© 2017 Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal and Authors. This study investigates the narratives risk disclosures of the four British financial institutions that were adversely affected during the 2008 banking crisis. This investigation uses content analysis with the aid of the Concordance software to explore the risk disclosure of these companies for period 1998-2008.Risk disclosures in the Business Review sections of the annual reports of the banks were analysed into their historic and forward looking contents, and current firm performance was measured with respect to earnings per share and dividend while future performance was measured by growth in EPS and positive time lag in EPS. Consistent with its predictions, the study found significant negative relationship between extent of historic narrative disclosures and current and future firm performance, and a significant positive relationship between forward looking narrative risk disclosures and both current and future firm performance. Additional analysis shows that optimistic and pessimistic narrative risk disclosures are not significant in explaining current and future firm performance for these firms. Findings from this study are important for users of the financial statements and regulator because they highlight opportunity to detect warning signals for companies at risk of collapse. The study adds to the growing number of empirical investigations that provide alternative approach to understanding business failures.


Face processing is mediated by a distributed neural network commonly divided into a "core system" and an "extended system." The core system consists of several, typically right-lateralized brain regions in the occipito-temporal cortex, including the occipital face area (OFA), the fusiform face area (FFA) and the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS). It was recently proposed that the face processing network is initially bilateral and becomes right-specialized in the course of the development of reading abilities due to the competition between language-related regions in the left occipito-temporal cortex (e.g., the visual word form area, VWFA) and the FFA for common neural resources. In the present pilot study, we assessed the neural face processing network in 12 children (aged 7–9 years) and 10 adults with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The hemispheric lateralization of the core face regions was compared between both groups. The study had two goals: First, we aimed to establish an fMRI paradigm suitable for assessing activation in the core system of face processing in young children at the single subject level. Second, we planned to collect data for a power analysis to calculate the necessary group size for a large-scale cross-sectional imaging study assessing the ontogenetic development of the lateralization of the face processing network, with focus on the FFA. It was possible to detect brain activity in the core system of 75% of children at the single subject level. The average scan-to-scan motion of the included children was comparable to adults, ruling out that potential activation differences between groups are caused by unequal motion artifacts. Hemispheric lateralization of the FFA was 0.07 ± 0.48 in children (indicating bilateral activation) and −0.32 ± 0.52 in adults (indicating right-hemispheric dominance). These results thus showed, as expected, a trend for increased lateralization in adults. The estimated effect size for the FFA lateralization difference was d = 0.78 (indicating medium to large effects). An adequately powered follow-up study (sensitivity 0.8) testing developmental changes of FFA lateralization would therefore require the inclusion of 18 children and 26 adults.


At the end of the 2019, a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) appeared in Wuhan, China and spread rapidly to all over the world. Then, the attentions of almost all health care providers have shifted to this health emergency situation which is identified as pandemic. The novel coronavirus pandemic has impacted the physicians at the all field of medicine not to perform their routine treatment practice. Since it is not clear when this situation will end, there is still debate about how to manage the treatment strategies for the patients who have end stage heart failure such another life threatening illness. The aim of this case presentation is to create a consideration about timing of left ventricular assist device implantations during novel coronavirus pandemic period.


Dynamin 1 (DNM1) is a large guanosine triphosphatase involved in clathrin‐mediated endocytosis. In recent studies, de novo mutations in DNM1 have been identified in five individuals with epileptic encephalopathy. In this study, we report two patients with early onset epileptic encephalopathy possessing de novo DNM1 mutations. Using whole exome sequencing, we detected the novel mutation c.127G>A (p.Gly43Ser) in a patient with Lennox‐Gastaut syndrome, and a recurrent mutation c.709C>T (p.Arg237Trp) in a patient with West syndrome. Structural consideration of DNM1 mutations revealed that both mutations would destabilize the G domain structure and impair nucleotide binding, dimer formation, and/or GTPase activity of the G domain. These and previous cases of DNM1 mutations were reviewed to verify the phenotypic spectrum. The main clinical features of DNM1 mutations include intractable seizures, intellectual disability, developmental delay, and hypotonia. Most cases showed development delay before the onset of seizures. A patient carrying p.Arg237Trp in this report showed a different developmental status from that of a previously reported case, together with characteristic extrapyramidal movement.


A total of 92 isolates of Vibno harveyi (as identified by ribotyping) were tested for siderophore activity on a modified chrome azurol sulphate agar. Whilst 4 isolates failed to grow, of the remaining 88 strains, 78.4 % were positive for the production of siderophores. There was no correlation between siderophore production and length of time since isolation. There were significant differences between the host groups from which the bacteria were isolated (F = 3.23, df = 3.85; p < 0.05). The colony halos produced by environmental isolates (halo to colony ratio = 2.7) and fish isolates (halo ratio = 2.4) were significantly larger than the halos from invertebrate isolates (halo ratio = l . G ) . Pathogen~city in an Atlantic salmon bioassay was barely significantly related to siderophore production (t = -1.87, df = 64; p < 0.1). The maximal non-inhibitory levels of 2,2'-dipyridyl showed no association with siderophores ( t = -1.65, df = 30; p > 0.05) nor with pathogenicity (t = 0.16, df = 87; p > 0.05). Siderophores must be considered a virulence factor in piscine infecting V harveyi but not in strains infecting invertebrates.


Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is a major cause of disease in domestic fowl and causes an acute, highly contagious disease of the respiratory tracts and sometimes urogential tracts (King and Cavanagh, 1991). Current diagnostic assays for IBV include virus isolation in embryonating eggs, tracheal organ culture, or cell culture immunoassays, and molecular assays that detect the viral RNA (Gelb and Jackwood, 1998). Virus isolation is generally considered the gold standard, however, it is expensive and time consuming because several passages may be required to detect the virus. Immunoassays use IBV-specific monoclonal antibodies to detect the virus in direct or indirect fluorescent antibody and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay formats. Although more rapid and simpler than virus isolation, immunoassays tend to lack specificity and sensitivity to some extent and can not detect all strains of IBV (Karaca and Naqi, 1993; Karaca et al., 1992; Naqi et al., 1993). Molecular assays for the detection of IBV are used commonly because they provide highly specific and sensitive results and detect viral RNA directly from clinical samples or from virus isolated in a laboratory host system. Although RTPCR and real-time RT-PCR are the highly sensitive and specific methods (Cavanagh et al., 1992; Jackwood et al., 1997; Keeler et al., 1998; Kingham et al., 2000; Kwon et al., 1993; Zwaagstra et al., 1992; Liu et al., 2003; Callison et al., 2006), the dependence on special equipment limits their extensive use. A novel nucleic acid amplification method, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), employs a DNA polymerase and a set of four specially designed primers that recognize a total of six distinct sequences on the target DNA. An inner primer containing sequences of the sense and antisense strands of the target DNA initiates LAMP. The following strand displacement DNA synthesis primed by an outer primer releases a singlestranded DNA. This serves as template for DNA synthesis primed by the second inner and outer primers that hybridize to the other end of the target, which produces a stem–loop DNA structure. In subsequent LAMP cycling one inner primer hybridizes to the loop on the product and initiates displacement DNA synthesis, yielding the original stem–loop DNA


The authors report a patient who was observed to have a localized retinal detachment with combined central retinal artery and vein occlusion after cataract surgery performed with retrobulbar anesthesia. The authors propose that this condition resulted from injection of the anesthetic mixture into the optic nerve. No acute neurologic symptoms occurred, but visual loss was severe and permanent. This case adds to the previously reported spectrum of complications from retrobulbar anesthesia.


Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations have been used to investigate the effect of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) tail group polarity on the structural and phase behavior of both single component and binary mixed monolayers using the MARTINI force field. Surface pressure-area isotherms of single component systems indicate that DPPC monolayers become more expanded as a function of increasing tail group polarity, as observed in experimental measurements in the literature. A combination of radial distribution functions and tilt angle measurements indicate that increasing tail group polarity results in the formation of increasingly disordered monolayers. For the mixed monolayer systems, the time dependence of the radial distribution function as well as average cluster size measurements indicate that phase separation takes place between components of different tail group polarity when the monolayers undergo phase transition into disordered configurations.


OBJECTIVE
To review the current researches of scaffold materials for skeletal muscle tissue engineering, to predict the development trend of scaffold materials in skeletal muscle tissue engineering in future.

METHODS
The related literature on skeletal muscle tissue engineering, involving categories and properties of scaffold materials, preparative technique and biocompatibility, was summarized and analyzed.

RESULTS
Various scaffold materials were used in skeletal muscle tissue engineering, including inorganic biomaterials, biodegradable polymers, natural biomaterial, and biomedical composites. According to different needs of the research, various scaffolds were prepared due to different biomaterials, preparative techniques, and surface modifications.

CONCLUSION
The development trend and perspective of skeletal muscle tissue engineering are the use of composite materials, and the preparation of composite scaffolds and surface modification according to the specific functions of scaffolds.


In this note, we demonstrate the use of a control oriented notion of finite state input/output approximation to synthesize correct-by-design controllers for hybrid plants under sensor limitations. Specifically, we consider the problem of designing stabilizing switching controllers for a pair of unstable homogeneous second order systems with binary output feedback. In addition to yielding a deterministic finite state approximate model of the hybrid plant, our approach allows one to efficiently establish a useable upper bound on the quality of approximation, and leads to a discrete optimization problem whose solution immediately provides a certified finite state controller for the plant. The resulting controller consists of a deterministic finite state observer and a corresponding full state feedback control law.


The A. presents a group of papers on the issues of translating a small literature to the global market. To the question of how a "small" literature (more especially here Bulgarian literature) can achieve international success, he answers from the perspectives of a number of habituses in the field of literary production and consumption. A "small" literature can gain international success through: individual talent (especially for marketing); irrational struggle against market and geopolitical ra- tionales; intellectual maturing of the original literary field; inventing a label to combat the inertia of the international literary field (or a clever instrumentalisation of the proclivity to produce and consume exoticisms); dislocating itself from an interliterary community that cannot offer the necessary support of a cultural capital; inciting the existence of a suitable interliterary community and relocating itself therein; improving education in humanities; conducting responsible state policy; abandoning the illusion that "the world republic of letters" can be independent from the economy of maximizing profit; refusing to subject to the judgements of the dominant literatures.


Abstract To decrease the emission of particles from a domestic wood-log boiler, particle traps based on inertial separation could be used. These could be designed and optimized with simulation tools, i.e. computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. To find out whether the particle-tracking option in a commercial CFD code is reliable, a low-pressure impactor has been studied and each stage of the impactor simulated. By comparing experiments, it has been possible to determine the accuracy of the particle-tracking option for the CFD code. It has been shown that the particle-tracking procedure in the CFD software Fluent V6.0 offers good accuracy at velocities below 12 m/s with Reynolds numbers between 790 and 2150. Acceptable accuracy was shown for velocities of 20–170 m/s at Reynolds numbers between 960 and 2980. Considering actual flow velocities in a wood-log boiler and many other similar applications, the particle-tracking procedure should be accurate enough, at least for flows with a Reynolds number lower than 3000. Thus, it is recommended to use the software Fluent for simulations to find ways to reduce the particle emissions by use of mechanical traps. Three-dimensional simulations with either the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) turbulence model, for accuracy, or the Renormalization Group (RNG) k–e model, to save calculation time, should be used together with the stochastic particle tracking.


Kirromycin and related antibiotics inhibit protein synthesis in bacteria by acting on elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu). We have studied the effects of N-methylkirromycin (aurodox) on some molecular properties of this protein. The binding of the antibiotic causes a dramatic variation in the protein fluorescence emission spectrum with the appearance of a new maximum at around 340 nm. Addition of aurodox to trypsinized EF-Tu resulted in an emission spectrum similar to that of the denatured intact factor. Fluorescence lifetime analysis performed by a multifrequency phase fluorometer indicated that the fluorescence emission of the factor is heterogeneous with the major component having a lifetime near 4.8 ns in the absence and 6.6 ns in the presence of the antibiotic. These results were interpreted in terms of an antibiotic-induced environmental modification of the unique tryptophan residue of the protein leading to an increase in its quantum yield. However, aurodox did not modify the solvent exposure of this residue, as judged by fluorescence quenching experiments. Moreover, 1-anilino-8-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS) binding studies, as well as analysis of the protein reactivity toward the sulfhydryl group reagent 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoate) (DTNB), showed that, in the presence of aurodox, the behavior of the EF-Tu-GDP complex nears that of EF-Tu.GTP. These results strongly support the hypothesis that aurodox not only confers a "GTP-like" conformation to the EF-Tu.GDP complex but also produces a less stable folding of the protein around the tryptophan residue that may contribute to the multiple functional effects of this antibiotic.


A proteolytic enzyme, α‐chymotrypsin, and a lipolytic enzyme, cutinase, were adsorbed from aqueous solutions on solid surfaces with different hydrophobicities and morphologies. With both enzymes the affinity of adsorption is larger for the more hydrophobic surface. Water‐soluble, flexible oligomers grafted on the sorbent surface cause a decrease in enzyme adsorption. CD spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) indicate severe structural perturbations in the enzymes resulting from adsorption. The CD spectra reflect an average of the structure of the whole protein population. The DSC data allow additional conclusions to be drawn on the heterogeneity in the conformational states of the adsorbed enzymes. The degree of structural perturbation, that is the fraction of the adsorbed molecules of which the structure is perturbed, is lower at a surface that (1) is less hydrophobic, (2) contains water‐soluble flexible oligomers and (3) is more covered by the protein. The specific activities of the enzymes are decreased on adsorption, more or less following the extent of structural perturbation. Unlike in solution, in the adsorbed state the heat‐induced inactivation process is not identical with the heat‐induced unfolding process. Furthermore, when the enzymes are adsorbed their specific activities are much less sensitive to temperature variation.


Peru's indigenous peoples played a key role in the tortured tale of Shining Path guerrillas from the 1960s through the first decade of the twenty-first century. The villagers of Chuschi and Huaychao, high in the mountains of the department of Ayacucho, have an iconic place in this violent history. Emphasizing the years leading up to the peak period of violence from 1980 to 2000, when 69,000 people lost their lives, Miguel La Serna asks why some Andean peasants chose to embrace Shining Path ideology and others did not.Drawing on archival materials and ethnographic field work, La Serna argues that historically rooted and locally specific power relations, social conflicts, and cultural understandings shaped the responses of indigenous peasants to the insurgency. In Chuschi, the guerrillas found indigenous support for the movement and dreamed of sparking a worldwide Maoist revolution. In Huaychao, by contrast, villagers rose up against Shining Path forces, precipitating more violence and feeding an international uproar that took on political significance for Peru during the Cold War. "The Corner of the Living" illuminates both the stark realities of life for the rural poor everywhere and why they may or may not choose to mobilize around a revolutionary cause.


Wear Qisi, is a t-shirt design depicting Inuit life emerging from the cut open body of a seal. The design highlights the dynamic relationships between Inuit people, seals and the land in the community of Panniqtuuq (or Pang for short), Nunavut, Canada. Seals become Inuit and Inuit become seal through hunting, eating, storytelling and art making. The t-shirt shows the idea of a shared seal-human life world, and highlights the idea that someone, not something, continually dies for the continuation of life (and ways of living). In pointing to a relational ecology that grounds Inuit ways of knowing, it simultaneously pushing back against the decades long ban and curtailment of trade on seal fur in Europe and the United States. Kevin O'Connor and duskin drum, two practicing performing artists and PhD students in performance studies at UC Davis write alongside Paulette Metuq, an Inuit graphic designer from Pang who created the final "Wear Qisi" image. In this essay, "Wear Qisi, Become Seal" they provide an ethnographic account of how the creative process involving the creation of the t-shirt design became an exploration into a set of complex questions concerning Inuit ways of life, especially in regards to human/seal co-relation. They place the "Wear Qisi" design alongside global warming discourse, and Inuit climate justice activist Shiela Watt-Cloutier's international diplomacy, to highlight the ways the global world is always already threaded through Inuit-seal wording. By tracing the effects of colonialism, including global organic pollutants that move through seals into Inuit bodies, and based on Inuit responses to climate change, the writers argue, that we, who are not Inuit, are all potentially seal, in seal, of seal, through and for seal. The "Wear Qisi" design counters colonial designs by entangling the global world into Inuit-seal relations.


Recent research has underlined the efficiency of the GATT/WTO rules from the standpoint of politically motivated governments, emphasizing that the current multilateral rules are capable of delivering a politically efficient equilibrium. Such an equilibrium is, however, economically inefficient. Global free trade, in particular, is generally unattainable even in a fully cooperative world, provided that governments have distributive motivations. In such a context, we show that regional trade agreements can help move the world towards a welfare superior equilibrium. The reason is that, as members of regional trade agreements lower trade barriers against one another, they are induced to reduce their multilateral tariff sa s well. Once we account for these endogenous changes–and only then–we find that regionalism can raise world welfare even in a fully cooperative (but political) world. We also find, however, that members are likely to gain "too much" from regional integration, thereby harming outsiders.


A 2-D numerical simulation model was established based on a small-sized metal hydride storage tank, and the model was validated by the existing experiments. An external cooling bath was equipped to simulate the heating effects of hydrogen absorption reactions. Furthermore, both the type and the flow rate of the cooling fluids in the cooling bath were altered, so that changes in temperature and hydrogen storage capacity in the hydrogen storage model could be analyzed. It is demonstrated that the reaction rate in the center of the hydrogen storage tank gradually becomes lower than that at the wall surface. When the flow rate of the fluid is small, significant differences can be found in the cooling liquid temperature at the inlet and the outlet cooling bath. In areas adjacent to its inlet, the reaction rate is higher than that at the outlet, and a better cooling effect is produced by water. As the flow rate increases, the total time consumed by hydrogen adsorption reaction is gradually reduced to a constant value. At the same flow rate, the wall surface of the tank shows a reaction rate insignificantly different from that in its center, provided that cooling water or oil coolant is replaced with air.


Gocke, Matthew Harrison. Production system influences the survival and morphology of rooted stem cuttings of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) and sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) (Under the direction of Barry Goldfarb and Daniel J. Robison.) Forest planting stock must be capable of high rates of survival and good field performance to justify the expense of reforestation efforts. Seedling grading standards have improved the quality of forest planting stock and have increased expectations for survival and field growth of out-planted forest seedlings. For many tree species, rooting stem cuttings provides an alternative means of producing planting stock to that of conventional seedling propagation. Use of rooted stem cuttings (rooted cuttings) in forestry has many potential advantages for both research and operational applications. However, to realize these benefits, it is important that high quality rooted cuttings are produced to enable field performance on par with seedlings of the same species and similar provenance. Developing specific grading standards for rooted cutting planting stock, therefore, is critical for successful field performance, and, is a topic of increasing interest for clonal forestry of particular species. Grading standards for rooted cuttings may differ from those of seedlings, because of potential biological differences and increased production costs for rooted cuttings. Furthermore, various production systems exist capable of producing high quality rooted cutting planting stock and may require individual grading standards. Loblolly pine and sweetgum, to a lesser degree, are two commonly out-planted forest tree species in the southeastern United States. Seedling grading standards exist for both species in this region. Increased interest in clonal propagation of loblolly pine and sweetgum requires development of rooted cutting grading standards to ensure high rates of survival and good field performance. Two studies conducted in 2000 and 2001 investigating rooted cutting production systems for loblolly pine and sweetgum are described in the following two chapters. The effects of a transplant, a containerized, and a direct-stick production system on morphological characteristics of loblolly pine rooted cuttings were evaluated in the first chapter. Morphological comparisons were made among the various stock types tested. In the second chapter, feasibility and morphological effect of a transplant, a containerized, and a direct-stick rooted cutting production system were evaluated for sweetgum. Semi-hardwood (SH) stem cuttings of sweetgum were tested in all three production systems with special emphasis placed on the presence of new shoot growth following rooting. Hardwood (H) stem cuttings of sweetgum were also rooted in a direct-stick system in an outdoor nursery bed to test the reported ability of this cutting type to produce new shoot growth in the same season as rooting. Rooted cutting morphology varied among clone and production system for both loblolly pine experiments. By the second loblolly pine experiment, over 90% of the rooted cuttings produced in the systems tested met acceptable seedling grading standards, including the second cycle (May sticking). Results of this study demonstrated that all three production systems evaluated were capable of producing high quality planting stock and that two full production cycles can be obtained in one growing season in the containerized and transplant systems. All four production systems evaluated in the sweetgum study produced rooted cuttings. Morphological measurements varied among these same rooted cuttings according to production system. The transplant and containerized systems produced a large number of rooted cuttings with high rates of survival and large root systems. The SH direct-stick system produced rooted cuttings with sizeable root systems, but proved more sensitive than the other systems tested. A SH direct-stick system requires a back up irrigation system and a secondary power source to be effective. The H direct-stick production system was the only system to produce rooted cuttings exhibiting substantial shoot growth during the first growing season. Some of these rooted cuttings also developed extensive root systems, but survival was low. Production system influences the survival and morphology of rooted stem cuttings of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) and sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) by Matthew Harrison Gocke A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Science In Forestry


Lipids are an important constituent of skin and are known to be modified in many skin diseases including psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. The direct effects of common metallic contact allergens on the lipid composition of skin has never been investigated, to the best of our knowledge. We describe skin lipid profiles in the stratum corneum and viable epidermis of ex vivo human skin from a female donor upon exposure to three metal allergens (nickel, cobalt and chromium) visualised using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), which allows for simultaneous visualisation of both the allergen and skin components such as lipids. Multivariate analysis using partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) indicated that the lipid profile of metal-treated skin was different to non-treated skin. Analysis of individual ions led to the discovery that cobalt and chromium induced increases in the content of diacylglycerols (DAG) in stratum corneum. Cobalt also induced increases in cholesterol in both the stratum corneum and viable epidermis, as well as monoacylglycerols (MAG) in the viable epidermis. Chromium caused an increase in DAG in viable epidermis in addition to the stratum corneum. In contrast, nickel decreased MAG and DAG levels in viable epidermis. Our results indicate that skin lipid content is likely to be altered upon topical exposure to metals. This discovery has potential implications for the molecular mechanisms by which contact allergens cause skin sensitization.


Background BRAFV600 inhibitors have offered a new gateway for better treatment of metastatic melanoma. However, the overall efficacy of BRAFV600 inhibitors has been lower than expected in clinical trials, and many patients have shown resistance to the drug's effect. We hypothesized that somatic mutations in the Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase (PI3K) pathway, which promotes proliferation and survival, may coincide with BRAFV600 mutations and contribute to chemotherapeutic resistance. Methods We performed a somatic mutation profiling study using the 454 FLX pyrosequencing platform in order to identify candidate cancer genes within the MAPK and PI3K pathways of melanoma patients. Somatic mutations of theses candidate cancer genes were then confirmed using Sanger sequencing. Results As expected, BRAFV600 mutations were seen in 51% of the melanomas, whereas NRAS mutations were seen in 19% of the melanomas. However, PI3K pathway mutations, though more heterogeneous, were present in 41% of the melanoma, with PTEN being the highest mutated PI3K gene in melanomas (22%). Interestingly, several novel PI3K pathway mutations were discovered in MTOR, IRS4, PIK3R1, PIK3R4, PIK3R5, and NFKB1. PI3K pathway mutations co-occurred with BRAFV600 mutations in 17% of the tumors and co-occurred with 9% of NRAS mutant tumors, implying cooperativity between these pathways in terms of melanoma progression. Conclusions These novel PI3K pathway somatic mutations could provide alternative survival and proliferative pathways for metastatic melanoma cells. They therefore may be potential chemotherapeutic targets for melanoma patients who exhibit resistance to BRAFV600 inhibitors.


According to the internal-external shocks model for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the GRB is produced by internal shocks within a relativistic flow while the afterglow is produced by external shocks with the interstellar medium. We explore the early afterglow emission. For short GRBs the peak of the afterglow will be delayed, typically by few dozens of seconds after the burst. For long GRBs the early afterglow emission will overlap the GRB signal. We calculate the expected spectrum and the light curves of the early afterglow in the optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray bands. These characteristics provide a way to discriminate between late internal shocks emission (part of the GRB) and the early afterglow signal. If such a delayed emission, with the characteristics of the early afterglow, is detected, it can be used to prove the internal shock scenario as producing the GRB, as well as to measure the initial Lorentz factor of the relativistic flow. The reverse shock, at its peak, contains energy which is comparable to that of the GRB itself but has a much lower temperature than that of the forward shock so it radiates at considerably lower frequencies. The reverse shock dominates the early optical emission, and an optical flash brighter than 15th magnitude is expected together with the forward shock peak at X-rays or gamma-rays. If this optical flash is not observed, strong limitations can be put on the baryonic contents of the relativistic shell deriving the GRBs, leading to a magnetically dominated energy density.


This paper presents a new non-elliptical wave generator for strain wave gear to improve its contact pattern quality. The new wave generator has a polynomial profile at one cross section, then crowned along the lead direction. The lead crowning uses a parabolic function with crowning amount controlled by parabolic coefficient. Loaded tooth contact pattern analysis based on finite element method is used to evaluate the new design. The result shows that the new design will avoid the edge contact between wave generator and flexspline, which reduces contact pressure and improve the wearing life of the gear. It also improves the contact pattern quality of the tooth surface. Comparing with elliptical wave generator, the new wave generator with polynomial profile and lead parabolic crowned surface offers more design freedom to improve strain wave gear's performance. The parametric equation of the new wave generator is defined intuitively, and it can be easily adapted for any type of strain wave gear. Furthermore, the finite element model for the strain wave gear is a new development and application for Loaded Tooth Contact Analysis (LTCA).


The learning rate warmup heuristic achieves remarkable success in stabilizing training, accelerating convergence and improving generalization for adaptive stochastic optimization algorithms like RMSprop and Adam. Here, we study its mechanism in details. Pursuing the theory behind warmup, we identify a problem of the adaptive learning rate (i.e., it has problematically large variance in the early stage), suggest warmup works as a variance reduction technique, and provide both empirical and theoretical evidence to verify our hypothesis. We further propose RAdam, a new variant of Adam, by introducing a term to rectify the variance of the adaptive learning rate. Extensive experimental results on image classification, language modeling, and neural machine translation verify our intuition and demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of our proposed method. All implementations are available at: this https URL.


Why shouldn't teachers teach to the test? If that seems problematic, then the test needs changing, not the teaching. In our new Age of Accountability, at least, testing is not going away soon (Shepard, 2010).

One challenge seems especially acute: testing beyond content. Climategate. Revised mammogram recommendations. Erroneous links between the measles vaccine and autism. Suspect communication with coma patients. An informed judgment in these cases requires understanding the nature of science (NOS), not just scientific concepts ( Sacred Bovines , November, 2010). But how do we test for this type of understanding? In particular, how do we get past the multiple-choice format, with its inherent tendency to reduce knowledge to piecemeal facts? If a primary goal is to prepare scientifically literate citizens — able to participate in public and personal decision-making involving science — more sophisticated assessment formats are needed.

Nowadays, a teacher would seem to have plenty of options for assessing NOS understanding. Over 2 dozen instruments have appeared in the past half century. Choose your favorite acronym: VNOS, NOSS, NOST, COST, VOSTS, VASS, FAST, TOUS, TOES, TOSRA, WISP, at least (Lederman et al., 1998). Such tests carry risks, however. Most are based on a benchmark set of beliefs. Yet even experts disagree about many of the claims. The beliefs seem arbitrary, as critics have noted. Alternatively, one could adopt a more neutral, diagnostic posture, as other tests do. Here, the aim is merely to characterize student belief, or opinion. But this implies that there is no objective standard for measuring knowledge of NOS. The dilemma highlights a shared assumption — another sacred bovine? — that NOS is a set of beliefs and thus beyond fair, unbiased evaluation. Here, I profile an alternative perspective for evaluating NOS understanding (Allchin, 2011b).

In evolution education, at least, biology teachers …


Multilateral economic as well as techno-scientific cooperation is in a process of persistent expansion between the member countries of CMEA. This is the background against which the need for as well as the programme and the scientific, political, and economic importance of a reference centre for permanent cell lines (cell bank) at CMEA level are described. The centre is attached to Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut für Tierseuchenforschung which is run under the umbrella of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR.


We synthesized a loosely packed submicrometer silica-sphere (LPSS) monolayer at room temperature and used the LPSS monolayer as the frontside light-trapping structure for n-i-p-type amorphous Si (a-Si) solar cells (SCs) to improve photovoltaic characteristics of the cells. The frontside LPSS monolayer plays a role as a UV-visible light scatter and a broadband antireflector; both can greatly improve the photoresponse of the underneath a-Si adsorbed layer. When the filling density of the LPSS layer is optimized to 65%, the enhancement in the photocurrent and conversion efficiency of the 120 °C -fabricated SCs is as high as ~ 15% and ~ 6.9%, respectively. Accordingly, such an LPSS light-trapping structure boosts efficiency of 120 °C - and 140 °C-fabricated cells to 7.3% and 8.5%, respectively. Since the LPSS structure has a graded refractive index profile, it behaves like a nearly omnidirectional antireflector, enhancing solar efficiency at a very large incident angle of illumination.


This thesis assesses the current status of Canadian prescription drug regulation and the policy drivers that guide this process. This analysis is accomplished by first providing a general survey of the steps, law, and institutional players involved in the full life-cycle of a drug. Next the evolution of current clinical trials and the gaps that the present legal regime creates in the scientific standards employed in clinical research is reviewed. This is followed by a discussion of how commercialization (innovation) and speed of approval (market access) are slowly becoming the dominant policy drivers for the Canadian regime. Finally a discussion of the proposed Progressive Licensing model, and Bill C-51-An Act to Amend the Food and Drug Act, raises the concerns with a shift to a system largely based on risk assessment and post-market monitoring (pharmacovigilence).


Background: Vaccine mediated SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses should be carefully evaluated. With regular follow-up in healthy individuals, we aimed to determine SARS-CoV-2 serological responses post three doses of immunization and prior to breakthrough infections in the Canadian population. Methods: In a prospective cohort study, we enrolled 140 healthy participants post COVID-19 vaccination in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. IgG antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor–binding domain were quantified by immunoassay post three doses of immunization. With COVID-19 rapid antigen test, polymerase chain reaction, and whole genome sequencing, 27 breakthrough infections were identified. Results: Following SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (including BNT162b2, AZD1222, and mRNA-1273), the median serum anti-spike protein antibody level was 143.6 BAU/mL (binding antibody unit, interquartile range 79.0–266.6) post the first dose of immunization, 1046.4 BAU/mL (423.9–1738.2) post the second dose, and 1604.7 BAU/mL (700.1–3764.0) post the third dose. Observed differences were significant (p ≤ 0.001). The median antibody level of 1604.7 BAU/mL post third dose is 45.6 times that of the seroconversion level (35.2 BAU/mL). This indicates that most vaccines approved are effective in producing robust antibody responses. In seven breakthrough cases characterized by whole genome sequencing, prior to infection, antibody concentrations of breakthrough cases were at 3249.4 (Delta), 2748.4 (Delta), 4893.9 (Omicron), 209.1 (Omicron), and 231.5 (Omicron), 725.7 (Omicron), and 2346.6 (Omicron) BAU/mL. Compared with the average antibody concentration of 2057.7 BAU/mL (58 times that of the seroconversion concentration) from above seven cases, 37.2% of triple vaccinated, 19.0% of double vaccinated, and 1.5% single dosed individuals have higher SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels. Conclusions: Most vaccines are effective in producing robust antibody responses when more than one dose is given, and the more doses the higher the serological response. Likely due to the highly contagious nature of SARS-CoV-2 variants, a significant number of participants have SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses lower than the average antibody concentration prior to the known breakthrough infections. Additional vaccination is likely required to ensure immunity against infection by SARS-CoV-2.


A novel adaptive Bayesian receiver for signal detection in flat-fading channels is developed based on the sequential Monte Carlo methodology. The basic idea is to treat the transmitted signals as missing data and to sequentially impute multiple copies of them based on the observed signals. The imputed signal sequences, together with their importance weights, provide a way to approximate the Bayesian estimate of the transmitted signals and the channel states. It is shown through simulations that the proposed sequential Monte Carlo receivers achieve near-bound performance in fading channels without the aid of any training/pilot symbols or decision feedback. Moreover, the proposed receiver structure exhibits massive parallelism and is ideally suited for high-speed parallel implementation using the VLSI systolic array technology.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate associations between health-promoting lifestyle and suboptimal health status (SHS) in the population of Guangdong province.

METHODS
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in a clustered sample of 24 159 individuals aged 12-80 years from 2012 to 2013. Health-promoting lifestyle was assessed via the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP-II), and SHS was evaluated using the medical examination report and Sub-health Measurement Scale V1.0 (SHMS V1.0).

RESULTS
Of the 24159 participants, subjects with SHS (46.0%) and disease status (35.2%) accounted for a much higher percentage than healthy subjects (18.8%). Regression analyses revealed a significant association between health status and healthy lifestyle (P<0.001). Unhealthy lifestyle was an important risk factor for SHS and disease, especially the former. Compared with the participants with a healthy lifestyle (minimal exposure), after demographic adjustment, subjects with a 'poor' lifestyle (maximal exposure) were at a 43 times higher risk of developing SHS (OR: 42.825, 95% CI: 30.567-59.997), those with a general lifestyle were at a 21 times higher risk of SHS (OR: 21.072, 95%CI: 17.258-25.729), and those with a suboptimal lifestyle had a 4 times higher risk (OR: 4.085, 95%CI: 3.352-4.979). In the general population, the major risk factors for SHS included poor stress management, poor self-actualization, inactive exercise and poor interpersonal relationship.

CONCLUSION
s Unhealthy lifestyles are significantly related to an increased risk of SHS. Intervention of unhealthy lifestyles, controlling the risk factors of SHS, and rigorous management of the time window of SHS are necessary to promote the heath status.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of the investigation was to describe situations with a significant influence on healthy diet and exercise habits among nurses working night shift.

METHODS
A qualitative descriptive design with a Critical Incident Technique approach was used. Situations were collected by means of interviews with 27 registered/enrolled community nurses.

RESULTS
A total of 143 situations were identified comprising two main areas: coping ability at work and coping ability during leisure hours. Coping ability at work included 81 critical incidents grouped into two categories: the nurses' diet and exercise habits were influenced by social interaction with colleagues at work and by the disruption to their circadian rhythm. Coping ability during leisure hours included 62 critical incidents grouped into two categories: the diet and exercise habits were influenced when the nurses recovered from the disruption to their circadian rhythm and when they took advantage of the freedom of action offered by night work.

CONCLUSIONS
By identifying the factors that influence diet and exercise habits among nurses working night shift, strategies can be developed in order to strengthen the factors with a positive influence.


Introduction: Avaleha (Linctus) is a unique dosage form of Ayurveda that is frequently used in various disorders and as Rasāyana (Immunomodulators). Aṣṭāngavaleha is one such formulation being used for Śvāsa (Asthma), Jvara (Fever), Hikkā (Hiccup) and Kāsa (Cough). Aṣṭāngavaleha has not been mentioned in Brūhattrayī. It had been extensively reviewed from Vrndamādhava, Cakradatta, Vangasena, Ġadanigraha, Śārangadhara saṁhitā, Bhāvaprakāśa and Yogaratnākara. Screening through various texts revealed that Aṣṭāngavaleha has been mentioned in these treatises with few modifications like changes in Anupāna (vehicle) or few ingredients. Methods: An attempt has been made to compile scattered information about Aṣṭāngavaleha from the texts of 9th to 20th AD explaining its pharmacological potential in Śvāsa along with the pharmacological activities of its ingredients from Brūhattrayī and Nighaṇṭus. Results: Among these texts, Aṣṭāngavaleha had been mentioned by different name in four texts, with different Anupāna (adjuvant) in one text, its use for different disease in two texts, mentioned with different ingredients in two texts and with different preparation method and Anupāna in Ayurvedic Pharmacoepoeia of India. Conclusion: This work may prove a torch bearer for future research works on Aṣṭāngavaleha.


Nueva Vizcaya is one of the most prolific mandarin-producing provinces in the Philippines. However, it hasn't developed to international standards, hence the need for government intervention. The Aquino administration came up with the Philippines Rural Development Project (PRDP), a project to fast-track the development of certain industries and commodities, and mandarin was selected for Nueva Vizcaya. To identify priority areas that need intervention, the value chain analysis (VCA) for mandarin in Nueva Vizcaya was conducted. It was found that along the value chain for mandarin, one cooperative stood out, the Malabing Valley Multipurpose Cooperative (MVMPC). The cooperative was purposely organized to support the mandarin industry. VCA found that MVMPC played a major role from input provision such as seedlings, chemical inputs, fertilizers, to marketing of mandarin. One of the recommendations of the VCA was the formation of clusters to produce uniform quality fruits acceptable by consumers and another was the identification of an organization that will carry out the recommendations. MVMPC was selected based on certain criteria. Hence, MVMPC became the proponent group for two enterprises that the provincial government of Nueva Vizcaya envisioned to have. The enterprises are mandarin seedling production and mandarin marketing enterprise. The mandarin seedling production will provide quality planting material while the marketing enterprise will market fresh mandarins bought from production clusters. This proposal amounts to PhP19,487,869, which was submitted to the World Bank for funding.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the combined photoselective vaporization of the prostate (PVP) and bipolar transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) in high-risk symptomatic patients with large prostates.

METHODS
Between January 2007 and January 2010, a prospective study was performed in Shandong Provincial Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong Province, China. One hundred and one patients presenting with various kinds of systematic diseases, and with an American Society of Anesthesiologists score of 3 or greater underwent PVP plus bipolar TURP for severe lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia with prostatic volume greater than 80 ml. The International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and quality-of-life questionnaire (IPPS-QoL), maximum flow rates (Qmax), postvoid urine residues (PVR), and MRI prostatic volumes were recorded. Perioperative data, functional outcome, and complications were evaluated. Patients were reassessed at 3, 6, and 12 months.

RESULTS
The mean operation time was 68.5 ± 23.9 minutes. The mean pre- and post- operative prostate volumes were 102.2 ± 33.1 ml and 40.4 ± 15.6 ml. No severe complications were observed. Significant differences in IPSS, Qmax, and PVR values were recorded within the follow-up period.

CONCLUSION
The results of our study show that PVP plus bipolar TURP have an excellent efficiency and low morbidity in high-risk patients with large prostates.


This research aimed to obtain baseline data as the first stage of preparation of self-instructional training programs as an intervention for early adolescents who had self-esteem problems. The participant in this study was a teenage boy who has a negative self-evaluation related to self-competence at school. The design in this research was single-subject, with A1-A2-A3 design. Measurement of self-esteem in this study was interview techniques on the participant, significant other, and teachers among three different situations. The instrument was developed based on high self-esteem characteristics of Rosenberg and Owens (Guindon, 2010). The results of this study indicated that the boy had low self-esteem related to self-competence and affected to important areas of development such as academic. Based on this study, further researchs was necessary to develope an intervention that solved the problems of self-esteem in early adolescence.


Given the global trends of growing international economic integration and growing international migration flows, the possible linkages between these phenomena are of interest. Trade liberalisation is often seen as a means to reduce international migration pressures. However, such a view is based on the assumption that trade and migration are substitutes. Instead, many theoretical situations can be described where migration and trade are complements. This paper briefly summarises the main theories on this relationship and then moves on to the empirical evidence for Australasia.Australia and New Zealand have close historical, cultural and economic ties. Citizens can move freely between the two countries. Trade between the two countries has also grown rapidly, particularly since the implementation of a 1983 free trade agreement. The impact of further removal of trade barriers vis-a-vis third countries on trans-Tasman trade and factor mobility, production sectors and the labour markets of both countries is assessed by means of simulations with a two-country multi-sectoral Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. The simulations show that removal of trade barriers at the Australasian border will lead to microeconomic adjustments which encourage labour migration from Australia to New Zealand, but professional worker migration and capital flows in the opposite direction. However, the impact of the sectoral and labour market adjustments on inter-country factor mobility is likely to be small and could be outweighed by the impact of concurrent macroeconomic policies and business cycle fluctuations.


The partial transmit sequence (PTS) considered as one of the efficient approaches to restrain the high peak to average-power ratio (PAPR) in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) frameworks. PTS relied on partitioning the input data block and rotate them with a set of the phase vectors. In this study, a novel technique is suggested to improve the PAPR reduction performance in the PTS technique by combining Hadamard matrix and the popular kinds of the partitioning schemes interleaving scheme (IL-PTS), adjacent scheme (Ad-PTS), and pseudo-random scheme (PR-PTS). The new approach employed Hadamard matrix to change some of the subcarrier phases of the partitioning scheme in the frequency-domain. The simulation results demonstrated that the new method improved the PAPR diminishment performance better than that of the PR-PTS and Ad-PTS. However, the proposed method achieved the same PAPR performance compared with the IL-PTS scheme.


Intelligent technology development is gaining traction in the sphere of education. The increasing rise of educational data suggests that standard processing methods may be limited and distorted. As a result, rebuilding data mining research technologies in the education industry has become necessary. Becoming more visible To avoid erroneous assessment findings and to anticipate students' future performance, this research analyses and predicts students' academic achievement using applicable clustering, discriminating, and convolution neural network theories. To begin, this work suggests that the clustering-number determination be optimized by employing a statistic that has never been employed in the K-means approach. The clustering impact of the K-means method is next assessed using discriminate analysis. The Convolutional neural network is presented for training and testing with labeled data. The produced model can be used to forecast future performance. Finally, the efficacy of the constructed model is tested using two metrics in two cross validation procedures in order to validate the prediction findings. The experimental findings show that the statistic not only addresses the objective and quantitative problem of determining the clustering number in the K-means method, but also enhances the predictability of the outcomes.


The WR-21 gas turbine engine will be employed by the Royal Navy and potentially by the United States and French Navies in their future Integrated Full Electric Powered Surface Combatants. The WR-21 is an advanced cycle gas turbine that will not only meet the high power generator prime mover requirements of these ships but also offer an efficient cruise generator engine in one power dense package. The engine gives ship designers the freedom to procure, install and maintain one engine to power the vessel over its entire operating profile in place of the traditional two engine 'cruise' and 'boost' fit. Warship operators will also have a new freedom to configure the warship propulsion plant to return unprecedented Platform Life Cycle Cost reductions in peacetime while retaining operational capability in time of conflict.The Royal Navy is the first user of the WR-21 Intercooled and Recuperated (ICR) gas turbine engine in its Type 45 Area Defense destroyer. The vessel is a 6000 tonne monohull, fitted with an integrated electric propulsion plant comprising two WR-21 Gas Turbine Alternators (GTAs), the prime mover side of which are capable of delivering 25 MW (ISO) and the Alternator side of which is rated at 21.6 MWe (0.9 pf lagging), 4.16KVA. These GTAs in combination with a pair of diesel generators rated at around 2 MWe (0.9 pf lagging) will provide electrical power to two 20 MWe (0.9 pf lagging) 4.16 KVA electric propulsion motors and to the ship's non propulsion consumer electrical distribution system. Any combination of generator set can provide any consumer with electrical power.This flexibility of propulsion plant configuration will demand a step change in operating culture if its ultimate benefits are to be truly harnessed. Every part of warship propulsion and gas turbine engine operating philosophy must be examined to check its relevance in the modern machinery outfit. The engines themselves must be scrutinized to ensure that they can fulfill the requirements of true ship generation machinery and are not regarded as 'propulsion generators'. In a Warship that has only four sources of electrical power the principles of survivability and prime mover independence are fundamental.Copyright © 2001 by ASME


Investigation purpose. Theoretical study of the depth dose measurements for therapeutic electron beam with longitudinally arranged dosimetry films in materials with different densities. Materials and methods. The work studies how the density of the medium, in which electrons propagate, affects the measured percentage depth dose and its reliability (PDD) . For that, we calculate the distribution of the electron beam dose distribution in homogeneous materials with different densities and in a dosimetry film placed in materials with these densities. The density of material in the calculation varies from 0.4 to 2.3 g/cm3 with a 0.1 g/cm3 step. The coincidence of the PDD within the experimental measurement accuracy, that equals 4% for dosimetry film and 2% for measurements without it, is chosen as the data fitting criterion. Results. The PDD calculated for two geometries and for different media densities is the result of this work. The calculation shows that PDD difference is negligible when the density of the film is equal to the media one. With decreasing of the media density the difference appears in the regions of both shallow and great depth. The PDD is lower for the geometry with film than for geometry without it in case of these densities. When the media density is rising the opposite effect is observed: the PDD in the film is higher than in geometry without film. The maximum range and therapeutic range in both geometries coincide for the calculated curves throughout the range under study. Discussion. The work shows applicability of the investigated method for measurement of the electron beam percentage depth dose in media with densities ranging from 0.9 to 1.8 g/cm3. The results show that PDD measurement method with longitudinally arranged dosimetry films can be applied to determine the maximum range and therapeutic range for media with densities of 0.4 to 2.3 g/cm3, and to measure the half-value depth for media with densities ranging from 0.7 to 2.1 g/cm3.


The demand for the lightweight wall has increased as the structure of the multi-unit dwelling has shift to the rahmen structure. The lightweight wall is required to secure certain degree of shock resistance for the structural safety. The study performed the load analysis test for 7 small hard bodies with different masses and shapes and 5 hard materials which applied the impact load on the wall. It was found out from the experiment that different pendulum weight doubled the load maximum even though the shock energy was the same. In addition, the study compared and analyzed the weight of materials and the load of small hard bodies to propose fundamental data for the material design of the lightweight wall.


The purpose was to examine the results of bilateral percutaneous sclerotherapy of the internal spermatic veins on prostate volume and prostatic symptoms. We previously showed that destruction of one‐way valves in the internal spermatic veins (varicocele) elevates hydrostatic pressure in the vertical testicular venous drainage system in the erect human. This diverts free testosterone (FT) flow at high concentrations directly from the testes into the prostate. High intraprostatic FT prolongs prostate cell life and increases cell proliferation rate—synergistic effects resulting in increased cell population (BPH). Treatment by interventional radiology (or microsurgery) techniques eliminates this diversion of FT flow to the prostate and reverses these pathologic processes. A total of 206 BPH patients with varicocele underwent bilateral sclerotherapy of the ISV. Of these, 81.5% exhibited significantly reduced prostate volume and improvement in prostatic symptoms (measured by IPSS scores) during follow‐up period of 12 to over 24 months. 8% went on to require surgery despite mild post‐treatment improvement (TURP). The use of prostate medications along with the treatment may have a combined positive effect. Very large prostate volume and large residual volume may limit degree of improvement. It is concluded that effective treatment of varicocele restores normal supply of testosterone to the prostate solely via its arterial supply, resulting in significant decrease of prostate volume and prostatic symptoms. The procedure is safe with only minor transient side effects.


Automatic code generation is a standard method in software engineering, improving the code reliability as well as reducing the overall development time. In hardware engineering, automatic code generation is utilized within a number of development tools, the integrated code generation functionality, however, is not exposed to developers wishing to implement their own generators. In this paper, VHDL Manipulation and Generation Interface (vMAGIC), a Java library to read, manipulate, and write VHDL code is presented. The basic functionality as well as the designflow is described, stressing the advantages when designing with vMAGIC. Two real-world examples demonstrate the power of code generation in hardware engineering.


This article introduces a promising new health care financing proposal for physician payment called Balanced Choice. It summarizes the implications of health care economics and current well-publicized health care reform proposals, each of which is problematic for physicians and their patients. The Balanced Choice proposal is for an integrated two-tier national system, which has an economically efficient universal plan similar to single-payer, but with an option for enhanced services using market forces at the doctor-patient level to manage care. The two tiers are linked together and balanced so that each complements and enhances the other. Balanced Choice solves the problems of other proposals in a way that would work well for doctors and for patients, and represents a fresh and uniquely American solution to the problem of health care financing.


The e-wallet industry in Indonesia is growing, with these developments creating intense competition. LinkAja is one of the e-wallet in Indonesia which was launched in 2019. LinkAja is initiated by BUMN (State-owned enterprises) and HIMBARA (State-owned bank association). LinkAja's total awareness is quite high compared to its competitors, but just some customer regularly uses it. It is clear that although consumers are aware of the LinkAja brand, they are unfamiliar of its benefits. The purpose of this study is to propose a suitable marketing strategy to increase awareness of LinkAja's benefit which is expected to increase the initiation of increasing the number of active users. Researchers use qualitative and quantitative methodologies in conducting research. Data collection is done by conducting interviews with LinkAja employees, distributing questionnaires to customers, and also collecting other supporting data. External and internal analysis was carried out to map the SWOT analysis. The tools used to perform external analysis are PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) analysis, Porter's Five Forces, and customer analysis. While the tools used to perform internal analysis are STP (Segmenting, Targeting, Positioning) analysis and marketing mix. The proposed new marketing strategy is carried out using the TOWS matrix derived from the SWOT analysis. There are eight new marketing strategies classified into marketing mix variables that represent, product, price, place, and promotion. Some of the marketing strategies are optimizing LinkAja as a solution for the transformation of conventional payments into digital payments, creating promotions in the form of free transfer fees and top-up fees, expanding to marketplace as a digital payment method, and highlighting LinkAja competitive advantage and product value to win market competition.


The rapid significant increase in the quality of the process of passenger transportation by Kyiv public transport can be a powerful motivation to increase the frequency of its use. However, the parameters of the desired change in the quality of urban transport remain unknown, which leads to its chaotic management. Two trends in urban passenger traffic quality research are common. The first approach deals with measuring the operating parameters of the transport system, and the second one focuses on the research of customers' opinions regarding transport services. However, none of the scientists focuses fully on the specific human behavioral responses to the quality of the city's passenger transportation service, when urban transport is opposed to a private car. Because of this, the assessment of the quality of urban passenger transport requires the development of special tools. It is already clear today that not all traditional approaches used in studies of transport behavior that depend on the quality structure may be suitable for this.


Objective: Traumatic spinal Cord injuries are common in patients with high-energy trauma, and have significant morbidity and mortality rates, as well as high psychological and social costs, causing a major impact on public health. To date, the treatment of such lesions remains controversial, with various studies in the literature comparing the results of non-surgical treatment with immediate, early or late surgical decompression. The objective of the present study is to compare the results of immediate and early (within 1 hour) spinal Cord decompression. Methods: In the belief that the surgical treatment obtains the best result, this experimental study has a case-control design, with histopathological and functional analysis of the results of surgical treatment of 25 Wistar mice submitted to posterior laminectomy immediately, or after one hour of spinal Cord compression. Results: in terms of functional and neurological deficit, the responses were better in the mice treated with immediate surgical decompression than in those treated one hour after the lesion (p=0.036). Conclusion: The earlier the decompression of spinal Cord injuries is performed, the better the end results in terms of the function and presence of neurological deficit.


This study argues that the competition among universities is in fact a competition among academic departments. The study examines the historical development from local-based to world-class physics departments in American universities from five aspects—bottleneck, opportunity, institutional innovation, resource and new form of academic organization. The study concludes with recommendations for world-class university building in China.


Digitalization of society has ambivalent consequences: there are new benefits ('smart' technologies, artificial intellect, multiple knowledge), but at the same time digital risks and metamorphoses that traumatize the behavior and thinking of people, alienate them from social ties and life-worlds. These processes have become a challenge for sociology and other social sciences that strive to develop new approaches, among which the digital and humanistic turns are the most relevant. The author aims at (a) analyzing the impact of digitalization on the production of metamorphoses and side effects on society and man, which are related to new complex risks and manifest challenges to sociology; (b) developing the contours of the conception of 'the digital turn in sociology' and identifying its essence in comparison with other, previous turns in sociology - linguistic, risk, cultural, etc.; (c) proposing the means that allow to overcome or minimize the side effects of the existing type of digitalization - the author argues for the demand to move sociology in the direction of the integral use of the instruments of the digital and humanistic turns. The article considers new challenges to mankind and scientific knowledge as determined not so much by the very process of digitalization, but by its existing type based on principles of formal rationality, pragmatism, and mercantilism neglecting, in fact, life-worlds of people. This type of digitalization is not 'universal' and can be changed by an alternative humanistic trend of digitalization. In order to begin establishing the humanistic trend of digitalization scientists should integrate the theoretical instruments of the proposed digital turn with other interdisciplinary turns and especially with the humanistic turn.


AIM
Recent results from animal experiments have shown that radix astragali (RA), a traditional Chinese herbal tonic, alleviates muscle atrophy under simulated weightlessness conditions, rendering RA a candidate for human use as a countermeasure against muscular atrophy. Possible cardiovascular side effects have not yet been investigated. We analyzed the effects of RA on the orthostatic stability of healthy men.

METHODS
There were 10 test subjects who were assigned to a double-blinded, randomized crossover design using RA or placebo (PL) for 14 d each, respectively. Test runs were separated by a 14-d 'washout' interval. At the beginning and the end of every 14-d test run, graded orthostatic stress (GOS) consisting of head-up tilt (HUT) combined with lower body negative pressure (LBNP) was used to achieve a presyncopal endpoint. Orthostatic effects on cardiac and vascular function were continuously monitored.

RESULTS
There were no significant differences between the RA vs. PL groups: mean arterial blood pressure dropped by 13 vs. 17%, pulse pressure 46 vs. 35%, heart rate increased 108 vs. 117%, and stroke volume index decreased 54 vs. 49% from supine control to presyncope. Neither did RA influence standing time compared to PL (18 +/- 7 vs. 17 +/- 6 min), nor did progression from the first to the fourth trial (15 +/- 6 to 18 +/- 7 min).

CONCLUSION
RA does not influence resting cardiovascular variables and orthostatic capacity in humans. It can be expected that human studies of RA's musculo-skeletal countermeasure potential will not be compromised by any cardiovascular side effects at the dosage employed in this study.


The extent, causes and factors of local variations in biological productivity of zonal forest ecosystems are examined on a case study of the model area of subtaiga of the East European Plain (Ryazan oblast, the Meshchera lowland). It is established that in conditions of wide distribution of Pleistocene sands and lowcontrast relief of the Meshchera lowland the main limiting factor of the biological productivity is waterlogging. In according with the classical concept of Russian regional landscape science (school of N.A. Solntsev), the leading role of relief (including the relict relief) and morphology of the bedrock surface in the biological productivity and dynamics of moisture is proved. It is noted that the dynamics of moisture in the landscape depends not only on the relief but also on the characteristics of the buried bedrock. Based on the analysis of geological history the genetic typification of morphostructures with the specific features of forest productivity is performed. It is identified that the most significant decline in biological productivity of tree species (up to 50–60% of zonal average) is observed in the contours of ancient erosive valleys. The regional maximum of forest productivity (up to 1.5 times higher than the average forest productivity in subtaiga of the East European Plain) is observed on the top of the buried pre-Jurassic erosive massif (outliers), composed of limestone. Due to the high density of limestone (1.20–1.33 times higher than that of other bedrock, composing the territory), its local protrusions form a positive gravitational anomaly that stimulates dynamics of moisture and reduces the impact of waterlogging. The genetic link of landscape processes in the Pleistocene and Holocene and indicator role of the periglacial forms of morphosculpture are identified. The most productive forests correspond to relicts of polygonal forms and the flowing thermokarst, minimum productivity correspond to areal shape and shore bars. It is established that the efficiency of drainage melioration depends on the landscape structure and most visible near the top of the buried pre-Jurassic erosive massif, composed of limestone (growth of productivity of hydromorphic ecosystems up to 20%). The effect of drainage melioration in the contours of the ancient erosive valleys is insignificant.


The mid-Tertiary Stony Mountain ring-dike complex, approximately 1.3 km in diameter, is composed of an outer diorite, a main mass of biotite gabbro, and an inner diorite. This composite stock and most of the surrounding country rocks of the San Juan volcanic field in the vicinity of the Silverton caldera have experienced various degrees of 18 O depletion (up to 10 per mil) due to interaction with heated meteoric ground waters. Most of the isotopic effects are a result of exchange between H 2 O and solidified igneous rocks, but the inner diorite may have been intruded as an inhomogeneous, low 18 O magma. The delta 18 O values of the rocks decrease with decreasing grain size, compatible with subsolidus exchange. Quartz typically has delta 18 O = 6 to 8 and is more resistant to exchange than any other mineral studied. The order of increasing resistance to hydrothermal 18 O exchange is feldspar-pyroxene-biotite-magnetite-quartz. Hydrogen isotope analyses of sericites, chlorites, biotites, and amphiboles range from --117 to --150 (SMOW) and exhibit the same order of D/H enrichment as do normal igneous hydrous phases, except that each phase is drastically depleted in deuterium. The delta D in biotites varies inversely with Fe/Fe+Mg and positively with elevation in the intrusion over a range of 600 m. The calculated delta D of the Tertiary meteoric waters is --100. Carbonate delta 13 C values average --5.5 (PDB), within the generally accepted range for deep-seated carbon. Based on numerical simulation of thermally driven convective fluid flow of plutons in similar geologic environments, the average integrated fluid flux that persisted for most of the cooling history of the Stony Mountain complex is estimated to be 10 (super -7) g cm (super -2) s (super -1) , equivalent to an overall water/rock ratio of 0.2 (weight units). It is likely that the time-temperature circulation history of the meteoric-hydrothermal fluids associated with the Stony Mountain complex, and with gabbroic complexes in general, was such that any ore metals in solution were dispersed into the surrounding country rocks.


Document images prove to be a difficult case for standard stereo correspondence approaches. One of the major problem is that document images are highly self-similar. Most algorithms try to tackle this problem by incorporating a global optimization scheme, which tends to be computationally expensive. In this paper, we show that incorporation of layout information into the matching paradigm, as a grouping entity for features, leads to better results in terms of robustness, efficiency, and ultimately in a better 3D model of the captured document, that can be used in various document restoration systems. This can be seen as a divide and conquer approach that partitions the search space into portions given by each grouping entity and then solves each of them independently. As a grouping entity text-lines are preferred over individual character blobs because it is easier to establish correspondences. Text-line extraction works reasonably well on stereo image pairs in the presence of perspective distortions. The proposed approach is highly efficient and matches obtained are more reliable. The claims are backed up by showing their practical applicability through experimental evaluations.


The background to, analysis and specification of a standard generic interface for the configuration of services on main telephone switching elements are described. This includes the specification of services on analog, integrated services digital network (ISDN), and Centrex lines. An emerging international standard - the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, Customer Administration Model - is employed.<<ETX>>


Smart data is the raw material of many activities such as automation, intelligent systems, artificial intelligence and the fourth industrial revolution. As for the importance and efficiency of smart data .The purpose of this study is to systematic analysis of all smart data related studies published from 1980 to the end of September 2017. Also, the study of probabilistic patterns is another purpose of this research. Regarding to the Winer, Amike and Lee Search model in 2008, this articles were extracted using a systematic search in the web of science database and 220 articles were selected as the final population. They were considered to identify the authors, objective, population, countries and universities, funders, years, publication terms, citation status, keywords, subject, format, language, and authorship. The main findings show that Sen soumya (63.3%) has the highest number of articles in this field; while, The United States with 33.63 percent, Princeton University with 18.3 percent, and the National Science Foundation of China (2.72 percent) have the largest share in countries, universities, and institutions. The objectives of 72.77% articles described and intelligent data applications. 84.54% of the articles have been made on inhuman societies. Most research in this area (20.9%) was conducted in 2016. The IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops has published most articles in this field (18.3%). Average citation received is 4.4 citations. The keyword "system" (18.3%) is the most common. 39.44% of the published articles are related to computer science. 52/64% of the articles were published in the form of a conference. 18.88% of articles are written in English. 90.5% of the articles are written as single authors and 94% of them are written by several writers. The results of the current study, indicate the variety and extent of the components studied.


Most existing virtual try-on applications require clean clothes images. Instead, we present a novel virtual Try-On network, M2E-Try On Net, which transfers the clothes from a model image to a person image without the need of any clean product images. To obtain a realistic image of person wearing the desired model clothes, we aim to solve the following challenges: 1) non-rigid nature of clothes - we need to align poses between the model and the user; 2) richness in textures of fashion items - preserving the fine details and characteristics of the clothes is critical for photo-realistic transfer; 3) variation of identity appearances - it is required to fit the desired model clothes to the person identity seamlessly. To tackle these challenges, we introduce three key components, including the pose alignment network (PAN), the texture refinement network (TRN) and the fitting network (FTN). Since it is unlikely to gather image pairs of input person image and desired output image (i.e. person wearing the desired clothes), our framework is trained in a self-supervised manner to gradually transfer the poses and textures of the model's clothes to the desired appearance. In the experiments, we verify on the Deep Fashion dataset and MVC dataset that our method can generate photo-realistic images for the person to try-on the model clothes. Furthermore, we explore the model capability for different fashion items, including both upper and lower garments.


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Science is in a constant state of flux. In recent years, science and scientists have been coming under attack, and scrutiny, by internal and external skeptics and critics, as well as a potentially anti-science movement. Despite this fairly negative portrayal, the expected outcome is that science – and its players – will become more robust, more critical and thus more reliable and accountable, i.e., that there will be a positive light at the end of a tumultuous period of challenge, although we are still far from reaching that point. Part of this process involves individuals or groups, known or anonymous, who are actively seeking out faults or errors, to demonstrate that science and scientists, and journals and publishers, are flawed and that something needs to be done to rectify this. Very rarely are such individuals referred to as vigilantes, but in essence, this is in fact what they are: individuals who have taken the reigns of quality control where it has failed, or where it has perceived to have failed. Vigilantism, which tends to conjure images of mob squads or self-appointed policing figures, involves taking on community style group awareness and implementation of their own rules, morals and values, as they see fit. Vigilantism, in the era of post-publication peer review, has reached science. This paper examines the positive and negative role that vigilantism plays, or can play, in science. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n3p9


The present briefing paper aims to inform policy-makers and other stakeholders about the open innovation model, and to draw their attention to certain recent trends related to its use. The first part of this paper describes open innovation, including its origins and evolution, contrasting it with the traditional approach to R&D. In addition, it explains this model's attractiveness for businesses in light of changes in the innovation environment, and reviews prerequisites for successful collaboration. The second part focuses on the importance of strategic knowledge management in the context of open innovation. In particular, it shows how intellectual property rights (IPRs) can facilitate the sharing of technology and of know-how, thus supporting collaborative innovation.


L acerations or tears of the interatrial septum are a recognized complication of mitral valve replacement surgery; however, the first report of iatrogenic Lutembacher's syndrome was by Dr. John Ross Jr. and colleagues from the National Institutes of Health.1 Their series included three patients who had acquired mitral stenosis and developed a persistent atrial septal defect after transatrial septal catheterization. At the time, persistent atrial septal defect was an unusual complication of transatrial septal catheterization because it had not been seen, previously, in more than 800 of these procedures performed at the National Institutes of Health. Two articles in Circulation call our attention to a new iatrogenic cause of Lutembacher's syndrome, balloon valvuloplasty of the mitral valve by the transatrial septal approach.23 Originally, Lutembacher's syndrome was the combination of congenital atrial septal defect and acquired rheumatic mitral


The ranges in solids of atoms having energies from 1 to 100 keV have been calculated using Monte Carlo techniques. The model assumes that the moving atom loses all of its energy through binary elastic collisions with the atoms of the solid. The potential of interaction, principally studied, is an exponentially screened Coulomb (Bohr) potential, and the scattering angles are calculated explicitly. It is found that neither the hard sphere approximation nor the inverse r‐squared approximation to the Bohr potential is particularly good. To obtain correspondence with experimental results it is found that the Bohr screening length must be increased as the atomic number of the interacting atoms increases.


Methanogens capable of accepting electrons from Fe0 cause severe corrosion in anoxic conditions. In previous studies, all iron-corrosive methanogenic isolates were obtained from marine environments. However, the presence of methanogens with corrosion ability using Fe0 as an electron donor and their contribution to corrosion in freshwater systems is unknown. Therefore, to understand the role of methanogens in corrosion under anoxic conditions in a freshwater environment, we investigated the corrosion activities of methanogens in samples collected from groundwater and rivers. We enriched microorganisms that can grow with CO2/NaHCO3 and Fe0 as the sole carbon source and electron donor, respectively, in ground freshwater. Methanobacterium sp. TO1, which induces iron corrosion, was isolated from freshwater. Electrochemical analysis revealed that strain TO1 can uptake electrons from the cathode at lower than −0.61 V vs SHE and has a redox-active component with electrochemical potential different from those of other previously reported methanogens with extracellular electron transfer ability. This study indicated the corrosion risk by methanogens capable of taking up electrons from Fe0 in anoxic freshwater environments and the necessity of understanding the corrosion mechanism to contribute to risk diagnosis.


A new model equation describing weakly nonlinear long internal waves at the interface between two thin layers of different density is derived for the specific relationships between the densities, layer thicknesses and surface tension between the layers. The equation derived and dubbed here the Gardner–Kawahara equation represents a natural generalisation of the well-known Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation containing the cubic nonlinear term as well as fifth-order dispersion term. Solitary wave solutions are investigated numerically and categorised in terms of two dimensionless parameters, the wave speed and fifth-order dispersion. The equation derived may be applicable to wave description in other media.


A kinematics model of the ship wake in the presence of surface waves, generated by wind is presented. It is found that the stationary wave structure behind the ship covered a wedge region with the 16.9° half an angle at the top of the wake and only divergent waves are present in a ship wake for co propagating wind waves. Wind waves field directed at some nonzero angle to the ship motion can cause essential asymmetry of the wake and compressing of its windward half. The extension of Whitham-Lighthill kinematics theory of ship wake for the intermediate sea depth is also presented. The ship wake structure essentially depends from the Froude (Fr) number based on the value of the sea depth and ship velocity. For Froude number less than unit both longitudinal and cross waves are presented in the wake region and Kelvin wake angle increased with Fr. For Fr>1 wake angle decreased with Froude number and finally only divergent waves directed almost normally to the ship track are presented in the very narrow ship wake.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Mutualisms play a key part in ecological systems and drive the evolution of much of the world's biological diversity. Among them, myrmecochory, seed dispersal by ants, is a worldwide mechanism throughout many ecosystems. However, the classic representation of myrmechocory as a mutualism could be put into question if one of the two players did not garner a real advantage. A controlled diet experiment was conducted in which ants were given five diets (supplemented or not with elaiosomes). First, using an ant‐seed mutualism system, the aim was to understand if elaiosome consumption could modify reproductive output and sex allocation. Second, nitrogen isotopic values were used as a nutrient tracer in the brood to estimate the consumption and selection of elaiosome in comparison to other diets. A significant difference was found in the production of pupae between some diets, but pupae production was not linked to the elaiosome supplementation. Repartitions between pupa type and the effect of the diets were also not significantly different. Moreover, the nitrogen isotopic values of pupae differed among diets but not pupa types. The mutualistic aspects of myrmechory remain unclear, especially when it comes to estimating the benefits to ants. It is clear that ants assimilate the elaiosome nutrients, but the effect of this assimilation on the reproductive output or sex allocation appears limited. Elaiosomes could provide a nutritional advantage under certain conditions when resources are scarce (qualitative or quantitative), but they are not nutritionally required, and thus represent a food source with no specific advantage to the ant.


1. The action of adrenaline, noradrenaline and efferent sympathetic fibres on the smooth muscle of the lower oesophageal sphincter (l.o.s.) was studied in vivo on the anaesthetized cat and in vitro with the sucrose gap method. 2. Adrenaline and noradrenaline produce a marked depolarization of the circular muscle of the l.o.s. This effect is suppressed by dihydroergotamine or phentolamine, and greatly reduced by atropine; it remains unaltered by hexamethonium. 3. Sympathetic fibres are excitatory for the l.o.s. They come from the stellate ganglion or run along the splanchnic nerve: the fibres arising from the stellate ganglion (mainly by the cardiac branch of the ganglion) join the vagus nerve at the thoracic level; the fibres running along the splanchnic nerve pass through the coeliac ganglion without synapsing; their cellular bodies lie probably in the ganglia of the sympathetic chain. 4. Repetitive stimulation (20‐‐40 Hz) of these fibres induce, with a latency of 5‐‐8 sec, a sustained or rhythmic contraction of the l.o.s. This response is suppressed by dihydroergotamine, and greatly reduced by atropine, while hexamethonium has no effect. 5. Stimulation of sympathetic fibres induces a facilitation of the vagal excitatory responses and an inhibition of the vagal inhibitory responses of the l.o.s. 6. Our data show that the sympathetic response of the l.o.s. results from the stimulation of adrenergic receptors which are located not only on muscular fibres but also, and chiefly, on intrinsic neurones. Thus, the sympathetic control of the l.o.s. is mainly exerted through cholinergic myenteric neurones which could be excited either directly or indirectly by inhibition of inhibitory intrinsic neurones.


Measurements are made of the extracted H- ion current from a magnetic multipole volume source operating CW. Ion currents up to 44 mA have been achieved using a 16 mm diameter extraction aperture. The transported ion beam current is dependent on both the number of filaments in the source and the filament diameter. The authors present data which show that this dependency, at least for this source, is due largely to the cathode structures acting as an ion collector. As the cathode area is increased, the fraction of discharge current comprising collected ions is increased. In this source as much as 28% of the arc current may be ions drawn from the plasma. Thus comparisons at the same arc current for different cathode areas are not made with the same emitted electron current from the cathodes and hence not at the same plasma conditions. This has important implications for the arc efficiency of such discharges.


The ethics of high frequency trading are obscure, due in part to the complexity of the practice. This article contributes to the existing literature of ethics in financial markets by examining a recent trend in regulation in high frequency trading, the prohibition of deception. We argue that in the financial markets almost any regulation, other than the most basic, tends to create a moral hazard and increase information asymmetry. Since the market's job is, at least in part, price discovery, we argue that simplicity of regulation and restraint in regulation are virtues to a greater extent than in other areas of finance. This article proposes criteria for determining which high-frequency trading strategies should be regulated.


The influence of existing musical trends is evident in almost every composer. Prokofiev entered the musical scene in Russia when Scriabin was the recognized leader in innovation. To understand fully the rapid popularity of Prokofiev one must be aware of the musical forces of his time, the circumstances leading up to them and their influence on Prokofiev. In the latter half of the nineteenth century there began a movement toward nationalism in music. Among the most important of these nationalistic countries were Bohemia and Russia. Composers deliberately drew their inspiration from the musical resources of their native country. From all that is known a native Russian music did not exist before the nineteenth century. The music enjoyed by the upper class and royalty had to be imported. In the eighteenth century this included Italian opera and in the beginning of the nineteenth century, French opera. Pianists such as Field, Mayer and von Henselt were popular as both teachers and performers.


Background High intrarenal pelvic pressure (IPP) induces systemic absorption of irrigation fluid containing bacteria or endotoxins, which is associated with postoperative fever (POF) and even urosepsis. The emphasis of this meta-analysis lies in comparison of IPP and POF between mini-tract percutaneous nephrolithotomy (MPCNL) and standard-tract percutaneous nephrolithotomy (SPCNL). Methods Eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified from electronic databases from inception to November 2019. Studies selection, quality assessment, data extraction and analysis were accomplished by two independent reviewers using Cochrane Collaboration's tools. Results Patients in the MPCNL group experienced higher IPP compared to SPCNL group [mean difference (MD): 8.31, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.67–12.96, P=0.0005] with highly between-study heterogeneity (P=0.001, I2=85%). Notably, the IPP was higher in MPCNL group in different stages of the procedure including introduction, fragmentation and end. However, only two trials were available for pooled analysis. Additionally, the risk of POF in MPCNL was 2.43 times higher than that in SPCNL [odds ratio (OR): 2.43, 95% CI: 1.39–4.27, P=0.002] with no significant between-study heterogeneity (P=0.83, I2=0%). The two procedures was comparable on stone-free rate (SFR) (OR: 1.06, 95% CI: 0.61–1.86, P=0.83) and operation time (MD: 5.69, 95% CI: −4.54 to 15.91, P=0.28). Conclusions Current evidence indicates that MPCNL is an effective alternative to SPCNL with comparable SFR. IPP and POF is significantly higher during MPCNL compared to SPCNL. Intraoperative detection of IPP is of great significance for ensuring safety and reducing postoperative complications, especially for patients with MPCNL and the duration of stone fragmentation. Further large well-designed trials are warranted to confirm our findings.


Consecutive investigations in 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2002 in the permanent plots established in Futian Mangrove Reserve of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, revealed that the breaking, drying and death of the individual plants or branches in the mangrove communities were significant and the number of plants in plots covering an area of 200 m2 was 417, 341, 196 and 132; the average density of population per square meter is 2.08, 1.70, 0.98 and 0.66; the death rate between the interval of two investigations is 18.2%, 42.5% and 32.6% respectively. The individuals of population exhibit an obvious diameter at breast height (DBH) growth. For example, the maximum increment of individual DBH was up to 3.63, 2.45, and 4.52 cm in the dominant populations Aegiceras corniculatum (L.) Blanco (Ac), Kandelia candel (L.) Druce (Kc), and Avicennia marina (Forsk.) Vierh. (Am), respectively. At the same time, growth of individual height was also prominent. In the second investigation, 233 out of the 341 individuals exhibit a height growth; whereas the number under the third and fourth investigations was 127 out of 196 and 74 out of 132, respectively. During a 2-year interval, the maximum height growth was 1.5 m in Ac, 1.9 m in Kc, and 1.8 m in Am. The biomass also showed a relative change in the mangrove communities. The total biomass of stems and leaves decreased with time but occasionally an increase was found in the second and third investigations and finally a decrease in the fourth investigation. However, the average biomass of the survived individuals usually increased with time. In terms of the total biomass, the results of the four investigations were similar to the previous research in which the data were calculated by the methods of standardized timbers, etc. being 7.57, 8.36, 5.15 and 7.71 kg/m2 during 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2002, respectively. The above analysis indicates that self-thinning of mangrove communities is an important evolutionary process, characterized by drying, breaking, and death of individuals/ramifications. During the process of evolution, fewer new seedlings deve loped, and individual height growth, DBH growth , breaking and death from dryness maybe closely related to the composition, structure and density of population in the mangrove communities.


INTRODUCTION
In the present study specific characteristics of PTSD patients were explored in a clinical sample with particular regard to dysfunctional attitudes and coping strategies. The purpose was to draw attention to this rarely investigated but presumably prevalent psychiatric disorder in the Hungarian population.

METHOD
Twenty-two PTSD patients' retrospective data was analyzed who presented at our clinic for outpatient psychotherapy treatment. Patients were assessed on depressive, anxiety, hopelessness, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, as well as dysfunctional attitudes and coping strategies.

RESULTS
Thirty-two percent (n=7) of the sample is male and 68% (n=15) is female, the mean age is 34.77 years. Based on trauma type 40.9% (n=9) had a motor vehicle accident, 18.2% (n=4) lost a close relative, 18.2% (n=4) was a victim of sexual or physical assault. There is great variance in the duration since the trauma (2 months to 10 years). The results suggest that posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs) are associated with the dysfunctional attitudes of need for achievement and external control, and with avoidant and conforming coping styles. Additionally, PTSSs were highly comorbid with depressive and anxiety symptoms.

CONCLUSION
The results imply that PTSD patients in Hungary have similar characteristics as international findings indicate.