situations


Solar lentigo (SL) is a representative photoaging skin disorder. Alteration of the main epidermal constituent cells—keratinocytes and melanocytes—in relation to the photoaged dermal environment or chemokine/cytokine network is suggested as its pathogenesis. Among these, we focused on monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), as it is known to be associated with tissue aging. For the first time, we report that the MCP-1 receptor, CCR2, is expressed in normal human melanocytes. In SL tissue, there was an increase of CCR2+Melan A+ melanocytes with positivity to Rb protein compared to peri-lesional normal skin. MCP-1 induced the proliferation of normal human melanocytes without a significant change in the melanin content. MCP-1 treatment in normal human keratinocytes showed an increase in senescence-associated β-galactosidase staining and p53 and p21 protein expressions. In summary, MCP-1 may participate in the development of SL by affecting epidermal constituent cells, for example, by inducing melanocyte proliferation and keratinocyte senescence.


Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is a rather rare cause of myocardial infarction, chest pain, and sudden death.There are currently no known direct causes of this condition.Most of the reported dissections have occurred in the left anterior descending coronary artery.Herein, we report the case of a 58-year-old woman who presented at our institution with an acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction secondary to a spontaneous dissection of the right coronary artery. Primary PCIresolved the occlusion of the artery, and the patient was discharged from the hospital on medical therapy.