To determine the likelihood of introgressive hybridisation between Bursaphelenchus xylophilus and B. mucronatus, interbreeding experiments were performed. Of 240 trials involving 24 reciprocal crosses (ten trials per cross, ten virgin females and ten virgin males per trial) between three B. xylophilus isolates and four B. mucronatus isolates under conditions that allowed F1 hybrids to backcross with parents, 174 produced hybrid juveniles. The others failed to generate juveniles. Twenty trials in four crosses successfully established populations which persisted for 65.8-179.5 days, corresponding to 10-40 generations. Analyses of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) fragments for 20 hybrid-derived populations and analysis of inheritance mode of mitochondrial DNA indicated that three crosses produced populations whose members had the B. mucronatus nuclear genome and B. mucronatus or B. xylophilus cytoplasm, whereas the remaining interbreeding produced populations in which 79% of members examined had the B. xylophilus rDNA and cytoplasm and 17% had rDNA fragments of the two species. Populations composed of heterospecific cytonuclear individuals took longer to eat up Botrytis cinerea mycelial mat in a rearing flask than others. Formation of a tail tip mucro in adult females, a characteristic of B. mucronatus, was suggested to be controlled by nuclear and cytoplasmic genes. The results suggested that the introgression of B. xylophilus genes into the B. mucronatus genome was easier than introgression in the opposite direction.


This work describes a simple optical method for obtaining, in a single still-capture image, the continuous absorbance spectra of samples at multiple locations of microsystems. This technique uses an unmodified bright-field microscope, an array of microlenses, and a diffraction grating to disperse the light transmitted by samples of 10- to 500-microm dimensions. By analyzing in a single image the first-order diffracted light, it is possible to collect the full and continuous absorbance spectra of samples at multiple locations (to a spatial resolution of approximately 8 microm) in microwells and microchannels to examine dynamic chemical events (to a time resolution of <10 ms). This article also discusses the optical basis of this method. The simultaneous resolution of wavelength, time, and space at a scale <10 microm provides additional capabilities for chemical and biological analysis.


Prior to re-housing a colony of laboratory short-tail grey opossums, the animals were found to harbour salmonella. This paper describes an unsuccessful attempt to eradicate the infection from the colony by means of antibiotic treatment and hygienic measures. A pilot treatment of five animals which received enrofloxacin 10 mg/kg for 5 days appeared to be successful in that no salmonellae were recovered from faeces or organs sampled after treatment. The process was repeated on the whole colony prior to a change of accommodation but 2 animals were found to be still infected, 5 weeks after cessation of treatment.


An engineered material, possessing a hierarchical porosity in a shape selective manner, was synthesized by placing a microporous silicalite-1 shell over silica microspheres embedded with various guest species. Core materials were prepared by dispersing catalytically important metallic species comprising Co, Mn or Ti, within the mesoporous structure of the silica microspheres with different particle and pore sizes. The connectivity of the micro- and mesopore networks and shell integrity of the final core@shell products were studied as the main quality control criteria by varying synthesis parameters, such as core pre-treatments which include surface modification, seeding and calcination steps and by varying the number of secondary hydrothermal treatments. Depending on the core size and the presence of the guest species, the effectiveness of core seeding is found to be influenced by the chosen surface modification technique, i.e., mesoporous silica microspheres which contain guest species need an additional treatment of chemical functionalization of the external surface with species such as (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane, rather than using a simple surface modification with ionic polymers. It is believed that using such a chemical treatment can strengthen the adhesion of the seeds to the core surface by providing some additional silanol groups and facilitating hydrogen bonding interactions. It is also shown that depending on the core size, two to four short hydrothermal treatments are required to turn the coated seed crystals into a uniform intergrown shell of silicalite-1 around the mesoporous silica microspheres and to avoid aggregation and core dissolution. Such materials with a molecular sieve crystalline shell can be used in a wide variety of applications, particularly for shape-selective adsorption and catalysis purposes.


Mutations in the mitochondrial complex IV assembly factor SURF1 represent a major cause of Leigh syndrome (LS), a rare fatal neurological disorder. SURF1-deficient animals have failed to recapitulate the neuronal pathology of human LS, hindering our understanding of the disease mechanisms. We generated induced pluripotent stem cells from LS patients carrying homozygous SURF1 mutations (SURF1 iPS) and performed biallelic correction via CRISPR/Cas9. In contrast to corrected cells, SURF1 iPS showed impaired neuronal differentiation. Aberrant bioenergetics in SURF1 iPS occurred already in neural progenitor cells (NPCs), disrupting their neurogenic potency. Cerebral organoids from SURF1 iPS were smaller and recapitulated the neurogenesis defects. Our data imply that SURF1 mutations cause a failure in the development of maturing neurons. Using NPC function as an interventional target, we identified SURF1 gene augmentation as a potential strategy for restoring neurogenesis in LS patients carrying SURF1 mutations.


Personalised training of motor and cognitive abilities is fundamental to help older people maintain a good quality of life, especially in case of frailty conditions. However, the training activity can increase the stress level, especially in persons affected by a chronic stress condition. Wearable technologies and m-health solutions can support the person, the medical specialist, and long-term care facilities to efficiently implement personalised therapy solutions by monitoring the stress level of each subject during the motor and cognitive training. In this paper we present a comprehensive work on this topic, starting from a pilot study involving a group of frail older adults suffering from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) who actively participated in cognitive and motor rehabilitation sessions equipped with wearable physiological sensors and a mobile application for physiological monitoring. We analyse the collected data to investigate the stress response of frail older subjects during the therapy, and how the cognitive training is positively affected by physical exercise. Then, we evaluated a stress detection system based on several machine learning algorithms in order to highlight their performances on the real dataset we collected. However, stress detection algorithms generally provide only the identification of a stressful/non stressful event, which is not sufficient to personalise the therapy. Therefore, we propose a mobile system architecture for online stress monitoring able to infer the stress level during a session. The obtained result is then used as input for a Decision Support System (DSS) in order to support the medical user in the definition of a personalised therapy for frail older adults.


Developing autonomy means supporting learners' control over their learning, and likewise teachers' control over their teaching. Throughout the process, reflection is a key. This presentation examines the reflective practice of a group of Chinese EFL secondary teachers about cultivating learner autonomy in the context of an innovative school project. Two questions are addressed: In what ways was learner/teacher control supported in the context? And what reflections did the teachers demonstrate regarding their autonomy-oriented practice?
The participants comprised the school principal, the executive director, and all nine teachers in the English Department. Taking an interpretive naturalistic paradigm, this case study deployed a multi-method approach to data collection, conducted over an academic semester of five months. Data gathered included twenty two classroom observations, fourteen post-lesson discussion sessions, eleven interviews, and numerous field and reflective notes, school documents and classroom materials. The collected data were subjected to a process of grounded analysis, through which important themes were identified by open and axial coding, constant comparison and contrast and iterative checking.
Major findings were summarised into two points. On the part of students, while opportunities to take control were allowed in such activities as pre-lesson presentations, collaborative group work, and peer teaching, few opportunities were observed for students to reflect on their learning and rationalise their participation in these activities. On the part of the teachers, whereas reflective sessions were running weekly in the form of collective post-lesson discussions, the range of topics covered in the discussions was too wide to permit focussed reflection. The study implies that teachers need to develop students' awareness of and ability for reflective learning, and that school managers should guide and support teachers to conduct more purposeful LA-oriented reflective teaching.


The aim of this study was to gather the most relevant and current affairs has on the applicability of the technique of electrocoagulation in removing pollutants in aqueous solutions, as well as the potential to be applied in reducing the very high organic loads presented by the serum derived from the dairy industry in cheese making. A review of electrocoagulation, discussing the challenges and opportunities of this technology, showing its potential application, their advantages and ultimately raised the reaction mechanisms and the design and operation of the reactors. From this perspective, electrocoagulation becomes an electrochemical process that can have successful results in their application by optimizing the factors that shape it, reaching the challenge to protect, conserve and restore water resources. When the whey is also called economic advantage and becomes an aqueous waste is discharged to the canals of sewage, environmental impact magnified by the increase in COD. Apply new techniques to reduce organic loads with high efficiency in this type of waste is a challenge today.Keyword: electrocoagulation; liquid effluents; chemical oxygen demand; zeta potential; efficiency.


A repeating template method is presented for the synthesis of mesoporous metals with 2D hexagonal mesostructures. First, a silica replica (i.e., silica nanorods arranged periodically) is prepared by using 2D hexagonally ordered mesoporous carbon as the template. After that, the obtained silica replica is used as the second template for the preparation of mesoporous ruthenium. After the ruthenium species are introduced into the silica replica, the ruthenium species are then reduced by a vapor-infiltration method by using the reducing agent dimethylamine borane. After the ruthenium deposition, the silica is chemically removed. Analysis by transmission and scanning electron microscopies, a nitrogen-adsorption-desorption isotherm, and small-angle X-ray scattering revealed that the mesoporous ruthenium had a 2D hexagonal mesostructure, although the mesostructural ordering is decreased compared to that of the original mesoporous carbon template. This method is widely applicable to other metal systems. By changing the metal species introduced into the silica replica, several mesoporous metals (palladium and platinum) can be synthesized. Ordered mesoporous ruthenium and palladium, which are not easily attainable by the soft-templating methods, can be prepared. This study has overcome the composition variation limitations of the soft-templating method.


The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History was opened without broad consultation and with the historical view focused on national success. As the Museum was hastily opened, exhibitions are deficient of contents. The most serious problem is the historical view of the Museum. The initiators of the Museum have claimed that it is important to compile and convey Korean history with a "balanced view" and that the exhibitions in the Museum reflect this. However, the contents of the exhibitions are problematic. There are some discrepancies between the contents in the exhibition and the guide book. At a glance, the exhibitions have the appearance of conveying the results of an objective study of modern Korean history, but the historical context is different according to the arrangement of the selected exhibits and the facts. The same problem is seen in the organization and placement of the exhibited items. Also, there is a problem with the arrangement of the exhibits. There is a lack of accurate historical continuity between the establishment of the R.O.K and the U.S. Army Military Government in Korea, nor between the May 16th Coup and Park Jeong Hee's government. Above all, the Museum does not actually show the relationship between state violence and human rights issues and the exhibits should show the pain of the victims if the Museum claims to deal with industrialization and democratization in a balanced way.


Stu Woolman's new book is an ambitious work, which expounds a theory of constitutionalism which breaks with traditional understandings of the self, the social and constitutional law, and seeks to reconceive them in a number of ways. This it does by drawing on a wide variety of scientific fields, theoretical endeavours, analogies and metaphors. To mention but a few examples: global neuronal workspace theory and experimental philosophy are enlisted to problematise and point beyond metaphysical conceptions of selfhood and individual freedom; the notions of feedback mechanisms, choice architecture and social capital are employed to rethink the social and the possibility of social change; and concepts such as shared constitutional interpretation and participatory bubbles are developed as a way out of the stale oppositions that tend to characterise constitutional thought. Throughout, the author takes great pains to relate these diverse concepts and theories to each other, and to weave the different strands into a coherent and defensible theory of constitutional adjudication.


P-Glycoprotein-mediated multidrug resistance is a frequent event during chemotherapy and a key obstacle for bladder cancer therapy. Search for strategies to reverse multidrug resistance is a promising approach to improve the management of bladder cancer. In the present study, we reported a novel P-glycoprotein-mediated multidrug resistant cell model 253J/DOX, which was generated from human bladder cancer 253J cell line. Furthermore, we found that the multidrug resistant phenotype of 253J/DOX cells could be overcome by sinomenine, an alkaloid derived from the stem of Sinomenium acutum. Mechanistically, the chemosensitive effect by sinomenine was mediated by down-regulating P-glycoprotein expression, as well as triggering apoptotic pathways. The chemosensitive effect of sinomenine may make it a prime candidate agent to target bladder cancer.


It is now recognized that during the Pleistocene, or even duringa later prehistoric period, there were in northern Africa human races related to the existing Bushmen and the Hottentots of the south. The shape of the skull in some of the early Egyptians, indeed, suggests relationship to the Bushmen. The discovery in the Anglo- Egyptian Sudan of a new type of fossil human skull with several resemblances to that of a Bushman, is therefore of great interest. The specimen was found in February 1924 by Mr W. R. G. Bond, who was then Governor of the Fung Province of the Anglo-Egyptia Sudan. It was embedded in a limestone concretion, which lay a few feet above low-stage river level on the foreshore of the Blue Nile at Singa about 200 miles south of Khartoum. I have to thank Mr G. W. Grabham, then Government Geologist, for the opportunity of studying the fossil.


abstract:Several scholars give their perspective on the virtual fellowships they received from the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology. Initially, Technology and Culture's public history editors wanted to host a roundtable with these scholars and publish the resulting conversation, but that proved difficult in pandemic-stressed times. Instead, Allison Marsh conducted individual interviews with recent fellows, collating the transcripts in an edited Q&A format. The result is not exactly a conversation, more an anthology of perspectives on the nature of historical research during the pandemic. The fellows unanimously praise the Linda Hall Library staff and the technical support they provided, but they have divergent opinions on the access and usefulness of digitized materials. Their responses show how technology and technical infrastructure fundamentally shape the research process.


Objectives: This study retrospectively evaluated the effectiveness of percutaneous pulley release by our newly designed needle knife in terms of cure, relapse, and complication rates. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and fifty-seven patients were allocated into male and female groups between October 2014 and September 2021. We included patients >15 years of age with a trigger finger (TF) (types II–VI). The primary outcome was the absence of a TF and pain-free movement. In contrast, the secondary outcome included second-time surgery and the number of complications such as infection and admission for antibiotics. Results: One hundred patients were male, and 157 patients were female. Males and females had mean ages of 62.45 ± 11.76 and 61.50 ± 8.57 years, respectively. The operative time was significantly longer in males than in females (7.88 ± 6.02 vs. 6.52 ± 3.74 min in males and females, respectively, P = 0.027). However, the percentages of diabetes mellitus and gout were the same in both groups. For the percutaneous methods with our needle knife, remission of the trigger was achieved in all cases. In addition, seven patients received revision and three patients with complications. After needle surgery, topical and joint pain scores were improved in both groups (from 5.09 ± 1.31 to 0.80 ± 1.56). Conclusion: The percutaneous methods with our needle knife displayed effectiveness. The cure rate was high, and the relapse rate was low. Further large-scale clinical trials comparing percutaneous needle to open surgery for releasing the TF will be needed to confirm our results.


i ABSTRACT Coal fines are generated by the increase in mechanization on coal mines, and have the ability to retain large amounts of moisture due to its inherently large surface areas (Reddick et al., 2007). The bulk of the moisture is retained by fine (-1mm+0.1mm) and ultra-fine (0.15mm+0.1mm) coal fractions, which constitutes about 11% of the nominal product (SANEDI, 2011). This poses a problem for utility companies as moisture retention lowers the effective heating value of the coal. Coal fines are often dewatered, and combined with the coarse coal stream; however, as the coal fines rarely meet the desirable moisture levels, the quality of the final coal product stream suffers (Reddick, 2006). Commonly, fine coal dewatered by the best mechanised methods is still directed to the coarse coal circuit containing approximately 18%wt moisture (Mohanty and Akbari, 2012). Mohanty and Akbari (2012) remarked that by reducing the initial moisture levels of the fine coal by 50%, the overall turnover of a typically colliery can potentially be improved by ±6%. In the past, whenever mechanical dewatering techniques failed to deliver contract specifications, the solution has leaned towards thermal drying, which is the most effective and expensive drying technique (Bratton et al., 2012). Therefore, searches for innovative, cost efficient, and eco-friendly drying techniques have intensified (Bratton et al., 2012). One such advanced dewatering process that was developed employs drying media to adsorb remaining surface moisture from the coal fines after mechanical dewatering. This investigation was primarily focussed on successfully, and feasibly employing adsorbent material to lower the surface moisture content of coal fines. A surface moisture content of 8%wt or 0.08 g(moisture)/g(coal and moisture) was targeted, as dust problems and blending prospects were also considered. During this study, adsorbent assisted drying with integrated fixed-bed and cascading-bed drying techniques were employed to dry mechanically dewatered fine coal. Cascading-bed drying employed motion whilst the fixedbed drying was operated in motionless state. Laboratory-scale experiments were conducted with various operating parameters and it was found that the surface moisture levels of the fine coal was effectively reduced from ±0.30 g(moisture)/g(coal and moisture) to well-below 0.08 g(moisture)/g(coal and moisture) within 10 minutes. The cascading-bed drying technique proved to be considerably less time consuming than the fixed-bed drying technique, which proves motion is of paramount importance when employing adsorbent assisted drying. The best performing adsorbent to coal mass ratio was found to be 2:1, while the -2mm+1mm fine coal delivered the lowest product moisture levels and the 1mm+0.5mm produced the highest overall initial desorption rates during the cascading-bed drying technique. In addition, it was found that alumina and silica-based adsorbent yielded


Low density parity check (LDPC) codes are a class of very powerful error correcting codes. While LDPC codes already have a rich theory, issues specific to implementation are an active area of research. In this paper we look at the issue of designing LDPC codes for multiple-channel communication scenarios. We have proposed a new description of LDPC codes that utilizes the a priori information about noise behavior in such scenarios for performance analysis of LDPC codes. We show that this new description has a better predictive ability than the conventional description.


The histopathologic findings in the temporal bones of four patients with otosclerosis who had stapes operations, each according to a different surgical technique, are discussed. The four surgical methods employed included: 1) stapes interposition with a vein graft; 2) polyethylene strut over a vein graft; 3) fenestration of an obliterated oval window with a teflon piston; and 4) wire prosthesis over a remaining, shattered footplate. The first, third and fourth method provided a very satisfactory seal for the oval window. The polyethylene strut, on the other hand, protruded deeply into the vestibule and was about to perforate through the thinned vein graft. In the three remaining patients, the vestibular end of the prostheses was in fairly good alignment with the level of the oval window. Within the middle ear cavity all prostheses were invested in a thin coat of endothelial cells and connective tissue. Whereas the ring of the teflon piston prosthesis caused no bony atrophy, the stainless steel wire had induced a localized deossification at its site of attachment on the incus. The third and fourth cases disclosed some adhesions in the perilymphatic space around the oval window. All temporal bones revealed no injury to, or rupture of the utricle or saccule.


As Moore's law and Dennard scaling come to an end, new devices and computing architectures are being explored. The development of computing hardware designed to address the rapidly growing need for computational power to accelerate artificial intelligence applications has prompted investigations into both. While silicon photonics is typically viewed as a communications platform, we discuss its application to artificial intelligence and some outstanding challenges to be addressed.


General practice provides many opportunities for health education and for giving advice that may help prevent the spread of HIV infection. This article looks at some of the opportunities and problems.


The local ramp metering strategy ALINEA is the only available feedback strategy that is based on powerful and robust automatic control methods. A number of modifications and extensions were proposed to address specific issues and needs not covered by ALINEA. More specifically, the following new local ramp metering strategies are presented: FL-ALINEA is a flow-based strategy, UP-ALINEA is an upstream-occupancy-based version, and UF-ALINEA is an upstream-flow-based strategy. X-ALINEA/Q is a combination of any of the preceding strategies with efficient rampqueue control to avoid interference with surface street traffic. The new local ramp metering strategies are discussed with respect to their features, their limitations, and their relation to available strategies. Macroscopic simulation investigations demonstrate the capabilities and limitations of the new strategies.


Large healthcare databases maintained by health plans have been widely used to conduct customized protocol‐based epidemiological safety studies as well as targeted routine sequential monitoring of suspected adverse events for newly licensed vaccines. These databases also offer a rich data source to discover vaccine‐related adverse events not known prior to licensure using data mining methods, but they remain relatively under‐utilized for this purpose. Initial safety applications of data mining methods using 'big healthcare data' are promising, but stronger integration of database expertize, epidemiological design, and statistical analysis strategies are needed to better leverage the available information, reduce bias, and improve reporting transparency. We enumerate major methodological challenges in mining large healthcare databases for vaccine safety research, describe existing strategies that have been used to address these issues, and identify opportunities for methodological advancements that emphasize the importance of adapting techniques used in customized protocol‐based vaccine safety assessments. Investment in such research methods and in the development of deeper collaborations between database safety experts and data mining methodologists has great potential to improve existing safety surveillance programs and further increase public confidence in the safety of newly licensed vaccines.


Background Current knowledge regarding chronic use of psychotropic medications during breastfeeding is limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate the long-term effects of psychotropic monotherapy use during lactation on the breastfed infant. Materials and methods In this prospective study, we followed 280 infants whose mothers contacted the Drug Consultation Center (DCC) at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center between January 2011 and December 2015, seeking information regarding the chronic use of psychotropic medications during lactation. This group was compared with a group of 152 callers, who inquired evidence regarding the use of antibiotics compatible with breastfeeding. Information on adverse effects, physical measures and gross motor developmental milestone achievements of the breastfed infants was obtained during a follow-up telephone interview. At follow up, the median age of the infants in the Psychotropic-drug group was 20 (11–33) months versus 36 (20–48) months in the Antibiotic group (p < 0.001). The outcomes were compared between the groups followed by a propensity score matching to control for difference in baseline characteristics. Results At follow-up, no significant differences between infants in the two groups were observed with regard to height, weight, head circumference and weight-length ratio percentile (p = 0.339, p = 0.223, p = 0.738, p = 0.926, respectively). Children in both groups were, according to their parents, within the normal developmental range for all milestones, according to the Denver Developmental Scale. Use of psychotropic medications during breastfeeding was not significantly associated with adverse reactions. After propensity score matching (n = 120 pairs) to control for differences in baseline characteristics and the length of lactation, only one significant difference was reported, sleepiness in infants in the study group (7/120) and none in the comparison group (p = 0.008). Conclusions Chronic use of psychotropic monotherapy during lactation is associated with normal growth and gross motor developmental as by milestone achievements reported by parents. Sleepiness was reported, it seemed self-limited with no developmental effect.


Abstract —To analyze in vitro the migration of monocytes to the subendothelial space, their differentiation into macrophages, and the subsequent formation of foam cells in vitro, we have developed a 2-coculture system with rabbit aortic endothelial cells (AECs), aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs), and a mixture of matrix proteins on polyethylene filters in chemotaxis chambers. AECs were seeded on a mixture of type I and IV collagen with or without various types of serum lipoproteins (method 1) or on matrix proteins secreted by SMCs (method 2). In these coculture systems, rabbit AECs can maintain a well-preserved monolayer for up to 2 weeks. When human CD14-positive monocytes were added to the upper medium of the system, with monocyte chemotactic protein-1 treatment ≈60% of the monocytes transmigrated within 24 hours and were retained for up to 7 days, whereas without MCP-1 treatment,


The application of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to chemistry and biochemistry allows various reactions to be performed in microscale compartments. Here, we aimed to use the glass microchamber to study the compartment size dependency of the protein synthesis, one of the most important reactions in the cell. By encapsulating the cell-free protein synthesis system with different reaction orders in femtoliter microchambers, chamber size dependency of the reaction initiated with a constant copy number of DNA was investigated. We were able to observe the properties specific to the high order reactions in microcompartments with high precision and found the presence of an optimum compartment volume for a high-order reaction using real biological molecules.


This paper presents a novel technique for DDFS based on proposed collapsed modified CORDIC algorithm. The design based on this technique is highly area and power efficient and is capable of computing cosine and sine values in a single cycle at high clock rate. The design presented in this paper is part of a high rate communication system and is mapped on Xilinx Virtex 2 series FPGA XC2V6000. It synthesized at 100 MHz without any pipelining and 175 MHz with single stage pipeline.


In this paper we present results from an ongoing controller comparison study at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) National Wind Technology Center (NWTC). The intention of the study is to demonstrate the advantage of using modern multivariable methods for designing control systems for wind turbines versus conventional approaches. We will demonstrate the advantages through field-test results from experimental turbines located at the NWTC. At least two controllers are being developed side-by-side to meet an incrementally increasing number of turbine load-reduction objectives. The first, a multiple single-input, single-output (m-SISO) approach, uses separately developed decoupled and classicially tuned controllers, which is, to the best of our knowledge, common practice in the wind industry. The remaining controllers are developed using state-space multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) techniques to explicity account for coupling between loops and to optimize given known frequency structures of the turbine and disturbance. In this first publication from the study, we present the structure of the ongoing controller comparison experiment, the design process for the two controllers compared in this phase, and initial comparison results obtained in field-testing.


This paper investigates compensation of voltage sag due to faults in distribution system for a doubly fed induction motor(DFIG) configuration using dynamic voltage restorer(DVR). Series compensation of terminal voltage during fault conditions using DVR is carried out by injecting voltage at the point of common coupling to the grid voltage to maintain constant DFIG stator voltage. However, the control of the DVR is crucial in order to improve the FRT capability in the DFIG-based wind turbines.wind turbine is controlled by pitch angle which controls the rotor and stator currents of induction generator under different wind speeds. DVR injects voltage in series using vector control which compensates voltage quality problems. The proposed work is verified using matlab/ Simulink software. Keywords: DFIG,DVR.Voltage sag,FRT DOI : 10.7176/ISDE/10-2-02


Istvan Deak's study of the Hapsburg officer corps is engaging on many levels: Deak weaves his father, an officer during World War I, into the story without sentimentality; he deftly blends statistical and anecdotal evidence; and he has a gift for concise exposition of the main elements of Hapsburg history and relating his subject to them. Above all, the thesis that animates his book—that the Hapsburg officer corps transcended ethnic identity and largely for that reason was the institution that held the monarchy together—touches on one of the most important problems of central Europe's past and present. Deak explicitly contrasts the antinationalism of the Hapsburg monarchy and its army to the tangled nationality conflicts that followed 1918 and finds favor with the Hapsburgs. Deak finds evidence of the army's indifference to ethnicity everywhere: in the absence of ethnic favoritism in promotion, the extraordinarily high proportion of Jews (over 18 percent in 1900) among reserve officers, the requirement that officers learn the languages of the men in their regiment, and the explicit antinationalism of ethnically German officers. Deak demonstrates that the official statistics according to which roughly 80 percent of officers were German could not have been correct and suggests that the true figure was closer to 50 percent. The rest, he says, had assimilated to the army and its language of command, not to a dominant German nationality. Indeed, he claims that many officers, coming from military families and moving frequently from post to post, had no nationality. When the empire dissolved into national states, these anational officers had great difficulty deciding which was their home. Admirable as their indifference to ethnicity may have been, however, the officers' dynastic loyalty was by the early twentieth century otherworldly at best, inherently repressive at worst. Deak's detachment from the ethnic passions of Eastern Europe does occasionally verge on sentimental nostalgia for the imperial past. Deak covers many other aspects of the Hapsburg officer experience as well: their poverty and debts, their caste honor, the declining proportion of nobles among them, the obstacles to marriage (almost 60 percent of a sample of 486 lieutenants of 1870 did not marry during their military careers), homoeroticism in the military schools, and the boredom of garrison life. He has little to say about what officers actually did when on duty or about the correspondence between their training and their service in peace and war, but, of course, for most of this period the Austro-Hungarian army was at peace, and Deak did not set out to write a military history of the officer corps. On the other hand, as this work is in part political history, Deak might have said something about the line officers' attitude toward the political and military aggressiveness of Conrad and other military leaders in the decade before their last war. This lack, if such it be, detracts very little from this delightful book.


Research efforts on Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) for industrial applications have constantly been increasing over the last years. The use of DLTs in the Industry 4.0 paradigm provides traceability, integrity, and immutability of the generated industrial data. However, Industry 4.0 ecosystems are typically composed of multiple smart factory clusters belonging to several companies, which are immersed in constant interaction with other business partners, clients, or suppliers. In such complex ecosystems, multiple DLTs are necessarily employed to maintain the integrity of the data throughout the whole process, from when the data is generated until it is processed at higher levels. Moreover, industrial data is commonly heterogeneous, which causes compatibility issues, along with security and efficiency issues in the homogenization process. Thus, the data needs to be pre-processed and homogenized in a secure manner before being exploited. Consequently, in this work, we address the issues mentioned above by providing an industrial raw data pre-processing and homogenization process according to a standard data model. We employ decentralized blockchain oracles to guarantee the integrity of the external data during the homogenization process. Hereafter, we design an interoperable plant blockchain for trustworthy storage and processing of the resulting homogenized data across several industrial plants. We also present a prototype implementation of the aforementioned scheme and discuss its effectiveness. Finally, we design a monitoring scheme to overview the usage the performance of the architecture processes and identify possible performance and security issues.


By considering the influences of PPL(Product Placement) commercial model on consumers' attitude to clothing brand as a commercial effect of PPL, this study intends to identify how much differently they take an attitude to clothing brands before and after exposed to PPL commercials, and also identify how much differently they take their attitude to the brands depending upon PPL commercial models. In the step of experimental design, a previous survey was performed to identify how consumers take their attitude to commercial models and brands before exposed to PPL commercials. And every subject was asked to watch video films with brand logos exposed. The results of experiment can be summarized as follows: After all subjects were exposed to PPL commercials, in general, their attitude to commercial models had more or less effects on the change of their attitude. Meanwhile, the interaction between their attitude to model and clothing brands respectively had somewhat significant influences only on brand recognition. This study verified that PPL commercial models had significant influences on consumers' attitude to brands. These results imply that a PPL commercial strategy in fashion industry should be made focusing on the respective roles of PPL commercial models.


Ingestion of paraquat is the most common cause of fatal pesticide poisoning. Liver involvement in acute paraquat poisoning is self-limited and usually consists of cholestasis. However, long-term hepatic effects after paraquat exposition have not been described up to now, probably because of the high mortality rate of this acute poisoning. We report the case of an agricultural worker who developed persistent cholestasis after an episode of acute paraquat poisoning through skin absorption.


Employers have moved away from traditional defined benefit pension plans to defined contribution plans such as 401(k)s. As a result, many individuals are now required to make their own retirement saving and investment decisions, which has raised concerns about their ability and desire to handle these decisions. Since investment choices have major implications for future financial welfare, it is important to understand how individuals make these decisions and to identify potential ways to improve the decisionmaking process. Researchers have explored various factors affecting retirement saving, such as income, age, job tenure, self-control failure, financial literacy and trust. No prior research, however, has looked at the effects of emotions on retirement savings. This Issue in Brief examines how two different emotions – hope and hopefulness – affect 401(k) participation and asset allocation. The first section defines the terms. The second section describes the structure of a recent field experiment. The third section summarizes the results, which reveal that having high hope (i.e. yearning) – for a secure retirement leads to different investment behaviors than having high hopefulness


A biosensor for the detection of E. coli O157: H7 bacterium has been designed by using the mean of an organic field effect transistor, and the behavior of the sensor was studied and analyzed under a simulated environment. The design of biosensor includes two essential parts: scheming the structure and choosing the material. In the structure part, an OCMFET configuration, previously used for DNA hybridization, for the first time has been employed for the detection of E. coli with some modifications. In the modified structure, a microfluidic pathway has been added to let the analyte in and out, which makes it possible to detect low volumes of the bacterium in the stream of analyte efficiently and quickly. For the material part, Pentacene, as an organic semiconductor, has been used due to its valuable parameters such as environmental compatibility, cheapness, and easy manufacturing processes. The simulation results are shown 2 minutes after applying the analyte, containing 100 CFU/mL E. coli, 35 bacteria adhere to the active area of the device, leading to a 72 mV shift in the I-V curve. This shift reaches about 174 mV for 86 contained bacteria within 5 minutes which indicates high sensitivity of the sensor. The fast response time, notable sensitivity, biocompatibility, fabricability with current technology, and affordability are among the other benefits of this structure.


In order to transmit parameter information of the power battery management system on electric vehicles to the overall control unit timely and accurately, the paper comes up with a solution of dual CPU fast parallel communication. In the example of the Ni-MH power battery management system applied on some hybrid power electric vehicles, the paper elaborates the application principles, and operation procedures of dual CPU fast parallel communication technology and software design of C8051F040/ C8051F060 SCM parallel communication. With the technology, transmission speed of the battery management system information has fully meet the period requirement of 10ms. Model hybrid power electric vehicles with the battery management system have successfully been in function.


Due to their employment and the national GDP, SMEs' relevance generates interest in promoting their growth through internationalization. From this scenario, its business structure is an advantage for internationalization, allowing greater adaptability to change. Through the Neo Institutional analysis, this research highlights the need to study the game rules that can affect SMEs as an essential factor for developing internationalization as a growth strategy based on the importance of institutions (formal and informal rules of the game) as part of that environment. The result of the investigation points to the conclusion that there would be a strong influence of the institutional environment or framework of the rules of the game in the low levels of internationalization of Ecuadorian SMEs. Therefore, it is necessary to promote actions that improve the said environment (an institutional amalgam of SMEs) and thereby reduce the transaction costs present in the internationalization process and promote a collaborative institutional environment that favors the appearance of incentives that positively affect the business climate for SMEs and, therefore, in their systemic competitiveness.


This study investigated the use of block quotations (BQs) in 25 English Literature
(EL) and Applied Linguistics (AL) articles published in 2007-2009 in five volumes
of an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) academic journal. A block quotation is a
direct quotation that consists of four or more lines, presented in a text by indenting
its beginning on the left side of the text and without using quotation marks. Findings
show (a) the use of BQs as a whole in the EL and AL articles; (b) the frequency of
BQs in the sections of the articles; and (c) the appropriateness of the use of the BQs
in the articles. This study is significant to support the argument that the ways of
integrating the borrowed words and ideas in the texts of the borrowers may vary
depending on the borrowers' backgrounds and their knowledge and skills of
producing academic texts.


A century-long debate on bodily states and emotions persists. While the involvement of bodily activity in emotion physiology is widely recognized, the specificity and causal role of such activity related to brain dynamics has not yet been demonstrated. We hypothesize that the peripheral neural monitoring and control of cardiovascular activity prompts and sustains brain dynamics during an emotional experience, so these afferent inputs are processed by the brain by triggering a concurrent efferent information transfer to the body. To this end, we investigated the functional brain-heart interplay under emotion elicitation in publicly available data from 62 healthy participants using a computational model based on synthetic data generation of EEG and ECG signals. Our findings show that sympathovagal activity plays a leading and causal role in initiating the emotional response, in which ascending modulations from vagal activity precede neural dynamics and correlate to the reported level of arousal. The subsequent dynamic interplay observed between the central and autonomic nervous systems sustains emotional processing. These findings should be particularly revealing for the psychophysiology and neuroscience of emotions. Significance We investigate the temporal dynamics of brain and cardiac activities in healthy subjects who underwent an emotional elicitation through videos. We demonstrate that, within the first few seconds, emotional stimuli modulate the heart activity, which in turn stimulate an emotion-specific cortical response in the brain. Then, the conscious emotional experience is sustained by a bidirectional brain-heart interplay and information exchange. Moreover, the perceived intensity of an emotional stimulus is predicted by the intensity of neural control regulating the heart activity. These findings may constitute the fundamental knowledge linking neurophysiology and psychiatric disorders, including the link between depressive symptoms and cardiovascular disorders.


We study quantum ferrimagnets in one, two, and three dimensions by using a variety of methods and approximations. These include: (i) a treatment based on the spin coherent state path-integral formulation of quantum ferrimagnets by taking into account the leading order quantum and thermal fluctuations (ii) a field-theoretical (non-linear $\sigma$-model type) formulation of the special case of one-dimensional quantum ferrimagnets at zero temperature (iii) an effective description in terms of dimers and quantum rotors, and (iv) a quantum renormalization group study of ferrimagnetic Heisenberg chains. Some of the formalism discussed here can be used for a unified treatment of both ferromagnets and antiferromagnets in the semiclassical limit. We show that the low (high) energy effective Hamiltonian of a (S_1, S_2) Heisenberg ferrimagnet is a ferromagnetic (antiferromagnetic) Heisenberg model. We also study the phase diagram of quantum ferrimagnets in the presence of an external magnetic field h ($h_{c1}<h<h_{c2}$) and show that the low- and the high-field phases correspond respectively to the classical N\'eel and the fully polarized ferromagnetic states. We also calculate the transition temperature for the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition in the special case of two-dimensional quantum ferrimagnets.


Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the epicardial fat tissue thickness (EFTT) and serum omentin levels in patients with cardiac syndrome X (CSX). Patients and Methods: A total of 51 patients with CSX admitted to our clinic were included in the patient group, and 46 healthy subjects were included in the control group. Demographics, routine laboratory tests, and high sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels of all patients were recorded. The EFTT was measured with transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). Serum omentin levels were measured with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: The EFTT was significantly higher in the CSX group (p< 0.001). Serum omentin levels were significantly lower in patients with CSX in comparison with the control group (p< 0.001). The median age was significantly higher in the CSX group (p< 0.001). The white blood count and hsCRP levels showed no significant difference between the CSX and the control group (p= 0.46 and p= 0.49, respectively). Conclusion: In our study, we found increased epicardial fat tissue (EFT) thickness and decreased serum omentin levels in patients with CSX, a finding similar with the literature. Thus, increased EFT thickness may play a role in the pathophysiology of CSX by causing a decrease in the serum omentin level.


Professor Holdsworth's book belongs to the "Studies in Theology" series and is a fresh handling of the comvlicated synoptic question. He calls Mark "Proto-Mark," Matthew "Deutero-Mark, "and Luke" Trito-Mark. " He finds the solution not in oral tradition, but in the documentary hypothesis. While confident, he is not dogmatic in his position. The book is a good introduction to the modern aspects of the difficulties of the synoptic question. A. T. ROBERTSON.


FireProt is a web server for an automated design of thermostable mutants. The design of thermostable mutants is based on the integration of structural and evolutionary information obtained from several bioinformatics databases and computational tools. FireProt strategy combines energy- and evolution-based approaches together with several filters that accelerate the calculation by omitting potentially deleterious mutations. Within its workflow, FireProt integrates 16 computational tools, utilizing both sequence and structural information in the process. FireProt web server provides users with a one-stop-shop solution for the design of thermostable proteins, constructed by three distinct strategies: (i) evolution-based approach, utilizing back-to-consensus analysis; (ii) energy-based approach, using conservation, correlation and energy information and (iii) combined approach. Furthermore, the server allows users to include user-defined mutations into the constructed thermostable protein and generate corresponding sequences in the FASTA format. The results are visualized in the web browser in an intuitive and comprehensive way, allowing users to directly analyze the designed proteins.


This work presents the novel application of attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (ATR-FTIR) imaging to study the dissolution of ibuprofen form tablets in which the internal pH of the matrix has been modified by addition of acidic and basic powders to the formulations. Acidic additives to the matrix retarded the dissolution of crystalline ibuprofen domains. Basic additives formed both soluble and insoluble salts with the ibuprofen depending on the pH modifier added. Tablets consisting of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, ibuprofen, and an acidic or basic additive were studied. FTIR imaging in ATR mode was used for analysis of water ingress into the tablet and the presence, distribution, and chemical state of the drug. The FTIR imaging data showed distinct changes in the dissolution of crystalline ibuprofen between the formulations with different pH modifiers. In the basic formulations, FTIR imaging identified the formation of salts. The sodium salt formed was highly soluble and enhanced dissolution, whereas the calcium salt was highly insoluble and slowed the dissolution. FTIR imaging has produced important data concerning the internal matrix dissolution performance.


This paper presents the feasibility of damage detection in the asphalt pavements by embedded fiber optics as a new non-destructive inspection technique. The distributed fiber optic sensing technology called ORayleigh techniquei was used in this study. The main advantage of this technique is that it allows to measure strains over long length of fiber optic with a high spatial resolution, less than 1 cm. By comparing strain profiles measured at different time, an attempt was made to link strain changes with the appearance of damage (cracking) in the pavement. This non-destructive method was evaluated on the IFSTTAR accelerated pavement testing facility, in a bituminous pavement. In our experimentation, the optical fibers were placed near the bottom of the asphalt layer. The application of 728 000 heavy vehicle loads (65 KN dual wheel loads) was simulated in the experiment. Optical fiber measurements were made at regular intervals and surface cracking of the pavement was surveyed. After some traffic, a significant increase of strains was detected by the optical fibers at different points in the pavement structure, before any damage was visible. Later, cracking developed in the zones where the strain profiles were modified, thus indicating a clear relationship between the increased strains and crack initiation. These first tests demonstrate that distributed fiber optic sensor based on Rayleigh sensing technique can be used to detect crack initiation and propagation in pavements, by monitoring strain profiles in the bituminous layers.


Abstract Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design(G-SEED) has been implemented for the realization of sustainable development and resource-saving and eco-friendly buildings from 2002. Studies about the green buildings are made actively andis being developed through constant revision. However, study results of green building have not been fully reflected in the standard. Therefore, this study analyzes the previous studies about G-SEED for school facilities and check the degree of to reflect the problems and improvements suggested in previous studies. This study will be a reference of future revision Substantial problems and requirements are not reflected in revision standard. Proposed improvement requirements are classedas to improve the items(establish specific standards, supplementation), strengthen standards(designate the prerequisite items), propose a new evaluation method, add new items. delete exist items and adjust the score. Therefore, future revision of G-SEEDfor school facilities should reflect the results of previous studies.


In this paper, we introduce the notion of fuzzy ideals in fuzzy supra topological spaces. The concept of a fuzzy s-local function is also introduced here by utilizing the s-neighbourhood structure for a fuzzy supra topological space. These concepts are discussed with a view to nd new fuzzy supra topologies from the original one. The basic structure, especially a basis for such generated fuzzy supra topologies and several relations between different fuzzy ideals and fuzzy supra topologies are also studied here. Moreover, we introduce a fuzzy set operator ΨS and study its properties. Finally, we introduce some sets of fuzzy ideal supra topological spaces (fuzzy *-supra dense-in-itself sets, fuzzy S*-supra closed sets, fuzzy *-supra perfect sets, fuzzy regular-I-supra closed sets, fuzzy-I-supra open sets, fuzzy semi-I-supra open sets, fuzzy pre-I-supra open sets, fuzzy α-I-supra open sets, fuzzy β-I-supra open sets) and study some characteristics of theses sets and then we introduce some fuzzy ideal supra continuous functions.


Background The spondyloarthritis (SpA) are a group of chronic inflammatory diseases with common clinical, pathogenic, radiologic and genetic characteristics. The anti-TNF drugs have shown be efficacious when treatment with NSAIDs and DMARDs fails. However, the paradoxical onset of these diseases have been reported during anti-TNF therapy, specifically psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and uveitis, in both patients with history of SpA and patients with not-related diseases as rheumatoid arthritis. We present a series of 4 cases with previous SpA history who developed IBD during anti-TNF therapy. Objectives To describe the clinical and immunological characteristics, and outcome of patients with SpA who developed IBD during anti-TNF therapy. Methods A retrospective, observational and transversal study was carried out. The register of biological therapies of a university hospital was revised and SpA patients who developed IBD during anti-TNF therapy were identified, then obtaining their medical records for data recollection and analysis. Results 82 SpA patients were identified (including ankylosing spondylitis [AS], psoriatic artritis, undifferentiated and juvenile SpA), who received 219 treatment doses. 68 patients received [IFX] (253 patient-years), 88 patients adalimumab [ADA] (225 patient-years) and 63 con [ETN] (181 patient-years). 4 cases of IBD were identified and all of these occurred with ETN, with an accumulated incidence of 2,2 cases by 100 patient-years of exposure. 2 patients were males and 2 females, with a mean age of 44,2 years (23-56). The elapsed time since beggining of anti-TNF therapy until IBD diagnose was 29,5 months (2-59). All the patients were previously diagnosed of SpA, 3 AS and 1 undifferentiated SpA, being all of them HLA-B27 positive. None of them had previous history of digestive complaints, but there was positive family history of IBD in 2 of them. Symptoms that guided to diagnose were persistent diarrhoea in 2 patients, whereas the other 2 presented intestinal obstruction and rectorrhagia. Endoscopic and histophatological findings were compatible with Crohn's disease (CD) in 2 patients and with ulcerative colitis (UC) in the other 2. ETN was withdrawn in all patients and switched to a monoclonal antibody with control of IBD, but 1 patient presented palmoplantar pustulosis as second paradoxical event during IFX treatment. Conclusions Although SpA patients have a increased background risk of IBD development, the clinical onset of IBD during anti-TNF therapy is a rare event and most of the cases have been reported with ETN. This drug, unlike of monoclonal antibodies, does not control the inflammatory activity in IBD and its use is not recommended in these diseases. Most of cases of IBD during anti-TNF therapy correspond to CD, but UC has been reported too. In this series, we found the same number of both. It's recommendable to watch the occurrence of suggestive symptoms of IBD in all patients who receive anti-TNF therapy, and perform a more exhaustive study in patients with risk factors as family history of IDB or SpA diagnose. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Among poly aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxin and PCBs are the most controversial environmental pollutants in our modern life. These pollutants are known as human carcinogens, and liver is the most sensitive target in animal cancer models. Specific aims of the study were focused on the mechanism of carcinogenesis in hepatocytes and the structure-activity relation among these diverse environmental chemicals. Because key mechanisms of dioxin-induced carcinogenesis in human epithelial cell model are the alteration of signal transduction pathway and PKC isoforms, the alteration of the signal transduction pathways and other factors associated with carcinogenesis were studied. Rat hepatocytes cultured under the sandwich protocols were exposed with the various concentration of dioxins and PCBs, and signal transduction pathway, protein kinase C isoforms, oxidant stress, and apoptotic nuclei were evaluated. Since it is important to understand the structure-activity relation among these chemicals to properly assess the carcinogenic potentials, the study analyzed the parameters associated with carcinogenic processes, based on their structural characteristics. In addition, signal transduction pathways and PKC isoforms involved in inhibition of UV-induced apoptosis were also analyzed to elaborate the tumor promotion mechanism of these chemicals. Induction of apoptosis by UV irradiation was optimal at 60 J/㎡ in primary hepatocyte in culture. Compared to non coplanar PCBs such as PCB 114 and PCB 153, coplanar PCBs such as PCB 77 and PCB126 showed a stronger inhibition of apoptosis induced by UV irradiation. Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was more stimulated by non-coplanar PCBs than coplanar PCBs with the most potent induction of ROS by chlorinated non-coplanar PCB. As compared to the level of induction by PCB126, non-coplanar PCB153 showed a higher increase of intracellular concentrations. Besides the alteration of intracellular calcium concentration, translocation of PKC from cytosolic fraction to membrane fraction was clearly observed upon the exposure of non-coplanar PCB. Taken together, the present study demonstrated that there is a potent structure-activity relationship among PCB congeners and the mechanism of PAH-induced carcinogenesis is structure-specific. The study suggested that more diverse pathways of PAH-induced carcinogenesis should be taken into account beyond the boundary of Ah receptor dogma to assess the health impact of PAH with more accuracy.


Sequential pattern mining is a crucial but challenging task in many applications, e.g., analyzing the behaviors of data in transactions and discovering frequent patterns in time series data. This task becomes difficult when valuable patterns are locally or implicitly involved in noisy data. In this paper, we propose a method for mining such local patterns from sequences. Using rough set theory, we describe an algorithm for generating decision rules that take into account local patterns for arriving at a particular decision. To apply sequential data to rough set theory, the size of local patterns is specified, allowing a set of sequences to be transformed into a sequential information system. We use the discernibility of decision classes to establish evaluation criteria for the decision rules in the sequential information system.


Edible protein fibers were produced by a wet Spinning technique from dopes, containing antarctic Krill (Euphausia superba) muscle proteins and Na-alginate, prepared at neutral pH. Spinnability of dopes was closely related to the composition of dopes. For the dopes with low protein contents, good spinnability was only observed when protein/Na-alginate ratios were low. But when protein contents increased, an increasing protein/Na-alginate ratio was required to keep the dopes within the good spinnability zone. As protein/Naalginate ratios were 4/1 and 5/1, fibers produced from spinning dopes containing 7% protein showed adequate strength. Variations of fiber strength due to changes in such process variables, as protein and Na-alginate contents in the dopes, CaCl2 concentration and pH of the coagulation solution, were monitored. Results predicted by Sheffe's Simplex Lattice Design showed that satisfactory products were acquirable by extrusion of the dope, containing 7% protein and 1.8% Na-alginate, into a weak basic coagulation solution of 3.8% (w/v) CaCl2. Addition of reducing agents to the dopes lowered the fiber strength. Recovery of proteins increased with the increases of Na-alginate content in the dope and CaCl2 concentration in the coagulation solution.


Physical activity is one important aspect in user behavior analysis. Abnormal movement behavior might be an indicator for an inappropriate lifestyle, insufficient social inclusion, or generally disadvantageous life conditions which might call for medical treatment. Assistive technologies can make use of information on the physical activity of e.g. residents of a nursing home or elderly patients living alone at home. In this paper, we present a mobile technology for identifying movement behavior in everyday life. A three-dimensional acceleration sensor is used to determine physical activity by domain specific feature extraction. By use of data mining techniques and a feature set extracted from everyday usage data, we achieve a high quality and robust classification of physical activity. This can be used for further user behavior analysis. Especially non-linear features like step-detection, horizontal and vertical acceleration as well as spectral analysis proved to be very powerful. A proof-of concept prototype is described which shows the applicability of the developed technologies in everyday life.


In its integrated form. SV-40 DNA offers an opportunity to observe the behavior of what is in effect a viral genome within a cellular genome, with transcriptional and translational products that can be clearly distinguished from those of the host cell. Exposure of SV40-transformed human fibroblasts to a 60 Hz continuous-wave sinusoidal electromagnetic (EM) field resulted in increased levels of virally derived mRNA and protein of large T-antigen. These findings provide evidence that a foreign DNA integrated into cells can be affected by EM fields under conditions known to cause increased transcripts from endogenous cellular genes.


Abstract This paper presents a high speed, real-time, low cost, and effective visual tracking system using two webcams. The tracking system integrates freeware programs and visual basic code to process images in order to accurately determine the target location. A computer manages the image processing through a tunable tracking rule to monitor and lock on the target quickly. A complex judge rule is used to scan for the target and the actual location is determined using simple trigonometric relationships. The capabilities of the tracking system are checked through several experiments and the results are presented in this paper.


Due to their unique chemical properties, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been used extensively as industrial surfactants and processing aids. While several types of PFAS have been voluntarily phased out by their manufacturers, these chemicals continue to be of ecological and public health concern due to their persistence in the environment and their presence in living organisms. Moreover, while the compounds referred to as "legacy" PFAS remain in the environment, alternative compounds have emerged as replacements for their legacy predecessors and are now detected in numerous matrices. In this review, we discuss the historical uses of PFAS, recent advances in analytical techniques for analysis of these compounds, and the fate of PFAS in the environment. In addition, we evaluate current biomonitoring studies of human exposure to legacy and emerging PFAS and examine the associations of PFAS exposure with human health impacts, including cancer- and non-cancer-related outcomes. Special focus is given to short-chain perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) and ether-substituted, polyfluoroalkyl alternatives including hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA; tradename GenX), 4,8-dioxa-3H-perfluorononanoic acid (DONA), and 6:2 chlorinated polyfluoroethersulfonic acid (6:2 Cl-PFESA; tradename F-53B).


The ANZDATA Registry includes all patients treated with renal replacement therapy (RRT) throughout Australia and New Zealand. Funding is predominantly from government sources, together with the non-government organization Kidney Health Australia. Registry operations are overseen by an Executive committee, and a Steering Committee with wide representation. Data is collected from renal units throughout Australia and New Zealand on a regular basis, and forwarded to the Registry. Areas covered include demographic details, primary renal disease, type of renal replacement therapy, process measures, and a variety of outcomes. From this data collection a number of themes of work are produced. These include production of Registry reports with an extensive range of national and regional data, a suite of quality assurance reports, key process indicator (KPI) reports, and data sets for a variety of audit and research purposes. The various types of information from the ANZDATA Registry are used in a wide variety of areas, including health services planning, safety and quality programs, and clinical research projects. Kidney International Supplements (2015) 5, 39–44; doi:10.1038/kisup.2015.8


The platform STELLA MARE (Sustainable TEchnologies for LittoraL Aquaculture and MArine REsearch) has for objective to bring responses in the management of the sea in relation with the professional fishing. In this paper, we introduce an experiment on the monitoring of Homarus Gammarus. Using a passive tracking methodology using an acoustic wireless sensor network (AWSN), we try to follow some individuals, to define movement. The main objective is to build a lobster path according to the collected signal according a classical localization method to test our tracking method. Using a smoothing method and some resolution algorithms we are able to deduct a behaviour of tagged lobsters in an experimental area. This paper describes our methodology to estimate lobsters position according to data collected by an AWSN. This work represent a first step before the building a lobster model to simulate its behaviour in Corsican Mediterranean conditions.


Reforms in public expenditure management in India, especially in accounting and administrative processes, have lagged behind the reforms in public revenue management. Lack of uniform accounting codes, limited data standards, and standalone systems across different tiers of governments have led to issues related to data comparability, data aggregability, and misclassification of data. In addition, lack of a single source of truth and inadequate end-to-end digital data capture limits the efficiency, tractability, and accountability of public funds. Limited just-in-time fund-flows, where fund disbursals and actual expenditures are not in tandem, further increases the uncertainty in government transactions. This study identifies the touchpoints where mainstreaming digitalization could address these fundamental challenges of public expenditure management through an actionable roadmap in the form of d4PEAT framework. A composite score under d4PEAT framework for each level of government is calculated, which can be used to rank their performances and assess the progress made in mainstreaming digitalization of public expenditure management.  The framework charts a process for debate, suggest areas where policy reforms can be initiated in India, leading to enhancing accountability and transparency in public spending.


A 1/5.5-size powered dynamic model of the Columbia XJL-1 amphibian was landed in Langley tank no. 1 in smooth water and in oncoming waves of heights from 2.1 feet to 6.4 feet (full-size) and lengths from 50 feet to 264 feet (full-size). The motions and the vertical accelerations of the model were continuously recorded. The greatest vertical acceleration measured during the smooth-water landings was 3.1g. During landings in rough water the greatest vertical acceleration measured was 15.4g, for a landing in 6.4-foot by 165-foot waves. The impact accelerations increased with increase in wave height and, in general, decreased with increase in wave length. During the landings in waves the model bounced into the air at stalled attitudes at speeds below flying speed. The model trimmed up to the mechanical trim stop (20 deg) during landings in waves of heights greater than 2.0 feet. Solid water came over the bow and damaged the propeller during one landing in 6.4-foot waves. The vertical acceleration coefficients at first impact from the tank tests of a 1/5.5-size model were in fair agreement with data obtained at the Langley impact basin during tests of a 1/2-size model of the hull.


ABSTRACT Computed tomography (CT) scanning of logs makes appearance-grading virtual sawn timber possible before the log is sawn. A CT-scanner can measure the knot structure inside a scanned log, inferring how to saw the log. The knot structure of virtual sawn timber was graded as being suitable or not for a specific product by the existing rule-based approach and used to create a set of descriptive statistical variables used by two machine learning models. The PLS models were trained on two quality references; the quality grade of the finished product or the image-grade based on images of the sawn timber, extracted from the dry-sorting station's automatic grading system and graded by two experienced researchers. The results show that the two PLS models perform equally well when sorting sawn timber to the customer, indicating that the quality references are equally useful for training a PLS model. The PLS models both delivered 93% of the dried sawn timber to the customer, leaving very little sawn timber with customer-specific properties at the sawmill, of which 89% and 90% of the delivered sawn timber passed the intended product's quality demands. The rule-based approach delivered 85% dried sawn timber with a 73% pass rate.


Chatbots have become increasingly popular in recent years, but they also present security risks and vulnerabilities that need to be addressed. This systematic literature review examines the existing research relating to information security in chatbots, identifying the potential threats, proposed solutions, and future directions for research. The review finds that chatbots face various security threats, including malicious input, user profiling, contextual attacks, and data breaches, and that solutions such as blockchain technology, end-to-end encryption, and organizational controls can be used to mitigate these concerns. The review also highlights the importance of maintaining user trust and addressing privacy concerns for the successful adoption and continued use of chatbots. A taxonomy developed in this review provides a useful framework for categorizing the articles and their findings. The review concludes by identifying future research directions that include developing more sophisticated authentication and authorization mechanisms, exploring the use of privacy-enhancing technologies, and improving the detection and prevention of security threats, among others. This review contributes to the growing body of literature on information security in chatbots and can guide future research and practice in this field.


Optical properties of nanostructuredmaterials, isolated nanoparticles, and structures composed of both metals and semiconductors are broadly discussed. Fundamentals of the origin of surface plasmons as well as the surface plasmon resonance sensing are described and documented on a number of examples. Localized plasmon sensing and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy are subjected to special interest since those techniques are inherently associated with the direct application of plasmonic structures. The possibility of tailoring the optical properties of ultra-thin metal layers via controlling their shape and morphology by postdeposition annealing is documented. Special attention is paid to the contribution of bimetallic particles and layers as well as metal structures encapsulated in semiconductors and dielectrics to the optical response. The opportunity to tune the properties of materials over a large scale of values opens up entirely new application possibilities of optical active structures. The nature of surface plasmons predetermines noble metal nanostructures to be promising great materials for development of modern label-free sensing methods based on plasmon resonance--SPR and LSPR sensing.


A liquid chromatographic-electrospray mass spectrometric method was developed for the determination of ginkgolides and bilobalide and was applied to the analysis of commercial products of Ginkgo biloba leaf extracts. Adducts of these compounds with ammonium, proton and sodium were detected and their relative abundance depended on the electrospray fragmentor voltage. The relative standard deviation (RSD) was improved from > 17% to < 6%, when three adduct ions of (M + H)+, (M + NH4)+ and (M + Na)+ were used for quantification compared with single ion monitoring. The characteristic mass spectra of bilobalide were different from those of ginkgolides; in particular, dimers of (2M + Na)+ were observed for bilobalide only. Analysis of 26 commercial ginkgo products revealed large variations in the composition and concentrations of ginkgolides and bilobalide in herbal products.


Two salalen titanium(iv) complexes ((H-salalen)TiCl2 and (F-salalen)TiCl2) containing hydrogen and fluorine respectively on the phenolate ring close to the imine were synthesized for the copolymerization of ethylene with 1-octene to prepare poly(ethylene-co-1-octene) in the presence of methylaluminoxane (MAO). The (F-salalen)TiCl2/MAO showed higher catalytic activity and better copolymer characteristics such as a higher molecular weight, narrower molecular weight distribution, and higher 1-octene incorporation than (H-salalen)TiCl2/MAO, which revealed that the electron-withdrawing conjugated effect introduced by fluorine substituents led to improvements on catalytic performance and thermal stability. The influences of copolymerization conditions including temperature, Al/Ti molar ratios and comonomer feed ratios on the copolymerization behavior of (F-salalen)TiCl2/MAO and the copolymer microstructure were investigated in detail. Under the activation of MAO, the (F-salalen)TiCl2 could produce ultrahigh molecular weight poly(ethylene-co-1-octene) with 1-octene incorporation ratios in the range of 0.9–3.1 mol% and exhibit relatively high activity. It could be inferred that long ethylene sequences in the copolymer were segregated by the isolated 1-octene units based on the 13C NMR characterization of the copolymer. Moreover, the thermal properties and crystallization of copolymers were determined by DSC and XRD and correlated to the ethylene sequence length distribution. The reactivity ratios calculated by the triad distribution in 13C NMR revealed the random comonomer distribution in the copolymer chain.


In India, rice is the most important staple food crop for about two thirds of the population. It is a means of livelihood for millions of rural households and it plays a vital role in our national food security. The recent break through in rice cultivation known as system of Rice. Intensification (SRI) method is the one which can be considered as per disembodied technology SRI is a new system of rice cultivation for increasing productivity with a comprehensive package of practices involving less seed, water chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Balaghat block was selected purposively because it has the highest coverage of SRI method of paddy cultivation. Out of Total 149 villages only 6 villages where the SRI production practices are adopted by rice growers has been selected. A comprehensive list of SRI practicing farmers of each selected village has been prepared and 20 farmers from each selected village has been selected on the basis of simple random sampling without replacement method. Thus, the sample consist of 120 farmers. The study concluded that the level of education, land holding, social participation, mass media exposure extension participation, knowledge level of SRI technology, economic motivation and adoption level were found to be significant with production level of paddy among SRI practicing farmers, whereas age, farm power, annual income, closeness with extension agent and aspiration level had showed non significant association with production level of paddy among SRI practicing farmers.


Monitoring gene delivery has significant benefits in gene therapy. Herein, we report a nanoquencher system by doping a FRET pair during nucleic acid-assisted cell penetrating poly(disulfide) (CPD) formation. Our results show that this strategy not only produces an efficient gene delivery polymer with minimal endolysosomal trapping, but also enables monitoring the release of the gene from the vehicle in live cells. This study further expanded the application of CPDs as promising tools in gene delivery.


Sediment and seafood samples were collected from Makoko Lagoon, Lagos state, Nigeria. Gamma-ray spectrometry was used to determine the activity concentrations of 40K, 226Ra and 232Th in the samples. The average activity concentrations of 40K, 226Ra and 232Th in the sediment were 41.04 ± 6.41, 10.15 ± 3.19 and 4.39 ± 2.10 Bq kg-1, respectively, while the annual effective dose was 0.01 mSv/year. In seafood, the average activity concentrations of 40K, 226Ra and 232Th were 15.66 ± 8.07, 1.72 ± 1.51 and 1.93 ± 0.30 Bq kg-1, respectively. The cumulative effective ingestion dose obtained ranged from 0.016 μSv/year (giant prawn) to 1.08 μSv/year (Parrotgrunt). The mean activity concentrations and absorbed dose rate in sediment were below the worldwide average values. The cumulative dose from the ingestion of seafood was also significantly low. Sediment and seafood from the lagoon in Makoko pose no health risk from a radiological point of view to the population.


This paper investigates application of slow strain rate tensile (SSRT) testing as a laboratory method to characterize stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility of type 40Cr steel in the acidic chloride solution. SSRT testing was carried out at room temperature in acidic chloride solution and seawater at different strain rates (3.82×10-7 to 1.41×10-6 s-1),respectively. The results show that the type 40Cr steel is susceptible to stress corrosion cracking in a certain strain rates (around 1.41×10-6 s-1) in the acidic chloride solution. In tests performed at this strain rate (1.41×10-6 s-1), while the specimens are not susceptible to SCC in seawater. Typical intergranular attack is seen on the fracture surface of the former that had failed due to SCC, and the latter had underwent considerable necking before fracture, also represented by high reduction of area (RoA) and fractographic feature of dimples consistent with ductile failure. Additionally, the results are consistent with the data of electrochemical noise (EN) that is generated of type 40Cr steel exposed to the acidic chloride solution and seawater. This study also supports SSRT and EN technique as an effective testing technique for SCC studies.


Background: Maxillofacial fractures are common following trauma and show varying epidemiology and demographics. Aims: To describe the pattern of maxillofacial fractures outlining the etiological spectrum, fracture characteristics and treatment outcomes in our local setting. Settings and Design: This descriptive retrospective study was conducted at the Plastic Surgery Department, of our Institute in Pondicherry from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2013. Materials and Methods: All adult and pediatric patients presenting with confirmed maxillofacial fractures were included. Results: A total number of 432 patients with 656 facial fractures presented during the study period. Male to female ratio was 10:1. Road traffic accidents (87.9%) were the most common mode of injury with Orbitozygomatic fractures predominating (55.7%). Associated injuries were observed in 30.3% of patient's. 66.2% of patients were operated, and 33.8% were treated conservatively. Conclusion: Increasing awareness and improved legislation are required to combat the trend of increased maxillofacial fractures.


This paper provides a description of the Durga Puja religious festival that is held each autumn in Kolkata. During the ten days of the celebration, the Indian city is enriched by a multitude of temporary temples, where local communities come together for both religious and social gatherings. The colourful marquees host rituals and music, flooding urban space with a festive atmosphere that has become a hallmark of Kolkata, attracting large crowds of visitors and tourists who are interested in the folk festival and in its religious connotation. The description focuses on the emotional response to the transformed space, analyzing how the rituals performed in the temporary temples, and the urban and architectural features of the festival's instalment affect the visitors' corporeal feelings.


The present invention discloses one kind of 1, 3-dicarbamido bis(dithio formate) and its preparation process and application as deoiling agent. The preparation process includes the first dissolving urea and addivie in water through stirring in a reactor, adding alkali solution of mass fraction 8.0-40.0 % slowly at 0-25 deg.c while dropping CS2 of mass fraction 10.0-25.0 % and reacting for 2.0-5.0h, heating to 40-75 deg.c and further reacting for 1.0-4.0 hr, cooling and discharging. The product may be reddish brown liquid or faint yellow powder and has the general expression as shown. The product has high quality, and the preparation process is one clean environment friendly process.


Abstract Conclusions: This study demonstrates proof of concept for controlled manufacturing methods that utilize novel tailored biopolymers (3D photocuring technology) or conventional bioresorbable polymers (fused deposition modeling, FDM) for macroscopic and microscopic geometry control. The manufactured scaffolds could be suitable for tissue engineering research. Objectives: To design novel trachea scaffold prototypes for tissue engineering purposes, and to fabricate them by additive manufacturing. Methods: A commercial 3D model and CT scans of a middle-aged man were obtained for geometrical observations and measurements of human trachea. Model trachea scaffolds with variable wall thickness, interconnected pores, and various degrees of porosity were designed. Photocurable polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer was used with 3D photocuring technology. Thermoplastic polylactide (PLA) and PCL were used with FDM. Cell cultivations were performed for biocompatibility studies. Results: Scaffolds of various sizes and porosities were successfully produced. Both thermoplastic PLA and PCL and photocurable PCL could be used effectively with additive manufacturing technologies to print high-quality tubular porous biodegradable structures. Optical microscopic and SEM images showed the viability of cells. The cells were growing in multiple layers, and biocompatibility of the structures was shown.


This document describes a tagging experiment where a probabilistic tagger developed for English has been made language independent in order to work on Romanian data. The results of the tagging are very encouraging, with an error rate below 3%. In order to make those statistics more meaningful, a metric is proposed which allows more accurate comparisons between tagging results. The software described in this article is freely available.


This paper deals with a divertor coil currents optimized procedure to design High Flux Expansion (HFE) con-fi gurations in the JET tokamak aimed to study the e ff ects of fl ux expansion variation on the radiation fraction and radiated power re-distribution. A number of bene fi ts of HFE con fi guration have been experimentally demonstrated on TCV, EAST, NSTX and DIII-D tokamaks and are under investigation for next generation devices, as DEMO and DTT. The procedure proposed here exploits the linearized relation between the plasma-wall gaps and the Poloidal Field (PF) coil currents. Once the linearized model is provided by means of CREATE-NL code, the divertor coils currents are calculated using a constrained quadratic programming optimization procedure, in order to achieve HFE con fi guration. Flux expanded con fi gurations have been experimentally realized both in ohmic and heated plasma with and without nitrogen seeding. Preliminary results on the e ff ects of the fl ux expansion variation on total power radiation increase will be also brie fl y discussed.


Should a Gleason score be assigned to a minute focus of carcinoma on prostate biopsy? Am J Surg Pathol. 2000;24: 1634–1640. 4. Epstein JI. Gleason score 2-4 adenocarcinoma of the prostate on needle biopsy. A diagnosis that should not be made. Am J Surg Pathol. 2000;24:477–478. 5. Pinthus JH, Witkos M, Fleshner NE, et al. Prostate cancers scored as Gleason 6 on prostate biopsy are frequently Gleason 7 tumours at radical prostatectomy: implications on outcome. J Urol. 2006;176: 979–984. 6. Fukagai T, Namiki T, Carlile RG, et al. Discrepancies between Gleason scores of needle biopsy and radical prostatectomy specimens. Pathol Int. 2001;51: 364–368. 7. King CR, Long JP. Prostate biopsy grading errors: a sampling problem? Int J Cancer. 2000;90:326–330. 8. Fleshner NE, Cookson MS, Soloway SM, et al. Repeat transrectal ultrasoundguided prostate biopsy: a strategy to improve the reliability of needle biopsy grading in patients with well-differentiated prostate cancer. Urology. 1998;52: 659–666. 9. Epstein JI, Allsbrook WC, Amin MB, et al. Update on the Gleason grading system for prostate cancer. Results of an international consensus conference of urological pathologists. Adv Anat Pathol. 2006;13: 57–59.


This handbook provides a basis for checking the range of quality factors that can be judged by on-the-spot examination. When barley is being received at the silo or the malt-house, it is impractical and unnecessary to use the range of precise laboratory methods devised for quality testing, although these can be used to decide about border-line samples or to resolve disputes.

Instead, an approximate indication of many quality factors can be obtained by visual examination to determine:

(a) the variety, to make sure that the load is binned with other barley of a compatible quality type;

(b) the extent of damage to grains, as an indication of how satisfactory the grain will be for the particular use for which it is offered;

(c) the degree of contamination with foreign seeds, to determine the purity of the barley, the expense involved in cleaning it and its suitability for use as human or animal food depending on the toxicity of the contaminants.

In addition to these three aspects of quality, there are other factors such as test weight and protein content that can be measured on receival of grain, but they are beyond the scope of this book.


Background: Nurses make a positive difference every day and continue to shape the future of healthcare through planning, implementation and dissemination of quality research studies. The practice of evidence-based nursing is determined by the nurse's clinical experience as well as clinically relevant research knowledge, willingness to apply research to practice, and the skills to do so. No previous studies had been conducted to assess the conduct and utilization of nursing research and EBP in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia.Objective: Assess current nurses' research knowledge, attitude, and practice related to research conduct and utilization and to determine individual, organizational and contextual factors that predicts nurses' ability to conduct and utilize research findings into practice.Methods: Descriptive correlational cross-sectional design utilized to study a convenient sample of 719 nurses working at different health care sectors in the Eastern Region of KSA. [33] Items Research KAP Survey measured nurses' KAP related to research© (KAP), a. three level Likert Scale (ranging from one to 3). Score less than 1.66 is "low, 1.67 to 2.33 is "moderate" and 2.34 to 3.0 is "high".Results: A response rate of 89.9% was obtained. Nurses were mostly females, aged between 30 to 40 years. Nurses' knowledge and attitude levels were moderate (1.78, 1.88 respectively), however the practice was low (1.31). Individual factors explained 77.4% (R2 = .774, F (5)=458, p<.001), contextual factors explained 8% (R2 = .089, F(4)=15.2, p<.001), and organizational factors explained 77.4% of the nurses ability to practice evidence based (R2 = .774, F(5)=458, p<.001).Conclusion: The study findings provide feedback to strengthen nursing research competencies at the regional level and to the Development of nursing research-related policies, guidelines, and educational programs for evidence based nursing practice.


Aim: To compare endoscopic sinus surgery and continued medical treatment in refractory refractory chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) patients regarding diseases specific quality of life measurement Study design: RCT (Randomized controlled trial) Place and duration of study: Study was conducted at ENT (Ear, nose and throat) department, Railway Hospital Rawalpindi. Study duration was one year (January 2018-Deecember 2018) Methods: A sample size of 22 patients was calculated using WHO calculator. Non probability consecutive sampling was used. A prior ethical approval and consent form was taken. Patients were randomly divided into two groups; Group A was given medical therapy while Group B comprised contain patients in whom medical therapy failed and had undergone endoscopic sinus surgery. Patients were followed for disease specific quality of life scores. Data was analyzed using SPSS version22. Chi-square and t test was applied. P value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Total of 22 refractory CRS patients were included in study. There were 10(45.5%) males and 12(54.5%) females. Mean age of refractory CRS patients was 33.4 years±6.2SD. Group A (continued medical therapy) N=11, had significantly high SNOTT -22 scores 60.6±7.1SD as compared to endoscopic sinus surgery 21±3.9SD (p=0.000). Group B (endoscopic sinus surgery) had significantly low endoscopic scores 2.7±0.3SD as compared to group A (continued medical therapy) 7.14±0.53SD (p=0.000). Endoscopic sinus surgery group showed significant reduction in work days lost 17.4±4.9SD as compared to continued medical therapy (Group A) 30.1±2.5SD (p=0.000). Conclusion: Endoscopic sinus surgery is an effective treatment option as compared to continued medical therapy with improved quality of life in refractory CRS patients (with reduced baseline disease specific quality of life). Keywords: Refractory chronic rhinosinusitis, endoscopic sinus surgery, quality of life


Aim: Economic development, connected with the concept of a society engaged in lifelong learning, demands that education produce optimal professional competences. The aim of this study was to determine the motives for the choice of physical education studies, and ascertain expectations concerning professional competences, as well as self-evaluation of competences acquired, in current and former athletes and non-athletes. Methods. 226 people were examined, all studying physical education at the Faculty of Physical Culture in Gorzow Wielkopolski, a branch of the University School of Physical Education in Poznan. Purposive sampling was used (Radzinska, Nowak, L., Nowak, M., 2013). The study included current (22.6%) and former athletes (31.8%) as well as non-athletes (45.6%). A diagnostic survey was employed, with the use of the techniques of auditorium questionnaire, interview and document analysis. In order to draw statistical conclusions, the trait frequency and the independence χ2 test were used. Results. Former athletes more often reported having been motivated to choose the studies by their interest in employment with institutions of physical culture while non-athletes by their wish to obtain jobs in schools (p ≤ 0.05). Expectations of competence in physical education methodology were indicated by all respondents, slightly more often by former athletes and non-athletes (p ≤ 0.05). For current athletes, competence in physical fitness was important. Psycho-pedagogical competence in motivating schoolchildren to work was expected by most students (84.5%), slightly more often by former athletes and non-athletes (p ≤ 0.05). Respondents rated their preparation for employment with regard to foreign languages and preparation for scientific work as average and fair, and their selfeducation ability and computer skills as good.


In this paper, I consider Lingzhi Yuanzhao's philosophy of Amitabha's descent at the moment of death. Yuanzhao's philosophy of descent at the moment of death is based on the idea that "all phenomenon is mind-only existence." For example, even Amitabha's Pure Land, which surpasses the ten trillion Buddha Lands, has mind-only existence. However, since the mind is not limited to the body, but extends to include all existence, all the buddhas of the four directions are also within the mind. According to Yuanzhao, while Amitabha is within the mind, nevertheless based on the Original Vow, Amitabha descends from the Pure Land to greet sentient beings at the moment of death.


Many epidemiological studies showed increased consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with a lower incidence of diseases such as cancer , cardiovascular diseases and alzheimer 's disease. Aging is associated with many changes in the erythrocyte and its membrane which contributes to former 's stability. A study was carried out on normal healthy subjects of both sexes between the age of 22-78 years. A significant (p < 0.001) increase in osmotic fragility as a function of human age is observed. A significant (p < 0.05) protective effect of L-ascorbic acid was observed at a concentration of 10 M in all age groups. We hypothesize that increase in osmotic fragility during aging in humans may be due to decrease in stability of human erythrocyte and increase in oxidative stress.