This paper explores the variation of household travel expenditure frontiers (HTEFs) prior to CC reform in Jakarta. This study incorporates the variation of household income classes into the modeling of HTEFs and investigates the degree to which various determinants influence levels of HTEF. The HTEF is defined as an unseen maximum (capacity) amount of money that a certain income class is willing to dedicate to their travel. A stochastic production frontier is applied to model and explore upper bound household travel expenditure (HTE). Using a comprehensive household travel survey (HTS) in Jakarta in 2004, the observed HTE spending in a month is treated as an exogenous variable. The estimation results obtained using three proposed models, for low, medium and high income classes, show that HTEFs are significantly associated with life stage structure attributes, socio-demographics and life environment factors such as professional activity engagements, which is disclosed to be varied across income classes. Finding further reveals that considerable differences in average of HTEFs across models. This finding calls for the formulation of policies that consider the needs to be addressed for low and medium income groups in order to promote more equity policy thereby leading to more acceptable CC reform.


This study aimed to analyze factors associated with the unwillingness to prescribe pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) by health care professionals of specialized HIV/AIDS services. This is a cross-sectional study with 252 health care professionals in 29 specialized care services (SCSs) in HIV/AIDS in 21 municipalities in the state of Bahia, Brazil. The inclusion criterion was that the professional had worked for at least six months in the service. Sociodemographic, occupational, and behavioral data were collected using a questionnaire. Logistic regression was performed with an estimation of crude and adjusted odds ratio (OR) and respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). The unwillingness to prescribe PrEP was 15.2% (95%CI: 10.8-19.6). The factors associated with unwillingness to prescribe PrEP were non-prescription of HIV self-tests for key populations (adjustedOR = 5.4; 95%CI: 1.3-22.4) nor post-exposure prophylaxis (adjustedOR = 2.00; 95%CI: 1.3-3.1), location of the SCS in the state capital (adjustedOR = 3.9; 95%CI: 1.4-10.2), and SCSs without PrEP offer (adjustedOR = 1.7; 95%CI: 1.1-2.8); professionals who have not reported the need to conduct training and courses (adjustedOR = 1.3; 95%CI: 1.1-1.8), or training with more experienced professionals (adjustedOR = 1.8; 95%CI: 1.1-3.8), was associated with a lower proportion of unwillingness to prescribe PrEP. Our results indicate that health care professionals' contextual, organizational, and training factors can contribute to PrEP indication. We suggest expanding ongoing training in combined HIV prevention among health care professionals and increasing the availability of PrEP in health services.


A new nonlinear aeroelastic framework enabling to study the nonlinear aeroelasticity of corrugated/composite morphing wing with orthotropic materials has been developed in this paper. A shell finite element allowing to model flat wings has been adapted to model composite and corrugated panels, which enables to investigate influences of composite configurations. A corotational approach is implemented to consider the effect of geometrical nonlinearity resulted from large deformation corresponding to wing morphing. A cost effective unsteady vortex-lattice method is coupled with the structural model to consider the aerodynamics under the large deformations. A homogenization method of corrugated panel is also implemented to model corrugated panels as equivalent orthotropic plates. Verifications of individual structural, aerodynamic, and corrugated panel models are performed. The nonlinear aeroelastic analysis framework at steady-state condition is also verified by comparing with the linear aeroelastic solution and the nonlinear aeroelastic solution with the finite beam element formulation. This work demonstrates the feasibility of the methodology to numerically simulate such morphing wings.


In Japan, 41% of surgeries for breast cancer were breast conserving treatment (BCT) in 2000. The indications for BCT in the guidelines of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society (1999) are as follows: (1) tumor size is 3 cm or less, (2) image diagnosis indicates no sign of extensive intraductal spread, (3) cases with multiple tumor are excluded, (4) radiation therapy is possible, (5) the patient wants to receive BCT. The pathological negative margin is favorable in BCT; however, we estimate based on our study that only about 30% of all breast cancers can be completely resected by partial mastectomy. To extend the indications for BCT, the roles of postoperative radiotherapy, endocrine therapy and preoperative chemotherapy will be important. Patients with ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) have increased risk of distant metastases, and the presence of IBTR is an important predictive factor for distant metastases. When we discuss the indications and limits of BCT, we have to take the rate of IBTR into careful consideration.


The concept of a Grotian moment remains rather obscure in international law. On the one hand, it can refer simply to an empirical fact which galvanises the ordinary law-making processes, whether treaty-making or State practice, resulting in major shifts in international law. On the other hand, a Grotian moment might be seen as an event so significant that it results in an extraordinary shift in international law without full adherence to the processes for law-making. The former understanding has little legal significance, while the latter, which would be legally significant, would be controversial and without legal basis. Against this background the article discusses the intersections between peremptory norms and Grotian Moments. It does this by looking at the intersection between the two concepts as well as the intersection between Grotian Moments, on the one hand and, on the other hand, particular jus cogens norms. With respect to the former, for example, the article will consider whether the high threshold of peremptory status facilitates and hinders Grotian moments. With respect to the latter, the article will consider particular norms that have been said to have shifted on account of the Grotian moments, namely the right to use of force in self-defence as well humanitarian intervention.


The convenience of the spatial usages of the current urban houses is questioned during the COVID-19 (SARS Cov-2) pandemic conditions and especially lockdowns. In this paper, the characteristics of the traditional Turkish house will be reconsidered in the light of the behaviors and needs that arise during the pandemic. In this context, both physical space conditions and cultural habits will be mentioned. Primarily, it is aimed to focus on concepts such as working from home (home-office), feeling of spatial confinement, isolation, longing for nature, introverted lifestyle, stockpiling, providing hygiene and distance socialization. Spatial richness, divisions, sections, extensions, open and semi-open spaces in the Turkish house, as well as the strong relationship with nature will be explained in the focus of the solutions they offer to the current needs. They are supported with authentic examples from both rural and urban areas. Considering that the epidemics and pandemics generally cause changes in architecture, the features of systems that have been used for years that can adapt to new needs have been reintroduced. Thus, a contribution to the architectural discussions on the post pandemic housing is expected within the outcomes of this work. © 2022, Istanbul Teknik Universitesi, Faculty of Architecture. All rights reserved.


ABSTRACT Many leading Christian thinkers today accept evolution, but others worry that certain incompatibilities with Biblical doctrines concerning Adam remain. In Should Christians Embrace Evolution, theologian Wayne Grudem succinctly summarizes their main objections when he claims that adopting evolution leads to eight positions contrary to the teaching of the Bible. In response, I show that, regardless of whether evolution occurred or not, there is no incompatibility even when a consistently literal reading of the relevant Biblical texts is maintained.


Malaria as a disease has been identified in Egypt since ancient times. Remnant residual foci are still localized in two districts; Sinnuris and Faiyoum, Faiyoum Governorate. The work focused on socioeconomic and environmental factors affecting malaria infection. The results showed that malaria infection increase with the decrease of socioeconomic level of families, educational level of examined individuals and among unemployed or students. The infection increase among those lived in muddy or bad constructed house near the breeding places. The infection decreased significantly among who owned animal sheds and had large number of animals. The indoors use of 5% mala-thion did not affect the malaria infection.


In 1984 to 1985 an outbreak of poliomyelitis was found after a 20-year free period in Finland. The 10 patients with central nervous system disease were studied for HLA antigens. Additionally, two families with two and four affected siblings from the previous outbreak were analysed. The affection of the central nervous system seems not to depend on HLA-associated genetic factors.


Obstruction due to esophageal ulceration is usually caused by gastroesophageal reflux disease, malignancy, or eosinophilic esophagitis. In patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), another specific cause of obstruction should not to be forgotten. A 43-year-old HIV-infected man with low CD4 cell count and high viral load was admitted with odynophagia and dysphagia. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy showed severe esophagitis with strictures (●" Fig.1 and●" Fig.2), and normal histology on repeat endoscopy. Multiple dilations and subsequent high-dose proton pump inhibitors and ganciclovir did not improve the symptoms. Serology for herpes simplex virus and cytomegalovirus was negative. Meanwhile, viral loads and CD4 cell count improved, as a result of adjustment to antiretroviral therapy. Finally, a gastroenterologist who was experienced in HIV problems suggested the diagnosis of HIV-associated idiopathic esophageal ulceration (IEU). The patient was treated with liquid steroids (beclomethasone), which resulted in clinical and endoscopic improvement (●" Fig.3). In the early days of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome epidemic, gastroenterologists frequently encountered complications. IEU was typically seen in patients with uncontrolled HIV, as in the current patient. With increasingly wellmonitored HIV treatment, IEU has become rare. Current gastroenterologists and internists are less familiar with diagnosing IEU, which should also be considered in other immunocompromised patients (e.g. stem cell or renal transplantation) [1,2]. In addition, fragmentation of care may further delay proper treatment. In the 1990s, one group reported an IEU prevalence of 15% in HIV patients [3]. Typical symptoms were chest pain and odynophagia; dysphagia was less common. Histology is mandatory to exclude malignancy and infection. The treatment of choice is steroids, with response in 90% of patients [4–6]. With thalidomide, a success rate of 71% was reported [7]. The current patient was successfully treated with orally administered enema steroids (beclomethasone). The influence of better viral control with interventions other than steroids is unknown. No data exist comparing the latter. Budesonide inhalers, prescribed for eosinophilic esophagitis, might be newadditions to the armamentarium. In summary, early recognition of IEU is warranted in order to start treatment.


The paper considers possibilities to apply magnetic-abrasive machining method as one of the final operations for polishing flat  surfaces  of  silicon  wafers.  A  mathematical  model has  been  built  that reflects main principles of tool-work-piece interactions. A methodology has been developed that permits to give both qualitative and quantitative evaluation of material removal rate. Optimization of technological parameters for a 3905-model machine tool has been carried out with the help of a special software. It has been proved both in theory and experiments that applying magnetic and abrasive polishing of silicon wafers average value of planeness deviation corresponds to SEMI standards.


To enable context-awareness for many distributed mobile applications, an architecture is needed that supports the collecting of disseminated context attributes. After the structuring and storing of context, the interpretation and adaptation with reference to the current context and changes of context must be applied. These tasks are common to a large set of context-aware applications and can be centralized in a context-aware middleware. This article shows the approach called Context Directory, which helps mobile applications to achieve context-awareness. The software architecture and as a proof of concept four categories of context-aware features are described.


Novel surface resonances in doped semiconductor superlattices are shown to exist in association with depletion regions. Self-consistent calculations in a tight-binding formalism for the electronic states of a GaAs-AlGaAs structure exhibit resonance-like states in high-energy minibands. These resonances which extend throughout the superlattice, are strongly affected by applied electric fields, and are concurrent with significant changes in the local density of states. Calculated optical absorption curves show features related to surface resonances, making them accessible to experimental study.


SummarySeventeen breeding lines of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, and cv. Jack, from relative maturity groups 0.3–7.5 were assessed for their ability to undergo somatic embryogenesis. The goal of this study was to determine which lines had high embryogenic capacity. We also sought to understand the relationship between relative maturity and embryogenesis. Embryos from immature cotyledons were initiated on solid MS medium with varying levels of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Qualitative and quantitative measures of initiation, proliferation, differentiation, and maturation were recorded. The breeding lines differed significantly with respect to percent induction, number of embryos induced, and quality of induced embryos. After 1 mo, of proliferation, two early maturing lines, the control, Jack, and NK-5, had the best overall performance. High percent response of proliferating embryos was positively associated with lower maturity groups. Relatively high concentrations of 2,4-D (compared with that used in prolifcrating medium, e.g., 226 μM; 50 mg l−1) in the initiating medium reduced numbers of embryo clusters per cotyledon initiated and percent initiation, and the concentration of 2,4-D affected the proliferation of somatic embryos in a breeding line-dependent manner. The breeding lines differed significantly in the time to produce mature somatic embryos. There was a positive correlation between immature embryo quality and number of differentiated somatic embryos produced.


Orthopedic bone devices can be prepared from the shells of giant pearl oysters. Nacre is biocompatible and composed of calcium carbonate (aragonite). Direct welding of bone onto the biomaterial surface has been reported but poorly investigated. Nacre from Pinctada maxima was used to prepare plates, screws and rods. Five sheep were implanted in the first metatarsus under general anesthesia and killed 2 months later. Bones were harvested and fixed in formalin. Analysis was performed by nanotomography and histology after embedding in poly(methyl methacrylate). Polished sections were imaged by scanning electron microscopy then analyzed on a Raman microscope. Nanotomography and histology evidenced the newly apposed bone composed of thin trabeculae with a lower mineralization than mature bone. Erosion of the nacre was also easily observed. The bone/nacre interface presented a characteristic toothed-comb appearance. Raman spectroscopy identified the typical bands of aragonite (1091 and 711 cm−1) in the devices. At a distance from the interface, the bone matrix presented the typical bands of hydroxyapatite at 960, 1044 and 594–610 cm−1 with the amide bands of collagen at 1250 cm−1. At the bone/nacre interface, a phosphate-rich layer was observed without proteins. The newly formed bone units exhibited a band at 1075 cm−1 corresponding to a high amount of B-carbonate substitution. The carbonate/phosphate ratio decreased between new and mature bone, and crystallinity was improved. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the modifications of the bone matrix around the nacre implant and the direct apposition of bone without an interposing organic layer between the calcium carbonate (nacre) and the calcium phosphate (hydroxyapatite). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objective The role of the gut microbiome in the onset and development of atopic dermatitis (AD) has been postulated. Thus, we investigated the gut microbial compositions in infants with and without AD and compared the gut bacterial flora of their mothers. Methods The prospective and cross-sectional study participated in 44 pairs of mothers and children. We selected infants born via full-term normal vaginal delivery and no history of antibiotic or probiotic use and infection during the first three months of life. The 15 pairs, consisting of nine healthy infants and six AD infants, were included in this study. Fecal samples of mothers and infants were analyzed within 30 days of delivery and at 12 months, respectively. Microbes in the fecal samples of mothers and infants were subjected to analysis of 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Results The abundance of specific taxonomic groups was notably different, but microbial diversity and phylogenetic distances were not significantly different in either maternal or infant groups according to the presence of infant AD. A total of 12 species were selected as differential species in infants with AD compared to healthy infants. Six species were significantly different in the mothers of infants with AD compared to the mothers of healthy infants. Akkermansia muciniphila was only detected in healthy infants and their mothers. Conclusion The presence of Akkermansia muciniphila in mothers and children after vaginal delivery is associated with the onset and development of AD.


The purpose of this study is to determine and prove whether the variablesof the marketing mix significantly has influenced the consumer's decision making tobuy the product at PT. Griya Pagelaran Bogor. The population of this study are thenumber of unknown sampling determination using Maximum Likelihood estimationmethod by taking samples of consumers who their needs has met with theresearcher requirement as many as 150 respondents. The analytical method hasused is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using AMOS 21 program. The result ofthe research shows that 1) Product Variables have a significance level of 0.05 whichis 1,965 > 1,96 and value (p) probability 0,49 ≤ 0.05. Then Ha is accepted andsignificant effect. 2) Variable Price level of significance 0.05 is 2.023 > 1.96 and hasa probability of 0.43 which is below 0.05. And the value (p) probability ≤ 0.05 then Hais accepted and significant effect. 3) Place Variables significance level of 0.05 is2.251 > 1.96 and has a probability of 0.24 which is below 0.05. And the value (p)probability ≤ 0.05 then Ha is accepted and significant effect. 4) Promotion Variables0.05 level of significance is 3.435 > 1.96 and has a probability in accordance with therecommended. And the value (p) probability ≤ 0.05 then Ha accepted and significanteffect.


As new technology and services continue to feed the migration of networks from voice-based to data-based, multitudes of frames that required relatively small capacity DC feeds will be replaced with a relatively smaller quantity of digital devices but that require much larger capacity feeds. This dramatic shift in the power requirements of the network equipment is an opportunity for operators to explore new approaches in the distribution of DC power, as well as new methods in its deployment. It is also an opportunity to adopt methods that minimize the cost in infrastructure. The traditional method of establishing centralized DC power plants, in rooms located sometimes over a hundred feet away from the loads that they feed, is too rigid and costly for the needs of tomorrow's operators. This paper presents a more flexible and cost-effective approach, based on distributing multiple power frames, in close proximity to the loads, eliminating the need for secondary distribution bays.


Aluminium is a material commonly used for smaller boats and high speed crafts due to its low weight. Traditionally the hull construction is performed in a similar manner as that of steel ships, with longitudinal stiffeners fitted through cut-outs in the transverse web frames and welded to the shell plating. This requires much fitting and welding, making the production of hulls a slow and expensive task due to the manual labour needed. An alternative method for construction of aluminium hulls is to extrude panels consisting of both the shell plating and stiffener. These pre-fabricated panels are then welded directly to the transverse frames, thus reducing the manual labour related to hull production significantly. This thesis continues the work previously performed by Jon Englund on floating panels. He found that the stresses will increase significantly in a floating frame structure compared to that of a traditional, fixed structure. It was discovered that the main challenge of a floating frame structure is out-of-plane bending stresses occurring in the stiffeners webs due to frame deflections. By use of finite element analyses and analytical calculations, a compartment of the JumboCat 60 is analysed, and proposals for achieving acceptable stresses are given. The stiffener stresses mentioned above are found to be drastically reduced by increasing the bending- and axial stiffness of the transverse web frames. Local stress concentrations are found in the intersection between stiffener and web frame. Nonlinear finite element analyses show that substantial strain-hardening can be achieved in the stiffeners webs through cyclic loading. The loss of strength due to welding may thus be partly recovered.


Background Huntington's Disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative genetic disorder characterised by motor dysfunction, cognitive decline and psychiatric disturbance. Although HD is not traditionally thought of as an inflammatory disorder, it has been shown that there is a parallel immune activation in CNS and the periphery that can be seen throughout the course of the disease (Björkqvist et al, J Exp Med 2008). The cytokines that are increased earliest in the disease course are IL-6 and IL-8, both of which are involved in the innate immune response. Aims The aim of this study is to investigate whether components of innate immunity may serve as biomarkers of disease progression in HD. Methods/Techniques We investigated the potential of several components of innate immunity, such as S100 proteins and complement factors, as biomarkers in HD by measuring their levels in plasma from healthy controls, premanifest HD and early HD subjects. The plasma samples were obtained from the TRACK-HD study. Results/Outcome S100A12 and calprotectin were increased in moderate HD compared with healthy controls. Levels of clusterin, complement factors H, 3, 3a, 4, 4a, 5, 5a and 9, α-2 macroglobulin, and α1-antitrypsin did not differ between healthy controls and HD subjects. Conclusion Of the analytes tested in this study, none showed potential as a biomarker in early stages of HD.


【It is essential for gait analysis to know the distance information. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of start and finish distance on the gait variable during walking. Six adolescent participated in this study. Start condition was given by six conditions.: walking forward from (1) one step, (2) three steps, (3) five steps, (4) ten steps, (5) one step after standing walk, and (6) three steps after standing walk, before contacting the force plate. Stop condition was given by four conditions. : stop after (1) one step, (2) two steps, (3) three steps, and (4) ten steps, passing force plate. Repeated measured one-way ANOVA was utilized for data analysis, and the significant level was set at .05. The largest change from the difference of gait velocity exists between the variables of ground reaction force. There were no significant differences in spatio-temporal and posture(angle) variables, as well as ground reaction force variables with walking over the three steps. There were significant differences in gait velocity, knee angle at heel contact, vertical impulse and ankle angle at toe off in short distance.】


BACKGROUND
Lacerations of the anal sphincter or injury to sphincter innervation during childbirth are major causes of fecal incontinence, but the incidence and importance of occult sphincter damage during routine vaginal delivery are unknown. We sought to determine the incidence of damage to the anal sphincter and the relation of injury to symptoms, anorectal physiologic function, and the mode of delivery.

METHODS
We studied 202 consecutive women six weeks before delivery, 150 of them six weeks after delivery, and 32 with abnormal findings six months after delivery. Symptoms of anal incontinence and fecal urgency were assessed, and anal endosonography, manometry, perineometry, and measurement of the terminal motor latency of the pudendal nerves were performed.

RESULTS
Ten of the 79 primiparous women (13 percent) and 11 of the 48 multiparous women (23 percent) who delivered vaginally had anal incontinence or fecal urgency when studied six weeks after delivery. Twenty-eight of the 79 primiparous women (35 percent) had a sphincter defect on endosonography at six weeks; the defect persisted in all 22 women studied at six months. Of the 48 multiparous women, 19 (40 percent) had a sphincter defect before delivery and 21 (44 percent) afterward. None of the 23 women who underwent cesarean section had a new sphincter defect after delivery. Eight of the 10 women who underwent forceps delivery had sphincter defects, but none of the 5 women who underwent vacuum extractions had such defects. Internal-sphincter defects were associated with a significantly lower mean (+/- SD) resting anal pressure (61 +/- 11 vs. 48 +/- 10 mm Hg, P < 0.001) six weeks post partum, and external-sphincter defects were associated with a significantly lower squeeze pressure (increase above resting pressure, 70 +/- 38 vs. 44 +/- 13 mm Hg; P < 0.001). There was a strong association (P < 0.001) between sphincter defects and the development of bowel symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS
Occult sphincter defects are common after vaginal delivery, especially forceps delivery, and are often associated with disturbance of bowel function.


A rat dementia model with cognitive deficits was generated by synapse‐specific lesions using botulinum neurotoxin (BoNTx) type B in the entorhinal cortex. To detect cognitive deficits, different tasks were needed depending upon the age of the model animals. Impaired learning and memory with lesions were observed in adult rats using the Hebb‐Williams maze, AKON‐1 maze and a continuous alternation task in T‐maze. Cognitive deficits in lesioned aged rats were detected by a continuous alternation and delayed non‐matching‐to‐sample tasks in T‐maze. Adenovirus‐mediated BDNF gene expression enhanced neuronal plasticity, as revealed by behavioral tests and LTP formation. Chronic administration of carnitine over time pre‐ and post‐lesions seemed to partially ameliorate the cognitive deficits caused by the synaptic lesion. The carnitine‐accelerated recovery from synaptic damage was observed by electron microscopy. These results demonstrate that the BoNTx‐lesioned rat can be used as a model for dementia and that cognitive deficits can be alleviated in part by BDNF gene transfer or carnitine administration. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The problem of refusal of immunodiagnostic of tuberculosis has a significant public resonance in Russia, but it is not widely covered by research. The purpose of study is to determine causes of refusal of legitimate representatives of children to carry out measures for mass immunodiagnostic of tuberculosis and to suggest possible ways of adjusting this negative phenomenon. In a cross-sectional study, the results of a questionnaire survey of 269 respondents - legal representatives of children who systematically refused to carry out immunodiagnostic of tuberculosis, are being studied. Results. The main reasons for the refusal included distrust of quality of the test (31.6%), insufficient semantic motivation (23.0%), fear of adverse reactions, complications (17.8%), negative information received from Internet (13.4%) or mass media (12.3%). Denial of the problem of tuberculosis or its displacement into a remote social environment was demonstrated by 60.6% of respondents (95% CI 54.7-66.3). Respondents are characterized by a high percentage of people (46.8%, 95% CI 40.9-52.8) who have not undergone chest X-ray examinations for more than two years, as well as individuals whose children are not vaccinated with BCG (11.9%, 95% CI 8.3-16.0). Replacement of the regulated method of detection of latent tuberculosis infection by the method chosen by the respondent will allow to examine children about half (52.4%) of the respondents. However, that will require a change in regulatory framework of the Russian Federation. The greatest part of refusals from immunodiagnostic of tuberculosis is associated with defects in sanitary education, resulting in distrust of the quality of tests and insufficient semantic motivation for implementing tests. The respondents are characterized by denial of the problem of tuberculosis. The significant percentage of respondents demonstrate risky behavior regarding the transmission of tuberculosis behavior. They have not been tested for a long time on tuberculosis, and their children are not vaccinated with BCG. The acuteness of the problem can be reduced through greater flexibility in choosing the survey technique and activation of sanitary education of population.


The index weight coefficients were determined by comparing the analytic hierarchy process(AHP), the criteria importance through inter-criteria correlation(CRITIC), and the AHP-CRITIC mixed weighting method. The comprehensive scores of index components(echinacoside, salvianolic acid B, paeoniflorin, and ointment yield) of each group in the orthogonal test were compared to optimize the extraction process of Congrong Shujing Granules. The results showed that the AHP-CRITIC mixed weighting method scientifically optimized the extraction process. To be specific, the decoction pieces should be added with the 6-fold amount of water and extracted twice, 1 h each time. After three verification tests, the average mass fractions of echinacoside, salvianolic acid B, and paeoniflorin were 0.72, 9.34, and 5.92 mg·g~(-1), respectively, and the average ointment yield was 47.18%. As verified by the AHP-CRITIC mixed weighting method and the orthogonal test, the optimized extraction process of Congrong Shujing Granules was stable and feasible and could be applied to industrial production.


Successfully predicting field reliability of a new product before introducing it on the market decreases the risk connected to product development significantly. Being able to forecast the amount of complains that a product will encounter from customers in forehand, means that an organization in a better way can plan the resources needed both in the development of the product to reach the specified quality targets and in the future maintenance of the product. This thesis has investigated Volvo Group Trucks Technology's, a sub-division within Volvo Group henceforth referred to as GTT, ability to predict reliability for a new product in conjunction with a market introduction. With the help of reliability theory and a quantitative analysis of the received warranty claims for a specific product line the thesis performed a qualitative analysis of GTT's ability to predict the failure frequency for the trucks' first year on the market, by considering how GTT works with reliability prediction. Obviously, Volvo Group as a company will benefit the most of preventing the failures from occurring at all. Therefore the quantitative analysis of the warranty claims also aimed to provide as basis for future root-cause analysis to these failures, which is essential in a future initiative to preventing them from happen.
Early after its market introduction a new product often experiences child diseases. This shows as a peak when plotting the failure frequency for the product against time on market. Historically, when looking back on failure frequency data in conjunction with market releases, this trend can be seen at GTT as well. The initial period when this peak occurs is in this thesis referred to as the peak period. A majority of these failures are often connected to shortcomings in the manufacturing process, deviations from the intended usage of the product, misunderstandings of the customer requirements or failures in components delivered by suppliers. As long as these failure types exist, a product will not reach the intended reliability it's designed for. The reliability perceived by the customer is referred to as field reliability, which will not be equal to the design reliability for a new product until all quality issues related to these sources of variation are solved. When the product has reached this state the thesis refers to a stable condition or that the product is within the stable period.
GTT's methodology for predicting field reliability, proved to be accurate for the stable period but not being able to handle the initial peak period. In addition, the methodology proved to be capable of identifying trouble areas, which also reflected the analysis of the outcome of warranty claims. As the reliability growth testing within GTT mainly is focused on development failures and the variation connected to the market introduction is hard to simulate, GTT intentionally with the help of their reliability growth model only predict failures related to design reliability. Instead the predictions within the initial peak period are adjusted with a peak factor that is intended to compensate for the variation causing the discrepancies between the design reliability and the field reliability.
It can be concluded that the peak factor not is capable of compensate for the variation during the peak period. The authors identified various factors, which most likely affect the magnitude of the peak that is not taken into account when estimating the peak factor. These factors together with improvements in managing the failure frequency peak are further discussed in the thesis. Due to the time limit the magnitude of these factors' impact was not evaluated, but will be in GTT's interest to further investigate in future work of improving the ability to predict the reliability during the peak period and the management of the failure frequency peak.


The cyber-enabled ship (C-ES) is either an autonomous or a remotely controlled vessel which relies on interconnected cyber physical-systems for its operations. Such systems are not well protected against cyberattacks. Considering the criticality of the functions that such systems provide, it is important to address their security challenges, thereby ensuring the ship's safe voyage. In this article, we leverage the maritime architectural framework reference architecture to analyze and describe the environment of the C-ES. We then apply the Secure Tropos methodology to systematically elicit the security requirements of the three most vulnerable cyber–physical systems (CPSs) onboard a C-ES, namely the automatic identification system (AIS), the electronic chart display information system, and the global maritime distress and safety system. The outcome is a set of cyber-security requirements for the C-ES ecosystem in general and these systems in particular.


Flow diverters (FDs) for the endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms are effective for sidewall aneurysms, but their use at a bifurcation is problematic because FDs only partially cover the aneurysm neck and impede flow into a daughter branch; they are thus not employed routinely in this anatomy. eCLIPs was developed as a non-tubular implant to completely cover the neck of an aneurysm and serve as a coil retention device necessary for the adequate treatment of wide-neck bifurcation aneurysms. eCLIPs has shown some flow diversion effects in bifurcation anatomy but not equal to those exhibited by clinically accepted flow diverters in sidewall anatomy. A new generation of eCLIPs implant, the eCLIPs bifurcation flow diverter (eBFD), with higher metal coverage, was developed to achieve a similar flow diversion as a Pipeline Embolization Device (PED), a prototypical FD. Particle image velocimetry was used to capture the fluid dynamics and velocity reduction within silicone aneurysm replicas. A circulatory mimicking loop was developed to circulate the flow through the silicone models. All generations of eCLIPs implants had some flow-diverting effect, with increasing metal coverage density of the implant proportionately increasing the flow diversion effect. The eBFD, with a metal density of 35%, showed greater flow diversion than PED, with 30% metal density, for bifurcation anatomy. The eBFD showed similar reduction of flow in a bifurcation anatomy to PED in a sidewall, both sufficient to permit early thrombosis of the aneurysm. Thus, the eBFD can potentially provide sufficient flow diversion for the treatment of bifurcation aneurysms to avoid adjunctive coiling.


We screened lymphoma patients' serum samples against protein/antigen arrays, containing over 10,000 different human proteins, to identify disease-associated auto-IgG antibody interactions. This approach identified a humoral immune response to the HIP1R antigen in 40% of patients' sera (4/6 follicular lymphomas, 3/5 germinal centre [GC]-derived diffuse large B-cell lymphomas [DLBCL], 2/4 transformed DLBCL, 1/5 mantle cell lymphomas, 1/5 non-GC DLBCL and 1/5 peripheral T-cell lymphomas). HIP1R has also previously been identified as an autoantigen in colon cancer using the SEREX technique. HIP1R is one of two members of the Huntingtin interacting protein 1 family. Both HIP1R and HIP1 share significant sequence homology and are cytoplasmic proteins that interact with inositol lipids, clathrin and actin. Interestingly, both proteins can stabilize pools of receptor tyrosine kinases by inhibiting their trafficking to the lysosome for degradation, which may mediate affects on cell growth and transformation. HIP1 has been more extensively characterized in cancer and was originally implicated in hematological malignancy when it was identified as a platelet-derived growth factor β receptor fusion partner in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. HIP1 expression is elevated in lymphomas and can be induced by activated NF-κB while transgenic overexpression of HIP1 is associated with the development of lymphoid neoplasms. Interestingly, the increased severity of a murine Hip1/Hip1r double-knockout phenotype indicates that Hip1r can partially functionally compensate for the loss of Hip1, suggesting they have overlapping roles in vivo. Autoantibodies to HIP1 have been reported in 59% of human lymphoma sera, compared to 31% of healthy controls and showed higher titre in patients who had undergone remission than those that relapsed (Bradley et al. 2007. Cancer Res 67:8923). However, the region of HIP1 tested for this serum reactivity shares high sequence homology with HIP1R, and thus this previous study is likely to have identified autoantibodies to both HIP1 and HIP1R. In contrast the region of HIP1R on our antigen array does not share homology with HIP1, suggesting that HIP1R expression is also altered in lymphomas. Quantitative RT-PCR was performed for both HIP1 and HIP1R on a panel of lymphoma cell lines, normal tissues and purified B- and T-cell populations. Overall HIP1R was more widely expressed and at higher levels than HIP1 in both normal lymphocytes and lymphoma cell lines. The particularly high level expression of HIP1R in Burkitt lymphoma cell lines and increased expression in GC- compared to non-GC DLBCL is consistent with the high frequency of autoantibodies in the sera from patients with GC-derived lymphomas. Two commercial monoclonal antibodies were successfully validated for the detection of HIP1R, although only the BD Transduction Laboratories' antibody is raised to a region that lacks any significant stretches of homology with HIP1. Western blotting experiments have confirmed the expression of the HIP1R protein in lymphoma cell lines and showed a good correlation with mRNA expression levels. The BD Transduction Laboratories anti-HIP1R antibody recognises a formalin resistant epitope and studies are already underway to elucidate HIP1R expression patterns in lymphoma biopsies.


The level of inorganic anions of the Eleme River over the rainy and dry season periods was investigated. Results indicated that parameters like temperature, conductivity and total dissolved solids were higher during the dry than rainy seasons. Others like pH, phosphate, sulfate and dissolved oxygen had higher rainy than dry season values. Temperature at sampling station 1 had values of 26.9±1.080C and 25.2± 0.060C for the dry and rainy seasons, respectively. Total dissolved solids at sampling station 3 had values of 29.95±3.81 mg/l and 22.02 ±1.73 mg/l for the dry and rainy seasons respectively. The dry season values of these properties were significantly higher (P≤0.05) than the rainy season values. Phosphate gave significantly higher (P≤0.01) rainy than dry season values at sampling station 3. The values were 0.72±0.09 mg/l and 1.05 ±0.09 mg/l for the dry and rainy seasons, respectively. Most of the water properties investigated fell within internationally acceptable limits for water quality while some of the properties of the effluent gave high levels, which exceeded limits for disposal into water bodies. This indicates that the effluents might have contributed to the levels of these parameters in the river though season plays a major role too. Key words: Inorganic pollution, seasonal dynamics, petrochemical, effluent discharge. Tropical Freshwater Biology 11 (2002) 11-22


Experiments were performed on an autoperfused transparent frog muscle (m. cutaneus pectoris) with the purpose of elucidating possible mechanisms of functional hyperaemia. The diameter of a primary arteriole was followed before and after a K+-induced contracture lasting 20 s. The vasodilatation following this period of activity was expressed as the diameter change relative to the maximal possible diameter increase. The results emphasize adenosine as an important substance participating in vasodilatation in active skeletal muscle, its effect possibly being presynaptic (prejunctional) inhibition of sympathetic vasoconstrictor fibers to arteriolar smooth muscle (sympathetic uncoupling), in addition to the well-known direct effect (relaxation) on vascular smooth muscle cells. The presence of a strong resting sympathetic tone was demonstrated by local application of phentolamine (7.1 X 10(-5) M) that led to a large diameter increase. The purinoceptor blocking agent, 8-phenyltheophylline (8-PTP) invariably attenuated post-contraction vasodilatation, the adenosine transport inhibitor dipyridamole (10(-5) M) increased the hyperaemia response. Lack of sympathetic arteriolar tone during hyperaemia was demonstrated by the absence of a dilatory effect of phentolamine applied in the post-contraction period. Conversely, blockage of purinoceptors by 8-PTP during and after the contracture allowed sympathetic discharge to continue as verified by application of phentolamine, now leading to further vasodilatation. We suggest that presynaptic inhibition of sympathetic nerve endings by adenosine participates in vasodilatation in frog skeletal muscle.


Chinese classical poetry is the treasure of literary translation, and image is the soul of poetry. Poetry translation is the difficulty of literary translation. Images of poetry contain rich cultural connotation, which increases the difficulty of poetry translation. Nowadays intercultural communication becomes more and more important with the tendency of globalization, the focus of translation studies transfer to culture from language. Cultural relativism holds that intercultural communication includes assimilating the external culture and exporting local culture. Because image contains abundant culture, the image translation effects the readers' understanding of the original work directly. As a master of poetry translation, Xu Yuanchong's translation provides new perspective and new ideas for the translation of image. From the intercultural perspective, the definition and relationship of culture and translation is discussed, the image of poetry translation is classified and integrated, and the translation strategies of image is explored based on the poetry translation of Xu Yuanchong. This thesis aims to find a basic rule of image translation of Chinese classical poetry.


A modular superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) consisting of 16 elements was constructed and tested in a 220 V line for a fault current between 1 kA to 7.4 kA. The elements are made up of second generation (2G) YBCO-coated conductor tapes with stainless steel reinforcement. For each element four tapes were electrically connected in parallel with effective length of 0.4 m per element, totaling 16 elements connected in series. The evaluation of SFCL performance was carried out under DC and AC tests. The DC test was performed through pulsed current tests and its recovery characteristics under load current were analysed by changing the shunt resistor value. The AC test performed using a 3 MVA/220 V/60 Hz transformer has shown the current limiting ratio achieved a factor higher than 10 during fault of up to five cycles without conductor degradation. The measurement of the voltage for each element during the AC test showed that in this modular SFCL the quench is homogeneous and the transition occurs similarly in all the elements.


This article investigates some of the sound reasons why the IASB ( IAS/IFRS), FASB (SFAS) have jointly spur up recommendations and application for fair value measurements to assets and liabilities rather than the historical cost measurement principle. The research is focused on using a practical scenario to support the application of fair value accounting measurement. In this research paper, Volvo Trucks was selected as a good example of a segment of VOLVO AB to explain the advantages of fair value measurement. Volvo trucks being a profitable segment of the parent VOLVO AB measures its accounting records using the fair value in all of its active markets. The purpose of my research question is to ascertain the costing technique measurement records in the balance sheet of VOLVO Trucks with the guidance of the International Accounting Standards Boards (IASB) and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).


Recently, ultrastable glasses gained growing attention due to the revelation of the mechanism leading towards the understanding of glasses and glass transition in general. We report the adaptation of vapor deposition techniques to create ultrastable amorphous phases of Cu50Zr50 with different mechanical properties. Investigations using atomic force acoustic microscopy reveal a connection between an enhanced elastic modulus, its low potential energy and its homogeneity throughout the sample. Here, higher stability is always accompanied by high homogeneity. We relate the preparation conditions to the resulting mechanical properties, potentially opening a path to systematically engineer ultrastability in metallic glasses. Furthermore, we give a qualitative explanation for our results in the framework of the potential energy landscape, providing insights to the origin of ultrastability in metallic glasses in general.


Idiopathic cerebral calcification can be associated with a progressive neurologic disorder for which there is no known treatment. This report describes a patient with a familial form of this disorder presenting in middle age with progressive Parkinson‐like features along with spasticity, dystonia, and ataxia. Disodium etidronate, a bisphosphonate, produced a twofold improvement in the rate of his speech and gait, but did not affect his spasticity, dystonia, or ataxia. Quantitative analysis of cerebral calcification did not reveal any reduction in the amount of calcification, suggesting other possible mechanisms for this clinical improvement.


This paper presents the utruchirp software, a tool for measuring impulse responses and modelling room acoustics in real time through auralisation based on convolution using those responses. utruchirp is the result of concerns and needs emerging from the authors' ongoing artistic practice, exploring room scale acoustic feedback as material for live performance, installations, and fixed media pieces as utrumque. The paper provides the technical and, more importantly, the artistic details of the development of utruchirp and its features, highlighting those that are the direct result of insights from artistic work: Monitoring of all stages of measuring and signal processing, auralisations of the measurements from within the measurement process, and integrated round trip delay estimation. Finally, it points out future directions and features that are to be explored next, with an invitation for collaborative efforts, aiming to bring the sensibilities of musical instruments to our measurement tools.


The incorporation of exception handling strategies in mobile collaborative applications bring several challenges to middleware designers due to their intrinsic characteristics of openness, context-awareness, lack of structuring, asynchrony, and increased unpredictability. Publish-subscribe middleware systems are often referred as one of the most common solutions to support the construction of mobile collaborative applications. However, there is no systematic study dedicated to investigate to what extent publish-subscribe mechanisms provide proper support for introducing exception handling strategies into such mobile systems. This paper presents a case study where we have analyzed: (i) the problems emerging from the incorporation of application-specific error handling in a prototype context-aware mobile system from the health care domain, and (ii) the feasibility of a typical publish-subscribe middleware system, called MoCA, to implement the features of an exception handling mechanism tailored to specific requirements of mobile collaborative applications. This paper also discusses the suitability of existing mechanisms recently proposed in the literature to address the identified shortcomings


Background: Malignant primary cardiac tumors are exceedingly rare, and despite surgical exeresis or chemotherapy, their prognosis remains poor. Cardiac invasion by metastatic tumors, while more common, also entails an unsatisfactory outcome. This study aimed to review patients diagnosed with malignant primary and secondary cardiac tumors in a tertiary center between 1995 and 2022. Methods: Clinical data, echocardiographic, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance assessments of tumor location and morphology, histology, treatment, and survival were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Sixty malignant cardiac tumors were diagnosed: 17 primary (A) and 43 metastatic (B) tumors. A: the most common types were angiosarcoma (41%), undifferentiated sarcoma (23%), and fibrosarcoma (18%). Patients with primary tumors were younger than patients with metastatic tumors (41 ± 13 years vs. 57 ± 18 years, p = 0.001), with no significant gender difference. The most frequent presentations were heart failure (59%) and arrhythmia (23%). The most prevalent tumor location was the right heart chambers (71%), mostly in the right atrium (35%). 47% were submitted to tumor resection, and 29% received chemotherapy. The mortality rate was 82% with a median survival of 6.0 (interquartile range: 1.0–11.8) months after diagnosis (minimum of 12 days and maximum of 19 years). One patient with fibrosarcoma underwent heart transplantation and was still alive and well after 19 years. B: regarding metastatic cardiac invasion, the most common primary tumor sites were lung carcinomas (38%), thymomas (17%), and lymphomas (14%). Presentation with pericardial effusion was common (33%). The mortality rate was 72%, with a median survival of 3.6 (1.0–13.4) months (minimum of 7 days, maximum of 5 years). Conclusion: Diagnosis of metastatic cardiac tumors was more common than that of malignant primary tumors, both with a dismal prognosis. When radical exeresis is not possible, heart transplantation can be an option with a favorable outcome in carefully selected patients with sarcomas.


The soluble dietary fiber polydextrose (PDX) is a randomly linked glucose oligomer containing small amounts of sorbitol and citric acid and is widely used in the food industry. However, whether PDX can prevent and treat obesity in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice has not been directly investigated, and further studies are needed to better understand the complex interactions among PDX, adipose tissue inflammation and the gut microbiota. In the present study, PDX reduced body weight, fasting blood glucose (FBG), adipose tissue accumulation, adipocyte hypertrophy, serum total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels in HFD-fed mice. Moreover, PDX alleviated serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels and macrophage infiltration in epididymal adipose tissue and resulted in macrophage polarization toward the M2 phenotype. Gut microbiota analysis revealed that PDX promoted the growth of beneficial microbes such as Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, Alloprevotella, Muribaculum, Akkermansia, Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014 and UBA1819 in obese mice, which were negatively correlated with subcutaneous fat, epididymal fat, body weight, FBG, serum TC, HDL-C, LDL-C and LPS levels. Our results indicates that PDX can prevent and treat obesity in HFD-fed mice, specifically in alleviating glucolipid metabolism disorders and adipose tissue inflammation, which may be mediated by modulating the structure of the gut microbiota. Therefore, PDX may become a promising nondrug therapy for obesity.


The article generalizes experience in the restoration of vision by direct stimulation of damaged optic nerves after operations for pathological conditions of the chiasmal-sellar region (tumors of the chiasmal-sellar region, optochiasmic arachnoiditis, damage of the optic nerve in the bone canal) in 111 patients. The therapeutic effect was favourable in two thirds of the patients. Indications are determined for the use of the method in various types, duration, and severity of the disease. The use of the method with due regard for the determined indications increases the reliability, degree, and rate of restoration of vision in patients who underwent operation.


This research addresses the issues affecting e-Governance implementation in Bangladesh in consideration with a detailed usability analysis and directions for future development. Implementing e-Governance has always been a challenge either it is social, economical, or political. Besides this, there are many technological problems, which should be understood and met, so that a user-accepted e-Governance system emerges. This research provides a quantitative investigation of e-Governance implementation problems with emphasis on analyzing quantitative data gathered in a survey using structured questionnaires that was generated on the basis of our theoretical study. Based on these results we provide a clear conception about those problems, which should be considered at the time of implementing e-Governance services in developing countries like Bangladesh.


Background: In the context of the so-called unified airway theory, chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and asthma may coexist. The inflammation underlying these conditions can be studied through the aid of biomarkers. Main body: We described the main biological mediators that have been studied in pediatric CRS and asthma, and, according to the available literature, we reported their potential role in the diagnosis and management of these conditions. As for CRS, we discussed the studies that investigated nasal nitric oxide (nNO), pendrin, and periostin. As for asthma, we discussed the role of fractional exhaled nitric oxide (feNO), the role of periostin, and that of biological mediators measured in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) and exhaled air (volatile organic compounds, VOCs). Conclusion: Among non-invasive biomarkers, nNO seems the most informative in CRS and feNO in asthma. Other biological mediators seem promising, but further studies are needed before they can be applied in clinical practice.


Secord gives a dazzlingly detailed account of this scientific trench warfare and its social consequences. One ends up with a marvellous feeling for the major taxonomic enterprises in Darwin's younger day: mapping, ordering, conquering 'taming the chaos" of the strata. All of these of course had social and imperial ramifications; and Secord mentions geology's moral appeal (in supporting a divinely-stratified Creation) to a beleaguered elite intent on subduing the lower orders.Originally published in 1986.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


In addition to serving as an exceptional source of high-quality and balanced nutrients, egg-derived compounds exert numerous beneficial biological activities including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive and antimicrobial activities. This chapter will discuss and summarize the current knowledge on the antioxidant activity exerted by egg white components, such as ovalbumin, ovotransferrin and lysozyme, as well as from egg yolk, such as aromatic amino acids, carotenoids, phosvitin and phospholipids. Furthermore, the effects of cooking, thermal processing, storage and gastrointestinal digestion on their antioxidant activity, as well as the potential of producing antioxidant-enriched eggs, will also be discussed.


We have shown that geldanamycin (GDM), an antibiotic of benzoquinoid ansamycin group, inhibits DNA replication in cultured mouse lymphoblastoma L5178Y cells. Here we report that GDM selectively inhibited the expression of c-myc gene, proto-oncogene, along with suppression of DNA replication in L5178Y cells, which are consistent with our previous results that c-myc protein promotes cellular DNA replication. The significantly enhanced inhibition by GDM of DNA replication was observed, when the antibiotic was introduced at G1 stage prior to S phase of cell cycle. The results are in favor of the prospects that GDM inhibits DNA replication mainly at time of initiation, and that c-myc protein is essential for the initiation of cellular DNA replication. Furthermore, when c-myc expression was inhibited by GDM, the expression of p53 gene, the product of which may be another DNA replication protein, was stimulated in the tumor cells. Thus, GDM should be useful to investigate the molecular mechanism of DNA replication promoted by c-myc protein and also to distinguish the function of c-myc protein from that of p53 protein in DNA replication.


In order to take advantage of computer technology in clinical neurological research a coding system was devised for patients with convulsive disorders and behavior disordered children. The code sheets are filled in at the time of examination of the patient and this ensures that uniform data are obtained. For the most part, the system consists of graded scales. These cover most of the information which is routinely obtained in a clinical interview and examination. An effort has been made to assign qualitatively different phenomena to separate IBM columns so that direct correlations can be carried out between most of the columns without the need of prior sorting on specific items. The system deals specifically with information related to seizure patients and behavior disordered children but the basic outline is such that it can easily be adapted to any other neurological condition one may wish to study.


Developing an algorithm requires expressing it in some (formal) language. The respective language is usually understood to be textual (conventional programming language) or partly graphical (design languages, and languages in programming environments for children). As writing and reading are capabilities not to be presumed from preschoolers, many educators claim that confronting such young kids with algorithmic concepts is beyond their abstraction capability. This paper reports on an experiment with kindergarten-groups requiring them to discover simple algorithms without resorting to reading and writing. It clearly showed that limited capabilities of abstractions are not a hurdle at all, if the problems are posed in a way corresponding to the limited experience base of the children, and if solutions are small enough to be kept in memory and allow expressing themselves in other forms than writing.


Polymer and their composites are used in many engineering applications as an alternate of metals, because of the parameters such as low cost, lightweightness and durability. Hybridization is a process of mixing two or more similar or dissimilar materials. It increases the performance and efficiency. In this study investigation has been made on mechanical properties of HDPE polymer based hybrid composites fabricated from the effect of various synthetic fibers(SGF,PTFE,SCF), synthetic fillers(Silica, hydroxyapatite, zirconia) by melt mixing method using twin screw extruder followed by injection molding technique. The mechanical properties of the samples such as tensile test, flextural test were measured by universal testing machine. And the impact test was performed on izod impact testing machine. The results show that the tensile strength of hybrid composite TR-4 sample increases compared to other composites. Flextural strength of sample TR-6 shows highest flextural strength comparted to others. The impact strength increases when the filler materials 2% of zirconia and 2% of hydroxyapatite are added to composite material i,e is TR-6 sample.


Background: The role of cheering in home advantage in sports performance is unclear. As anti-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictive measures have prevented crowds from entering stadiums, analysis of the past two football seasons can reveal important details. Objective: This paper aims to compare the last two football seasons in Italy with the previous six, highlighting changes due to the absence of cheering. Methods: We compared the average percentages of points obtained in home matches from 2013 to 2019 with those in the timelapse 2019-2021. The same operation was performed with referee statistics, such as fouls, penalties, and cards awarded against home teams. To do this, we used Welch's t-test and percentage increases. Pearson and Spearman's correlations were searched between the percentages of points collected in home matches and total points earned from 2013 to 2021. Results: The average percentage of points collected by teams in home matches dropped by 8% (Welch's t = −4.3). The negative correlations between home collected points and total points in 2013-2019 timelapse have significantly diminished during the last two seasons (Welch's t = 6.2), approaching zero. Penalties against home teams have increased by 30% (Welch's t = 2.6), reaching 51.4%. Conclusions: This research provides statistical evidence supporting the crowd's impact on sports and refereeing performance in Serie A. However, our results also suggest that part of the home advantage is linked to factors independent of the audience. Future research can deepen the above phenomena from a theoretical-psychological point of view.


ABSTRACT: Increasing research attention to the ways that firms seek to influence the emotions of employees, consumers, and other stakeholders has not been accompanied by systematic attention to the ethical dimensions of emotion management. In this article we review and discuss research that informs the morality of influencing and regulating the emotions of others. What are the moral limits of the use of emotion as a management tool for shaping workplace behavior and influencing the thoughts and actions of consumers? Do the ethics of emotional labor and emotional appeals (e.g., in consumer advertising) depart from moral rules that apply in "non-emotional" contexts? To explore these questions we examine research on the means by which individuals' emotions are shaped and on the organizationally relevant consequences of individual emotional experience. We then discuss a number of potential ethical issues that are implicit or explicit in the organizationally sanctioned use of emotion management, incorporating existing literature in management and business ethics that has addressed the moral obligations of organizations in this context, and highlighting areas where there is yet work to be done. We conclude by discussing the implications of our analysis.


The image compression standard JPEG2000 proposes a large set of features, useful for today's multimedia applications. Unfortunately, its complexity is greater than older standards. A hardware implementation brings a solution to this complexity for real-time applications, such as Digital Cinema. In this paper, a decoding scheme is proposed with two main characteristics. First, the complete scheme takes place in an FPGA without accessing any external memory, allowing integration in a secured system. Secondly, a customizable level of parallelization allows to satisfy a broad range of constraints, depending on the signal resolution.


This paper presents the results and main findings of SemEval-2021 Task 1 - Lexical Complexity Prediction. We provided participants with an augmented version of the CompLex Corpus (Shardlow et al. 2020). CompLex is an English multi-domain corpus in which words and multi-word expressions (MWEs) were annotated with respect to their complexity using a five point Likert scale. SemEval-2021 Task 1 featured two Sub-tasks: Sub-task 1 focused on single words and Sub-task 2 focused on MWEs. The competition attracted 198 teams in total, of which 54 teams submitted official runs on the test data to Sub-task 1 and 37 to Sub-task 2.


Under the auspices of the Standing Advisory Group for Community Psychiatric Nursing Education, annual surveys of the leaders of the UK's post-registration courses for community psychiatric nurses (CPNs) have taken place since the 1987-88 academic year. In this paper, findings are reported from the 1997-98 survey. Thirty-two of the 39 course leaders running post-qualifying programmes for CPNs (English National Board course 812 or equivalent, and Specialist Practitioner courses) in the 1997-98 academic year responded to a nine-page postal questionnaire. Responses suggested that the majority of courses for CPNs are now offered at first degree level, with most students completing their programmes of study and clinical practice in one full-time academic year. Most courses appeared to include education in key areas of specialist content pertinent to contemporary CPN practice. Examples included: evidence-based psychosocial interventions; collaborative working with users of mental health services; inter-professional issues; cognitive-behavioural interventions; reflective practice and clinical supervision; and medication-related issues. Overall, however, courses for CPNs appeared to be characterized by considerable variations in specialist content. Possible explanations for this are offered, along with suggestions for future research.


The aim of this work is to test attractivity of different types of substrats in overwintering chambers for the common green lacewing species. Experiments were carriedout in France near of Angers (48°28'N, 00°33'E) during winter 1999–2000. Sheets and rolls of corrugated cardboard, and staw were used as substrats. Chambers were colonizedby a large numbers of Chrysoperla kolthoffi (NAVAS). The number of lacewings was two times greater in straw than in corrugated cardboard. The suitability of staw was confirmed. Only 5 Chrysoperla carnea s. s. (STEPHENS) were collected, This species seemed to overwinter in more ventilatedcavities than our confinedboxes. Only one Chrysoperla. lucasina (LACROIX) was found. Our device can already be used to improve the number of overwintering Ch. kolthoffi near the crops. In order to develop overwintering chambers as a proper tool for studing overwintering guildstructures further experiments are neededwith Ch.carnea, Ch. lucasina or other species.


The accuracy of high-end industrial equipment and the reliability of produced goods can be limited by dimensional drift phenomena. Examples are the life cycle stability of instrumentation for space missions and the tight requirements for measurement uncertainty in the integrated circuit semiconductor industry. Re-calibration intervals of metrology instrumentation are a relevant cost factor in production. Detailed knowledge of drift stability on various timescales from minutes to weeks is needed for materials and constructional elements, such as glued or bolted joints. We report on the development of an optical heterodyne interferometer concept for the investigation of dimensional stability. The contactless, double-sided optical scheme directly probes dimensional length changes of prismatic samples, whilst the balanced configuration provides common mode rejection of perturbations that act similarly on the measurement and the reference beam. For a detailed description of the optical scheme, see Ref. [1]. In a twin configuration, a second interferometer with similar beam paths is located in close proximity to the sample measurement interferometer. With a vacuum tube included, this second interferometer is considered to act as a refractometer for efficient in-situ correction of air refractive index fluctuations. Alternatively, angular degrees of freedom, such as sample flexure, may be accessed through the twin-configuration. Given a sampling rate larger than approximately 10 Hz, i.e. larger than the thermal expansion rate of typical sample materials (e.g. Zerodur, SiC), sudden intrinsic sample instability events should be observable and discriminated from the slower thermal drift behaviour of both sample and interferometer.


Wavelength-dependent point spread functions (PSFs) violate an implicit assumption in current galaxy shape measurement algorithms that deconvolve the PSF measured from stars (which have stellar spectral energy distributions (SEDs)) from images of galaxies (which have galactic SEDs). Since the absorption length of silicon depends on wavelength, CCDs are a potential source of PSF chromaticity. Here we develop two toy models to estimate the sensitivity of the cosmic shear survey from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope to chromatic effects in CCDs. We then compare these toy models to simulated estimates of PSF chromaticity derived from the LSST photon simulator PHOSIM. We find that even though sensor contributions to PSF chromaticity are subdominant to atmospheric contributions, they can still significantly bias cosmic shear results if left uncorrected, particularly in the redder filter bands and for objects that are off-axis in the field of view.


(1) Introduction: Several surgical therapy options for the treatment of pathologies of the long biceps tendon (LHB) have been established. However, tenotomy, as well as established tenodesis techniques, has disadvantages, such as cosmetic deformities, functional impairments and residual shoulder pain. This study presents the first clinical and structural results of the recently introduced loop tenodesis procedure for the LHB, developed to overcome these issues. (2) Methods: 37 patients (11 women, 26 men, mean age 52 years), who underwent loop tenodesis of the LHB were examined six months after surgery. For the clinical evaluation the Constant score, as well as the LHB score, were used, complemented by elbow flexion and supination strength measurements. The integrity of the tenodesis construct was evaluated indirectly by sonographic detection of the LHB in the bicipital groove. (3) Results: Both, the overall Constant score as well as the LHB score showed significant improvements six months postoperatively, as compared to the preoperative value. Fourteen patients (38%) presented an examiner-dependent upper arm deformity, although only five patients (13%) reported subjective cosmetic deformities. Both, flexion and supination strength were preserved compared to the preoperative level. In 35 patients (95%), the tenodesis in the bicipital groove was proofed sonographically. (4) Conclusion: The loop tenodesis of the LHB provides good-to-excellent overall clinical results after a short-term follow-up of six month. The incidence of cosmetic deformities was inferior compared to conventional therapy options (tenotomy and anchor tenodesis).