This paper investigates two gas wells production data, has considered non-Darcy effect in reservoir and the results of this event on well and reservoir parameters. Then data analysis by software has been used to suggest models of flow and production for each well in order to characterize permeability, skin factor, reservoir boundary ( in case of existence) and non-Darcy effect on skin. Core analysis, seismic, well logging and well testing are four common ways of measuring the properties of the reservoir rock. Due to the smallness of the core samples compared with the dimensions of the reservoir, reservoir heterogeneity and also the errors in core experimental analysisthe information obtained from the core cannot be representative of the properties of the reservoir rock. On the other hand, the results of seismic and well logging are general and don't conclude exact results. So, well testing can be considered as the most exact, quickest and the cheapest way of measuring the properties of the reservoir rock. Since the pressure data used in well testing, offer a general view of the reservoir and can be a desirable totality of the whole reservoir properties including permeability, wellbore storage, skin factor and non-darcy factor in the gas reservoir. Accomplishment of the tests and analysis of the data obtained from the gas reservoir (dry gas or retrograde gas) faces special problems due to the high velocity and consequently the making of flow turbulence and non-darcy effect.


In this paper, the combined artificial bone made from α- calcium sulphate hemihydrate(α-CSH) and β- tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) was investigated and at the same time the study explored: the method of preparing the combined artificial bone. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric (TG), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and Mercury porosimeter were employed to characterize the samples. Results indicate that the combined artificial bone can be prepared by α-CSH and β-TCP using dehydrated alcohol as a solvent; β-TCP was made from cancellous bone in the femur of cattle under special conditions, which contained the spatial structure of normal cancellous bone; α-CSH was made from CSD under special temperature and pressure, which is more pure and regulation in crystal form.


Reflectivity of cascaded gratings with phase shifts is studied. It is shown that this structure has wavelength tunability. The effects of phase shift, length of different stages of the gratings, and total length of grating for two and three cascaded grating stages on tunability are studied in this article.


This paper presents a low phase noise of the complementary cross-coupled voltage-controlled oscillator, which oscillates at a range of 3.64 ~ 5.37 GHz. This VCO utilizes switching capacitor modules in which eight channels are able to be selected. Moreover, MOS varactors are used as fine tuning. The fully integrated VCO provides excellent performance. The bandwidth of frequency is 1.73 GHz and the tuning range is 38%. The power dissipation of the core circuit is 13.7 mW under 1.8 V supply and phase noises all are smaller than -122 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. This VCO was made by TSMC 0.18 mum 1P6M CMOS standard process and the chip area is 0.96 times 0.83 (mm2).


Villagers living in the Western Himalayan region of Uttarakhand are primarily dependent upon subsistence farming. They follow the practice of growing crops and raising livestock sufficient only for one's own use, without any surplus for trade. With the growing financial needs of the villagers, some portion of their produces is now readily available for marketing. While doing so a farmer gets easily entrapped into the web of the middleman, who provides him anticipatory loans in lieu of the agricultural produces grown by him and a promise to handover those produces at a much lower prices. Under this process farmers are totally debarred from getting a real fair price for their agricultural produces which otherwise they could have fetched in the absence of a middleman. This paper showcases a real experiment done by one of the authors of this paper in which a Farmer's Producer Organization was established with hundreds of local farmers. Farmer's Producer Organization is ensuring true monetary value for their agricultural produces by eliminating middleman and ensuring value addition to their produces. This paper critically analyses a case of formation of a Farmer's Producer Organization in Mukteshwar area of District Nainital, Uttarakhand. Paper also throws light over its working and the challenges being faced by new generation Farmers. Key Words: Traditional farming, Framer's Producer Organization, Middleman, Livelihood security.


A Passivated HBT structure which includes a thin GaInP layer between the GaAlAS emitter and the GaAs base layer has been proposed in order to reduce surface and space charge recombination current, while keeping a low p-type ohmic contact resistivity. The optimization of the GaInP layer thickness has been carried out leading to a value of 30 nm.


Background Working memory, as a fundamental cognitive ability, has been shown to improve with learning. However, little is known about the learning effect of visual working memory training and its generalization to other stimuli and tasks. Methods In the present study, we utilized a delayed match-to-sample task to measure the working memory of faces and houses. Subjects were trained ten days on this task and were tested on the same task and a memory span task before and after the training. Results The results showed that training significantly increased the accuracy of visual working memory. More importantly, such a learning effect could partly transfer to a visual working memory task with different stimuli. However, the learning effect may not transfer to a memory span task. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that training might influence the common processing of different stimuli in a visual working memory task.


The article deals with the Sea Peoples' migrations at the beginning of 12thcentury BC. It is based on ancient Egyptian written sources, archaeological data and Greek narrative tradition. The author tries to reconstruct the general stages of Late Bronze Age ethnical movements in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the 13th– beginning the 12thcenturies BC. The author shows that the Sea peoples' movement was not homogeneous. Moreover, not all the Sea Peoples can be considered as migrants. The tribes of Shekelesh and Weshesh were the typical sea raiders who plundered the rich centres of the Eastern Mediterranean. The possible reason for the Peleset, Theker and Turša migration seems to be the war which devastated their homeland in north-eastern Anatolia between 1208/1203 и 1195 BC. The appearance of the Denyen in Sea Peoples' movement must be connected with the destructions of Mycenaean centres in Southern Greece circa 1200 BC. Their inhabitants left their homeland and migrated to the different regions of the Aegean, Anatolia, Eastern and Western Mediterranean. The Sea Peoples' migrations were only the first stage of global ethnic movements in Eurasia at the end of the Bronze Age which totally changed the ethnopolitical map of Southern Europe, Anatolia and Eastern Mediterranean.


Successful integration of mobile learning (m-learning) technologies in education primarily demands that teachers' perception of such technologies should be determined. Therefore, the perceptions of teachers are of great significance. There is no available instrument that assesses teachers' perceptions of m-learning. Our research provided the first findings about teacher perceptions in Cyprus. This article describes the development, testing and application for a suitable instrument. Research data for the tests of reliability and validity were obtained from a sample of 467 teachers from the 32 schools surveyed in 2010. The final version of the Mobile Learning Perception Scale includes dimensions seeking teachers' feedback on three facets of the m-learning. Sub-dimensions are defined as 'Aim-Mobile Technologies Fit', 'Appropriateness of Branch', and 'Forms of M-learning Application and Tools' Sufficient Adequacy of Communication'. Validity has been established by the use of factor analysis. Internal consistency coefficient and reliability of the scale showed that this instrument can be used for the future studies. According to the results of this study, teachers exhibited above medium levels of perception towards m-learning.


Bioequivalence of a new oral iron formulation (A: FE(II)SO4.H2O, capsule with 100 mg Fe++, Eryfer 100, CAS 7782-63-0) with the standard formulation (B: Fe(II)SO4.H2O, capsule with 50 mg Fe++, Eryfer) was demonstrated after administration of 100 mg Fe++ in a single-dose two-way cross-over design to 16 normal female volunteers. Iron concentrations were monitored from 24 h before (basal) to 24 h post application. The area under concentration difference curve AUC(diff) and the maximal concentration difference Cmax(diff) were calculated subtracting the basal from the time-corresponding postabsorptive concentrations. AUC(diff) (A: 170 nmol/ml. h, B: 168 nmol/ml.h) and Cmax(diff) (A: 23.3 nmol/ml, B: 21.8 nmol/ml) showed but minor differences between formulations. The AUC(diff) and Cmax ratio (A/B) and the corresponding 90% confidence intervals, 102% (74-129%) and 107% (91-123%), were included by the acceptance range of 70-130% as stated in the study protocol. Hence, both formulations were bioequivalent with respect to rate and extent. The ANOVA coefficient of variation of Cmax(diff) was considerably smaller than that of AUC(diff) (26% versus 44%). The characteristics based on the postabsorptive iron increase (post-absorptive concentrations minus concentration preceding immediately application) AUC(pad) (ratio 99% (83-114%) and Cmax(pad) (ratio 104% (95-112%) exhibited smaller ANOVA-CVs (25% and 14%, respectively) as compared with AUC(diff) and Cmax(diff). All these characteristics appeared to be rather normal than log-normal distributed. It was concluded that the study design was selective to demonstrate an adequate bioavailability of iron formulations.


We have applied secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) to the detection of chemical species on outer-most surfaces of polymers. Copper deposited in vacuo on polyvinylalcohol (PVA), polyethyleneterephtalate (PET) and nylon 6, 6' was found, by XPS, to react with the functional groups of the polymers to form Cu-0 (PET), Cu-N (Nylon 6, 6') etc. In static-SIMS spectra of copper-deposited polymers, metallized cluster ions, assigned to [Cu-OC]+, [Cu-OCO]+, [Cu-N]+, were detected. Structures of these cluster ions were dependent on the chemical species, and thus it is suggested that the functional groups of interest could be distinguished from other species on the same surfaces by using this technique.


The effect of magnetic field on the tribological process of sleeve-ring pair lubricated by WRL lubricants was investigated by means of a NG-x wear tester and a PS5013 video microscope. The friction coefficient(f) and the wear weight(W) in lubricating test with WRL lubricant were decreased with the increase in the magnetic field vertical to the rubbing surface, and an almost zero wear lubricating situation was gained in a magnetic field of 1000A/m. The captured wear micro particles on the rubbing surface were observed in the testing process, and the theoretical analysis of magnetic effects was completed. It is indicated that the magnetic field has not only a capturing action of wear micro particles on the worn surface, but also a inducing polarization of magnetic anisotropy of lubricant molecular. The actions promote the absorption of WRL lubricant into the wear surface as well as wear micro-particles, so that a good tribological effect is obtained when both magnetic field and WRL present.


Risk efficiency of rice grain yield and returns to farm operators' household resources generated from an improved short-duration cover crop fallow system were compared with (traditional) natural bush fallow, and continuous rice-cropping systems. The improved fallow system involved maintaining "Calopogonium mucunoides", seeded into a natural bush fallow for 2 years before planting to rice. With no chemical fertilizer application, which reflects farmers' practice in the area, average grain yield for continuous rice (1,185 kg/ha) and the cropping sequence incorporating a natural bush fallow (1,175 kg/ha) did not differ, but were higher for the improved fallow system (1,304 kg/ha). This suggests that nutrient contribution from the leguminous cover crop made up for critical crop N requirements in the improved fallow. Stochastic dominance of grain yield distributions from the improved fallow system, relative to the other two cropping systems, was more dramatic with no N fertilizer application compared to treatments with 30 kg/ha N. Average returns were highest for the improved fallow system, followed by the natural bush fallow-cropping system, and then continuous rice, under the no N fertilizer treatment regime. With 30 kg/ha N fertilizer, income risk efficiency was less clear (compared to treatments with no N fertilizer), especially between continuous rice and the improved fallow treatment, because of faster N mineralization effects on continuous rice. In contrast, the improved cover crop fallow system completely dominated the natural bush fallow treatment under both fertilizer regimes. Rice production systems that incorporated the leguminous cover crop fallow were superior to the natural bush fallow system, based on both grain yield and average farm income risk-efficiency considerations. Copyright 2005 International Association of Agricultural Economics.


For the treatment of strabismic amblyopia the authors have used atropine in the sound eye under usual optical correction as soon as central fixation of the amblyopic eye is secured by means of proceeding occlusion therapy. Although there may be little effect of occlusion in atropine therapy, six children under five years of age developed amblyopia in their sound eyes. In every case, the first sign of developing amblyopia was the decrease of fixation ability in the sound eye in a binocular fixation test prior to the reduction of visual acuity. On the other hand, fixation ability of the originally amblyopic eye was reinforced more and more not only during atropinization but after its finish until deep amblyopia developed in the sound eye. In three cases, eccentric fixation occurred at 7, 9, and 17 weeks after atropinization. These facts suggest that occlusion amblyopia following atropine therapy is not the result of deprivation but is due to the reversal of the eye used for fixation. Strabismic amblyopia may have the tendency toward an alternation between fixation abilities of the two eyes and such a binocular sensory anomaly may cause strabismic amblyopia itself.


If a small "particle" of mass $\mu M$ (with $\mu \ll 1$) orbits a Schwarzschild or Kerr black hole of mass $M$, the particle is subject to an $\O(\mu)$ radiation-reaction "self-force". Here I argue that it's valuable to compute this self-force highly accurately (relative error of $\ltsim 10^{-6}$) and efficiently, and I describe techniques for doing this and for obtaining and validating error estimates for the computation. I use an adaptive-mesh-refinement (AMR) time-domain numerical integration of the perturbation equations in the Barack-Ori mode-sum regularization formalism; this is efficient, yet allows easy generalization to arbitrary particle orbits. I focus on the model problem of a scalar particle in a circular geodesic orbit in Schwarzschild spacetime.
The mode-sum formalism gives the self-force as an infinite sum of regularized spherical-harmonic modes $\sum_{\ell=0}^\infty F_{\ell,\reg}$, with $F_{\ell,\reg}$ (and an "internal" error estimate) computed numerically for $\ell \ltsim 30$ and estimated for larger~$\ell$ by fitting an asymptotic "tail" series. Here I validate the internal error estimates for the individual $F_{\ell,\reg}$ using a large set of numerical self-force computations of widely-varying accuracies. I present numerical evidence that the actual numerical errors in $F_{\ell,\reg}$ for different~$\ell$ are at most weakly correlated, so the usual statistical error estimates are valid for computing the self-force. I show that the tail fit is numerically ill-conditioned, but this can be mostly alleviated by renormalizing the basis functions to have similar magnitudes.
Using AMR, fixed mesh refinement, and extended-precision floating-point arithmetic, I obtain the (contravariant) radial component of the self-force for a particle in a circular geodesic orbit of areal radius $r = 10M$ to within $1$~ppm relative error.


This paper presents a dual-band bandpass filter with independent switchability of each passband. By taking advantage of harmonic ratio of asymmetric stepped-impedance resonators, 2.4- and 5.2-GHz resonators are designed. The second resonance of 2.4-GHz resonators is designed to be suppressed by a transmission zero created by extended feed lines. To achieve a wide upper stopband, 5.2-GHz resonators are designed with a scheme that the second peak of these resonators would not appear at a frequency lower than a third peak of 2.4-GHz resonators. Several design graphs for deciding both geometric parameters and transmission zeros are plotted by using the information obtained from electromagnetic simulations. While extracting coupling coefficients between resonators, an external quality factor at 50-Ω port is fixed to determine the precise transmission zeros. Two kinds of feed lines, such as a hook type and a spiral type, are developed, and spiral-type feed lines are chosen for realizing switchable filters. By controlling p-i-n diodes, four states of switchable dual bands are clearly presented in simulations and experiments.


Morphological diagnosis of the blood and bone marrow smear under the microscope is an important preliminary step in the diagnosis of acute leukemia. The features and differential counts of the cells provide valuable information to the specialist to confirm the diagnosis and begin treatment, thus increasing the chance of survival of the patient. Manual diagnosis procedures are often tedious, labor intensive and time consuming. A computerised system can help accelerating the morphological diagnosis process. The proposed method consists of gradient magnitude, thresholding, morphological operations and watershed transform to perform cells segmentation. 50 images from subtypes M2, M5 and M6 were used to test the proposed method and the result showed that the method managed to obtain qualitatively good segmentation results. The segmentation accuracy for the tested image is 94.5% while the overage accuracies for the other subtypes are 94.58%, 95.06% and 95.65% respectively.


Currently, numerous taxonomic units above species level of the phylum Firmicutes are ambiguously placed in the phylogeny determined by 16S rRNA gene. Here, we evaluated the use of 16S rRNA gene compared with 81 conserved proteins (CPs) or 41 ribosomal proteins (RPs) as phylogenetic markers and applied this to the analysis of the phylum Firmicutes. Results show that the phylogenetic trees constructed are in good agreement with each other; however, the protein-based trees are able to resolve the relationships between several branches where so far only ambiguous classifications are possible. Thus, the phylogeny deduced based on concatenated proteins provides significant basis for re-classifying members in this phylum. It indicates that the genera Coprothermobacter and Thermodesulfobium represent two new phyla; the families Paenibacillaceae and Alicyclobacillaceae should be elevated to order level; and the families Bacillaceae and Thermodesulfobiaceae should be separated to 2 and 3 families respectively. We also suggest that four novel families should be proposed in the orders Clostridiales and Bacillales, and 11 genera should be moved to other existing families different from the current classification status. Moreover, notably, RPs are a well-suited subset of CPs that could be applied to Firmicutes phylogenetic analysis instead of the 16S rRNA gene.


Hormonal contraception is a type of contraception that is most widely used by family planning acceptors are injectable contraceptives. Injectable contraceptive method is considered one of the contraceptive methods that have a high level of effectiveness, the price is relatively cheap, so affordable to the community, its use is also easy and practical. Each method of contraception has side effects, as well as injectable contraceptives. In the majority of users of injectable contraceptives, side effects occur are menstrual disorders, those who experience weight gain. The purpose of the research is to identify menstrual disorders and weight gain in the 3 month injectable contraceptive acceptors. Research design uses descriptive method. The population research is the entire 3 month injectable contraceptive acceptors as many as 238 people. The sample in this research of 68 people, who were taken in consecutive sampling. The research results that the side effects that are often experienced by the 3 month injectable contraceptive acceptors in Bps Mrs. Suhartatik, Amd Keb is menstrual disorders as many as 44 people (64.7%), while having less weight change as many as 39 people (57.4%). Midwives should improve the management of obstetric care in family planning, providing comprehensive planning services, by providing counseling on side effects in the 3 month injectable contraceptives and how to overcome them. Keywords: Acceptors, Side effects, Contraception


A distributed scenario can be of two types: (1) homogeneous – where only a fraction of each feature is observed at every site or (2) heterogeneous – where only some of the features are observed at each site. For either scenario centralizing all the data in order to build a global model is not an appropriate solution due to the high cost of centralizing and storage requirement at the central node. Therefore, distributed algorithms are required to solve most data mining problems in p2p networks. In general, a distributed algorithm in this setting should (1) not require global synchronization, (2) be communication efficient, and (3) be resilient to moderate changes in the network topology. We proposed Gossip based probabilistic approximate algorithm. This algorithm relies on properties of random walk on network to provide estimates for various estimates for various statistics of data stored in network. The computation result of this algorithm is exponentially fast. The most important quality of Gossip based probabilistic approximate algorithm is that they provide probabilistic guarantees for the accuracy of result.


The field of consumer behaviour studies deals with how individuals, groups and organisations select, buy, use and dispose off products and experiences to satisfy their needs and desires. In the process, consumers process brands and marketing promotions for meaning as well as for information. Interpretation of brands and marketing promotions is a problematic issue for both consumers and marketers. First, consumers construct different meanings than what brand sponsors may have intended. Furthermore, different types of consumers construct multiple meanings, depending on personal background, contexts of consumption and multiple frames of reference. This issue of brands, ads, and promotions possessing several potential meanings has significant implications for marketing theory and practice. The present study aims at understanding the purchase decision-making pattern among various communities in India and the effect of various cultural profiles in terms of language or religion or both. For the survey, the respondents were chosen from three linguistic groups viz. Bengalis, Marwaris and Gujarati and three religious groups viz. Hindus, Muslims and Jains and focus group technique was used. Focus groups are discussions in which the moderator supplies the topics and monitors the discussion. The purpose is to gather information about a specific or focused topic in a group environment, allowing for discussion and interaction by the participants.


The objectives were to quantify its effect on the yield of the successor summer crop, to evaluate the dynamics of the decomposition of rye residues from a fertilized and unfertilized cover crop (CC), and to evaluate the cumulative effect of 5 years of rye CC in a rotation with a high incidence of soybean on the soil organic matter contents. The study was carried out on a petrocalcic Paleustoll, located in the Southern Plain of the Semiarid Pampa Region. The experiment was part of a long-term trial where in 2010 two treatments for soybean management were installed, continuous soybean without CC and soybeans in rotation with CC. In 2018 an experimental design was established where plots were arranged in completely randomized blocks and 4 management treatments for soybean cultivation were established: continuous soybean without CC, soybean in rotation with CC without fertilization, fertilized with 60 kg N .ha-1, and with 120 kg N.ha-1. Nitrogen fertilization in the CC improved the capture rate of both carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. The results showed that 40% carbon, 60% nitrogen, and 61% phosphorus contained in above-ground biomass were lost from the CC from drying to soybean harvest. The highest soybean yields were recorded in the rotation with fertilized CC, due to a positive effect between the higher soil water content in the early stages of cultivation due to a greater amount of residues, and also by the contribution of different nutrients during the soybean crop-cycle. The long-term trial showed that after 5 years of cover crops in the soybean rotation there was no effect on the organic matter contents.


Machine learning has greatly advanced over the past decade, owing to advances in algorithmic innovations, hardware acceleration, and benchmark datasets to train on domains such as computer vision, natural-language processing, and more recently the life sciences. In particular, the subfield of machine learning known as deep learning has found applications in genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. However, a thorough assessment of how the data preprocessing methods required for the analysis of life science data affect the performance of deep learning is lacking. This work contributes to filling that gap by assessing the impact of commonly used as well as newly developed methods employed in data preprocessing workflows for metabolomics that span from raw data to processed data. The results from these analyses are summarized into a set of best practices that can be used by researchers as a starting point for downstream classification and reconstruction tasks using deep learning.


Cutaneous leishmaniasis is an infectious disease that presents an immune response marked by the activation of lymphocytes and production of cytokines, including those of the IL-1 family, which act as an important trigger for the activation of an effector immune response. Despite this, inflammation exacerbation is sometimes also attributed to IL-1 cytokines, although some others down-regulate inflammation or produce Th2 responses, which need to be further clarified in the CL. Assessing the gene and protein expression of IL-1 cytokines associated with different immune response profiles in PBMCs from patients with active and healed lesions, this study demonstrated that stimulation by L. braziliensis positively regulates inflammatory and anti-inflammatory IL-1 cytokines, as IL-1α/β and IL-37, while there was a marked inhibition of IL-1Ra and IL-18 genes in patients treated with antimony, which perhaps contributes to the mechanisms of resistance that control Leishmania infection.


After the advent of chemotherapy for pulmonary tuberculosis, the operation of thoracoplasty became rare in the developed countries. However, this was not the case in developing countries like India. Between July 1992 and June 1997, we performed thoracoplasty in 139 patients. Indications of surgery were tubercular empyema (84 patients), pyogenic empyema (33 patients), post-operative empyema with bronchopleural fistula (8 patients), drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (2 patients) and recurrent haemoptysis (2 patients). Successful outcome in the form of control of sepsis, closure of bronchopleural fistula, sputum conversion and control of haemoptysis was achieved in most cases. There were four deaths in the entire series. We conclude that with the persisting problem of pulmonary tuberculosis in the developing countries, thoracoplasty is still an operation of continued relevance.


Reaction center chlorophylls (Chls) in photosystems II and I were studied in the isolated thylakoid membranes of a cyanobacterium, Acaryochloris marina, which contains Chls d and a as the major and minor pigments, respectively. The membranes contained PS I and II complexes at a 1.8:1 molar ratio on the basis of the spin densities on the tyrosine D radical and the photo-oxidized PS I primary donor (P740+). In the presence of ferricyanide, laser excitation induced bleach at 725 nm that recovered with time constants of 25 micros and 1.2 ms. The signal, designated P725, was suppressed by PS II inhibitors DCMU and hydroxylamine. The P725 spectrum was tentatively assigned to the absorption changes of the special pair Chl d, the accessory Chl d, and the acceptor pheophytin a in PS II. The addition of ascorbate induced the additional signal with a slow decay time constant of 4.5 ms. This signal showed a broad bleach at 740 nm and shift-type absorption changes at around 707 and 685 nm, which were assigned to the absorption changes of PS I special pair of Chl d (P740), the accessory Chl d, and the primary acceptor Chl a (A0), respectively. Mechanisms and the evolution of the Chl-d based reaction centers using far-red light are discussed together with the amino acid sequences of PS II D1 and D2 proteins.


The recently discovered noncentrosymmetric superconductor ThCoC2 was observed to show unusual superconducting behavior with a critical temperature of Tc=2.65K. Here we investigate the effect of Nickel substitution on the superconducting state in ThCo1-xNixC2. Magnetization, resistivity, and heat capacity measurements demonstrates Ni substitution has a dramatic effect with critical temperature increased up to Tc=12.1K for x=0.4 Ni concentration, which is a rather high transition temperature for a noncentrosymmetric superconductor. In addition, the unusual superconducting characteristics observed in pure ThCoC2 appear to be suppressed or tuned with Ni substitution towards a more conventional fully gapped superconductor.


Do civil wars result from political exclusion? This chapter evaluates empirically the mechanisms that trigger internal conflict as a function of political horizontal inequality, as manifested through the exclusion of ethnic groups from central executive state power. Rather than viewing ethnicity as a politically disconnected, demographic characteristic reflecting linguistic and cultural diversity, as is often done in the contemporary civil war literature, we contextualize ethnicity macro-historically as a political organization form embedded in nationalism. In Chapter 3, we discussed how nationalist politics leads to the generation of political horizontal inequality. In the present chapter, we shift the attention from the origins of inequalities to their consequences for internal conflict. Nationalism defines the macro setting within which much, possibly even most, large-scale political violence unfolds in the modern world. Drawing on Gilpin's (1981) terminology, this type of transformation can be classified as "nationalist systems change." Viewed as a special case of the broader category of systems change that features fundamental transformations of the main actor types defining politics, this type of macro-historical process prompted nations to play the main role on the world stage along with states, roughly from the time of the French Revolution (Cederman, Warren, and Sornette 2011; see also Hall 1999). The importance of the nation can be found in the way that this entity legitimizes the state. As opposed to the "descending" principle of territorial sovereignty that justifies governance in personal, dynastic, and possibly even divine terms, the French Revolution introduced an "ascending" logic that defines the people, conceived of as the nation, as the locus of political legitimacy (Calhoun 1997).


This paper is based on an empirical study of the flow and access to HIV/AIDS information in the Babati District of Manyara region in Tanzania. The study integrated both qualitative and quantitative research designs. A sample of 131 respondents comprising of 50 male and 81 female was conveniently selected from three villages in Dareda ward. Primary data was collected using face to face interviews, focus group discussion, dissemination workshop, and in depth interviews with key informants. Findings revealed that the provision of HIV/AIDS information in the study area is undertaken by multiple agencies including: the district council, village governments, private and public health institutions, civil society organizations, schools, faith based organizations and other community-based organizations. The data showed that access to HIV/AIDS information is through radio; television and video show programmes, newspapers, oral presentations in schools and clinics, and various types of meetings. Other delivery methods include posters, songs, dances, and dramas. The findings revealed that, while information on HIV/AIDS prevention was available, limited information was available on care and support of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Furthermore, access to current and up to date information on all aspects of HIV/AIDS was found to be problematic. Generally, HIV/AIDS information system and structure at local level was found to be inadequate. Major challenges that limit access to and flow of HIV/AIDS information include low levels of education, language barriers, lack of information and library services, limited access to radio, television programmes, and newspapers. Family structures were also found to inhibit the free flow of HIV/AIDS information between parents and children. University of Dar es Salaam Library Journal Vol. 8 (1&2) 2006: pp. 49-59


This article presents an overview of the development, capabilities, and utilization of geographic information systems (GISs). There are nearly an unlimited number of applications that are relevant to GIS because virtually all human interactions, natural and man‐made features, resources, and populations have a geographic component. Everything happens somewhere and the location often has a role that affects what occurs. This role is often called spatial dependence or spatial autocorrelation, which exists when a phenomenon is not randomly geographically distributed. GIS has a number of key capabilities that are required to conduct a spatial analysis to assess this spatial dependence. This article presents these capabilities (e.g., georeferencing, adjacency/distance measures, and overlays) and provides a case study to illustrate how GIS can be used for both research and planning. Although GIS has developed into a relatively mature application for basic functions, development is required to more seamlessly integrate spatial statistics and models. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


We demonstrate the conjunction of new exponential-asymptotic effects in the context of a second order nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) with a small parameter. First, we show how to use a hyperasymptotic, beyond-all-orders approach to seed a numerical solver of a nonlinear ODE with sufficiently accurate initial data so as to track a specific solution in the presence of an attractor. Second, we demonstrate the necessary role of a higher order Stokes phenomenon in analytically tracking the transition between asymptotic behaviours in a heteroclinic solution. Third, we carry out a double resummation involving both subdominant and sub-subdominant transseries to achieve the two-dimensional (in terms of the arbitrary constants) uniform approximation that allows the exploration of the behaviour of a two-parameter set of solutions across wide regions of the independent variable. This is the first time all three effects have been studied jointly in the context of an asymptotic treatment of a nonlinear ODE with a parameter. This paper provides an exponential-asymptotic algorithm for attacking such problems when they occur. The availability of explicit results would depend on the individual equation under study.


Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is a common autosomal recessive disease associated with loss of regulation of dietary iron absorption and excessive iron deposition in major organs of the body. Recently, a candidate gene for HH (also called HFE) was identified that encodes a novel MHC class I-like protein. Most patients with HH are homozygous for the same mutation in the HFE gene, resulting in a C282Y change in the HFE protein. Studies in cultured cells show that the C282Y mutation abrogates the binding of the recombinant HFE protein to beta2-microglobulin (beta2M) and disrupts its transport to the cell surface. The HFE protein was shown by immunohistochemistry to be expressed in certain epithelial cells throughout the human alimentary tract and to have a unique localization in the cryptal cells of small intestine, where signals to regulate iron absorption are received from the body. In the studies presented here, we demonstrate by immunohistochemistry that the HFE protein is expressed in human placenta in the apical plasma membrane of the syncytiotrophoblasts, where the transferrin-bound iron is normally transported to the fetus via receptor-mediated endocytosis. Western blot analyses show that the HFE protein is associated with beta2M in placental membranes. Unexpectedly, the transferrin receptor was also found to be associated with the HFE protein/beta2M complex. These studies place the normal HFE protein at the site of contact with the maternal circulation where its association with transferrin receptor raises the possibility that the HFE protein plays some role in determining maternal/fetal iron homeostasis. These findings also raise the question of whether mutations in the HFE gene can disrupt this association and thereby contribute to some forms of neonatal iron overload.


Purpose: To describe the clinical and radiologic features of 4 cases of ossifying fibroma affecting the orbit and to review the literature on orbital involvement by the tumor. Methods: Small case series. Results: Four patients (3 children and 1 adult) with ossifying fibromas invading the orbit were examined. Two of the 3 children were examined for ossifying fibromas on the orbital roof. One had the psammomatoid form of the disease and the other the trabecular variant. Despite striking differences in the histologic pattern and in the radiologic appearance of the lesions, both children displayed a significant degree of orbital inflammation mimicking orbital cellulitis. The third child and the adult patient had the orbit involved by trabecular ossifying fibromas invading the orbital floor. The tumor of the adult clearly originated in the maxilla, filled the maxillary sinus, and eroded the orbital floor. The tumor of the third child occupied the maxillary, ethmoid, and sphenoid sinuses. In both cases, the clinical presentation was painless eye dystopia and proptosis. Conclusions: Regardless of the histologic pattern (trabecular or psammomatoid), ossifying fibromas can induce a substantial degree of orbital inflammation in children and must be included in the differential diagnosis of acute orbital inflammation during childhood.


Rare earth hydroxide nitrates are prepared from rare earth nitrates by hydrothermal treatment. Three crystal phases, M(OH)3 (M1), M2(OH)5.14(NO3)0.86·H2O (M2), and M4O(OH)9NO3 (M4) are identified. The crystal phase systematically changes from M1 to M4 through M2 with decreasing radius of rare earth cation. Morphology of nanocrystal depends on the crystal phase. M1 and M4 phases grow to be nanorod, and M2 to nanoplate.


There have been numerous recent advances in wound care management. Nevertheless, the assessment of hemostatic dressing is essential to enable surgeons and other physicians and healthcare professionals to make the correct decisions regarding the disposition of severe hemorrhage. Here, we investigated the relative efficacies of chitosan-based and conventional gauze dressings in a rat model of femoral artery hemorrhage and in patients with surgical wounds. Dressing effectiveness was evaluated based on hemostatic profiles, biocompatibility, antimicrobial activity, and blood factor responses in coagulation. Relative to standard gauze dressing, the chitosan fiber (CF) dressing treatment significantly shortened the time to hemostasis in injured rats. Moreover, the CF dressing significantly prolonged partial thromboplastin time, enhanced blood absorption, and reduced antithrombin production without altering the prothrombin ratio. Unlike regular gauze bandages, the CF dressing demonstrated remarkable antibacterial activity. The results of this study indicate the effectiveness of chitosan as a hemostatic dressing and elucidate its underlying mechanism. It is possible that chitosan surgical dressings could serve as first-line intervention in hospital emergency care for uncontrolled hemorrhage.


Although the manufacturers of pressurized aerosol bonchodilators issue instructions for using the inhalers, little or no experimental verification exists. Bronchodilatation has been measured after controlled inhalations of 500 μg terbutaline sulphate given in a systematic series of investigations to 8 patients with reversible airways obstruction at 2 different inhalation flow rates (25 1/min and 80 1/min), 3 different lung volumes (20%, 50% and 80% vital capacity) and followed by 2 different breath-holding pauses (4 and 10 seconds). The results indicate that patients may release the aerosol at any time during the course of a slow deep inhalation which should be followed by 10 seconds of breath-holding. This will ensure an optimal bronchodilator response.


In this paper we describe an application of the Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD) for the detection of a radar target signal buried in a strong clutter background. The WVD transforms the received radar signal into a time-frequency image that accounts for the nonstationary nature of the radar signal. The cross-terms, an inherent feature of the WVD, play a constructive role in this application. In particular, their presence enhances the visibility of a target in the WVD image in a unique and significant way. The WVD image provides a common input to a pair of channels, with one channel matched to clutter and the other channel matched to target plus clutter. Each channel consists of a principal components analyzer (for feature extraction) followed by a multilayer perceptron classifier. Experimental results, based on real-life, radar data, are presented to demonstrate the superior performance of the new detection strategy compared to a conventional constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) processor.<<ETX>>


BACKGROUND
Patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2-positive) cancers have a high incidence of central nervous system (CNS) spread, but unfortunately systemic trastuzumab which targets the HER2 receptor has little CNS penetration. The purpose of this study was to determine the maximum tolerated dose of intrathecal trastuzumab and its efficacy in patients with HER2-positive LMD.

METHODS
This multicenter study enrolled 34 LMD patients in a combined Phase I/II study in treating patients with intrathecal trastuzumab. Any HER2-positive histology was allowed in the Phase I; the Phase II was limited to HER2-positive breast cancer.

RESULTS
Intrathecal trastuzumab was well tolerated, with one dose limiting toxicity of grade 4 (arachnoiditis) occurring at the 80 mg twice weekly dose. The recommended Phase II dose was 80 mg intrathecally twice weekly. Twenty-six patients at dose level 80mg were included in evaluation for efficacy: partial response was seen in 5 (19.2%) patients, stable disease was observed in 13 (50.0%), and 8 (30.8%) of the patients had progressive disease. Median overall survival (OS) for Phase 2 dose treated patients was 8.3 months (95% CI 5.2 to 19.6). The Phase II HER2-positive breast cancer patients median OS was 10.5 months (95% CI 5.2 to 20.9). Pharmacokinetic (PK) studies were limited in the setting of concurrent systemic trastuzumab administration, however, did show stable CSF concentrations with repeated dosing suggest that trastuzumab does not accumulate in the CSF in toxic concentrations.

CONCLUSION
This study suggests promise for potentially improved outcomes of HER-positive LMD patients when treated with intrathecal trastuzumab while remaining safe and well-tolerated for patients.


Water is a chemical compound that is essential for the life of mankind and other living being sand their function as life will not be replaced by other compounds. Filtration is a process of water treatment by means of raw water flowing through a filter with media from granular materials with a certain grain diameter and arranged with a certain thickness. This type of research is experimental, with the aim to determine whether there is decreased levels of Febyrice huskcharcoal filtration at the water wells drilled in Environmental Health Dormitory Manado. Filtration arrangement made with gravel, palm fiber and rice huskcharcoal. Data obtained from the research results processed by using statistical test student "t" test. The conclusion that the pilot rice husk charcoal as media filtration to reduce levels of iron in well water drill that most effectively reduce levels of Fe as follows : 0.0085 mg/l (first sample) and 0, 0001mg/l (second sample). Filtration mediausing rice huskcharcoal presumably to the public to be reducing levels of Fe.


In aircraft factories, automated cable test equipments are used at the final stage of harness manufacturing before hooking up process. They try to find whether there is a broken wire or a leakage on cable. This paper examines the continuity (open-circuit) and insulation (short circuit) test operations of an aircraft cable by using Petri net model and also explains operation principle of test equipment theoretically. The proposed model basically identifies aircraft wiring test operations that are applied by automated test equipments and presents all real test conditions in a realistic way. Different from other literature studies, a general model of automated test equipment is tried to model for detecting both open circuit and short circuit faults. Furthermore, this work shows that basic training test equipment can be constructed easily combining adjustable voltage sources, analog to digital converter (ADC), switches and so on.


Terrestrial laser scanning is a technology that enables to obtain three-dimensional data – an accurate representation of reality. During scanning not only desired objects are measured, but also a lot of additional elements. Therefore, unnecessary data is being removed, what has an impact on efficiency of point cloud processing. It can happen while single point clouds are displayed – user decides what he wants to deleted and does it manually, or by using tools provided in dedicated for point cloud processing softwares. In Leica Geosystems Cyclone – software used here in tests, user can apply tools e.g. for merging or unification of point clouds. Both of them change the separate points clouds into one points cloud, however unification can be executed with reduction – low, medium, high, highest or no reduction at all. It should be noted, that the modeled objects may have complex structure and unification with selected type of reduction can have a very big impact on the result of modeling. In such situation it is desirable to apply different types of reduction. In this article authors propose to apply an optimization algorithm on unified point clouds. Unification conducted by means of Cyclone Leica Geosystems (v.7.3.3) enables to merge point clouds and reduced the number of points. The point elimination is determined mainly by spacing between points. It may leads to loose of important points – representing some essential elements of scanned objects or area. Applying optimization algorithm, especially for complex objects, may help to reduce the number of points without losing the information necessary for proper modeling.


The tall and straight bole of Kelempayan
(Neolamarckia cadamba (Roxb.) Bosser), a fast-growing
indigenous species, has the potential to be used for
forest plantation species. This study was carried out to
evaluate the inherent properties of the wood. Six planted
trees under similar site conditions were sampled along
their radii and at five different height levels to
evaluate the inherent variation of wood and the influence
of anatomical properties on its specific gravity (SG) and
bending strength. Over all me ans for SG was 0.36, green
moisture content 174.83 percent (%), tangential shrinkage
6.46%, radial shrinkage 3.28% and volumetric shrinkage
9.90%. The overall means for modulus of elasticity ( MOE)
and modulus of rupture {MOR ) were 7667 and 71 megapascal
(MPa) respectively. Vessel comprised 16.69% of wood, ray
11.96% and fibre 71.41%. Fibre length averaged 1.38
millimeter, fibre diameter 35.01 microns, fibre lumen
diameter 24.82 microns and fibre wall thickness 5.11 microns. These physical and mechanical properties are
similar to many other light hardwoods species, indicating
the suitability of wood for general utility timber.


.. Objective: To know the association between different anthropometric parameters for overweight and obese individuals to prevalence of prehypertension. Study Design: Correlational study. Setting: Vicinity of Kharian and at Outpatient Department, CMH Kharian Cantt. Period: February 2019 and January 2020. Material & Methods: Correlational study carried out in the vicinity of Kharian by employing different anthropometric measurements in accordance with guidelines to look at how blood pressure figure behaves in overweight, obese and morbidly obese population and further is there a difference in overall outcome if we use waist circumference rather than BMI and its significance in targeting preventive strategies. Results: Our results show a staircase pattern of increase in blood pressure, initially lying in different phases of prehypertension among normal weight (BMI 23±1.65; waist circumference (WC): 86.45±8.78; Systolic BP:127±11.99; Diastolic BP:80.44 ±9.45), overweight (BMI 27.35 ±1.23; WC:100±5.32; Systolic BP:128.72 ±11.29; Diastolic BP:80.05 ±6.66) and obese individuals (BMI 31.97 ±1.45; WC:112.12±9.22; Systolic BP:138.06 ±21.61; Diastolic BP:87.56 ±9.78), while this trend shifted to full blown hypertension among morbidly obese individuals (BMI 39.88 ±4.30; WC:120.38±12.84; Systolic BP:145 ±17.64; Diastolic BP:89.23 ±10.95) Conclusion: We conclude that prehypertension is already prevalent among normal weight and overweight individuals, and intensive follow up and lifestyle intervention strategy should be employed earlier at this level and waist circumference is a better predictor of cardiovascular disease than BMI and should be routinely done in local primary health care set up to prevent the onset of complications associated with this silent killer.


The Korean People's Revolutionary Army carried out an assault in Pochon county town in Ryanggang Province (the then Pochonbo, Pochon sub-county, Hyesan County in South Hamgyong Province) on June 4 1937 during the anti-Japanese armed struggle. Recorded as Pochonbo Battle in history, it was not so large in scale but its historic significance still shines in the history of the Korean people's anti-Japanese war. After their military occupation of Korea, the Japanese imperialists speeded up the militarization of its economy and increased economic plunder and exploitation as never before while intensifying their fascist repression of the Korean people in order to complete their preparations for the war to invade the Asian continent in the latter half of the 1930s. Korea thus turned into a literal hell and the destiny of the Korean people was at stake. After making a scientific analysis of the prevailing situation, General Kim Il Sung put forward the policy on the KPRA's offensive operation in the homeland by a large unit and the immediate tasks to realize it at a meeting held in China's Xigang in March 1937. After advancing into the homeland by crossing the Amnok River on rafts from the Kouyushui Barrage on the night of June 3, the main force of the KPRA camped on Konjang Hill. When it got dark the following day, they approached the town of Pochonbo to occupy their designated positions respectively. At 22:00, the army simultaneously started the assault at the signal of a gunshot. The enemies fell dead failing to put up resistance. Pillars of flames shot up from the Japanese imperialists' repressive apparatus and ruling machines, including the police station and sub-county office, brightening up the dark night sky and cheers of "Hurrah!" resounded in the streets which had been fraught with groans in agony. Kim Il Sung, the legendary hero of the anti-Japanese war, made a stirring speech before the masses swaying like a nocturnal sea. He ardently called on them to staunchly fight for the liberation of the country, saying Korea was not dead but alive and that both the spirit and heart of Korea were alive. The flames of Pochonbo instilled in the Korean people confidence in national liberation and the news of the Pochonbo Battle amazed Korea and the rest of the world. It not only hit the headlines of publications of Korea but also those of China and the USSR at that time, and local patriots, fighters for national independence and many other people from all parts of the country came to Pochonbo to personally step on it. The Japanese troops who had desperately chased the KPRA in order to make up for their ignominious defeat in the Pochonbo Battle were mowed down caught by the protean tactics of the KPRA in the battles on Mt Kouyushui and Jiansanfeng. The enemies suffered another ignominious defeat in the battle on Jiansanfeng, which left so many casualties. Unable to carry all the corpses, they cut the heads and put them into sacks to carry them. For fear that the fact would be known to public, they said that they were carrying pumpkins in the sacks. The anecdote of "pumpkin heads" gave the Koreans confidence in victory again in the wake of the Pochonbo Battle. After the battle, passionate Korean youth from all parts of Korea and overseas ardently volunteered to join the KPRA and the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle of Korea greeted a new age of vitalization. The Pochonbo Battle, which left an indelible mark on the historic course for the cause of liberating Korea, is significantly commemorated even today and the spirit of that day is being carried on by new generations. By Pang Un Ju PT


Triple neurectomy of the iliohypogastric (IHN), ilioinguinal (IIN), and genitofemoral (GFN) nerves is an available treatment option for chronic groin pain when conservative measures are ineffective. This research study attempted to define the variability of IHN, IIN, and GFN by categorizing variation and establishing a relationship to clinically significant landmarks. 22 cadavers (43 specimens) were dissected. Age, gender, ethnicity, BMI, and pertinent medical history were recorded for each specimen. Nerve emergence, insertion, and split points were measured in relation to clinically significant landmarks. Retroperitoneal trajectories of IHN, IIN, and GFN were analyzed and categorized based on nerve branching patterns. IIN and IHN had three branching patterns – type A (47%) in which the IIH and IIN exit as separate branches; type B (26%) in which the IIH and IIN exit as a single bundle and split; and type C (28%) in which the IIH and IIN exit and do not split. The GFN had three branching patterns—type 1 (50%) in which the GFN exited from the psoas major and then split into the genital and femoral branches; type 2 (30%) in which the GFN exited and did not split; and type 3 (20%) in which the GFN exited the psoas major already split into the genital and femoral branches. Variations in the IHN, IIN, and GFN nerves outlined in this study will provide surgeons with clinically useful information aiding in successful and efficient localization of these nerves during retroperitoneal procedures, including laparoscopic triple neurectomy. Clin. Anat. 28:903–909, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Abstract The objective of this research is to develop the woven/knitted hybrid composites for improved in plane as well as out of plane mechanical properties. Two different type of structures and two different materials were used in this study. Firstly, the woven and knitted fabrics were developed with glass and Kevlar yarn. Secondly, the laminated composite samples were fabricated with different stacking sequence of fabric plies. The epoxy resin was used as matrix. The cured samples were characterized for impact, tensile and dynamic mechanical properties. The behavior of composite materials was then analyzed with percentages of different fiber and fabric types. The samples with higher percentages of knitted reinforcement gave better impact strength but failed to provide better tensile properties. Moreover, the samples with higher percentages of woven structure and glass materials gives better modulus values.


Pressure-driven membrane filtration is a widely used method to separate casein micelles (CM) from smaller components in milk. The structure of CM attached on the membrane has been investigated because in such a deposited state they reduce the performance of the filtration process. Scattering experiments with nano- and micrometre sized X-ray beams and a filtration setup with silicon micro-sieves as membranes were used. Grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) experiments above porous regions of the micro-sieves show that spherical CM become stretched in the direction of the filtration flow. The one-dimensional scattering functions extracted from the two-dimensional GISAXS patterns were analyzed by a single ellipsoidal form factor fit. According to the model, CM assume a prolate ellipsoidal shape at a trans-membrane pressure of Δp = 400 mbar (1 mbar = 100 Pa). With increasing trans-membrane pressure, the shape of the CM undergoes a transition towards an oblate structure between 400 and 600 mbar. Small-angle X-ray scattering experiments with a 200 nm beam allow for transmission experiments on CM in a single pore of the micro-sieve. Typical characteristics of the internal structure could not be identified in the scattering functions of CM subjected to filtration forces.


Transcultural psychiatry, from different standpoints, from sociology to clinical ethno-psychiatry, tries to compare mental disorders in various societies and cultures, studying differences between the incidence of mental diseases in different cultures, pointing out the specificity of diseases and the variability in clinical signs. Recent immigration phenomena pose problems of reception and management of psychiatric discomforts in these ethnic groups, with difficulty in making a proper diagnosis and establishing a therapy. The handling of psychotherapies is difficult because of the kind of users, who often belong to the lowest classes, because of the theoretical-clinical models of analytic psychotherapies, which focus on individual more than on social problems, and also because of communication difficulty. Particularly, transcultural psychotherapy could be used both as an integrator filter, which helps the accumulation process of ethnic minorities facing non pathologic psychological-social hardships, and as a therapeutic intervention intended to rehabilitate minorities with psychiatric disorders, after a counseling intervention. Transcultural pharmacotherapy poses the problem of the choice of drugs, because of genetic racial variability, with the presence of slow or fast metabolizers characterized by different forms of p450 cytochrome and of different plasmatic binding proteins, which cause the appearance of unexpected or more severe side effects and varied responses. This branch of psychiatry is particularly fertile from both cultural and clinical standpoint.


The concept of scalar-vector potential, the assuming dependence of the scalar potential of charge and it pour on from the speed it made possible to explain a whole series of the phenomena, connected with the motion of charge, which earlier in the classical electrodynamics an explanation did not have. Such phenomena include the phase aberration of electromagnetic waves, the transverse Doppler effect, the phenomenon of Lorentz force. In this article the new law of electro-electrical induction, which explains nature of dipole emission, will be examined on the basis of the concept of scalar- vector potential


The purpose of this study was to determine whether the hypothesis on the levels of psychological processes (Hatta, 1977, 1978) accounts for lateral differences in arm positioning movement (a spatial localization task). Fifteen right-handed male subjects were asked to perform a constrained criterion movement, 12 cm in length, with the left or right arm. Then, after a 10-sec retention interval, they were asked to perform the movement with the same arm, estimating lengths of 6, 12 or 24 cm. Different levels of psychological processes were assumed to be involved in estimating these various movement lengths--half, the same, or double that of the original. All possible combinations of the arm (left/right) and three movement length were tested. The CE scores were lower (more accurate) for the left arm (half; 1.5 +/- 8.1 mm, same; 4.3 +/- 6.2mm, double; 5.9 +/- 20.3 mm) than those for the right arm (half; 5.9 +/- 7.6 mm, same; 10.6 +/- 10.6 mm, double; 11.8 +/- 23.6 mm) in all conditions, indicating a lateral difference (the right hemisphere dominance) in arm positioning tasks. This typical lateral difference, which displayed no significant difference among conditions, is supposed to be mediated by complex or high-level psychological processes. These psychological processes are required by the subjects in the estimation of the various movement lengths. This study suggests that the level of psychological processes is a crucial factor in the manifestation of lateral differences in the performance of arm positioning movements.


The objective of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the effects of the self-efficacy enhancing program on health behaviors, weight, and waist circumference of the nursing students with overweight. Fifty-four nursing students were purposively selected to participate in a 6 month program of emphasizing self-efficacy. The program was developed based on Bandura's self-efficacy theory including providing information of diet control, exercise, appropriate stress management, role model, counseling during behavior modification by peer group, Calories Application on smart phone, telephone follow-up, and physiological and emotional arousal activities. Instruments used in data collection consisted of demographic datasheet, health behavior questionnaire, weighing scales and tape measure. The health behavior questionnaire was content validated by 3 experts as with content validity index 0.92 and internal consistency reliability tested using Cronbach's alpha coefficient: yielding value of 0.83. The changes in health behaviors, weight, and waist circumferences between before the intervention, 1 month, and 6 months after the intervention, were compared using Repeated Measures ANOVA and Scheffe. The results showed that after 6 months, mean score of overall health behaviors in terms of diet, exercise and stress management were significantly higher, whereas mean weight, and waist circumference were lower than those of before the intervention and 1 month after the intervention (p < 0.01). In conclusion, the findings suggest that training in self-efficacy for health behavior change may be benefit for weight loss and waist circumference reduction. Long term follow-up for behavior maintenance should be evaluated.


Niemann–Pick disease type C (NPC) is an autosomal recessive neurovisceral lipid storage disease resulting from mutations of either the NPC1 (95% of families) or the NPC2 gene, showing a wide spectrum of clinical phenotypes and a highly variable age at diagnosis.1,2

We report NPC1 in the oldest patient affected with the disease so far. This 68-year-old woman presented with a 15-year history of depression and fluctuating mood, and was treated several times in psychiatric departments during the previous years. At the age of 54 she was unable to work further. In the past 4 years she had developed a fluctuating, progressive dementia with reduced impulse, affective instability, dysphagia, cramped hands and dyskinesia. A percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy was initiated owing to the loss of considerable body weight in …


Using trait activation theory as a framework, the authors examined the moderating role of two situational variables-perceptions of organizational politics and perceptions of leader effectiveness-on the relationship between core self-evaluations and job performance. Results from two samples (N = 137 and N = 226) indicate that employee perceptions of their work environment moderated the relationship between their core self-evaluations and supervisor ratings of their performance. In particular, those with higher core self-evaluations received higher performance ratings in environments perceived as favorable than in environments perceived as unfavorable.


The electromagnetic oscillograph has proved to be a useful instrument for obtaining recorded measurements of non-electrical quantities. The problems of application involve the translation of mechanical phenomena into electrical changes which are proportional. Several typical applications are described showing how motion, time, stress, pressure, etc., are measured.


Musculoskeletal symptoms, including pain, are often experienced by musicians at all levels. These symptoms may have a detrimental impact on musicians' personal and work lives, and may also impact upon the ensembles they work within. Providing musicians with appropriate, evidence-based advice regarding pain management is therefore paramount. In this review, we aim to improve the advice given to musicians regarding playing when in pain, by answering the question 'should musicians play in pain?'. This multidisciplinary narrative review draws upon contemporary pain science, including factors associated with poorer prognoses for those in pain, as well as the reported experiences of musicians with pain (including those who have taken time off from playing). Our current understanding of pain science provides further support for the potential for consequences related to avoiding activities due to pain. Pain is modulated by a number of neuro-immunological processes and is influenced by a range of psychosocial factors. Taking time off from playing might therefore not have any benefit. Importantly, one of the leading causes of a transition from acute to chronic pain is fear-avoidance behaviour (e.g. not playing when in pain); hence, encouraging such behaviour cannot be supported. Musicians who have taken time off from playing due to pain have experienced a range of consequences, including emotional and financial consequences. These experiences indicate that there are potential negative consequences related to taking time off from playing which need to be weighed against any benefits. We conclude that musicians should not necessarily be advised to take time off from playing to manage their pain, in keeping with current best practice for pain management. Instead, we recommend that musicians be educated on contemporary pain science and when to seek treatment from a health professional for individualised advice to reduce the burden of musicians' pain.


A method is described for maintaining a permanent tracheostomy in dogs. This animal preparation has been used to study the effects of artificially increased respiratory dead space. Trained dogs with tracheostomies have made possible measurements of ventilation without anesthesia. It has been found that additions to the respiratory dead space in the form of tubing of frac34 in. i.d. result in an increase in physiologic dead space of the same magnitude as the volume of tubing added. Increasing the dead space in this manner resulted in an increased minute volume which was accomplished principally by an increase in tidal volume without a significant or consistent change in respiratory rate. Alveolar ventilation remained unchanged even with large additions to the dead space (20–30 cc/kg of animal wt.). Arterial pCO2 was significantly higher in these animals than in the controls. The CO2 tension was similarly elevated when extra dead space of lesser volume (5–20 cc/kg) was allowed to remain on the dogs for more than 48 hours.

Submitted on April 13, 1960


In a progressively knowledge-dependent economy, businesses need to pay greater attention to harnessing the knowledge that resides in their organizations. However, despite increasing investment in knowledge management (KM) tools, organizations often experience frustration in developing a knowledge sharing culture. This article describes how HP's Decision Support and Analytics Services (referred to as HP Analytics) unit in India promoted initiatives aimed at changing the behavior of employees and successfully fostered a knowledge sharing culture as it implemented a cost-effective KM platform using web-based collaborative technologies. Its experiences in branding the KM program, establishing interest groups, using opinion leaders as KM ambassadors, and encouraging blogging over a multi-year period provide important lessons for CIOs and other organizational leaders who seek to build a knowledge sharing culture


In 2013, Parties to the UNFCCC were invited to prepare and communicate their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) under a 2015 agreement. Assessment and review of INDCs can help to ...


This paper is intended to describe how religiosity management in improving the professionalism of teachers. Religiosity is not synonymous with religion. It should be a religious person it is at once a religious person, too. But a lot happens, the adherents of a religion that is persistent, but with a motivated or career advancement. Educational institutions require professional management in order to provide education to walk dynamically, competetif, and productive. This is done for education in the process should lead to the approach to God and human perfection, directing people to achieve his life goal is a happy afterlife. Management includes planning, execution, control, and monitoring of the (human resources, learning resources, curriculum, funding and facilities) to achieve educational goals effectively and efficiently. Educational planning has an important role and are at an early stage in the process of education management, which serve as a guide for implementation, control, and supervision of education. The essence of planning is a decision-making process that is systematic, relating to future plans, and to achieve certain desired objectives. And to overcome the limitations of the ability, willingness, and its resources in achieving educational goals needed organizing in education. Implementing an educational institution is the key of success of an educational institution. Teachers as professional educators have a good image in the community if it can demonstrate to the public that he is worthy of being a role model or example of the surrounding community. Teacher behavior patterns associated with it will be discussed in accordance with the objectives, namely the teachers' professional attitude towards laws and regulations, professional organizations, colleagues, students, work place, leadership, and work. A teacher not only reflects a profession, but a representation of different positions which is very noble. Teacher is a hero selfless, unsung hero, a hero of science, goodness hero, heroes education, human builders, the builders of civilization, culture bearer, piorir, reformer and reliable, and etc.


Diabetes mellitus 'the disease of modern civilization' is characterized by chronic hyperglycaemia. The management of elevated post prandial glucose is critical to control the sequale of complications and α-amylase, α-glucosidases are responsible for elevated plasma glucose. Enzyme inhibitors in current clinical practice like acarbose, voglibose etc. are known to cause various gastrointestinal side effects. The present study was aimed to screen for potential α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitors from natural sources by in–vitro antidiabetic assays to overcome the side effects and toxicity. Different concentrations of leaf juice of Plectranthus amboinicus Lour. (20, 40, 60, 80 &100 μg/ml) were tested against fungal α-amylase and α-glucosidases isolated from albino rat small intestine and a prominent dose dependent inhibition of the enzymes was observed comparable with the marketed product, Acarbose. The IC50 values of LJPA and acarbose on fungal α-amylase was found to be 83.15 &52.15 μg/ml respectively. The IC50 values of LJPA and acarbose on α-glucosidase was found to be 92.44 &54.84 μg/ml respectively. The protein concentration of leaf juice was found to be 10.6 mg/ml.


Group communication and total order topics have been studied for more than two decades from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. Most of this work is concerned about the classical definition of total order (informally, all the messages are received in the same order). However, in some cases additional guarantees are needed, like optimistic delivery or priority-based delivery, which allows a user application to prioritise the sending or even the delivery of certain messages. In this paper, we present several techniques to modify an existing total order protocol to take into account message priorities and show how existing total order algorithms can be modified according to these techniques.


In order to accomplish missions, naval ships must be able to stay at sea for a prolonged period of time in specific areas without having the opportunity to reach the shore for replenishment. Thus navy ships are equipped to perform Underway replenishment (UNREP) (US Navy) or replenishment at sea (RAS) (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation / Commonwealth of Nations) with fuel, ammunition, provisions, and spare parts.
Replenishment at sea represents another potential collision situation at sea as a result of operating within short distances of the ships involved in this operations. Ongoing safely replenishment at sea operations involve highly skilled personnel on both ships such as: the very best of helmsmanship for keeping a steady course and the officer of the watch to bring the ship into position and match speed. As the two ships close each other, the hydrodynamic forces will both change and increase noticeably. Knowing the hydrodynamic interaction loads between the vessels engaged in RAS operations is highly advantageous.
 ,,Mircea cel B?tr?n" Naval Academy (MBNA) uses a top notch "Integrated simulator for driving of watercraft" that meets the Standard Certification No. 2.14 for Maritime Simulator Systems, adopted in January 2011 for training and development of practical skills of teams onboard naval ships in order to safely perform replenishment at sea operations.
Using "Integrated simulator for driving of watercraft" capabilities, underway replenishment operations can be performed with the use of two ship model types: delivery ships and receiving ships. The parameters of refuelling underway are: the admissible course and speed deviation of the receiving ship, the admissible deviation of the phone and distance (P&D) line angle from the normal to the plane parallel to the centreline plane of the receiving ship, the maximum length of the P&D line and the maximum break force of the span wire.
RAS module of the simulator is used for training of undergraduate students and also embarked personnel onboard Romanian Navy ships.
The aim of this paper is to present how practical skills and competences neccesary for military personnel onboard ships engaged in replenishment at sea operations can be achieved through simulated exercises in different hydrometeorological conditions.


We have completed a series of validation studies to demonstrate that ultrasound with a contrast agent and perfusion estimator is a reliable, accurate, and non-invasive method of measuring blood flow. A subharmonic phase-inversion detection scheme (Chomas et al.) was implemented on a Siemens Elegra scanner. A fluorescent microsphere study was completed in which high correlation was found between the spatial integral of flow obtained from ultrasound derived parameters and the microsphere measurement of ml of flow/minute/gram of tissue. We seek to further validate our results by showing a high degree of spatial correlation between US images and those acquired using histological analysis. In addition, contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging studies were completed using a rat mammary adenocarcinoma model to evaluate the performance of an anti-angiogenic drug. Mean replenishment times and integrated enhancement values were calculated and differences between treated and control tumors were evaluated. The spatial extent of flow and the spatial integral of flow were calculated from the histograms of integrated enhancement and provide a method of comparison between tumors treated with the anti-angiogenic drug and control tumors. These parameters demonstrate a significant difference between the treated and control groups (P<0.05). A significant difference was not present in these parameters between groups prior to the onset of treatment (P>0.1).


ABSTRACT Background: Diabetes mellitus is one of the leading causes of morbidity resulting in multi-organ dysfunction. Animal studies have shown that hyperglycemia results in stress-induced senescence through the p16-pRb pathway, thereby accelerating early disc degeneration. There is a paucity of literature on the effect of hyperglycemia in human intervertebral disc cells. We aimed to analyze the effect of diabetes mellitus in human intervertebral disc cells. Methods: This is a prospective study done in patients with degenerative disc disease. Patients were categorized into a control group (no diabetes: 26 patients) and a study group (type 2 diabetes for > 3 years: 24 patients). All patients underwent either discectomy or transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion and the removed disc was transported to pathology department. Tissue was prepared and histopathological grading was done followed by immunohistochemistry studies using antibodies for MMP-1, p21, p16, and pRb. Results: Samples from diabetic patients had severe (grade 2) degenerative changes compared with the control group (grade 1). Changes were more intense in the nucleus pulposus with increased cellularity and clustering of chondrocytes, and disorganization and loss of nuclear matrix. Immunohistochemical staining for MMP1, p16, and pRb was more intense (Q score = 4) whereas the staining for p21 was less intense (Q score = 1) in the diabetic group compared with the control group. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that type 2 diabetes mellitus accelerates stress-induced senescence in human intervertebral discs resulting in early disc degeneration. Also, the severity of disc degeneration is severe compared with the normal subjects. Clinical Relevance: Hyperglycemia can affect the intervertebral discs similar to other organs and hence adequate control of blood glucose in diabetics can prevent the disc degeneration, which is the initiator of degeneration cascade in spine.


Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has been used for the creation of complex parts in different industries. The addition of defect detection and load sensing capabilities to these products can highly increase their values. Recently, modern industries have started incorporating AM components into their structures, including those with critical applications like aerospace and civil constructions. This requires the development of accurate and reliable methods for evaluating and monitoring the structural integrity of such components. The Electromechanical Impedance (EMI) method is frequently used to evaluate the health condition of lightweight structures based on the local structural response in the high-frequency range. This study investigates the usage of machine learning (ML) for the health-condition assessment of 3D-printed M3-X plates using EMI conductance (G) and resistance (R) data fusion. Piezoelectric wafers (PZTs) bonded to the center of the plates were used for the measurements. Drilled holes were created and repaired in multiple plates, and several EMI measurements were taken for the healthy, damaged, and repaired states of each plate. After fusing the R and G EMI measurement using a wide frequency range (1 kHz to 5 MHz), principal component analysis (PCA) was employed for feature reduction before a deep-learning approach was applied for diagnosis and damage classification. The findings demonstrate that the EMI method can be applied for the health assessment of AM polymers and is capable of differentiating between their healthy, damaged, and repaired states.


The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States have publicly opposed artificial contraception since they first issued a public statement condemning it in 1919. Thereafter, the bishops were generally unsuccessful in persuading the public that contraceptive access should be restricted. Recently, however, the bishops succeeded in a campaign to restrict access to contraceptives for Catholic and non-Catholic women alike. Their lobbying and public criticism of the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which requires employer health plans to offer preventive reproductive care coverage, forced Obama administration officials into a series of accommodations that gutted portions of the law intended to provide contraception to employees without copayment or cost sharing. In contrast to their earlier efforts to restrict reproductive freedom, the bishops successfully characterized their efforts against the ACA as a battle for religious freedom rather than against reproductive rights. This successful strategy may lead to future setbacks for women's reproductive liberty.


This exploratory case study aimed at investigating the studentteachers' views on using Facebook games for language learning. The participants were 48 student-teachers at the EFL Department of the Faculty of Education at a Libyan public university. They were required to play Facebook games for two weeks and then present their experiences through oral presentations and reflective journals. Data were collected through student-teachers' presentations and reflective journals. Data were analyzed qualitatively using a thematic inductive approach. Although few student-teachers had negative views, most of the student-teachers had positive views on using Facebook games for learning. They believed that Facebook games teach players following instructions and provide opportunities for language improvement, especially for vocabulary learning. We expect that our findings would provide teachers and practitioners with ideas for classroom research and encourage researchers to conduct further and more rigorous testing on integrating Facebook games into the EFL classroom.


In this paper, near field radiation characteristics of HF antenna on platform and typical microwave reflector antenna are analyzed by MLFMA. In the full wave computation, interactions among current on patches are performed by MLFMA, which are the most time and memory consuming, the other operations are still computed by MoM. Numerical results prove the precision of the method.


The experimental data of the isotopic distribution for projectile-like fragments are presented for the 17,18N + 197Au reaction at 33 MeV/u. The width of the isotopic distributions for 18N projectile is significantly broader than that for 17N projectile, and the average N/Z ratio of the former shifts to higher neutron number side. As long as the realistic nucleon density distribution is used, the isotopic distribution for fragments is reproduced by the simple abrasion-ablation model calculation, which thus provides an independent way to determine the surface distribution of the nuclear matter density for neutron-rich nuclei.


Abstract : The major goals of this research have been to develop diagnostical spectroscopic methods for measuring spatial/temporal temperatures of combustion flames and plasmas and to develop sensitive, selective, precise, reliable, rapid spectrometric methods of trace analysis of elements present in jet engine lubricating oils, matellurgical samples, biological materials, and automobile and other engine exhausts. The diagnostical approaches have been based upon the measurement of pulsed laser excited fluorescence of seeds, such as In, T1, Pb, etc., introduced into the flames, plasmas, or hot gases or in the case of flames, the measurement of natural flame species as OH. Because of the excellent fluorescence signal to noise ratios, it has been possible to measure temperatures of combustion flames for volumes smaller than 1 cu mm and for single laser pulses of a few nanoseconds. The technique with the most promise for use in combustion flames and in reactors is based upon thermally assisted fluorescence of an externally introduced seed as T1 and In or of an internal species as OH. By exciting the species with a dye laser and measuring the fluorescence from energy levels thermally excited form the laser excited state, the flame (plasma) temperature can be readily measured ( + or - 10 C) for a volume 1 mm 3 and for a single laser pulse.


Learning visual representation of high quality is essential for image classification. Recently, a series of contrastive representation learning methods have achieved preeminent success. Particularly, SupCon [18] outperformed the dominant methods based on cross-entropy loss in representation learning. However, we notice that there could be potential ethical risks in supervised contrastive learning. In this paper, we for the first time analyze unfairness caused by supervised contrastive learning and propose a new Fair Supervised Contrastive Loss (FSCL) for fair visual representation learning. Inheriting the philosophy of supervised contrastive learning, it encourages representation of the same class to be closer to each other than that of different classes, while ensuring fairness by penalizing the inclusion of sensitive attribute information in representation. In addition, we introduce a group-wise normalization to diminish the disparities of intra-group compactness and inter-class separability between demographic groups that arouse unfair classification. Through extensive experiments on CelebA and UTK Face, we validate that the proposed method significantly outperforms SupCon and existing state-of-the-art methods in terms of the trade-off between top-l accuracy and fairness. Moreover, our method is robust to the intensity of data bias and effectively works in incomplete supervised settings. Our code is available at https://github.com/sungho-CoolG/FSCL.


The maturity and spawning of Liza parsia in the Cochin Estuary, Kerala, India was studied from January to December 1979. The breeding season extends from October to May with peak spawning from December to April. Relatively high gonadosomatic values were observed from October to April after which a decrease was noticed upto June. Size at first maturity for female is around 129.0 mm S.L. and for male is around 120 mm S.L. The sex ratio was significantly different in January and February: the skewed sex ratios were due to the preponderance of females over males and then the mean ratio between male and female was found to be 1:1, 24. Fecundity of the species varied from 64,278 to 3,87,576 eggs and the relationship obtained was log F = 2.1951 + 3.3780 log L. The maximum number of mature fishes was observed from December to April when the estuary had nearly marine conditions. During the spawning periods the mean temperature ranged from 30 to 34 degrees C and salinity from 8 to 29 ppt in the area from where collection were made


Aim: To evaluate the effect of energy drinks (Redbull and Bison) and soft drinks (CocaCola and 7 Up) on the surface roughness (SR) and microhardness (MH) of Filtek Z350 nanofilled composite resin. Materials and methods: A total of 60 disk-shaped specimens were prepared from Filtek Z350 XT restorative material and randomly allocated to 5 groups (n=12). The specimens were stored in petri dish containing Redbull (Group 1); Bison (Group 2); Coca-Cola (Group 3); 7 Up (Group 4) and distilled water (Group 5/Control). The SR and hardness of the composite specimens were determined after 24 hours (n=6) and 28 d (n=6) of storage in energy and soft drinks. SR (in Ra) was measured using a non-contact optical profilometer and MH (VHN) was tested using hardness tester equipped with a Vickers diamond indenter. The data obtained was analyzed using SPSS v.20 statistical analysis software. The data was analyzed using Wilcoxon sign rank test. A P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result: Group Redbull showed maximum SR at 28 days (0.30 0.11) followed by Bison at 28 days (0.21 0.09). MH test results showed specimens in distilled water with increased MH at 24 hours (114 9.4). The least MH was seen in Redbull (85 12.3) at 28 days. Conclusion: The energy drinks have a substantially damaging effect on SR and MH compared to soft drinks and distilled water; and these effects are increased with duration of exposure.


A method was developed of assessing somatosensory deficits quantitatively using hair follicle displacement as a stimulus within a psychophysical signal detection task paradigm. Multiple sclerosis patients with and without somatosensory disturbances could be differentiated and compared with normal subjects. This method may distinguish patients with somatosensory dysfunction, and dorsal funiculus neuropathology may underlie this distinction.


ALMOST EVERYONE can ride a bicycle, yet apparently no one knows how they do it. I believe that the apparent simplicity and ease of the trick conceals much unrecognized subtlety, and I have spent some time and effort trying to discover the reasons for the bicycle's stability. Published theory on the topic is sketchy and presented mainly without experimental verification. In my investigations I hoped to identify the stabilizing features of normal bicycles by constructing abnormal ones lacking selected features (see figure 1). The failure of early unridable bicycles led me to a careful consideration of steering geometry, from which—with the aid of computer calculations—I designed and constructed an inherently unstable bicycle.


Most Land cover types are \anisotropic", that is, the solar radiation re-ected by the surface is not uniform in all directions. Characterizing the Bidi-rectional Reeectance Distribution Function (BRDF) of the earth's surface is critical in understanding surface anisotropy. Though there are several methods to retrieve the BRDF of various land cover types, most of them have been applied over small data sets collected either on ground or from aircraft at limited spatial and temporal scales. In this paper, we use multi-angular, multi-temporal and multi-band Pathhnder AVHRR Land (PAL) data set to retrieve the global BRDF in the red and near infrared wavelengths. The PAL data set used in our study has a spatial resolution of 8-km and 10-day composite data for four years (1983 to 1986). In particular, we develop high performance algorithms to retrieve global BRDF using three widely diierent models. Given the volume of data involved (about 27 GBytes), we attempt to optimize the I/O time as well as minimize the overall computational complexity. Our algorithms access the global data once, followed by a redistribution of land pixel data to balance the computational loads among the diierent nodes of a multiprocessor system. This strategy results in an optimized I/O access time with eeciently balanced computations across the nodes. Experimental data on a 16-node IBM SP2 is used to support these claims and to illustrate the scalability of our algorithms.


Gastric ulcers result from an imbalance between endogenous defense mechanisms and certain aggressive agents. Many drugs were used to overcome this imbalance, but few literatures made on plants. Therefore, we try to evaluate the gastroprotective efficacy of two nutritional supplements (Vanadyl sulfate and Lycopene) in comparison to Lansoprazole. Five groups of seven healthy albino male rats each were received an oral daily dose of above agents for ten days. Then 1.25 ml of 95% ethanol orally used to induce mucosal injury and animals were sacrificed 1 hour later. Glutathione and malondialdehyde were estimated. A significant elevation in glutathione level found in Vanadyl and Lycopene-received groups in comparison to lansoprazole-received group (717.13±19.47 1⁄4mol/gm wet tissue, 609.55±17.6 1⁄4mol/gm wet tissue and 512.07±25.32 1⁄4mol/gm wet tissue respectively), with a significant reduction in malondialdehyde level (10.63±0.92 nmol/gm wet tissue, 12.66±0.56 nmol/g wet tissue and 14.90±0.33 nmol/gm wet tissue respectively). This revealed gastro-protective effects of Vanadyl and Lycopene in ameliorating the oxidative cellular damage.


The influence of temperature, daylength and sucrose concentration on the growth and development of Alstroemeria 'Zebra' in vitro was investigated. Only slightly more lateral rhizomes were formed at 25°C in comparison with 17°C on the medium with BA. Presence of BA in the medium strongly increased number of upright growing shoots and more shoots were formed in temperature 25°C than in temperature 17°C. Rhizome multiplication and formation of upright growing shoots were not significantly influenced by daylength. Sucrose was required for the formation of lateral rhizomes, upright growing shoots and roots. The highest number Of lateral rhizomes was observed on the medium containing 60 and 80 gl -1 sucrose and BA. Presence of BA in the medium with different sucrose concentrations markedly influenced the formation of upright growing shoots; the highest number of shoots was found on the explants cultured on the media with 20 and 30 gl -1 sucrose. Low and high concentrations of sucrose inhibited upright growing shoots formation and their elongation. Rhizogenesis was not observed on rhizomes growing on the medium without sucrose and with 10 gl -1 sucrose, either in the presence or absence of NAA" The number of roots per plantlet on the medium with NAA increased with increasing sucrose levels. The highest sucrose concentrations slightly inhibited roots formation.


The main objective of the research reported in this paper is to determine the response of a hot mix asphalt (HMA) in terms of both the tensile strength and energy parameters (based on the assessment of the force-displacement curve) as potential tools for improving the HMA mixture design. The HMAs analyzed were fabricated using a 60-70 penetration asphalt binder, dense-graded aggregate, mineral filler, and different types and contents of mineral filler replacements (i.e., lime, cement, and fly ash). The indirect tensile test was conducted to determine both the HMA tensile strength and force-displacement curve, which allowed for the computation of the HMA toughness as well as the energies involved in the process before and after reaching the tensile strength. Corresponding results suggest that the replacement of mineral filler by cement, lime, and fly ash modified the HMA response in terms of both the tensile strength and energy parameters. In addition, analysis of the energy parameters discussed proved to be useful for determining the optimum mineral filler content of HMA. Consequently, analysis of these energy parameters can benefit the HMA mixture design process.


X chromosome- and Y chromosome-specific DNA probes were used to study different aspects of the genesis of sex-chromosome monosomy. Using X-linked RFLPs, we studied the parental origin of the single X chromosome in 35 spontaneously aborted and five live-born 45,X conceptions. We determined the origin in 35 cases; 28 had a maternal X (Xm) and seven had a paternal X (Xp). There was a correlation between parental origin and parental age, with the Xp category having a significantly reduced mean maternal age by comparison with the Xm group. Studies aimed at detecting mosaicism demonstrated the presence of a Y chromosome or a second X chromosome in three of 33 spontaneous abortions, a level of mosaicism much lower than that reported for live-born Turner syndrome individuals.


Di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) is one of the most representative persistent micro-pollutants detected in the sewage sludge. In the present study, the presence of DEHP and its removal in various treatment units of a sewage treatment plant (STP) including an attached growth biological system i.e., a rotating biological contactor (RBC) and a suspended growth biological system i.e., activated sludge process (ASP) were investigated. Representative samples of sewage and sludge were collected at each stage of the STP for 2 years to explore the DEHP flow in the dissolved (DEHPd) and adsorbed (DEHPa) phases. The combination of RBC with a final clarifier was responsible for 50.4 and 58.2% of DEHPd and DEHPa removals, respectively. Both DEHPd and DEHPa removals were greater in RBC compared to ASP, demonstrating that an attached growth biological system is more efficient in the removal of DEHP compared to the suspended growth biological system. A good correlation between DEHP and organic matter removal was observed by using Pearson-correlation matrix approach.