The feasibility of the smart voltage extension (SVX) technique featuring complementary high-voltage devices without any modifications of the process steps of an 0.5-/spl mu/m standard CMOS technology is discussed here. This letter focuses on the optimization of the breakdown voltage of the HVNMOS as well as the possible implementation of the HVPMOS. Different high-voltage options with increasing process modification steps are discussed as a function of the required high-voltage capabilities.


Based on the Decree of the Minister of Home Affairs Number 12 Year 2000, Institute for Rural Community Empowerment Yogyakarta is Kementeriaan Technical Implementation Unit of the Interior has the principal task of running some of the tasks of Directorate General of Village Community Empowerment and policy formulation has the function of training programs, community facilitation and evaluation of training programs and ketata administration company. Submission of information about the type of training received by communities and villages throughout the working area of Village Community Empowerment Center includes nine Provinces of Yogyakarta, Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and East Kalimantan was limited in the form of print media that can only display text and images, so that the recipient is less interested in information. Efforts so that information can be interesting candidates for the training of the local working area it is necessary programmed presentation Analysis and Development of Multimedia Based Applications for Delivery Information Media On "Balai Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Desa Yogyakarta Kementerian Dalam Negeri". Multimedia applications have a value of more interactive communication, not only display the material in the form of print media, but are equipped with sound and animations so easy to implement throughout the working area of Village Community Empowerment Center of Yogyakarta.


This thesis investigates the role and use of duration within my audiovisual practice. Its studio investigations developed from a consideration of how audiovisual artworks can be composed in response to the temporal and spatial conditions of their exhibition environment. Specifically, this research considers the experience and creation of audiovisual compositions across three distinct exhibition modes: installation, performance, and publication. In this exegesis, composition is explored as a process of constructing interspaces between audiovisual components, and in relation to particular exhibition modes. Through considering the spatiotemporal characteristics of both visual components (photographic images, projected images, stage presence) and audio components (synthesised audio and sampled audio) a process of composition was developed through practice-based research that highlights the types of interspaces that can be created. The exegesis considers my experience of audiovisual compositions from a phenomenological perspective, with references Merleau-Ponty. This approach acknowledges how my personal subjectivity has informed and influenced my compositions. Artworks were composed in order to address how they could be experienced by the viewer as a form of 'real duration' inspired by Henri Bergson, while Giles Deleuze's notion of the 'crystal image' and Michel Foucault's concept of a 'heterotopia' have been drawn upon in an effort to synthesize the spatiotemporal concerns discussed in this exegesis with a compositional approach that was applied in practice to alter perceived time and perceived space. The research incorporates a significant body of creative work representing the exhibition modes under investigation. The major demonstration of my compositional approach is presented through installation, and highlights the construction of interspaces through works such as 'Everything in its place' and 'The situation we're in', whereas performance allowed temporality to be explored in 'real time'. Works such as 'Untitled audiovisual performance' consider how audiovisual interspaces can be constructed between projected images and the performer. Publication enabled temporal and spatial considerations of the work to be achieved independent of a specific location, as demonstrated through the works 'I need some air' and 'The situation we're in'. While the exegesis highlights key works, all creative outcomes realised as a part of the studio research are documented at the end of the exegesis, along with description of and conceptual motivations and relevant spatiotemporal concerns. This exegesis concludes by considering the importance of the present moment in establishing the atmosphere of an exhibition mode through its focus on 'real duration'. This was demonstrated through key examples from the studio research within the modes of performance and installation, and suggestions are made for how this could be further utilised within publication. It found there was potential for further research to be undertaken in regards to free-improvisation's 'celebration of the moment' and how this could be utilised within the exhibition modes of installation and publication, and finally by considering how synthesized audio can be seen as being temporally engaged with this research through its independence of previously acquired source material.


Provision of effective guidance services requires the support of every  stakeholder, especially, the classroom teachers. Teachers serve as the major link between students and school counsellors while head teachers  remain the key stakeholders in providing resource support and motivation for effective provision of guidance services. The study sought to ascertain  teachers' and heads' understanding of the Guidance Coordinators' roles in Senior High Schools in four (4) districts in the Central region of Ghana and their perceptions of School Guidance Committees. A total of one hundred and twenty (120) teachers and twenty-nine (29) Head Teachers were  selected from twelve (12) schools for the study. Purposive and simple  random sampling techniques were used to select the sample while  frequency tables, percentages and measures of central tendency were employed to analyze the collected data. The study revealed that members of staff are very conversant with accepted roles of the Guidance  Coordinators but they have negative perceptions of School Guidance  Committees. Following this finding, it was recommended that School Head Teachers and Guidance Coordinators should motivate teachers in their  guidance duties while the Ghana Education Service, the District Assemblies and Regional Guidance Coordinators among others, should increase their monitoring and supervision of guidance activities in schools. Keywords : Staff, School Guidance Services, School Guidance Coordinators Roles, Guidance Committees


The acute gastric ulcer rat models were induced by dehydrated alcohol, 0.6 N hydrochloric acid and 0.6 N sodium hydroxide, and the chronic gastric ulcer rat models were established by means of acetic acid, the protective effect of Chinese medicine "Wei Tong Ling" (WTL) on gastric mucous membrane was studied. Using histochemical mucin stain, AgNOR stain and immunohistochemical technique the regenerated mucosa of healed gastric ulcer induced by acetic acid in rats was observed quantitatively. They were compared with that of WTL. The results showed that the regenerated mucosa of healed gastric ulcer might be the morphological basis for the recurrence of gastric ulcer and be associated with canceration. WTL could not only accelerate the healing of ulcer but also raise the quality of gastric ulcerous healing which was beneficial for the prevention of ulcer recurrence and canceration. The protective effect of WTL on gastric mucosa was confirmed by various assays.


T lymphocyte subpopulations were studied in 40 patients with scleroderma (PSS), 26 of whom were studied simultaneously for lymphoproliferative responses to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA), concanavalin A (Con A) and pokeweed mitogen (PWM). PSS patients exhibited a reduction relative to 42 age- and sex-matched controls in the absolute number and percentage of early E rosettes, late E rosettes and E rosettes formed with aminoethylisothiouronium bromide (AET) treated sheep red blood cells. There was no difference between patients and controls in the proportions of B lymphocytes. PSS patients exhibited normal lymphocyte transformation responses to PHA and ConA and an augmented response to PWM. The mitogen responses did not correlate with the absolute number or percentage of lymphocytes or T and B lymphocyte subpopulations. No correlation was observed between any immunological variable studied and the extent of skin or organ involvement, disease duration or therapy.


Determination of innominate bone inclination in standing is frequently assessed in postural analysis of subjects. Currently, no goniometer for objective assessment of innominate bone inclination in standing is commercially available in India. The purpose of this study is to determine the intra-tester and inter-tester reliability and validity of measures taken with a pelvic inclinometer designed indigenously. This study was conducted to determine the intratester and inter-tester reliability and validity of measures taken with a pelvic inclinometer designed indigenously. Pelvic Inclination Angle was measured bilaterally using X-ray and Clinical methods. The intraclass correlation coefficient (KC) for repeated measures of the pelvic inclinometer fixed to a mechanical stand was 0.99. The intertester reliability of using the pelvic inclinometer to determine inclination was ICC = 0.99. In measures of 90 subjects by two testers, the Cronbach's Alpha for intertester reliability was 0.99 and the lCCs for intratester measures was 0.99. Measures by the inclinometer had a high degree of reliability compared with the criterion x-ray measure, ICC= 0.99. Pelvic inclination angle recorded by Pelvin®TM which is indigenously designed pelvic inclinometer is highly reliable and valid to use clinically. Measurement of the inclination of both left and right innominate bones of a subject required only 2 minutes, indicating clinical applicability


In this research report, we present a general scheme for building entirely automatically a morphometric anatomical atlas from 3D medical images (CT-Scan, Magnetic Resonance Imagery). We detail each step of the method, including the non-rigid registration algorithm, 3D feature lines averaging, and statistical processes. We apply the method to obtain a quantitative atlas of crest lines of the skull. Finally, we use the resulting atlas to study a craniofacial disease: we show how we can obtain qualitative and quantitative medical results by contrasting a skull affected by Crouzon's disease with the atlas.


This work examines methods for estimating visibility from satellite imagery, which employ information from the spatial and frequency domains. Properties of luminance and contrast images are derived and compared in both domains. In the past, contrast has traditionally been employed to measure the effects of atmospheric attenuation on visibility. However, the derived results show that the luminance image in either domain contains all the necessary information to calculate standard visibility parameters. Two methods are presented which estimate representative parameters.


Background: The risk-adjusted mortality rate (RAMR) is used widely by healthcare agencies to evaluate hospital performance. The RAMR is insensitive to case volume and requires a confidence interval for proper interpretation, which results in a hypothesis testing framework. Unfamiliarity with hypothesis testing can lead to erroneous interpretations by the public and other stakeholders. We argue that screening, rather than hypothesis testing, is more defensible. We propose an alternative to the RAMR that is based on sound statistical methodology, easier to understand and can be used in large-scale screening with no additional data requirements. Methods: We use an upper-tail probability to screen for hospitals performing poorly and a lower-tail probability to screen for hospitals performing well. Confidence intervals and hypothesis tests are not needed to compute or interpret our measures. Moreover, unlike the RAMR, our measures are sensitive to the number of cases treated. Results: To demonstrate our proposed methodology, we obtained data from the New York State Department of Health for 10 Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs) for the years 2009-2013. We find strong agreement between the upper tail probability (UTP) and the RAMR, supporting our contention that the UTP is a viable alternative to the RAMR. Conclusion: We show that our method is simpler to implement than the RAMR and, with no need for a confidence interval, it is easier to interpret. Moreover, it will be available for all hospitals and all diseases/conditions regardless of patient volume.


Student / learner-created or student / learner-centred / generated content in the teaching of languages for specific purposes (LSP) is one of the possible ways-out of the intricate maze in which LSP lecturers often find themselves when dealing with a professional content different from their own. Lecturers of languages for specific purposes, mostly experts in linguistics or literature of a foreign language, are usually faced with professions different from theirs when they start their LSP adventure and are forced to master to a certain extent the profession whose language they intend to teach. Still, keeping abreast with the latest in a profession different from the LSP lecturers' own is a demanding and often hardly feasible task. Maritime English (ME) is used in an environment to which ME lecturers hardly have access, i.e. on board ocean-going and inland craft worldwide. The lecturer has to take a detour, insist on eliciting information from the professionals in the field and keep pace with the actual language requirements to meet. It still remains difficult to find adequate content for LSP purposes as the lecturer feels like a hurdles runner in a different profession field. Students interested in their future profession can often do better in this sense and should be engaged in the creation of course materials and their presentation in class. LSP lecturers should remain in their own field of the (language) coach, while students should actually run their race through the LSP course. Some ideas based in Maritime English are presented as an example of why and how student-created / centred content has become one of the principal approaches in the teaching / learning of Maritime English at the Faculty of Maritime Studies (FMS) in Split, Croatia and Gdynia Maritime University (GMU) in Gdynia, Poland.


Transcription is common at active mammalian enhancers sometimes giving rise to stable and unidirectionally transcribed enhancer-associated long intergenic noncoding RNAs (elincRNAs). ElincRNA expression is associated with changes in neighboring gene product abundance and local chromosomal topology, suggesting that transcription at these loci contributes to gene expression regulation in cis. Despite the lack of evidence supporting sequence-dependent functions for most elincRNAs, splicing of these transcripts is unexpectedly common. Whether elincRNA splicing is a mere consequence of their cognate enhancer activity or if it directly impacts enhancer-associated cis-regulation remains unanswered. Here we show that elincRNAs are efficiently and rapidly spliced and that their processing rate is strongly associated with their cognate enhancer activity. This association is supported by: their enrichment in enhancer-specific chromatin signatures; elevated binding of co-transcriptional regulators, including CBP and p300; increased local intra-chromosomal DNA contacts; and strengthened cis-regulation on target gene expression. Using nucleotide polymorphisms at elincRNA splice sites, we found that elincRNA splicing enhances their transcription and directly impacts cis-regulatory function of their cognate enhancers. Importantly, up to 90% of human elincRNAs have nucleotide variants that are associated with both their splicing and the expression levels of their proximal genes. Our results highlight an unexpected contribution of elincRNA splicing to enhancer function.


Background In Latin America (LA), there is a high incidence rate of breast cancer (BC) in premenopausal women, and the genomic features of these BC remain unknown. Here, we aim to characterize the molecular features of BC in young LA women within the framework of the PRECAMA study, a multicenter population-based case-control study on breast cancer in premenopausal women. Methods Pathological tumor tissues were collected from incident cases from four LA countries. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed centrally for ER, PR, HER2, Ki67, EGFR, CK5/6 and p53 protein markers. Targeted deep sequencing was done on genomic DNA extracted from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumour tissues and their paired blood samples to screen for somatic mutations in eight genes frequently mutated in BC. A subset of samples was analyzed by exome sequencing to identify somatic mutational signatures. Results The majority of cases were positive for ER or PR (168/233; 72%) and there were 21% triple negative (TN) cases, mainly of basal type. Most tumors were positive for Ki67 (189/233; 81%). In 126 sequenced cases, TP53 and PIK3CA were the most frequently mutated genes (32.5% and 21.4%, respectively), followed by AKT1 (9.5%). TP53 mutations were more frequent in HER2-enriched and TN IHC subtypes, while PIK3CA/AKT1 mutations were more frequent in ER positive tumors, as expected. Interestingly, a higher proportion of G:C>T:A mutations was observed in TP53 gene in PRECAMA cases compared to TCGA and METABRIC breast cancer series (27% vs 14%). Exome-wide mutational patterns in 10 TN cases revealed alterations in signaling transduction pathways and major contributions of mutational signatures caused by altered DNA repair pathways. Conclusions This pilot results on PRECAMA tumors gives a preview of the molecular features of premenopausal BC in LA. Although, the overall mutation burden was as expected from data in other populations, mutational patterns observed in TP53 and exome-wide suggested possible differences in mutagenic processes giving rise to these tumors compared to other populations. Further omics analyses of a larger number of cases in the near future will allow investigating relationships between these molecular features and risk factors.


In order to determine if some marker that can help us to predict complications in patients admitted with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), we prospectively included 228 patients and studied leukocyte count (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT) and midregional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM) in the first 24 hours of their arrival. One hundred and forty six (64%) patients suffered 310 significant complications within first 30 days after hospital admittance. Most frequent complications were: respiratory failure, pleural effusion, left cardiac failure, tachyarritmias, septic shock and mechanical ventilation. We found significant raised levels of MR-proADM (p In ROC analysis the best AUCs were PSI 0.729 and MR-proADM 0.706. The optimal cut-off to predict complications for MR-proADM was 0.833 nmol/L, (sensitivity 67.35%, specificity 66.23%, positive likelihood ratio (LHR+) 1.99 and negative likelihood ratio (LHR-) 0.49. Findings for PSI class 4 and 5, were sensitivity 72.3%, specificity 62.34%, LHR+ 1.92 and LHR- 0.44. Similar results were obtained when we compared patients with and without only respiratory complications. PCT and CRP, and especially MR-proADM and PSI score, appear to be useful in early identification of patients at risk for complications during hospitalization


This work studies the biosurfactants production which enables the diesel biodegradation byusing mixed microbial consortia from polluted sites. It was carried out by culturing three microbial consortia(named as XA, XB and XC) obtained from polluted soils, and enriched in diesel as sole carbon source.Batchexperiments were done to study the effects of three variables (temperature,hydrocarbon concentration and theorigin of the consortia) on the diesel biodegradation and the surface tension evolution. The three enrichedconsortia contained similar bacterial genera and degraded diesel with similar efficiencies (approximately 90%).Thermal inhibition was observed at 35 oC. The evolution of surface tension was similar in all experiments: aninitial fast reduction followed by an increase once the diesel had been consumed. All three consortia were foundto be efficient biosurfactants producers. Consortia XB and XC had similar low biosurfactant yields (1.3 and1.8 g g-1, respectively) and lower critical micelle concentration values (0.42 and 0.45 g L-1, respectively), whileXA generated a greater quantity of biosurfactants (6.9 gg-1). It was noted that the maximum diesel biodegradationrate increased versus the biosurfactants yields. Despite some differences between the consortia due to theirdifferent origins, especially concerning biosurfactants production, the diesel-enrichment process resulted inadapted consortia with similar efficiencies for diesel biodegradation.


The reaction of 15–18 membered benzodiazacrown ethers with salicylaldehyde afforded n-membered O2N2-donor macrocyclic ligands mounted with 1,3-diazacyclohexane subrings (1–4) in high yields. The products were characterized by FT-IR, 1H, 13C NMR spectroscopy, elemental analyses, and single crystal X-ray studies. The solid state structures revealed strong intramolecular hydrogen bonding between the pendant phenolic group and the tertiary nitrogen of the corresponding macroring.


Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to ground in serious empirical evidence the debate on whether the post-reform acceleration in growth has helped bring poverty down for all economic, social and religious groups and in all state or has left certain groups or states. Design/methodology/approach - – The paper uses unit-level data from the so-called thick rounds of expenditure surveys by National Sample Survey (NSS) in the years 1993-1994, 2004-2005, 2009-2010 and 2011-2012 and estimates the proportion of the population below the official Tendulkar line. Adequate care is taken to address the issue of sample size in reporting the estimates. Findings - – Whether we slice the data by social, religious or economic groups, by states or by rural and urban areas, poverty has significantly declined between 1993-1994 and 2011-2012 with a substantial acceleration during the faster-growth period from 2004-2005 to 2011-2012. Poverty rates among the disadvantaged social groups and minorities have declined faster so that the gap in poverty rates between them and the general population has declined. In 7 of the 16 states with large Muslim populations, the poverty rate for them is now below that for the Hindus. Research limitations/implications - – Use of survey data has its limitations, especially when the sample sizes are small. The paper also does not assess the direct contribution of growth in relation to that through redistribution. Practical implications - – The paper presents implications for identification of the poor for the purpose of designing targeted interventions. Originality/value - – This is the first paper to offer up-to-date estimates of poverty by social, religious and economic groups, by states and by rural and urban areas.


Abstract : Research Highlights is published every two months by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. This newsletter provides brief descriptions of AFOSR basic research activities including topics such as research accomplishments, examples of technology transitions and technology transfer, notable peer recognition awards and honors, and other research program achievements. The purpose is to provide Air Force, DoD, government, industry and university communities with brief accounts to illustrate AFOSR support of the Air Force missions.


LED lighting because of high efficiency, long life, friendly environment, as a general lighting of the next generation, has been substituted for incandescent bulb and fluorescent lamp. The proposed system for use of solar battery is the intelligent controller for LED street lights which is improved the method of battery charging and charging efficiency in winter to extend battery life cycle, controlled lighting current according to SoC and in steps. Also, it is implemented emotional lighting which is controlled with the surrounding environment, by using colorful sub LED to take up 10[%] of a source of total light, white LED. As a lab results, the proposed system was implemented functions to adapt to the environmental changes, and improved the charging efficiency and battery life cycle.


The markets-as-networks theorists contend, at least tacitly, the significance of business relationships for the focal firm – that is, business relationships contribute somewhat to the focal firm's survival and growth. We do not deny the existence of significant business relationships but sustain, in contrast to the consensus within the Markets-as-Networks Theory, that relationship significance should not be a self-evident assumption. Significance cannot be a taken-for-granted property of each and every one of the focal firm's business relationships. We adopt explicitly a critical realist position in this conceptual paper and claim that the relationship significance is an event of the business world, whose causes remain yet largely unidentified. Where the powers and liabilities of business relationships (i.e., their functions and dysfunctions) are put to work, inevitably under certain contingencies (namely the surrounding networks and markets), effects result for the focal firm (often benefits in excess of sacrifices, i.e., relationship value) and as a result the relationship significance is likely to be brought about. In addition, the relationship significance can result from the dual influence that business relationships have on a great part of the structure and powers and liabilities of the focal firm, i.e., its nature and scope respectively.


Many computer programs have graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which need good layout to make efficient use of the available screen real estate. Most GUIs do not have a fixed layout, but are resizable and able to adapt themselves. Constraints are a powerful tool for specifying adaptable GUI layouts: they are used to specify a layout in a general form, and a constraint solver is used to find a satisfying concrete layout, e.g. for a specific GUI size. The constraint solver has to calculate a new layout every time a GUI is resized or changed, so it needs to be efficient to ensure a good user experience. One approach for constraint solvers is based on the Gauss-Seidel algorithm and successive over-relaxation (SOR). Our observation is that a solution after resizing or changing is similar in structure to a previous solution. Thus, our hypothesis is that we can increase the computational performance of an SOR-based constraint solver if we reuse the solution of a previous layout to warm-start the solving of a new layout. In this paper we report on experiments to test this hypothesis experimentally for three common use cases: big-step resizing, small-step resizing and constraint change. In our experiments, we measured the solving time for randomly generated GUI layout specifications of various sizes. For all three cases we found that the performance is improved if an existing solution is used as a starting solution for a new layout.


The development and growth of Internet technology with geo-location has promoted the development of China's Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) Services. Twitter-like Sina Weibo has gathered a large number of user check-in data, which contains the geolocation features with temporal information. Weibo data has become a major source of geographic location information, helping to access human to service facilities, social events, disaster activities, and real-estate business. This study selects Wuhan (capital of Hubei province) as the study area and combines the collected micro-blog data (2012-2017), POI data (Hubei Surveying and Mapping Bureau) and OSM road network dataset with remote sensing image data. Through spatial inclusion statistical analysis and Change Detection techniques, time and space of Weibo visit frequency and its influence in major universities and commercial pedestrian streets in Wuhan were carried out. This paper will use the clustering algorithm (K-Means), query analysis technique and density analysis method to generate a time-space density cloud of microblog data for institutes and pedestrian streets to find the socio-economical sites within streets and universities, which is beneficial for real-estate business. Both spatial and statistical analysis indicates that the Wuhan University is the university with the highest number of user's favorite, commentary and content published. All these trend analyses verified through K-mean clustering and change detection techniques to find changes in human mobility patterns of crowds in Wuhan's well-known streets and universities using Google Earth's high-resolution optical imagery. The peak-to-valley analysis of Weibo data reveals past hot events held in Wuhan.


Due to the expected growth in district heating systems in combination with the development of hybrid energy appliances such as heat pumps (HPs) and micro-combined heat and power (CHP) installations, new opportunities arise for the management of multicommodity energy systems, including electricity, heat, and gas. The possibility to convert forms of energy using hybrid energy appliances and exploiting flexibility from local production and consumption can improve the systems' efficiency significantly. This paper extends existing work with a decentralized version of a multicommodity smart energy management system to deal with flexibility and scalability. The system incorporates both heat and electricity, and integrates various types of flexible appliances as well as hybrid energy appliances. To optimally allocate the available resources and its flexibility, the developed multiagent system (MAS) aims to perform optimal supply and demand matching (SDM) of the local resources and flexible appliances, as well as to flatten out the net remaining exchange over time. The proposed method is applied to a test case, where simulation results confirm that the decentralized approach leads to a scalable solution for the management of the multicommodity smart energy system (MC-SES) and performs similar to the centralized approach.


Adolescence is a transitional period between childhood toward adulthood where there growth spurt (growth spurt) physically and psychologically. Entering adolescence will be preceded by the occurrence of sexual maturity. Teens will be faced with circumstances that require adjustments to be able to accept the changes that happened to him. Negative responses about physical changes in adolescents can lead to various effects such as feeling embarrassed, did not want to hang out, feeling awkward with a new look. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of the level of knowledge with self adjusting puberty in girls junior Darul Hijrah Banjarbaru. Types with cross sectional analytic study. The samples in this study were 100 student girls in junior high school DarulHijrah. The results showed that the level of knowledge about puberty girls are in categories A total of 47%. Adjustment teenage girls at puberty is having a negative behavior as much as 61%. Analysis using chi-square test to get the value p = 0.001 <α 0.05. There is a relationship with the knowledge level adjustment teenage girls facing puberty in junior Darul Hijrah Banjarbaru. suggestion to young women to further increase the knowledge about puberty so it can adapt to meet the physical changes that are being experienced.


The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of renal denervation on the blood pressure, plasma renalase content and expression of renalase and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the kidney of spontaneous hypertensive (SH) rats and to explore the mechanism of renal denervation involved in lowering blood pressure. SH rats (n=48) were randomly assigned to baseline, surgery (renal denervation), sham and control groups. WKY rats matched in age (n=12) served as the baseline control group. All rats were housed until they were 12 weeks old. The rats in the baseline group and the WKY group rats were sacrificed, and blood and kidney were collected for examination. In the renal denervation, sham and control groups, the blood pressure was continuously monitored. One and six weeks after renal denervation, 6 rats in each group were sacrificed, and blood and kidney were collected for examination. ELISA was employed to measure the plasma renalase, and western blot analysis was performed to detect the expression of TH and renalase in the kidney. Compared with the WKY rats, SH rats in the baseline group had significantly increased blood pressure and markedly elevated TH protein expression (P<0.05), but dramatically reduced plasma renalase content and protein expression of renalase in the kidney (P<0.05). One week after surgery, the mean arterial pressure and TH protein expression in the surgery group was lowered compared with the baseline group and dramatically reduced when compared with the sham and control groups (P<0.05). In the surgery group, renalase levels were markedly increased compared with the baseline, sham and control groups (P<0.05). Six weeks after renal denervation, the mean arterial pressure and TH levels in the surgery group were significantly increased while the renalase content and expression were markedly reduced compared with those at week 1, however, there were no marked differences among the surgery, sham and control groups (P>0.05). Moreover, no pronounced differences in the above variables were found between the sham and control groups at any timepoint (P>0.05). Renal denervation can lower blood pressure, which may be attributed to the suppression of sympathetic nerves, increase in plasma renalase content and renalase expression in the kidney.


In this study, the relationship between population, elderly population and economic growth is analyzed theoretically, taking into account the demographic change of the Bulgarian population and the more aging phenomenon. Thus, the change in the age structure of the Bulgarian population was investigated and the factors affecting the growth of the relationship between economic growth were investigated. Developed countries are trying to solve the problem of low population growth with migration. Developed countries with younger populations, such as the European Union, also allow dwellings in some periods to dampen the population and prevent the resulting loss of employment. According to a report published by the EU Statistical Institute (Eurostat), it is stated that the number of the population working in the European Union will decrease by an average of 50 million in 2060. When the current migration rate is taken into account, it is predicted that by 2060 the number of people working in European Union countries will be 110 million people less than today's number. Migration in the demographic development of the European Union has a great proposition. If a qualified migration flow is provided, it is foreseen that the deficiencies that will arise in the European Union employment market in the coming years will be eliminated. In this study, attempts were made to determine the size of the changes taking place in the country's economy, depending on the livelihoods in Bulgaria.


Managing innovation in rapidly moving environments, such as Interned-based services, is a major challenge for the consolidated theories on product and service development. The innovation management literature identifies flexibility as the right way for coping with these challenges. By increasing the development process flexibility, it is possible to reduce the development time as well as the time and cost needed for last-minute concept changes. But this is not enough. The product or service must also be flexible after it has been released: A life-cycle flexibility (LCF) must be pursued. Focused on the Italian on-line discount brokers industry, this article is a result of a two-staged research process that started with a qualitative explorative phase (i.e., case-study methodology) and ended with a quantitative explorative one (i.e., questionnaire methodology). It identifies three different LCF dimensions—frequency of adaptation, rapidity of adaptation, and quality of adaptation—and it defines a metric for each of them. Subsequently, it identifies five managerial and organizational practices that increase at least one of the three LCF dimensions: (1) to manage the back-end technological competences; (2) to share the front-end technological competences with external suppliers; (3) to utilize open and standard technologies; (4) to have a low formalization of the new service development (NSD) procedures; and (5) to have high formalization of the NSD organization.


Demographics of co-occurring species can often be diagnosed through population genomic analyses of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). These data can define population structure, gene flow, plus candidate regions in the genome that potentially reflect local adaptations. Importantly, they can gauge if populations are demographically 'open' or 'closed' (i.e., with global or local recruitment). We derived SNPs from double-digest restriction-site associated DNA (ddRAD) to test the demographics of commercially important queen conch (Lobatus gigas) and bonefish (Albula vulpes) from two northeast Caribbean Basin islands (Grand Bahama to the north and Eleuthera to the south). Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that the strong west-to-east current in the Great Bahama Canyon forms a vicariant barrier separating the two islands. We conducted Bayesian assignment tests conducted on putatively neutral (L. gigas=64,863; A. vulpes= 36,206 SNPs) and highly-differentiated outlier SNP datasets (L. gigas=51–88; A. vulpes=79–123, respectively). For conch, both analyses indicated weak structure, substantiating the vicariant hypothesis. However, results for bonefish suggested adult mobility and strong easterly currents as potential drivers for source-sink dynamics. These results, while preliminary, provide templates for future research endeavors with these impacted species. Outlier loci, for example, can potentially place populations of each within a demographic continuum, rather than within a dichotomous 'open'/'closed' framework, as well as diagnose 'source' and 'sink' populations, as herein. These methodologies can then be applies to co-distributed species with similar but less well understood ecologies so as to evaluate basin-wide trends in connectivity and local adaptation.


Two simple numerical models adopted for microcomputer applications and used to analyze groundwater problems are described. The alternating direction implicit method is an iterative procedure used to model relatively large two‐dimensional aquifers on microcomputers. The direct solution model uses a checkerboard numbering pattern of the grid elements to reduce the number of continuity equations and solves the remaining equations simultaneously. The analysis of a water barrier and recovery system for a petroleum products terminal is presented in the paper, and the computation times for both models are compared using IBM, AT&T, and HP microcomputers.


Successful implementation of the quest for sustainable use of the planet requires that human society both reexamine and expand present views of what is sacred and what is not. The most important aspect will be going beyond a homocentric focus to a biocentric emphasis. A unifying theme would be the desire to leave a habitable planet for human descendants and those of other spe- cies. It is unlikely that society can be confident of achieving sustainability until persuasive evidence supporting this belief has existed for several generations. In order for sustainable use of the planet to persist indefinitely, the conditions essential to this state must be morally preserved on sacred grounds. Viewing natural systems as sacred requires not only preventing damage to them but, wher- ever possible, repairing damage to them caused by humankind.


The process of urinary stone removal has undergone several changes over the past decades. In the 1980s ESWL, a new noninvasive in vivo technique, was developed to remove urinary calculi and is currently the best choice of treatment. Treating urinary calculi by ESWL requires a knowledge of the chemical and physical properties of urinary stones so as to obtain the optimum parameters for lithotripsy. The present study examines the estimation of the constituents of urinary stones by different techniques and the determination of acoustic and mechanical properties of these stones. Furthermore, the effect of different pH values of natural urine on the fragility of urinary calculi was also assessed. Urinary stones removed surgically were collected during 1995±1998 and used as samples; in all, 52 stones were collected. All stones collected were analysed biochemically [1], with a few stones analysed by physical methods, i.e. polarization microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared techniques, and the percentage of constituents estimated. Morphological characters were also assessed in a few stones using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The elements present were identi®ed using an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer attached to the SEM. The ultrasonic variables of these stones were measured using a double-probe transmission technique. The velocity of ultrasound in the various urinary stones was measured and found to be 1556±2768 m/s. The ultrasound velocity was highest for stones in which calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) was predominant (>60%), and lowest for those that were predominantly uric acid (>60%) and stones of mixed COM and calcium oxalate dihydrate (COD). The velocity of ultrasound in carbonate apatite (CA) and magnesium ammonium phosphate hexahydrate (MAPH) mixed stones was between the values in COM and uric acid. By measuring the density of these stones, other variables, i.e. acoustic impedance, the pressure amplitude re ̄ection coef®cient, pressure amplitude transmission coef®cient and dynamic modulus of elasticity, were also determined [2]. Microhardness was measured for 30 urinary stones using Vicker's microhardness indenter; the mean value for COM stones was 120.77 kg/mm, and for CA/MAPH mixed stones and for uric acid stones were 44.89 and 73.46 kg/mm, respectively. The value for one stone containing silica was 51.27 kg/mm. The fragility [3,4] of 29 stones was studied in vitro during ESWL; the mean percentage fragility of uroliths exposed to 200 single shocks at 14 kV was 19.2%, 42.2% and 29.9% for calcium oxalate, CA/MAPH and uric acid stones, respectively. Fifteen uroliths chosen randomly were machined to a cylinder to assess the fracture and compressive strength. The fracture strength of ®ve of these stones was measured in a specially designed system which uses the principle of lever arrangement; the fracture strength was 0.89±2.9 MPa. The compressive strengths of the 10 stones studied in Houns®eld test equipment were 2.21±11.18 MPa. Finally, the effect of natural urine of three different pH values (4, 7 and 8) on stone fragility was determined for 20 randomly chosen uroliths. Each stone was cut into four pieces; three were treated in three different pH values of natural urine collected from normal individuals and one was retained as a control. The urine was passed continuously over the stone for 30 days in an in vitro ̄ow apparatus designed to mimic the biological system [5] and the samples assessed for fragility by ESWL. Of the 20 stones tested, 10 were predominantly COM, nine predominantly CA/MAPH, and one uric acid and ammonium urate. The values were compared using Student's t-test between the control and stones treated in the different pHs; for COM stones there were no signi®cant differences, suggesting that pH does not affect their fragility. There was a signi®cant difference from the control in fragility for CA/MAPH stones treated at pH 4 (P<0.001). The one stone of uric acid/ammonium urate was more fragile at pH 8. Thus fragmentation may be easier for stones of CA/MAPH and uric acid when maintained in pH 4 and pH 8, respectively, for a speci®c period and then exposed to shock waves. Therefore, it may be possible to increase the fragility of uroliths in vivo by changing the pH of the urine using drugs or other means, which would be bene®cial both clinically and technically. Uroliths could then be treated cost-effectively and with fewer shocks by ESWL, thereby increasing patients' well-being and reducing electrode wear.


Room temperature photoreflectance (PR) has been performed on five nominally 90 A wide undoped single quantum well (QW) structures in barriers, lattice matched to an InP substrate. The nominal QW Ga composition varies between x = 0.47 and x = 0.68, corresponding to tensile strains between zero and 1.47%, respectively. Room temperature photoluminescence measurements are also performed on the same position on the sample as the PR. Allowed and forbidden interband QW transition energies, given by least-squares fitting to the PR, are found to agree well with theoretical predictions based on an effective mass formalism, including excitonic binding energies and quantum-confined Stark effects. In achieving this agreement, values for the QW composition, thickness and band offset are determined by refining their nominal values. The conduction band offsets are found to range from 0.35 to 0.14 for tensile strains between zero and 1.40%. The energies of the ground state light- and heavy-hole QW transitions increase roughly linearly with tensile strain.


The authors report on two patients in whom Hodgkin disease was revealed by renal complications: nephrotic syndrome in one patient and renal failure with enlarged kidneys secondary to malignant infiltration in the other. In comparison to other lymphomas, renal infiltration is infrequent in Hodgkin disease. Clinical manifestations of renal infiltration are delayed. Renal failure with enlarged kidneys, which is very uncommon, carries a poor prognosis and is often associated with involvement of the lungs. Nephrotic syndrome in Hodgkin disease may be secondary to one of the three following causes: renal vein compression, renal amyloïdosis, or a paraneoplastic syndrome. The latter is the most common cause and is probably ascribable to immunologic disturbances. Among the other complications, infection and the renal consequences of metabolic disorders are mentioned.


Tick identification is important in control of tick-born diseases because tick-borne pathogens are often transmitted by specific tick species. In this study, we determined partial DNA sequences of the mitochondrial 16S rDNA gene (mt-rrs ) for ticks including 7 genera and 39 species, and these ticks were allocated to 113 sequence types. Of the 39 species of ticks, 36 species (92.3%) were distinguishable by phylogenetic analysis of mt-rrs . This result suggests that species identification of ticks based on mt-rrs is a viable alternative to morphological identification. In order to establish a DNA database for identification of ixodid and argasid ticks in Japan, we deposited all sequence data in GenBank (from AB819156 to AB819268).


We screened 10,000 heterocyclic small molecules and identified a novel hit core skeleton of 3-(8-chloro-6-(trifluoromethyl) imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-2-yl)phenyl acetate derivatives. It has been selected as a potential glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R) activator and demonstrated its effects in increasing GLP-1 secretion, and thereby increasing the glucose responsiveness in both in vitro and pharmacology analyses. Further studies are currently underway to optimize the potency and selectivity of 3-(8-chloro-6-(trifluoromethyl)imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-2-yl)phenyl acetate derivatives (hit compounds 2 and 8), and address their in vivo efficacy and therapeutic potential. These molecules may serve as useful evidence showing that compounds with a 3-(8-chloro-6-(trifluoromethyl)imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-2-yl)phenyl acetate moiety are selective GLP-1R agonists, and have potential as anti-diabetic treatment agents.


Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) is an abundant lignocellulosic waste material generated from the palm oil industry. In this study, a locally isolated strain Aspergillus niger EB4 was cultivated on a pre-treated OPEFB as substrate to produce cellulase in the solid-state fermentation (SSF) process. The cellulase recovered was then subjected to a saccharification process. The strain was grown on the pre-treated OPEFB in a 250 ml Erlenmeyer flask and a 192 L tray cabinet bioreactor, at 80% moisture content and incubated for nine days under a static condition. The activities of the crude cellulase extract in the tray bioreactor were 19.02 ± 0.85, 6.36 ± 0.38 and 4.56 ± 0.26 U/g for β-glucosidase, CMCase and FPase, respectively on day 6 of fermentation. These results were similar to the results obtained from the flask experiment. The results demonstrated the feasibility of solid substrate fermentation of the OPEFB in both flask and tray cabinet bioreactor for the cellulase production. The enzymatic hydrolysis of OPEFB at 5% (w/v) was performed by utilizing the partially purified and crude cellulase incubated at 40°C for seven days. The partially purified cellullases hydrolyzed the pre-treated OPEFB and released 7.7 g/l of reducing sugar which corresponded to a 15% conversion.


General attrition rates in drug development pipeline have been recognized as a necessity to shift gears towards new methodologies that allow earlier and correct decisions, and the optimal use of all information accrued throughout the process. The quantitative science of pharmacometrics using pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic models was identified as one of the strategies core to this renaissance. Coupled with Optimal Design (OD), they constitute together an attractive toolkit to usher more rapidly and successfully new agents to marketing approval.The general aim of this thesis was to investigate how the use of novel pharmacometric methodologies can improve the design and analysis of clinical trials within drug development. The implementation of a Monte-Carlo Mapped power method permitted to rapidly generate multiple hypotheses and to adequately compute the corresponding sample size within 1% of the time usually necessary in more traditional model-based power assessment. Allowing statistical inference across all data available and the integration of mechanistic interpretation of the models, the performance of this new methodology in proof-of-concept and dose-finding trials highlighted the possibility to reduce drastically the number of healthy volunteers and patients exposed to experimental drugs. This thesis furthermore addressed the benefits of OD in planning trials with bio analytical limits and toxicity constraints, through the development of novel optimality criteria that foremost pinpoint information and safety aspects. The use of these methodologies showed better estimation properties and robustness for the ensuing data analysis and reduced the number of patients exposed to severe toxicity by 7-fold. Finally, predictive tools for maximum tolerated dose selection in Phase I oncology trials were explored for a combination therapy characterized by main dose-limiting hematological toxicity. In this example, Bayesian and model-based approaches provided the incentive to a paradigm change away from the traditional rule-based "3+3" design algorithm.Throughout this thesis several examples have shown the possibility of streamlining clinical trials with more model-based design and analysis supports. Ultimately, efficient use of the data can elevate the probability of a successful trial and increase paramount ethical conduct.


Young hypophysectomized rats were maintained with chronic indwelling i.v. cannulae attached via swivels to a multichannel pumping system programmed to deliver GH in a continuous or pulsatile pattern for several days. Continuous i.v. infusions of human GH for 5 days produced dose-dependent increases in body weight and tail length, without increasing food intake. A comparison of GH infusions by the s.c. or i.v. route showed that the direct i.v. route was threefold more effective. Pulsatile i.v. infusions of human or bovine GH at two doses (12 or 36 mu./day, eight pulses/day, 5-min duration, every 3 h) produced greater increases in body weight than continuous i.v. infusions of GH at the same daily dose. Continuous infusions of bovine GH produced a lower growth rate in the second of two consecutive 5-day treatment periods, whereas the responses to pulsatile GH did not diminish with time. Both body weight gain and long-bone growth were affected by the frequency of GH pulses; nine pulses per day were more effective than three pulses per day which in turn produced larger growth responses than one pulse per day. Keeping GH pulse frequency constant and varying pulse duration (4, 16 or 64 min) did not affect growth rates. In conclusion, long-term pulsatile i.v. infusions of GH mimic the endogenous secretory pattern, and are most effective when given at the physiologically appropriate pulse frequency.


Farming communities in the Andes have used traditional strategies of risk distribution to deal with the pronounced variability of climate conditions. However, they are undergoing critical transformations due to demographic, economic and social changes that often exacerbate food insecurity. Therefore, the question arises of how agriculturally-based livelihoods may be strengthened in order to facilitate climate-resilient transformations and achieve food security. To address this question, we analysed smallholders' vulnerability to weather extremes and food insecurity in the Peruvian Andes based on household surveys, group discussions and cluster-based pattern analysis. The cluster analysis resulted in a typology of smallholders' vulnerability depicting four typical patterns of household attributes including information on their harvest failure risk, agricultural resources, education level and non-agricultural income. The typology was validated based on both vulnerability outcomes resulting from the exposure to weather extremes and reported causes of vulnerability. Results demonstrate that major strategies to manage climate risks such as the use of diverse agroecological niches and local weather observations have been undermined by resource scarcity, market orientation and increasing off-farm activities. These conditions favour a depletion of assets and, thus, food insecurity. The typology of farmers' vulnerability served to derive entry points for building climate-resilient farming systems. Thus, interventions are required with regard to both the household level and the context in which people live in order to build up of agricultural assets, improve the access to education and open-up livelihood alternatives. In particular, the application of weather forecasts to adjust agricultural management has been intensively discussed. Available forecasts in the study area however do not reflect well the multitude of microclimates created by the mountain topography and have scarcely been integrated into the agricultural decision-making of smallholders. Therefore, high-quality observational data and an improved communication of forecast information would be essential for better managing climate risks. Overall, the validation strengthens the credibility and suitability of our findings for decision-making pertaining to building climate-resilient farming communities in the Andes.


Fuzzy logic principles and neural networks, both being computational intelligence technologies, can be combined to produce synergetic effects through the formation of a unified approach which takes advantage of the benefits and at the same time counterbalances the flaws of the two technologies. In this paper, a fuzzy neural approach, which is characterized by its ability to suggest the appropriate adjustment of product quantity from various suppliers with different quality standards in a supply chain network, is presented. This approach is particularly useful in situations where multiple supply chain partners are involved to achieve the common objective of producing products to the best satisfaction of customer demands at the lowest possible cost. To validate the feasibility of this approach, a test has been conducted based on the proposed fuzzy neural approach with the objective of suggesting the appropriate selection of suppliers and the optimal quantity allocated to them to meet the required quality standards. This paper describes the methodology for the deployment of this proposed hybrid approach to enhance the machine intelligence of a supply chain network with the description of a case study to exemplify its underlying principles.


The luminescence of Si-doped GaAs with electron concentration up to 2.1*1019 cm-3 is investigated. For the epitaxial layers with electron concentration less than 1*1018 cm-3 the donor-acceptor pair luminescence was found to dominate, while at greater concentrations the indirect free electron transitions to the shallow acceptors prevail. The dependence of the luminescence spectra on the doping level was found to be different for two groups of layers. For the first group the spectra shifted to higher energies with increasing electron concentration in agreement with calculations of the Moss-Burstein effect, while for the second group there was almost no shift of the spectra up to n=2.1*1019 cm-3. The measurements of luminescence excitation spectra have shown that the Fermi level is stabilised for the latter group of layers some 40-60 meV above the bottom of the conduction band. The presence of resonant levels in the conduction band of GaAs:Si was included to explain the Fermi-level stabilisation.


Aflatoxin produced by Aspergillus flavus is known to be strongly related to liver injury (hepatocellular carcinoma) and immune system damage involving leukocytes. This toxin suppresses both the cell-mediated immune system and macrophage function, and decreases the production of complement and interferon molecules.

PURPOSE
To evaluate the presence of aflatoxin in infectious lesions as well as how the toxin is taken up by leukocytes.

METHOD
Pathological specimens from a patient who died from aspergillosis caused by aflatoxin-producing A. flavus were used. Anti-aflatoxin B1 antibody was reacted with paraffin-embedded lesion specimens from the heart, kidney, and thyroid gland of the patient and observed microscopically.

RESULT
Positive reactions were detected in fungal elements and leukocytes (neutrophils and macrophages) in inflammatory lesions.

CONCLUSION
Within the patient's body, A. flavus likely produced aflatoxin, which then was taken up by neutrophils and macrophages.These results suggest that leukocyte function and the immune mechanism are locally suppressed by aflatoxin.


. Effective treatment of unbounded domains using artificial truncating boundaries are essential in numerical simulation including unbounded media, such as in the scope of exterior acoustics, sound transmission calculations, ... Among these, Perfectly Matched Layers (PML) have proved to be particularly efficient and flexible, as well as relatively easy to implement using the Finite Element Method (FEM). However, an efficient handling of frequency sweeps is not trivial with such absorbing layers since the formulation inherently contains coupled space-and frequency-dependent terms. Using the FEM, this may imply generating system matrices at each step of the frequency sweep. In this contribution, an approximation is presented in order to allow for efficient frequency sweeps, for instance using Pad´e-based methods as extensively used by the authors in previous contributions. The performance and robustness of the proposed approximation is presented on an acoustic cases. A generic, robust way to truncate the acoustic domain efficiently is also proposed, tested on a range of test cases and for different frequency regions. It is shown that the approximation, based on a sub-interval approximation of a tuning parameter in the frequency range of interest, provides consistently very good results, close to the costly, original formulations. An a priori estimate of a robust choice for this tuning parameter is also introduced, together with a set of empirical recommendations associated with mesh size, domain size and truncation.


After cereals, tubers and roots are the major source of starch for food and industrial uses. Arrowroot refers to any plant of the genus Marantha, but the term is most commonly used to describe the easily digested starch obtained from the rhizomes of Marantha arundinacae. The rhizomes of this herbaceous plant contain about 20% of starch. As few studies exist on arrowroot starch, the objective of this preliminary work was to study the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of arrowroot starch when treated by γ-radiation with doses up to 15 kGy in a 60Co source. The XRD patterns of the arrowroot starch exhibited A-type crystalline arrangements with strong peaks at approximately 15º, 17º, 18ºand 23º (2θ). A slight increase of diffractogram peaks intensity was noticed after the irradiation process. The cristallinity index was calculated using Bruker DIFFRAC.EVA version 4.2 software. Relative crystallinity seems to increase with radiation doses, and this effect is more noticeable at low doses. That can be attributed to different radiation sensitivity among the amorphous and crystalline regions of the arrowroot starch molecule. Present results will contribute to elucidate the behavior under radiation treatment of this starchy component increasingly employed by the food industry.


In the long known nations, such as China, Egypt and Greece, consumption was described soon after man began to make permanent records. Where the disease originated we do not know, but its contagiousness was early suspected. As transportation developed, first through the use of beasts of burden and marching armies, then by sailboats, steamships, railroads, automobiles and finally airplanes, the disease was carried by persons in whom it was unsuspected and by persons who sought recovery of health from an ocean voyage or a change of climate. For a long time there remained parts of the world where tuberculosis did not exist in man or animals. As it was carried to these places it spread among the natives, as it must have originally done in the long civilized countries. In some places it appeared in epidemic form, as manifested by illness of its victims. In all places it was in


This study was conducted to investigate the effects of free-range system (FRS) and conventional cage-rearing system (CRS) on growth performance, carcass yield, meat quality, lymphoid organ indices, and serum biochemistry of Wannan Yellow chickens. At 56 days of age, a total of 640 male chickens were randomly allocated to FRS and CRS groups, each of which included 4 replicates with 80 chickens in each replicate. The experiment lasted from 56 to 112 days of age. The results showed that CRS chickens exhibited better final body weight, average daily feed intake, average daily gain, and feed conversion ratio, whereas FRS chickens showed better breast and leg yields, shear force, meat color, lower drip loss, and decreased abdominal fat deposition. Moreover, the absolute thymus weight and thymus to body weight ratio of FRS birds were significantly higher than those of CRS birds (p < 0.05). Additionally, FRS chickens had significantly reduced glucose, total protein, triglyceride, and cholesterol contents, but enhanced levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the FRS has advantages in breast and leg yields, meat quality, and some serum biochemical parameters of Wannan Yellow chickens, whereas it has negative effects on growth performance.


A trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of an Escherichia coli strain producing alpha-amylase of Bacillus stearothermophilus on growth performance, nutrient use, and the morphology of the small intestine of broilers fed a corn-based diet. One hundred thirty-five 1-d-old chicks (Cobb 500) were randomly divided into 3 groups and treated as follows: (i) basal diet (control); (ii) basal diet and water supplemented with an E. coli strain that produced amylase, and (iii) basal diet and water supplemented with an E. coli strain that produced amylase plus bacterial hemoglobin. At 21 d of age, supplementation of E. coli improved daily gain (P < 0.05) and feed conversion (P < 0.01). At the end of the trial, birds supplemented with water containing bacteria consumed more and grew faster (P < 0.05) and had better feed conversion (P < 0.10) than broilers given no bacteria. Also, the presence of bacteria improved apparent digestibility of organic matter (P < 0.01). However, no effects were detected for CP or fat digestibility. Supplementation with E. coli reduced relative pancreas weight (P = 0.06) but did not affect the weight of the liver (P > 0.05) and length of duedonum, jejunum, ileum, and cecum (P > 0.05). Length of the villi and crypts were significantly increased with bacterial supplementation. Presence of the bacterial hemoglobin gene did not cause a significant difference in changes observed. The data indicated that supplementation of an E. coli strain capable of producing alpha-amylase improved digestibility of nutrients and performance of broilers fed a corn-based diet.


Caloric restriction (CR) is one of the most robust interventions shown to delay aging in diverse species, including rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Identification of factors involved in CR brings a promise of translatability to human health and aging. Here, we show that CR induced a profound change in abundance of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) linked to growth and insulin signaling pathway, suggesting that miRNAs are involved in CR's mechanisms of action in primates. Deep sequencing of plasma RNA extracts enriched for short species revealed a total of 243 unique species of miRNAs including 47 novel species. Approximately 70% of the plasma miRNAs detected were conserved between rhesus monkeys and humans. CR induced or repressed 24 known and 10 novel miRNA species. Regression analysis revealed correlations between bodyweight, adiposity, and insulin sensitivity for 10 of the CR‐regulated known miRNAs. Sequence alignment and target identification for these 10 miRNAs identify a role in signaling downstream of the insulin receptor. The highly abundant miR‐125a‐5p correlated positively with adiposity and negatively with insulin sensitivity and was negatively regulated by CR. Putative target pathways of CR‐associated miRNAs were highly enriched for growth and insulin signaling that have previously been implicated in delayed aging. Clustering analysis further pointed to CR‐induced miRNA regulation of ribosomal, mitochondrial, and spliceosomal pathways. These data are consistent with a model where CR recruits miRNA‐based homeostatic mechanisms to coordinate a program of delayed aging.


The conflict that was started as a civil war in the Soviet Union turned into one of the longest, bloodiest post-Soviet conflicts. Armenia and Azerbaijan is fighting for Nagorno-Karabakh for over a century, have killed more than 300,000 people including military personnel and civilians. Geopolitical factors and ethnic differences between the two are the primary reasons of the dispute. Several mediating parties intervened and tried to bring a peaceful solution to the dispute, but due to the foreign interventions especially Russian and Turkish military support to the warring states have contributed to deteriorate the situation and also escalated the mistrust between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This research article examines the Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, historical background of Nagorno-Karabakh in detail along with the approach of international community towards it. It also evaluates its peace process and the performance of the main state and non-state actors. This article also has the timeline of clashes took place between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh territory.


Cloud service providers (CSP) and cloud consumers often need to forecast the cloud price to optimize their business strategy. However, pricing of cloud services is a challenging task due to its services complexity and dynamic nature of the ever-changing environment. Moreover, the cloud pricing based on consumers' willingness to pay (W2P) becomes even more challenging due to the subjectiveness of consumers' experiences and implicit values of some non-marketable features, such as burstable CPU, dedicated server, and cloud data center global footprints. Unfortunately, many existing pricing models often cannot support value-based pricing. In this paper, we propose a novel solution based on value-based pricing, which does not only consider how much does the service cost (or intrinsic values) to a CSP but also how much a customer is willing to pay (or extrinsic values) for the service. We demonstrate that the cloud extrinsic values would not only become one of the competitive advantages for CSPs to lead the cloud market but also increase the profit margin. Our approach is often referred to as a hedonic pricing model. We show that our model can capture the value of non-marketable features. This value is about 43.4 percent on average above the baseline, which is often ignored by many traditional cloud pricing models. We also show that Average Annual Growth Rate (AAGR) of Amazon Web Services' (AWS) is about -20.0 percent per annum between 2008 and 2017, ceteris paribus. In comparison with Moore's law (-50 percent per annum), it is at a far slower pace. We argue this value is Moore's law equivalent in the cloud. The primary goal of this research is to provide a less biased pricing model for cloud decision makers to develop their optimizing investment strategy.


Ten male alcoholics aged 38-72 years with clear clinical and electroneurographical signs of peripheral neuropathy were re-examined three to five years later. Conduction velocities, latencies and nerve action potential amplitudes were measured from median, peroneal and sural nerves on both occasions and the results were compared with age-matched reference values from 80 healthy men. Seven of the alcoholics showed normal or nearly normal scores in electroneurographical and clinical examination and they had all managed to stop drinking alcohol. The results suggest that the prognosis of alcoholic peripheral neuropathy is good and independent of age provided that intake of alcohol is discontinued and other causes of neuropathy (malignancy, diabetes, nerve trauma) are carefully excluded.


When a short, high peak-power laser pulse is focused on a material surface, vigorous material removal called ablation occurs. The ablation process is one of the major processes for laser microfabrication. We have observed a dynamics of infrared laser ablation process of copper, zinc and aluminum by a stroboscopic imaging technique with a few nanoseconds time resolution and found a growth of jet-like plasma during the laser pulse duration.Output of Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers passed through a doubling crystal contains the fundamental and doubled radiation; the former was used as ablation pulse and the latter as illumination light. Metal targets were irradiated in air, argon or helium environment. Image was photographed by a gated CCD camera with a band pass filter at 532 nm from a tilted direction while the ablation laser hit perpendicular to the surface and the illuminating light hit at 60 degrees to the normal. Interval between ablating and illuminating laser pulses was varied by optical delay line.When the laser fluence is high, a jet-like plasma column growing toward the incoming laser beam direction is observed. Its growth speed during the laser pulse duration is of 100 km/s, which is significantly faster than shock wave propagation under atmospheric pressure. The speed slows down to about 10 km/s when the pulse is terminated. The growth speed dependence on laser fluence and the effects of metal properties and gas environment are examined.A possible mechanism of the jet formation would be laser-induced breakdown of environment gas triggered by electrons ejected from the sample surface at very beginning of the laser pulse.When a short, high peak-power laser pulse is focused on a material surface, vigorous material removal called ablation occurs. The ablation process is one of the major processes for laser microfabrication. We have observed a dynamics of infrared laser ablation process of copper, zinc and aluminum by a stroboscopic imaging technique with a few nanoseconds time resolution and found a growth of jet-like plasma during the laser pulse duration.Output of Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers passed through a doubling crystal contains the fundamental and doubled radiation; the former was used as ablation pulse and the latter as illumination light. Metal targets were irradiated in air, argon or helium environment. Image was photographed by a gated CCD camera with a band pass filter at 532 nm from a tilted direction while the ablation laser hit perpendicular to the surface and the illuminating light hit at 60 degrees to the normal. Interval between ablating and illuminating laser pulses was varied by optical delay line.When the...


Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) consists of diverse strains differing in genetic make-up and virulence potential. To better understand the pathogenicity potential of STEC carried by the wildlife, three STEC and one E. coli strains isolated from wild birds near a major agricultural region in California were selected for comparative pathogenomic analyses. Three American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) strains, RM9088, RM9513, and RM10410, belonging to phylogroup A with serotypes O109:H48, O9:H30, and O113:H4, respectively, and a red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) strain RM14516 in phylogroup D with serotype O17:H18, were examined. Shiga toxin genes were identified in RM9088 (stx1a), RM10410 (stx1a + stx2d), and RM14516 (stx2a). Unlike STEC O157:H7 strain EDL933, none of the avian STEC strains harbored the pathogenicity islands OI-122, OI-57, and the locus of enterocyte effacement, therefore the type III secretion system biogenesis genes and related effector genes were absent in the three avian STEC genomes. Interestingly, all avian STEC strains exhibited greater (RM9088 and RM14516) or comparable (RM10410) cytotoxicity levels compared with EDL933. Comparative pathogenomic analyses revealed that RM9088 harbored numerous genes encoding toxins, toxins delivery systems, and adherence factors, including heat-labile enterotoxin, serine protease autotransporter toxin Pic, type VI secretion systems, protein adhesin Paa, fimbrial adhesin K88, and colonization factor antigen I. RM9088 also harbored a 36-Kb high pathogenicity island, which is related to iron acquisition and pathogenicity in Yersinia spp. Strain RM14516 carried an acid fitness island like the one in EDL933, containing a nine gene cluster involved in iron acquisition. Genes encoding extracellular serine protease EspP, subtilase cytotoxin, F1C fimbriae, and inverse autotransporter adhesin IatC were only detected in RM14516, and genes encoding serine protease autotransporter EspI and P fimbriae were only identified in RM10410. Although all curli genes were present in avian STEC strains, production of curli fimbriae was only detected for RM9088 and RM14516. Consistently, strong, moderate, and little biofilms were observed for RM9088, RM14516, and RM10410, respectively. Our study revealed novel combinations of virulence factors in two avian strains, which exhibited high level of cytotoxicity and strong biofilm formation. Comparative pathogenomics is powerful in assessing pathogenicity and health risk of STEC strains.


Dialysis is associated with frequent hospitalisations. Studies comparing hospitalisations between peritoneal dialysis (PD) and haemodialysis (HD) report conflicting results and mostly analyse data of patients that remain on their initial dialysis modality. This cohort study compares hospitalisations between PD and HD patients taking into account transitions between modalities.


The Future of Sustainability, the tenth and final volume of the Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability, brings together essays from a group of renowned scholars and well-known environmentalist thinkers. Crucial topics are considered in terms of the future of humanity and its relationship with the natural world, from the outlook for nuclear energy, cities, energy, agriculture, water, food security, mobility, and migration; the role of higher education; and the concept of collective learning. The volume concludes with a resource guide for teaching materials at several levels, a directory of leading undergraduate- and graduate-level programs in sustainability, and a combined index of the 10-volume set.


Acquired chest wall deformities are rarely encountered. Most of them result from pathologic process within the thorax, chest wall disease, iatrogenic deformities or post-traumatic. We present a case of a huge axillary mass deforming the chest wall. Surgery treated a well-encapsulated lipoma. Six months postoperatively, the chest wall restored to normal shape with active respiratory physiotherapy. This is the first reported case of spontaneous 'remodelling' of the chest wall without surgery.


plaining it as a solar disc; Egyptian cult is influential here, and a similar sign represents the sun in Egyptian hieroglyphs: see Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar', 485. The author's ingenuity must certainly be admired in his attempt to relate the stela of Naram-Sin to ideas which he associates with the Dioscuri or with white and black shamans. For sheer speculative bravura it is hard to beat the interpretation of a scarab from Gaza (c. 1800 B.C.) as representing 'a group that practised something like Kundalini yoga and consisted of a master and twelve disciples'. Indian traditions are richly deployed throughout, and while the exposition is often instructive in itself, only vague suggestions are made as to possible historical connections with Western Asiatic material. One recalls Dumezil's thesis about the debt of Roman religion to an IndoEuropean matrix; Butterworth, however, is dealing mainly with non-Indo-European cultures. A discussion of the Garden of Eden begins firmly and relevantly with the 'Tree of Life' and the 'tree of knowledge of good and evil', but the theme is soon abandoned for an analysis of the realization of nakedness on the part of Adam and Eve. Because shamans are often naked when they shamanize, the offence of Adam and Eve, it is argued, was they had 'cultivated a practice, at least akin to shamanising . . .'. If this seems wildly improbable, one has at least been conditioned, by the end, to avoid an excess of astonishment when the Lotharkreuz at Aachen (<?. A.D. 1000) is compared, initially, with the bronze plaque from the Psychro cave in Crete (Late Minoan I, c. 1500 B.C.). The parallel elements stressed are the tree, the dove, the sun, and the moon. On the Lotharkreuz the cross has a serpent figured round its base; clearly it is identified with Eden's Tree of Life. Butterworth is prepared to admit that changes in symbolism have occurred in the vast interim; thus, if the dove in Crete was 'originally the spirit of the tree', now it is 'the victorious spirit of the Christ'. Nor does he neglect entirely the artistic background that is closer in time and space. Yet this background demands fuller attention—a point which may be applied to much else in the book. For instance the sun and the moon were personified on crucifixes to denote the sorrowing creation: see the processional cross (A.D. xii) in Bonn reproduced in Aus rheinischer Kunst und Kttltur (Landesmuseum, Bonn, 1963), fig. 106 and p. 137.


For the purposes of this study, the Leadership Practices Inventory was administered to 82 superintendents in Texas and data including demographic information regarding the district size, gender, and age of the participants was collected. Superintendents in Texas were selected for two reasons: the study met the needs of universities in Texas, and the superintendent pool in Texas contains a wide variety of school sizes and demographics. The Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) was selected because the validity and reliability has been assessed nationally and because it measures individual leadership practices rather than theoretical applications. The goal of this study is to look at practices and behaviors of women compared to men in the superintendency.


This paper proposes a new image registration method using no reference image. The proposed method embeds a two dimensional tracking pattern to the Fourier magnitude domain of an image to generate a stego image, by data hiding scheme based on a log-polar mapping. Once a stego image is geometrically deformed, this method estimates rotation angle and resizing scale by correlation between the original and extracted tracking patterns, then it compensates the deformed image without using any reference image. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


We present a case of a 11-deoxycorticosterone (DOC)-producing adrenocortical tumor. A 55-year-old female was admitted to our hospital with the chief complaints of sustained hypertension and weakness of lower extremities. A laboratory study revealed a decrease in the serum potassium level and plasma renin activity, a normal level of plasma aldosterone and a significant elevation of plasma DOC and 18-OH-DOC levels. The plasma DOC level was increased by ACTH stimulation and was not suppressed by dexamethasone. The tumor appeared at a low intensity of the T1 weighted image of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and at a high intensity on the T2 weighted image. Left adrenalectomy was performed and histological examination revealed a benign adrenal adenoma. Postoperatively, the abnormal blood pressure, serum potassium level and plasma level of DOC and 18-OH-DOC became normal.


INTRODUCTION AND AIMS
Syringe distribution policies continue to be debated in many jurisdictions throughout the USA. The Baltimore Needle and Syringe Exchange Program (NSP) operated under a 1-for-1 syringe exchange policy from its inception in 1994 through 1999, when it implemented a restrictive policy (2000-2004) that dictated less than 1-for-1 exchange for non-program syringes.

DESIGN AND METHODS
Data were derived from the Baltimore NSP, which prospectively collected data on all client visits. We examined the impact of this restrictive policy on program-level output measures (i.e. distributed : returned syringe ratio, client volume) before, during and after the restrictive exchange policy. Through multiple logistic regression, we examined correlates of less than 1-for-1 exchange ratios at the client level before and during the restrictive exchange policy periods.

RESULTS
During the restrictive policy period, the average annual program-level ratio of total syringes distributed : returned dropped from 0.99 to 0.88, with a low point of 0.85 in 2000. There were substantial decreases in the average number of syringes distributed, syringes returned, the total number of clients and new clients enrolling during the restrictive compared to the preceding period. During the restrictive period, 33 508 more syringes were returned to the needle exchange than were distributed. In the presence of other variables, correlates of less than 1-for-1 exchange ratio were being white, female and less than 30 years old.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
With fewer clean syringes in circulation, restrictive policies could increase the risk of exposure to HIV among Injection Drug Users (IDUs) and the broader community. The study provides evidence to the potentially harmful effects of such policies.


We develop a framework to discuss the stability of epigenetic states as first exit problems in dynamical systems with noise. We consider in particular the stability of the lysogenic state of the lambda prophage. The formalism defines a quantitative measure of robustness of inherited states.


In this PhD thesis, we address the problem of giving simultaneous confidence statements about local features of the diffusion of an Ito process. To this end, we construct a multiscale test based on weighted quadratic variation and prove that the test statistic can be strongly approximated by a sequence of Gaussian martingales which are distribution-free. Further, we give optimality results and present different visualization methods.

In the second part of the thesis, we extend the approach to data corrupted by additive noise to cover applications from high-frequency finance. Additionally, we show which difficulties arise from real data and apply our method exemplarily to prices of Euro-Bund-Futures (FGBL).

As an outlook for future work, we present ideas of generalizing the method to inference on the local covariance and point out some interesting applications from finance.


AIMS
We examined the impact of workplace relationships (perceived organizational support, supervisor-nurse relationships and teamwork) on the engagement, well-being, organizational commitment and turnover intentions of nurses working in Australian and USA hospitals.

BACKGROUND
In a global context of nurse shortages, knowledge about factors impacting nurse retention is urgently sought. We postulated, using the Social Exchange Theory, that nurses' turnover intentions would be affected by several factors and especially their relationships at work.

DESIGN
Based on the literature review, data were collected via a self-report survey to test the hypotheses.

METHODS
A self-report survey was used to gather data in 2010-2012 from 510 randomly chosen nurses from Australian hospitals and 718 nurses from US hospitals. A multi-group structural equation modelling analysis identified significant paths and compared the impact between countries.

RESULTS
The findings indicate that this model was more effective in predicting the correlations between variables for nurses in Australia compared with the USA. Most paths predicted were confirmed for Australia, except for the impact of teamwork on organizational commitment and turnover, plus the impact of engagement on turnover. In contrast, none of the paths related to supervisor-subordinate relationships was significant for the USA; neither were the paths from teamwork to organizational commitment or turnover.

CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that well-being is a predictor of turnover intentions, meaning that healthcare managers need to consider nurses' well-being in everyday decision-making, especially in the cost-cutting paradigm that pervades healthcare provision in nearly every country. This is important because nurses are in short supply and this situation will continue to worsen, because many countries have an ageing population.


Abstract Field studies were conducted in 2007 and 2008 at Clinton and Faison, NC, to evaluate the influence of Palmer amaranth density on 'Beauregard' and 'Covington' sweetpotato yield and quality and to quantify the influence of Palmer amaranth on light interception. Palmer amaranth was established at 0, 0.5, 1.1, 1.6, 3.3, and 6.5 plants m−1 within the sweetpotato row and densities were maintained season-long. Jumbo, number (no.) 1, and marketable sweetpotato yield losses were fit to a rectangular hyperbola model, and predicted yield loss ranged from 56 to 94%, 30 to 85%, and 36 to 81%, respectively for Palmer amaranth densities of 0.5 to 6.5 plants m−1. Percentage of jumbo, no. 1, and marketable sweetpotato yield loss displayed a positive linear relationship with Palmer amaranth light interception as early as 6 to 7 wk after planting (R2  =  0.99, 0.86, and 0.93, respectively). Predicted Palmer amaranth light interception 6 to 7, 10, and 13 to 14 wk after planting ranged from 47 to 68%, 46 to 82%, and 42 to 71%, respectively for Palmer amaranth densities of 0.5 to 6.5 plants m−1. Palmer amaranth height increased from 177 to 197 cm at densities of 0.5 to 4.1 plants m−1 and decreased from 197 to 188 cm at densities of 4.1 to 6.5 plants m−1; plant width (69 to 145 cm) and shoot dry biomass plant−1 (0.2 to 1.1 kg) decreased linearly as density increased. Nomenclature: Palmer amaranth, Amaranthus palmeri S. Wats. AMAPA; sweetpotato, Ipomoea batatas L. Lam. 'Beauregard' and 'Covington' IPOBA


Symplectic mathematics is introduced into the thermoacoustic network model. The transferring matrix of thermoacoustic system is analyzed, and the transferring matrix of working gas in isothermal fluid pipe of thermoacoustic system is a symplectic matrix. The transferring matrix of working gas in regenerator of thermoacoustic system is not a symplectic matrix, but it can be converted into a symplectic matrix by variable transformation. With variable transformation, the whole transferring matrix of thermoacoustic system can be represented by a symplectic matrix. The form of symplectic matrix is conducible to analyzing and calculating the thermoacoutic network model.


Purpose : Although endobronchial ultrasonography with a guide sheath is becoming a common procedure for the diagnosis of peripheral pulmonary lesions, there remain to be some inaccuracies in cases wherein the probe is located outside the lesion. We tested whether adding transbronchial needle aspiration through a guide sheath to the conventional technique increases efficacy for diagnosing peripheral pulmonary lesions. Methods : We performed transbronchial needle aspiration through a guide sheath for 37 subjects with peripheral pulmonary lesions between September 2012 and April 2013. The devices used were as follows (all Olympus Ltd.): bronchoscope with wide working channel (1T-260 or LF-TP), guide sheath measured 2.2 mm in diameter (K203 kit) and 13 mm length 21-G needle without side hole set through a metallic sheath (NA-1C-1)., The guide sheath was customized by cutting 30 mm from the proximal end to fit well with the needle. Results : The endobronchial ultrasound probe was located within the lesion in 21 cases (56.8%) and outside in 16 cases (43.2%). Overall accuracy was 86.5 percent; 90.5% in "within" cases compared to 81.3% in "outside" cases with no significant difference (P = 0.42). Pneumothorax occurred in 2 cases and pneumonia in 1 case. Conclusion : Transbronchial needle aspiration through a guide sheath is an effective and safe diagnostic procedure for peripheral pulmonary lesions, especially when the guide sheath is outside the lesion.


disease and stroke which, as well as individual pain and suffering and shortened life, create a burden for the state in the form of health care costs and lost economic production; diseases linked to overweight and obesity account for around 5% of total health care costs in Europe, and at least as much again in lost economic production. In this context it is no surprise that healthy eating has become a major public health concern, prompting many European Member States to take measures to improve their citizens' diets. Neither is it a surprise that governments are at least paying lip-service to a desire that their interventions should be evidence-based, meaning there should be evidence that they are effective and cost effective. Probably, though less explicitly stated, politicians would like evidence that interventions will be acceptable to the public. These wishes are more complex than appears at first sight.


Nations with strong research universities are better able to compete in the international marketplace of ideas and innovation. Any country-especially in the developing world-striving to participate in the global knowledge economy must recognize the power of such institutions to transform society. In World Class Worldwide, analysts from developing and middle-income countries in Asia and Latin America explore their countries' specific challenges in providing "world class" higher education. Philip G. Altbach, Jorge Balan, and their contributors combine current scholarship and practical experience in presenting a comprehensive discussion of the significant issues facing research universities in Mexico, China, India, and elsewhere. They address the special challenges of establishing and maintaining these institutions; the role of information technology; how research universities train leaders and foster scientific innovation; and the extent to which the private sector can and should be involved in funding and development.


The neural attention model has achieved great success in data-to-text generation tasks. Though usually excelling at producing fluent text, it suffers from the problem of information missing, repetition and "hallucination". Due to the black-box nature of the neural attention architecture, avoiding these problems in a systematic way is non-trivial. To address this concern, we propose to explicitly segment target text into fragment units and align them with their data correspondences. The segmentation and correspondence are jointly learned as latent variables without any human annotations. We further impose a soft statistical constraint to regularize the segmental granularity. The resulting architecture maintains the same expressive power as neural attention models, while being able to generate fully interpretable outputs with several times less computational cost. On both E2E and WebNLG benchmarks, we show the proposed model consistently outperforms its neural attention counterparts.


It is important to observe a person behavior in various scenes using a simple system. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method to distinguish people by differences of the characteristics of walking.(gait) This method can acquire the characteristic of walker using the head, shoulder, hands and feet.


The Jews from Aleppo, Syria, and their descendants compose a remarkable but little-known community that has spread throughout the world during the past two centuries, adapting to myriad social settings from Kobe to Buenos Aires. A Global Community is the first comprehensive scholarly interpretation of the historical experience of this unusual community in Syria and in the other places to which Aleppan Jewry have immigrated. Walter P. Zenner points to the social, economic, and cultural links that the various Syrian Jewish communities have made for the unique persistence of community throughout the diaspora. He places special emphasis in the communities in Israel and the United States but also studies the communities in England and Latin America. He utilizes rabbinical responsas, travelers' writings, secondary sources, interviews, and oral histories to provide a unique look into this Middle Eastern Jewish community for those interested in Ashkenazic as well as Sephardic Judaism.


Sandhi means to join two or more words to coin new word. Sandhi literally meansputting together' or combining (of sounds), It denotes all combinatory sound-changes effected (spontaneously) for ease of pronunciation. Sandhi-vicheda describes (5) the process by which one letter (whether single or cojoined) is broken to form two words. Part of the broken letter remains as the last letter of the first word and part of the letter forms the first letter of the next letter. Sandhi- Vicheda is an easy and interesting way that can give entirely new dimension that add new way to traditional approach to Hindi Teaching. In this paper using the Rule based algorithm we have reported an accuracy of 60-80% depending upon the number of rules to be implemented.


Adaptation and stability analysis of grain yield of eleven bean (Phaseolus vulgarisL.) genotypes were performed using data collected from trials carried out in 23 locations of Rio Grande do Sul State (Brazil), from 1988/89 to 1993/94, comprising 72 environments. The objective was to identify the best genotypes for cultivation throughout the state as well as for breeding purposes. Genotypes, were Rio Tibagi, Guateian 6662, EMPASC201, FT 120, Macanudo, Pampa, Minuano, Macotaco, CNF 5491, Carioca and Irai. Segmented regression method with estimated join point was used. Absence of significant alteration of the genotype individual linear response rates indicated the linear regression method as appropriate for this study. All genotypes presented significant regression deviation, characterizing phenotypic instability. Genotypes differed in regard to average yield and response rate, being classified as: Minuano, Macotaco, CNF 5491 and Macanudo of general adaptation; Rio Tibagi, Pampa and Irai of poor adaptation to all environments; Guateian 6662 and EMPASC201 of specific adaptation to poor environments; genotypes FT 120 and Carioca of average adaptation to all environments. These results pointed out Minuano, Macotaco, CNF 5491 and Macanudo as the most productive and best adapted to the considered environments. These genetically related genotypes displayed similar adaptability among themselves and different from the others as well as no differential stability from some of them.


The emergence of information and communication technology (ICT), especially in developing countries, can best be described as epochal. This is mainly because of the socio-economic transformation it has brought about. Virtually every aspect of modern life has been touched by ICT: countries have witnessed massive injection of funds through direct foreign investment, banking operations have been revolutionised, hitherto unknown employment creation opportunities have become a reality, business operations have been enhanced without the necessity for physical contact, and vehicular movement has been enhanced in many countries. In many developing countries, the traditional drawbacks of poor infrastructure have been largely overcome through the deployment of ICT. In many African countries, however, the actual impact of ICT on socio-economic development has yet to be studied in any systematic way – a lapse attributable in part to the fast pace of change that characterises the ICT sector, but also to the fact that compared to the developed countries, African countries still lag behind in ICT investment, and the low-level of support by government and the private sector to research devoted to track development trends. This paper explores current literature on the impact of ICT on socio-economic transformation based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of Fred D Davis (1989). Focusing on Nigeria, but with lessons drawn from South Africa and other African countries, the paper highlights, among other things, the factors that enhance or inhibit the contributions that ICT could make in the country's drive to transform the economy.