The article considers the level of physical development and functional state of cadets of the higher military educational institution, who are the team members of the National Army Academy named after Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi (Lviv) in the section of military pentathlon. The conducting research is significant for many reasons, like predicting and assessing the functional state of the cardiovascular system of servicemen, selecting to the sports section of military pentathlon, as well as rationally building routines of training, competitions and monitoring their functional status. Research aim is to study and determine the functional and morphological indicators that characterize the functional state and help to analyze the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Research methods: theoretical and methodological analysis and generalization of scientific and methodological literature; medical and biological methods (anthropometry, physiometry); methods of mathematical statistics. The research was conducted on the basis of the National Army Academy named after Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi in Lviv. The research was attended by cadets-athletes in military pentathlon – 18 members of the National Army Academy's team of different sports qualifications (5 Candidates Master of Sports, 8 First-Class Sportsmen and 5 Second-Class Sportsmen). Results. Servicemen-pentathletes have a high level of physical development and excellent performance. In the future, we plan to take a more comprehensive approach to determine the functional state of athletes in military pentathlon, as well as to study the changes in the body caused by various physical activities and the relationship of research indicators with exercise and competition efficiency. Conclusions. The analysis of specialized scientific and methodological literature has asserted that in the practice of military all-around sports to achieve a high result it is necessary an optimal condition of the cardiovascular and nervous systems, a high development level of speed, strength, endurance, aerobic and anaerobic capacity of athletes. At the same time, the issue of assessing the level of functional training of servicemen in this sport has not been studied enough. Military pentathletes have a high level of physical development, excellent heart function, the normotonic type, as well as above-average values of total physical performance (PWC170) and aerobic capacity, namely maximum oxygen consumption


Objective: To understand the domestic regional distribution characteristic of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) syndromes of rheumatoid arthritis(RA), and reveal the regularities of distribution. Methods: Related literatures of nearly 15 years were retrieved and summarized according to regions, in order to know the distribution regularities of TCM syndromes of RA in different regions. Results: The general distributions of TCM syndromes of RA were as follows: excess syndromes mainly included syndrome of accumulated dampness-heat, syndrome of blockade of cold-dampness, and syndrome of intermingled phlegm and blood stasis, and deficiency syndromes mainly included syndrome of deficiency of liver and kidney and syndrome of deficiency and cold of kidney qi. The distributions of TCM syndromes of RA in different regions were as follows: the main syndromes of RA in northeast China were basically the same with the nationwide, and the syndrome of deficiency and cold of kidney qi in this region was more than the other regions; the proportion of syndrome of accumulated dampness-heat in north China was apparently higher than that of the other regions of the country; the mainly syndrome of eastern China was syndrome of blockade of cold-dampness; the syndrome of intermingled heat and cold was common in central China in addition to syndrome of accumulated dampness-heat and syndrome of blockade of cold-dampness; in south China, the ranking of syndrome of deficiency of spleen and kidney and syndrome of phlegm-dampness blocking collaterals was at the very top compared with the other regions of the country; syndrome of blockade of cold-dampness occupied absolute advantage position in southwest and northwest China; the common syndromes in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions were deficiency of spleen and kidney, syndrome of deficiency of liver and kidney and syndrome of blockade of cold-dampness. Conclusion: The TCM syndrome distribution of RA in different regions was basically the same with nationwide, but there was an obvious regional difference.


This paper discussed the observation of uterine endometrium of 30 cases of women after the Norplant I subdermal implant was removed. The removal was requested by the women who experienced irregular menstruation which did not improve after 3 cycles of treatment. The duration of Norplant implantation ranged from 6 to 50 cycles. 77% had less than 4 years of implantation. Bleeding started on the 7th day at the earliest, and 140 days at the latest. The major symptom was spotting. When the uterine wall was scraped, little endometrium tissue came out. The glands were small and no secretion was observed. The change in endometrium was reflected in suppression of its development or unsynchronized development. Expansion of the blood vessels was the major cause of spotting. This was the only shortcoming of the Norplant implant which affected continuation and needs improvement. The observation of endometrium tissue also suggested that prolonged bleeding or spotting may give rise to endometrium infection. Medication to prevent infection should be prescribed for these users.


Kikuchi- Fujimoto disease (KFD) is an uncommon, benign self limiting condition, which presents as cervical lymphadenopathy in young women. Fine needle aspiration cytology can help in differentiating it from other disease like tuberculosis, SLE lymphadenitis and non hodgkin's lymphoma. We present a case of KFD diagnosed on FNAC in a twenty five year old woman.


Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), one of the human pathogens widely epidemic and transmitted among various groups of people in the world, often causes symptoms known as oral herpes or lifelong asymptomatic infection. HSV-1 employs many sophisticated strategies to escape host antiviral immune response based on its multiple coding proteins. However, the functions involved in the immune evasion of miRNAs encoded by HSV-1 during lytic (productive) infection remain poorly studied. Dual-luciferase reporter gene assay and bioinformatics revealed that Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp (DEAD)-box helicase 41 (DDX41), a cytosolic DNA sensor of the DNA-sensing pathway, was a putative direct target gene of HSV-1-encoded miR-H2-3p. The transfection of miR-H2-3p mimics inhibited the expression of DDX41 at the level of mRNA and protein, as well as the expression of interferon beta (IFN-β) and myxoma resistance protein I (MxI) induced by HSV-1 infection in THP-1 cells, and promoted the viral replication and its gene transcription. However, the transfection of miR-H2-3p inhibitor showed opposite effects. This finding indicated that HSV-1-encoded miR-H2-3p attenuated cytosolic DNA–stimulated antiviral immune response by manipulating host DNA sensor molecular DDX41 to enhance virus replication in cultured cells.


Abstract Simultaneous genetic evaluations for bulls and cows obtained by mixed model procedures with an animal model incorporating all numerator relationships for artificially sired Holstein cows in northeastern United States were compared with separate (Northeast) mixed model evaluations of cows and sires for predicting genetic evaluations of progeny from dam, sire, and maternal grandsire evaluations. Regression coefficients for progeny (322,104 daughters and 837 sons) evaluations on dam, sire, and maternal grandsire evaluations were for daughters: Northeast evaluations; .50, .37, and −.02 compared to theoretical coefficients of .74, .52, and −.13, and simultaneous evaluations; .61, .50, and −.09 compared to theoretical coefficients of .73, .52, and −.12. For sons, comparable regression coefficients were: Northeast evaluations; .08, .42, and .06 compared to theoretical coefficients of .33, .59, and .00 and simultaneous evaluations; .92, .46 and −.29 compared to theoretical coefficients of 1.11, .54, and −.31. Efficiencies of evaluation procedures expressed as ratios of actual to theoretical multiple correlation coefficients were for daughters: Northeast evaluations, .70/.93 = .75; and simultaneous evaluations, .88/.93 = .95; and were for sons: Northeast evaluations, .50/.64 = .78; and simultaneous evaluations, .85/.89 = .95. Northeast evaluations were 79 and 82% as efficient as simultaneous evaluations for daughters and sons, respectively.


Pyroglutamic acid is an endogenous organic acid and a metabolite in the γ-glutamyl cycle, involved in glutathione metabolism. Accumulation of pyroglutamic acid is a rare cause of high anion gap metabolic acidosis. There are multiple risk factors for pyroglutamic acid accumulation, such as chronic paracetamol use and sepsis. In this case report, we discuss how we came to this diagnosis, how it was subsequently managed and why it is an important consideration for critically ill patients with risk factors who are likely to end up in an intensive care setting. Pyroglutamic acid recognition and treatment could benefit patients in the critically ill population as pyroglutamic acid is a rare cause of high anion gap metabolic acidosis, which is likely under-recognised and easily treated. Inappropriate management of metabolic disorders can contribute to patient morbidity and mortality. Therefore, the recognition and appropriate management of pyroglutamic acidaemia could benefit patients with risk factors for its development in a critical care setting.


A novel fully automated method based on dual column switching using turbulent flow chromatography followed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry was developed for the determination of aflatoxin B1 , B2 , G1 , and G2 in corn powder, edible oil, peanut butter, and soy sauce samples. After ultrasound-assisted extraction, samples were directly injected to the chromatographic system and the analytes were concentrated into the clean-up loading column. Through purge switching, the analytes were transferred to the analytical column for subsequent detection by mass spectrometry. Different types of TurboFlow(TM) columns, transfer flow rate, transfer time were optimized. The limits of detection and quantification of this method ranged between 0.2-2.0 and 0.5-4.0 μg/kg for aflatoxins in different matrixes, respectively. Recoveries of aflatoxins were in range of 83-108.1% for all samples, matrix effects were in range of 34.1-104.7%. The developed method has been successfully applied in the analysis of aflatoxin B1 , B2 , G1 , and G2 in real samples.


Manufacturing systems are highly parallel and distributed processes which require a high level of guarantee in operation and safety. Its concurrent and non-deterministic nature makes its analysis and design very complex. These systems can develop through different states and as a consequence of its magnitude is possible that the system has states unconsidered during the design phases that lead it to an undesirable performance. According to the above in this paper we have made several contributions aimed in to developing a procedure for modeling and analyzing discrete event systems that integrate wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSAN) by using Colored Petri Nets (CPN) models, in order of to establish a method for designing plans to minimize the time sequence of tasks execution and to fulfil with safety requirements ensuring absence of locks, process overflows, and unwanted presence of mutual exclusion conditions on the use of shared resources. Additionally a minimum set of components is presented in CPN that can be used to analyze the behavior of these kinds of systems and verify their structural and behavioral properties.


Urokinase and streptokinase are commonly used thrombolytic agents for fibrin obstructed central venous catheters. Although proven to be efficacious, these two agents have the potential to induce systemic fibrin breakdown and hemorrhage. We report our initial experience with tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) for the treatment of occluded central venous catheters which failed urokinase. Of 25 incidents of catheter occlusion in 142 right atrial catheters, six failed to clear after an initial bolus dwell of urokinase. Five of these six catheters cleared following treatment with 2 mg/2 cc of t-PA with a mean of 1.5 bolus installations. The one catheter failure was due to catheter tip position and age of clot. No coagulation abnormalities or bleeding was observed. These data suggest that t-PA may be a safe, effective thrombolytic agent in the treatment of occluded central venous catheters.


how the presence of such a large proportion of nitrogen is produced, although knowing the small proportion of nitrogen which exists free in the blood of warm-blooded animals it seems probable that an actual metabolic process must be brought into play. But we may fairly conclude from these analyses that the presence of a large proportion of nitrogen in the mixture of gases contained in any viscus does not necessarily imply that the origin of that gas is the atmospheric air. If one can argue that what is the case in coldblooded vertebrata is probably true as regards warm-blooded animals it seems that we must reconsider our deductions concerning intestinal gases based on the fact of the predominating volume of nitrogen in both gastric and intestinal flatus; in other words, we have no right to assume that when we find nitrogen in about the same proportion as it exists in air that that nitrogen is the nitrogen of the air and that the other constituents have been altered by the peculiar nature of the enviroament,;in the stomach the oxygen being replaced by carbonic acid gas, and in the intestines by hlydrogen, carbon-dioxide, and marsh gas.


A total of ninety growing snails of mean weight 91.23 ± 2.4 g were used to determine the effects of partial or total replacement of local fish meal as a source of protein with less expensive, chicken offal in the diet of growing snails. Completely randomized design was used for the study. The feeding trial had four treatments, C 1 , C 2 , C 3 and C 4 in which fish meal fraction of the diets was replaced at 0, 50, 75 and 100% with chicken offal, respectively. The parameters taken were weight gain and feed intake. Feed conversion ratio, total feed cost, and cost per weight gain were calculated. The trial lasted for twelve weeks. Significant differences were not observed in the mean weekly feed intake of the snails in all the treatments. The mean weight gain in all the treatments was not significantly influenced by the inclusion of chicken offal in the diet (P > 0.005). Total feed cost reduced as the level of the chicken offal increased while the lowest cost/weight gain was observed in C 4 . The inclusion of Chicken offal in all the diets had no detrimental effect on the animals in all the treatments. Based on the present results chicken offal could replace local fish meal in the diet of growing snail up to 100%.


The writing of this paper, is in reference to my contribution in Can Governments Learn?, one of the books published by the International Evaluation Research Group. My immediate and first reaction was that it is of course always very nice to be asked to contribute for a distinguished audience. My second reaction was to ask myself when my essay in Can Governments Learn? was really written and what questions it dealt with; and perhaps even more, what was the answer to the question which constitutes the title of the book. The need to ask the latter questions had of course something to do with the answer to the first question, namely that the essay was written about 10 years ago. It was therefore obvious that the discussion in this book in a more technical sense had to be updated, but also had to take into account both some new empirical material and the discussion within a couple of intellectual fields. The title of this current paper implies several questions: to what degree politicians and administrators learn from evaluations, and also to what degree learning takes place among the evaluators themselves. These questions create a sort of strategic problem. Am I going to give the answer at the beginning of my paper or perhaps later? But perhaps I will compromise: I will start with a short version of the answer now, but elaborate on the answer later...


Estimation of covariance matrices is often an integral part in many signal processing algorithms. In some applications, the covariance matrices can be assumed to have certain structure. Imposing this structure in the estimation typically leads to improved accuracy and robustness (e.g., to small sample effects). In MIMO communications or in signal modelling of EEG data the full covariance matrix can sometimes be modelled as the Kronecker product of two smaller covariance matrices. These smaller matrices may also be structured, e.g., being Toeplitz or at least persymmetric. In this paper we discuss a recently proposed closed form maximum likelihood (ML) based method for the estimation of the Kronecker factor matrices. We also extend the previously presented method to be able to impose the persymmetric constraint into the estimator. Numerical examples show that the mean square errors of the new estimator attains the Cramér-Rao bound even for very small sample sizes.


In conditions of small-scale production of radio-electronic equipment cost reduction can be achieved through the optimization of technological processes (TP). Discusses problems in the formulation of optimization problems. It is shown that the dynamism, the limited, incomplete and ambiguous information available make traditional methods of optimization management of TP unsuitable for practical use. Topical question of the elaboration of models of governance, which reflect the dynamics of the TP, adapt to changing conditions, are operating under a limited amount of experimental data. The article shows that the problems in the setting and solving optimization problems of TP can be solved using apparatus of the theory of fuzzy sets, the solution is suboptimal. Suboptimal management models designed for model TP small-scale production. Models implement the proposed approach and is suitable for practical use.


Biochemical tests to detect B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) or N-terminal pro-brain BNP (NT-proBNP) are useful diagnostic methods for patients with possible HF. These tests are valuable prognostic predictors for the entire spectrum of HF disease severity. Therefore, the measurements of BNP or NT-proBNP taken along with conventional clinical assessments may assist clinicians in deciding treatment. The following review briefly summarizes the available information regarding the clinical significance of BNP and NT-proBNP.


The odor microclimate is formed by gaseous airborne components perceived either as an unpleasant smell or as a pleasant smell. Smells enter the building interior partly from outdoors (exhaust fumes - flower fragrance) and partly from indoors (building materials, smoking cigarettes - cosmetics, dishes). They affect the human organism through the olfactory center which is connected to the part of brain that is responsible for controlling people's emotions and sexual feelings: smells therefore participate to a high level in mood formation. Sweet smells have a positive impact on human feelings and on human performance. Criteria for odor microclimate appraisal are presented together with ways of improving the odor microclimate (by stopping odors from spreading within a building, ventilation, air filtration, odor removal by plants, deodorization, etc.), including so-called AIR DESIGN.


The role of women in the freedom movement is unique in Karnataka. Both in Pre-Gandhian period and during the Gandhian period, women participated very actively and sacrificed their lives for the cause of their motherland. The Gandhian era of freedom struggle in Karnataka began roughly from 1920. Gandhiji's visit to Belgaum in 1924 left everlasting impression upon the freedom fighters. They also participated in individual Satyagraha, salt Satyagraha and No Tax Campaign. women freedom fighters along with men fought for socio-economic values and to popularize democratic ideas. Queen Channamma of Kittur started an era of revolt against the British in India.


Background: Non communicable diseases are increasingly affecting urban slum people. This study was carried out by our institute at the behest of MOHFW, GOI, as a combined initiative with the Director of Health & Family Welfare Services, Karnataka State and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. The objective of the study was to estimate the prevalence of Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus among the residents of selected slums of Bangalore. To correlate the association of these morbidities with variables such as overweight/obesity. Methods: Cross-sectional study from October 2010-February 2011. Slums in and around the urban field practice area of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), Bangalore, India. One thousand three hundred and six (1306). Sampling method: All slums under BMCRI urban field practice area and few adjacent urban slums chosen at random. People aged more than 30years were pooled in by the local link health workers to the camps. A pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire was used. Blood pressure (Using sphygmomanometer) and random blood sugar (Glucometer) were measured. Hypertension was classified as per JNC VII criteria and Diabetes as per the ADA guidelines. Results: 1306 subjects participated at the survey. 255 were males and 1051 were females. Average age being 51.88+20 years. 209 (16%) subjects were using tobacco in any forms. 88 (6.7%) subjects had family H/O Diabetes and 46 (3.5%) had Hypertension in the family. 417 (31.92%) were found to be having Diabetes and 247 (18.9%) were diagnosed as hypertensives. 147 (11.2%) subjects were having both Diabetes and hypertension. Conclusions: The reason for high prevalence of the morbidities seemed to be lack of awareness regarding health care seeking and lack of compliance to treatment. Subjects with diagnosed morbidities were given health education and referred to higher center for further management.


A nonlethal form of multiple pterygium syndrome (MPS) was diagnosed prenatally at 16 weeks of gestation with associated Klinefelter syndrome in the same fetus. The ultrasound findings were cystic hygroma, hypertelorism, micrognathia, low‐set ears, flexion contractures of upper and lower extremities and rocker‐bottom foot. Genetic amniocentesis revealed a 47,XXY karyotype. After genetic counseling, the parents decided to have a therapeutic abortion. We presented this case for the purpose of further describing the early ultrasound findings and clinical features of multiple pterygium syndromes. Also, what makes our patient unique is the coincidental presence of Klinefelter syndrome with MPS. To our knowledge, this is the first case in the literature in which a 47,XXY karyotype has been found in a fetus with multiple pterygium syndrome. The importance of delineating the exact subtype of MPS and making a precise differential diagnosis becomes critical during the process of evaluation of patients with MPS. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In the latest technology era, the widespread usage of internet enabled individuals to interact continuously and led to altered buying behavior patterns. Literature focuses on the critical effects in the field. Among many antecedents to online shopping, previous studies point out two important obstacles:  (i) acceptance and tendency to use technology in accordance with gender perceptions and (ii) internet security problems. This study analyzes the impact of these two prominent factors on e-commerce utilization by studying the effects of these factors through primary and secondary data; a survey designed specifically for this analysis and the cross-country data from Eurostat. The findings show that while internet security problems significantly impact online shopping behavior, the evidence is mixed for the impact of gender. The results of this paper provide insights for a successful e-commerce transaction and identify important obstacles to be avoided for an efficient e-commerce system.


We have found intravenous regional anesthesia, by the method of expressing the blood, applying a temporary tourniquet, injecting the lidocaine, then placing the second tourniquet on an anesthetized portion of the arm and removing the first tourniquet, to be a very simple and effective way to achieve anesthesia in operations on the hand. The quantities of lidocaine used seem to be well below the toxic amounts by several multiples (this would obtain if the tourniquet should fail). The quantities of lidocaine recovered in the systemic circulation were minute. We did not observe any clear-cut toxic reactions in thirty-six patients. Nerve-conduction studies tended to show that no motor impulses could be transmitted by the median nerve and that anoxia did not seem to play a major role in the production of the anesthesia up to twenty minutes. The usual precautions of availability of oxygen and appropriate drugs should be observed, as is customary when using local anesthetic agents, and the surgeon must be mindful of his selection of cases in regard to necessary operating time, since anesthesia depends on the continuous and uninterrupted presence of the tourniquet.


This paper summarises the system design aspects which can be incorporated in a future operational SAR instrument. This instrument will generate high resolution images useful for commercial applications, Earth science, civilian and military applications. The presented baseline concept considers a two frequency, multi-polarised instrument with combined h/w in the central electronics subsystem. Nevertheless, the modular design provides the flexibility to realise a stand alone instrument for each frequency band.


The Sorocaba River hydrographic basin locates in a sub-area known as Superior Medium Tiete in Sao Paulo State. The study was made in the low Sorocaba River. A relatively high diversity of fish species was noticed at that place, whose habits are also presumed to be diversified. The river in this region shows some important tributaries, which are the Sarapui, Tatui and Guarapo, and also a great number of smaller streams and marginal lagoons. Fishes were collected using gill-nets, purse seines, sieves and traps, line and hook, every month during two years. Fish species were 55, including 7 orders and 18 families. Characiformes and Siluriformes were the most represented with respectively 28 and 17 species.


This paper proposes a sequential merger formation game with cost synergies to study how trade policy can influence firms' choice between domestic and cross-border mergers in an international Cournot oligopoly. We find that the equilibrium market structure depends heavily on: (i) the level of trade costs; and (ii) whether or not active antitrust authorities are incorporated within the sequential merger game. In addition, it is shown that whenever mergers occur in equilibrium, they occur in waves and the merger wave comprises at least one cross-border merger. We also analyze how the equilibrium market structures are affected by the presence of lobbying efforts.


At the heart of contemporary dispute resolution theory stands the method of interest-based negotiation. The reliance on interests to resolve disputes has been seen by critics over the years as minimizing the protections of legal rights, and as corrosive to concepts of group solidarity. Taking a broader view of dispute resolution reveals three distinct strands of the theory: a liberal, state-centric, rights-based approach; a neoliberal, individualistic, interest-based approach; and an anti-liberal, communitarian, relationship-based approach. The origins of these strands of dispute resolution theory can be located within the political and legal landscape of the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when contemporary dispute resolution theory began to take shape. While the structure of dispute resolution theory (and its privileging of the interest-based framework) continues to reflect the concerns of that era, it no longer speaks to the immediate concerns of the present. Instead, current questions in dispute resolution theory signal growing interest in more relationship-oriented approaches. Developing such approaches requires understanding the tensions inherent in dispute resolution theory, lest the shortcomings of relationship-based theories create new problems for the practice of dispute resolution. This Article charts a path to rethink the foundational structures of dispute resolution theory.


White noise deconvolution or input white noise estimation problem has important application backgrounds in oil seismic exploration, communication and signal processing. Using the modern time series analysis method, based on the autoregressive moving average (ARMA) innovation model and the optimal fusion rules in linear minimum variance sense, the new information fusion white noise deconvolution estimators are presented for the general multisensor systems with different local dynamic models and correlated noises, respectively. They can handle the input white noise fused filtering, prediction and smoothing problems, and are applicable for the systems with colored measurement noises. It is locally optimal and globally suboptimal. The accuracy of the fuser is higher than that of each local white noise estimator. In order to compute the optimal weights, the formula of computing the local estimation error cross-covariances is given. A Monte Carlo simulation example for the system with Bernoulli-Gaussian input white noise shows their effectiveness and performances.


Managed care organizations (MCOs) face an uncertain future. While consolidation and price competition have expanded their market share, health care expenditures are expected to rise in the near future, and the cost containment premise--and promise--of MCOs is being threatened by mixed blessing and nonsupportive stakeholders. To shed light on MCOs' situation, we discuss four drivers for change in health management in the U.S.: technology, regulation, consumerism, and demographics. Using those four drivers, we then assess the various stakeholders in the industry through a competitive analysis and a stakeholder analysis. These analyses suggest that the munificence of the MCO business environment has significantly declined, especially among supplier and buyer stakeholders. Hence, MCOs cannot continue to manage health care costs alone as this will no longer generate sufficient support among buyer and supplier stakeholders. Instead, MCOs must tackle five critical health care issues by working closely with other stakeholders and also by learning what they can from innovative health care initiatives both inside and outside the United States.


A selection detector in adaptive algorithm with weight constrained method for active noise control (ANC) is presented in this paper. Imposing weight constraints to the adaptation of the adaptive filter will effectively avoid over-updated phenomenon, such as a large movement of microphone or the sudden variations of the surrounding environment. It can be easily added in the adaptive procedure and will not burden heavily with complex computation. The selection of the weight constraint factor is prominent because a large weight constraint factor gives less constraint to the update of adaptive filter, whereas a small weight constraint factor may cause constraint of the update strictly. The selection detector is proposed to reduce the seeking time of weight constrained factors by imposing weight constraints to allocate the adaptive filter to effectively avoid over-updates phenomenon when there is a sudden large change in the original signal. From the selection detector block, these three weight constraint factors can be chosen appropriately to the minimum values of mean square error. The analysis gives useful information about preventing the adaptation from updating by the wrong learning and the robustness of the entire ANC system is improved in this paper. The results are verified to show the effectiveness through the computer simulations in this paper


Wavelength conversion using cross-gain modulation (XGM) in quantum-dot (QD) semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) is investigated. Small-signal measurements reveal that the XGM bandwidth as well as the conversion efficiency strongly depends on the bias current. Thus, it is possible to tune the XGM by increasing the current from a low efficiency with a 10-GHz bandwidth to a very efficient one with bandwidths well exceeding 40 GHz. Two different saturation mechanisms are responsible for this pronounced influence of the bias current: 1) total carrier depletion that leads to a slow broadband cross-gain saturation and 2) spectral hole burning that causes spectrally narrow-band high-speed XGM. With increasing current, the saturation by depleting the carrier reservoir, which feeds the QDs, is minimized, and therefore, spectral hole burning becomes more dominant. Large-signal wavelength conversion experiments using 50 ps pulses indicate that efficient high-speed XGM is feasible for pump and probe signal detuning up to 10 nm. With increasing detuning, larger pulse broadening and a decreasing efficiency are observed, consistent with the small-signal results. The results on the QD SOAs are compared to conventional quantum-well devices.


The objective of this study was to investigate the development of fungal pathogens in aphid hosts and identify structures characteristic of each fungal species. Aphids infected by Pandora neoaphidis and Neozygites fresenii were incubated for different time periods and examined by SEM. In P. neoaphidis, hyphal bodies concentrated in clumps beneath the cuticle and these formed rosette patterns consisting of a central structure, the developing cystidium, surrounded by developing conidiophores. Rhizoids were the first structure emerging from the P. neoaphidis-killed aphid. Primary spores were formed after 6 h and secondary spores after 10 h of incubation. In N. fresenii, the conidiophores did not group together to form rosette patterns as in P. neoaphidis. Rhizoids were not formed by N. fresenii but infected aphids were held to the leaf by their mouthparts. The primary spores of N. fresenii were formed at 2 h and were generally round or ovoid in shape. These primary conidia formed long slender capillary tubes that produced secondary conidia which were almond shaped and possessed a terminal mucoid hapteron. Saprophytic fungi began to develop on N. fresenii-killed aphids at 24h and by 48 h the whole cadaver was covered. In N. fresenii, spore formation occurred earlier than in P. neoaphidis, but numbers of spores formed by P. neoaphidis were higher than by N. fresenii.


The treatment of isolated ulnar shaft fractures is controversial. Previous studies comparing treatment options have been largely retrospective and nonrandomized. In this study, consecutive patients were randomized into treatment groups of long arm plaster immobilization, short arm plaster immobilization, or Ace Wrap bandage, based on the order of hospital admission. Thirty-one patients were followed until radiographic or clinical union, with no significant difference in time to union between groups. Age, sex, fracture pattern, and displacement did not significantly influence time to union or final angulation. Two patients in both the long arm cast group and the short arm cast group lost significant motion at final follow up. Seventy percent of patients in the Ace Wrap group failed treatment secondary to pain and were converted to plaster immobilization. Furthermore, patients in this group demonstrated significantly greater angulation than those treated in a long arm cast. Our results demonstrate that above-elbow plaster immobilization offers no advantage over below-elbow immobilization. We recommend short arm casting for a period of 8 weeks.


The goal of this study was to establish a system for converting digestate from anaerobic digestion processes into liquid fertilizer for soilless culture. Modifications of concentrations of plant macronutrient ions during nitrification processes were investigated with digestate from a simulated municipal organic waste. Concentrations of phosphate and calcium ions in the nitrified digestate increased; the rates of increase were 15.3 mg L–1 d–1 and 17.6 mg L–1 d–1, respectively. Moreover, concentrations of macronutrient ions, except for magnesium, in the nitrified digestate were similar to those in a standard nutrient solution that is commonly applied to soilless culture.


Nowadays, manufacturers want to collect the data of their sold-products to the cloud, so that they can conduct analysis and improve the operation, maintenance and services of their products. Manufacturers are looking for a self-contained solution for data transmission since their products are typically deployed in a large number of different buildings, and it is neither feasible to negotiate with each building to use the building's network (e.g., WiFi) nor practical to establish its own network infrastructure. ISPs are aware of this market. Since the readily available 3G/4G is over costly for most IoT devices, ISPs are developing new choices. Nevertheless, it can be expected that the choices from ISPs will not be fine-grained enough to match hundreds or thousands of requirements on different costs and data volumes from the IoT applications. To address this problem, we for the first time propose IoT communication sharing (ICS). We first clarify the ICS scenarios. We then formulate the IoT communication sharing (ICS) problem, and develop a set of algorithms with provable performance. We further present our implementation of a fully functioning system. Our evaluations show that ICS and our algorithms can lead to a cost reduction of five times and eight times respectively for the two real-world cases.


In this work, Weakly Compressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (WCSPH) is applied for numerical simulation of impulsive wave. Properties of linear and angular momentum in WCSPH formulation are studied. Kernel gradient of viscous term in momentum equation is corrected to ensure preservation of angular momentum. Corrected WCSPH method is used to simulate solitary Scott Russell wave and applied to simulate impulsive wave generated by two-dimensional under water landslide. In each of the test cases, results of corrected WCSPH are compared with experimental results. The results of the numerical simulations and experimental works are matched and a satisfactory agreement is observed. Furthermore, vorticity contours computed by the corrected WCSPH are compared with uncorrected WCSPH so that the effect of corrective term on preservation of angular momentum is illustrated. Numerical model is also applied for simulation of water entry of half buoyant circular cylinder into initially calm water. Comparison between experimental and computational results proves applicability of the WCSPH method for simulation of these kinds of problems.


The results of 27 percutaneous transluminal angioplasties (PTA) of the subclavian artery are reported in 25 patients. 13 patients complained of claudicatio brachii, 7 also demonstrated symptoms of vertebral-basilar insufficiency. In 5 cases this was the sole indication for PTA. 23 (85.2%) of 27 interventions were limited to the proximal section of the subclavian artery. In 22 (81%) the obstructions were localized on the left side. A technical success could be achieved in 24 (88.9%) of 27 interventions. The angiographic appearance of the homolateral vertebral arteries before and after PTA differed significantly. No PTA led to an occlusion of the previously patent vertebral artery. A retrograde flow was no longer seen after PTA. The haemodynamic significance was also demonstrated by the differences in brachial-occlusion pressures (mean 51 mmHg before, 7 mmHg after PTA). Complete or partial relief was achieved after technically successful PTA in 90% of patients with brachial symptoms and in 50% with vertebral-basilar insufficiency. Complications occurred in one (3.7%) of 27 procedures. Published data on PTA of the subclavian artery are discussed.


Dissertation title: EFFECTS OF ANNUAL AND PERENNIAL COMMUNITY DYNAMICS ON TIDAL FRESHWATER MARSH ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING Kristine Noel Hopfensperger, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Katharina A.M. Engelhardt Dr. Sujay S. Kaushal Program of Marine, Estuarine, Environmental Science Tidal freshwater marshes are complex systems with many linkages between the physical, chemical, and biological components. Understanding how the community dynamics of a tidal freshwater marsh affect ecosystem processes may be applicable towards restoring properly functioning wetlands that improve the filtration of excess nutrients and toxins, subsequently improving water quality for downstream areas. The first question explored is why annual species exist in a marsh dominated by perennials. Annual species may exist through facilitation or competition with neighboring species, or through relationships with abiotic variables including elevation and seed rain. Through many field and greenhouse studies, I have determined that competition between annual and perennial species may exist, but abiotic factors are driving the vegetative composition of the marsh. Understanding if annual patches move through time is imperative for relating the plant community to ecosystem processes. To explore the temporal community dynamics, I examined the composition of the belowground marsh seed bank and the aboveground vegetation composition for three years. I have learned that the seed bank partially drives the vegetation composition. Furthermore, additional environmental factors may play a role in determining aboveground vegetation composition. I examined differences in the ecosystem processes of denitrification and its influencing variables among communities dominated by annual species, perennial species, and a mixture of the two. No differences in denitrification rates existed among community types; however organic nitrogen, which is driven by vegetation increased with denitrification rates. Communities readily move through space and time and may influence nutrient cycling in tidal freshwater marshes. Therefore, restoration managers should take into consideration species that maximize nitrogen removal and the variables that control their spatial and temporal movement when planning restoration designs and alternatives. EFFECTS OF ANNUAL AND PERENNIAL COMMUNITY DYNAMICS ON TIDAL FRESHWATER MARSH ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING


In order to study the possibility of apoptosis of tumor cells induced by weak EMFs in vivo, mice were inoculated with Ehrilich ascites cells and exposed to an electromagnetic field (1 mT, 700 K Hz) for a long term. During the treatment growth curves of mice were measured. Comparisons have been made between the growth curves of treated and sham treated mice. After the treatments, apoptosis of Ehrilich ascites cells from treated and sham treated inoculated mice was analyzed by several methods, including flow cytometry, fluorescence microscopy and DNA gel electrophoresis. The results show that the apoptotic ratio of cells from treated cancer mice was significantly higher than those from sham treated mice( P<0.05) and the growth curves of cancer mice deviate from the theoretical curve of healthy mice but tend to it by the EMF treatments. The mechanism of the apoptosis induced by weak EMFs has been discussed in terms of interactions between external electromagnetic fields and DNA.


Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) plays an important role in degradation of cartilage matrix. The expression of MMPs in cartilage or syovial membrane was increased in osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. We summarized the regulation mechanism of MMP production, and described pharmacologic inhibitors such as non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, steroid and growth factors, which might be useful to prevention of joint destruction.


in this The late He Dr. D. of Kansas City, for many of his corrective exercises for posture and notes on physical therapy obtained from his excellent treatise on the subject. Frank D. M.D.; Lippin-cott).


A fast, direct mass-spectrometry (MS) determination of hydrocarbon classes in jet fuels is presented. A novel inlet technique using 0.1 mm i.d. micropipet glass capillaries for sampling the liquid fuels and reproducibly placing the 10- to 20 microgram samples in the MS vacuum for analysis is demonstrated. Low-voltage electron ionization is shown to produce molecular ion series characteristic of alkyl-substituted naphthalenes, tetralins, and decalins. Structurally specific fragment ions for several hydrocarbons, as determined by gas chromatography - mass spectrometry, are used to help identify compound classes by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). As discussed, MS/MS can add a dimension of separation to overlapping molecular ion series while maintaining the greater speed of direct MS over GC/MS. In addition, multivariate statistical analysis is demonstrated to be powerful method for comparison of MS spectra from complex jet fuels to chemical class standards.


The objective of this paper is to study a review of Indian Rice Husk Ash (RHA) as a partial cement replacement in different percentage and performance of strength and durability of RHA blended concrete. The demand for producing durable construction material is the result of the environmental pollution. Supplementary cementit ious materials prove to be effective to meet most of the requirements of durable concrete , RHA is available in plenty to other supplementary materials like silica fume and fly ash, Due to its high pozzolanic activity, and the strength and durability of concrete are improved. This paper presents an over view of the work carried out on the use of Indian RHA to improve the strength and durability of concrete Keyword: strength, durability, RHA, chemical and physical properties


We present work in progress focusing on an extension of a 24/7 monitoring system for persons at cardiac risk, a system that allows patients to move freely in and outside of clinical settings. The system consists of a comprehensive sensor patch, a relay and a monitoring center staffed with clinicians and doctors. Detected anomalies may trigger escalation plans which include activating families, ambulances and clinics. In order for the system to scale up, we demonstrate how anomalies can be automatically detected using machine learning technologies. We describe and evaluate a classifier for detection of Ventricular Extrasystoles. The classifier has been tested on real-world sensor data as well as a standard ECG database and achieves varying recognition rates, depending on many factors. The next steps include an improvement of the detection algorithm, especially its training methods, and introducing the extension into the telemonitoring centre, thus evaluating the user acceptance amongst the cardio experts.


Since the COVID‐19 infection first appeared in December 2019, patient profile of outpatient and inpatient clinics has changed. Various cutaneous findings associated with COVID‐19 have been reported in the literature. The main objective of this study was to describe and analyze the profile of the consultations requested from dermatology department during the COVID pandemic. Retrospective, cohort study. In this study, we observed the dermatology consultations of the hospitalized patients over a period of 2 months, corresponding to the peak of COVID outbreak in a tertiary care hospital in Turkey. We reviewed the inpatient dermatology consult database retrospectively. Both pediatric and adult dermatology inpatient consultations were evaluated. A total of 166 inpatient dermatology consultations were requested from dermatology department during March‐May, 2020. The mean age of the patients was 53.12 (1‐89) years. Almost 32.5% (n = 54) of dermatology consultations were requested from the COVID wards and the COVID intensive care unit. The second most common consultations were requested from internal medicine departments (n = 46, 27.7%). The most common indications for the consultations were cutaneous infections (36%), followed by inflammatory disorders (32%), and urticaria (11%). Dermatology consultations have an essential role on the management of hospitalized patients, especially at that pandemic time. Careful dermatological examination improves diagnostic accuracy in skin disorders and skin manifestations of COVID‐19 infection that provides an early diagnosis and treatment, helps to improve the quality of the patient care and management.


BACKGROUND
The ability to characterize and quantify coronary artery atherosclerotic lesions accurately, reproducibly, and noninvasively may allow the stratification of risk for future acute coronary syndromes and help direct therapeutic management. MRI has been shown to accurately characterize and quantify atherosclerosis; however, because of the combination of cardiac and respiratory motion artifacts, nonlinear course, and relatively small size of the coronary arteries, these techniques have not been able to be translated to the coronary system in vivo.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Coronary lesions were induced in Yorkshire albino swine (n=6) with balloon angioplasty, and 4 weeks later MRI of the coronary artery lesions was performed. High-resolution in vivo images of the coronary artery wall and lesions were obtained with a double-inversion-recovery fast-spin-echo sequence in a 1.5-T MR system. There was good agreement between measurements of vessel wall thickness and area from MR images of the coronary arteries and the matched histopathology sections (n=43). The mean difference (MRI minus histopathology +/- SD) for mean wall thickness was 0.26+/-0.18 mm, and for vessel wall area, 5.65+/-3.51 mm(2). MRI was also able to visualize intralesion hematoma (sensitivity 82%, specificity 84%).

CONCLUSIONS
Using a clinical MR system, we were able to image coronary artery lesions in vivo in an experimental porcine model. Further studies are needed to assess the ability of MRI to characterize coronary atherosclerotic lesions in vivo.


ZnII and FeII chloride complexes of a di(methylthiazolidinyl)pyridine ligand were deprotonated to form the corresponding thiolate complexes supported by redox-active iminopyridine moieties. The thiolate donor groups are nucleophilic and reactive toward oxidants, electrophiles, and protons, while the pendant thiazolidine rings are available for hydrogen bonding. Anion exchange with the weakly-coordinating triflate anion resulted in self-assembly of the iminopyridine complexes to form a trimeric [M3S3] cluster. Hydrogen bonding closely associates anions with this trimetallic core.


An Interactive Plant List Model for Bio-retention Facilities: Using the HPM to predict preferred plant species Benjamin Vander Veen Advisor: Karen Landman University of Guelph, 2014 Bio-retention facilities are becoming an important component of stormwater best management practices. Vegetative health directly affects bio-retention facility success. Bio-retention facilities have characteristically harsh moisture conditions. Credit Valley Conservation is developing bio-retention construction guidelines. Identifying suitable plant species for bio-retention conditions is imperative in doing so. This study aims to use the Happy Plant Model (HPM), an Excel-based model that predicts moisture conditions in bio-retention facilities based on construction design, to predict preferred plant species pre-construction. Through a focused literature review, drought and saturation tolerances were found or estimated. Outputs from the HPM influence the plant species list that is generated. Results show that a preferred plant list can be produced for various moisture conditions based on facility design. With the HPM and Interactive Plant List Model, bio-retention facility designers can predict preferred plant species for pre-construction bio-retention facilities. This study provides a step towards effective bioretention planting.


The distribution and persistence of Eulerian and Lagrangian residual velocity in a cross sectional transect of the James River estuary, Virginia are analyzed. The Eulerian residual velocity has the characteristic two-layered estuarine circulation in the northern half of the transect, however, the net flow is directed downriver at all depths in the shallower southern half of the transect. In the deep channel, the two-layered Eulerian residual circulation is highly persistent over the six month study duration, with disruptions occurring less than 10% of the time when meteorological forcings are intense. No spring-neap tidal cycle variation is apparent. The magnitude of the long-term advective mass transport (calculated as the lowest order approximation to the Lagrangian residual velocity) is approximately twice that of the Eulerian residual velocity and in the same direction in the deep channel. The Stokes drift velocity contribution to the Lagrangian residual velocity enhances the upriver Eulerian residual velocity transport on the north side of the transect and only slightly increases the downriver transport on the south side.


The search for stable and highly efficient solar cell absorbers has revealed interesting materials; however, the ideal solar cell absorber is yet to be discovered. This research aims to explore the potentials of dimethylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH2CH3PbI3) as an efficient solar cell absorber. (CH3NH2CH3PbI3) was modeled from the ideal organic–inorganic perovskite cubic crystal structure and optimized to its ground state. Considering the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effects on heavy metals, the electronic band structure and bandgaps were calculated using the density functional theory (DFT). In contrast, bandgap correction was achieved by using the GW quasiparticle methods of the many-body perturbation theory. The optical absorption spectra were calculated from the real and imaginary dielectric tensors, which are determined by solving the Bethe–Salpeter equations of the many-body perturbation theory. Spin-orbit coupling induces band splitting and bandgap reduction in both DFT and GW methods, while the GW method improves the DFT bandgap. We report a DFT band gap of 1.55 eV, while the effect of spin-orbit coupling reduces the bandgap to 0.50 eV. Similarly, the self-consistent GW quasiparticle method recorded a bandgap of 2.27 eV, while the effect of spin-orbit coupling on the self-consistent GW quasiparticle method reported a bandgap of 1.20 eV. The projected density of states result reveals that the (CH3NH2CH3PbI3) does not participate in bands around the gap, with the iodine (I) p orbital and the lead (Pb) p orbital showing most prominence in the valence band and the conduction band. The absorption coefficient reaches 106 in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions, which is higher than the absorption coefficient of CH3NH3PbI3. The spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency predicts a high maximum efficiency of about 62% at room temperature and an absorber thickness of about 10–1 to 102 μm, suggesting that (CH3NH2CH3PbI3) has an outstanding prospect as a solar cell absorber.


The electromagnetic (EM) contributions to nucleon-nucleon scattering are subtracted from the experimental scattering length in the 1S0 partial wave. The resulting nuclear proton-proton scattering length depends strongly on the unknown nuclear potential at small distances. The comparison between proton-proton and neutron-neutron data is therefore ambiguous. The amount of nuclear charge asymmetry in the 1S0 scattering length cannot be established. In contrast, the difference between the experimental proton-neutron and neutron-neutron 1S0 scattering lengths yields a quantitative estimate for the charge dependence of the nucleon-nucleon interaction, not invalidated by the subtraction of EM effects. A constraint on the parametrisation of the nuclear potential at small relative distances arising from nonrelativistic quantum mechanics is given.


This paper is concerned with calculating the optimum rating for two dynamic voltage restorers (DVRs) when used in an interline DVR (IDVR) structure. An IDVR consists of two or more DVRs which have a common dc link and, thus, can exchange active power. This can increase the compensation range of an IDVR compared with separate but otherwise similar DVRs. The basic operation of the DVR and IDVR is briefly explained. The limitations of IDVR operation in terms of active power exchange are explained and, based on that, the expressions governing the steady-state operation of IDVR are derived. The compensation range of an IDVR is compared with that of two separate DVRs. This paper also explores how the limitations in absorbing power from a healthy feeder can narrow the compensation range of an IDVR. After identifying and formulating various limitations in IDVR operation, a design procedure is presented to determine the optimum size (or rating) of the DVRs in an IDVR structure. In the proposed approach, all possible scenarios concerning healthy and faulty feeders are taken into consideration. Examples along with graphs and tables aid in conveying the proposed approach.


This study aims to answer the hypothesis, as follows: (1) determine the relationship of perceptions about social media with students' attitudes to wards its use for learning, (2) determine differences in perceptions of male and female students on the utilization of social media for learning, and (3) determine differences in attitudes toward male and f emale students in their use of social media for learning. The results showed that: (1) there is a significant relationship between perceptions of students about social media and its position in the harne ss for learning, (2) proved to be no significant difference between boys and girls in the perception of soci al media in its use for learning, and (3) proved to be no significant difference between students and girls in the manner utilizing social media for learning.


This article reviews the experience of the UK with VAT over nearly three decades. There are several aspects that might be relevant to the way GST develops in Australia. One is that Australia might expect opposition to the new tax to diminish substantially as it becomes part of the fiscal furniture. Another is that GST might prove to have fewer disadvantages than some commentators have suggested and there might be pressure for an increase in GST in the future. A further aspect is that, with respect to legal issues, it might allow development of the purposive approach in tax matters.


To satisfy the long-range and energy self-sustaining communication needs of electronic devices in the Internet of Things (IoT), we introduce a simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) system using the resonant beam that incorporates a telescope modulator inside a cavity for suppressing diffraction losses. We theoretically analyze power transfer in the resonant beam system with telescope internal modulator (TIM-RBS) considering the electromagnetic field propagation, the end-to-end (E2E) power transfer, and power and information reception. The numerical evaluation demonstrates that the TIM can effectively compress the beam spot, which allows the TIM-RBS to transmit energy twice as far as the RBS without TIM at higher power. Additionally, the largest transmission distance and maximum output power are proportional to the input power, and about 34m transmission distance, 4W electric power, and 12bps/Hz spectral efficiency can be achieved in the TIM-RBS with 200W input power. Hence, TIM-RBS can be considered as a promising option for realizing long-range, high-power, and high-rate SWIPT.


A general asymmetric synthesis of substituted cycloalkyl[b]indoles has been accomplished. The key features of this approach are (1) the utilization of a Japp-Klingemann condensation/Fischer cyclization to prepare cycloalkyl[b]indolones, (2) the asymmetric borane reduction of these heterocyclic ketones with (S)-OAB to obtain enantiomerically pure alcohols, and (3) the stereoselective S(N)2-displacement of these indole alcohol substrates with a carbon nucleophile under Mitsunobu conditions to set the C1 or C3 tertiary carbon stereocenter. The use of trimethylphosphine (PMe3) and bis(2,2,2-trichloroethyl) azodicarboxylate (TCEAD) was found to have an effect on the Mitsunobu dehydrative alkylation.


Abstract In the present study, an unalloyed ductile iron containing Fe–3·50C–2·63Si–0·318Mn–0.047Mg (wt-%) were intercritically austenitised (partially austenitised) in two phase region α+γ at various temperatures of 795, 805, 815 and 830°C for 20 min and then quenched into salt bath held at austempering temperature of 365°C for various times to obtain different ausferrite volume fractions (AFVFs). Results showed that dual matrix structure containing proeutectoid ferrite, new ferrite (also called epitaxial ferrite) and ausferrite (bainitic ferrite+high carbon austenite, which is retained or stabilised austenite) has been developed. Within each of the austempered series in α+γ temperature range, new ferrite volume fraction increased with increasing intercritical austenitising temperature (ICAT). Although, transforming percentage of new ferrite from parent austenite present at ICAT increased with decreasing ICAT. Some specimens were also conventionally austempered from 900°C for comparison. The new ferrite was absent in these samples. The volume fraction of proeutectoid ferrite, new ferrite and ausferrite can be controlled to determine the strength and ductility. Austempered specimens in α+γ temperature range exhibited much greater ductility than conventionally austempered ones. The tensile strength increased while ductility decreased with increasing AFVF. On the other hand, the ductility increased with increasing proeutectoid ferrite and new ferrite volume fractions at the expense of strength. The specimen with ∼47·2%AFVF exhibited the best combination of high strength and ductility. The strength and ductility of this material is much higher than that of ferritic grades. Its strength is at the same level as while ductility almost more than four times higher than that of pearlitic grades. Meanwhile, the specimen with ∼ 75%AFVF exhibited the best combination of high strength and ductility compared with those of pearlitic grades. The strength of this material is much higher and its ductility is almost more than two times higher than that of pearlitic grades yet slightly lower than that of ferritic grades. This material also meets the requirements for the strength of quenched and tempered grades and its ductility is higher than that of this grade.


Chromospheric jets are plausible agents of energy and mass transport in the solar chromosphere, although their driving mechanisms have not yet been elucidated. Magnetic field measurements are key for distinguishing the driving mechanisms of chromospheric jets. We performed a full Stokes synthesis in the infrared range with a realistic radiative magnetohydrodynamics simulation that generated a chromospheric jet to predict spectro-polarimetric observations from the Sunrise Chromospheric Infrared spectro-Polarimeter (SCIP) onboard the SUNRISE III balloon telescope. The jet was launched by the collision between the transition region and an upflow driven by the ascending motion of the twisted magnetic field at the envelope of the flux tube. This motion is consistent with upwardly propagating non-linear Alfvénic waves. The upflow could be detected as continuous Doppler signals in the Ca ii 849.8 nm line at the envelope where the dark line core intensity and strong linear polarisation coexist. The axis of the flux tube was bright in both Fe i 846.8 nm and Ca ii 849.8 nm lines with down- flowing plasma inside it. The structure, time evolution, and Stokes signals predicted in our study will improve the physical interpretation of future spectro-polarimetric observations with SUNRISE III/SCIP.


Historically, sound has been separated into a slow-varying envelope and a component that rapidly varies, called the temporal fine structure (TFS). Perceptual studies suggest that users of cochlear implants can benefit from better TFS coding strategies, as they lead to improved speech understanding in noise. Yet given the standard signal processing methodology used in the auditory neuroscience community, namely the Hilbert transform, findings in such prior studies have been limited by their use of the heavily distorted estimates of the TFS information (through the Hilbert phase of the related analytic signal). Complementary correlation is a new mathematical tool with potential to advance our understanding of temporal coding in neuroscience. This new mathematical formulation can be defined simply by dropping the usual complex conjugation operation from the canonical definitions of correlation, coherence, variance, magnitude-squared estimators of power, and other similar common second-order statistical quantities and their estimators. We will show that a complementary correlation approach, which provides a more complete characterization of TFS information, will provide measurable perceptual benefits by reducing distortion in the original speech signal.


BACKGROUND : Previous studies have suggested that Glutathione S -transferase (GST) genotypes may play a role in determining susceptibility to lung cancer, though the data are often conflicting. In different ethnic groups variations in null allele frequency has been observed. AIMS: We aimed to evaluate whether genetic polymorphisms of Glutathione S -transferase theta (GSTT1) influence individual susceptibility to lung cancer in Turkish population. We tried to clarify the frequencies of GSTM1 gene polymorphisms in a Turkish population. METHODS: DNA samples, extracted from the whole blood were amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method in all of the 68 cases, composed of 31 previously diagnosed lung cancer and 37 healthy controls. RESULTS: The prevalence of GSTT1 null genotype in the lung cancer patients was 29%, compared to 11% in control group. GSTT1 null genotype was found to be higher in cancer group compared to the control group, although it was not statistically significant (OR = 3.37, 95% CI = 0.92-12.32, P = 0.06). There was also no significant relation in GSTT1 genotypes among histopathology types of lung cancers. The frequency of GSTT1 was found to be 25.4% ( n = 952) when the studies of Turkish population were reviewed. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that carrying the GSTT1 null genotype may be accepted as a weak risk factor for the susceptibility to lung cancer.


Abstract This article analyses British prime ministers' use of religious language and their own religious beliefs in their political rhetoric. This is used to justify policy, support their ideological positions, present a public persona, and cultivate their personal ethical appeal and credibility as values-driven political leaders. The focus is on the use and the nature of the religious arguments of Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. As political leaders, British prime ministers are aware of the need to modify and tailor their language in response to changing audiences and contexts. "Doing God" is a difficult and risky rhetorical strategy for British prime ministers but it increasingly has the potential to yield political benefits.


Abstract. The AnisoVeg product consists of monthly 1 km composites of anisotropy (ANI) and nadir-normalized (NAD) surface reflectance layers obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor over the entire South American continent. The satellite data were preprocessed using the multi-angle implementation atmospheric correction (MAIAC). The AnisoVeg product spans 22 years of observations (2000 to 2021) and includes the reflectance of MODIS bands 1 to 8 and two vegetation indices (VIs), namely the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI). While the NAD layers reduce the data variability added by bidirectional effects on the reflectance and VI time series, the unique ANI layers allow the use of this multi-angular data variability as a source of information for vegetation studies. The AnisoVeg product has been generated using daily MODIS MAIAC data from both Terra and Aqua satellites, normalized for a fixed solar zenith angle (SZA = 45∘), modeled for three sensor view directions (nadir, forward, and backward scattering), and aggregated to monthly composites. The anisotropy was calculated by the subtraction of modeled backward and forward scattering surface reflectance. The release of the ANI data for open usage is novel, and the NAD data are at an advanced processing level. We demonstrate the use of such data for vegetation studies using three types of forests in the eastern Amazon with distinct gradients of vegetation structure and aboveground biomass (AGB). The gradient of AGB was positively associated with ANI, while NAD values were related to different canopy structural characteristics. This was further illustrated by the strong and significant relationship between EVIANI and forest height observations from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar sensor considering a simple linear model (R2=0.55). Overall, the time series of the AnisoVeg product (NAD and ANI) provide distinct information for various applications aiming at understanding vegetation structure, dynamics, and disturbance patterns. All data, processing codes, and results are made publicly available to enable research and the extension of AnisoVeg products for other regions outside of South America. The code can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6561351 (Dalagnol and Wagner, 2022), EVIANI and EVINAD can be found as assets in the Google Earth Engine (GEE; described in the data availability section), and the full dataset is available from the open repository https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3878879 (Dalagnol et al., 2022).


As with food production, waste management on semi-subsistent farms is a joint outcome of household-specific and farm-specific resources. It is useful therefore to analyze waste-disposal decisions with this jointness in mind. We do so here with a sample of Chinese farms. Attention is given to five distinct types of waste: packaging materials, manure, wastewater, plastic mulch, and straw. We find farm recycling to intensify as household cash income, farm manager's age and education, and farm workforce size expand. Recycling declines however as the number of dependents and farm cultivable area enlarge. Put differently, waste management improves as the family's labor and capital resources grow, but deteriorate if landholdings expand while capital and labor resources do not. The small family farm's recycling behavior, in short, appears to be entirely rational. Specifically household and specifically farm factors are each important to the capital and labor mix that promotes recycling. In the aggregate, a one-percent variation in the principal household factors induces an average 0.35 percent change in recycling activity, while a one-percent variation in the principal farm factors induces an average 0.18 percent change. Assuming continued economic development, we find reason to be moderately optimistic about the future of small-farm waste disposal.


The spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus (MRSA) is a major concern in medical centers. These isolates are
considered in serious infections and nosocomial outbreaks worldwide. Mupirocin is one of the
most important antibiotics used topically for the treatment of various
staphylococcal and streptococcal skin infections. We aimed to use a combination of phenotypic
and genotypic methods to evaluate the prevalence of mupirocin resistance among
MRSA clinical isolates which had previously been collected during the period 2008-2009 in Shiraz, Iran. Methods: This
study was performed on a total of 167 clinical isolates of MRSA from Shiraz teaching hospitals. The isolates were
identified as S.
aureus using standard microbiologic procedures and
confirmed as MRSA isolates
by 30 μg cefoxitin discs and mecA gene detection. All isolates
were investigated for the mupirocin resistance by mupirocin discs 5 µg and the presence of mupA gene
by PCR. Results:
Antibacterial susceptibility tests against mupirocin disc 5 µg and PCR analysis for totally
167 MRSA clinical isolates showed no resistance to
mupirocin. Conclusion:
In summary, fortunately regarding to absence of resistance to mupirocin among
all the studied MRSA isolates, this resistance seems is not a threatening
factor in studied hospitals. However, generalized our findings to whole
hospitals wards and Shiraz general population afford larger sample size and
periodic surveillance in further studies for detecting mupirocin resistance.


SUMMARY Optimal grasping points for a robotic gripper were derived, based on object and hand geometry, using deep neural networks (DNNs). The optimal grasping cost functions were derived using probability density functions for each local cost function of the normal distribution. Using the DNN, the optimum height and width were set for the robot hand to grasp objects, whose geometric and mass centre points were also considered in obtaining the optimum grasping positions for the robot fingers and the object. The proposed algorithm was tested on 10 differently shaped objects and showed improved grip performance compared to conventional methods.


Abstract We combine phone-survey data from 2,200 students collected in July–August of 2020 with student-level administrative data from 54 schools in four northwestern provinces of Cambodia to investigate the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for grade 9 students. These students were particularly vulnerable to dropping out of school prematurely due to the crisis. We find that most students kept studying during the crisis, returned to school to participate in the lower-secondary graduation exam after schools reopened, and transitioned to high school thereafter. However, we also find that students' exposure to the economic downturn had substantial implications: The likelihood that the father experienced income losses due to the crisis is negatively associated with a student's propensity to study during school closure, participation and performance in the final exam, and with the likelihood to transition to high school. In contrast, the likelihood that the mother experienced income losses is positively associated with student studying during the crisis, with participation in the final exam, and with transition to high school—potentially because mothers used the time at home to encourage their children to study.


Rhizobia induce nodule formation on legume roots and differentiate into bacteroids, which use plant-derived dicarboxylates as energy and electron sources for reduction of atmospheric N2 into ammonia for secretion to plants. Using heterogeneous genome-scale datasets, we reconstructed a model of bacteroid metabolism to investigate the effects of varying dicarboxylate and oxygen supply on carbon and nitrogen allocation. Modelling and 13C metabolic flux analysis in bacteroids indicate that microaerobiosis restricts the decarboxylating arm of the TCA cycle and limits ammonia assimilation into glutamate. Catabolism of dicarboxylates induces a higher oxygen demand but also a higher NADH/NAD+ ratio compared to sugars. Carbon polymer synthesis and alanine secretion by bacteroids facilitate redox balance in microaerobic nodules with alanine secretion increasing as oxygen tension decreases. Our results provide a framework for understanding fundamental constraints on rhizobial metabolism during symbiotic nitrogen fixation.


Continuing interprofessional education is the means by which experienced health, social care, and other practitioners learn with, from, and about each other, formally and informally, to improve their collective practice and to cultivate closer collaboration. It applies principles of interprofessional education through media commonly employed in continuing professional education grounded in team-based practice. Among many approaches, it may be enriched by guided or self-directed reading, by open, distance, or e-learning, and during workshops, seminars, conferences, or courses. No one medium is preferable; nor are they mutually exclusive. Each complements the others. Subsequent articles in this issue put flesh on these bones.


The debate on whether and how to structure collaboration in online learning environments is quite active. In this paper the authors identify Task, Team and Time as the main components of an online collaborative activity, through which the overall structure of the activity can be determined to scaffold learners' interactions. Based on five examples of real-life online learning activities featuring different degrees of structure as to Task, Team and Time, the authors reflect on the extent to which the way these three dimensions are structured may affect the overall learning process. Method of the study is interaction analysis of the students messages, exchanged in asynchronous mode during the activity. The analysis was carried out according to a quantitative and qualitative model that distinguishes among the participative, social, cognitive and teaching dimensions. The results of the study seem to support the hypothesis that the three Ts well represent the structure of CSCL activities and that, in many cases, it is the lack of structure in one or more of them that is associated to a higher frequency of some indicators, as if the missing guidance causes an enhanced effort on the side of the learners to compensate the deficit. Keywords: Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL); Discussion; Peer Review; Case Studies; Role Play; Jigsaw; Structured activities; Task, Team; Time.


The benefits achievable from stabilizer additives and the effects of other additives on stability properties are discussed. Antioxidants, metal deactivators, and dispersants are used to improve the stability of middle distillate fuels; the range of benefits obtained and factors that affect performance are discussed. Different antioxidants are used in jet fuels to prevent formation of peroxides. Metal deactivators are used in all fuel types to prevent oxidation catalysis by dissolved metal salts. The effects of other additives including corrosion inhibitors, electrical conductivity additives, and cetane improver are considered.


In network-on-chip (NoC) application design, core-to-node mapping is an important but intractable optimization problem. In the paper, we use simulated annealing to tackle the mapping problem in 2D mesh NoCs. In particular, we combine a clustering technique with the simulated annealing to speed up the convergence to near-optimal solutions. The clustering exploits the connectivity and distance relation in the network architecture as well as the locality and bandwidth requirements in the core communication graph. The annealing is cluster-aware and may be dynamically constrained within clusters. Our experiments suggest that simulated annealing can be effectively used to solve the mapping problem with a scalable size, and the combined strategy improves over the simulated annealing in execution time by up to 30% without compromising the quality of solutions.


Introduction First attempt intubation success is used by many prehospital services as a marker of quality and safety. An increasing complication rate is associated with repeated intubation attempts. The aim of this study was to identify changes to intubation technique following a failed intubation attempt. Methods LifeFlight Retrieval Medicine provides aeromedical retrieval services in Queensland, Australia. This retrospective study identified cases of failed intubation attempts from an electronic database registry over a 41-month period from March 2015 to July 2018. These data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the 762 patients who required intubation 758 (99.5%) were successfully intubated, with 684 intubated at the first attempt (89.8%; 95% CI: 0.87 to 0.92). There was no difference in first attempt success between direct and video laryngoscopy (511/563 (90.8%) vs 172/194 (88.6%) p=0.38), trauma or medical (374/419 (89.3%) vs 310/343 (90.4%), p=0.61), primary or interhospital missions (329/370 (88.7%) vs 355/392 (90.8%), p=0.33). 78 cases of failed first attempt intubations were identified. In 65 of these cases, intubation was successful at the second attempt. A single change was made to the intubation procedure prior to a second successful attempt in 28/78 cases (35.9%), and more than one change was made in 41/78 (52.6%). The changes included the operator, intubation device, patient position, intubating aid and external laryngeal manipulation. No change between attempts was recorded in 9/78 (11.5%). 9 cases were successfully intubated at the third attempt, and changes prior to the third attempt included operator, device and intubating aid. Conclusion Although a high overall intubation success was found, one in ten patients who were intubated had a failed first attempt. The majority of successful subsequent attempts were preceded by at least one change to intubating technique. Intubating clinicians need the ability to identify and correct issues leading to a failed first attempt.


In the Subspace Clustering with Missing Data (SCMD) problem, we are given a collection of n data points, arranged into columns of a matrix X ∈ Rd×n, and each of the data points is observed only on a subset of its coordinates. The data points are assumed to be concentrated near a union of low-dimensional subspaces. The goal of SCMD is to cluster the vectors of the data matrix X as per their subspace membership. State-of-the-art algorithms for SCMD can perform poorly on instances with a large amount of missing data or if the data matrix X is nearly full-rank. We propose a novel integer programming-based method for SCMD. The approach is based on dynamically determining a set of candidate subspaces and optimally assigning points to selected subspaces. The problem structure is identical to the classical facility-location problem, with subspaces playing the role of facilities and data points that of customers. We propose a column-generation approach for identifying candidate subspaces combined with a Benders decomposition approach for solving the linear programming relaxation of the formulation. An empirical study demonstrates that the proposed approach can achieve better clustering accuracy than state-of-the-art methods when the data is high-rank or the percentage of missing data is high.


A new approach to modeling of the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) based on a wave method for calculating nonstationary periodic mass transfer processes is proposed. The analysis of solutions for plants designed to produce oxygen from air is given. The conditions necessary for highly efficient operation of PSA plants are formulated. The results of calculations for various brands of zeolites are followed, allowing optimizing a choice of zeolite for the set working conditions.


The in vitro metabolism of 7alpha-3-H-pregnenolone by five term human placentas obtained from repeat cesarean section was studied. Incubations were carried out either with minced tissue for 1 h or by organ culture for 6 h and 24 h. Twenty-one experiments were performed to determine the effect of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), human placental lactogen (hPL), and heat-inactivated hCG on the metabolism of pregnenolone. The major radioactive product was progesterone (40-60%); unchanged pregnenolone accounted for only 5-15% of the radioactivity. 3-H-6beta-OH-progesterone was found and rigorously identified. In control experiments 6beta-OH-progesterone was 2-4% of the radioactivity. In the presence of hCG there was a significant (P smaller than 0.005) 2-3-fold increase of 3-H-6beta-OH-progesterone in the 1-h mince incubations and the 24-h organ cultures. There was no increase of 3-H-6beta-OH-progesterone over control values with hCG after 6-h organ cultures; with heat-inactivated hCG; or with hPL. These findings provide additional data that hCG affects steroid metabolism in the human placenta. In addition, 3-H-6alpha-OH-progesterone was found and rigorously identified in yields of approximately 0.5-1%. The effect of hCG on 6alpha-hydroxylation was not determined. This appears to be the first demonstration of 6alpha-hydroxylation of C21 steroids by human tissue.


A case of aortic dissection associated with aortic regurgitation which was induced by diastolic prolapse of an intimal flap into the left ventricular outflow tract was reported. This 57-year-old man, referred for evaluation of sudden onset of chest oppression and a heart murmur, was hypertensive for several years. His admission blood pressure was 184/44 mmHg, and a systolic ejection murmur and a diastolic decrescendo murmur were audible along the left sternal border. Two-dimensional echocardiography revealed an intimal flap in the markedly enlarged aortic root. The intimal flap moved posteriorly in systole and anteriorly in diastole, and prolapsed into the left ventricular outflow tract during diastole. Associated with the movement of the intimal flap, an aortic cusp was shifted from its original position to the left ventricular outflow tract in diastole. Aortography disclosed type I aortic dissection and severe aortic regurgitation. After medical treatment for four months, the patient underwent a Bentall surgical procedure and recovered. Impaired coaptation of the aortic valve induced by diastolic prolapse of the intimal flap into the left ventricular outflow tract is a newly encountered echocardiographic finding in proximal aortic dissection.


Background: Food and Nutrition Security is a multilevel and complex construct, needing a holistic developmental approach, including multiple stakeholders. These projects were implemented by local partners, Lasoona and Doaba Foundation addressing food availability, access, use, utilization, and sustainability through a multi-sectoral approach. The aim of the evaluation was to provide a comprehensive assessment of Food and Nutrition Security projects (1086 and 1087) based on OECD DAC evaluation criteria. Methods: Mixed method approach, quasi-experimental design was used, including desk review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions with target communities, structured interviews of beneficiaries using Household Food Insecurity Assessment Scale (HIFAS) and Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP) scale. Results: According to the HIFAS results, Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) including Kohistan & Sawat were vulnerable with 34% and 15.78 % households facing food insecurity respectively. While in Muzaffargarh, a district of Punjab, 47% households were facing food insecurity. HDDS and IDDS improved considerably in all districts of KP and Punjab. Conclusion: The evaluated projects were social change projects sowing the seeds of a major social paradigm shift - changing the status of women at household and community level. Awareness of malnutrition and balanced diet through community volunteers, peer educators, social mobilizers and outreach workers played a pivotal role. Access and availability of diversified and nutritious food via kitchen gardens and plantation of trees with the use of organic fertilizers was encouraged.


A turbidity time series, recorded every 15 min in a first‐order Scottish stream for more than a year, along with two covariates (stage height and rainfall), is considered. Turbidity time series have complex dynamics because they are nonlinear, nonnormal, nonstationary, with a long memory, and present missing values. Given these issues the turbidity process is analyzed by Markov switching autoregressive models under the Bayesian paradigm. Since the multimodality of the posterior density novel evolutionary Monte Carlo (EMC) algorithms incorporating a few original features are developed to better traverse the posterior surface and escape from local basins of attraction. This because a population of chains are processed in parallel exchanging information one another and with different temperatures attached to each chain. These advanced EMC algorithms allow performing both Bayesian inference and model choice. Hence, it is possible to efficiently fit the actual data, reconstruct the sequence of hidden states, restore the missing values, and classify the observations into a few regimes, providing new insight on turbidity dynamics. A comparison with different nonlinear time series models is also proposed. Finally, a simulation study on the selection of the tuning factors of the EMC algorithm is presented.


This paper is primarily concerned with motion-compensated interpolation of video sequences using multiple images. Due to the extended temporal support of such motion compensation, linear (constant-velocity) trajectory model is often inappropriate, for example due to insuucient temporal sampling. Recently, we have proposed a quadratic (constant-acceleration) trajectory model and a framework for the computation of its parameters. The approach is based on Markov random eld (MRF) models that lead to a regularized formulation solved by mul-tiresolution deterministic relaxation. In this paper, we demonstrate advantages of using accelerated motion over linear trajectories in a plausible application using natural data. We apply the estimated trajectories to motion-compensated interpolation over multiple frames of progressive and interlaced video sequences. The experimental results for \Miss America" (CIF) and \Femme et arbre" (interlaced) show, respectively, a 4 and 2 dB average improvement in the PSNR of the reconstruction error when quadratic trajectories are used instead of the linear ones. It is interesting to note that in \Miss America" the most signiicant improvements can be observed in the area of the mouth and the eyes which are in fact likely to exhibit acceleration. We envisage an application of the proposed method to post-processing in very low bit rate video coding.


The Bravo intrusion is a komatiitic sill that forms part of a feeder system to the Chukotat komatiitic basalts of the Cape Smith Fold Belt in northern Quebec. The sill is of interest because of the large changes in the distribution of chalcophile and siderophile elements within the intrusion. The differences in their distribution are interpreted to be due to the differences in the history of crystallization. contamination and alteration of each of the zones of the intrusion. The concentrations of the lithophile elements, platinum-group elements (PGE), Ni and Cu in tle upper zone of the sill may be modeled as the product of 2590 batch partial melting of a fertile mantle, followed by emplacement of this magma into the crust and accumulation of 40 to 6090 olivine and 0.5 to 190 sulfide during crystallization. The lithophile elements of the lower-zone rocks may be modeled in a similar manner, but the rocks are much richer in Cu, Ag, Rh, Pt and Pd than most komatiites. This enrichment could have been caused by the conttmination of the komatiite magma with a Cu-rich sulfide, which was formed either by paflial melting of a pre-existing igneous sulfide or by fractionation of an igneous sulfide liquid, At the base of the intrusion, there is a chlorite-sulfide zone that is depleted in Si, Mg, Ca, Na, K and Cr, and enriched in Ti, Al, REE, Sc, Y and Zr relative to the enclosing komatiite. The Ni, Os, Ir and Ru contents of the sulfide are similar to those found in sulfide associated with komatiites, but the rock is depleted in Pd, Pt and Au, and richer in Cu and Ag than typical komatiite-associated ores. The chlorite-sulfide zone may represent the product of hydrothermal leaching of a komatiite rich in sulfide.


Soil is the largest carbon pool in the terrestrial ecosystem. Even small changes in the soil carbon pool would have huge impacts on atmospheric CO2 concentrations and thus mitigate or intensify global warming. Global forest contains 383 ± 30 × 10 g carbon stock in soils to a 1-m depth, which is approximately 50% of the carbon stored in the atmosphere. Arid and semiarid areas with more than 30% of the world's land surface are characterized by low and sporadic moisture availability and sparse or discontinuous vegetation, both spatially and temporally. Vegetation, water, and nutrients are intimately coupled in the semiarid environments with strong feedbacks and interactions occurring across fine to coarse scales. In this chapter, we will review the cutting-edge work in forest soil carbon biogeochemistry undertaken in the last three decades. We also attempt to synthesize recent advances in soil carbon biogeochemistry in arid and semiarid regions and discuss future research needs and directions.


Acetabular fractures can be treated with variable method. In this study, acetabular posterior wall fracture was treated with arthroscopic reduction and fixation using cannulated screw. The patient recovered immediately and had a satisfactory outcome. In some case of acetabular fracture could be good indication with additional advantages of joint debridement and loose body removal. So, we report our case with technical note.


When consumers search sequentially for prices and product matches, their beliefs of what they will encounter at the next firm are important in deciding whether or not to continue to search. In search environments where retailers have a common cost that is not known to consumers and is either the outcome of a random process or strategically set by an upstream firm, it is natural for consumers to have symmetric beliefs. We show that market outcomes under symmetric beliefs are quantitatively and qualitatively different from outcomes when consumers hold passive beliefs. Market prices are higher with symmetric beliefs (and can be as high as the joint profit maximizing prices), and are non-monotonic in the search cost. Moreover, price rigidities arise endogenously as retailers are not willing to charge prices above consumers' reservation utility. These phenomena become exacerbated in a vertical relations environment. JEL Classification: D40; D83; L13


Quality, occupational health and safety, and environmental issues are three key areas that, along with productivity and service, must be managed effectively. Organizations face the need to develop integrated systems for the management of these areas. As organizations increasingly need to seek efficiencies, one field in which such integration can bring considerable gains is training. The present paper examines how the requirements for training in different areas overlap and how an integrated training program may be developed.


This paper investigates the influence of individual mobility on consumer choice in the mobile phone market. The aim is to understand whether consumer mobility influences the switching of an individual to another tariff within one mobile operator. Data were obtained from 1,154 mobile phone users of one of the largest mobile operators in Russia for the period from November 2011 to November 2012. Customers had limited choices in fast and low-cost switching from one operator to another. Hence, we use data of users switching between tariffs within one operator. The data were analyzed by a mixed logit model which is applied to a discrete choice from a variety of disordered alternatives. This solves the restriction of the standard logit model by allowing for random taste variation. We developed three mobility metrics limiting the drawbacks of established metrics. The results show that mobility does influence consumer choices. Tariff plans differ from each other according to the categories of people that use them. Subscriber mobility is one of the features that separate these categories. There are tariffs preferred by highly mobile people, and those that are preferred by people with low mobility. When the individual's mobility changes, it is highly likely that she will switch to another tariff plan. Mobile operators should take consumer mobility into account when analyzing consumer behavior to increase retention rates.


Power electronics devices are widely used in power grid associated with loads and renewable energy resources. With increasing penetration levels of these devices, their response characteristics to short circuit events can have significant impact on power system dynamics. Power electronics devices are usually sensitive to voltage sags, they could trip off line under severe voltage disturbances. The ride through capability of these devices determines if they will remain on-line. In this paper, a generic method is proposed on how to evaluate their ride through capability through trip curves. This method is a two-step procedure: Step 1 is to create trip curve of the device; Step 2 is to conduct ride through evaluation based on the created trip curve and short circuit studies. Creating a trip curve for a particular type of power electronics devices is critical. Three case studies are demonstrated in this paper on the trip curve creation for AC variable frequency drives, DC drives and solar photovoltaic inverters based on local and international standards, power grid interconnection requirements, and manufacturer specifications. The proposed method can serve as a general guideline for the trip curve creation for power electronics devices.


Abstract Objective: The study aim determined if low 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels correlated with low levels of adiponectin and insulin resistance in African American adolescents with body mass index ≥85th%. Patients and methods: Fasting blood levels of adiponectin, 25-hydroxy vitamin D, insulin, glucose, lipid, leptin and glycosylated hemoglobin were measured in a total of 34 (19 study and 15 control) African American adolescents between the ages of 10 and 20 years. Nutritional vitamin D intake and body composition measurements were assessed. Insulin resistance was calculated using the homeostasis model assessment. Results: Adiponectin, fasting insulin, glucose, leptin, triglycerides, HDL, and 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels all reached statistical significance in the group with body mass index ≥85th percentile when compared to the control population. There was no difference in vitamin D intake between the two groups. Conclusions: Low vitamin D levels correlated with low adiponectin levels and obesity and insulin resistance.