Heterogeneous systems are becoming more common on High Performance Computing (HPC) systems. Even using tools like CUDA and OpenCL it is a non-trivial task to obtain optimal performance on the GPU. Approaches to simplifying this task include Merge (a library based framework for heterogeneous multi-core systems), Zippy (a framework for parallel execution of codes on multiple GPUs), BSGP (a new programming language for general purpose computation on the GPU) and CUDA-lite (an enhancement to CUDA that transforms code based on annotations). In addition, efforts are underway to improve compiler tools for automatic parallelization and optimization of affine loop nests for GPUs and for automatic translation of OpenMP parallelized codes to CUDA.
In this paper we present an alternative approach: a new computational framework for the development of massively data parallel scientific codes applications suitable for use on such petascale/exascale hybrid systems built upon the highly scalable Cactus framework. As the first non-trivial demonstration of its usefulness, we successfully developed a new 3D CFD code that achieves improved performance.


By 2013, the number of confirmed rabid animals in Ontario had decreased to unprecedented low numbers, yet the expected decrease in the number of courses of rabies post‐exposure prophylaxis (RPEP) administered did not occur consistent with the decrease in animal rabies cases (Figure ). This prompted a review of the reasons that RPEP was administered in Ontario. This study provides a descriptive analysis of the exposure incidents resulting in RPEP administration in Ontario during 2013 using data obtained from the integrated Public Health Information System, a Web‐based disease surveillance system. Findings from the study revealed that the number of RPEP courses administered could be reduced, without increased risk of rabies, through the following strategies: (i) Education and resources for public health staff and healthcare providers who assess animal exposures to improve interpretation of guidelines for RPEP administration. (ii) Refinement of guidelines for public health staff and healthcare providers to ensure that they support detailed consideration of the circumstances of the exposure in order to assist with the risk assessment. Guidelines should also support completion of a risk assessment when exposures to skunks, foxes, raccoons and other wild carnivores are provoked by the victim, as opposed to automatically providing RPEP as recommended by current guidelines. (iii) Public education strategies to prevent exposures to animals (e.g., do not touch unattended animals, bat proofing your house, proper removal of bats from the house). (iv) Defining the criteria to declare a jurisdiction rabies‐free. (v) Exploring strategies to improve surveillance for rabid animals.


Gene sequences annotated as proteins of unknown or non‐specific function and hypothetical proteins account for a large fraction of most genomes. In the strictly anaerobic and organohalide respiring Dehalococcoides mccartyi, this lack of annotation plagues almost half the genome. Using a combination of bioinformatics analyses and genome‐wide metabolic modelling, new or more specific annotations were proposed for about 80 of these poorly annotated genes in previous investigations of D. mccartyi metabolism. Herein, we report the experimental validation of the proposed reannotations for two such genes (KB1_0495 and KB1_0553) from D. mccartyi strains in the KB‐1 community. KB1_0495 or DmIDH was originally annotated as an NAD+‐dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase, but biochemical assays revealed its activity primarily with NADP+ as a cofactor. KB1_0553, also denoted as DmPMI, was originally annotated as a hypothetical protein/sugar isomerase domain protein. We previously proposed that it was a bifunctional phosphoglucose isomerase/phosphomannose isomerase, but only phosphomannose isomerase activity was identified and confirmed experimentally. Further bioinformatics analyses of these two protein sequences suggest their affiliation to potentially novel enzyme families within their respective larger enzyme super families.


Nephrotic syndrome is commonest renal diseases in developing country. The nephrotic syndrome is a clinical syndrome complex characterized by a number of renal and extra renal features, the most prominent of which are proteinuria >3.5g/1.73m3/24 h (in practice >3.0-3.5 g/24 h), hyperlipidemia, lipiduria, and hyper coaguability. The present study was planned in North Indian Hospital. The total 20 patients referred to Out-Patient Department (OPD) and in-patient department (IPD). All the patients were subjected to renal biopsy. The Swelling of feet and puffiness of face is found in about 8 patients out of 20. Weakness, loss of appetite, and generalized bodyache is seen in 4 patients. Distension of abdomen and difficulty in breathing is observed in 3 patients. Pallor and dizziness is seen in 2 cases and Decreased urinary volume is observed in 3 patients. The most common primary glomerular diseases causing nephrotic syndrome in children and adults are minimal change diseases and membranous glomerulonephritis, respectively.


ABSTRACT For speakers of Arabic, Disney's animated feature films and TV products, both old and new, are increasingly made available in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), a pan-Arab version of the language which was hardly ever used for similar forms of entertainment until 2012. When Al Jazeera signed a large-scale distribution agreement with Disney, in 2013, things began to change radically, not only in terms of the variety of Arabic chosen for translation and re-translation, but also, more significantly, in terms of textual manipulation. Relying on a theoretical framework bringing together sociolinguistics, media and communication studies, translation and audiovisual translation studies, this article aims to unveil and discuss the linguistic, cultural, social, and political alterations behind the translation and re-translation of Disney's animated products for the Arabic-speaking world. Examples from the recent, Arabic re-dubbing of Cinderella and Cinderella II will be provided and illustrated.


This study examines the coincidence or discrepancy between the purpose of meetings stated in the organizer's announcement and the purposes perceived by the participants. This analysis enriches and complexifies the view of meeting purposes in the literature. Based on structured questionnaire data from 1,946 respondents involved in 490 meetings conducted in the context of an international project, our analysis shows that the stated and perceived purposes of a meeting are not necessarily the same. In particular, a purpose expressed as a noun (e.g. Coordination) may be perceived by participants as various purposes expressed in verbs, that are strongly or weakly aligned with that noun (e.g. Socialize, Coordinate, Follow up or Persuade). This study establishes the need for a distinct line of research into the discrepancy between stated and perceived meeting purposes to understand meeting-related organizational dynamics, and it lays a basis for theorizing within that line of investigation by demonstrating an influence of the internal-external nature of meetings and the local culture. This study also highlights the core intermediation role of socialization for achieving the stated purposes of certain meeting types. Additionally, this study has immediate implications for organizing and managing meetings.


: Power electronics stand as the cornerstone of our electrified world, and versatile DC-DC converters are a key component of this technology. In this comprehensive analysis, we investigate deeply the realm of DC-DC converters, examining their pivotal role in modern power systems. From the evolution of converter topologies to their wide-ranging applications, we explore the advancements that propel this field forward. Whether maintaining continuous power in portable devices or facilitating renewable energy integration, DC-DC converters are the fundamental components. Yet, they face formidable challenges, from complex control strategies to voltage stress management. This study reveals the complex configuration of DC-DC converters, detailing a narrative of adaptability, resilience, and innovation in response to the increasing energy demands of our time.


Salicylic acid (SA) plays an important role in induction of plant defence against a wide range of biotic and abiotic stresses through physiological, biochemical and molecular responses. The study was carried out to evaluate defence reponses of SA- induced rice plants against leaf blight (LB) disease, caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). In this study, a series of SA solutions at concentrations of 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 mM were evaluated for their potential to protect rice LB in the net house conditions. Biochemical analyses were characterized by means of a FTIR spectroscope. Our results showed that at inoculated leaves, the elicitor of SA at a concentration of 1.0 mM had highest reduction of disease severity approximately 34 % at 21 days after inoculation, compared to the control. Moreover, SA application and Xoo inoculation were efficient for enhancing of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins modifications at both above and below leaves compared to the inoculated leaf. These results collectively suggest that the elicitor of SA strongly induced the systemic resistance in rice plants.


INTRODUCTION: Haloperidol (HL) has successfully been used for nausea and abdominal pain in emergency departments (EDs). This study examines outcomes and predictive factors for clinical improvement of patients presenting to an ED with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms (nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain) who received HL. METHODS: Review of patients' records who presented to our ED between August 2016 and March 2019 with GI symptoms and received HL. International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes were used to identify patients. RESULTS: In all, 281 patients (410 encounters) presented to the ED with GI symptoms and received HL for their symptoms: 66% were women, 32% had diabetes, 68% used marijuana, and 27% used chronic opioids. Patients received HL 1.1 ± 0.3 times with dose 2.5 ± 3.0 mg, mostly intravenously (84.6%). Total ED length of stay was 7.5 ± 3.9 hours (3.2 ± 2.1 hours before HL and 4.4 ± 3.4 hours after). Approximately 4.4% of patients developed side effects to HL, including 2 patients with dystonia which improved with medication before discharge. Most patients (56.6%) were discharged home while 43.2% were admitted to hospital mostly because of refractory nausea or vomiting (70.1%). Receiving HL as the only medication in the ED led to lower hospital admission (odds ratio = 0.25, P < 0.05). Diabetes, cannabinoid use, anxiety, male sex, and longer ED stay were associated with increased hospital admissions. DISCUSSION: Most patients treated in our ED with HL for GI symptoms, particularly nausea, vomiting, and/or abdominal pain, were successfully treated and discharged home. HL use seemed relatively safe and, when used as the only medication, led to less frequent hospital admissions.


As water becomes increasingly scarce, water managers are seeking new and sustainable solutions to water supply problems. Any inappropriate human activity in a river basin can bring about a series of irreversible changes that may completely infl uence the character of water resources and the way of their downstream usage. The presented methodical principle represents an attempt to solve problems of the international interest in relationship between human activities, the environment and natural resources, particularly water and soil resources. The main idea of the principle is to select areas with the greatest landscape potential for infi ltration and retention of atmospheric precipitation. Then, in the areas there follows management of human activities for supporting of precipitation infi ltration and retention as well as for minimizing possible adverse environmental and socio-economic consequences. Methodology was used in the upper Vah river basin (Slovakia) which represents a signifi cant territory of the Vah River spring areas.


Extemporaneous speech is a delivery type in public speaking which uses a structured outline but is otherwise delivered conversationally, off the cuff. This demo uses a natural-sounding spontaneous conversational speech synthesiser to simulate this delivery style. We resynthesised the beginnings of two Interspeech keynote speeches with TTS that produces multiple different versions of each utterance that vary in fluency and filledpause placement. The platform allows the user to mark the samples according to any perceptual aspect of interest, such as certainty, authenticity, confidence, etc. During the speech delivery, they can decide on the fly which realisation to play, addressing their audience in a connected, conversational fashion. Our aim is to use this platform to explore speech synthesis evaluation options from a production perspective and in situational contexts.


OBJECTIVE: Proinflammatory cytokines of placental or systemic origin are thought to play a central role in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia. We sought to estimate the fractional excretion of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- (cid:1) in relationship to proteinuria in women with severe preeclampsia. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, we evaluated the serum and urine levels of TNF- (cid:1) in 45 women diagnosed with severe preeclampsia (mean (cid:2) standard error of the mean, gestational age 29.1 (cid:2) 0.5 weeks). Forty-five healthy pregnant women matched for parity, maternal age, and gestational age at recruitment (30.1 (cid:2) 0.4 weeks) made up the control group. Urinary concentrations were normalized to creatinine. The fractional excretion of TNF- (cid:1) was interpreted in relationship to that of total proteins and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1). RESULTS: We found that the women with preeclampsia had significantly higher serum TNF- (cid:1) concentrations compared with the women in the control group (mean (cid:2) standard error of the mean, preeclampsia: 1.39 (cid:2) 0.09 versus control: 0.93 (cid:2) 0.07 pg/mL, P < .001). In contrast, urinary levels of TNF- (cid:1) were significantly decreased in the women with preeclampsia compared with the healthy women (median [interquartile range], preeclampsia: 0.26 [0.10–0.91]


We consider vector-valued autonomous differential equations of the form x' = f(x) + \varphi$ with analytic f and investigate the nonanticipative solution operator $\varphi \mapsto x = A(\varphi)$ in terms of its Volterra series. We show that Volterra kernels of order > 1 occurring in the series expansion of the solution operator A are continuous functions, and establish recurrence relations between the kernels allowing their explicit calculation. A practical tensor calculus is provided for the finite-dimensional case. In addition to analytically calculating the kernels, we present an algorithm to numerically obtain them from the output x(t) through sampling the input space by linear combinations of delta functions. We call this "differential sampling." It is a nonlinear analogue of the classical method of impulse response. We prove a continuity theorem stating that, in the finite-dimensional case, approximate delta functions give rise to approximate Volterra kernels and that continuity holds in the sense ...


The use of multiple antennas for diversity and array gain may require accurate channel state information (CSI) on each subcarrier in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems. Such CSI is usually reported from the receiver to the transmitter, causing a significant amount of feedback signaling burden. Recent work can noticeably reduce the feedback signaling burden by exploiting the channel correlation properties in the frequency domain, but it can be applied to the generation of a single beam [1]. In this paper, this idea is extended to the use of multiple beams for spatial multiplexing. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can improve the performance using the same amount of feedback signaling burden or provide the same performance while noticeably reducing the amount of feedback signaling burden, compared to conventional schemes. Keywords-codebook; feedback; MIMO; OFDM system; precoding;


Individuals with homozygous Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) are prone to bacterial infection. SCD sera have previously been shown by others to have a defective capacity to opsonify pneumococci—this has been attributed to impaired alternative pathway function, which was postulated to be due to defective synthesis of factor B in such cases.
 Sera from 100 cases of homozygous SCD have now been studied. There was reduced alternative pathway activity in one-third of sera (using a haemolytic plate assay dependent on Mg++ and agarose to activate the alternative pathway), and haemolytic factor B activity was significantly lower in this group than in the other sera. C3 concentrations were also reduced in one-third of sera.
 The metabolism of purified radiolabeled factor B and C3 was studied in 12 cases to determine whether diminished synthesis or increased catabolism of these proteins occurred in SCD. Synthesis of B and C3 was normal or increased in all cases.


The purpose of this research are: 1) To know how characteristic of transformational leadership model of head of Madrasah Tsanawiyah State of Watampone. 2) Analyze how the leadership of transformational leadership of Madrasah head toward quality of Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri Watampone The results show that: 1) Head of MTsN Watampone is an ideal figure who can be a role model, able to inspire his followers to put their personal interests aside from the interests of madrasah and able to influence and motivate and give personal attention and support to his subordinates. This means that the head of MTsN Watampone proved to be practicing the four dimensions of transformational model leadership namely Idealized influence, Inspirational motivation, Intellectual stimulation, and Individualized consideration. Thus, the Head of MTsN Watampone has proven to have implemented transformational leadership whose success can be seen in the climate and quality of learning and school quality. 2) The successful leadership of MTsN Watampone's transformational leadership on Climate management and learning quality is considerable and good enough, which can be seen through lifestyles embodied based on a set of values or norms, habits supported by adequate facilities and infrastructure and, Responsibility, control, structure, and involvement of employees and teachers in the appropriate, harmonious and balanced division of tasks. Similarly, the Quality Management System is applied with respect to planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. Taking into account various aspects: learning services for students; Educational facilities; School culture; Education financing; Attention and participation of the community or committee. Strictly speaking, the transformational leadership of the principal gives color to a conducive climate management and the quality of reliable learning, which ultimately determines the success of Madrasah quality.


ABSTRACT Actors making public decisions about a certain policy issue in one particular arena also meet in other arenas where they will have to make decisions on other issues. By incorporating information from across coevolving arenas, actors make associations between the decisions in the different arenas. To understand the dynamics of associations, we deployed a formal game-theoretic approach and run an experiment. Subjects played two different games, each representing a different decision-making arena. The results show that history builds-up and that subjects made associations between the two games, partly explaining the behaviour of decision-makers interacting in multilevel decision-making settings.


Abstract
Improved antioxidant status helps to minimize the oxidative damage and thus can delay the risk of developing many chronic age related, free radical induced damage in diseases like diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases. We tried to evaluate the antioxidant potential of Costus igneus (CI) leaves in ethanol induced peroxidative damage in albino rats.
Wistar albino rats of either sex were divided into four groups. Group I was control group and received normal saline, Group II received ethanol, Group III received test drug CI at 300mg/kg and Group IV received CI at dose of 600mg/kg. Study duration was 30 days. Antioxidants estimated at the end of 30 days
The levels of reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD),catalase ( CAT) significantly reduced and (malondialdehyde) MDA levels raised in ethanol treated group compared to control group. The levels of reduced glutathione, SOD and catalase enzyme recovered completely in a dose dependent manner.
Results demonstrate CI significantly reversed the reduction of GSH, SOD and CAT and reduced significantly the levels of MDA, a biomarker of lipid peroxidation in dose dependent manner suggesting its ability to enhance the antioxidant defense to prevent alcohol induced oxidative stress injury.


There has been a great symmetry between the 80th and 90th democratic processes and the acceptation of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights' jurisdiction by Latin-American States. The latter has fostered the emergence of American Human Rights Law. American Human Rights Law would be fed on states' common constitutional traditions and international human rights instruments. The American Human Rights Law would delimit an American space of public order. Nowadays, the main features of this legal order would be the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights and cultural diversity. A weakness of this legal order lies in the due observance of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights' decisions..


Research suggests that extensive training is necessary for the development of sporting expertise. Research also suggests that extensive training can lead to overuse injuries. The aims of this paper are to: (1) expand the concept of expertise in high performance sport, and (2) contribute to the discussion of how high performance athletes move towards expert performance in sustainable ways. To achieve these aims, data from retrospective interviews with four Olympians from four different sports are presented. As a way of extending traditional approaches, a pedagogical framework focusing on dispositional learning is employed to examine athletic development. The notion of threshold concepts is used as a specific analytic tool for thinking about how athletes come to make sense of their sporting environments. Interpretations of the data provide insights into the nature of thresholds in high performance sport, factors that facilitate threshold crossing, and factors that may prevent athletes from making advances, all of which have implications for practitioners interested in developing expertise.


We show that the wireless sensor networks can be synchronized by natural environmental signals, such as temperature, humidity and so on. The proposed synchronization scheme is based on the noise-induced phase synchronization theory; the phases of the periodical limit cycle orbits of nonlinear oscillators synchronize with each other by adding a common noise signal to the oscillators. Based on this theory, we synchronize the clocks of the wireless sensor nodes by tuning them according to the phase of their nonlinear oscillator to which natural environmental signals are added as noise. In this paper, first we analyze cross-correlation of the natural environmental signals measured by ZigBee wireless sensor nodes, which are arranged outdoor at about 20m intervals, and show that the cross- correlation among the signals sensed at different sensor nodes are around 0.8 or higher. According to this result, we analyze possibility of the noise- induced phase synchronization with changing cross- correlation between the additive noises, and clarify that the nonlinear oscillators can be synchronized in the cases that the cross-correlation becomes around 0.8 or higher. Finally, we investigate feasibility of the noise-induced phase synchronization by actual data of natural environmental signals sensed at each sensor node and show it is possible to synchronize wireless sensor nodes without any interactions or communications among them.


Computer simulations of phospholipid membranes have been carried out by using a combined approach of molecular and stochastic dynamics and a mean field based on the Marcelja model. First, the single-chain mean field simulations of Pastor et al. [(1988) J. Chem. Phys. 89, 1112-1127] were extended to a complete dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine molecule; a 102-ns Langevin dynamics simulation is presented and compared with experiment. Subsequently, a hexagonally packed seven-lipid array was simulated with Langevin dynamics and a mean field at the boundary and with molecular dynamics (and no mean field) in the center. This hybrid method, mean field stochastic boundary molecular dynamics, reduces bias introduced by the mean field and eliminates the need for periodic boundary conditions. As a result, simulations extending to tens of nanoseconds may be carried out by using a relatively small number of molecules to model the membrane environment. Preliminary results of a 20-ns simulation are reported here. A wide range of motions, including overall reorientation with a nanosecond decay time, is observed in both simulations, and good agreement with NMR, IR, and neutron diffraction data is found.


Due to the enormous amount of data and opinions being produced, shared and transferred everyday across the internet and other media, Sentiment analysis has become vital for developing opinion mining systems. This paper introduces a developed classification sentiment analysis using deep learning networks and introduces comparative results of different deep learning networks. Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) was developed as a baseline for other networks results. Long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) in addition to a hybrid model of LSTM and CNN were developed and applied on IMDB dataset consists of 50K movies reviews files. Dataset was divided to 50% positive reviews and 50% negative reviews. The data was initially pre-processed using Word2Vec and word embedding was applied accordingly. The results have shown that, the hybrid CNN_LSTM model have outperformed the MLP and singular CNN and LSTM networks. CNN_LSTM have reported the accuracy of 89.2% while CNN has given accuracy of 87.7%, while MLP and LSTM have reported accuracy of 86.74% and 86.64 respectively. Moreover, the results have elaborated that the proposed deep learning models have also outperformed SVM, Na・・ve Bayes and RNTN that were published in other works using English datasets.


Cost-utility analysis uses the quality-adjusted life year (QALV) as a measure of the benefit of health interventions. It presupposes the assignment of utility scores to different states of health on a scale from zero (dead) to unity (healthy). A number of so-called multiattribute utility (MAU) instruments are available for this purpose. Analysts who wish to use MAU instruments in economic evaluations of health programmes and technologies may improve their performance by conducting two different analyses: the first is a conventional cost-utility study, in which the utilities from MAU instruments are used as they stand, and the second is a study in which the utilities are transformed into numbers that also encapsulate concerns for giving priority to the worst off. The term 'cost-value analysis' is used for the latter, broader approach. A figure is offered as a preliminary tool to help conduct the required transformations.


Palladium-catalyzed carbonylation reaction has surfaced as a robust tool for insertion of the carbonyl group into organic molecules, and in the last decades enormous progress has been made. Nowadays, a plethora of methodologies is available to synthesize all kinds of carbonyl compounds. However, the focus has shifted during recent years to address rising concerns related to developing safe, cost-efficient, and more sustainable methodologies. The use of different carbon monoxide (CO) precursors/sources, avoiding handling of highly toxic and flammable gaseous carbon monoxide, and substituting nonrenewable solvents for those derived from renewable feedstock have contributed to aim these goals. In this review, we will discuss the advent of the application of renewable solvents to improve the sustainability and environmentally benign nature of Pd-catalyzed carbonylation reactions.


A case is described in which polycythaemia vera was found to co-exist with chronic lymphatic leukaemia at the time of presentation. This case can be added to five other reported cases of an association between polycythaemia vera and well-differentiated lymphocytic neoplasia, and adds further emphasis to the tendency for dual presentation, which has now occurred in all but one of these cases. One explanation is that the association is due to chance, but the tendency for dual presentation raises the possibility that the overall picture reflects neoplastic involvement of stem cells with capacity to differentiate into the lymphoid as well as the erythroid, myeloid and megakaryocytic series.


ABSTRACT Analysing spoken and written language samples across different genres provides speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and educators with information about adolescents' production of complex syntax, an important socially and academically related language skill. However, researchers report that production of complex syntax is affected by genre and modality. Although the narrative and expository genres elicit a greater amount of complex syntax than conversational discourse, it is unknown whether differences in production of complex syntax exist between the persuasive and expository genres. The purpose of this study was to compare adolescents' production of complex syntax across spoken and written expository and persuasive genres. Spoken and written expository and persuasive language samples were elicited from 64 adolescents. Complex syntax was measured by calculating per cent of complex utterances and clausal density. Two repeated measures ANOVA revealed that complex syntax production was affected by genre and modality. Adolescents produced a higher percent of complex utterances and a higher clausal density in the persuasive genre than the expository genre. Adolescents produced a higher percent of complex utterances in the written modality than the spoken modality across genres; however, there was not a significant difference in adolescents' clausal density across modalities. There were significant interaction effects between genre and modality for percent of complex utterances and clausal density. The significant interaction effects suggest that differences in the production of complex syntax between the spoken and written modalities depended on the genre elicited. We discuss multiple implications and specific directions for future research.


&NA; Renal metastases from primary osteosarcomas are rather uncommon and rarely diagnosed early because the patients are asymptomatic and frequently die from other metastatic involvement before renal symptoms develop. The authors present a patient with two clinically silent renal metastases from primary osteosarcoma of the right femur 2 years after surgery of the primary lesion that was first detected on radionuclide bone imaging. Subsequently, a CT scan and a CT guided needle biopsy were performed for confirmation. The patient underwent a left nephrectomy and two separate lesions were proven to be metastatic osteosarcoma. The clinical importance of the nuclear bone scan in the initial management, as well as in the subsequent follow‐up of patients after surgery, cannot be overemphasized.


Vendors have recently announced the availability of the new generation "electronic imaging systems (EIS)." These systems are capable of scanning an image, converting the image into electronic form, storing the image on optical disk, and rapidly retrieval of the image. Experienced observers expect this new technology to gain wide acceptance in the marketplace as a alternative to traditional microfilm or paper-based systems. Vendors and potential users alike, however, have expressed concern related to the legality of records maintained using this technology, including specifically the admissibility of optical disk records as evidence or the acceptance of this type of electronic record by administrative agencies. At the time of this article, no statutes or regulations, or even judicial decisions, exist which specifically address this technology. The legal system has yet to be confronted with records and information maintained by these systems and may not even respond for several years, based upon the previous history with other technologies. 1 What should both users and vendors do in the interim period, until a body of law evolves similar to microfilm and computer records? Should purchase decisions be postponed until new legislation is enacted or the technology has passed judicial review in a number of test cases? Should we wait several years to recognize the improved speed of retrieval and information sharing offered by this new technology? This article reviews the electronic imaging system and the use of optical disk as a storage medium within the context of existing microfilm and computer laws in the United States. It seems clear, at the minimum, that this new technology has certain reproduction properties of microfilm and yet utilizes data processing technology. The results of these observations may be surprising for those waiting for the legal "test case" to be firmly decided. The "Uniform Photographic Copies of Business and Public Records as Evidence Act (UPA)" has been adopted by 33 states and one territory and represents the mainstream of thinking within the United States related to microfilm and duplicate copies. 2 This law as it relates to microfilm is discussed extensively in a previous article. 3 The UPA, as adopted by the federal government in Title 28, Section 1732 of the United States Code [US 128-0020-00], reads as follows: §1732. Record made in regular course of business: photographic copies. If any business, institution, member of a professions or calling, or any department or agency of government, in the …


Type Ia supernovae are widely accepted to be the outcomes of thermonuclear explosions in white dwarf stars. However, many details of these explosions remain uncertain (e.g. the mass, ignition mechanism, and flame speed). Theory predicts that at very late times (beyond 1000 d) it might be possible to distinguish between explosion models. Few very nearby supernovae can be observed that long after the explosion. The Type Ia supernova SN 2011fe located in M101 and along a line of sight with negligible extinction, provides us with the once-in-a-lifetime chance to obtain measurements that may distinguish between theoretical models. In this work, we present the analysis of photometric data of SN 2011fe taken between 900 and 1600 days after explosion with Gemini and HST. At these extremely late epochs theory suggests that the light curve shape might be used to measure isotopic abundances which is a useful model discriminant. However, we show in this work that there are several currently not well constrained physical processes introducing large systematic uncertainties to the isotopic abundance measurement. We conclude that without further detailed knowledge of the physical processes at this late stage one cannot reliably exclude any models on the basis of this dataset.


The relation between extracellular potassium concentration increase and action potential duration decrease is well established. In this work, potassium concentration changes in relation with various activation patterns in an inhomogeneous tissue were in focus and effort was paid to investigate spatial patterns and draw quantitative conclusions about their effects. A series of simulations were performed with different combinations of short stimulus periods and increased extracellular potassium concentrations. The effect of these perturbations on the cellular and overall tissue activation and wave propagation characteristics was investigated.


With the advent of the grid, task scheduling in heterogeneous environments becomes more and more important. Of particular interest is the fact that especially in scientific experiments a non negligible amount of data must be transferred to the processing node before a task can commence execution. Given bandwidth constraints, scheduling both computations and data transfers is required. In this paper we first develop a suitable model that captures heterogeneity in the processing nodes while imposing communication constraints. We proceed by proposing scheduling heuristics with the aim of minimizing the total make span of a set of independent tasks. Through a series of experiments we illustrate the potential of a particular heuristic that is based on backfilling


In Sândominic the initiation into a woman, that is, the ritual of accepting the young wife among the women takes place within the framework of the wedding, after midnight. The ritual of elopement and bunning make the turning-point in one's life temporarily acceptable, tolerable by the community, and make the turning-point irreversible. The author highlights the legal and moral significance of bunning applied as a lifebelt ritual, its historical and validity supremacy. He regards it as the promotion of a pagan ritual to the rank of customary law. Bunning is a marriage ritual deriving from the age of the Hungarian Conquest, which was later replaced by the religious, then by the official marriage ritual. It became part of the customary order of the wedding: it became a ritual of initiation into a woman, it survived as a separate initiation ritual, and in the cases presented it is performed as an independent, what is more, autonomous legal ritual. In the absence of data deriving from elsewhere, and based on a record from the seventeenth century, the author presupposes that in Székelyland (or Székelyföld as it is known in Hungarian) bunning, as a specific strategy of the rites of passage, constituted an independent marriage custom/ritual of folk-right. Its out of turn applicability in exceptional cases is still recognized, the deviant situation is made acceptable by public opinion by resorting to a former profane ritual which has fallen out of the authority of religious and


This report investigates the detection of small leaks from the primary system of a Nuclear Pressurised Water Reactor. Leak rates of 12 g/s are invariably difficult to detect and locate. The typical leak indicators in a nuclear reactor control room are a drop in pressure and level from the pressuriser, and the air sampler detecting particulate matter. However, in both cases the leak is normally quite substantial by the time any parameters or values are obviously outside the normal operating conditions. Therefore, a small leak could go undetected for a significant amount of time. As part of the reactor safety studies, it is important to have more information about small leaks.

Due to the lack of small leak data, the solution was to construct a high pressure water rig producing temperatures and pressures close to those experienced in the primary circuit, these being 200oC and 100 bar respectively. Pressure is maintained by a vane water pump and heating is achieved by passing a high current through a small diameter, thin walled pipe. To reproduce different size cracks, various size carburettor jets are used. The water on exiting this crack, flashes to steam and immediately meets metallic pipe lagging, which is typical of most primary systems.

With the typical crack scenario recreated it is now important to add sensors that will detect conditions associated with a small leak. These sensors are either mounted on or around the lagging material. The parameters that are monitored include vibrations, acoustics, thermal variations, moisture change, air flow and pressure adjustment leaving a predetermined outlet. The sensor outputs are pre-processed and the nonlinear data are applied to an artificial neural network, whereas the other data are applied to a digital logic system. The results showed that with 13 different leak rates, separated by only 1.4 g/s the ANN was able to correctly differentiate and identify different leak sizes with a certainty of over 97%. The results from all the analysis are further presented graphically through an Operator Advisory System. This informs the operator of the predicted leak size and location. All of the available sensor data relevant to the leak can be viewed and location of the leak is presented by a three dimensional model of the reactor system.


Most malignant liver tumors are represented by hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma; however a variety of other uncommon hepatic lesions might also be found. Common lesions such as hemangioma, focal nodular hyperplasia and metastases are well known and have already been extensively documented in the literature. The diagnosis of typical hepatic lesions may be done with some reliability by means of several imaging methods; on the other hand, uncommon lesions normally represent a diagnostic challenge for the radiologist. In this first part of the study, the authors will approach five uncommon liver tumors - angiosarcoma, angiomyolipoma, cystadenoma/biliary carcinoma, epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, and fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma -, describing their main characteristics and image findings with focus on computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.


Although matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) has been considered a factor of crucial importance for breast cancer cells invasion and metastasis, the expression of MMP-1 in different breast cancer and cancer-adjacent tissues have not been fully examined. In the present study, immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the MMP-1 expression in non-specific invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast, cancer-adjacent normal breast tissue, lymph node metastatic non-specific invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast and normal lymph node tissue. The results showed that MMP-1 expression is different in the above tissues. MMP-1 had a positive expression in normal lymph node tissue and lymph node metastatic non-specific invasive ductal carcinoma. The MMP-1 negative expression rate was only 6.1% in non-specific invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast and 2.9% in cancer-adjacent normal breast tissue respectively. MMP-1 expression is higher in non-specific invasive ductal carcinoma and lymph node metastatic non-specific invasive ductal carcinoma compared to cancer-adjacent normal breast tissue and normal lymph node tissue. In conclusion, higher expression of MMP-1 in breast cancer may play a crucial role in promoting breast cancer metastasis.


We have identified genes for the membrane-bound [H+]ATP synthetase in Mycoplasma strain PG50. Using the Escherichia coli ATP synthetase genes as a probe in heterologous hybridization under low stringency conditions, homologous sequences were detected in restriction enzyme-cleaved DNA from Mycoplasma strain PG50. From a genomic library. An EcoRI fragment harboring most of the homologous sequences was isolated. A 669-bp region of the fragment has been sequenced. The deduced amino acid sequence of the only large open reading frame shows an overall homology of 53% to a region in the C-terminal part of the alpha subunit of the E. coli ATP synthase. The hybridization data indicates that the entire atp operon is conserved in Mycoplasma strain PG50. A similar search for the Mycoplasma strain PG50 gene corresponding to dnaA gave no result.


The rapidly changing competitive conditions, economic and technological developments have brought the diversity of firm's products and services. One-kind products and services were replaced by the production of a wide range of products and services. International firms are seeing that increased demand has led to different product markets. All these developments have also led to the international level of competition and made necessary to conduct new researches on management accounting with emphasis on planning, controlling and auditing. In this study, time and activity based flexible budget application is made by looking at a new approach to the budgeting process, which is one of the most important tools of planning. Purpose of this study is to show that time driven activity based costing system for education sector can be considered in the calculation of the costs and performance of the steps of taking advantage of future budget planning in education sector. For this purpose, time driven activity based budgeting was implemented in primary schools and kindergartens in Ankara operating within a private educational institution. The result of the study, in order to prepare a flexible budget depending on time, must have qualified persons and the need for cooperation of all employees in the implementation. During the calculation of the costs, to reach more accurate results due to consideration of idle capacity, findings show the benefits provide for large corporations having complex structure. This also proves that every customer is not profitable.


How does media exposure relate to support for radical right populist parties (RRPPs)? We contribute to this classic debate by analyzing the web browsing histories and survey responses of six thousand study participants in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK during the 2019 European Parliament election. Linking direct measures of online news exposure to voting behavior allows us to assess the effects of the salience of issues politicized by RRPPs on their electoral support. The likelihood to vote for RRPPs was higher when the EU was more salient in individual media diets, while exposure to the less salient issue of immigration did not increase the propensity to vote for RRPPs. Alongside consistent results for other party families and interactions with pre-existing voting intentions, the findings indicate that the electoral effects of online media are contingent on the overall salience of a specific issue and voters' predispositions.


As nanoparticles (NPs) are cleared via phagocytes of the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS), we hypothesized that the function of circulating monocytes and dendritic cells (MO/DC) in blood can predict NP clearance (CL). We measured MO/DC phagocytosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in mice, rats, dogs, and patients with refractory solid tumors. Pharmacokinetic studies of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-encapsulated liposomal doxorubicin (PEGylated liposomal doxirubicin [PLD]), CKD-602 (S-CKD602), and cisplatin (SPI-077) were performed at the maximum tolerated dose. MO/DC function was also evaluated in patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) administered PLD. Across species, a positive association was observed between cell function and CL of PEGylated liposomes. In patients with EOC, associations were observed between PLD CL and phagocytosis (R2 = 0.43, P = 0.04) and ROS production (R2 = 0.61, P = 0.008) in blood MO/DC. These findings suggest that probes of MPS function may help predict PEGylated liposome CL across species and PLD CL in patients with EOC.


Identification of immune correlates associated with disease progression will provide information for HIV-1 vaccine design in countries such as Thailand, where the prevalent subtypes (B and CRF01_AE [E]) are characterized. In this study, plasma viral load and humoral immune responses were measured in 20 HIV-1 subtype E-infected Thai patients with different rates of disease progression, based on CD4(+) T cell decline and clinical symptoms. Nine progressors (PRs) and 11 slower progressors (SPs) were evaluated. CD4(+) T cell counts were inversely correlated with viral load (p = 0.004) and positively correlated with p24 Ab (p = 0.022). In progressors, p24 Ab showed a significant decrease (p < 0.001) over time. V3 and gp41 Ab did not change significantly in either group. Both CD4-binding site (CD4/gp120BS) and gp120 titers correlated positively with neutralizing antibody (NAb) against both a subtype E cell line-adapted virus (NP03) and a primary isolate (TH023). However, V3 Ab correlated only with NAb against NP03 (p < 0.001). Increased NAb over time was observed more frequently in SPs as compared with PRs, against both the TH023 (p = 0.004) and NPO3 (p = 0.004) viruses. Cross-clade antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity was demonstrated in both groups. These data suggest that in HIV-1 subtype E infection, declining p24 Ab titer is a predictive marker of disease progression, as described for subtype B. Furthermore, in subtype E-infected patients, slower progressors retain the immune competence to develop new antibody responses to Env over time; these evolving responses may contribute to prolonged survival during HIV-1 disease progression.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test a Winningham's psychobiologic entropy model (PEM) on cancer related fatigue (CRF) among patients with solid tumors. Methods: Participants consisted of 213 patients with solid tumors recruited from December, 2012 through June, 2013, in a university hospital, in Hwasun, South Korea. Primary symptoms, adjustment, physical activity, status of nutrition and fatigue were measured using structured questionnaires. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 programs. Results: The modified model tested provided a reasonable fit to the data (x 2 =65.80 [df=30, p<.001], TLI=.92, CFI=.95, RMSEA=.08, SRMR=.07). Primary symptoms (dyspnea, anxiety, depression and insomnia) had direct positive effects on CRF. Adjustment and status of nutrition showed indirect negative effects on CRF. However, the impact of physical activity was not significant. These variables explained 49.2% of the variance of CRF among solid tumor patients. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that the tested model explain some CRF among solid tumor patients and warrant future research considering the cancer-related clinical factors of the given population.


Abstract Purpose: This descriptive study sought to explore barriers faced by Deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) individuals in Denmark when accessing medical and psychosocial services following large-scale disasters and individual traumatic experiences. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine D/HH individuals who had experienced at least one disaster or other traumatic event. Results: Difficulties were encountered during interactions with first response and healthcare services, which centered on: (1) lack of Deaf awareness among professionals, (2) problems accessing interpreter services, (3) professionals relying on hearing relatives to disseminate information, and (4) professionals who were unwilling to adjust their speech or try different forms of communication. Barriers reported in relation to accessing psychosocial services included: (1) lack of all-Deaf or hard-of-hearing support groups, and (2) limited availability of crisis psychologists who are trained to service the needs of the hearing impaired. Suggestions for improvements to service provision were provided, including a list of practical recommendations for professionals. Conclusions: This study has identified significant gaps in post-disaster service provision for D/HH individuals. Results can inform policy makers and other authorities in the position to enhance existing services and/or develop new services for this vulnerable target population. Implications for Rehabilitation Being Deaf or hard-of-hearing compromises a person's ability to obtain and share vital information during times of disaster. Medical and psychosocial services are expected to play critical response roles in times of disaster, and, should be properly equipped to assist Deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) individuals. In a relatively small sample, this study highlights barriers faced by D/HH individuals in Denmark when accessing first response, healthcare, and psychosocial services following large-scale disasters and individual traumatic events, all of which centered on communication problems and resulted in suboptimal care. Regarding rehabilitation after disasters, evidence-based information about how to service the heterogeneous communication needs of D/HH populations should be disseminated to professionals, and preferably incorporated into training programs.


During a series of HST/STIS observations of Eta Carinae and associatedejecta, we noticed a peculiar emission filament located a few arcsecondsnorth of the central source. While bright in nebular standards, it issubmerged in a sea of scattered starlight until moderately highdispersion, long-slit spectroscopy with the STIS (R 8000) brings theemission lines out. The initial spectrum, centered on 6768A with theSTIS G750M grating, led to identification of twenty lines fromsingly-ionized species including [Sr II], [Fe II], [Ti II], [Ni II], [MnII], and [Co II] (Zethson, etal., 2001, AJ 122, 322). No Balmer emissionis detected from this filament and the Fe II 2507,9 lines, known to bepumped by Lyman alpha radiation in other regions near the centralsource, are not detected. Followup observations have led to detection ofhundreds more emission lines from iron group elements in neutral andsingly-ionized states. Thus far all are excited by less than 10 eV. Thispeculiar nebular emission is thought to be due to very intense stellarradiation, stripped of uv flux shortward of Lyman alpha, bathing aneutral structure. We are systematically identifying the many lines(over 90% identified) and measuring line intensities that will then bemodeled to determine excitation mechanisms, temperature and density. Two[Sr II] and two Sr II lines have now been measured. Bautista, etal. (inpreparation) have modeled the strontium flux ratios and find that largeradiation fluxes and/or high strontium abundances may account for thedetected emission. These observations were supported by STIS GTO fundingand GO funding through the STScI.


In this article, we examine the role that animals play within human organizational boundary work. In so doing, we challenge the latent anthropocentricism in many, if not most, theories of organization that locate animal agencies outside the boundary work that is said to constitute organizing. In developing this argument, we draw together diverse strands of work mobilizing Actor–Network Theory that engage the entanglement of human/nonhuman agencies. In bringing this work together, we suggest humans may organize, even manage, by conducting relational boundary work with animal agencies, spacings and timings. Our argument is empirically illustrated and theoretically developed across two cases of the spacings and timings of construction project organizations—an infrastructure project in the United Kingdom and a housing development in Scandinavia. Construction projects are well-known for their tightly managed linear timings and for producing the built spaces that separate humans and animals. Three concepts—Invitation, Exclusion and Disturbance—are offered to help apprehend how such organizings of space and time are themselves dependent upon entanglements between human and animal agencies. We conclude by suggesting that animals should not be negatively constituted as an 'Other' to human organizing, or indeed management, but rather acknowledged as sometimes constituting human capacities to organize, even managerially control, space and time.


Objective: To provide objective data on the impact of COVID-19 crisis on our ENT practice. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Tertiary referral hospital (1038 inpatients beds). Participants: 572 consecutive patients presenting to the ENT clinic and ENT operating theatre from March 16, 2020 to May 3, 2020 were prospectively included. Main outcome measures: Demographic and clinical data, admission time, paraclinic testing, management, outcome and follow'up were recorded. Retrospective search for comparison to past year over the same period of time was carried out. Results: Coronavirus crisis and the strict lockdown rules led to a severe disruption of the ENT service. A drop in overall activity of 91.1% was observed. Mortality rates increased from 0.82% to 4.55%. While some patients in real need may not have been able to be seen, others presented without ground. More than a quarter of admissions (n=157, 27.6%) resulted in no specific ENT treatment. Patient selection improved when patients had a recent ENT history (OR=2.39 [1.50-3.81], p=0.0003) or were referred by a physician (OR=5.30 [3.69-7.61], p<0.0001). Conclusions: Our data suggested impaired healthcare of all ENT patients. Special attention should be paid to non-Covid otolaryngology patients.


TM-wave scattering from slits in thick parallel conducting screens is analyzed using the Fourier transform. The simultaneous equations for the modal coefficients are formed in terms of convergent series. Numerical computations are performed to illustrate the behavior of transmission and scattering from the slits. High-frequency solutions for scattering and transmission are obtained in approximate closed forms.


Translation is a term, of late, frequently used in medical research. It means different things to different people. For some it is moving from conception to science and engineering to application; for others it means moving technological development into the treatment of patients; and for still others it means moving a research development into a commercial system. In 2004 in a pique of frustration with big medical device companies and academic administrators, I founded a spin-off company from my laboratory to take a development of ours to the market place. The company, Pathfinder Therapeutics Inc, as of this writing, is still in business so I presume it can be defined as a success. We have faced each of the above defined translation challenges and more remain. The presentation (and paper) will cover the process of achieving that success and of lessons often painfully learned.


Buttock pain is often seen in chiropractic general practice, either as the only presenting symptom or as part of a symptom complex. The following flow chart has been prepared in an attempt to assist the clinician in arriving at an accurate diagnosis and aetiology.


The synthetic oestrogens diethylstilboestrol, hexoestrol and 17 alpha-ethynyloestradiol are known to be carcinogenic, yet they all exert antioxidant properties in vitro in that they are good inhibitors of iron ion-dependent lipid peroxidation. In rat liver microsomes incubated with Fe(III)-ascorbate or Fe(III)-ADP/NADPH and also in ox-brain phospholipid liposomes incubated with Fe(III)-ascorbate; the overall order of effectiveness of the compounds tested as inhibitors of lipid peroxidation was diethylstilboestrol > hexoestrol > 17 alpha-ethynyloestradiol > 4-hydroxytamoxifen > 17 beta-oestradiol > tamoxifen. Compounds acting as antioxidants towards lipids may also exert pro-oxidant effects towards other molecules such as DNA and thus must never be assumed to be safe for human use.


INTRODUCTION Idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis (RPF) represents a rare inflammatory disease, which leads to extensive fibrosis of the retroperitoneal space. In the course of the progressive fibrosis, fibrous tissue compresses the retroperitoneal structures with the development of consecutive ureteral obstruction. Because of the unknown aetiology, no consensus between conservative and surgical treatment exists. CASE REPORT A 60-year-old patient was admitted to hospital with left-sided flank pain, hydronephrosis, and retroperitoneal tumour. A CT scan-guided biopsy revealed RPF. The hydronephrosis was treated by endoluminal urinary diversion. Under simultaneous administration of steroids, an almost complete regression of the RPF was noted. CONCLUSIONS First goal in the treatment of RPF is urinary diversion to protect the renal function. A simultaneous therapy with steroids can cause a complete regression of the RPF. Surgical intervention is only recommended in refractory cases.


This paper presents the design and implementation of an advanced digital controller for a 1-kW H-bridge dc-dc power converter. A new control algorithm based on the active disturbance rejection concept is developed to cope with the highly nonlinear dynamics of the converter and the disturbances. An experimental digital control system is used to implement the new control strategy. It consists of a digital control board based on the TMS320C6711 digital signal processor chip, an analogy I/O board, and a complex programmable logic device pulsewidth-modulation generation board. Using a newly developed bandwidth-parametrization technique, an autotuning method based on noise quantification is also developed and tested. Experimental results show the advantages and flexibilities of the new control method for the H-bridge dc-dc power converter.


We study the formation of over 6000 compact groups (CGs) of galaxies identified in mock redshift-space galaxy catalogues built from semi-analytical models of galaxy formation (SAMs) run on the Millennium Simulations. We select CGs of 4 members in our mock SDSS galaxy catalogues and, for each CG, we trace back in time the real-space positions of the most massive progenitors of their 4 galaxies. By analysing the evolution of the distance of the galaxy members to the centre of mass of the group, we identify 4 channels of CG formation. The classification of these assembly channels is performed with an automatic recipe inferred from a preliminary visual inspection and based on the orbit of the galaxy with the fewest number of orbits. Most CGs show late assembly, with the last galaxy arriving on its first or second passage, while only 10-20 per cent form by the gradual contraction of their orbits by dynamical friction, and only a few per cent forming early with little subsequent contraction. However, a SAM from a higher resolution simulation leads to earlier assembly. Assembly histories of CGs also depend on cosmological parameters. At similar resolution, CGs assemble later in SAMs built on parent cosmological simulations of high density parameter. Several observed properties of mock CGs correlate with their assembly history: earlyassembling CGs are smaller, with shorter crossing times, and greater magnitude gaps between their brightest two members, and their brightest galaxies have smaller spatial offsets and are more passive.


The CHESHIRE nuclear weapon test was detonated in 1976 in fractured volcanic rock at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). This testis representative of many other high-yield tests conducted below the water table in the Pahute Mesa area of the NTS. Since 1976 we have been studying the movement of test-related radionuclides within a few hundred meters of the explosion cavity. CHESHIRE is the only nuclear test characterized before, immediately after, and for decades following the detonation and provides data on both the prompt and long-term dispersal of radionuclides after an underground nuclear test. For this reason it is a unique field-scale transport experiment. Solid and fluid samples were collected from a drill back hole extending into and through the cavity in order to measure the initial distributions of radionuclides after the detonation. We subsequently pumped and sampled water from the cavity region and from a hydraulically transmissive zone about 400 m higher in the collapse chimney. A satellite well was also drilled 380 m down gradient from CHESHIRE and intercepted radionuclides (including tritium in high concentration) being transported through transmissive aquifers. Studies of radionuclide migration at CHESHIRE documented for the first time at the NTS the transport of relatively insoluble radionuclides (e.g., europium isotopes) with colloids moving in the groundwater. Water was pumped again from the cavity and chimney horizons in 1998 in order to observe the evolution of the hydrologic source term after several decades. Recent comprehensive studies of the geology and hydrology at the CHESHIRE site have improved predictions of radionuclide migration in the context of a regional groundwater flow model. This report provides unclassified data and describes a conceptual model for radionuclide migration associated with a nuclear test that is applicable to other tests on Pahute Mesa similar in yield, hydrogeologic setting, and age.


The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic treatment of tax policies in mixed markets with endogenous entry. We consider three types of tax-subsidy policies: a simple unit subsidy, an entry-license tax, and a policy mixture of the two instruments. Under the unit-subsidy policy, in contrast to the results of the short-run analysis with exogenous entry, the optimal subsidy level in a mixed market is not higher than that in a private market, and privatization affects welfare. Under the entry-license-tax policy, the optimal entry-tax level in a mixed market is lower than that in a private market. Finally, we show that the privatization neutrality theorem holds under a two-part tax-subsidy policy: the first-best outcome is achieved in both mixed and private markets, and the optimal tax-subsidy rate is the same across the two regimes.


We present the result of the high-resolution CO observations of the nearby "poststarburst" galaxy NGC 7331 obtained with the Nobeyama Millimeter Array (NMA). The molecular gas is distributed in two bowlike structures, and these seem to be parts of the ringlike structure, which was also seen in the radio continuum. The ring has a radius of ~3 kpc, corresponding to the turnover radius of the rotation curves obtained both by radio and optical observations. We could not detect the CO emission in the central region, although the central concentrations of molecular gas were found in other "poststarburst" galaxies, NGC 4736 and NGC 5055. The distribution of mass surface density in NGC 7331 is different from that of the critical surface density for disk stability (where the disk is unstable and breaks up), although the molecular gas in the active star-forming ring is unstable and that in the central poststarburst region is stable. This suggests that the global molecular gas distribution in NGC 7331 is not controlled by the disk stability. The central hole of molecular gas in NGC 7331 might be formed by gas consumption due to the long evolution after the past starburst event.


The politics around data and power relations related to technologies for buildings is a new area for HCI. This paper proposes an agenda for linking new types of data to the challenge of sustainability, bringing human-centredness to a particular tool for design and engineering professionals, Building Information Modeling (BIM). BIM is the preferred technology platform for coordination and collaboration in architectural design and construction. BIM contains different types of data and information about a building including 3D (geometry), 4D (time), 5D (cost), 6D (facility management) and 7D (sustainability). Once constructed, this 'digital twin' of the building allows for adding new services and for stakeholders interacting with the building design through through sensors, immersive experiences and virtual, augmented and mixed realities. As a socio-technical software process, BIM also accommodates diverging agendas on design and construction for sustainability, and these diverging concepts about 'sustainability' "live" in different places with implications for the resulting BIM models. Based on our findings, we suggest a better integration and coherent representation of such issues of interest not only to new services but also stakeholders into the different forms of data (e.g. facilities management and sustainability). We argue for a stronger shared understanding of BIM as a platform for engaging with technologies designed for interacting with buildings and push agendas of sustainable construction.


This paper aims to contribute to the recent debate on disability studies through a series of theoretical reflections on how women with physical disabilities experience their motherhood, examining the interconnections between motherhood, disability and citizenship which expand the definition of "caring" into intimate settings. In Italy, there is little research on how disabled women live the experience of becoming and being mothers and the impact of ableism and sexism on motherhood because of toxic discourses and stereotyped representations that imagine motherhood and disability as incongruous. It is essential to incorporate new perspectives that observe the ways in which non-normative bodies inhabit and expand the relationships of love, care and intimacy (Mapelli 2018). Disabled women offer the opportunity to attribute new meanings to intimate justice (McClelland 2014) and to break down the oppressive system that produces disabilities and marginalises disabled bodies. Keywords : care, disability, ableism, motherhood, citizenship.


For a very general class of probability distributions in disordered Ising spin systems, in the thermodynamical limit, we prove the following property for overlaps among real replicas. Consider the overlaps among s replicas. Add one replica s + 1. Then, the overlap between one of the first s replicas, let us say a, and the added s + 1 is either independent of the former ones, or it is identical to one of the overlaps , with b running among the first s replicas, excluding a. Each of these cases has equal probability .


Currently, the therapeutic effect of clopidogrel differs considerably among individuals and is thought to be closely related to the genetic polymorphism of CYP2C19. The CYP2C19*2 gene can reduce the antiplatelet aggregation effect of clopidogrel, which increases the risk of major cardiovascular adverse events in patients. In this research, we report a new type of biosensor for the highly sensitive detection of the CYP2C19*2 gene based on exonuclease III assisted electric signal amplification and the use of calixarene to enrich electrical signal substances. Specifically, under the best conditions, the logarithmic concentrations of the analytes have a good linear relationship with the peak current in the range of 0.01 fM to 100 pM and the detection limit is 13.49 aM. The results have also shown that this method has good selectivity, high sensitivity, and stability, etc., and will provide a very promising application for the detection of the CYP2C19*2 gene and other biological molecules by replacing corresponding nucleic acid sequences.


The wide application possibilities of terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) has led to a rapid progress in the performance of table-top phase-stable, few-cycle THz sources, which keep setting new records in terms of bandwidth, tunability and pulse energy. One aspect, however, that has so far remained difficult to tackle is their average power, which typically remains in the μW range. This is because using traditional ultrafast driving lasers such as Ti:Sa lasers, an inevitable compromise between pulse energy and repetition rate needs to be met. However, many applications suffering from low signal-to-noise-ratio and long measurement times, both in linear and nonlinear spectroscopy, would largely benefit from having both high-field and high-repetition rate — i.e. high average power. Increasing the average power of THz-TDS sources calls for higher driving powers than provided by commonly used Ti:Sa lasers. Yb-doped, diode-pumped ultrafast solid-state lasers with power levels from hundreds of watts up to several kilowatts with sub-ps pulse duration are now readily available, however THz generation with more than a few tens of watts remains widely unexplored. In a recent proof-of-principle experiment, we demonstrated THz generation by optical rectification (OR) using a one-box Yb:YAG modelocked thin-disk oscillator with an average power of more than 100 W [1]. We obtained a THz power of 78 μW, mainly limited by the long 580 fs pulses of our laser. Here, we increase the conversion efficiency by an order of magnitude by using 88 fs long pulses nonlinearly compressed in a multi-pass cell (MPC) [2]. We measure an average power of 1.35 mW, which is to the best of our knowledge the highest THz power so far achieved at MHz repetition rate, improving the current state-of-the-art by more than a factor of 4 [3].


A contribution to the understanding of total dose degradation using both AC small signal analysis and DC analysis in linear bipolar circuits is proposed. The reasoning is illustrated step by step on the basis of experimental results obtained on the LM 139. It is shown that the input stage is mostly responsible for the degradation up to 20 krad. Above 20 krad, the total degradation is due to a combination of the input and the output stage degradation. The amplifier stage does not play a significant role in the circuit degradation


Background:Several cases of cauda equina syndrome after continuous spinal anesthesia have been recently reported. One possible etiology is toxic exposure of the sacral roots resulting from intrathecal maldistribution of a relatively large dose of local anesthetic. The current experiments sought to determine whether a local anesthetic solution, injected intrathecally to produce a restricted distribution of anesthesia, could result in a sacral deficit. In addition, we sought to test the hypothesis that, when equal volumes are administered intrathecally, significant differences exist in the potential of three commonly used anesthetic solutions to induce sensory impairment. Methods:Thirty-two rats were implanted with intrathecal catheters to permit repetitive infusion of local anesthetic. Animals were randomly assigned to four groups of eight to receive either 5% lidocaine with 7.5% dextrose; 0.75% bupivacaine with 8.25% dextrose; 0.5% tetracaine with 5% dextrose; or normal saline. Each rat received, in sequence, a 1-h (60 μl), a 2-h (120 μl), and a 4-h (240 μl) infusion; the infusions were separated by a 4-day rest period. Sensory function was assessed using the tail-flick test, which was performed immediately before each infusion and 6 days after the last infusion by an investigator blinded to the solution infused. Results:There was no significant difference in baseline tail-flick latencies for the four groups. Tail-flick latency for the lidocaine group was significantly prolonged when compared with the bupivacaine, tetracaine, and saline groups. This difference was apparent after the first infusion and persisted throughout the study. Conclusions:In the rat, restricted anesthetic distribution can be achieved, and sensory impairment may result. These findings further support an etiology of local anesthetic neurotoxicity for recent clinical injuries after continuous spinal anesthesia. The functional model described appears to be suitable for in vivo study of local anesthetic neurotoxicity.


Abstract Objective: The objectives of this paper are to (1) introduce the concept of upstream and downstream public health approaches and discuss diet assessment issues in that context, and (2) provide examples of diet assessment methods and challenges in assessing environmental factors influencing eating patterns. Design: Dietary assessment of environmental factors is discussed as they relate to nutrition interventions for school-aged children, although the issues transcend population characteristics. Examples of assessment challenges in measuring 'dietary environments' are drawn from the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH), Teens Eating for Energy and Nutrition at School (TEENS) and Trying Alternative Cafeteria Options in Schools (TACOS) studies. Results/conclusions: The healthfulness of our 'dietary environments' (which may include food availability, social norms around food choice and the effect of pricing, policy and promotion on food choice) may be more important in determining what people consume than their individual decision-making about food choice. There is a dearth of published information to inform us on how to assess these 'dietary environments'.


This study describes the performance of two Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) in simulating the climatologies of planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameters, with a particular focus on the diurnal cycles. The two models differ solely in the PBL parameterization: one uses a prescribed K-profile parameterization (KPP) scheme with an entrainment parameterization, and the other employs a turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) scheme. The models are evaluated through comparison with the reanalysis ensemble, which is generated from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) twentieth-century reanalysis (ERA-20C), ERA-Interim, NCEP CFSR, and NASA MERRA, and the following systematic biases are identified. The models exhibit widespread cold biases in the high latitudes, and the biases are smaller when the KPP scheme is used. The diurnal cycle amplitudes are underestimated in most dry regions, and the model with the TKE scheme simulates larger amplitudes. For the near-surface winds, the models underestimate both the daily means and the diurnal amplitudes; the differences between the models are relatively small compared to the biases. The role of the PBL schemes in simulating the PBL parameters is investigated through the analysis of vertical profiles. The Sahara, which is suitable for focusing on the role of vertical mixing in dry PBLs, is selected for a detailed analysis. It reveals that compared to the KPP scheme, the heat transport is weaker with the TKE scheme in both convective and stable PBLs as a result of weaker vertical mixing, resulting in larger diurnal amplitudes. Lack of nonlocal momentum transport from the nocturnal low-level jets to the surfaces appears to explain the underestimation of the near-surface winds in the models.


Message passing is a very popular style of parallel programming, used in a wide variety of applications and supported by many APIs, such as BSD sockets, MPI and PVM. Its importance has motivated significant amounts of research on optimization and debugging techniques for such applications. Although this work has produced impressive results, it has also failed to fulfill its full potential. The reason is that while prior work has focused on runtime techniques, there has been very little work on compiler analyses that understand the properties of parallel message passing applications and use this information to improve application performance and quality of debuggers.This paper presents a novel compiler analysis framework that extends dataflow to parallel message passing applications on arbitrary numbers of processes. It works on an extended control-flow graph that includes all possible inter-process interactions of any numbers of processes. This enables dataflow analyses built on top of this framework to incorporate information about the application's parallel behavior and communication topology. The parallel dataflow framework can be instantiated with a variety of specific dataflow analyses as well as abstractions that can tune the accuracy of communication topology detection against its cost.The proposed framework bridges the gap between prior work on parallel runtime systems and sequential dataflow analyses, enabling new transformations, runtime optimizations and bug detection tools that require knowledge of the application's communication topology. We instantiate this framework with two different symbolic analyses and show how these analyses can detect different types of communication patterns, which enables the use of dataflow analyses on a wide variety of real applications.


Abstract: Non-native species impact tropical ecosystems, but the role of different anthropogenic disturbances on the success of non-natives remains unclear, especially in island tropical forests. We sought to understand the influence of anthropogenic habitat degradation and disturbance on non-native plant species in Madagascar. Specifically, we evaluated how densities of non-native species of woody shrub (Lantana camara), climber (Mucuna pruriens) and tree (Mangifera indica, Albizia lebbeck, Tamarindus indica) varied with forest habitat degradation and by disturbance type. We surveyed 60400 m2, recording 482 instances of disturbance and 903 non-native plants in and around the Ankarana National Park. Non-native plant densities were higher in degraded than primary forest. Within degraded forest, densities of non-native trees increased with disturbance. Tree densities correlated with extent of tree damage only in Tamarindus indica, never correlated with extent of tree removal, and always correlated with proximity to roads and trails. Our results suggest roads and trails have relatively greater importance in facilitating the success of non-native tree species than structural changes to habitat. In contrast, densities of Lantana camara and Tamarindus indica did not correlate with any measured type of disturbance; other unmeasured or historical factors may be more important drivers of these smaller, faster-reproducing species.


Administrative ADR to solve new problems has the characteristics of a new project, hence ADR is established and operated with a lack of human and material resources in the process of introducing administrative ADR. Therefore, it is preferred to resolve conflicts by less costly counseling and mutual agreement before mediation. When we try to settle the disputes through administrative ADR at the stage before mediation, it causes problems for the neutrality and impartiality of the dispute settlement procedures. In this case administrative ADR systems should introduce devices that ensure the impartiality of the process. In some issues becoming social problems, relevant administrative agencies are inclined to establish ADR systems. If ADR systems become available, a person who may use ADR services may have some trouble grasping ADR institutions because he/she can hardly distinguish their business affairs. By subdividing administrative affairs, when the disputes have the issues that touch on various fields of the affairs, parties in the disputes have to take ADR procedures one by one in all ADR-related institutions. This may lead to too heavy a burden on the disputing parties, furthermore forcing them to give up the remedies of their rights. For more efficient ADR operations, it is necessary that the institutions which set up and operate ADR systems should actively exchange and cooperate with one another. They need to forge and strengthen the solidarity between administrations and courts. The administrative agencies which run ADR themselves have to build up the devices for preparing human resources and material facilities for administrative ADR.


Update summarization can be a daunting task in automatic text summarization. It aims to distill evolved messages from a collection of new articles, under the assumption that the reader has already browsed the previous articles. In this paper, a number of state-of-the-art approaches were reviewed for extracting update summarization and then a method called DPC-TS was proposed. This approach is derived from the DPC-based multidocuments summarization method, which was developed in 2015. In our study, a model was established by using the topic signature algorithm, to evaluate the novelty of sentences in update documents set. In addition, the scheme of calculating similarities between sentences and sentence selection approach was improved to ensure there are diversity topics in the summary. DPC-TS update documents summarization method is a simple and effective approach, which can be reproduced and deployed in real environment. Keywords—update summarization; DPC; topic signature;


THE 21st century is predicted to bring changes to the world's economy and culture which is hence feared to affect local languages and culture, including that of Pekal language. To avoid it from happening, a research on Pekal language is carried out in this article. It aims at describing the Pekal language's deictic persona, time, place, and discourse used by its speakers in the Districts of Ketahun and Napalputih, the North Bengkulu Regency. It used descriptive qualitative method. The data were collected using listening and speaking method with stimulating, writing, and recording techniques. The result showed that the deictic form of the first person singular is akui while those of the plural are aok, kami/ kaming, and kitung 'we'; the deictic forms of second person singular are ikau, aban/kaban, and mamang, while those of the second person plural are kami siko and masiko 'you all'; the third person singular deictic are iyu/iyung 'he/she', -yung and ikau, while the third person plural deictic are masiko, asiko, and toboh de. Deictic of time were petang 'yesterday', kining 'now', tading 'just now', paging 'tomorrow', siang, metang 'afternoon', senju 'evening', malam, biae 'have been to', awit/garang 'often', terus 'always', kadang kaleu 'sometimes', biasoyung 'usually', kining 'at present', kalu 'if', dan bilu 'when'. the deictic of discourse are words/phrases such as iko, itu/tunah, cak iko/cak konah, nyo, yung, cak itu. Among the deictic of person, only the third person that could be marked as anaphoric or cataphoric. The anaphoric deictic was divided into two entities, namely singular (-yung, e) and plural (-masiko 'you', toboh tui 'they')


Objective: There are significant points of alignment between a macrocognitive frame of teamwork and a communication perspective. This commentary explores these touch points in regard to use of teams in sociotechnical systems (STS). Background: The macrocognitive framework emphasizes a team's shared mental models whereas a communication frame emphasizes that shared meaning among team members is more frequently implicitly than explicitly recorded in their messages. Both acknowledge that communication (in macrocognition) or messages (in communication) serve as an index of team members' goal-directed behavior. The two approaches differ in the role of communication: as information exchange in macrocognition as compared with verbal and nonverbal symbols composing messages for which senders and receivers co-construct meaning. Method: This commentary uses relevant literature to explicate the communication position. Results: From a communication perspective, individuals are simultaneously sending and receiving messages, communication is continual and processual, and meaning construction is dependent on relationship awareness and development among communication partners as well as the context. Conclusion: The authors posit that meaning cannot be constructed solely from messages, nor can meaning be constructed by one person. Furthermore, sharing information is not the same as communicating. Application: Architects and users of STS should be interested in designing systems that improve team communication—a goal that is interdependent with understanding how communication fails in the use of such systems. Drilling down to the fundamental properties of communication is essential to understanding how and why meaning is created among team members (and subsequent action).


outcome, with greater age reflecting significantly shorter disease-free survival (Figure 1). Risk-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models revealed that household income (HR: 0.61; 95%CI: 0.39–0.96), race (HR: 2.12; 95%CI: 1.31–3.43), and employment status (HR: 0.50; 95%CI: 0.30–0.84) were each associated with incident diabetes. Education (HR: 0.48; 95% CI: 0.30–0.78), race (HR: 1.86; 95%CI: 1.32–2.62), and employment status (HR: 0.57; 95%CI: 0.38–0.84) were all associated with incident hypertension. Only household income was associated with hypercholesterolemia (HR: 1.50; 95%CI: 1.08–2.08).


Tunneling signals can be studied ideally by application of the Cagniard-de Hoop method. Here, we use this method to derive the response function for the canonical configuration of two acoustic half-spaces, excited by a line source. In order to reveal the characteristics of the tunneling signal, we expand the Cagniard response around the relevant ray parameter and evaluate the associated signal. The result is the nongeometrical arrival due to a tunneling ray. This arrival can be modeled accurately by asymptotic theory when the phase is allowed to be complex (instead of real in the case of geometrical arrivals); a few numerical results illustrate this.


Consolidation of many Federal research and development (R&D) activities into a Department of Science and Technology (S&T) has been proposed repeatedly since World War D, including in the last Congress. The trend, however, has been toward the creation of mission agencies with supporting R&D capabilities. Analyses of arguments for and against consolidation indicate that valid reasons exist on both sides of the issue. Specific consolidation proposals may be considered again during the 104th Congress.


We have conducted the first comprehensive millimeter-wave molecular emission line surveys of the evolved circumstellar disks orbiting the nearby, roughly solar-mass, pre-main-sequence (T Tauri) stars, TW Hya (D = 54 pc) and V4046 Sgr AB (D = 73 pc). Both disks are known to retain significant residual gaseous components despite the advanced ages of their host stars (∼8 Myr and ∼21 Myr, respectively). Our unbiased broadband radio spectral surveys of the TW Hya and V4046 Sgr disks were performed with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment 12 m telescope, and are intended to yield a complete census of the bright molecular emission lines in the range 275–357 GHz (1.1–0.85 mm). We find that lines of 12CO, 13CO, HCN, CN, and C2H, all of which lie in the higher frequency (>330 GHz) range, constitute the strongest molecular emission from both disks in the spectral region surveyed. The molecule C2H is detected here for the first time in both disks, as is CS in the TW Hya disk. The survey results also include the first measurements of the full suite of the hyperfine transitions of CN N = 3 → 2 and C2H N = 4 → 3 in both disks. Modeling of these CN and C2H hyperfine complexes in the spectrum of TW Hya indicates that the emission from both species is optically thick and may originate from very cold (≲10 K) disk regions. The latter result, if confirmed, would suggest the efficient production of CN and C2H in the outer disk and/or near the disk midplane. It furthermore appears that the fractional abundances of CN and C2H are significantly enhanced in these evolved protoplanetary disks, relative to the fractional abundances of the same molecules in the environments of deeply embedded protostars. These results, combined with previous determinations of the enhanced abundances of other species (such as HCO+) in T Tauri star disks, underscore the importance of properly accounting for high-energy (FUV and X-ray) radiation from the central T Tauri star when modeling protoplanetary disk gas chemistry and physical conditions.


This work reports experimental demonstrations of reversible crystalline phase transition in ultrathin molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2 ) controlled by thermal and mechanical mechanisms on the van der Waals (vdW) nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) platform, with hexagonal boron nitride encapsulated MoTe2 structure residing on top of graphene layer. Benefiting from very efficient electrothermal heating and straining effects in the suspended vdW heterostructures, MoTe2 phase transition is triggered by rising temperature and strain level. Raman spectroscopy monitors the MoTe2 crystalline phase signatures in situ and clearly records reversible phase transitions between hexagonal 2H (semiconducting) and monoclinic 1T' (metallic) phases. Combined with Raman thermometry, precisely measured nanomechanical resonances of the vdW devices enable the determination and monitoring of the strain variations as temperature is being regulated by electrothermal control. These results not only deepen the understanding of MoTe2 phase transition, but also demonstrate a novel platform for engineering MoTe2 phase transition and multiphysical devices.


Over the past few years, the field of global optimization has been very active, producing different kinds of deterministic and stochastic algorithms for optimization in the continuous domain. These days, the use of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to solve optimization problems is a common practice due to their competitive performance on complex search spaces. EAs are well known for their ability to deal with nonlinear and complex optimization problems. Differential evolution (DE) algorithms are a family of evolutionary optimization techniques that use a rather greedy and less stochastic approach to problem solving, when compared to classical evolutionary algorithms. The main idea is to construct, at each generation, for each element of the population a mutant vector, which is constructed through a specific mutation operation based on adding differences between randomly selected elements of the population to another element. Due to its simple implementation, minimum mathematical processing and good optimization capability, DE has attracted attention. This paper proposes a new approach to solve electromagnetic design problems that combines the DE algorithm with a generator of chaos sequences. This approach is tested on the design of a loudspeaker model with 17 degrees of freedom, for showing its applicability to electromagnetic problems. The results show that the DE algorithm with chaotic sequences presents better, or at least similar, results when compared to the standard DE algorithm and other evolutionary algorithms available in the literature.


Chicago, Jan. 29, 1903. To the Editor: —Dr. S. P. Kramer, under the above caption (The Journal, Jan. 24, p. 257), mentions the fact that a series of organ extracts and ferment solutions other than adrenal or hypernephroma extract possess the power of decolorizing iodin starch solution. The inference is that this test is, therefore, of no value in the differentiation of adrenal tumors of the kidney from other tumors of this organ. That the preparations enumerated by Dr. Kramer can decolorize iodin starch solution is known to me. The decolorization is, however, by no means so prompt nor so complete. I could supplement his list by a considerable number of other bodies with reducing properties that can do the same. The practical value of the hypernephroma test is not, however, impaired hereby. For, as I took pains to determine and as I expressly mentioned in my "Note," no other


The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of different factors on the compressive mechanical properties of corn kernels. Explore the relationship between endosperm hardness and compressive mechanical properties of corn kernels by polynomial regression analysis. The results showed that the variety and kernel orientation had a significant effect on the compressive mechanical properties of corn kernels. Flint corn had a stronger ability to resist damage than floury corn. As the loading rate increased from 5 to 25 mm/min, the rupture force and rupture energy of corn kernels changed accordingly. The hardness of horny endosperm was significantly higher than that of floury endosperm. The dense starch‐protein network structure of horny endosperm leads to higher hardness. According to the fitting results, the compressive mechanical properties of corn kernels could be predicted using the hardness of the horny endosperm within a certain range.As a widely planted food crop in the world, corn is not only an important food crop, but also a high‐quality feed for livestock and poultry. The compressive mechanical properties (elastic modulus, compressive failure force, failure energy, etc.) of corn kernels were explored, and the relationship between endosperm hardness and its mechanical properties was analyzed. It can provide technical parameters for mechanical processing equipment, reduce the loss of corn grain in the processing process, and improve its economic value.


Using a renormalization group motivated smoothing technique, we investigate the large scale structure of lattice configurations at finite temperature, concentrating on Abelian monopoles identified in the maximally Abelian, the Laplacian Abelian, and the Polyakov gauge. Monopoles are mostly found in regions of large action and topological charge, rather independent of the gauge chosen to detect them. Gauge invariant properties around Abelian monopoles, the local non-Abelian action and topological density, are studied. We show that the local averages of these densities along the monopole trajectories are clearly above the background, which supports the existence of monopoles as physical objects. Characteristic changes of the vacuum structure at the deconfinement transition can be attributed to the corresponding Abelian monopoles, to an extent that depends on the gauge chosen for Abelian projection. All three Abelian projections reproduce the full SU(2) string tension within 10 percent which is preserved by smoothing.


Taking into account the latest developments on the preparation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to conduct combat operations, including the attacks on the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine the results of the research and development works were presented. It is focused on the creation and modernization of military standards of the Russian Defence Ministry to support functioning the Russian Federation Armed Forces, other troops, military formations and bodies.


A mapping study of IRAS 05553+1631 was performed with 12CO J= 3 –2 and 13CO J= 2 –1 lines observed by the KOSMA 3-m telescope. A core with a size of 0.65 pc and with a local thermodynamic equilibrium mass of 120 M⊙ was defined by mapping with the 13CO J= 2 –1 line. We have identified a bipolar outflow with 12CO J= 3 –2. For accuracy in the calculation of outflow parameters, overcoming the projection effect is important. We propose a new method to directly calculate the inclination angle θ. We establish two basic equations with the help of an outflow contour diagram and finally obtain the 'angle function' and the 'angle equation' to derive θ. We apply our method to the outflow of IRAS 05553+1631, finding that θblue is 73° and θred is 78°. Compared to the parameters initially estimated under the assumption of a 45° inclination angle, the newly derived parameters are changed by different factors. For instance, the time-scales for the blue and the red lobes became smaller by 0.31 and 0.21, respectively. Larger influences apply to the mechanical luminosity, driving force and mass-loss rate. Comparisons between parameters before and after the correction show that the effect of the inclination angle cannot be neglected.