Of a total of 102 cases of male infertility seen over the past ten years, treatment resulted in normalisation of the sperm count in 26, with 12 normal pregnancies resulting. These results concerned cases of oligo-asthenospermia related to a varicocele, pyospermia, hormonal insufficiency or general and psychological disorders. Ten couples were able to have a child with the use of artificial insemination using fresh donor sperm. The abandonment of this technique, nor replaced by the use of frozen sperm provided by a sperm bank, results at the present time in a considerable reduction in the number of inseminations, associated with the overload of these banks. Nevertheless, half of all couples accept the principle of hetero-insemination. The number of couples adopting a child is very low (4% in this study) as a result not only of the difficulties of adoption but also refusal by the couple.


Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology constitutes an important part of what has become known as the Internet of Things (IoT) that is accessible and interconnected machines and everyday objects that form a dynamic and complex environment. To secure the IoT in a cost-efficient manner, we need to build security and privacy into the design of its components. Moreover, mechanisms should be constructed that will allow both individuals and organizations to actively manage their "things" and information in a highly flux environment. The contributions of this paper are twofold: We first discuss the use of security and privacy policies that can offer fine granularity and context-aware information control in RFID systems. Second, we propose a novel secure and privacy-preserving tag management protocol that can support such policies. Our protocol has a modular design that allows it to support a set of desirable management operations (viz. tag authentication, delegation, and ownership transfer) while imposing minimal hardware and computational requirements on the tag side. Furthermore, inspired by the European Network and Information Security Agency's Flying 2.0 study, we describe a near-future air travel scenario to further explain and demonstrate the inner workings of our proposal. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


UNLABELLED
The aim of this work, which is just a part research introduced in sport environment undertaking morphologic and motoric problems of development conditions, is the description of somatic structure of short growth sportsmen.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
Research material consists of measurement results of 254 boys at the age of 15-17, who were at the stage of directed sport training process, Junior Team of Wielkopolska Voivodship.

RESULTS
From 254 examined sportsmen about 12% were short body height people. They are characterized by similar body build proportions. Moreover, those competitors got similar values of analyzed quotient indices and placed similar position on self-note (the same as had sportsmen whose body height is localized above 10 centiles).

CONCLUSIONS
Shorter body height, similar body build to the characteristic one of practicing sport discipline and very good results may suggest, that in case of the analyzed material, the subjects with motor predispositions revealed themselves in a natural way.


The work described here forms part of a project to model rapid pressure swing adsorption (RPSA), which is a single-bed process used for air separation. We have earlier identified a form of model and boundary conditions for an axially dispersed plug flow model that conserves mass. We solve the RPSA models numerically by spatially discretizing the partial differential equations to a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which are then integrated over time. Although the formulation of our models conserves mass, our numerical simulations, however, do not perfectly conserve mass because of discretization error and rounding error. The discrepancy in the conservation of mass iscomputed as a guide to the numerical accuracy of the calculations. The computation of the conservation error requires the evaluation of time integrals of molar flowrates in and out of the bed. Since the velocity at the feed end of the bed changes rapidly with time, the application of quadrature to evaluate the time integrals does not provide the accuracy required. In this paper, the inadequacy is demonstrated using a simple problem, i.e. pressurization and depressurization into a non-adsorptive bed. An improved method is proposed. By transforming equations involving time integrals into ODEs, excellent accuracy is obtained. Further, this transformation minimizes the number of decision parameters that need to be specified by the users of the computer programs.


Images can convey rich semantics and induce various emotions to viewers. Most existing works on affective image analysis focused on predicting the dominant emotions for the majority of viewers. However, such dominant emotion is often insufficient in real-world applications, as the emotions that are induced by an image are highly subjective and different with respect to different viewers. In this paper, we propose to predict the personalized emotion perceptions of images for each individual viewer. Different types of factors that may affect personalized image emotion perceptions, including visual content, social context, temporal evolution, and location influence, are jointly investigated. Rolling multi-task hypergraph learning is presented to consistently combine these factors and a learning algorithm is designed for automatic optimization. For evaluation, we set up a large scale image emotion dataset from Flickr, named Image-Emotion-Social-Net, on both dimensional and categorical emotion representations with over 1 million images and about 8,000 users. Experiments conducted on this dataset demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve significant performance gains on personalized emotion classification, as compared to several state-of-the-art approaches.


We find a class of new nonlinear Bogoliubov transformations and solve the eigenvalue problem of the model Hamiltonian describing the second harmonic generation with intensity-dependent coupling. These transformations differ from the previously known nonlinear quadrature-dependent Bogoliubov transformations.


Abstract:This article presents the Tacit exhibition, which formed the final part of a PhD thesis in graphic design, defended in June 2022. Building on the thesis' theme of knowledge externalization in graphic design, the exhibition was an experimental approach toward knowledge dissemination–an attempt to engage an audience otherwise not exposed to research within the field and to explore alternative ways of sharing research outcomes. The exhibition was a design study in itself and could be defined as a participatory study, as the author was present throughout the exhibition, interacting with visitors and simultaneously gathering material about the experience of the exhibition. The article presents the methodology behind the exhibition, its contents, and the outcomes of the project.


Up to isomorphism over C, every simple principally polarized abelian variety of dimension 3 is the Jacobian of a smooth projective curve of genus 3. Furthermore, this curve is either a hyperelliptic curve or a plane quartic. Given a sextic CM field K, we show that if there exists a hyperelliptic Jacobian with CM by K, then all principally polarized abelian varieties that are Galois conjugated to it are hyperelliptic. Using Shimura's reciprocity law, we give an algorithm for computing approximations of the invariants of the initial curve, as well as their Galois conjugates. This allows us ton define and compute class polynomials for genus 3 hyperelliptic curves with CM.


Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is common with 0.5-1% of the UK living with the disease. Poor disease control can result in adverse pregnancy outcomes including low birth weight and preterm labour. It is essential that pregnant patients with IBD receive care from physicians experienced in management of antenatal IBD. Furthermore patients must be equipped with the knowledge to make decisions on their care and the care of their new-born. Audit standards by Selinger et al 20201 for the British Society of Gastroenterology (endorsed by the British Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society) have been published for UK practice but local service standards are unknown.

 Pregnant patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC) between 2017-2020 were identified with ICD-10 and OPSC-4 codes for a hospital with 650 inpatient beds and a catchment area of 450,000 with around 4,600 births per annum. The service was assessed against a 90% compliance standard for documentation of: a decision on biological therapy during pregnancy; discussion on mode of delivery (MoD); antenatal live vaccine counselling; and breast-feeding advice.

 48 eligible patients were identified. Mean birth weight and delivery date were in line with the national average with no preterm births. 41 of 48 patients (85%) were in remission at the time of conception. 9 of 25 CD pregnancies were on biologics at conception and 7 of 9 (78%) discontinued this by 24-weeks gestation; one continued vedolizumab to 30-weeks and received antenatal vaccine counselling; one continued ustekinumab to 34-weeks. 4 out of 23 UC pregnancies were on biologics at conception; all ceased biologics by 24-weeks and vaccine counselling was not indicated. Only one published standard was achieved, with decision on biologics in pregnancy discussed in 100% (13/13). 3 standards were not met; MoD discussion (23%, 11/48); antenatal vaccine counselling (50%, 1/2); and breast-feeding advice (4%, 2/48).

 Our service did not meet new standards for antenatal IBD care, demonstrating a need for improvement. We recommend that all IBD teams understand the expected service standards, perform a baseline service evaluation and develop clear patient pathways and departmental guidelines to identify pregnant patients with IBD. Clear patient information and close collaboration between obstetricians and gastroenterologists is essential to optimise the outcome for mother and baby.
 1) Selinger C et al Standards for the provision of antenatal care for patients with inflammatory bowel disease: guidance endorsed by the British Society of Gastroenterology and the British Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society. Frontline Gastroenterology 2021;12:182-187 BMJ 2020


Autism is a distinction that belongs to a child causing them to exhibit a different behaviour than normal children. Children who are diagnosed with autism are limited in communication and social development. Special Education Teachers are among the 'supporters' and 'complementary' assistance to the child's autism education and help achieve their ambitions. This study aims to identify the level of professionalism among special education teachers in order to educate students with autism. This study employed quantitative method where by the special education teachers were selected through a purposive sampling. This study was taken place in schools located in Kuala Terengganu. Therefore, the results obtained showed that the level of professionalism special education teachers was high.


Learning the Markov network structure from data is a problem that has received considerable attention in machine learning, and in many other application fields. This work focuses on a particular approach for this purpose called Independence-Based learning. Such approach guarantees the learning of the correct structure efficiently, whenever data is sufficient for representing the underlying distribution. However, an important issue of such approach is that the learned structures are encoded in an undirected graph. The problem with graphs is that they cannot encode some types of independence relations, such as the context-specific independences. They are a particular case of conditional independences that is true only for a certain assignment of its conditioning set, in contrast to conditional independences that must hold for all its assignments. In this work we present CSPC, an independence-based algorithm for learning structures that encode context-specific independences, and encoding them in a log-linear model instead of a graph. The central idea of CSPC is to combine the theoretical guarantees provided by the independence-based approach with the benefits of representing complex structures by using features in a log-linear model. We present experiments in a synthetic case, showing that CSPC is more accurate than the state-of-the-art Independence-Based algorithms when the underlying distribution contains CSIs.


The increase in population growth and demand is rapidly depleting natural resources. Irrigation plays a vital role in the productivity and growth of agriculture, consuming no less than 75% of fresh water utilization globally. Irrigation, being the largest consumer of water across the globe, needs refinements in its process, and because it is implemented by individuals (farmers), the use of water for irrigation is not effective. To enhance irrigation management, farmers need to keep track of information such as soil type, climatic conditions, available water resources, soil pH, soil nutrients, and soil moisture to make decisions that resolve or prevent agricultural complexity. Irrigation, a data-driven technology, requires the integration of emerging technologies and modern methodologies to provide solutions to the complex problems faced by agriculture. The paper is an overview of IoT-enabled modern technologies through which irrigation management can be elevated. This paper presents the evolution of irrigation and IoT, factors to be considered for effective irrigation, the need for effective irrigation optimization, and how dynamic irrigation optimization would help reduce water use. The paper also discusses the different IoT architecture and deployment models, sensors, and controllers used in the agriculture field, available cloud platforms for IoT, prominent tools or software used for irrigation scheduling and water need prediction, and machine learning and neural network models for irrigation. Convergence of the tools, technologies and approaches helps in the development of better irrigation management applications. Access to real-time data, such as weather, plant and soil data, must be enhanced for the development of effective irrigation management applications.


Background and Aim: The diabetic foot ulcer is one of the most common and devastating complications of diabetes mellitus. Patient education about the prevention of foot ulceration is among the most challenging issues. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of group and individual patient education on the level of the knowledge, attitude and practice of self-care in patients with diabetic foot ulcer. Material and Method: In this quasi-experimental study, the samples consisted of 80 patients with type 2 diabetes randomly allocated to two groups to receive either individual or group education (40 patients in each group). The patients received one day education program about foot care. The patients' knowledge, attitude and practice of self-care were assessed before and after the interventions and the data were compared between two groups. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests. Results: The finding showed that the level of knowledge about foot care was poor in most patients of both groups.The attitude was positive and the practice was moderate. The level of the knowledge (P=0.09), attitude (P=0.21), and practice (P=0.01) of both groups improved after educational program. There was not a statistically significant difference between two groups in terms of knowledge and practice improvement. There was a statistical significant difference between two groups in terms of attitude improvement. Conclusion: The effects of group and individual education on diabetic foot self-care are similar. Group education is more economical.


Understanding the mechanism of herbicide resistance is fundamental for designing sustainable weed control strategies and exploiting herbicides rationally. Shortawn foxtail is a problem grass weed infesting several important crops in China. The repeated use of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase)-inhibiting herbicides has resulted in herbicide resistance in this weed. The ACCase gene of resistant individuals of a shortawn foxtail population (JSLS-1) has an Ile-2041-Thr mutation. F2 generation seeds, originated from the same heterozygous plant, were harvested, and two homozygous mutant (JSLS-1RR) and wild (JSLS-1SS) populations for the Ile-2041-Thr mutation were obtained. In whole plants, the JSLS-1RR population conferred high resistance to fenoxaprop and clodinafop, moderate resistance to haloxyfop, low resistance to pinoxaden, and no obvious resistance to clethodim and sethoxydim, compared with JSLS-1SS and a proven susceptible population (HNXY-1). A derived cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (dCAPS) marker was developed to rapidly detect the rare Ile-2041-Thr mutation in the shortawn foxtail population. This is the first report of the cross-resistance pattern of Ile-2041-Thr mutation, and the robust dCAPS marker could quickly detect this mutation in shortawn foxtail. Nomenclature: Clethodim, clodinafop, fenoxaprop, haloxyfop, pinoxaden, sethoxydim, shortawn foxtail, Alopecurus aequalis Sobol.


Spawning Pacific salmon (Onchorhynchus) transport marine-derived nutrients into streams and rivers. Subsequently, these marine-derived nutrients are incorporated into freshwater and terrestrial food webs through decomposition and predation. In this study, we investigated the influence of spawning Pacific salmon on terrestrial vegetation using stable isotope analysis. We hypothesized that terrestrial vegetation near streams or in areas with activity of piscivorous predators will show higher δ 15 N values compared with the same species growing elsewhere. The influence of spawning Pacific salmon as observed in elevated δ 15 N in terrestrial consumers was also investigated. Data collected from five species of plants in 18 transects from the stream to the upland forest (0 to 1000 m) indicated that a significant decrease in δ 15 N values occurred with increase in distance and relative elevation from the stream in three of the five plant species sampled. Values of δ 15 N in plants at sites actively used by piscivorous predators were higher than those of the same plants growing elsewhere, and similar to values measured near the stream. A decrease in values of δ 15 N and increase in values of δ 13 C in muscles of small mammals, with increase in distance from the stream, indicated that this signature was not a result of direct consumption of salmon carcasses but rather an indirect assimilation of marine-derived nitrogen through terrestrial vegetation. These results indicate that salmon carcasses contribute to the nitrogen pool available to riparian vegetation. The spatial distribution of the marine-derived nitrogen is apparently determined by flooding and the activity patterns of piscivorous predators. The importance of these nitrogen additions to the riparian zone, however, will depend on whether nitrogen is a limiting factor to plant growth in this system, and requires further investigation.


While touch Interfaces have greatly improved the user friendliness and functional possibilities of devices, haptic feedback has been lacking in user interface design. Good Haptic feedback not only gives confirmation of a key press, but also enriches the user interaction and improves the usability of interfaces. This absence of haptic feedback is is generally not an issue when the users field of view is oriented at the touch interface (as is the case with Smartphones and tablets), problems arise when features in the interface have to be controlled blindly, as is the case in automotive applications, where distraction of the driver results in safety risks. In terms of HMI design, the unique properties of Aito's HapticTouch system has shown it can potentially solve these issues and even could enrich the user experience of automotive interiors. In reality however, when clients integrate Haptic Touch in their products, its application is generally limited to replacing traditional buttons, reducing its competitiveness when compared to other technologies. Broadly speaking, there two problems: The first one is that Aito has no demonstrators that show haptic feedback integrated with innovative UI designs. The second problem is that at this time, Aito has little experience in combining audio-visual cues with Haptic Feedback. This graduation thesis explores the possibilities in designing an affordable demonstrator that showcases the unique selling points of AITO®HapticTouch technology for automotive applications. To provide a sound foundation for the design process, internal- and external company analyses were done to identify the sustainable competitive advantages of Aito, trends and developments in the Automotive industry (until 2030) and companies/technologies that compete with Aito. Based on insights from the analysis, the following Design Vision has been formulated: Future automotive HMI's should adapt themselves to the personal preferences of the user(s), taking into account the context the car is used in and the state of mind of the user(s) in relation to their physical and digital lives. With this vision, Aito's Haptic Touch is central in making the UI contextual and personal to the user, while also being used as an additional channel of communication with the user in e.g. automated driving modes. The demonstrator presented in this thesis embodies this design vision: A light-weight structure with a wide range of personalised features, a minimalistic projection mapped GUI design, contextual to the driving situation and controls that communicate with the user through Haptic Feedback. To validate the design, a prototype version of the gear shifter panel was built to evaluate the use of projection mapping and the quality of the stack designs. The initial validation brought to light there is room for improvement in terms of HapticTouch integration. The estimated building costs were higher than the target price, but for a demonstrator of this complexity still acceptable. If Aito would decide to continue developing this demonstrator, would therefore be to start small with the individual panels before integrating them into a fu a demonstrator on the scale of the one discussed in this thesis.


We develop a novel transmit power-allocation strategy for wireless multimedia communications using cross-layer optimization. Because the individual frames in a compressed video carry different degrees of importance in terms of quality of service (QoS), improving the packet-loss probability does not necessarily coincide with perceivable improvements in QoS from a client's point of view. We propose a channel power-allocation scheme that properly incorporates the importance of frames when allocating transmit power. The system is modeled in terms of the number of remaining packets to be sent, the interference level, and the QoS importance of the packet that is being transmitted. Dynamic programming formulation is developed to obtain the optimal transmit power that simultaneously minimizes power consumption and maximizes the user-perceivable QoS. Using dynamic programming, we establish a state transition equation in discrete time intervals that incorporates the packet-loss probability. A simulation-based experiment is performed to test our transmit power-allocation scheme. We use four publicly available Motion Pictures Expert Group 4 (MPEG-4) video clips, comparing the performance of three different channel power-allocation strategies: constant power-allocation, interference-aware power-allocation, and significance-aware power-allocation. Optimal channel power under varying interference levels and the respective packet loss behaviors are examined. The results prove that our significance-aware transmit power-allocation scheme exhibits superior performance in terms of the loss ratio PSNR and power-utilization efficiency. The total packet byte loss decreases by 3%-8%. The loss rate of the I frame decreases from 24% to 1%. Significance-aware power-allocation successfully provides unequal protection to the more important packets. Total power consumption is reduced by 18%-34% without loss of user-perceivable QoS.


We explore the fabrication and characterization of semiconductor based metasurfaces using gallium nitride material. Several nanofabrication approaches are discussed including free standing metasurface membranes, direct etching and sublimation of GaN metastructures to deflect and focus light at visible wavelength. We propose a new approach to compensate the effect of chromatic dispersion in refractive material with metasurfaces.


This thesis is concerned with the development and application of methods for the stereoselective cyclopropanation of allylic amines and derivatives.
Firstly, a highly chemo- and stereoselective cyclopropanation of N,N-dibenzyl-protected allylic amines was developed using the highly reactive Shi's carbenoid [CF₃CO₂ZnCH₂I]. Subsequent mechanistic studies revealed that the high diastereoselectivity of the reaction was likely to be due to coordination of the amine to the zinc carbenoid reagent. It is then shown that the reaction is general for a wide range of both cyclic and acyclic substrates giving the corresponding cyclopropanes in high yields and diastereoselectivities.
Secondly, a novel stereodivergent cyclopropanation of allylic carbamates and amides was developed. It was found that reaction of cyclic allylic carbamates with the Wittig-Furukawa reagent [Zn(CH₂I)₂] typically gives the syn-diastereoisomer in high yields and diastereoselectivities, whilst treatment of the same substrates with Shi's carbenoid [CF₃CO₂ZnCH₂I] gives the corresponding anti-diastereoisomers in high yields and diastereoselectivities. Mechanistic investigations suggested that reactions with the Wittig-Furukawa reagent proceed via a N-directed intramolecular cyclopropanation step whilst those with Shi's carbenoid proceed via a sterically directed intermolecular cyclopropanation step. Unsuccessful investigations into an asymmetric variant of the cyclopropanation reaction utilising chiral carbamate protecting groups are then described.
Finally, studies towards the total synthesis of the potential anti-obesity therapeutic
trans-SCH-A and its epimer cis-SCH-A are described. A stereodivergent route towards the epimeric products was developed through the cyclopropanation of a common allylic carbamate intermediate with either the Wittig-Furukawa reagent or Shi's carbenoid to give the corresponding trans-2-amino-5-arylbicyclo[3.10]hexane or cis-2-amino-5-arylbicyclo-[3.10]hexane intermediates respectively.


Several works have developed vector-linear maximum-distance separable (MDS) storage codes that minimize the total communication cost required to repair a single coded symbol after an erasure, referred to as repair bandwidth (BW). Vector codes allow communicating fewer sub-symbols per node, instead of the entire content. This allows non trivial savings in repair BW. In sharp contrast, classic codes, like Reed-Solomon (RS), used in current storage systems, are deemed to suffer from naive repair, i.e. downloading the entire stored message to repair one failed node. This mainly happens because they are scalar-linear. In this work, we present a simple framework that treats scalar codes as vector-linear. In some cases, this allows significant savings in repair BW. We show that vectorized scalar codes exhibit properties that simplify the design of repair schemes. Our framework can be seen as a finite field analogue of real interference alignment. Using our simplified framework, we design a scheme that we call clique-repair which provably identifies the best linear repair strategy for any scalar 2-parity MDS code, under some conditions on the sub-field chosen for vectorization. We specify optimal repair schemes for specific (5,3)- and (6,4)-Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. Further, we present a repair strategy for the RS code currently deployed in the Facebook Analytics Hadoop cluster that leads to 20% of repair BW savings over naive repair which is the repair scheme currently used for this code.


Thyrotoxic Periodic Paralysis (TPP) is a rare complication of thyrotoxicosis and is up to 20 times more common in males. Cases usually present with painless muscle weakness precipitated by heavy exercise, fasting, an alcohol binge or large carbohydrate meal. Serum potassium is low in the majority, but normokalaemic (or even hyperkalaemic) TPP is recognised. Acute treatment of any electrolyte disorder, administration of a beta-blocker and treatment of the thyrotoxicosis leads to complete resolution. This rare diagnosis should be considered by the Acute Physician when confronted with any case of muscle weakness.


The objective of this paper is to evaluate the aggregation of production factors in a variable called Inputs in coffee production in Brazil. A translog cost function and a separability test are used, based on estimates of the Allen-Uzawa partial elasticity of substitution. The results demonstrate the possibilities of input separability analyses. Input substitutability relations and other effects, such as exchange rate devaluation, on each production factor, can be examined.


Funded by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), the Integrated Police–Parole Initiative (IPPI) places police officers in CSC offices, where they support the activities of parole staff. First introduced in 2006–07, these officers work with high-risk offenders in their transition from the penitentiary to community, in order to increase public safety. Analyses of technical violations of conditional releases revealed that sites where these officers were deployed successfully reduced the number of parole violations. These promising results suggest that the IPPI has avoided the 'community removal' element of parole supervision that is evident in some North American jurisdictions, and promotes the safe reintegration of offenders into the community. Implications for public safety, as well as law enforcement and correctional partnerships are discussed. Note: these data were originally obtained as part of a CSC analysis of the IPPI, but the opinions expressed within this study do not necessarily reflect those of the CSC.


When mining vehicle operators take risks, there is a increased probability of an accident that can cause injuries, fatalities and large financial costs to the mine operators. It can be assumed that the operators do not intentially take unnecessarily high risk, and that the risks are hidden due to factors such as adverse weather, fatigue, visual obstructions, boredom, etc. This paper examines the potential of measuring the risk of danger in a situation by using the safe rules of operation defined by mining safety management. The problem with measuring safety is that the safe rules of operation are heavily dependent on the context of the situation. What is considered normal practice and safe in one part of the mine (such as performing a u-turn in a parking lot) is not safe on a haul road. To be able to measure safety, it is therefore necessary to understand the different context areas in a mine so that feedback of unsafe behaviour presented to the operator is relevant to the context of the situation. This paper presents a novel method for generating context area information using the vehicle trajectory information collected from vehicles in the mine. Results are presented using real-life data collected from several operating fleets of mining vehicles.


Multiple myeloma (MM) is a highly heterogeneous malignant plasma cell disease. Proteasome inhibitors (PIs) are the first line of medicine for MM. Bortezomib, ixazomib, and carfilzomib are also widely used for MM. Marizomib, oprozomib, and KZR-616 are in clinical trials. However, the drug resistance of PIs in MM is still a problem. The mechanisms for PIs resistance to MM include ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, autophagy lysosome pathway, endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway, cell survival signal pathway, exosome-mediated resistance, and bone marrow microenvironment-mediated resistance.


We examine whether calcineurin or protein phosphatase 2B (PP2B) regulates the basolateral inwardly rectifying potassium channel Kir4.1/Kir5.1 in the distal convoluted tubule (DCT). Application of tacrolimus (FK506) or cyclosporine A (CsA) increased whole-cell Kir4.1/Kir5.1-mediated K+ currents and hyperpolarized the DCT membrane. Moreover, FK506-induced stimulation of Kir4.1/Kir5.1 was absent in kidney tubule–specific 12 kDa FK506-binding protein–knockout mice (Ks-FKBP-12–KO). In contrast, CsA stimulated Kir4.1/Kir5.1 of the DCT in Ks-FKBP-12–KO mice, suggesting that FK506-induced stimulation of Kir4.1/Kir5.1 was due to inhibiting PP2B. Single-channel patch-clamp experiments demonstrated that FK506 or CsA stimulated the basolateral Kir4.1/Kir5.1 activity of the DCT, defined by NPo (a product of channel number and open probability). However, this effect was absent in the DCT treated with Src family protein tyrosine kinase (SFK) inhibitor or hydroxyl peroxide. Fluorescence imaging demonstrated that CsA treatment increased membrane staining intensity of Kir4.1 in the DCT of Kcnj10fl/fl mice. Moreover, CsA treatment had no obvious effect on phosphorylated NaCl cotransporter (pNCC) expression in Ks-Kir4.1–KO mice. Immunoblotting showed acute FK506 treatment increased pNCC expression in Kcnj10fl/fl mice, but this effect was attenuated in Ks-Kir4.1–KO mice. In vivo measurement of thiazide-induced renal Na+ excretion demonstrated that FK506 enhanced thiazide-induced natriuresis. This effect was absent in Ks-FKBP-12–KO mice and blunted in Ks-Kir4.1–KO mice. We conclude that inhibition of PP2B stimulates Kir4.1/Kir5.1 of the DCT and NCC and that PP2B inhibition–induced stimulation of NCC is partially achieved by stimulation of the basolateral Kir4.1/Kir5.1.


Corresponding author : email@example.com Introduction : Autism is a lifetime developmental disability that determines with sever problem in social relations, communication and behavior. Regarding social interaction difficulties of these children and weakness of social skill interventions in creation of motivation. In this study we tried to examine effect pivotal response treatment method on social skill of autistic children. Material & Methods : In this randomized control trial (RCT) study, according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, 30 autistic participants (6 to 11 years old) that matched based on age, gender and mean length utterance, from especial clinics of Hamedan's autistic persons selected and placed randomly in one of groups of intervention and control. Sessions was administered individually, lasting for 60 minutes and 2 days a week for 3 months. Both groups of children were tested before and after intervention by CCC (children's communication checklist) to assess social skill. Data analysis was done through descriptive statistics tests and covariance analysis. Results : Findings of study showed (according to covariance analysis between before and after of intervention in two groups) there is significant changes in social skill's ability in intervention group. Conclusion : The result of these study indicated effect of pivotal response treatment on social skills in autistic children, therefore this method recommended for speech and language pathologist. Key Words : Autistic children, Social skill, Pivotal response treatment


Purpose: We suggested that polymorphic differences affect the performance of cyclists. In this study we designed the experiment to identify collagen type I alpha 1  ( COL1A1) rs1800012 polymorphism in cyclists.  Methods: We isolated genomic DNA from buccal epithelial cells of 38 cyclists. We followed COL1A1 rs1800012 single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping technology protocol. We reported allele frequencies for rs1800012 gene variants of cyclists in our kohort.  Results: Our results indicated the differences of the distribution of COL1A1 rs1800012 SNP between cyclists. The numbers and percentages of CC, AC and AA genotypes for rs1800012 polymorphism that we obtained were 24 (63%), 13 (34%) and 1 (3%), respectively. The distributions of C and A alleles were counted as 61 (80%) and 15 (20%). Conclusions: There was difference in the genotype and also allele distribution between cyclists. Carriers of a C allele as compared to carriers of the allele A are more prone to cyclism. Larger homogenous cohorts may help clarify the association between COL1A1 rs1800012 polymorphism and physical performance.


The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) complex history, its current demographics, its
youthfulness as a country, and the fact that it is a region undergoing fast-paced change
make the issue of cultural identity particularly relevant and urgent to address in this
part of the world. This is especially true given the rapid spread of English in the
sphere of education and everyday life in recent years. The study investigates the
effects of global English on cultural identity in the UAE through the perspectives of
three distinct participant groups all working or studying at a large state university in
the UAE's capital, Abu Dhabi. Taking a hybrid approach in the form of a
phenomenological case study, the research draws on in-depth qualitative data from
open-response questionnaires, focus groups and the researcher's research journal.
Salient findings from the study revealed vastly differing views concerning English
and Arabic. While English was associated with the wider world, education, future
careers and global communication, Arabic was connected to religion, home life,
traditions and the region of the Middle East. Although the majority of Emirati
participants held positive views towards English, seeing it as important, necessary and
enabling, concerns were raised throughout the study over its dominance in multiple
domains, including education, and its effects on the Arabic language and local culture,
especially for the next generation. The study revealed Emirati cultural identities to be
complex, multifaceted and at times conflicting. Hybridity in identity construction was
prominent in terms of differentiated bilingualism, code switching and use of an
informal creative written language combining English and Arabic, known as
'Arabizi'. In terms of teaching preferences, native-speaker English teachers were
favoured, along with a marked interest in learning about western culture as part of an
English course. The majority of participants called for a choice between or
combination of English Medium Instruction (EMI) and Arabic Medium Instruction
(AMI) in Emirati Higher Education (HE). The findings led to four main
recommendations for future policy and practice. These include challenging
contrasting views of English and Arabic, promoting Arabic and local culture in
education, a greater acceptance of hybridity over purity, and providing a choice
regarding medium of instruction in higher education.


The treatment of colorectal cancer was chosen as a significant example for the history of the second department of surgery of Vienna University. Not only was a considerable part of relevant surgical techniques developed here, but also the problem of cancer has always been one of the traditional fields of activity of this institution. After the foundation of modern abdominal surgery by Billroth, his pupil Czerny performed the first combined abdomino-perineal resection of the rectum, whilst Gussenbauer, his successor, carried out the first curative resection of a carcinoma of the colon. Hochenegg performed the first sphincter-saving resection of the rectum and devised his pull-through procedure. Moreover, he started to organize the general fight against cancer by a campaign to enlighten the public. Denk continued these activities. He founded the cancer research centre and initiated the present activities in the prevention and therapy of cancer in this country.


The frequency spectral broadening of lower hybrid (LH) waves injected into tokamak plasmas is extensively analysed with reference mostly to experimental data from the ASDEX tokamak. The link between the magnitude of the pump spectral width and the degradation of the LH current drive efficiency (up to a factor of 2), pointed out in previous works, is explained. The experimental behaviour of LH power absorption is also well reproduced, even in situations when the access of the launched LH waves to the core plasma should be largely forbidden. Experiments are described that are aimed at determining whether parametric decay instabilities (PDIs) or scattering of LH waves by density fluctuations in the plasma edge are causes of the broadening of the LH pump frequency spectrum. Fluctuations emerge as the largely dominant process, while no signature of PDI processes is observed. Careful measurements of the density fluctuations in the ASDEX scrape-off layer plasma allow the analytical description given by Andrews and Perkins (1983) to be assumed as the appropriate model for LH scattering. Indeed, it supplies the correct magnitude for the frequency spectral width of the LH pump, and explains quantitatively, together with a ray tracing code, why the CD efficiency decreases with the broadening of the pump spectrum. It can also account for the observed LH power absorption coefficient


The unique characteristics of WSN such as coherent nature of traffic to base station that occurs through its many-to-one topology and collision in physical channel are main reasons of congestion in wireless sensor networks. Also when sensor nodes inject sensory data into network the congestion is possible. Congestion affects the continuous flow of data, loss of information, delay in the arrival of data to the destination and unwanted consumption of significant amount of the very limited amount of energy in the nodes. Therefore Congestion in wireless sensor networks (WSN) needs to be controlled in order to prolong system lifetime improve fairness, high energy-efficiency, and improve quality of service (QoS). This paper has mainly described the characteristic and the content of congestion control in wireless sensor network and surveys the research related to the Congestion control protocols for WSNs.


This study proposed the intervention ARIMA model as a way to forecast the KTX passenger demand. The second phase of the Gyeongbu high-speed rail project and the financial crisis in 2008 were analyzed in order to determine the effect of time series on the opening of a new line and economic impact. As a result, the financial crisis showed that there is no statistically significant impact, but the second phase of the Gyeongbu high-speed rail project showed that the weekday trips increased about 17,000 trips/day and the weekend trips increased about 26,000 trips/day. This study is meaningful in that the intervention explained the phenomena affecting the time series of KTX trip and analyzed the impact on intervention of time series quantitatively. The developed model can be used to forecast the outline of the overall KTX demand and to validate the KTX O/D forecasting demand.


The authors present the case of a displaced fracture of the coracoid process associated with a displaced fracture of the acromion, an undisplaced fracture of the clavicule and fractures of the first to fifth ribs. Open reduction of the coracoid process fracture was performed. At the last follow-up, the coracohumeral distance was restored (10 mm), but the acromiohumeral distance in the sagittal place was decreased (5 mm). The authors recommend open reduction of displaced fractures around the rotator cuff to limit the risk of impingement between the cuff and the coracoid process or the acromion.


This paper explores the distinction between normative and positive theoretical statements in a game theoretic context from a Bayesian perspective. Normative and positive theoretical statements are often confused in decision making research. The confusion results from some unique epistemological and methodological problems associated with cognitive behavior as an object for scientific inquiry. The confusion persists because of poor model validation procedures which are themselves further complicated by the confusion. The confusion greatly impedes the development of more useful prescriptions for and predictions of human decision behavior. From a Bayesian perspective which acknowledges the importance of incomplete information and imperfect theories of behavior, the confusion is unnecessary.


This study aims to find out the right lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolates to improve the common carp body's immune system against the attack of the Aeromonas hydrophila bacterium. Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) isolates were obtained from the organs of the common carp intestine. The study used a Completely Randomized Design consisting of four treatments and three replications. The treatment used was immersion of test fish for 24 hours in several isolates of LAB with a density of 108 cfu ml-1, namely A: without LAB isolate (control), B: isolate CcB7, C: isolate CcB8, D: isolate CcB15. Immersion is done three times with a frequency of seven days. Parameters observed included clinical symptoms, survival rate, red and white blood cell counts. The results showed the immersion of LAB isolate CcB15, namely Lactobacillus gasseri was most effective for increasing the body's resistance to Common Carp, which was demonstrated by mild clinical symptoms and faster recovery, high fish survival rate (83.33%), and number of cells the highest white blood count of 147,47x103 cell mm-3 (an increase in white blood cells by 38%).


Abstract The objective of this paper was to study in terms of various variables, which of the following environmental ethics approaches do high school students have namely, anthropocentric, ecocentric, eco-feminism and religious environment ethics. The study group comprised a total of 386 students from the Science and Anatolian high schools during the academic year 2013-2014. A convenience sampling method was used in the paper. The Kruskal Wallis H, Mann-Whitney test, ANOVA statistics and t-test were applied to the data. At the end of the paper, it was seen that the students had religious ethics approach the most and there was no significant difference between the variables which were used for analysis and the students' ethical attitudes towards the environment.


We have developed a high-throughput microalgae screening platform capable of analyzing biomass production at different light conditions with single colony resolution. Combinations of different light intensities and day-night cycles resulting in 64 light conditions for each of 64 culture compartments were implemented on a single microfluidic chip by blocking the light from a single light source with different black color dye concentrations and by switching between water and black color dye, respectively. Five microalgae colony-trapping structures in each culture compartment allowed single-colony resolution growth and biofuel-production analysis. Oil-producing microalgae, Botryococcus braunii, were successfully cultured and characterized using this screening system.


History and Objectives: Due to the importance of and different factors related to failure of pregnancy and since little is known about failure of pregnancy in Kashan, the present study was carried out in order to determine prevalence and factors related to failure of pregnancy in Dr. Shabihkhani hospital in Kashan in 1998. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study concerning 1077 pregnant women and failure of pregnancy including abortion and fetal death and its relationship with maternal age, paternal age, parity and previous abortion was carried out. Results: The prevalence of failure of pregnancy, abortion and fetal death was 13.8%, 11.4% and 2.4% respectively. High maternal age was the most prevalent factor involved with abortion (21.8% with the age of 40 or older and 10% with age group of 20-30). The prevalence of abortion and fetal death was increased with maternal age, paternal age, previous history of pregnancies (>6 time) and previous abortion. Conclusion: The parental age in the time of pregnancy, previous abortions and parity were significant factors in failure of pregnancy. Further studies on the factors related to failure of pregnancy are recommended.


This article examines how the dichotomy of the colonizer/colonized was elastic, but sustained by people's everyday existence in the Japanese colony by examining experiences of Okinawan migrants in colonial Taiwan. While Taiwanese struggled to become 'Japanese' by mastering Japanese language and practicing Japanese customs in their daily lives, Japanese migrants in Taiwan also tried to become 'Japanese' in distinguishing themselves from the colonized subjects. Although Okinawan people were legally categorized into 'Japanese' and enjoyed some privileges such as a colonial bonus for public officials, 'Okinawans' were seen as the 'other Japanese', and were likely to be marginalized in the Japanese community. Thus, the micro-politics of 'becoming Japanese' and 'distinguishing from Taiwanese' was critical to their everyday lives. On the basis of my own oral interview records of the former migrants from the Yaeyama Islands, which sent a number of migrants to Taiwan in the 1920s and the 1930s, this article examines why they migrated to colonial Taiwan, and in what way they struggled to become the 'colonizer' in their daily lives. This article demonstrates colonial modernity matters not only to those who were 'colonized' in the Japanese empire, but also to the Japanese colonizer. Indeed, colonial modernity matters on the point that the boundary between the 'colonizer/colonized' was produced and re-produced at different political fields in the empire.


The yellow garden spider, Argiope aurantia Lucas (Araneae: Araneidae), is widespread in North America, whereas the Florida garden spider, Argiope florida Chamberlin & Ivie (Araneae: Araneidae), is restricted to scrub habitats in the southeastern USA. Both orb-weavers occur syntopically in native oak scrub at the Archbold Biological Station in Highlands County, Florida. We hypothesized that female spiders of both species might have a high degree of dietary niche overlap because their orb-webs are located near each other, despite the fact that they may differ in body size and web characteristics. We located 180 side-by-side pairs of mature A. aurantia and A. florida, and assigned them at random into 3 treatment groups of 60 pairs each. Argiope aurantia in group 1 were more heavy-bodied and longer legged than A. florida. In group 2, the orb-webs of both species were hung at the same height aboveground, but A. aurantia webs were larger with fewer sticky spirals than those of A. florida. Over the course of 5 d, the 2 spider species in group 3 captured almost the same number of aerial arthropods (80 for A. aurantia; 76 for A. florida). We identified most prey (94%) to genus or species. Dietary niche overlap at the ordinal level was extensive (70%), but it shrank dramatically when calculated at the generic/ species level (20%). We concluded that not only were A. aurantia consuming substantially larger prey than A. florida, but also that they were feeding on different kinds of aerial insects moving through gaps in oak scrub.


A novel periodic substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) leaky-wave structure using TE20 mode transmission line (TL) for millimeter-wave antenna applications is proposed and studied in this paper. The electric field distribution and dispersion properties for TE20 mode SIW - TL is first studied and presented. Based on the current distribution of the TE20 mode, elliptical slots are periodically embedded on the surface of the SIW-TL, which not only achieves backward to forward continuous beam-steered boresight radiation, but also maintains good TE20 mode transmission. Two half-wavelength slots are etched on the bottom of SIW, which successfully excite TE20 mode in TL. For experimental verification, a periodic TE20 mode SIW-TL leaky-wave antenna is fabricated. The measured and simulated results are in good agreement. The measured -10 dB bandwidth, peak gain, beam scanning range is 25.5-33.8 GHz (28.0 %), 15.4 dBi and 50° to -18° (backward to forward), respectively. It demonstrates a simple structure and good travelling wave properties with wide bandwidth, high gain, and good radiation performance, which is suitable for 5G millimeterwave application.


Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. We recently demonstrated that expression of doublecortin-like kinase DCLK1, also called DCAMKL1, tend to increase as the liver condition advances from normal to cirrhosis and HCC. A significant increase in the number of DCLK1+ cells is observed in patients who develop low-grade cirrhosis to dysplastic regenerative nodules. DCLK1 is a putative intestinal stem cell marker that is overexpressed in cells with tumor-initiating properties and regulates tumor growth and tumor-suppressor miRNAs. Therefore, we investigated the role of DCLK1 in HCC. Methods: Normal human hepatocytes (NHHs) were cultured in Matrigel containing Hepato-STIM media supplemented with epidermal growth factor. The NHH-derived 3D spheroids were analyzed for expression of phenotype markers and their ability to form tumor in immunodeficient mouse model. Cultured hepatoma cells (Huh7.5) were transplanted into the flanks of athymic nude to generate HCC-like tumor. The tumors were treated with PLGA nanoparticles (NPs) containing siRNA against DCLK1 (siDCLK1-NP) or scrambled siRNA (siSCR-NP) for two weeks. The tumor growth was monitored and cancer-related molecular markers in these tumors were analyzed after euthanizing the animals. Results: The NHH-derived 3D spheroids exhibited eccentric perinuclear staining of DCLK1 in most cells at early stages (2-3 weeks). However, asymmetric ductules associated with the spheroids lacked DCLK1 expression. Upon further growth, heterogeneous hepatic cell lineages appeared in the spheroids. The presence of hepatoblasts was characterized by co-staining of α-fetoprotein (AFP) with CK19. Other cell populations showed DCLK1 expression or the presence of cytoplasmic/membranous CK19. A number of cells in the spheroids were negative for CK19, AFP or DCLK1 whereas a few cells were positive for human albumin. Transplantation of these spheroids in the dorsal flanks of immunodeficient mice exhibited metastatic tumor development at multiple sites. The small cuboidal morphology, Alb- phenotypes, and presence of sporadic human Alb+ cells in the tumors suggest that most cells possessed undifferentiated characteristics. These tumors were highly enriched in DCLK1+ cells located near vascular areas. The treatment of Hu7.5-derived tumors with siDCLK1-NP resulted in a significant reduction in DCLK1 expression and concomitant decrease (∼60%) in tumor volume, whereas tumor growth was unaffected in the control animals treated with siSCR-NP. Conclusions: These observations indicate that hepatic DCLK1+ present in the early stages of spheroids may possess stem-like properties. DCLK1 appears to regulate tumorigenic behavior of hepatocytes and its down regulation leads to inhibition of cancer growth. Thus, DCLK1 is likely to be a novel target for HCC treatment. Citation Format: Naushad Ali. A putative stem cell marker, doublecortin-like kinase (DCLK1), is involved in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4902. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4902


Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease characterised by autoantibody production, complement activation and deposition of immune complexes in tissues and organs. Its pathogenesis is still unknown but recent studies reveal the biological and clinical relevance of altered microRNAs (miRNAs) expression in SLE – in serum, peripheral blood (PB) monocytes, T- and B-cells. The aim of our study was to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of PB expression levels of miR-146a and miR-155 in SLE patients. Materials and methods 40SLE patients according to the 1981 ACR criteria were included in the study. miR-155 and -146a expression levels in whole PB samples were determined by PCR (SYBR Green technology) and 2-∆∆Ct method was used for analysis. 32 healthy donors were usedas controls. SPSS v20 was used for ROC curve and Spearman correlation analysis. Results ROC curve analysis showed that the expression levels of miR-146a (AUC-0.711, p = 0.002) in PB better discriminate SLE patients from HCs with 82.5% sensitivity and 56.2 % specificity in comparison to miR-155 (AUC-0.691, p = 0.005, 77.5% sensitivity and 50.0% specificity). Diagnostic accuracy did not improve much when combination of the studied miRNAs was used in multimarker ROC curve analysis (AUC-0.716, p = 0.002, 82.5% sensitivity and 56.2% specificity). miR-146a and miR-155 showed statistically significant correlation with diagnosis (rs = 0.363 and 0.330, respectively) and age (rs = 0.239 and 0.366, respectively). miR-155 showed also correlation with the presence of secondary Raynaud syndrome with Spearman correlation coefficient 0.250. Conclusions Our data showed that the expression levels of miR-146a and miR-155 in PB could be used as diagnostic biomarkers for SLE in Bulgarian patients but larger study is needed to confirm these results. Acknowledgement The study was supported by Grant 53/2014 funded by Medical University – Sofia, Bulgaria.


Cocoon formation by cat flea larvae was directly related to the quantity of eggs or yeast consumed. Larvae consuming either 1-3 eggs or 0.25-1.0 mg of yeast developed as naked pupae or formed incomplete cocoons. Third instar cat flea larvae fed upon naked pupae and pupae within partial cocoons, but complete cocoons protected pupae from cannibalism. First and second instars did not attack pupae. When larvae were provided with a carpet fiber for protection, a greater number of fleas successfully developed to the adult stage.


The messages in this document come from professionals immersed in the real world. We know that our global community can and should provide equitable standards of decent wellbeing for the whole of the world's population, but this is not the current reality. As social workers, educators and social development practitioners, we are working every day with life at its extremes, witnessing the highs and lows of human capabilities and behaviour. We recognise that, for many people, the opportunities for social mobility and full realisation of their potential are beyond their own efforts; family inheritance and place of birth (be it locality, community or country) and access to resources are determining factors for many. We are also aware that being born into some communities makes self-improvement personally challenging and immensely difficult. We are, therefore, realistic about social limitations whilst optimistic about human potential. The global commitment to respect for human dignity and rights is at the centre of our work, but we live the reality of social injustice. Our experience and research tells us that people, systems and the way we exist together can change for the better. Together, we can create a better world. This conviction is the driving force behind our efforts in establishing The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development. This process is being driven by the 3 main global bodies representing social workers, social development practitioners and educators: the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) and International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW). (For more information on the partner organisations and The Global Agenda see Appendices I and II).


Strain can be used as an alternate way to tune the electronic properties of graphene. Here we demonstrate that it is possible to tune the uniform strain of graphene simply by changing the chemical vapor deposition growth temperature of graphene on copper. Due to the cooling of the graphene on copper system, we can induce a uniform compressive strain on graphene. The strain is analyzed by Raman spectroscopy, where a shift in the 2D peak is observed and compared to our ab initio calculations of the graphene on copper system as a function of strain.


The increase in air temperature in urban regions in relation to neighbouring rural areas is known as the 'heat island effect'. This study mapped the distribution of the heat island of São Paulo, Brazil, and compared three sample areas. Mortality and morbidity data were collected to assess the role of the excess temperature. A correlation was found between the intensity of the heat island and annual mortality rates associated with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The analysis of daily mortality data and air temperature data, however, led to the conclusion that, despite evidence of the heat island's influence on mortality and hospital admissions, there is no specific temperature increase pattern that could be considered as the main cause of health risks. Cultural and biological adaptation may play an important role in the health of the populations of tropical cities.


This article outlines and explores the arguments in favor of and in opposition to the establishment of sub-national human rights institutions (such as state and local human rights commissions, ombudsmen and the like) in nations that already possess national human rights institutions. This analysis will be based on an application of prior research findings in the broader field of administrative decentralisation as tailored to the particularities of human rights implementation. Where relevant, the article also examines the implications of institutional type for decentralisation, as well as the implication of different attributes of the relevant jurisdiction. The article concludes by setting out the circumstances under which the establishment of sub-national human rights institutions will be more or less advantageous.


This paper examines the effects of the structure of the system on the composability of Generalized NonInterference (GNI). It is proven that in a system constructed from GNI secure components, the only possible interconnection that can cause the system not to satisfy GNI occurs when two components are composed with feedback. We also presen,t necessary and sufJicient conditions for the composition of GNI secure components to yield a system that is GNI secure. The Theorems are then used to provide a procedure to the system designer to construct a GNI secure system from GNI secure components. We also investigate reasons behind the composability of Restrictiveness and n-Forward Correctability. bt is shown thut these properties compose because they eliminate one of the conditions thut causes the composition of GNI secure components to fail.


Abstract Light and temperature demands for photosynthesis and growth of two benthic diatoms from Potter Cove, a shallow bay in King George Island, South Shetland Islands (Antarctica), were determined in laboratory cultures. The species investigated were Gyrosigma subsalinum var. antarctica and the Antarctic endemic Odontella litigiosa. The algae exhibited different light requirements for growth and photosynthesis. G. subsalinum was adapted to low light conditions, with a high light utilisation coefficient (α) and low saturating photon irradiances for photosynthesis and growth (~25 μmol m−2 s−1 and 11 μmol m−2 s−1, respectively). Photosynthesis and growth in O. litigiosa were saturated at a photon irradiance of ~100 μmol m−2 s−1. Both benthic diatoms exhibited extremely low upper survival temperature (UST, 5–7 °C) and growth only occurred over a narrow range from 0 and 7 °C. Optimal temperature for growth (0 °C) was slightly lower than optimum temperature for photosynthesis (5 °C). The results suggest that G. subsalinum is well-adapted to the low light and constant low temperature conditions present in water depths below 10 m where it occurs. In contrast, O. litigiosa requires more light and is able to tolerate the higher temperatures typical of shallow waters and tide pools. The northern distribution limit of G. subsalinum is the 4 °C summer isotherm, i.e. at the northern boundary of the Antarctic region. In contrast, O. litigiosa could potentially also occur in the sub-Antarctic region up to the 7 °C summer isotherm.


We report on an all-electrical measurement of the spin Hall effect in epitaxial Fe/InxGa(1-x)As heterostructures with n-type (Si) channel doping and highly doped Schottky tunnel barriers. A transverse spin current generated by an ordinary charge current flowing in the InxGa(1-x)As is detected by measuring the spin accumulation at the edges of the channel. The spin accumulation is identified through the observation of a Hanle effect in the voltage measured by pairs of ferromagnetic Hall contacts. We investigate the bias and temperature dependence of the resulting Hanle signal and determine the skew and side-jump contributions to the total spin Hall conductivity.


The objective of this work was to evaluate the germination of seeds of 22 half-sib progenies and two cultivars of Passiflora edulis Sims f. flavicarpa Degener and submit 6 of these genotypes to different times of soak. Two experiments were carried out. The first experiment was set up on an entirely randomized design, with four repetitions, and each genotype was considered as a treatment. In the second experiment, the same experimental design was used, in a factorial 6x4 (genotype x time of soak), with four repetitions. In both experiments, each group of 50 seeds was considered as an experimental unit. In the first experiment, after 28 days, germination percentage and emergency speed were evaluated. After 45 days of survival the percentage, total plantlets and root length, plantlets height, number of leaves and total dry mass of plantlets were evaluated. In the second experiment, after 28 days, the same variables from the first experiment were evaluated, except survival percentage and number of leaves. The seed germination percentage and the emergency speed are not influenced by the different times of soak, but there is effect of plant genotype, indicating that these characteristics can be used for selection in genetic improvement.


: This research paper gives you a useful and abstract view and knowledge of What exactly Location Intelligence does to help evolve and indulge Business Intelligence. This paper makes you familiar with the role information Technology/ Database Systems plays which provides different aspects and assets with the Digital world using various innovative technologies and tools. Advocates of information technology approaches argue that the real value of IT is that it provokes innovative changes in Corporate Intelligence. Moreover, there is very little research that is concerned with studying the ways in which IT supports Location Intelligence under the tree of Business Intelligence (BI). The prospect and scope of the respected subject is very vast and redundant. Thus, the paper highlights the basic features and functionalities of location intelligence in business & geographical environment. the paper concludes the major contributions and abstract view of IT helping business world to thrive and achieve more compatible and fruitful results and enhancement.


The NADP(+)-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase from Thermococcus litoralis has been crystallized by the hanging-drop method of vapour diffusion using an ammonium sulfate and PEG mixture as the precipitant. The crystals belong to the monoclinic system and are in space group C2 with unit-cell dimensions a = 142.7, b = 202.0, c = 125.8 A with beta = 113.1 degrees with a hexamer in the asymmetric unit. T. Litoralis, a hyperthermophilic organism, belongs to the family of Archaea and has a maximum growth temperature of about 370 K. The glutamate dehydrogenase isolated from this organism has a half-life of 2 h at 373 K and a comparison of this structure with that of other GluDH's from hyperthermophilic organisms and from mesophiles will contribute to an understanding of the molecular mechanisms which underlie thermostability.


We examine the 1914-1918 creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as a form of the ultimatum game. The negotiations among the Serbian Cabinet and the yugoslav Committee representatives of the Habsburg Souths Slavs from 1914-1918 exemplify three versions of this game. The first version is a typical (rational choice) type of the ultimatum game in which the receiver is satisfied with any offer by the Proposer. The second version is an instance of behavioral game theory. When the Proposer gives an unfair offer, it provokes an emotional reaction in the receiver who will reject it at the cost of harming themselves. We observe this behavior in the emotional behavior of frano Supilo, a Croat and one of the leaders of the yugoslav Committee. The third version of the behavioral ultimatum game can be observed in the behavior of Serbian Prime minister nikola Pašić who opposed any concessions to the yugoslav Committee, thus giving an ultimatum to the Croat side to accept the Serbian offer or remain with nothing, which was harmful to the Serbian side, too. This example is important because it produces two conclusions. first, historical games are often a mixture of several versions. Second, Proposers, too, can have an emotional reaction and give an offer that can hurt themselves. This aspect of the ultimatum game is less mentioned because it is difficult to simulate in experiments.


The information about reproductive biology, especially embryo development of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) generated from naturally fertilization is lacking. In the present study, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) was applied as an alternative way to produce the elephant embryos. The fibroblasts derived from ear skin of Asian elephant and rabbit were used as the donor cells and rabbit oocytes were used as the recipient cytoplasm. The objectives of the study were 1) to find the optimal conditions for fusion and activation by using electrical pulses (experiment I) and 2) to investigate the in vitro development of cloned Asian elephant in comparison to clone rabbit embryos (experiment II). Enucleation was accomplished by aspiration of the first polar body and the metaphase II plate together with a small amount of cytoplasm. The donor cells were transferred into the perivitelline space of the enucleated oocytes. In experiment I, sixty-one of elephant-rabbit reconstructed units were fused by electrical pulses E1 (3.2 kV/cm, 3 pulses, 20 μs) and sixty-nine units were fused by E2 (2.0 kV/cm, 2 pulses, 20 μs) in 0.3 M mannitol with 0.1 mM Ca2+ and Mg2+. The fused units were activated by using the same electrical pulses and incubated in activation medium for 1 h. Subsequently, the activated embryos were cultured in B2 medium containing 2.5% fetal calf serum and the developmental rate was observed daily for 7 days. The results showed that the fusion and cleavage rates of elephant-rabbit cloned embryos fused and activated by E1 were significantly higher than E2 (p<0.05). Electrical pluses program E1 was selected for further investigation in experiment II. The fusion and activation rated of elephant-rabbit units displayed significantly higher than rabbit-rabbit units (p<0.05). However, by comparison of cloned embryo development between elephant- and rabbit-rabbit units, the development from cleavage throughout the blastocyst stage of elephant-rabbit cloned units was similar to those of rabbit-rabbit units. In conclusion, fusion and activation protocol of E1 is suitable for elephant-rabbit SCNT and the elephant nuclei could be reprogrammed and developed to blastocyst stage in enucleated rabbit oocytes. The present study provides the fundamental knowledge for further investigation of conservation and therapeutic aims, including cloned elephant embryo development in vivo after transfer, rescuing valuable elephant and establishment of elephant embryonic stem cells.


During the 2 years since the start of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the scientific world made an enormous effort to fight against this disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has high transmissibility. Advancements in vaccine and treatment strategies have reduced both the hospitalization and mortality rates. However, the virus has shown its ability to evolve and evade from our COVID-19 combating armamentaria by the most common evolution mechanism—mutation. Diagnostic testing has been the first line of defense following the identification of the causative agent. Ever since, the scientific community has developed nuclei acid-based, antigen-based, and antibody-based diagnostic tests, and these testing methodologies are still playing a central role in slowing down viral transmission. These testing methods have different sensitivity and specificity and could be optimally used in areas facing different challenges owing to different level and conditions of COVID-19 outbreak. In this review, we discuss these testing methodologies as well as the considerations on how to apply these diagnostic tests optimally in the community to cope with the ever-changing pandemic conditions.


A slight modification in the starting equation of the author's earlier model (Ananthakrishna and Sahoo, ibid., vol.14, p.699, 1981) and the use of method of averages leads to expressions for the average dislocation density and the average velocity. The average velocity varies as the square root of the dislocation density. A new creep law is derived which is expected to hold for crystals with diamond structure. It is applied to creep in Si, giving good agreement with experiments. The creep law is cast into a new form in terms of new scaled variables-time and strain scaled with respect to their values at the point of inflection. The scaled creep law is shown to be independent of both temperature and stress for reasonably small initial densities.


Wear characteristics of Nylon and acetal pinions against steel gears for different pitch line velocities was studied with a power circulating gear test rig under unlubricated condition. Specific wear rate was measured as a function of tooth number, module, tooth width and total revolution. The worn tooth surfaces were examined with a profile projector. The Nylon pinion showed lower specific wear rate than the acetal pinion. However, the Nylon pinion was fractured at high tooth loads, whereas the acetal pinion exhibited a steady wear behavior. The wear characteristics of Nylon pinion varied significantly with the Pitch line velocity. Wear occurred most severely at the tooth tip and the region immediately below the pitch line of pinion. The dominant wear mechanisms were adhesion and abrasion.


Abstract Motivation The Pacific is the world's most aid‐dependent region, yet available data suggest aid projects are less effective on average in the Pacific than elsewhere in the developing world. Purpose This article examines the most likely explanations for lower aid project effectiveness in the Pacific. Explanations include poor governance, restricted levels of political freedom, poor economic performance, isolation, and small populations. Methods and approach Three approaches to causal mediation analysis are used to identify which explanatory variables best explain why aid projects are less effective in the Pacific. Aid project effectiveness data come from a multi‐donor dataset of individual aid projects. Data on potential explanatory variables comes from a range of international datasets. Findings All three causal mediation approaches point to the isolation of many Pacific countries, alongside comparatively small populations, as being the main impediments to project effectiveness. These findings hold even with a suite of project traits being controlled for and within an analysis in which all the key country variables of interest are controlled for. Policy implications Project effectiveness in the Pacific appears to be primarily constrained by variables that cannot themselves be shifted (the region's countries cannot readily be made less remote or more populous). Improved project effectiveness in the Pacific will require donor practice to carefully adapt to the region's context. A structured process of donor learning will be needed.


Metastatic melanoma carrying BRAF mutations represent a still unmet medical need as success of BRAF inhibitors is limited by development of resistance. Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) is a key enzyme in NAD biosynthesis. An extracellular form (eNAMPT) possesses cytokine-like functions and is up-regulated in inflammatory disorders, including cancer. Here we show that eNAMPT is actively released in culture supernatants of melanoma cell lines. Furthermore, cells that become resistant to BRAF inhibitors (BiR) show a significant increase of eNAMPT levels. Plasma from mice xenografted with BiR cell lines contain higher eNAMPT levels compared to tumor-free animals. Consistently, eNAMPT levels are elevated in 113 patients with BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma compared to 50 with localized disease or to 38 healthy donors, showing a direct correlation with markers of tumor burden, such as LDH, or aggressive disease (such as PD-L1). eNAMPT concentrations decrease in response to therapy with BRAF/MEK inhibitors, but increase again at progression, as inferred from the serial analysis of 50 patients. Lastly, high eNAMPT levels correlate with a significantly shorter overall survival. Our findings suggest that eNAMPT is a novel marker of tumor burden and response to therapy in patients with metastatic melanoma carrying BRAF mutations.


The aim of this Bachelor's thesis was to create a web-based program for learning Estonian cases. This learning program should fit from elementary school to high school pupils, and also for foreigners, who want to learn the Estonian language in depth. During the creation of this program for learning cases, some of the Estonian language resources were used together for the first time, such as the morphological analyzer and synthesizer, fiction corpus, frequency dictionary and a list of inappropriate words. In order to achieve this, some rules were made to sort out suitable sentences. The thesis also includes the explanation of the pre-processing algorithm and the learning program algorithm.


In order to understand the characteristics of PM₂.₅ pollution in the atmosphere of Chengdu southwest suburb, PM₂.₅ particles in Chengdu southwest suburb were collected and analyzed from March 18 to March 31st, 2015. The results showed that the daily average concentration of PM₂.₅ in the southwest suburb of Chengdu reached 121.21 µg · m⁻³, and the average daily concentration of 24 samples in 31 PM₂.₅ samples was over 75 µg · m⁻³, the daily excessive rate was 77%, indicating the PM₂.₅ pollution in the study area was serious in March. When studying the relationship between atmospheric and meteorological factors, it was found that there was a significant index correlation between PM₂.₅ concentration and atmospheric visibility, and it had a positive correlation with temperature and humidity, but the correlation was not obvious. NH₄⁺ (16.24%), SO₄²- (12.58%) and NO₃⁻ (9.91%) were dominant in PM₂.₅ The ratio of NO₃⁻/SO₄²⁻ was 0.77, which indicated that the pollution of stationary sources in the southwest suburb was more severe than that of mobile sources. Organic carbon (OC)/elemental carbon (EC) ratios were higher than 2, which indicated the existence of second organic carbon (SOC). Using OC/EC ratio method to estimate the concentration of SOC, it was found that the average concentration of SOC in the southwest suburb of Chengdu in March was 3.49 µ · m⁻³, and the contribution rate of OC was 20.6%, which showed that the main source of OC in the southwest suburb of Chengdu was primary discharge. The correlation analysis of OC and EC showed that the correlation coefficient reached 0.95, indicating that the OC and EC sources were similar and relatively stable, and there was a great impact of local source emissions on Chengdu southwest suburb in spring, and primary discharge played a dominant role, while the contribution of SOC to OC was relatively small, which was consistent with the SOC characteristics obtained by estimation. Using principal component analysis method to analyze the sources of PM₂.₅ in the southwest of Chengdu, it was found that the main pollution sources of PM₂.₅ in southwest suburb of Chengdu were coal burning and biomass burning, secondary nitrate/sulfate, soil and dust, vehicle emissions, electronic production source, and mechanical processing source.


Animation technology is a powerful platform in mass media, communication and education. Progressive developments in technological tools together with e xpansion of knowledge and skills have resulted in a n increase in variety, as well as production speed of modern anim ation products. Research has shown that animation pare increasingly used in education at different levels and subject areas. Art design teaching, gradually d evelop its powerful function, and promote the continuous devel opment of art design disciplines, also promote the school of art design teaching, scientific research ability and ed ucation efficiency enhances unceasingly, developmen t to provide more professional talents for the society. Areas su ch as research methods, the role of supervisors, re search subject trends, and presentation of outcomes are evaluated and recommendations are made to enhance the quality of training to ensure that graduates are fully qualifi ed, and can in turn utilize animation as an educati onal tool in other subject areas.


Using two-dimensional echocardiography (ECHO), the authors examined within one week preceding right-sided catheterization of the right ventricle (RV) 44 patients. Of three tested ECHO techniques for calculation of right ventricular volumes and/or function the best correlations were obtained by the method of evaluation of area-length of the right ventricle from two orthogonal projections (apical 4-cavity and subcostal with visualization of the outflow portion of the RV). The following correlations were assessed: telediastolic volume--r = 0.831, telesystolic volume--r = 0.815 stroke volume--r = 0.810 and ejection fraction (EF)--r = 0.752 (p less than 0.001 for all correlations). The tested method enables us at the same time to screen at least existing right ventricular dysfunction (sensitivity 0.68; specificity 0.82). In the presence of tricuspidal insufficiency (TI) increase in right ventricular function occurs which may mask its existing failure (dependence of EF on the mean pressure level in pulmonary artery was proved only in patients without TI--r = 0.594). We assume that information on right ventricular function is important not only in diseases affecting primarily the right heart but also in advanced stages of left-sided failure. Follow-up of the natural course of the disease and the effect of provided treatment by the non-invasive ECHO method is thus useful not only in research but also in clinical practice.


We explore how to control the dynamical instability of a quasi-one dimensional (1D) stationary state Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) consisting of fixed $N$ atoms with arbitrary time-independent external potential and atomic scattering length. The dependence of the perturbed solutions on the velocity field, external potential, condensed atom number, and the initial perturbations is demonstrated analytically, that shows the stability, instability and undetermined stability of the system. Some sufficient conditions on the stability and controlling criteria to the instability are established. We take a BEC held in an optical lattice potential as an example establishing the stability regions on parameter space and illustrating the scheme for controlling instability. The results contain the known stability assertions for the lattice potential case and agree with the recent experimental findings qualitatively.


Abstract Blends of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and polypropylene (PP) are highly incompatible because of large differences in polarities and high interfacial tensions. On one hand, PP is added to TPU to improve TPU's thermal stability, chemical properties, mechanical properties (modulus, strength and hardness) and processing performance and to reduce TPU's cost. On the other hand, TPU is blended with PP to improve PP's properties (e.g. abrasion, flexibility, tear strength, shock absorbing capabilities, impact strength, adhesion and paintability/printability). Earlier works in polyurethane/organoclay nanocomposites, PP/organoclay nanocomposites and TPU/PP blends were studied. In our experimental work, both ester and ether based TPU nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending using 3 wt-% Cloisite 10A (organically modified montmorillonite clay) as the nanoscale reinforcement and blended with PP with/without PP-graft-maleic anhydride as the compatibiliser. Blends of nanoclay filled TPU/PP were evaluated for dynamic mechanical properties such as storage modulus E′, loss modulus E″ and dissipation factor tanδ.


Interaction of ten different lipopolysaccharides (LPS) with 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene yielded quantitatively yellow dinitrophenyl derivatives (DNP-LPS) to show the presence of substituents with free amino group. The DNP-LPS samples were degraded with 1% acetic acid, and after removal of lipid A precipitates the supernatants were separated on a Sephadex G-25 column to give coloured polysaccharide, oligosaccharide and monomeric fractions monitored at lambda DNP = 365 nm. The coloured materials, including DNP-derivative of lipid A, were dephosphorylated with hydrofluoric acid followed by identification of the released DNP-amines by thin layer chromatography (TLC) on silica gel. Subsequently, the dephosphorylated materials were hydrolysed with hydrochloric acid followed by TLC analysis. The approach allowed to detect, locate and identify the substituents with free amino group within the LPS molecules. Moreover, two types of core structures within LPS preparation from one strain were discovered for five microorganisms.


Radio frequency (RF) wave propagation in a bounded plasma (cylindrical shape with a large diameter of 45 cm) produced by a planar, spiral antenna was investigated under divergent and convergent magnetic field configurations. The measured excited magnetic field amplitude and the phase were examined based on helicon wave characteristics, and were consistent with the computed results using the Transport Analyzing System for tokamaK/Wave analysis by Finite element method (TASK/WF) code. The wave propagation region was broadened (focused) in the radial direction with increasing distance from the antenna under the divergent (convergent) field.


OBJECTIVE
We have identified a SNP within the seed-binding region for miR-502 in the 3'-UTR of the SET8 gene that codes for a methyltransferase for histone H4. SET8 methylates TP53 and thus regulates cell proliferation and genome stability. This study is to investigate the role for this SNP and its interaction with the TP53 codon 72 SNP in the age of onset of breast cancer.

METHODS
We conducted a case-only study of 1, 110 breast cancer cases. PCR-RFLP was used for SNP genotyping. Ages of onset of breast cancer among different genotypes were analyzed using SAS software.

RESULTS
Our analysis revealed that the SET8 CC and TP53 GG genotypes were independently associated with earlier age of onset of breast cancer in an allele-dose dependent manner. Moreover, individuals with both SET8 CC and p53 GG genotypes developed cancer at age of 47.74 years, compared with 54.55 years for individuals with both SET8 TT and TP53 CC genotypes.

CONCLUSIONS
miR-502-binding SNP in SET8 may modulate SET8 expression and contribute to early development of breast cancer either independently or together with the TP53 codon 72 SNP.


This paper examines while finding progressive steps of Al-Zaytun boarding Ma'had to the development of international schools. The findings were obtained after a research complex mechanisms as well as all the inflexibility of protocol when interviewing with A.S. Panji Gumilang. Results of the study showed, basically schools should be able to read reality as well answer the challenges of the times, so that modernization in some parts had to be done, such as ownership, financing, management and vision and orientation. Keywords : Modernisation of  Pesantren, Ma'had Al-Zaytun.


To establish the genesis and transformation of motives in different versions of the Buryat epic texts about Geser, for the first time in a comparative typological aspect, a plot about a heroic battle is analyzed. The similarities and differences in the motive fund of one plot in different local traditions are determined. From the perspective of the main goal of the study to identify the initial motive fund characteristic of the epic tradition of the Mongol peoples, it is relevant and significant to highlight the variation of motives in the local tradition. The static nature of the event series in the invariant of the motives of the fight and victory in the Ekhirit-Bulagat version shows the presence of one main variant of the motive for the fight with the enemy: the traditional fight. The use of variants of the motive of traditional types of wrestling and archery and new variants of the motive: battle and group battles, fighting with the "force of the point", that is, with a dagger, a spear is revealed in the article. A comparative typological analysis of the motive fund in one plot in different versions establishes the preservation and transformation of the epic text, a feature of the regional variants of the national epic. The revealed discrepancies in the development of the plot about the heroic battle and the composition of the motivational fund show different stages in the addition of two versions of the heroic epic.


This paper explores the practical integration of simulation methods into software development processes. An automated integration testing approach is presented, which enables continuous virtual commissioning. For this purpose, an analysis of the current state of knowledge and the standards of software development is presented. This is followed by a case study on logistics order management, referring to a typical B2B application in the retail logistics sector. The proof-of-concept shows how the usage of a simulation model for automated integration testing and its inclusion into continuous-integration can help to ensure software quality, particularly for process-centered logistics applications. The implemented setup proves the feasibility of the approach, using standard open-source development tools, and a Python-based open-source simulation library.


A total of 62 low birth weight (LBW) neonates (29 boys and 33 girls) suffering from diarrhea in our neonatal intensive care unit were included in this period of intense observation. The mean age was 13.89 +/- 13.22 days and average body weight was 1,500.49 +/- 281.45 g. Severity of dehydration was assessed by the Fortin-Parent score. When the score was less than 8 (mild to moderate hypovolemia), oral rehydration therapy (ORT) was administered by feeding bottle or nasogastric tube hourly. Severely hypovolemic neonates needed intravenous rehydration; 52 neonates received ORT only using the World Health Organisation (WHO) formula; 58 neonates received either cow's milk-based or soy-based formula within 12 h after ORT began, and the rest within 24 h. Diarrhea lasted less than 1 day in 92% of cases. The regimen corrected hyponatremia and hypernatremia. Only two neonates developed mild asymptomatic hypernatremia. No child became edematous. Using the WHO solution, ORT was safely given to LBW neonates, sparing painful and potentially hazardous invasive techniques, and resulted in excellent outcomes.


A simple method to derive a nonlinear discriminant is to map samples into a high dimensional space F using a nonlinear function and then to perform a linear discriminant analysis. Using Mercer kernels, this problem can be solved without explicitly mapping into F. Recently, a powerful method of obtaining the nonlinear kernel Fisher discriminant based on Mercer kernels was proposed. Here, we present an extension of this method that consists in determining the optimum nonlinear receiver in the sense of the best second-order criterion, without setting it up. Mercer functions allow obtaining a closed form solution to this problem.


The paper considers the problem of stability in the systems with distributed and lumped parameters defined by linear differential equations partially and ordinary derivatives. The issue is resolved through the process of Lyapunov functions (functionals). The major problem of the method used is the development of the corresponding Lyapunov procedures. In most applications, such functionals were regularly formed intuitively, based on the first integrals,whole energy, and other factors. to make the solution of this problem more manageable, it has been recommended to modify the original higher-order differential equations into a system of first-order equations. When the order of higherorder partial differential equations is reduced by the introduction of additional variables for derivatives concerningspatial coordinates, the equations without time derivatives appear. To take such equations into account when they calculate the derivative of the Lyapunov function in view of the system under consideration, a modified method of Lagrange multipliers is used. The transition to partial differential equations of the first order collectively with thewriting of ordinary differential equations in the standard Cauchy form provides to use specific equations appropriately to develop the Lyapunov function as a total of integral and regular quadratic patterns, the sign-definiteness of which is checked by the Sylvester criterion, and to create a universal method to study stability in general for a broad class ofsystems with distributed and lumped parameters. The conditions for asymptotic stability, in general, are obtained. The results obtained in the article make it possible to study various complex engineering objects with distributed and lumped parameters. As an example, they take into account the stability of a rotary-type wind turbine operation with a load (pump and generator) and the elasticity of the shaft transmitting torque from the wind turbine to the load. The use of environmentally friendly wind turbines that can decrease energy expenses is an assuring area. A rotary-type wind turbine does not require a wind orientation system, it is safe, quiet, and contrary to propeller wind turbines can be installed near buildings and structures.


Objective: In this research, we present a framework which has been introduced for improving the efficiency of requirement change management in GSD environment. Method: In this research, we have used structured, semi structured research methods gained through interviews from reputed organization experts. This research is based on published reports, articles, and existing case studies.Experts reviews are used to perform the evaluation of this model. Result: This has resulted in a framework for improving the effectiveness of requirement change management in GSD environment. Conclusion: The framework provides a guideline to the team of developers regarding how frequently changes could be incorporated.


The attractiveness of seventeen products with high cellulose content to the subterranean termite Heterotermes tenuis (H.,1858), an important sugarcane pest in Brazil, was studied in sugarcane areas. Using TermitrapR baits, colonies of the insect were localized in the field. Seventeen products (dry sugarcane bagasse "in natura"-T1; sugarcane bagasse + shredded corrugated fiberboard-T2; sugarcane bagasse + refined sugar-T3; sugarcane bagasse + shredded corrugated fiberboard + refined sugar-T4; decomposed sugarcane bagasse-T5; decomposed sugarcane bagasse + shredded corrugated fiberboard-T6; decomposed sugarcane bagasse + refined sugar-T7; decomposed sugarcane bagasse + shredded corrugated fiberboard + refined sugar-T8; filtercake "in natura"-T9; filtercake decomposed-T10; grounded maize-T11; fresh and dry cowdung-T12; shredded corrugated fiberboard-T13; shredded paper towel-T14; pine sawdust-T15; used shredded corrugated fiberboard -T16; shredded cellulose-T17) were placed in previously recognized foraging points, and by applying a note scale of zero to three, according to the number of termites collected, the most attractive products were selected, in a decreasing order: T12, T11, T1, T6, T3, T16 and T17.


This paper investigates the effects of Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) on voltage stability of a power system. This paper will discuss and demonstrate how STATCOM has successfully been applied to power system for effectively regulating system voltage. One of the major reasons for installing a STATCOM is to improve dynamic voltage control and thus increase system load ability. This paper presents modeling and simulation of STATCOM in MATLAB/Simulink. In this paper A STATCOM is used to regulate voltage in a power system. When system voltage is low the STATCOM generates reactive power (STATCOM capacitive). When system voltage is high it absorbs reactive power (STATCOM inductive). The STATCOM more effectively enhance the voltage stability and increase transmission capacity in a power system. In this paper comparison is also performed between SVC and STATCOM under fault condition and it is shown that STATCOM have the ability to provide more capacitive power during a fault over SVC. It is also shown that STATCOM exhibits faster response than SVC.


Let $A=K[a_1,\ldots ,a_n]$ be a (noncommutative) solvable polynomial algebra over a field $K$ in the sense of A. Kandri-Rody and V. Weispfenning [Non-commutative Grobner bases in algebras of solvable type, J. Symbolic Comput. 9 (1990), 1--26]. This paper presents a comprehensive study on the computation of minimal free resolutions of modules over $A$ in the following two cases: (1) $A=\bigoplus_{p\in\mathbb{N}}A_p$ is an $\mathbb{N}$-graded algebra with the degree-0 homogeneous part $A_0=K$; (2) $A$ is an $\mathbb{N}$-filtered algebra with the filtration $\{F_pA\}_{p\in\mathbb{N}}$ determined by a positive-degree function on $A$.