Turkey is in the semi-arid semi-humid mid-latitude region. Therefore, drought, one of the destructive effects of climate change, is a fundamental problem for the country, part of which is in the semi-arid climate zone. To evaluate the drought of Siirt province in Turkey, a total of 792 time series were evaluated. In this study, meteorological drought analysis was carried out in Siirt province, located in the Southeastern Anatolia region, monthly and annual periods using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) method and SPEI. Meteorological data (temperature, evaporation, and precipitation) from Siirt province between 1957-2022 were used. The results showed that the monthly and annual values of SPI and SPEI showed almost similar results at the selected stations for annual time scales. Although there were periods of severe drought, normal drought levels were observed in the overall average. The wet and dry periods were identified, and the results were presented graphically. As a result, the trend results in the region will contribute to the water resources planning management.


Currently the Internet is a way of communication that companies increasingly use as part of its strategy of marketing and advertising. Online advertising is currently the only source of income for many websites. Companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft recognise the potential of online advertising and are currently considered as the main online advertising agencies. North America Equity Research[1] estimates that Google's growth in 2009 will be around 55%.Due to its increasing importance and the large amount of money that online advertising generates, it has been target of fraud. AuditMark is a company that develops security solutions and web audit services such as online advertising campaigns and Web traffic analysis. This company acts as a regulator of online advertising. The activities of AuditMark require the management of much information. This information should then be available to customers, advertisers, so they can manage their advertising the best way. The objective of this project is to develop a web application to control AuditMark's auditing system. This application will be a custom tool to control this workflow. This tool will allow all the information to be available for their clients anywhere, at any time, only at a distance of a click.


Abstract Patients with metastatic bone cancer report life-altering pain. Nerve growth factor is involved in pain signaling. Tanezumab, a nerve growth factor monoclonal antibody, has demonstrated efficacy in chronic pain. Placebo-controlled parent (NCT00545129; study 1003) and noncontrolled open-label extension (NCT00830180; study 1029) studies evaluated efficacy and safety of tanezumab in patients with painful bone metastases taking daily opioids. Patients in study 1003 received a single intravenous injection of 10 mg tanezumab or placebo and were followed up to 16 weeks. Efficacy analyses included change from baseline in daily average and worst pain at week 6 on an 11-point numeric rating scale. At week 8, patients could enroll in study 1029 and receive 4 infusions of 10 mg tanezumab at 8-week intervals with follow-up to 40 weeks. Safety assessments included adverse events and physical and neurologic examinations. Overall, 59 patients were randomized and treated (placebo, n = 30; tanezumab, n = 29). At the primary endpoint of study 1003, least squares mean (SE) difference in change from baseline in daily average pain vs placebo was −0.26 (0.45; P = 0.569). Post hoc analyses suggested that tanezumab had greater efficacy in patients with lower baseline opioid use and/or higher baseline pain. Mean (SE) pain scores in study 1029 were reduced through week 40 compared with study 1029 or 1003 baselines (−0.21 [0.76] and −1.27 [0.68], respectively). Adverse event incidence of study 1003 was similar between groups. Although the primary endpoint was not achieved, tanezumab may provide additional sustained analgesia in patients with metastatic bone pain taking daily opioids. Additional larger studies are warranted.


Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can non- invasively monitor the migratory behavior of magnetically labeled stem cells after transplantation. Signal changes associated with the clearance of the contrast agent due to cell death and leaked tracer in the interstitial space must be better understood in order to accurately interpret imaging results. In this study, fetal neural stem cells were labeled with superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) particles and transplanted into the corpus callosum of the adult rat. MRI was performed on the day of transplantation and at one week. Control subjects received injections of either non-viable, labeled cells or loose SPIO particles. Two quantitative image analysis algorithms were developed to evaluate imaging results: 1) signal intensity drop-out areas were segmented and compared on a pixel-wise basis between initial and one week images; and 2) signal intensity profiles of transplanted materials at one week were parametrically modeled to estimate migration speed. Segmentation results showed that the number of pixels segmented at one week was significantly greater than the initial number of segmented pixels for subjects receiving injections of viable cells as compared to controls (p<0.05). The average speed of migration of viable cells along the corpus callosum was 69.2plusmn41.1 mum/d and was significantly higher than controls (p<0.05). This study demonstrates an in vivo assay to quantitatively evaluate stem cell migration that can be used in different experimental paradigms.


The United States Environmental Protection Agency models CORMIX2 and UM were used to predict the ambient temperature rises from thermal discharges near Charlestown, Rhode Island, and Jamesport, Long Island, New York. Observations from two scaled model laboratory studies conducted at Alden Research Laboratories Inc. (ARL) were compared with temperature rise predictions from two numerical models. For the ARL diffuser at Jamesport, both numerical models underestimated the observed temperature rises. In the Charlestown study, UM produced results that were in good agreement with the temperature rises observed, whereas CORMIX2 underpredicted observations but remained within the model's stipulated ±50% error. However, UM was unable to model the plume shape properly, since it is primarily intended for alternating diffusers. The predicted wastefield shapes of CORMIX2 were similar to those observed in the laboratory but of greater surface area. Key words: multiport diffusers, thermal discharges, initial dilution.


Objective: The assessment of laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) and open appendectomy (OA) in patients with noncomplicated (NCA) and complicated appendicitis (CA) was aimed for. Material and Methods: Of 279 patients with appendectomy, 135 had NCA (48.3%) (49 underwent LA) (86M, 49F, median 9 years and144 had CA (51.7%) (23 underwent LA) (98M, 46F, median 11 years). Outcome measures: Wound infection (WI), intraabdominal abscess (IA), postoperative ileus (PI), requirement of reoperation (RO), time of surgery (TOS), length of stay (LOS), duration of postoperative pain (PP), nasogastric tube (NT), intraperitoneal drainage (ID) were recorded. Results: Between OA and LA groups, there was no statistical significance in WI(3/86 vs 0/49), IA(2/86 vs 0/49), RO(2/86 vs 2/49), and PI rate (1/86 vs 2/49) in NCA group (p>0.05). The LOS(3±1.4 vs 4±1.3), NT (1.2±0.9 vs 1.8±0.6 days) and PP(0.9±0.9 vs 2.3±1.1 days) were lower in LA than OA (p 0.05). In CA, patients with LA had less WI(0/23 vs 18/121) (p<0.05). NT (2±0.8 vs 2.7±1.5), PP (2.1±1.2 vs 3.2±1.5) and ID (3.1±2.3 vs 4.4±1.4) were lower in LA than OA (p<0.05). Conclusion: Laparoscopic appendectomy decreases wound infection, nasogastric tube duration, intraperitoneal drainage and pain in complicated appendicitis. The Laporoscopic approach is superior in complicated and noncomplicated appendicitis.


In this paper, we present a speech enhancement method using two microphones for underdetermined situations. A conventional speech enhancement method for underdetermined situations is time-frequency masking, where speech is enhanced by multiplying zero or one to each time-frequency component appropriately. Extending this method, we switch multiple preconstructed beamformers at each time-frequency bin, each of which suppresses a particular interferer. This method can suppress an interferer even when both the target and an interferer are simultaneously active at a given time-frequency bin. As a switching criterion, selection of minimum value of the outputs of the all beamformers at each time-frequency bin is investigated. Additionally, another method using direction of arrival estimation is also investigated. In experiments, we confirmed that the proposed methods were superior to conventional time-frequency masking and fixed beamforming in the performance of speech enhancement.


The effectiveness of the heat exchange intensifier "rib-twisted wire" is considered in this paper. The main goal is to study the influence of the wire coiling step t on heat transfer and hydraulic resistance for different values Ḣ of the dimensionless height of the edge Ḣ, as well as some results on heat exchange during bubbly boiling in an annular channel. Show: • a brief description and an image of the heat exchange intensifier "rib-twisted wire"; • generalized results of studies of heat exchange and hydraulic resistance in the annular channel in the single-phase convection with different geometric characteristics of the intensifier; • empirical correlations of the generalized experimental results that allow to calculating the coefficient of hydraulic resistance and heat transfer in the range of regime parameters in the single-phase convection that is being studied. • some results of experiments in bubbly boiling regimes and near-critical thermal loads.


This paper has two aims. The first is to introduce to a wider audience the recently proposed Bubble Model: a new method to reconstruct ancient settlement territories. After a preliminary discussion of similar methods that have been used in archaeology, such as Voronoi diagrams (Thiessen polygons), Multiplicatively Weighted Voronoi diagrams and XTENT, the Bubble Model is defined and its characteristics are compared. Strengths and weaknesses are identified and discussed. The main advantages of the new model are: a diachronic approach (the reconstructions of the territories depend on the order of appearance of the settlements); the possibility to detect federative polities. The second aim is to discuss the problem of contemporaneity between settlements. It is quite common to observe, in detailed regional studies, simple maps showing the increasing or decreasing number of settlements for each chronological phase. However, since we cannot be certain of the contemporaneity of all settlements, the trends over time might be biased by settlements with very short life (i.e. less than an archaeological phase). Thus, it is worthy to introduce the concept of Minimum number of Contemporary Settlements (MCS). Finally a case study from Latium Vetus and Etruria (Italy) is presented. Using both methods, it has been possible to hypothesise the presence of hierarchical polities in the Tolfa Mountains, from the Early Bronze Age to the Final Bronze Age. Whereas, in the Cerveteri area only federative polities seem to exist from EBA till FBA1-2. Moreover, it is shown that the progressive decrease in settlement number in southern Etruria might partially be due to a gradual process of stabilization of the minor villages. Since the EBA, major central settlements seem to be regularly distributed at about 100/120 minutes walking time distance, resulting in territories of 50/60 minutes radius. At least at the beginning of the EIA, the proto-urban settlements of Roma, Veii and Caere seem to almost double their territory radius.


Abstract : An integral is exhibited which has the same value for all paths surrounding a class of notches in two-dimensional deformation fields of linear or non-linear elastic materials. The integral may be evaluated almost by inspection for a few notch configurations. Also, for materials of the elastic- plastic type (treated through a deformation rather than incremental formulation) , with a linear response to small stresses followed by non-linear yielding, the integral may be evaluated in terms of Irwin's stress intensity factor when yielding occurs on a scale small in comparison to notch size. On the other hand, the integral may be expressed in terms of the concentrated deformation field in the vicinity of the notch tip. This implies that some information on strain concentrations is obtainable without recourse to detailed non-linear analyses. Such an approach is exploited here. Applications are made to: Approximate estimates of strain concentrations at smooth ended notch tips in elastic and elastic-plastic materials, A general solution for crack tip separation in the Barenblatt-Dugdale crack model, leading to a proof of the identity of the Griffith theory and Barenblatt cohesive theory for elastic brittle fracture and to the inclusion of strain hardening behavior in the Dugdale model for plane stress yielding, and An approximate perfectly plastic plane strain analysis, based on the slip line theory, of contained plastic deformation at a crack tip and of crack blunting.


CdS quantum dots (QDs) with a mixture of both cubic (Zinc-blende) and hexagonal (Wurtzite) phases have been prepared within 50 min by mechanical alloying the stoichiometric mixture of Cd and S powders at room temperature in a planetary ball mill under Ar. The Rietveld analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data collected from ball-milled samples estimates relative phase abundances of cubic and hexagonal phases and several microstructure parameters like lattice parameters, particle size, lattice strain, concentrations of different kinds of stacking faults etc. in both kinds of QDs. Initially, the hexagonal phase is formed and then simultaneously, the most dense plane (111) of minor cubic phase is formed coherently on the most dense (002) plane of hexagonal phase. In the course of milling up to 30 h, the hexagonal phase partially transforms slowly to cubic phase and the molar ratio of cubic and hexagonal phase becomes approximately 0.7:0.3 and particles sizes of both phases reduce to approximately 6 nm. The cubic phase contains a significant amount of lattice strain but the hexagonal phase is almost strain-free. The presence of different kinds of stacking faults is revealed clearly from the high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) images. The particle sizes of QDs and their distributions obtained from the Rietveld analysis agree well with the analysis of HRTEM images.


This paper investigated the influence of activator concentration, reaction time and fineness of fly ash on the dissolving character of the active Si/Al in fly ash activated by alkali. The results indicated that with the increase of the NaOH solution concentration, the dissolving percentage of active Si/Al in the fly ash went up. The finer the fly ash particles were, the higher dissolving percentage of active Si/Al was obtained. Under strong basic (2M NaOH solution) and boiling condition, the reaction time of active Si/Al dissolving was short and less than 10 minutes. The content of vitreous phase contributed to the content of active components. Active Si existed in the state of Q0 unit which presented an isolated silicon-oxide tetrahedron in fly ash, and active Al exhibited as Al[OSi]3 and Al[OSi]4 units in 4 coordinate. As the fly ash was activated by alkali, smooth shell of fly ash was gradually corroded by NaOH solution, glass phase was dissolved and crystal phase was exposed to the outside.


We report multi-wavelength power spectra of diffuse Galactic dust emission from Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope observations at 250, 350, and 500 μm in Galactic plane fields in Cygnus X and Aquila. These submillimeter power spectra statistically quantify the self-similar structure observable over a broad range of scales and can be used to assess the cirrus noise which limits the detection of faint point sources. The advent of submillimeter surveys with the Herschel Space Observatory makes the wavelength dependence a matter of interest. We show that the observed relative amplitudes of the power spectra can be related through a spectral energy distribution (SED). Fitting a simple modified black body to this SED, we find the dust temperature in Cygnus X to be 19.8 ± 1.5 K and in the Aquila region 16.8 ± 0.8 K. Our empirical estimates provide important new insight into the substantial cirrus noise that will be encountered in forthcoming observations.


The present invention is to provide a composition, such as containing a microorganism having the ability to by metabolizing daidzein-containing substance and, daidzein generate all Eck as essential components, the menopausal disorders The compositions are conventionally there was no effective prevention or mitigation of including is effective to prevent relaxation of the negative hydrogen of older women.


Irradiation of 3-hydroxyflavonolato (3-Hfl) complexes of MnII, CoII, NiII and CuII (1–4) at 300 nm under aerobic conditions results in dioxygenase-type reactivity and the formation of the corresponding divalent metal O-benzoylsalicylato (O-bs) complexes 8–11 and CO. The latter were characterized by using multiple methods, including elemental analysis, X-ray crystallography, NMR and/or EPR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and IR spectroscopy. Compounds 1–4 serve as catalysts for the photoinduced reactivity of 3-hydroxyflavonol (3-HflH) to produce O-benzoylsalicylic acid as the major product. Spectroscopic studies (UV/Vis and 1H NMR) show that each O-benzoylsalicylato complex 8–11 reacts with one equiv. of 3-hydroxyflavonol to regenerate 1–4 and enable turnover reactivity. Unlike what is observed for free 3-HflH, photoinduced reactions involving 1–4 and excess flavonol show only minor amounts of flavonol isomerization reactivity. These results indicate that the presence of a metal ion, whether under stoichiometric or catalytic conditions, facilitates the photoinduced degradation of 3-HflH to produce a carboxylic acid and CO as products.


The goal of our research is to contribute information about how useful the crowd is at anticipating stereotypes that may be biasing a data set without a researcher's knowledge. The results of the crowd's prediction can potentially be used during data collection to help prevent the suspected stereotypes from introducing bias to the dataset. We conduct our research by asking the crowd on Amazon's Mechanical Turk (AMT) to complete two similar Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) by suggesting stereotypes relating to their personal experience. Our analysis of these responses focuses on determining the level of diversity in the workers' suggestions and their demographics. Through this process we begin a discussion on how useful the crowd can be in tackling this difficult problem within machine learning data collection.


Spin-orbit coupling is key to all-electrical control of quantum-dot spin qubits, and is frequently stronger for holes than for electrons. Here we investigate Pauli spin blockade for two heavy holes in a gated double quantum dot in an in-plane magnetic field. The interplay of the complex Zeeman and spin-orbit couplings causes a blockade leakage current anisotropic in the field direction. The period of the anisotropic leakage is critically dependent on the relative magnitude of Zeeman interaction terms linear and cubic in the magnetic field. The current and singlet-triplet exchange splitting can be effectively adjusted by an appropriate choice of field direction, providing a simple control variable for quantum information processing and a way of tailoring magnetic interactions in hole spin qubits.


Most doctors believe that bmast fed babies do better than those artificially fed, but this is dificult to prove, especialy where the standard of living is high. Thus, Douglas (1950) followed up 4,848 of the infants whose early history had been reported in Maternity in Great Britain 1946, and found few striking differe between those who had been breast and bottle fed; the breast fed babies had a slightly lower mortality, though the difference was not statisically significnt, and they had fewer attacks of pneumonia and of diarrhoea in the early months of life. On the other hand Naish (1951) found that in her practice bottle fed babies in all social classes were more often ill than breast fed ones, requiring on an average more than four times as many visits per baby dunng the first year of life. Crosse (1951) compared the mortality in breast and bottle fed premature and full term babies in Birmingham. Among 1,061 babies of birth weight 54 lb. or less, the mortality between 1 and 6 months of age varied from 0-8% (wholly breast fed) to 56% (wholly bottle fed). The corresponding figures for 2,717 mature babies were 0-4% and 1-4%. The smallest babies had the highest mortality rates, but in each birth weight group the breast fed babies were more likely to survive. In a poor district of Liverpool, Robinson (1951) studied 3,266 babies attending a welfare clinic during the years 1936-1942; wholly breast fed babies had a mortality of 10-2 per 1,000, while 57-3 per 1,000 of those never breast fed died. The corresponding morbidity rates were 223-4 and 573 -7 per 1,000. These figures are comparable with those of Grulee, Sanford and Herron (1934), who found that the mortality of bottle fed babies in the poorest parts of Chicago was over four times that of breast fed babies, and the morbidity twice as high. it is clear that the dangers of bottle feeding are greatest in poor homes and among premature babies. The reported feeding histories of infants admitted to hospital show that sufferers from infantile diarrhoea have generally been weaned early (e.g. Smellie, 1939; Campbell and Cunningham, 1941; Gairdner, 1945). About other illnesses there is less agreement, although a comparatively high incidence of bottle feeding in infants with various infections has generally been reported (e.g. Ebbs and Mulligan, 1942; Deeny and Murdock, 1944). It may be objected that such figures are unconvincing, for the knowledge of the incidence of breast feeding in the population at risk is meagre. In this paper the feeding history of infants admitted to hospital for infective illnesses is compared with that of infants admitted with other conditions.


Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) mostly arises from so-called vulnerable coronary plaques, particularly prone for rupture. Vulnerable plaques comprise a specific type of plaque, called the thin-cap fibroatheroma (TFCA). A TCFA is characterized by a large lipid-rich necrotic core, a thin fibrous cap, inflammation, neovascularization, intraplaque hemorrhage, microcalcifications or spotty calcifications, and positive remodeling. Vulnerable plaques are often not visible during coronary angiography. However, different plaque features can be visualized with the use of intracoronary imaging techniques, such as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), potentially with the addition of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), or optical coherence tomography (OCT). Non-invasive imaging techniques, such as computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA), cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, and nuclear imaging, can be used as an alternative for these invasive imaging techniques. These invasive and non-invasive imaging modalities can be implemented for screening to guide primary or secondary prevention therapies, leading to a more patient-tailored diagnostic and treatment strategy. Systemic pharmaceutical treatment with lipid-lowering or anti-inflammatory medication leads to plaque stabilization and reduction of cardiovascular events. Additionally, ongoing studies are investigating whether modification of vulnerable plaque features with local invasive treatment options leads to plaque stabilization and subsequent cardiovascular risk reduction.


abstract:In the Fall 2010 issue (vol. 9) of the Journal of Moravian History, Andrew Heil, Paul Peucker, and Lanie Graf Yaswinski prepared a comprehensive overview of publications on the Moravian Church in English from 2000 to 2010; a comparable bibliography for the years 2011–15 was prepared by Thomas J. McCullough and published in the Fall 2016 issue (vol. 16, no. 2). This current bibliography does the same for the years 2016–20. It contains scholarly books, articles, and editions of primary sources, as well as some unpublished theses and dissertations. Not included are book reviews, nonscholarly articles and books, and the numerous modern reprints of older publications that have been flooding the market in recent years. A running bibliography on Moravian studies, also containing publications in German and other languages, can be found in Unitas Fratrum: Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Gegenwartsfragen der Brüdergemeine. The yearbook Pietismus und Neuzeit publishes an overview of international publications on Pietism (including the Moravians).


Whiplash is a sprain of the ligament with strain of the paraspinal muscles due to acceleration or back acceleration of energy transmitted to the neck. The symptoms are neck pain, neck stiffness, muscular spasm and a multitude of discomforts that affect job-related and activities of daily living. In 2000, the Mexican Social Security System treated more than 15,000 cases of whiplash due to job-related activities. With this information, we organized an expert team in order to develop guidelines using methodology of evidence-based medicine and with a focus on early treatment prescribed by the general practitioner in order for the patient to obtain quick relief and to return the patient to his job and to his daily living activities as soon as possible.


During the past decade, multiple observatories have reported significant observations of the anisotropy of cosmic rays in the TeV energy band. The anisotropy has been observed at large scales and small scales in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The source of the anisotropy is not well-understood, though both a galactic and a heliospheric origin have been suggested. We discuss recent observations of the shape and energy dependence of the anisotropy, with particular attention to measurements by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in the Southern Hemisphere and the Milagro and High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatories in the Northern Hemisphere.


Taking fresh goat milk as raw material after filtering, centrifuging, hollow fiber ultrafiltration, allocating formula, value detection and preparation processing, a set of 10 goat milk mixed standard substances was prepared on the basis of one-factor-at-a-time using a uniform design method, and its accuracy, uniformity and stability were evaluated by paired t-test and F-test of one-way analysis of variance. The results showed that three milk composition contents of these standard products were independent of each other, and the preparation using the quasi-level design method, and without emulsifier was the best program. Compared with detection value by cow milk standards for calibration fast analyzer, the calibration by goat milk mixed standard was more applicable to rapid detection of goat milk composition, detection value was more accurate and the deviation showed less error. Single factor analysis of variance showed that the uniformity and stability of the mixed standard substance were better; it could be stored for 15 days at 4°C. The uniformity and stability of the in-units and inter-units could meet the requirements of the preparation of national standard products.


Not every radio link needs the sophistication of ZigBee and a low-cost, low-data-rate link can be created using just a few components and a little RF knowledge. The combination of a simple design. with the flexibility of the microcontroller to implement different algorithms and use on-board peripherals to minimise external components, can produce a receiver suitable for compact remote controls, door openers or radio-controlled toys.


RA (Retinoid acid) is synthesized mainly in the liver and has multiple functions in development, cell differentiation and proliferation, and regulation of inflammation. RA has been used to treat multiple diseases such as cancer and skin disorders. The kidney is a major organ for RA metabolism, which is altered in the diseased condition. RA is known to have renal protective effects in multiple animal models of kidney disease. RA has been shown to ameliorate podocyte injury through induction of expression of differentiation markers and regeneration of podocytes from its progenitor cells in animal models of kidney disease. The effects of RA in podocytes are mediated mainly by activation of cAMP/PKA pathway via retinoic acid receptor-α (RARα) and activation of its downstream transcription factor KLF15. Screening of RA signaling molecules in human kidney disease reveals RARRES1 as a risk gene for glomerular disease progression. RARRES1, a podocyte-specific growth arrest gene, is regulated by both high doses of RA and TNFα. Mechanistically, RARRES1 is cleaved by MMPs to generate soluble RARRES1 which then induces podocyte apoptosis through interaction with intracellular RIOK1. Therefore, a high dose of RA may induce podocyte toxicity through the upregulation of RARRES1. Based on the current findings, to avoid potential side effects we propose three strategies to develop future therapies of RA for glomerular disease: 1) develop RARα- and KLF15-specific agonists; 2) use the combination of a low dose of RARα agonist with PDE4 inhibitors; and 3) use the combination of RARα agonist with RARRES1 inhibitors.


We show spin lifetimes of 12.6 ns and spin diffusion lengths as long as 30.5 μm in single layer graphene nonlocal spin transport devices at room temperature. This is accomplished by the fabrication of Co/MgO-electrodes on a Si/SiO2 substrate and the subsequent dry transfer of a graphene-hBN-stack on top of this electrode structure where a large hBN flake is needed in order to diminish the ingress of solvents along the hBN-to-substrate interface. Interestingly, long spin lifetimes are observed despite the fact that both conductive scanning force microscopy and contact resistance measurements reveal the existence of conducting pinholes throughout the MgO spin injection/detection barriers. Compared to previous devices, we observe an enhancement of the spin lifetime in single layer graphene by a factor of 6. We demonstrate that the spin lifetime does not depend on the contact resistance area products when comparing all bottom-up devices indicating that spin absorption at the contacts is not the predominant source for spin dephasing.


This study investigated the Information Communication Technology Competencies of teachers of Government via Computer application for the implementation of Government curriculum in Obollo-Afor Education Zone of Enugu state. ICT is very pertinent for effective implementation of school curriculum hence, it incoporates various forms of technological resources which can be used to create, communicate, and retrieve information for effective teaching and learning Kara and Kahraman, (2008). However, the aspect of ICT this study is interested in is computer application. The effective use of cumputer in teaching and learning will help to a  great extent in achieving educational goals. The study adopted a survey research design. Two research questions and one nul-hypothesis guided the study. Mean was used to answer the research questions, while t-test was used to test the null- hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The bench mark for the acceptance value was a mean of 2.50 and above. Items with the mean of 2.49 and bellow were not perceived competencies. The t-test revealed significant difference on the perceived ICT competencies of male and female teachers, showing higher ICT competencies of female teachers than that of  male teachers. Based on the findings, the following conclusion and recommendations among others were made: Government should organize periodic in-service training for teachers to upgrade their ICT knowledge and skills. There should be termly practical in-service training of teachers on the use of ICT facilities in Nigerian schools. The Computer Education courses in teacher training institutions that bother on ICT should be practical oriented.


Many individuals with rare diseases of different types experience gaps between symptoms, diagnosis and treatment when in need of care. This is known in patient groups but not always known in society. A common experience is that no one is knowledgeable about the rare disease so the patient must, at every visit to healthcare, describe the disease and its consequences, which is not easy if you are in need of care.


Heartland virus (HRTV) is a pathogenic phlebovirus related to the severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV), another phlebovirus causing life-threatening disease in humans. Previous findings have suggested that SFTSV can antagonize the host interferon (IFN) system via viral nonstructural protein (NSs)-mediated sequestration of antiviral signaling proteins into NSs-induced inclusion bodies. However, whether and how HRTV counteracts the host innate immunity is unknown. Here, we report that HRTV NSs (HNSs) also antagonizes IFN and cytokine induction and bolsters viral replication, although no noticeable inclusion body formation was observed in HNSs-expressing cells. Furthermore, HNSs inhibited the virus-triggered activation of IFN-β promoter by specifically targeting the IFN-stimulated response element but not the NF-κB response element. Consistently, HNSs blocked the phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of IFN regulatory factor 3 (IRF3, an IFN-stimulated response element-activating transcription factor). Reporter gene assays next showed that HNSs blockades the antiviral signaling mediated by RIG-I-like receptors likely at the level of TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1). Indeed, HNSs strongly interacts with TBK1 as indicated by confocal microscopy and pulldown analyses, and we also noted that the scaffold dimerization domain of TBK1 is required for the TBK1-HNSs interaction. Finally, pulldown assays demonstrated that HNSs expression dose-dependently diminishes a TBK1-IRF3 interaction, further explaining the mechanism for HNSs function. Collectively, these data suggest that HNSs, an antagonist of host innate immunity, interacts with TBK1 and thereby hinders the association of TBK1 with its substrate IRF3, thus blocking IRF3 activation and transcriptional induction of the cellular antiviral responses.


Abstract Aims: In the heart, β1-adrenergic signaling involves cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) acting via both protein kinase-A (PKA) and exchange protein directly activated by cAMP (Epac): a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for the small GTPase Rap1. Inhibition of Epac-Rap1 signaling has been proposed as a therapeutic strategy for both cancer and cardiovascular disease. However, previous work suggests that impaired Rap1 signaling may have detrimental effects on cardiac function. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of Epac2-Rap1 signaling on the heart using both in vivo and in vitro approaches. Results: Inhibition of Epac2 signaling induced early afterdepolarization arrhythmias in ventricular myocytes. The underlying mechanism involved an increase in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) and activation of the late sodium current (INalate). Arrhythmias were blocked by inhibition of INalate or the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant, mitoTEMPO. In vivo, inhibition of Epac2 caused ventricular tachycardia, torsades de pointes, and sudden death. The in vitro and in vivo effects of Epac2 inhibition were mimicked by inhibition of geranylgeranyltransferase-1, which blocks interaction of Rap1 with downstream targets. Innovation: Our findings show for the first time that Rap1 acts as a negative regulator of mitochondrial ROS production in the heart and that impaired Epac2-Rap1 signaling causes arrhythmias due to ROS-dependent activation of INalate. This has implications for the use of chemotherapeutics that target Epac2-Rap1 signaling. However, selective inhibition of INalate provides a promising strategy to prevent arrhythmias caused by impaired Epac2-Rap1 signaling. Conclusion: Epac2-Rap1 signaling attenuates mitochondrial ROS production and reduces myocardial arrhythmia susceptibility. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 27, 117–132.


Variations in pain sensitivity between men and women have been reported in numerous studies. Women have more severe and longer lasting pain than men. The goal of this review is to summarize the current state of knowledge with respect to the sexual dimorphism of surgical pain and its management. This assessment excludes gender-specific pain conditions that are exclusively found in women (e.g., labor pain and surgical pain related to gynecologic procedures), focusing instead on those pain conditions that are common to men and women.


Tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-based therapies do not induce long-term response in myeloid or lymphoid blast crisis (BC) chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Increased expression/activity of nucleocytoplasmic-shuttling heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) A1, E2 and K, are critical for the expression of factors (e.g. SET/PP2A, C/EBPβ/miR-328, and c-Myc) regulating proliferation and survival of Ph+ progenitors. Because the karyopherin CRM1 controls nuclear export of hnRNPs, we assessed the therapeutic potential of CRM1 inhibitors in CML-BC and Ph+ ALL models. Thus, myeloid 32D-p210BCR-ABL1 and lymphoid Baf3-p190BCR-ABL1 progenitors were exposed to the CRM1 selective & potent inhibitors of nuclear export (SINE) KPT-185 and KPT-207. MTT viability assays revealed that KPT-185 and KPT-207 decreased cell viability by ∼80% at concentrations ranging from 150-350 nM. The KPT-SINE not only induced killing, but also affected cytokine-independent growth of BCR-ABL1+ cells: proliferation was inhibited 89% and 81% by KPT-185 and KPT-207, respectively. Notably, growth and survival of non-transformed 32Dcl3 and BaF3 cells was not affected (70-100% viable cells) by KPT-SINE. As expected, treatment (1 μM; 48h) with these inhibitors altered the nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio of hnRNPs important for BCR-ABL1 leukemogenesis. As a result, treatment of BCR-ABL1+ cells with KPT-185 and KPT-207 (1 μM; 48h) resulted in 75% and 50% suppression of BCR-ABL1 expression and kinase activity, respectively. Furthermore, KPT-207 also reduced Myc expression in 32D-p210BCR-ABL1 cells; this is consistent with the potential interference of KPT-207 with the proliferation/survival signals triggered by the BCR-ABL1/MAPK/hnRNP K/Myc pathway in CML-BC progenitors. Because both KPT-185 and KPT-207 significantly alter hnRNP A1 localization, which is important for regulation of the PP2A inhibitor SET and, therefore, for BCR-ABL1 leukemogenesis, we assessed whether KPT-207 and KPT-185 negatively regulate PP2A activity. Indeed, treatment with KPT-207 and KPT-185 (250 nM; 48h) restored PP2A activity in 32D-p210BCR-ABL1 cells to levels similar to those detected in non-transformed 32Dcl3 cells. Although further investigation of KPT-207 and KPT-185 mechanism of action and assessment of their biologic/therapeutic effects in CML-BC and Ph+ ALL mouse models and primary leukemic and normal progenitors is currently ongoing, it is safe to conclude that selective nuclear export (SINE CRM1) inhibitors represent potentially powerful therapeutic tools that, if used alone or in combination with TKIs, might lead to sustained complete molecular remission in CML-BC and Ph+ ALL patients. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3839. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-3839


1. An electrodialysis apparatus constructed for biological studes by Michailovsky was successfully used for the electrochemical investigations on epinephrin.

2. It can be stated that epinephrin is very sensitive to any electrochemical influence, giving various decomposition products differing somewhat from those obtained by other methods of oxidation and reduction.

3. Different phases of the electrodialytical changeability of epinephrin (oxidation, reduction, substitution) could be determined, each having its own characteristics. This decomposition of epinephrin is gradually retarded by applying more moderate currents.

4. Among the decomposition products in the anode division, diketoquinone, quinhydrone, benzaldehyde, and methyl-amino-aceto-catechol could be detected. Among the cathodic decomposition products are cyclic alcohols and ketones, cresol, hydroquinone, dimethyl-amine and other not yet identified products.

5. In this decomposition process the catechol groups of epinephrin are protected against the action of alkali by the electrodialytic oxygen. Different amounts of electric energy are necessary to oxidize the catechol groups. To oxidize 1 mgm. of epinephrin in daylight requires about 900 watt-seconds; 1500 watt-seconds in the dark; and 1400 watt-seconds in the presence of the red decomposition product are necessary.

6. It was found that the red decomposition product of epinephrin accelerates the reactions in the anode division, thus acting as an autocatalyst. This autocatalytic decomposition of epinephrin in the apparatus for electrodialysis is more effective under the influence of light.

7. The difference in the oxidizing power of this autocatalytic agent in the light and dark can be explained by the photochemical formation of the unstable peroxide form of a diketone in the light, which substance has a greater oxidizing power than the more stable diketo form produced by the same electrodialytical process in the dark.

8. Experiments were carried out to determine the relation between the pH of an epinephrin solution and the different colored compounds yielded during the decomposition of the same epinephrin solution in the thermostat. The highest degree of oxidation was noted between pH 6.9 and 7.2. There was most stability in the dark red colored solution at pH 7.0. The neutral point is therefore most favorable for preserving the red decomposition product.


Leap of Faith is a novel by a famous novelist Danielle Steel. Leap of Faith debuted at the New York Times and is listed as the best-selling novel to fifty-two of Danielle Steel. This novel is about a girl from France, she is Marie-Ange Hawkins who lives in a magnificent castle name, Chateau de Marmouton. At the castle, she has childhood like everyone's dream. She has the freedom, security and abundant affection of both parents and her brother. But when Marie-Ange Hawkins is eleven years old, a tragic accident that befell his parents take her happiness. She becomes an orphan and is sent to America to live with a cruel aunt of her father. Alone in a foreign land, Marie-Ange Hawkins becomes slave of agricultural land by her aunt, only her friendship with Billy and her dream to return to the castle of her childhood memories that make Marie-Ange endures. But the magic happens when Marie-Ange is 21 years old. She makes it back to the castle Chateau de Marmouton again and even get a chance to be the hostess which is the new owner of the castle, Comte Bernard de Beauchamp proposed her. But behind his proposal, Comte Bernard de Beauchamp keeps his hidden bad intentions to Marie-Ange Hawkins. In desperation and uncertainty areas around her, Marie-Ange has to find the faith and courage to take her last step to save her love ones and herself. Danielle Steel packed this book with very interesting by a simple writing style and storyline in the 1800s which is different from the usual. This book is quite interesting and deserves to be read as entertainment by teenagers and adults.


The study of the contributions of different bones to the formation of the skeleton in birds is necessary: (1) to establish homologies in comparative anatomy; (2) to delimit each bone structure correctly, mainly in relation to the skull and mandible where the bones are fused to each other in adults; and (3) to standardize nomenclature in avian osteology. In this paper at least one young specimen belonging to each sub-family of Cuculidae was examined in order to identify each bone in terms of boundaries and contributions to skull and mandible formation. These cuckoos specimens were also compared with adults and young of turacos and hoatzin. The results show little variation of skull and jaw among the young cuckoos studied compared with the variations among adult specimens. However, it provides new suggestions for the boundaries and nomenclature of certain osseous structures in the skull and mandible of birds, specifically fissura zona flexoria craniofacialis, prominetia frontoparietalis, crista temporalis transversa, processus squamosalis, fossa laterosphenoidalis, tuberculum laterosphenoidale and processus retroangularis. This study also provides more reliable homologies for use in cladistic analysis and above all it contributes to the phylogenetic position of Cuculidae within Neognathae, specifically the skull formation suggest that turacos and hoatzin are more similar to each other than either is to the cuckoos.


We present a computational workflow based on quantum chemical calculations and generative models based on deep neural networks for the discovery of novel materials. We apply the developed workflow to search for molecules suitable for the fusion of triplet-triplet excitations (triplet-triplet fusion, TTF) in blue OLED devices. By applying generative machine learning models, we have been able to pinpoint the most promising regions of the chemical space for further exploration. Another neural network based on graph convolutions was trained to predict excitation energies; with this network, we estimate the alignment of energy levels and filter molecules before running time-consuming quantum chemical calculations. We present a comprehensive computational evaluation of several generative models, choosing a modification of the Junction Tree VAE (JT-VAE) as the best one in this application. The proposed approach can be useful for computer-aided design of materials with energy level alignment favorable for efficient energy transfer, triplet harvesting, and exciton fusion processes, which are crucial for the development of the next generation OLED materials.


The mixture of the recent EU policies – mainly the "fiscal compact" and the OMT approach by the ECB – restored the nominal stability for the Eurozone and therefore preserved the common currency. However, the same steps resulted in a widening gap between the Northern tier and the Mediterranean countries – the real divergence. To address this issue – which is potentially a mortal threat to the Eurozone in its present configuration – the three policy options are available: A restoration of a real convergence, the Eurozone"s restructuring or a "muddling through". The first two require radical policy steps which in the present political and economic climate are very unlikely. That leaves "muddling through" as the likeliest future approach. However, its inherent ad hoc nature breeds uncertainty, which, combined with a complacency stemming from the recent "successes" increases the possibility of a destructive future dynamics.


Managers of start-up firms make a number of important yet understudied decisions, such as whether or not to develop a new product, whether or not to choose a high-technology product or service, whether or not to use external assistance, and the amount of time and effort they will devote to their new company. These choices are informed by their access to various resources, such as the size of the management team, its education level, its previous experience working at start-ups, and other attributes. In this paper we consider how these resources influence optimal provision of effort, and examine decisions about innovative behavior (i.e., to market a novel or high-technology product) and managerial exertion (i.e., the hours per week spent by the managers and their decision to supplement their own efforts by employing external assistance such as consulting services).


In recent years, manpower saving is strongly demanded for train maintenance, and, in this connection, train rubber hoses have to be used in service for longer periods and distances. In order to examine whether the service life of train rubber hose can be extended, properties of train rubber hoses were tested. As a result, it has been proved that the service of train rubber hose can be extended to 7.5 (cid:2) 10 5 km in terms of the running distance, and very careful attention should be paid on the elongation of service time in urban and suburban lines.


This research aims at developing a model and investigating the effect of entrepreneurship orientation which is mediated by the roles of market sensing capability, creative product development, and knowledge creation capacity on the improvement of marketing performance. This research arises from a controversy of the previous researches on the effect of entrepreneurship orientation towards business performance where many researchers claim to have found positive effects, while some others find no influence. Innovation is always associated with a company's capability in developing the products and services; however, the company must be painstaking to the risk of failure of the innovation done if the new products and services are not in accordance with the market expectations. The company must be able to identify its customers properly and the existing competitors by becoming a market-oriented company through the mastery of market sensing and customer-linking capabilities. The data collection was done with survey through structured questionnaires with a ten-point of Likert scale. The questionnaires were submitted from 150 respondents of SMEs' owners or managers in Yogyakarta and Solo. The data were then analyzed with Structural Equation Model (SEM). Key-words : entrepreneurship orientation, market sensing capability, product development, knowledge creation, marketing performance


Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) is a network-based localized mobility support in IP network. The main advantage of using PMIPv6 is the freeing up of the mobile host in doing any mobility related activities and thereby saving its resources. However, the Mobile Access Gateway (MAG) incurs a high signaling cost to update the location of a mobile node to the remote Local Mobility Anchor (LMA) if it moves frequently. It may cause excessive signaling traffic and increase a high traffic load on LMA. Therefore, we propose an adpative mobility management scheme in PMIPv6 networks with IP paging support. To minimize signaling overhead, in our proposed scheme, an idle mobile node does not register when moving within a paging area. Moreover, we will employ the anchor-subnet concept and techniques to reduce signaling costs for paging and delay. The cost analysis using Stop-or-Move Mobility (SMM) model presented in this paper shows that our proposed scheme can achieve performance superior that of the PMIPv6 scheme.


BACKGROUND
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with hypercoagulability, but adults with SCD also have an increased incidence of bleeding including heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB). HMB is common among adolescent females, but the impact of HMB in pediatric SCD is unclear. The objectives of this study were to examine menstrual health status, knowledge, and quality of life (QOL).

METHODS
We performed a single-institutional multi-clinic cross-sectional study comprised of a five-part survey in pediatric participants with SCD. The survey included the validated Menstrual Bleeding Questionnaire (MBQ) and Self-administered Bleeding Assessment Tool (Self-BAT).

RESULTS
Forty-eight participants with a median age of 16 years (range: 12-21 years) completed the study. The mean age at onset of menarche was 13 ± 1.3 years. On the MBQ, 29% reported heavy/very heavy menstrual flow, 61% reported moderate or severe dysmenorrhea, and 96% had menses lasting less than 1 week. The Self-BAT revealed that 42% of participants reported a history of HMB. Participants with severe dysmenorrhea or HMB had higher MBQ scores, corresponding to worse QOL. Despite this, less than 20% of participants had attempted any hormonal therapy for menstrual regulation. The odds of hormonal therapy utilization were comparable among participants on hydroxyurea versus not on hydroxyurea (odds ratio 1.58, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.33-7.56).

CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of HMB and dysmenorrhea is high among adolescents and young women with SCD. Strategies that incorporate menstrual health assessment into routine medical care in this population would help address this important area of pediatric health.


A mechanism whereby reaction rates may be influenced by weak alternating magnetic fields has been suggested by Binhi and Savin [Phys. Rev. E 65, 051912 (2002)] to account for certain magnetobiological effects. It is proposed that the fields influence the probability of reaction of molecular rotators (gyroscopes) by inducing interference between eigenstates of angular momentum superposed in their wave functions. The predicted variation of reaction rate with the amplitude of the alternating field is found to be qualitatively consistent with observation. It is commented that the required interference occurs only in circumstances which are quite implausible, and that even if it were possible, the interference would not lead to a detectable magnetobiological effect.


This Letter presents a quantitative theory of resonant mixing in time-dependent volume-preserving 3D flows using a model cellular flow introduced in T. Solomon and I. Mezic, Nature (London) 425, 376 (2003), as an example. Specifically, we show that chaotic advection is dramatically enhanced by a time-dependent perturbation for certain resonant frequencies. We compute the fraction of the mixed volume as a function of the frequency of the perturbation and show that essentially complete mixing in 3D is achieved at every resonant frequency.


1. Residual endogenous insulin secretion can be assessed by the circulating C-peptide concentration and is present in up to 15% of subjects with established insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Its role in lipid metabolism in IDDM is not clearly defined. We examined the relationships between serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations and the response of circulating C-peptide to a test meal in 205 subjects with IDDM. 2. Lipid and lipoprotein levels and glycaemic control did not differ significantly between patients with undetectable, low or high C-peptide responses. 3. High density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and its subfractions were inversely related to concentrations of serum triacylglycerols (P less than 0.01-0.001), but not to C-peptide or glycated haemoglobin (HbA1) levels. Levels of HbA1 and triacylglycerols were correlated with one another (P less than 0.01). Analysis of variance revealed that differences in gender and triacylglycerol concentrations were the most important determinants of HDL and HDL2 cholesterol levels. C-peptide only exerted a weak effect on HDL2 cholesterol levels and no significant predictors of HDL3 cholesterol were found. 4. It is concluded that endogenous insulin secretion (assessed by C-peptide concentration) is relatively unimportant in modifying HDL metabolism in IDDM and that associated clinical features, in particular ambient hypertriglyceridaemia, are of greater importance.


We analyze the semiclassical and quantum polymer dynamics of the isotropic Universe in terms of both the standard Ashtekar-Barbero-Immirzi connection together with its conjugate momentum and also of the new generalized coordinate conjugate to the Universe volume. We study the properties of the resulting bouncing cosmology that emerges in both the representations and we show that the Big Bounce is an intrinsic cut-off on the cosmological dynamics only when the volume variable is implemented, while in terms of the standard connection the Universe critical density is fixed by the initial conditions on the prepared wavepacket. Then, we compare the obtained results with what emerges in Loop Quantum Cosmology, where the same difference in the nature of the Big Bounce is associated to fixing a minimum area eigenvalue in a comoving or in a physical representation. We conclude that the privileged character of the AshtekarBarbero-Immirzi connection suggests that the natural scenario in the polymer framework is a Big Bounce that is not a Universal cut-off.


A study of the growth and the physical properties of ZnO films deposited by chemical bath technique and annealed by microwave are presented. For the deposition solution the molar ratio between zinc nitrate and urea is varied in a range of 1:1... 1:10. By X-ray obtains that layers have hexagonal polycrystalline wurtzite type unitary cell. The Raman spectra show the first order experimental Raman spectra of ZnO. The first order Raman modes are identified in the ZnO Raman spectra. The 300K photoluminescence shows radiative bands labelled by red, yellow, green and violet bands, which are associated to defects of oxygen and zinc vacancies. By EDS measurements determined their stoichiometry, which allows relating it with the intensity of radiative bands associated to oxygen and zinc vacancies.


In order to avoid potential environmental pollution from geopolymer-based material wastes, this work investigated the feasibility of using these materials as alternative raw materials in the preparation of cement clinker. The geopolymer binders and mortars were used as substitutes for natural mineral clays since they are rich in silica and alumina. Simulated geopolymer wastes were prepared by the activation of metakaolin or fly ash by an alkaline silicate solution. The cement-clinkers fired at 1450 °C for 1h were characterized by XRD, XRF, SEM-EDS, and a free lime (CaOf) content test. The anhydrous clinker mineral phases C3S (Ca3SiO5), C2S (Ca2SiO4), C3A (Ca3Al2O6), and C4AF (Ca4Al2Fe2O10) were well-crystallized in all investigated formulations. The free lime was lower than 1.3 wt% in all elaborated clinkers, which indicates a high degree of clinkerization. The results demonstrate that geopolymer binder and mortar materials are suitable substitutes for natural mineral clay incement clinker preparation.


Background/Aim: The impact of laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG), a standard gastric cancer (GC) management strategy, in advanced GC cases involving doublet adjuvant chemotherapy remains unclear. This study was aimed at comparing short- and long-term LG and open gastrectomy (OG) results. Patients and Methods: Patients who underwent gastrectomy with D2 lymph node dissection for stage II/III GC between 2013 and 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into two groups: patients undergoing LG (n=96, LG-group) and OG (n=148, OG-group). The primary outcome was relapse-free survival (RFS). Results: Compared with the OG group, the LG group was associated with a longer operation time (373 vs. 314 min, p<0.001), less blood loss (50 vs. 448 ml, p<0.001), fewer grade 3-4 complications (5.2 vs. 17.1%, p=0.005), and a shorter hospital stay (12 vs. 15 days, p<0.001). More lymph nodes were dissected in the LG group (49 vs. 40, p<0.001). The intergroup difference in prognosis was insignificant [5-year RFS: 60.4% (LG) vs. 63.1% (OG), p=0.825]. The LG group more frequently received doublet adjuvant chemotherapy (46.8 vs. 12.7%, p<0.001) and started treatments within 6 weeks after surgery (71.1% vs. 38.9%, p=0.017), and the completion rate of doublet AC was significantly higher in the LG group (85.4% vs. 58.8%, p=0.027). Compared to OG, LG for stage III GC tended to be associated with improved prognosis (HR=0.61, 95%CI=0.33-1.09, p=0.096). Conclusion: LG for advanced GC may facilitate doublet regimens due to favorable postoperative outcomes and its intervention may contribute to survival benefits.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use the most popular deep learning algorithm to complete the vehicle detection in the urban area of MiniSAR image, and provide reliable means for ground monitoring.

Design/methodology/approach
An accurate detector called the rotation region-based convolution neural networks (CNN) with multilayer fusion and multidimensional attention (M2R-Net) is proposed in this paper. Specifically, M2R-Net adopts the multilayer feature fusion strategy to extract feature maps with more extensive information. Next, the authors implement the multidimensional attention network to highlight target areas. Furthermore, a novel balanced sampling strategy for hard and easy positive-negative samples and a global balanced loss function are applied to deal with spatial imbalance and objective imbalance. Finally, rotation anchors are used to predict and calibrate the minimum circumscribed rectangle of vehicles.

Findings
By analyzing many groups of experiments, the validity and universality of the proposed model are verified. More importantly, comparisons with SSD, LRTDet, RFCN, DFPN, CMF-RCNN, R3Det, SCRDet demonstrate that M2R-Net has state-of-the-art detection performance.

Research limitations/implications
The progress in the field of MiniSAR application has been slow due to strong speckle noise, phase error, complex environments and a low signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, four kinds of imbalances, i.e. spatial imbalance, scale imbalance, class imbalance and objective imbalance, in object detection based on the CNN greatly inhibit the optimization of detection performance.

Originality/value
This research can not only enrich the means of daily traffic monitoring but also be used for enemy intelligence reconnaissance in wartime.


Age-related differences in reproductive or breeding success, as measured by clutch size, hatching rate, nestling survival, and number of fledglings produced, have been well documented in many species of birds. The experience gained through successive breeding attempts can improve foraging abilities, survival skills, access to resources through social dominance, and familiarity with each stage of reproduction. We examined 696 breeding attempts by American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) from a population that bred in nest boxes in northwestern New Jersey from 1995 to 2021. We tested the hypothesis that older kestrels have greater breeding success than those in their first breeding season. Clutch size, nestling survival rate, and the number of fledglings varied significantly and positively with the age of one or both parents. These trends were significantly correlated with the date of clutch initiation; older birds initiated clutches earlier than those in their first breeding attempt. However, after we controlled for laying date, older birds still had larger clutch sizes, higher nestling survival rates, and greater numbers of fledglings. The relationship between age and breeding success was more pronounced for males than females. This difference is consistent with the behavioral roles of each sex during a breeding attempt. After laying a clutch, females perform most of the incubation and brood young nestlings. In contrast, males provide food for females prior to egg laying and throughout incubation, and to the entire family until the nestlings no longer are brooded by the female. Females paired with older males had significantly greater body mass index values (weight/wing chord) than those paired with second-year males. Pairs where both adults were older had significantly greater breeding success than mixed or young pairs, and we never observed an older female paired to a male during his first breeding attempt.


The quality of healthcare service websites gains particular importance in the time of the pandemic, asthe popularity of electronic services grows. This applies to infectious disease hospitals as well, often on the front line of the effort against COVID-19. The paper aims to assess the quality of infectious disease hospital websites in Poland in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research covered 91 websites. The first stage was an analysis of selected technical attributes of the websites (including website performance, SEO quality, website availability, and mobile-friendliness) with selected online tools, such as Google PageSpeed Insights, Blink Audit Tool, Backlink Checker, andwebsite accessibility evaluation tool (WAVE). The data were then analyzed with statistical methods. The next step was to analyze the content of the websites. The research has shown that most of the websites were of satisfactory quality, apart from those that were not mobile-ready. The following keywords were found most often on the hospital websites: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, smear, specialist care clinic, isolation, telephone consultations, sample collection center, support, coronavirus, recommendations, patient registration, signs of disease. The research suggests that the quality of infectious disease hospital websites in Poland is significantly diversified in search engine optimization, mobile-friendliness, and needs of people at risk of digital exclusion.


Nanostructures with appropriate sizes can limit light-matter interaction and support electromagnetic multipole resonance. The interaction between light and nanostructures is intimately related to manipulating the direction of scattered light in the far field as well as the electromagnetic field in the near field. In this paper, we demonstrate dual-wavelength directional forward-scattering enhancement in an individual open-hole silicon nanoblock (OH-SiNB) and simultaneously achieve bulk and surface electromagnetic field localization. The second harmonic generation is enhanced using electromagnetic field localization on the square hole surface. Numerical simulations reveal that the resonance modes, at λ1 = 800 nm and λ2 = 1190 nm, approximately satisfy the Kerker condition. In the near field, the magnetic dipole modes at dual wavelength all satisfy the boundary condition that the normal component of the electric displacement is continuous on the square holes surface, thus obtaining the surface electromagnetic field localization. Moreover, highly efficient second harmonic generation can be achieved at dual wavelengths using the surface electromagnetic field localization and the increased surface area of the square holes. Our results provide a new strategy for the integration of nanoantennas and nonlinear optoelectronic devices in optical chips.


Mariner 6 and 7 photographs were used to investigate the nature and importance of linear surface trends on Mars. Cross correlations of frequency-azimuth distributions of linear trends from different Mariner frames indicate that lineations not recognized as topographic features have a component of pseudoforms, probably introduced during digital reconstruction of the pictures. Similar statistical tests may aid in the analysis of surface trends from future satellites and space probes. The most reliable data were separated into photometrically defined provinces. Meridiani Sinus and Margaritifer Sinus display five major trends in common, which are interpreted as extensions of crustal weaknesses related to the enormous equatorial canyon revealed in Mariner 6 and 9 pictures. Alignments of crater wall segments generally match these trends and suggest structural control of crater plan. Crater chains, however, do not match these trends and are interpreted as secondary impacts. Rose diagrams of lineations in Deucalionis Regio exhibit much more complexity and are believed to reflect a better preserved or more complex geologic history.


Recently, there has been growing interest in secure communication via multi-antenna physical-layer designs. In this paper, we consider a transmit covariance design for a secrecy rate maximization problem under a multicast scenario, where a multi-antenna transmitter delivers a common confidential message to multiple single-antenna receivers in the presence of multiple multi-antenna eavesdroppers. This multicast secrecy rate maximization (SRM) problem is nonconvex by nature. By resorting to a convex approximation, we provide an upper bound and lower bounds of the multicast secrecy rate by solving a semidefinite program. In particular, for the case of either i) no more than three legitimate receivers and one eavesdropper, or ii) one legitimate receiver and arbitrary number of eavesdroppers, these bounds are shown to be tight and transmit beamforming is an optimal transmit strategy. We also demonstrate by simulations that the multicast SRM problem can be accurately approximated by the proposed method.


Kant's views on sex and marriage deserve the renewed attention of political scientists for three reasons. First, Kant's theory of marriage was shaped by his engagement with Rousseau's political thought and especially his Social Contract—a key if unappreciated side of his engagement with Rousseau. Second, Kant's application of Rousseau's political theory to marriage suggests an egalitarian view of marriage's nature and function that helpfully illuminates marriage's role in a liberal society of free and equal persons. Third, in appropriating Rousseau's egalitarianism for his theory of marriage, Kant transfers his foundational concern with equality from the public to the private sphere: a move that suggests liberal political institutions require more than mere commitment to procedural neutrality for their perpetuation but require also a commitment to equality best cultivated by certain types of private associations and personal relationships.


This datasheet on Salvia splendens covers Identity, Overview, Distribution, Dispersal, Biology & Ecology, Environmental Requirements, Natural Enemies, Impacts, Uses, Further Information.


The generalized tanh method is one of most direct and effective algebraic method for obtaining exact solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations. The method can be applied to nonintegrable equations as well as to integrable ones. In this paper, we will find new exact traveling wave solutions of the Sixth-Order Ramani equation by using generalized tanh method.


AbstractDuring the Shallow Water Acoustic Experiment 2006 (SW06) conducted on the New Jersey continental shelf in the summer of 2006, detailed measurements of the ocean environment were made along a fixed reference track that was parallel to the continental shelf. The time-varying environment induced by nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) was recorded by an array of moored thermistor chains and by X-band radars from the attending research vessels. Using a mapping technique, the three-dimensional (3D) temperature field for over a month of NLIW events is reconstructed and analyzed to provide a statistical summary of important NLIW parameters, such as the NLIW propagation speed, direction, and amplitude. The results in this paper can be used as a database for studying the NLIW generation, propagation, and fidelity of nonlinear internal wave models.


This paper shows a eatablishment of the identity as Taekwondo suzerain from globalization for a short time and shows direction of the purpose and necessity of this study. Taekwondo was the most globalized as a traditional martial art of the korea played an important role when Korea was given wider publicity. now, Taekwondo is not martial art only one nation. but was martial art of global for all universal people. The followings are program for globalization of Taekwondo. First, must establish of the identity of Taekwondo. Second, must be in clearly about history of Taekwondo. Third, must advance rapidly about a design park of Taekwondo. Forth, must develop a variety of goods as a charater about Taekwondo. Fifth, must achieve harmony and interchage between south and north Korea of Taekwondo.


Gravitation: Modes of Reading in the Anthropocene
In this article, I suggest 'gravitation' as a new way of reading in and for the anthropocene, which is characterised by environmentally destructive 'social acceleration'. This reading practice would imply two things: First, that representations of the natural environment take a primary position in relation to the characters in many genres, including those where nature so far has been read as a highly conventional construction. It also involves acknowledging that ultimately, characters are positioned by the physical environment in these genres, as characters, in one way or the other, can never exist unrelated to the environment that encompass and cut through them. These genres I suggest be called 'gravitating genres'. Second, and in a similar fashion, I suggest the term 'gravitating reading' to denote reading of physical books, which in this context becomes a highly preferred medium. This term partly coincides with that of 'deep reading' suggested by Mangen, but in addition, it also recognizes the dependency of both the reader and the medium on the natural environment. Together, these two practices amount to, I suggest, nothing less than a mutually sustainable economy of reading.


Regional differences regarding prevalence of rheumatic complaints were found in a nation-wide interview survey of the adult Swedish population. A higher prevalence was found in regions of low population density, the highest being in the North. Osteo-arthritis was more prevalent in Northern Sweden, particularly among men, while back disorders were more common in all regions of low population density. Physically strenuous working conditions were found more frequently in all regions of low population density. Among other possible factors contributing to the regional differences in rheumatic complaints, genetic differences in HLA B27 within the Swedish population and the occurrence of cryophilic arthritogenic microbial flora, are discussed.


Efforts to eradicate multiple mammal pests from offshore islands and fenced mainland 'habitat islands' often fail to remove mice, and such failures can result in a dramatic change in the food-web whereby the removal of larger mammal pests facilitates a population explosion of mice through predator and competitor release. We investigated the ecological responses of house mice to the removal of mammalian predators from a 500-ha fenced sanctuary at Tawharanui, northern New Zealand. Data on population structure and body condition of mice trapped in 2007, in four habitat types within the sanctuary, were compared with baseline data collected in 2001, before mammal control operations commenced. We hypothesized that: (i) in the absence of mammalian predators mouse densities would increase in all habitat types that provide vegetation cover, and (ii) in the absence of mammalian competitors mice would become heavier due to greater access to food resources. Mouse densities were significantly higher in 2007 than in 2001 in three habitat types. The high density of mice in forest – where none were trapped prior to control – suggests a competitive release, in which mice profited from the removal of ship rats. No mice were caught in the presence of ship rats on a forest trap-line at a control site outside the sanctuary. Mice trapped in 2007 were significantly heavier than those trapped in 2001, and significantly heavier than mice trapped at the control site. Greater access to food in the absence of competing and predatory mammals probably explains the heavier body weight of Tawharanui mice. There has been a significant change in the mammalian food-web at Tawharanui, such that the house mouse is now the primary pest. A rapid and dramatic increase in mouse numbers is likely to adversely impact invertebrates and seedling recruitment, which in turn could affect ecosystem functions.


Abstract Three molecular variants of GnRH in the brain (sbGnRH, sGnRH, and cGnRH-II) and two forms in the pituitary (sbGnRH and sGnRH) were detected in protandrous black porgy, Acanthopagrus schlegeli using chromatographic and immunological methods. In juvenile fish, brain sbGnRH, sGnRH, and cGnRH-II levels increased in May and reached their highest levels in July and August (the nonspawning season) and in January through March (the spawning season). In fish aged 1 yr and older, high levels of brain sbGnRH and sGnRH were detected in September, November, and February–March, but the levels of brain cGnRH-II remained constant. A gradual increase in pituitary sbGnRH was detected in juvenile fish from July to March. In fish aged 1+ yr, pituitary sbGnRH levels were high in September and March–May, but low in January–February. A close correlation between pituitary sbGnRH and plasma LH levels was found in juvenile fish and in those aged 1+ yr. In fish aged 2+ yr, significantly lower levels of plasma LH was detected during the nonspawning period in fish that changed sex compared with the fish that remained as males. Higher plasma LH levels were detected in the sex-changing fish from artificially sex-reversed female to male. FSH receptor and LH receptor transcripts were higher in bisexual testicular tissue than in ovarian tissue in 2+-yr-old fish. Direct effects of hCG on sex change were studied and the results show that exogenous hCG did not stimulate gonadal aromatase activity in 2+-yr-old fish. Therefore, it is suggested that high and basal levels of plasma LH during the nonspawning season correlate with the development of male and female gonad, respectively, in black porgy. This important role of the neuroendocrine system in sex change (for male direction) is proposed in hermaphroditic fish.


Acting on optical magnetic dipoles opens novel routes to govern light-matter interaction. We demonstrate magnetic field modification of the magnetic dipolar moment characteristic of resonant nanoholes in thin magnetoplasmonic films. This is experimentally shown through the demonstration of the magneto-optical analogue of Babinet's principle, where mirror imaged MO spectral dependencies are obtained for two complementary magnetoplasmonic systems: holes in a perforated metallic layer and a layer of disks on a substrate.


Many plant species may already be functionally extinct The recent State of the World's Plants report from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1) estimates that 50,000 of the ∼390,000 known vascular plant species are at risk of extinction. Given the rarity of so many plants, coupled with widespread environmental destruction over the past quarter-century, we might expect that a lot of plants should have gone extinct. Indeed, estimates made in the early 1990s suggest that up to 30,000 species should have gone extinct by 2015 (2, 3). Yet, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species database for 2016 has fewer than 150 extinct species. How can we explain this discrepancy?


Over the last decade, there has been a growing debate about the relationship between industrial relations, human resource management and business strategies. For management, this involves an ongoing reappraisal of the balance between individualism and collectivism and a critique of third party intervention in the employment relationship. Describes a case study of CRA/RTZ in Australia and New Zealand and the managerial strategy used to deconstruct collective industrial relations through the use of standardized individualized contracts.


BACKGROUND
Variations in the alleles for the alcohol-metabolizing enzymes have been shown to influence risk for alcohol dependence. One variant, ADH1B*3, is observed almost exclusively in populations of African ancestry and has been shown to be associated with reduced rates of alcohol dependence. We conducted an alcohol challenge study to test whether ADH1B*3 is associated with differences in subjective and physiological response to alcohol.

METHOD
We administered a moderate dose of alcohol (0.72 g/kg for males, 0.65 g/kg for females) to a sample of African-American young adults (n = 91; ages 21 to 26). Participants were genotyped for ADH1B, as well as additional polymorphisms that might contribute to alcohol response. Breath alcohol concentration, self-reported sedation and stimulation, and pulse rate were assessed prior to alcohol administration and for 2.5 hours following administration.

RESULTS
ADH1B*3 was associated with higher levels of sedation and a sharper increase in pulse rate immediately following alcohol consumption.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that the lower rates of alcohol dependence in those with ADH1B*3 alleles may be because of differences in alcohol response, particularly increased sedation.


A simple stochastic model, based on a Poisson birth–death process, is proposed as a test bed for convective‐scale data assimilation methods. The simple model mimics the extreme nonlinearity and non‐Gaussianity associated with rapidly developing and intermittent convective storms. In this framework, we evaluate the Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (ETKF) and Sequential Importance Resampling (SIR) filter, and assess the impact of two strategies to improve their performance and efficiency: localization and observation averaging. In their basic implementations, both filters perform poorly. The SIR filter rapidly collapses, then very gradually converges to the observations as random perturbations introduced by resampling occasionally improve the analysis. The ETKF rapidly assimilates the correct locations of convective storms, but has large errors due to creation of spurious clouds by nonlinear amplification of small data assimilation increments. Localization, i.e. assimilating only local observations to produce the analysis at a given grid point, dramatically improves the performance of the SIR filter, but does not reduce errors in the ETKF. Observation averaging, i.e. spatially smoothing the observations before assimilation and thus making the distribution more Gaussian, is also effective for the SIR filter, and improves convergence of the ETKF. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society


Cancer is a disease caused by uncontrolled proliferation or division of abnormal cells in an organism. Traditionally, cancer cell proliferation is measured using a two-dimensional (2D) in vitro model by culturing and treating the cells in standard microplates to study inhibition and cytotoxicity effect of the drug compounds. After further testing the potential cancer drug candidates in the 2D environment, the investigation is often transferred to an in vivo model by measuring the change in three-dimensional (3D) tumor sizes in animals. Although the drug candidates can demonstrate promising inhibitory or cytotoxicity results in a 2D environment, similar effects may not be observed in a 3D environment, which physiologically has a closer resemblance to a human body. Therefore, cancer drug discovery research has demonstrated poor translation from in vitro to in vivo. Previous publications have demonstrated that growing cancer cells in the form of 3D tumor spheroids can be more predictive of the in vivo study outcomes comparing to the 2D cell culture method. Therefore, by investigating the effect of cancer drugs on 3D tumor spheroids, may improve the successful translation rate to in vivo animal study. In this work, we developed an image-based high-throughput screening method for 3D tumor spheroids on 384-well ultra-low attachment (ULA) round bottom microplates using the Celigo image cytometer. In order to validate this screening method, five experiments were conducted demonstrating comparable results in both 3D and 2D models. First, optimal cell seeding density for tumor spheroid formation is determined by investigating U87MG (glioblastoma) cell seeding number in respect to the desired spheroid size. Second, the dose response effect of 17-AAG in respect to spheroid size is measured to determine the IC50 value. Third, the effect of 17-AAG on the viability of tumor spheroid is investigated in a time-course study. Next, the developed high-throughput method is used to perform dose response measurement of 4 drugs (17-AAG, Paclitaxel, TMZ, and Doxorubicin) in respect to the spheroid size. Finally, the effect of the 4 drugs on tumor spheroid viability is measured. Each experiment is performed simultaneously in the 2D model, where 384-well flat bottom microplates are used. In the 2D adherent cell model, confluence percentage and direct cell count-based viability results are generated to compare to the 3D model. This proposed method allows an efficient process for more qualified drug candidates, which can reduce time and the financial burden of animal testing, as well as the overall time of the cancer drug discovery project. Citation Format: Leo Li-Ying Chan, Olivier Dery, Scott Cribbes, Dmitry Kuksin, Sarah Kessel. A high-throughput image cytometry-based screening method for the cytotoxic effect of drug compounds on 3D tumor spheroid. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 603.


Waste policies with waste metering system and recycling in 1995 have contributed to the reduction of solid waste generation. Now rural areas as well as urban areas produce less amount of solid wastes in terms of per capita. However most policies in relation to waste issue have been concentrated in urban areas. Large portion of agricultural waste in rural region are being illegally treated such as open incineration or burned out on the road. In this study, we assessed the atmospheric air quality and health risk by illegal open incineration in rural region. In case of benzene level, worst concentration during illegal open incineration was 0.23 ppm and cancer risk by exposure was estimated to 2.29 × 10?³.


In this work, wafer level TLP testing is applied to amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) to study the factors of their electrostatic discharge (ESD) robustness. Two kinds of TFTs with N2O and O2 treatments are subject to the ESD test. It is found that the contact resistance of the TFTs, instead of the channel quality, dominates the ESD power for them to be damaged.


The advent of the transformer has sparked a quick growth in the size of language models, far outpacing hardware improvements. (Dense) transformers are expected to reach the trillion-parameter scale in the near future, for which training requires thousands or even tens of thousands of GPUs. We investigate the challenges of training at this scale and beyond on commercially available hardware. In particular, we analyse the shortest possible training time for different configurations of distributed training, leveraging empirical scaling laws for language models to estimate the optimal (critical) batch size. Contrary to popular belief, we find no evidence for a memory wall, and instead argue that the real limitation -- other than the cost -- lies in the training duration. In addition to this analysis, we introduce two new methods, \textit{layered gradient accumulation} and \textit{modular pipeline parallelism}, which together cut the shortest training time by half. The methods also reduce data movement, lowering the network requirement to a point where a fast InfiniBand connection is not necessary. This increased network efficiency also improve on the methods introduced with the ZeRO optimizer, reducing the memory usage to a tiny fraction of the available GPU memory.


Symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome are common occurrences during pregnancy, particularly in the third trimester. Most patients undergo successful nonoperative treatment shortly after birth or the cessation of breast feeding. However, symptoms noted earlier during pregnancy are more likely to be severe and persistent. We present the cases of two women who developed symptoms of severe carpal tunnel syndrome during the second trimester and did not improve with nonoperative measures. Both underwent carpal tunnel release during pregnancy, with excellent postoperative result. Obstetric providers and surgeons alike should consider surgical treatment for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome who do not improve after nonoperative methods.


ABSTRACT While opaque products and distribution channels are increasingly popular, little is known about how customers perceive the quality of opaque hotel rooms. This study examined how price and star rating affect customers' expectations when booking through opaque channels, and explored if different market segments vary in their expectations. An experimental design with six price and star-rating scenarios was employed. As predicted, expectations were significantly lower in opaque bookings. Moreover, customers were willing to compromise certain aspects of five-star service quality in exchange for opaque prices, such as room décor. Findings also revealed that customers who typically stayed at five-star hotels had the biggest gap in their expectations of three-star versus five-star hotel rooms of similar prices. As opaque selling is relatively new in Asia, this study is the first to explore customers' perceptions of opaque booking from the perspective of young, Hong Kong consumers. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


Thermalization of electron and gas temperature in CO2 microwave plasma is unveiled with the first Thomson scattering measurements. The results contradict the prevalent picture of an increasing electron temperature that causes discharge contraction. It is known that as pressure increases, the radial extension of the plasma reduces from ∼7 mm diameter at 100 mbar to ∼2 mm at 400 mbar. We find that, simultaneously, the initial nonequilibrium between ∼2 eV electron and ∼0.5 eV gas temperature reduces until thermalization occurs at 0.6 eV. 1D fluid modeling, with excellent agreement with measurements, demonstrates that associative ionization of radicals, a mechanism previously proposed for air plasma, causes the thermalization. In effect, heavy particle and heat transport and thermal chemistry govern electron dynamics, a conclusion that provides a basis for ab initio prediction of power concentration in plasma reactors.


Regularization is essential for avoiding over-fitting to training data in network optimization, leading to better generalization of the trained networks. The label noise provides a strong implicit regularization by replacing the target ground truth labels of training examples by uniform random labels. However, it can cause undesirable misleading gradients due to the large loss associated with incorrect labels. We propose a first-order optimization method (Label-Noised Trim-SGD) that uses the label noise with the example trimming in order to remove the outliers based on the loss. The proposed algorithm is simple yet enables us to impose a large label-noise and obtain a better regularization effect than the original methods. The quantitative analysis is performed by comparing the behavior of the label noise, the example trimming, and the proposed algorithm. We also present empirical results that demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm using the major benchmarks and the fundamental networks, where our method has successfully outperformed the state-of-the-art optimization methods.


The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Competency-Based Learning (CBL) Project is a cognitive apprenticeship designed by the Learning Development Project Office in SAFTI Military Institute, Singapore to assist SAF in establishing long-term indigenous capability in the CBL methodology to facilitate curriculum development in the Third Generation SAF. This project aims to translate the SAF Leadership Competency Model through an infusion of the CBL methodology in selected SAF schoolhouse training and educational curricula in an engagement with an external consultancy, and ensure SAF internalises the CBL methodology from the consultancy for large-scale independent implementation and sustainability in the long-term. Situated cognition, social constructivism and knowledge-creation through socialisation theories from which cognitive apprenticeship is based are also briefly discussed. In addition, the SAF CBL Project also requires SAF-consultancy interactions to be designed for optimisation of learning and knowledge acquisition (KA) outcomes. Specifically, the SAF CBL cognitive apprenticeship uses knowledge elicitation tools and techniques in a SAF CBL KA process to learn and construct knowledge of the CBL methodology through participation in shared experiences with the consultant team, and capturing of lessons learnt and best practices from which individual learning and team learning through socialisation can take place.


Four main military cultures existed within the Army of Africa: Africanist, Juntero, peninsular and political. Although they coexisted, each enjoyed a period of hegemony within the Army as a result of the course of military action in Morocco or the colonial strategy of the Spanish government. Africanist culture, divided over colonial strategy, was united around authoritarianism and a right-wing mythology of patriotism. Juntero culture focused at first mainly on professional military structure and not on strategy or mission. Peninsular culture was the replication in the colonial army of practices and mentalities characteristic of the peninsular army. Political culture derived from the appointments made by the Second Republic to ensure the colonial army's loyalty. The Army of Africa was not therefore a united, homogenous bloc. But the last years of the colonial campaign saw the hegemony of the Africanist culture among colonial officers and it was this politically interventionist caste that played a fundamental role in overthrowing the Republic.


In a survey to determine how many students on the National Diploma programme of the Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology who had parents from different languagespeaking backgrounds, had acquired those languages and learned English in addition; and how many others acquired pidgin English instead, for communication, interesting discoveries were made. Out of the 113 students that registered for Pre-National Diploma (Pre-ND), 87 had parents whose first languages were different. 29 out of this number could not communicate in any of the languages of their parents. 101 out of the 135 students that registered for the National Diploma One (NDI) programme had parents who originated from different language speaking backgrounds but could hardly speak the languages of their parents for lack of exposure to the codes.


Using the large-deviation formalism, we study the statistics of current fluctuations in a diffusive nonequilibrium quantum spin chain. The boundary-driven XX chain with dephasing consists of a coherent bulk hopping and a local dissipative dephasing. We analytically calculate the exact expression for the second current moment in a system of any length and then numerically demonstrate that in the thermodynamic limit, higher-order cumulants and the large-deviation function can be calculated using the additivity principle or macroscopic hydrodynamic theory. This shows that the additivity principle can also hold in systems that are not purely stochastic, and can in particular be valid in quantum systems. We also show that in large systems, the current fluctuations are the same as in the classical symmetric simple exclusion process.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to compare the antibacterial effectiveness of the Nd:YAG, the Ho:YAG, and the Er:YAG laser in infected root canals.

SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA
Lasers are gaining increasing importance in the field of endodontics. Numerous studies have shown the beneficial effects of laser treatment in disinfecting root canals.

METHODS
In our in vitro experimental setup, 40 extracted and endodontically treated teeth were inoculated with a suspension of Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis and then irradiated at standardized power settings. The disinfecting efficacy of each laser was proved by classical microbiological examination.

RESULTS
This article highlights that all three lasers substantially decreased the bacterial population with only minimal differences in their microbicidal efficacy. At 1.5 W, the best results were obtained by the Er:YAG laser achieving a mean bacterial elimination of 99.64%, followed by the Nd:YAG laser (99.16%), and the Ho:YAG laser (99.05%).

CONCLUSION
Our findings indicate that all three lasers act as strongly effective microbicides without causing unfavorable temperature rises at the settings used. They can thus be considered a valuable tool for root canal treatment.


This research is concerned with the local wisdom of Dayok Binatur in the Simalungun community. Local wisdom is a collection of knowledge, practices and beliefs that evolved through adaptive process (adjustment) passed from generation to generation through culture, associated with the relationship between living beings (including humans) and the surrounding environment (Berkes, 1993). In the Simalungun community, Dayok Binatur is made from chicken and arranged on a plate. It is used as a symbol of intermediary to convey a message, advice and hope delivered from one side of the family to the other and usually presented at the Simalungun community's traditional and special events. This research was conducted using qualitative descriptive methods. The results show that there are ten parts of chicken meat called gori, namely the head (ulu), neck (borgok), breast (tuppak), left and right wing (habong), base of thigh (tulan bolon), thigh (tulan parnamur), leg (kais-kais), the egg-producing organ (tuahni), liver (bilalang), and tail (ihur). Four objects are used, such as the head (ulu), neck (borgok), wing (hahong), and leg (kais-kais), which carry cultural symbols and local wisdom. The head (ulu) refers to leadership; the neck (borgok) refers to problem solving; the wings (habong) refers to protection; and the leg (kais-kais) refers to responsibility. The local wisdoms in Dayok Binatur are needed to maintain the balance of life.


The present paper proposed an improved space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) method for reducing common mode voltage. Non-zero vectors which were generated by exchanging the specific two arms' switching patterns were applied to reduce the common mode voltage instead of zero vectors. On contrast with the conventional SVPWM strategy which brings in the common mode voltage in typical three-phase inverters, the proposed method can reduce the peak-to-peak amplitude of the common mode voltage to 1/3, without any additional volume, weight or cost, implemented totally by software. Furthermore, the method can also be applied conveniently in the inverters controlled by SVPWM with deadband compensation. Simulation on a 10kW three-phase photovoltaic inverter was performed to verify the validity effectiveness of this method.