Genetic heterogeneity makes it challenging to identify causal-genes responsible for autism pathogenesis. Till date, research studies report only a handful of high confidence genes for autism. There is a need to identify damaging genomic-variants, predisposing an individual towards autism manifestation. Of special interest is stop gain/loss mutations found in the exome. Such variants are prevalent, having an estimated number of 100-200 occurrences per human-genome. Stop-gains and frameshifts may lead to functional consequences. Based on stringent inclusion-exclusion criteria, the study recruited 150 autism subjects of Indian origin, of which 13 were used for WES. To understand the nature and possible consequences of these variants, we first analyzed their characteristics at the genome-level. Genome-wide analysis of more than 30000 variants provided statistical-significance to identify sequence-specific features for severity and to build a pathogenicity score. This sequence-based pathogenicity score was then applied to the analysis of variants in autism susceptibility. Several damaging stop gain/loss mutations encompassing autism genes CDH5, DDX23, CLDN5, and DPP3 were identified with protein truncations ranging from 20-70%. Loss of function mutations disrupted protein domains involved in various autism related pathways such as neuronal migration, synaptogenesis,and neuronal adhesion. Mutations were identified with previous evidences for neuronal migration and adhesion pathways in Drosophila sp, C. elegans and mice models. Homozygosity mapping analysis to identify risk-homozygous-haplotypes showed evidence of recessive polymorphisms in GIGYF1, SERPINE1, and EPHB6. Recessive alleles were identified across all the samples while polymorphisms in FOLH1, BCKDK, CDH11, and CTCF were specific. Mutations in language-specific genes, GCFC1 and MRPL19 were associated with autism phenome. A novel autism candidate gene CLDN5 that physically interacts with genes involved in various autism pathways was identified.CLDN5 belongs to the leukocyte-transendothelial-migration pathway and elevated in autism cortex, impairing the blood brain barrier leading to compensatory gene expression and protein accumulation. This on-going study identified several damaging mutations specific for autism in Indian population, adding to the growing body of mutational spectrum. Validations through Sanger sequencing and allele specific PCR is being done for the mutations identified.


This article examines the role of design research in contemporary design education for master's level students. The author discusses the general role of design research in the development of modern design and argues that for today's design professionals good grounding in research during the training period is indispensable. Teaching design research for master's level students means introducing them to one of the key skills in developing innovations. The article presents experience of teaching design research for students at a master's level design educational program in Kyrgyzstan. Combining the best international approaches, design research was introduced as one of the central components of the new educational programs. Several courses teach students major trends and tools in design research, allowing them to expand their horizons and to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical knowledge. It is to be hoped that future development of this programme will produce ground-breaking results in local design education.


ABSTRACT. Abnormalities of humoral and cell-mediated immunity have been described in Down syndrome but reported findings have been inconsistent. Confounding factors have included age, institutional versus home life, hepatitis B antigenemia, and zinc deficiency. To clarify this problem, we studied 64 children with Down syndrome (DS) compared with an age-matched control group. All children had always lived at home. All the DS children were negative for hepatitis B surface antigen. Serum zinc concentration in the DS group was on average 12 μg/dl lower than age-matched control children. They also had significantly lower levels of immunoglobulin M, total lymphocyte count, T and B lymphocytes, and T helper and suppressor cells. In vitro lymphocyte response to phytohemagglutinin and concanavalin A was significantly reduced at all ages in the DS group. Lymphocyte response to pokeweed mitogen increased with age in control children but decreased in the DS children. By 18 yr, the mean response for DS was 60000 cpm lower than controls. The DS group had significantly higher concentrations of immunoglobulins A and G than controls and the difference increased with age. Complement fractions C3 and C4 were also higher in the DS group at all ages. The number of HNK-1 positive cells was higher in the DS group than controls at all ages. When hepatitis and institutionalization are excluded as confounding factors, DS children still differ in both humoral and cell-mediated immunity from an age-matched control group.


This monograph analyzes the right to access to justice under international law of victims of human rights violations, paying special attention to this right in criminal proceedings before national, international and hybrid tribunals. In particular, the book reflects on the following question: Should victims of these infringements be granted under international law the rights of access to and participation in criminal proceedings before such tribunals?The work applies a thorough analysis of international and comparative domestic law and practice to this question, taking into account a host of international human rights instruments and case law, the theory, law and practice of international and hybrid criminal tribunals, the law and practice in several domestic jurisdictions, and many theoretical and empirical studies. After first determining the current state of, and emerging trends in, international law and in the common law and the civil law tradition in this area, the monograph argues that the lack of recognition, under customary international law, of the rights of access to and participation in criminal proceedings for victims of these violations is inadequate, because these rights are based on several internationally recognized human rights and principles, contribute to the expressivist objectives of these proceedings, and are consistent with the principles that inform the enforcement of criminal law in democratic States.The book also identifies in chapters 4 and 5 which specific victim rights arise from victim access to and participation in criminal proceedings as understood in the book,More broadly, the work assesses the contribution of prosecution initiatives, and victims' procedural rights therein, to strategies to address mass serious human rights violations and to peacebuilding efforts. Lastly and on the basis of the analysis made, the book convincingly suggests concrete reforms.By so doing, the monograph fills the various gaps that exist in the current literature in the topic. The latter by and large limits itself to examining, mostly from a positivistic perspective, victim access to and participation in international criminal proceedings, particularly before the International Criminal Court, or before domestic courts covering only common law jurisdictions.


The technique of Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) has been used to develop an identification tool to analyze steady state dynamics in acoustics. The information on the dynamics needed for the POD technique is obtained by solving numerically with the method of finite elements the wave equation inside a cavity. The POD technique identifies optimum spatial patterns it terms of Proper Orthogonal Modes. The steady state sound pressure field in a cavity excited by a single harmonic source responds with a very small number of POD modes. Under certain forcing conditions, the POD modes are identical to the Fourier acoustic modes. The POD technique of Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) proves to be a very effective identification tool.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


Many adverse drug reactions are mediated by the immune system. This can be because the therapeutic effect of the drug targets the immune system. For example, immunosuppressive drugs increase the risk of infections. It is paradoxical that some immunosuppressive drugs can lead to autoimmune reactions. Another mechanism by which drugs can cause an adverse reaction involves an idiosyncratic response to the drug such as an immune-mediated skin rash. These idiosyncratic drug reactions (IDRs) are difficult to study because of the paucity of valid animal models and their unpredictable nature. Therefore, much of our mechanistic knowledge of IDRs is based on inferences from the clinical characteristics of IDRs rather than on controlled mechanistic studies. In general, IDRs are associated with a delay between starting the drug and the onset of the adverse reaction, and the typical delay is different for different types of IDRs. In contrast, on rechallenge, there is usually a rapid onset of the adverse reaction, which is characteristic of an amnestic immune response. The absence of such a rapid response is usually considered evidence that an IDR is not immune-mediated; yet, there are immune-mediated IDRs that do not have an amnestic response. One possible reason for the lack of an amnestic response is if the IDR has a strong autoimmune component leading to deletion of autoimmune memory cells when the drug is withdrawn. Another interesting characteristic of IDRs is that there are many drugs that can cause different types of IDRs in different patients. A possible explanation is that although the immune response is induced by a drug, it is directed against an autoantigen, and interindividual differences in the immune repertoire determine which autoantigen and target organ are affected. Although testing these hypotheses represents a difficult challenge, the importance of these adverse reactions makes it a high priority.


Recent exponential growth of data over cellular networks has cause the progression from conventional mobile communication networks to heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets). Quality of experience (QoE)-aware traffic load balancing in such dense HetNets is considered a major problem. Current HetNets exploit reactive load balancing schemes that hinder in achieving desired QoE gain. In this paper, we propose a novel proactive load balancing framework which leverages content caching and mobility prediction to improve user QoE. We use Semi-Markov model to predict users' future cells and a novel proactive caching algorithm is proposed to pre-fetch user future demands at these cells. This allows us to reduce cell congestion and offers better average downlink rates. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, system level simulations are performed and compared with state of the art approaches. Encouragingly, our system achieves up-to $98.7\%$ cell load balancing in terms of Jain's fairness index, reduces $20\%$ backhaul load, and provides $31\%$ improved downlink rates at congested cells in contrast to reactive approaches.


Twelve fused clusters of conodont elements representing the apparatus of Belodina compressa (Branson and Mehl, 1933) were recovered from the Plattin Limestone (Turinian) near New London, Missouri, and Hanover, Iowa. These clusters show that the apparatus of B. compressa consisted of four morphologically distinct elements: eobelodiniform (M), compressiform (S1), grandiform (S2), and dispansiform (S3) elements. All four element types are also present in fused clusters of B. confluens Sweet, 1979, supporting the interpretation that Belodina had a quadrimembrate apparatus. The B. compressa clusters were recovered from pellet-rich wackestones that yielded relatively large and diverse conodont faunas, in which only the elements of B. compressa were fused. The elements of B. compressa present in the fused clusters may have been deposited in fecal pellets, where a higher concentration of calcium phosphate, combined with the relatively large surface area contacts between B. compressa elements, facilitated the fusing of these elements into clusters. These fused clusters provide the basis for interpretation of the apparatus architecture of Belodina.


[1] Hurricane storm surge presents a major hazard for the United States. We apply a model‐based risk assessment methodology to investigate hurricane storm surge risk for New York City (NYC). We couple a statistical/deterministic hurricane model with the hydrodynamic model SLOSH (sea, lake, and overland surges from hurricanes) to generate a large number of synthetic surge events; the SLOSH model simulations are compared to advanced circulation model simulations. Statistical analysis is carried out on the empirical data. It is observed that the probability distribution of hurricane surge heights at the Battery, NYC, exhibited a heavy tail, which essentially determines the risk of New York City being struck by a catastrophic coastal flood event. The peaks‐over‐threshold method with the generalized Pareto distribution is applied to estimate the upper tail of the surge heights. The resulting return periods of surge heights are consistent with those of other studies for the New York area. This storm surge risk assessment methodology may be applied to other coastal areas and can be extended to consider the effect of future climate change.


The concept of support is central to data mining. While the definition of support in transaction databases is intuitive and simple, that is not the case in graph datasets and databases. Most mining algorithms require the support of a pattern to be no grater than that of its subpatterns, a property called anti-monotonicity or admissibility. This study examines the requirements for admissibility of a support measure. Support measure for mining graphs are usually based on the notion of an instance graph-a graph representing all the instances of the pattern in a database and their intersection properties. Necessary and sufficient conditions for support measure admissibility, based on operations on instance graphs, are developed and proved. The sufficient conditions are used to prove ad admissibility of one support measure-the size of the independent set in the instance graph. Conversely, the necessary conditions are used to quickly show that some other support measures, such as weighted count of instances, are not admissible.


This paper presents the verification of the equivalent strip width for a cylindrical wire for mesh reflector antennas with experimental and numerical analysis and compares waveguide and plane-wave simulations. For experimental purposes, the transmission and reflection characteristics of copper strips and copper wires were measured. For numerical analysis, a model of the experimental setup was designed and simulated in High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). Comparing the measurement and HFSS simulated results confirmed that the numerical model was accurate. Using HFSS, it was verified that the equivalent strip width for a cylindrical wire is almost twice (~1.89) the wire diameter (for an infinitely thin strip) for typical mesh reflector structures. A periodic strip model was simulated both in HFSS and periodic Method of Moments (MoM) using the plane-wave incidence at different angles and the transmission and reflection characteristics were determined. The effects of the thickness of the strip, angle of incidence, and the spacing between the adjacent strips on the equivalence between the strip width and wire diameter were also studied. As the center to center strip spacing increases beyond 1.5lambda, the equivalent factor beta (strip width /wire diameter) approaches the classical factor of 2


The functional roles of the medullary raphé, and specifically 5-HT neurons, are not well understood. It has previously been stated that the role of 5-HT has been so difficult to understand, because "it is implicated in virtually everything, but responsible for nothing"(Cowen PJ. Foreword. In: Serotonin and Sleep: Molecular, Functional and Clinical Aspects, edited by Monti JM, Prandi-Perumal SR, Jacobs BL, Nutt DJ. Switzerland: Birkhauser, 2008). Are 5-HT neurons important, and can we assign a general, or even specific, function to them given their diffuse projections? Recent data obtained from transgenic animals and other model systems indicate that the 5-HT system is not expendable, particularly during postnatal development, and likely plays specific roles in vital functions such as respiratory and thermoregulatory control. We recently provided a detailed and updated review of one specific function of 5-HT neurons, as central respiratory chemoreceptors contributing to the brain's ability to detect changes in pH/CO2 and stimulate adjustments to ventilation accordingly (9). Here, we turn our focus to recent data demonstrating that 5-HT neurons provide an essential excitatory drive to the respiratory network. We then further discuss their role in the CO2 chemoreflex, as well as other homeostatic functions that are closely related to ventilatory control. Last, we provide additional hypotheses/concepts that are worthy of further study, and how 5-HT neurons may be involved in human disease.


The method of preparation, structure, and properties of monolayers on the surface of a liquid and of Langmuir–Blodgett films on surface-active monomers are discussed. The influence of the chemical composition and structure of monomer molecules, the conditions for the preparation of organised ensembles, and the conditions in polymerisation reactions on the structural-morphological transformations in monolayers and Langmuir–Blodgett films are considered. The bibliography includes 128 references.


Births in South Dakota again decreased in 1997, continuing an ongoing trend that began in 1980. Progress in 1997 was noted in the use of first trimester prenatal care and the rate of low birth weight in the State remained lower than that observed nationally. The State's infant mortality rate for 1997 showed a continuation of the favorable shift in rates of the last decade that was initiated with the progress observed in 1996. Smoking and drinking during pregnancy is higher in South Dakota than noted nationally. How and why substance abuse prevention efforts must begin during childhood is discussed in this review. Currently, the rates of smoking and alcohol use are higher among South Dakota teens than noted nationally, and have increased over the past six years. Approaches to preventing substance abuse for the sake of the health and well being of youth and their potential future children are presented.


Extensive studies have been carried out on the thermally induced food-borne toxicants in various food products. Their effects on human health have been investigated in many previous researches. Moreover, chemical and analytical approach, isolation, characterization and quantification of harmful compounds in food are well documented in Food Chemistry researches. This short review aims to give an overview on chemistry, qualitative and quantitative analyses, as well as their formation in food products. Establishment of a robust and reliable analytical method remains the foremost important requirement in the use of HPLC and/or GC.


In order to clarify the preparation process of crystal nucleation of polymers, we have studied the conformational changes and orientation fluctuations of isotactic polystyrene (iPS) in the induction period of crystallization using time-resolved Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and depolarized light scattering (DPLS) techniques, respectively. Their measurements were carried out for the so-called cold crystallization, when it was crystallized somewhat above the glass transition temperature Tg=100°C from the glassy states. It is found from the time-resolved FT-IR measurements that the polymer chains begin to assume alternate conformations of trans (T) and gauche (G) in the induction period, which are characteristic to the 3/1 helix in the crystalline state. On the other hand, the time-resolved DPLS observations reveal that orientation fluctuations begin to grow in the induction period after a temperature jump to the crystallization temperature, which means that some rod-like segments of polymer chains actually start to orient parallel to one another prior to crystallization. These results are discussed in terms of the Doi's theory on the isotropic-to-nematic transition of liquid crystals where we assumed that the 3/1 helical segments are stiff and have a persistence length being almost equal to the length of the heilx axis. Thus, the growth of the helices involves the increase in persistence length and hence in excluded volume, to cause the parallel ordering of the helix parts as stiff segments.


In the public report, Ett snabbare bostadsbyggande, a research was made to find out how the utilization of undeveloped building rights could be made more efficient. However, the material on which the research was based was found insufficient, which created the idea for this report. To what extent do undeveloped building rights occur and what are the reasons?

The purpose of this report is to examine if undeveloped building rights regarding apartment buildings exists and to identify what the reasons may be. Furthermore, proposals will be discussed on how municipalities can work to try to prevent this.

The focus of this report is on the Skane region and the municipalities studied are Malmo, Lund, Helsingborg, Kristianstad, Landskrona, Staffanstorp, Ystad and Eslov. To achieve the purpose, a number of questions have been formulated. These are examined in the report through a theoretical and an empirical part. The theoretical part mainly consists of literature studies. The empirical survey consists of mapping and reporting the existence of undeveloped building rights within the municipalities. This is followed up by a qualitative interview study made with property owners and municipalities.

The result of this report shows that undeveloped building rights exists to some extent. On the other hand, the result implies that this is not perceived as a problem in the same extent to which it is described in Ett snabbare bostadsbyggande. This is confirmed by the surveyed municipalities, who do not consider undeveloped building rights being a major problem. In addition, the data material clarifies that it is a minor proportion of building rights which have expired implementation time.

Explanations can be found to why some building rights have remained undeveloped for a long time. In some cases, these properties are being used for alternative purposes, for example in the form of parking area, garden etc. This mainly applies to smaller building rights with private persons as owners. Major building rights are essentially owned by construction companies or municipalities, and the reason for these properties remaining undeveloped is largely due to the fact that the market is not as solid as needed. Another reason can be that the building right is part of an ongoing larger development. Construction companies are planning to constantly have a continuous flow in production, giving an opportunity to keep the employees busy.

In some cases, measures may be required for building rights to be utilized. Some possible measures against undeveloped building rights are to increase the cost of owning them and gather information regarding the extent of undeveloped building rights. However, since undeveloped building rights is not considered a big problem, the most reasonable solution is probably just to await a more solid market.


Chinese privet is an invasive shrub that commonly infests roadsides and bottomland forests across the southeastern United States. Its aggressive growth and ability to prolifically sprout from the root collar and shallow lateral roots makes control very difficult. Individual plant treatment methods such as low-volume basal bark herbicide application with triclopyr are commonly used for Chinese privet control. However, little research has been done to examine optimal triclopyr concentrations and application timings for the low-volume basal bark method. Furthermore, little is known regarding basal bark treatment efficacy when plant size varies. To address these questions, field studies were conducted from 2009 to 2011 at two locations in east-central Alabama near Auburn and Opelika. The triclopyr butoxyethyl ester formulation was applied in January or March to Chinese privet shrubs across a range of sizes in a commercially available basal oil carrier at 24 (5% v/v−1), 48 (10% v/v−1), and 96 g L−1 (20% v/v−1). Additionally, a triclopyr butoxyethyl ester ready-to-use formulation (90 g L−1) was applied at 100% v/v−1. Canopy defoliation, sprout height, and mortality were quantified at 6, 12, and 18 mo after treatment. Triclopyr at all concentrations was highly effective in defoliating Chinese privet and reducing height of new basal sprouts. However, mortality was concentration dependent. The 90 and 96 g L−1 treatments resulted in 88 and 89% mortality across timings, while the 24 and 48 g L−1 treatments resulted in 63 and 76% mortality. March applications were less effective as basal diameter increased, especially at the lower triclopyr concentrations where mortality fell to less than 40%. These results indicate that triclopyr is an effective treatment for Chinese privet control, but efficacy is influenced by concentration, application timing, and plant size. Nomenclature: Triclopyr; Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense Lour. Management Implications: Chinese privet is an aggressive shrub that is especially problematic in bottomland hardwood areas of the southeastern United States. Many land managers use individual plant treatment (IPT) methods to control Chinese privet in these areas to improve selectivity and reduce non-target damage. However, little has been published regarding IPT methods for Chinese privet control. We examined basal bark treatment with triclopyr across a range of concentrations as a method for controlling Chinese privet at January and March timings. In general, we found that winter (January) applications of triclopyr from 24 to 96 g L−1 resulted in greater than 90% defoliation while applications of 48 to 96 g L−1 achieved greater than 80% mortality. Early spring (March) applications of 24 to 96 g L−1 resulted in greater than 80% defoliation. However, application concentrations of 90 to 96 g L−1 were required to achieve 80% mortality. These results demonstrate that winter applications of triclopyr as a low-volume basal bark treatment may be effective at lower concentrations than the commercial standard of 96 g L−1. However, March applications will likely require either the 90 or 96 g L−1 concentration for successful control.


months. Furthermore, patients with mild or well-controlled depression were not excluded from receiving IFN therapy. We have reiterated that coinfected patients should be reevaluated at appropriate intervals for treatment with IFN and ribavirin, and we hope that these patients become candidates for treatment when their psychiatric illnesses or substance abuse issues have stabilized. Taylor and coworkers succeeded in commencing IFN therapy in nearly 20% of the coinfected patients assessed at their clinic. They achieved this by using a model of care that approached that of directly observed therapy. Such results suggest that comprehensive support services, similar to those described by Taylor et al. [1], are important in overcoming the barriers to IFN and ribavirin treatment that affect coinfected patients. Such programs should combine medical evaluation, psychiatric care, and drug treatment programs. Allocation of resources to these types of programs will also require demonstrating the long-term efficacy of IFN treatment and showing improved posttreatment outcomes among the population of coinfected patients.


The Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band is shared among multiple wireless networks such as Bluetooth, wireless local area networks and 802.15.4 low rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPAN). There are some centralized protocols that may work in this coexistent medium. Since management of these methods is done centrally with the help of configuration messages, their performance is strictly tied to the reliable transmission of these data. Clearly, this required level of reliability is in doubt when these methods are implemented in a heterogeneous environment. In this paper we explore how the performance of these standards is affected when they confront with interference. For this reason, WPAN beacon-enabled mode is selected as a representative of the category of synchronization-based methods, and its performance in a co-located WLAN\WPAN medium is evaluated. Then, a rapid-response and robust interference coexistence scheme is proposed to mitigate the effect of interfering systems on WPAN's performance. Simulation results show that the proposed method can be efficiently used to recover an affected WPAN quickly, regardless of the amount of WLAN interference.


AbstractIn data envelopment analysis models, values of inputs, outputs and their slack weights are usually based on the domain experts' opinions. While they play a key role in efficiency evaluation of decision-making units in practice, when there are more than one expert, the manager encounters with the problem of effective specification of final values. The problem may be worsen when the belief degree on the opinions is not complete and differs from one expert to the other, which consequently leads to different and sometimes conflicting analytic results. Belief function defined in Dempster–Shafer theory is a powerful tool to derive a possible solution in these circumstances. We adapt this theory to address such situations in data envelopment analysis. A linear optimisation model is devised as a new combination rule of experts' opinions, which covers the drawbacks of some existing combination rules in the belief function theory. The methodology is visualised with simple examples. Moreover, the well-known ...


The vicissitude of the anti-kidney antibody was mainly observed on the cases of experimental nephritis in tabbit by the methode of Masugi's nephritis and kidney homosensitization, and the significance of its antibody and the movement of its antibody into urine were also studied. And the following results were obtained. 1. The slight elevation of the kidney auto-antibody was observed in all cases of Masugi's nephritis and the elevation of its antibody was observed since the 5th or 7th day after the injection of nephrotoxin and the persistence of the elevated antibody titer (1:4~1:8) was observed until one month later. 2. The correlation between the appeance of the kidney auto-antibody in peripheral blood in Masugi's nephritis and the various clinical findings or histological changes in kidney was relatively observed. 3. The elevation of the kidney homo-antibody was observed in all cases with the homo-sensitization by the kidney emulsion adding adjuvant, after 17 or 24 days and the occurrence of nephritis was even slightly observed in half of them, comparing with Masugi's nephritis. 4. In the above cases of experimental nephritis, the decrease of complement value was observed in accordance with the appearance of the anti-kidney antibody (kidney auto-or homo-antibody). 5. The movement of the kidney auto-antibody into urine was observed, and the correlation between the above phenomenon and the fall of the Albumin-Globulin ratio in urinary protein or the increase of the γ-globulin fraction was also observed. 6. Since the above results, the participation of the anti-kidney antibody (kidney auto-or homo-antibody) was clear for the development of the above experimental nephritis. And it was thought that the participation of its antibody could not be disregarded for the appearance of the pathological change in the kidney since there was the close correlation between the appearance of the anti-kidney antibody and the fall of the complement titer or the appearance of renal symptom.


There are few systematic studies of wage discrimination against homosexuals: none for the UK. This paper studies the earnings of homosexual men and women in the UK relative to their heterosexual counterparts. Homosexuals are identified as individuals living with "same sex partners". Although gays of either sex earn more than non‐gays, once allowance is made for differences in characteristics gay men appear to be paid less than heterosexuals, while lesbians appear to be paid more. As this implies, the gender pay gap is smaller amongst homosexuals than amongst heterosexuals. The gay male pay penalty is significantly lower in London than elsewhere.


Abstract Previous studies utilizing association measures for collocation analysis have demonstrated significant differences in second language (L2) collocation production across proficiency levels. However, the association strength measures utilized in these previous studies have neglected part of speech and grammatical information when calculating association strength between collocating words. The current study seeks to address these limitations by defining verb–noun collocations as constructions within the framework of Construction Grammar and analyzing their cross-sectional development in L2 writing. Texts from a corpus of L2 writing evenly divided into low, medium, and high proficiency levels were analyzed for verb–noun collocation frequency, diversity, and association strength using covarying collexeme analysis. Results showed that more proficient writers produced a more diverse range of verb–noun collocations that were less frequent and more positively and strongly associated. These results have clear implications for Usage-based Second Language Acquisition research, L2 collocation development research, and L2 writing pedagogy.


Part One of this article seeks to defend the idea of associative political obligations against a number of criticisms that have been advanced opposing it. The purpose of this defence is not to demonstrate that the associative account is therefore the best explanation of political obligations, but only that the principal reasons which have been given for rejecting it are much less compelling than its critics maintain. The argument focuses in particular on the various criticisms advanced by A. John Simmons. Two general lines of defence figure especially prominently. First, it is shown how many of the criticisms in one way or another ultimately rest on the assumption that political obligations must be voluntarily acquired, when it is just this assumption that is contested by an associative account. Secondly, it rebuts the charge that the idea of associative obligations faces a particular problem because it entails the view that members must have obligations to associations or groups that are evil. While it is not claimed that the idea of associative political obligations is entirely without difficulties, it is contended that stories of its demise are greatly exaggerated, and in this respect the ground is laid for Part Two of the article, which sketches a particular account of associative political obligations.


The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of Smad3, Smad7, and TGF-β1 in intrauterine adhesion (IUA) patients and experimental rabbit models. 60 IUA patients, 30 control participants, and 18 female rabbits were enrolled in this study. We found that the plasma concentrations and protein expressions of TGF-β1 were significantly increased in patients and experimental rabbits compared to those in controls (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the mRNA and protein expression levels of Smad3 were significantly elevated, while Smad7 level was markedly decreased in the patients and experimental rabbits compared with controls (P < 0.05). This altered ratio recommended that IUA was positively correlated to the mRNA and protein expression levels of Smad3, Smad7, and TGF-β1 in blood and uterine tissue. Moreover, we used the specific inhibitor of Smad3 (SIS3) in experimental rabbit. SIS3 obviously reduced the mRNA and protein expression of smad3 and TGF-β1, while it increased Smad7 expression in the treatment groups as compared with IUA rabbits (P < 0.05). Our study suggested that TGF-β1/Smad3/smad7 is a major pathway which plays an important role in the regulation of the IUA and specific inhibitor of Smad3 (SIS3) may provide a new therapeutic strategy for IUA.


Single bubble sonoluminescence (SBSL), first studied and observed by Gaitan et al., is the of light emission from a single gas bubble trapped at the pressure maximum of a resonant sound field in a liquid medium, generally water. One of the most striking aspects of SBSL was the estimated optical flash width being less than 50 picoseconds (ps)3; this upper estimate was based on the relative response of a SBSL flash in comparison to a 34 ps laser pulse using a microchannel platephotomultiplier tube (MCP-PMT). Moran et al., put the estimate to be less than 12 ps using a streak camera; however, there have been some questions raised on the accuracy of these measurements. Most recently, two groups, Gompf et al., and Hiller et al., have resolved the optical flash width of SBSL using Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TC-SPC) technique which is well established in fluorescence decay time measurements. We first summarize the results from these two contributions, then briefly describe the technique and finally consider the implications of this important new development.


This plan addresses project activities encompassed by the U.S. Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office Waste Management Division and conforms to the requirements contained in the ''Life Cycle Asset Management,'' U.S. Department of Energy Order O430.1A; the Joint Program Office Policy on Project Management in Support of DOE Order O430.1, and the Project Execution and Engineering Management Planning Guide. The plan also reflects the milestone philosophies of the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order, as agreed to by the state of Nevada; and traditional project management philosophies such as the development of life cycle costs, schedules, and work scope; identification of roles and responsibilities; and baseline management and controls.


Analog circuit implementation of neuron model is an essential category of neuromorphic circuit since it can reproduce neuron firing patterns and assist in exploring neuron-based applications. The neuron models built by electrophysiological ion transport mechanism can effectively mimic the neuron firing patterns. However, they are rather difficult to implement on analog level because these neuron models involve complex exponential nonlinearities for characterizing the ion channels. Thanks to the superiorities of locally active memristor in constructing artificial neuron circuit, two locally active memristors are employed to characterize the sodium and potassium ion channels and then a memristive neuromorphic circuit is successfully built in this paper. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the memristive neuromorphic circuit can generate abundant firing patterns with respect to memristor- and stimulus-related parameters. Moreover, quasi-periodic bifurcation behavior and coexisting firing patterns are triggered by different memristor initial conditions. Employing off-the-shelf discrete circuit components, a PCB-based analog circuit is manually constructed and hardware experiments are executed. Experimental results captured from hardware measurements satisfactorily verify the numerically simulated ones and effectively show the feasibility of the memristive neuromorphic circuit in generating neuron firing patterns.


The removal of oil and organic pollutants from water is highly desired due to the frequent oil spill accidents, as well as the increase of industrial oily wastewater. In this work, we demonstrate a simple method for the collection of oils and organic solvents from the water surfaces based on hydrophobic SiO2 coated polyurethane sponges (SiO2-PU-sponge) that were fabricated by a facile solution-deposition process. The SiO2-PU-sponge could quickly and selectively absorb various kinds of oils up to 55.8 times its own weight. In addition, the superhydrophobic SiO2 coated sponge retains its high absorption capacity even under harsh conditions, such as high temperatures and corrosive solutions. Furthermore, the SiO2-PU-sponge connected with a vacuum system could remove a great amount of oils – up to 32000 times its own weight. Such a SiO2 coated sponge is an effective approach for the large-scale capture of oils and organic pollutants in the future.


Information sharing in procurement occurs in many rich and varied industry contexts in which managerial decisions need to be made and organizational strategy needs to be formulated. This paper extends the theoretical results that are available to understand how information sharing ought to work in procurement contexts that involve investments in interorganizational information systems and collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment practices. Our primary research question is: How and under what circumstances does a firm that plays the role of a buyer in supply chain management decide to share information on key variables, such as point-of-sale consumer demand data with its supplier, up the supply chain? The answers that we provide are based on the analysis of a sequential form game-theoretical model of buyer and supplier profits in the presence of uncertainties about final consumer demand, as well as the different operational cost regimes associated with information sharing and information withholding strategies, and the information technologies that support them. Our results provide normative guidance to supply chain buyers about how to interpret different demand uncertainty scenarios to improve the likelihood that their decisions will maximize the value of their firms.


In our opinion there exist no doubt about the information transfer in the frame of the MORA bio resonance method at a biological level. That show a lot of studies with plants and animals as well as clinical studies. At a physical level it is evident that electromagnetic couplings are the basis of the information transfer. It seems to be coherent couplings of low amplitude. The details of the electromagnetic couplings are nevertheless hypothetical. In a first attempt to understand the phenomenon, we apply elements of the coherence-theory of the bio photons on the low-frequency oscillation field which is used by the bio resonance: ! O R IG IN A L IA W IS S E N 293 Galle M: Biophotonen und MORA-Bioresonanz. EHK 2005; 54: 293–300


We present aerosol measurements by the Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM) II instrument, from November 1993 through February 1996. Aerosol extinction profiles are in good agreement with coincident SAGE II measurements from 15 to 24 km. Extinction is continuing to decline since the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. Seasonal variation in extinction in both hemispheres is examined on constant ground-referenced and tropopause-referenced altitude surfaces. Aerosol extinction peaks in the winter in the north outside the vortex. This also appears to occur in the south, but cannot be followed throughout the winter since POAM II measurements occur entirely inside the vortex at this time. A summer maximum at 19 km and above in the south is observed when the extinction ratio outside the vortex is plotted at a constant tropopause-referenced altitude. This is not true for the north. We conclude that in late spring in the south POAM II is sampling low extinction, vortex-processed air, or that an unidentified mechanism operates in the south, but not in the north. Signatures of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) are prevalent in the southern hemisphere data. PSCs are also observed in the northern hemisphere, but much less frequently. Evidence of enhanced diabatic descent in the polar vortex in both hemispheres is observed at 500 and 600 K. At 400 K the distinction between extinction ratios inside and outside the vortex in early winter is not as clear as at higher altitudes.


An approach which uses fuzzy variables to solve the capacitor-switching (CS) problem in radial distribution systems is proposed. CS is an important measure for loss minimisation of distribution systems via an optimal capacitor dispatch schedule. Uncertainty of forecasted load values are represented as trapezoidal fuzzy numbers via fuzzy sets. The principles of fuzzy set theory are applied to form a methodology suitable for calculations of fuzzy complex numbers while maintaining a fast computational speed. An approach based on successive linear integer programming with fuzzy variables is exploited to optimise the on-off status of each switchable capacitor bank. A computer program has been developed according to this approach, and numerical studies on a radial distribution system are verified in detail.


A method has been developed based on the osmotic sensitivity of protoplasts, that permits turbidimetrical estimation of the penetration of non-metabolizable compounds into yeast protoplasts. Using this method a wide variety of sugars and related compounds have been tested as presumptive substrates for the constitutive hexose transport system in baker's yeast. An integration of the results obtained by this method with those obtained by other approaches has led to the establishment of the structural requirements that a compound has to meet in order to be transported. The basic structural requirement seems to be met by a pyranose ring for glucose and a furanose ring for fructose. With compounds that can be regarded as structurally related to d-glucopyranose, there is a broad tolerance for modifications at carbons 1 and 2, and somewhat less so for modifications at carbon 3. Similar requirements, except for carbon 2, apply to compounds that can be regarded as structurally related to D-fructofuranose.

Physical diffusion of sugars, and related compounds, through the cell membrane of baker's yeast is very low, so that they only can enter into the cell at measurable rates by means of specific transport devices. The factor by which the entrance of glucose is increased over its physical diffusion, at concentrations in the millimolar range, is of the order of 106.


The clinical effect of nilvadipine, a new calcium antagonist, was investigated in a single blind trial in 19 patients with variant angina pectoris. The efficacy of the drug was evaluated on the basis of frequency of anginal attacks and Holter electrocardiographic findings during observation periods and during two treatment periods when the drug was given in doses of 4 mg twice a day or 4 mg 3 times a day. The frequency of anginal attacks and the consumption of sublingual nitroglycerin tablets decreased significantly in both treatment periods in comparison with those in the observation period before treatment, but in the observation period after treatment tended to increase in comparison with those during the second treatment period. The frequency and duration of ST-segment elevation and the maximum ST-segment elevation confirmed by Holter electrocardiography also improved significantly in both treatment periods, compared with those in the observation period before treatment. Our findings show that nilvadipine is effective for variant angina pectoris at doses of 4 mg twice a day.


We consider the problem of learning user preferences over robot trajectories for environments rich in objects and humans. This is challenging because the criterion defining a good trajectory varies with users, tasks and interactions in the environment. We represent trajectory preferences using a cost function that the robot learns and uses it to generate good trajectories in new environments. We design a crowdsourcing system - PlanIt, where non-expert users label segments of the robot's trajectory. PlanIt allows us to collect a large amount of user feedback, and using the weak and noisy labels from PlanIt we learn the parameters of our model. We test our approach on 122 different environments for robotic navigation and manipulation tasks. Our extensive experiments show that the learned cost function generates preferred trajectories in human environments. Our crowdsourcing system is publicly available for the visualization of the learned costs and for providing preference feedback: http://planit.cs.cornell.edu.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the factors leading to the retreatment for tuberculosis.

MATERIALS
Forty-seven retreatment cases with pulmonary tuberculosis, who were discharged from the National Chiba Higashi Hospital from 2000 to 2002.

METHODS
Data on all retreatment cases were studied as to the condition of the original treatment and factors leading to the retreatment.

RESULTS
Of the 47 cases, 33 cases received the original treatment in our hospital. Of the 33 cases, 24 cases were relapsed cases and 9 cases were defaulters. Most relapsed cases were male aged 50s and 12 cases (50%) were jobless. As the factors leading to retreatment, the delay in the negative conversion of sputum culture accounted for 11 cases (45.8%) out of 24 cases. No specific factors were found in three cases (12.5%). Among the defaulters, no bias was seen as to age and occupation of cases, but all the cases were male, and they defaulted during the maintenance phase of treatment at the out-patient department. CONSIDERATION: The delay in the negative conversion of sputum culture was the main factor relating to the relapse. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the factors leading to the relapse, but many factors were observed in DM patients. Male cases aged 50s had many factors leading to the relapse. An intensive management for out-patients and involvement of welfare department aiming at the completion of treatment for the socially vulnerable groups might be necessary as the measure to prevent defaulting.

CONCLUSION
The delay in the negative conversion of sputum culture was the main factor leading to relapse, and intensive management for out-patients aiming at the completion of treatment is necessary to prevent the defaulting.


The assessment of teaching qualifications has been a recurring theme in the literature without controversies. This study aims to discover and analyze how a group of accounting experts perceive the dimensions of the teaching qualifications that are considered essential in contemporary higher accounting education by means of the Delphi technique. Therefore, a commission of 21 Brazilian and international experts was constituted, with a heterogeneous educational background, representative of the teaching qualifications that were to be analyzed. Three rounds were needed to reach a consensus. The results indicated that the academic qualification included factors related to degree, research and publication; professional qualification involved factors related to professional experience and credentials; and the pedagogical qualification comprises factors related to institutional support, teaching experience and permanent education. In addition, the complete commission valued the academic education most highly, reaching 46.7% of the investigated experts.


The accumulation of economic, social, institutional and environmental challenges and their potentially complex interconnections have created concerns about the resilience of EU farming systems, as well as the appropriateness of existing policy responses. Simultaneously, the complex interactions between policy output and resilience outcomes have hardly been researched in-depth; it is unclear how policies influence resilience. We, therefore, developed the Resilience Assessment Tool (ResAT): an analytical framework that conceptualises how policy output influences farming systems' resilience on three capacities (robustness, adaptability and transformability). Whereas this new framework is a major step in conceptualising the relation between policies and resilience, so far it has not been applied empirically to test the tool's capability to analyse the influence of policy output on resilience. The aim of this research is to empirically apply the ResAT on a Dutch farming system case (intensive arable farming in De Veenkolonien) to assess the perceived effects of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on the system's resilience. Simultaneously, the application of the ResAT allowed us to critically explore the use, merits and demerits of the ResAT. Our findings show that the current policy goals and instruments are mostly focused on enabling the robustness of the farming systems, while placing less emphasis on adaptability and almost none on transformability. Overall, the ResAT shows that resilience is a meaningful approach to analyse agricultural-related policies. The tool has potential for the analysis of policy effects on resilience, however, further developments based on given critiques need to be considered.


Considered necessary prerequisites for training students in master for future work on management in the oil and gas industry. Analyzed with similar courses in graduate programs in MGIMO, RGGU of Gubkin. The author's program with an emphasis on productive activities.


Fatigue cracks due to thermal stratification or corrosion in pipelines of nuclear power plants can cause serious problems on reactor cooling system. Therefore, the development of an integrated technology including fabrication of standard specimens and their practical usage is needed to enhance the reliability of nondestructive testing. The test material was austenitic STS 304, which is used as pipelines in the Reactor Coolant System of a nuclear power plants. The best condition for fabrication of thermal fatigue cracks at the notch plate was selected using the thermal stress analysis of ANSYS. The specimen was installed from the tensile tester and underwent continuos tension loads of 51,000N. Then, after the specimen was heated to 450℃ for 1 minute using HF induction heater, it was cooled to 20℃ in 1 minute using a mixture of dry ice and water. The initial crack was generated at 17,000 cycles, 560 hours later (1cycle/2min.) and the depth of the thermal fatigue crack reached about 40% of the thickness of the specimen at 22,000 cycles. As a results of optical microscope and SEM analysis, it is confirmed that fabricated thermal fatigue cracks have the same characteristics as real fatigue cracks in nuclear power plants. The crack shape and size were identified.


Institut Teknologi Sumatera is a public university in the province of Lampung. Institut Teknologi Sumatera (ITERA) has many buildings, including Gedung Kuliah Umum (GKU). GKU is the largest and widest lecture building in ITERA. GKU has four floors, where each floor has many rooms in it with different functions in each room. As the largest building in ITERA, GKU is often used for various events, including CPNS exams, new student admissions, or for visits from other campuses. Due to the size of this building, this allows visitors from outside ITERA to GKU to experience problems in terms of time to ask questions and difficulty finding various spaces in the GKU Building. This research uses Augmented Reality technology to help make it easier for visitors from outside ITERA to find space quickly and precisely. In its development using several tools, including the ARWaKit SDK. This framework is used on devices with the IoS operating system. In its implementation, it requires a camera on a smartphone to capture existing images and convert them into cyberspace. In the ARWayKit framework, Azure Spatial Anchors have been used which can be used to carry out the mapping process as a markerless method and to optimize the distance from the user's position to the destination location, the a-star algorithm is used. The results obtained from the Variation-2 test were 91.6%.


The aim of this paper is the assessment of the performance of U-TDOA Position Location (PL) method on a UMTS cellular system in Mosul city, Iraq. The study area is a (3×3 km) which covers the University of Mosul campus. Simulation is used to study and evaluate the performance of U-TDOA PL method in urban area and on a highway inside the city. The effect of terrain, multipath, signal to noise ratio (SNR), Geometric Dilution Of Precision (GDOP), shadowing and the configuration of base stations on the positioning accuracy are investigated. The study is conducted on a real coordinates with the distribution of UMTS BSs as the same existing 2.5 Generation Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) Asiacell operator.


Selfie has proliferated in social media and capture the attentions from businesses. Although selfie has been leveraged into social commerce, little literature has understood and explained the effect of selfie. To solve this gap, this paper considers the effect of selfie on the effectiveness of ad endorsers and the moderating role of product type. We interpret selfie as a form of self-disclosure and study three types of ad endorsers: celebrities, experts and typical consumers. Given the nature of selfie and ad endorsers, we hypothesize that selfie enhance the effectiveness of celebrities and typical consumers, not experts. Besides, we also hypothesize that selfie improve the effectiveness of celebrities and typical consumer for hedonic product more than for utilitarian product, and experts is good for utilitarian product. Towards hypotheses in our paper, we plan to employ lab and field experimental method to test them. Potential theoretical and practical implications have been discussed.


BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) has become the standard for specifying and executing workflow specifications for web service composition invocation. A major weakness of BPEL is the lack of so-called "human workflow" support. The BPEL4People specification tries to amend this by adding human task support to BPEL. In this paper, we propose a formal model of BPEL4People using the CSP process algebra, and discuss some issues we found through analyzing the model. Although based on BPEL4People, this is a general work, and can also be viewed as a formal model of human workflow.


This paper presents a new model called fuzzy-Markov chain model with weights to predict the future value of cultivated land demand in land use planning. The new model ameliorates the traditional time homogeneous finite Markov chain model by adopting fuzzy logic theory. The new model applies fuzzy sequential cluster method to set up the dissimilitude fuzzy clustering sections based on land use trend coefficients. Standardized self-correlative coefficients based on the special characteristics of correlation among the historical stochastic variables are regarded as weights. And the transition probabilities matrix of the new model is obtained by using the fuzzy logic theory and statistical analysis method. The experimental results show that the ameliorative model adopted fuzzy logical theory is more scientific and practical than the traditional predictive model.


UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was not adopted in a vacuum, but rather can be read with a number of other programs within the Security Council (SC) and UN architecture. These include other thematic resolutions, as well as broader policy initiatives. Taken together, these diverse strands sought to shift the understanding of the SC's role in the maintenance of international peace and security, away from a classic state-oriented approach to one that places people at its center. The adoption of Resolution 1325, along with these other developments, had implications for the making of international law (the place of civil society and experts within the international legal and institutional framework), for rethinking participation, and the meaning of security/protection. This chapter suggests that 2000 was a pivotal moment when a more human-oriented international law seemed a real possibility and before the turn back toward militarism and national security in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.


There is lack of clarity on immunosuppressive therapy in glomerular diseases and concomitant corona-virus infection. We retrospectively evaluated 36 patients with primary membranous nephropathy from January 2020 to December 2021 who had received immunosuppression during this period. Diagnosis of COVID-19 was made based on self-reported history of being COVID positive. History of hospitalization and oxygen therapy was noted. Four patients developed COVID-19 in this cohort, and all were infected only once. Two patients had asymptomatic disease and two were hospitalized for severe COVID-19 and had complete recovery. In immunocompromised patients, there is a high risk of infection. This observational study is an attempt to bridge the gap that immunosuppression can precipitate COVID-19 infection.


Additive manufacturing (AM) as a disruptive technology has received much attention in recent years. In practice, however, much effort is focused on the AM of polymers. It is comparatively more expensive and more challenging to additively manufacture metallic parts due to their high temperature, the cost of producing powders, and capital outlays for metal additive manufacturing equipment. The main technology currently used by numerous companies in the aerospace and biomedical sectors to fabricate metallic parts is powder bed technology, in which either electron or laser beams are used to melt and fuse the powder particles line by line to make a three-dimensional part. Since this technology is new and also sought by manufacturers, many scientific questions have arisen that need to be answered. This manuscript gives an introduction to the technology and common materials and applications. Furthermore, the microstructure and quality of parts made using powder bed technology for several materials that are commonly fabricated using this technology are reviewed and the effects of several process parameters investigated in the literature are examined. New advances in fabricating highly conductive metals such as copper and aluminum are discussed and potential for future improvements is explored.


The endoskeletal structure of tumor cells with a characteristic cytoplasmic abnormality initiated in rat liver by the in vivo adminisration of the carcinogen diethylnitrosamine was studied in clonal cell lines established and propagated in vitro. The bulk of the cytoplasmic and plasma membrane protein was removed by extraction with Triton X-100, and subsequently the juxtanuclear detergent-insoluble fraction containing filaments of 100-150 A was released into citrate buffer at pH 2.8. Analysis of this fraction by sodium dodecyl sulfate acrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed the pressence of five major proteins that banded with apparent molecular weights of about 66, 57, 52, 48 , and 43 x 10(3), the last of which comigrated with actin. The proteins thus resembled those from intermediate-sized filaments of both the vimentin (57 x 10(3)) and the prekeratin types obtained from various vertebrate cells. They also appeared to be related to the polypeptides of intermediate-sized filaments from Mallory bodies induced by griseofulvin in the livers of mice and to some of the polypeptides seen in isolates of Mallory bodies from human alcoholics. These results indicated that a major component of the carcinogen-induced lesion consisted of intermediate-sized filaments. The possible significance in cell transformation of this stably maintained aggregate of filaments that binds concanavalin A and displaces the nucleus is discussed. The close resemblance of this lesion to that seen in the cells of cirrhotic livers of alcoholics (Mallory's alcoholic hyalin) raises a question regarding the possible oncogenic status of such cells in humans.


Seventy years ago this month, the US committed two of the worst terrorist attacks in human history. The incineration of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs represented the bloody climax of World War II. The nation that committed this heinous crime soon after became the only remaining capitalist superpower.


Computational context understanding refers to an agent's ability to fuse disparate sources of information for decision-making and is, therefore, generally regarded as a prerequisite for sophisticated machine reasoning capabilities, such as in artificial intelligence (AI). Data-driven and knowledge-driven methods are two classical techniques in the pursuit of such machine sense-making capability. However, while data-driven methods seek to model the statistical regularities of events by making observations in the real-world, they remain difficult to interpret and they lack mechanisms for naturally incorporating external knowledge. Conversely, knowledge-driven methods, combine structured knowledge bases, perform symbolic reasoning based on axiomatic principles, and are more interpretable in their inferential processing; however, they often lack the ability to estimate the statistical salience of an inference. To combat these issues, we propose the use of hybrid AI methodology as a general framework for combining the strengths of both approaches. Specifically, we inherit the concept of neuro-symbolism as a way of using knowledge-bases to guide the learning progress of deep neural networks. We further ground our discussion in two applications of neuro-symbolism and, in both cases, show that our systems maintain interpretability while achieving comparable performance, relative to the state-of-the-art.


The predictive philosophy contributes to improving productivity, reducing system failures and reducing unplanned downtime in a non-invasive way to the machine, for which the test bench is based on the German standard VDI2221, using mathematical models to select the materials and the design of the final prototype. The development of the project consists of applying vibration analysis, thermographic analysis and the quality of energy in which each measurement and the correlation that exist between them is shown; in addition, the inverse Fourier transform was used to demonstrate the amplitude and frequency ranges according to the theoretical equation proposed in the Matlab program, it can also be seen the higher order vibrations of 22.1 is located at the same critical point of the SP7 measurement with a temperature of 34.6 ° C and an emissivity of 0.95, likewise the Power quality measurements are within the allowable limits according to ISO 50001; On the other hand, this analysis made it possible to determine the existence of a positive linear correlation between thermography and vibration analyzes with a correlation coefficient equal to 0.828.


The effect of spin-vacancy doping on the ground state of the quasi-one-dimensional S= 1 quantum antiferromagnet PbNi 2 V 2 O 8 is studied by X hand as well as high-field ESR. A very broad ESR line is observed at low temperatures in powdered PbNi 2 - x Mg x V 2 O 8 for 0≤x≤0.24. The frequency dependence of the observed ESR line rules out the possibility that the low-temperature ESR signal comes from the isolated S=½ spins. Instead, it is proposed that a magnetic coupling (most likely of second order) between the chain-end spins on both sides of the Mg 2 + impurity plays an important role in this system. Impurity-induced spin states, due to the strong interchain coupling, also induce a staggered magnetization on the neighboring chains with a characteristic length ξ. ξ increases with decreasing temperature, as suggested by the additional broadening and the shift of the ESR signal at low temperatures. On the other hand the temperature dependence of the low temperature susceptibility suggests a much more complicated picture in which impurity-induced spins are exposed to coupling to thermal excitations on each chain as well as to three-dimensional antiferromagnetic correlations.


A test is made of the recombination model proposed by Thomas \et [Phys. Rev. A 38 (1988) 5793] for the energy resolution, of which the experimental value is far worse than that estimated by the Fano theory, in liquefied rare gas detectors. The energy resolution and the charge collection based on the recombination model are calculated for electrons or gamma rays in the liquid chamber doped with photoionizing molecules. The calculated energy resolution does not agree with that obtained by the recent experiments, although the agreement is good for the charge collection. It is suggested that the recombination is not a main cause of the energy resolution. Possible causes of poor energy resolution are discussed.


Recently, we demonstrated the involvement of cerebellar circuits in the procedural components of spatial information processing by testing hemicerebellectomized (HCbed) rats in classical spatial paradigms, such as the Morris Water Maze and the water T‐maze. Since procedural components are strongly present in these tests, an impairment also in processing more abstract spatial information, linked to 'where an object is' rather than to 'how to find it', could be hidden by the severe procedural deficits. On this basis, we investigated the influence of cerebellar lesions on spatial abilities strictly reducing procedural variables by employing an active avoidance task, first without and then with a request for righvleft discrimination. In the two‐way active avoidance task without spatial requests, controls and cerebellar operated rats developed active avoidance responses which were not statistically different, demonstrating that this kind of associative learning is not significantly affected by hemicerebellectomy (HCb). A second experimental group of cerebellar lesioned rats was tested in a modified version of this basic paradigm in which a rightheft discrimination request was added. This group displayed severe deficits, which even in the last testing sessions prevented them from performing comparably to the control animals. Reversal of the rewarded choice, even if it affected the performances of both controls and operated rats in the first inversion trials, elicited the lowest number of correct responses in HCbed rats throughout the entire spatial reversal learning, suggesting a severe deficit in the ability to change an initially learned behaviour. These results demonstrate that, beside having a marked impairment in facing procedural components of spatial processing, cerebellar lesioned rats are severely defective also in rightlleft discrimination tasks, suggesting a role of cerebellar networks also in the discriminative spatial information processing.


Abstract The great bulk of what we are pleased to deem knowledge comes to us via the words of others. But such knowledge is limited to (mere) information or plain fact. Theoretical, Ethical and Aesthetic discourse are three regions in which, even when we accept the words of others, we transmit content with what I dub prefaces, not flatly, not in our own voice. Explanation of this is suggested: in these regions assertions claim truth without claiming knowledge. So fact-theory and fact-value differ from plain fact for similar reasons, reasons which alleviate the urge to downgrade ethical discourse to the expressive or prescriptive.


A specialised reconfigurable architecture for telecommunication base-band processing is augmented with testing resources. The routing network is linked via virtual wire hardware modules to reduce the area occupied by connecting buses. The number of switches within the routing matrices is also minimised, which increases throughput without sacrificing flexibility. The testing algorithm was developed to systematically search for faults in the processing modules and the flexible high-speed routing network within the architecture. The testing algorithm starts by scanning the externally addressable memory space and testing the master controller. The controller then tests every switch in the route-through switch matrix by making loops from the shared memory to each of the switches. The local switch matrix is also tested in the same way. Next the local memory is scanned. Finally, pre-defined test vectors are loaded into local memory to check the processing modules. This algorithm scans all possible paths within the interconnection network exhaustively and reports all faults. Strategies can be inserted to bypass minor faults.


The ability of various peptides cleaved by plasmin from human fibrinogen and fibronectin or fibrinogen- and fibronectin- related synthetic peptides to induce histamine release from mast cells and collagenase and elastase from PMN-leukocytes was examined. Low molecular weight fibrinogen degradation products showed dose dependent secretion of collagenase. These peptides (mol. wt. 1.4 kD) at the concentration of 10(-5) M released about 47% of collagenase and 13% of elastase. Synthetic fibrinopeptides A and B had a similar strong collagenase releasing potency and also released histamine from mast cells. Peptides from plasmin digestion of fibronectin containing cell attachment site with sequence Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser and also synthetic peptide reproducing this amino-acid sequence at the concentration of 1000 micrograms/ml released about 50% of collagenase and 55% of elastase from PMN-leukocytes. Moreover peptides containing cell attachment and gelatin binding site induced histamine release from mast cells. The association of fibrinogen and fibronectin degradation with activation of mast cells may motivate the treatment with antihistaminic drugs of all pathological conditions where the intensive protein degradation takes place.


Despite the rapid growth of passive ownership over the past 30 years, there is no consensus on how or why passive ownership affects stock price informativeness. This paper provides a new answer to this question by examining how passive ownership changes investors' incentives to acquire information. I develop a model where passive ownership affects how many investors gather information, and how investors allocate attention between systematic and idiosyncratic risk. The model also links investors' learning decisions to price informativeness through quantities that are readily observable in the data: trading volume, returns and volatility. The model's predictions motivate three new measures of price informativeness, all of which declined on average over the past 30 years. In the cross-section, increases in passive ownership are negatively correlated with price informativeness. To establish causality, I show that price informativeness decreases after quasi-exogenous increases in passive ownership arising from index additions and rebalancing.


The ever increasing demand for fast mobile internet connectivity continues to set challenges for research in radio communications. On one hand the capacity demand can be served by offloading data traffic to local networks. On the other hand using more bandwidth, and possibly dynamically allocating spectrum in a flexible way, will improve the usage of the available spectrum. The future of wireless access continues to be defined by the 3GPP and IEEE standards setting bodies. Radios can also provide innovative features that offer new functionalities for consumers, such as ultra-fast local connectivity, sensing and positioning. This talk will present examples of various radio, sensing and multimedia innovations for smartphones.


A Monte Carlo simulation technique evaluates the reliability indices of restructured power systems with a hybrid market. A model for optimal transaction curtailment for a contingency state in a hybrid market is developed to incorporate the changes brought about by deregulation. The objective of the contingency optimal transaction curtailment for each individual generation company is to minimise its revenue loss. The problem is formulated as a linear programming problem and solved using an optimisation technique. Customer load curtailment, which is the basic parameter for reliability evaluation, is determined using a load-shedding philosophy which is based on the results of the optimal transaction curtailment by the genco. Supply and demand transactions of the market participants are represented by a transaction matrix. The impact of the firm and nonfirm bilateral and reserve contracts on customer reliabilities have been studied. The technique has been illustrated by application to the IEEE Reliability Test System.


Cocaine is the second most common illicit drug used and the most frequent cause of drug related deaths. The use of cocaine is associated with both, acute and chronic complications, that may involve any system, but the most common system affected is cardiovascular one. Cocaine cardiomyopathy may result from the use of cocaine. This article presents a first case in Republic of Macedonia of 24-year-old male with reversible cocaine-related cardiomyopathy. Clinical presentation, laboratory, X-ray, ultrasound findings and treatment are reviewed.


Within the central portion of the capital city of Australia, Canberra, lies Lake Burley Griffin along the edge of which an A$1 billion brownfields redevelopment project is currently in progress. For a comparatively young city with a limited development history, the legacy of past industrial land uses was somewhat unexpected for project developers and financiers. The discovery of a significant hydrocarbon contaminant plume had serious implications for project cost and time schedules. Initial site investigations revealed a hydrocarbon contaminant plume emanating from a former bulk storage fuel facility at the site; ash from a former coal fired power station was also identified as a contaminant. Subsequent investigations revealed a large portion of the site that required soil and groundwater remediation. A Remedial Action Plan (RAP) was developed that encompassed the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) adopted for the overall project within a cost effective and time efficient framework. The eventual remediation project set new benchmarks for environmental remediation in the Australian Capital Territory and demonstrated the importance of technical innovation as well as implementation of sound engineering and scientific practices during such remediation projects.


Wetlands are lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water. For purposes of this classification wetlands must have one or more of the following three attributes: (1) at least periodically, the land supports predominantly hydrophytes; (2) the substrate is predominantly undrained hydric soil; and (3) the substrate is nonsoil and is saturated with water or covered by shallow water at some time during the growing season of the year (FWS, 2008).


Automatic circuit reclosers protect electrical distribution systems by breaking the circuit should the current levels exceed an acceptable range. In the process of opening and closing the circuit, welds are formed between the contacts, making it difficult to separate the contacts again. In order to ensure that the contacts can be separated in the event of a fault, a mechanism has been constructed to impart an impact load on the weld. This mechanism has been designed and used for many years with little understanding of how the mechanism components affect the performance of the mechanism. In order to gain this understanding, a dynamic model of the mechanism was created.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Abstract In the present study, bacterial strains were isolated from the soils of Wayanad District, Kerala, India and the isolates were tested for their tolerance to endosulfan and potential in bioremediation technology. Pesticide contamination in the soils, soil physico-chemical characteristics and socio-economic impacts of pesticide application were also analyzed. 28 pesticide compounds in the soil samples were analyzed and the results revealed that there was no pesticide residues in the soils. As per the survey conducted the pesticide application is very high in the study area and the level of awareness among the farmers was very poor regarding the method of application and its socio-economic and ecological impacts. A total of 9 bacterial strains were isolated with 50μg/ml of endosulfan in the isolating media and the results showed that most of the bacterial strains were highly resistance to endosulfan. Out of the 9 strains isolated 6 were highly resistant to endosulfan (500- 700μg/ml) and the other 3 isolates showed the resistance of 250-500μg/ml. From the studied isolate, isolate 9 demonstrating prolific growth and high resistance was selected to check their capability to degrade endosulfan over time. Identification of the selected strain reveals that it belongs to the genus Bacillus. Results of endosulfan removal studies showed that with increase in time, the biomass of the bacterial strains increased. The complete disappearance of endosulfan from the spiked and inoculated broth during the first day of incubation (24 hour interval) was observed. While the control flask showed the presence of endosulfan during the experimental period. Pesticide resistant bacteria are widely distributed in the soils of selected study area and the tolerance varied between bacteria even though they were isolated from the soils of the same area. The selected Bacillus species carry the ability to degrade endosulfan at accelerated rates and it could be useful in framing a bioremediation strategy for pesticide contaminated soil and water environments


Representing upper ocean turbulence accurately in models remains a great challenge for improving weather and climate projections. Langmuir circulation (LC) is a turbulent process driven by wind and surface waves that plays a key role in transferring momentum, heat, and mass in the oceanic surface layer. We present a direct comparison between observations and large eddy simulations, based on the wave‐averaged Navier‐Stokes equation, of an LC growth event. The evolution of cross‐wind velocity variance and spatial scales, as well as mixed layer deepening are only consistent with simulations if LC effects are included in the model. Our results offer a validation of the large eddy simulation approach to understanding LC dynamics, and demonstrate the importance of LC in ocean surface layer mixing.


The Essay explores two questions about the subject: a. whether exist any linkage between Philosophy and Psychology, and b. what is the nature of this linkage? Actually, the Author answers that such a linkage already exists. In fact, these two disciplines are like two sides of the same coin, they are complementary rather than competitive. For clarifying this argument the Author discusses 3 example cases, examining the whole individual-organization complex. The Essay describes Adam and Eve's nature and curiosity, qualities that empowered them in their search for knowledge. This behavior also made them the fore-parents of all explorers, pioneers and researchers who followed them. Further, the Author indicates how wrong use of ideological declarations hurts individuals and subdues them. Finally, the Author advocates the introducing of the "Normal Distribution Method" and the "Bell type Curve" as main tools in teaching and studying Social Sciences.


Objective: Domestication of the Cane rats is on-going globally and might replace the conventional rodents used in biomedical research in future. However, the paucity of information on adequate anaesthesia vis-a-vis xylazine-ketamine drug combination in the male and female Cane rats warranted this study. Methods: Six adult Cane rats {1.8±0.7 kg body weights (bwt.)} assigned into group A (Female) and group B (Male) of three rats each was used for the study. Each animal was premedicated with atropine sulphate (0.05 mg/kg bwt), and later administered xylazine (10 mg/kg bwt) and ketamine (100 mg/kg bwt) intramuscularly. Meanwhile, anaesthetic characteristics and physiologic indices of anaesthesia were monitored. Results: Results obtained showed that the physiologic indices; open eyelids, smooth induction and recovery, skeletal muscle relaxation and somatic analgesia were observed in all the animals, however, the anaesthetic indices; time to induction, time to standing, duration of analgesia and duration of recumbency showed marked sex variations. The mean values for the duration of analgesia and recumbency were significantly elevated (P<0.05) in group B as compared with group A. Similar trend was seen for time to standing, but, it was non-significant (P>005). However, time to induction mean value for group A was non-significantly increased (P>005) when compared with group B. The heart rate, respiratory rate and rectal temperature mean values decreased in both groups non-significantly (P>0.05). Conclusion: Conclusively, the xylazine-ketamine combination produced anaesthesia in Cane rat and the combination is more tolerated in the male Cane rats than the female Cane rats.


The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) scanner on NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS)-AM1 satellite (launch scheduled for 1998) will collect five bands of thermal infrared (TIR) data with a noise equivalent temperature difference (NE/spl Delta/T) of /spl les/0.3 K to estimate surface temperatures and emissivity spectra, especially over land, where emissivities are not known in advance. Temperature/emissivity separation (TES) is difficult because there are five measurements but six unknowns. Various approaches have been used to constrain the extra degree of freedom. ASTER's TES algorithm hybridizes three established algorithms, first estimating the normalized emissivities and then calculating emissivity band ratios. An empirical relationship predicts the minimum emissivity from the spectral contrast of the ratioed values, permitting recovery of the emissivity spectrum. TES uses an iterative approach to remove reflected sky irradiance. Based on numerical simulation, TES should be able to recover temperatures within about /spl plusmn/1.5 K and emissivities within about /spl plusmn/0.015. Validation using airborne simulator images taken over playas and ponds in central Nevada demonstrates that, with proper atmospheric compensation, it is possible to meet the theoretical expectations. The main sources of uncertainty in the output temperature and emissivity images are the empirical relationship between emissivity values and spectral contrast, compensation for reflected sky irradiance, and ASTER's precision, calibration, and atmospheric compensation.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of clinical periodontal parameters and the presence of periodontal pathogens in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

METHODS
A total of 104 subjects (54 patients with AMI and 50 healthy controls) were included. Subgingival plaque samples were analyzed for periodontal pathogens Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa; previously Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans), Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg), Tannerella forsythia (Tf; previously T. forsythensis), and Prevotella intermedia (Pi) using dot-blot hybridization.

RESULTS
Patients with AMI had a significantly higher frequency of probing depths (PDs) >or=4 mm than controls (39.2% versus 14.9%; P <0.0001). Among different cutoff levels, the frequency of >50% sites with PDs >or=4 mm showed the highest discrepancy between both groups (33% versus 0%; P <0.001). All periodontal pathogens were overrepresented in patients with AMI and positively correlated with increased periodontal PD and clinical attachment level (CAL). After adjustment for age, gender, smoking, body mass index, hypertension, plaque index, statin intake, and ratio of cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein, Pg remained a significant predictor for AMI (odds ratio [OR]: 13.6; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.1 to 59.8; P = 0.0005). Furthermore, the simultaneous presence of Aa + Pg (P = 0.0005) and Aa + Pg + Tf (P = 0.0018) were found with significantly higher frequency in patients with AMI than controls.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of our study confirm an association between periodontitis and AMI in which periodontal destruction was correlated with the presence of periodontal pathogens. In particular, Pg might be considered a potential risk indicator for AMI.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships between brand sensuality, in terms of sensory cues and sensations, and its effect on consumers brand experiences of cars.Methodology – A quantitative study based on a survey with convenience sampling was used to collect the data. A structural equation modeling technique was used to test the proposed model.Findings – The study supports the hypotheses that brand sensuality has a positive effect on brand experiences. Moreover, the empirical findings on car brands demonstrate that sensory cues, as a dimension of brand sensuality, yield the highest coefficients, thus accounting for the significance of sensory cues in expressing brand sensuality to consumers. On the other hand, the standardized coefficients from sensations to brand experiences were slightly lower thus indicating a weaker direct relationship though significant, between sensations and brand experiences.Theoretical implications - Firstly, the presented research conceptualizes and proposes a research model in explaining the significant role of sensory cues and sensations as constructs of brand sensuality in relation to brand experiences. Secondly, it has also been given evidence that the concept of brand sensuality, through sensory cues and sensations, has a significant effect on brand experiences.Practical implications – The study shows that brand managers are advised to develop sensorial strategies based on sight, sound, taste, smell and touch, in order to express brand sensuality in facilitating consumer brand experiences.Originality/value – The proposed model makes a theoretical contribution by investigating brand sensuality in relation to brand experiences for car users.


In this application, income and job growth in the eastern United States are explained using a partial adjustment model with regime switching potential and spatial spillover, or "Smooth Transition" spatial process models (STAR). This relatively new class of spatial regression models provides a parametric approach to testing hypotheses about the influence external economies have on "core-periphery" structures characterizing the Dixit-Stiglitz-Krugman type models describing regional economies. Growth is endogenized as a locally contagious process and specific to regimes, which are also endogenously determined by access to urban economies. The estimation approach relaxes distributional assumptions, using instruments to estimate the STAR process models with special attention given to instrument selection and definitions of spatial neighbors. In the empirical analysis, the authors focus on the specification of partial adjustment models by employing a common factor test to discern serial correlation from partial adjustment processes. Finally, an ex post qualitative analysis is conducted using phase diagrams to study convergence and stability properties of the regime-specific equilibrium solutions. A sensitivity analysis suggests that steady state employment levels in counties with Appalachian development highway networks is higher than counties without this infrastructure, but income levels are not different.


Abstract. Glaciers and ice caps are thinning and retreating along the entire Andes ridge, and drivers of this mass loss vary between the different climate zones. The southern part of the Andes (Wet Andes) has the highest abundance of glaciers in number and size, and a proper understanding of ice dynamics is important to assess their evolution. In this contribution, we apply the ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS (SImulation COde for POLythermal Ice Sheets) to the Mocho-Choshuenco ice cap in the Chilean Lake District (40∘ S, 72∘ W; Wet Andes) to reproduce its current state and to project its evolution until the end of the 21st century under different global warming scenarios. First, we create a model spin-up using observed surface mass balance data on the south-eastern catchment, extrapolating them to the whole ice cap using an aspect-dependent parameterization. This spin-up is able to reproduce the most important present-day glacier features. Based on the spin-up, we then run the model 80 years into the future, forced by projected surface temperature anomalies from different global climate models under different radiative pathway scenarios to obtain estimates of the ice cap's state by the end of the 21st century. The mean projected ice volume losses are 56±16 % (RCP2.6), 81±6 % (RCP4.5), and 97±2 % (RCP8.5) with respect to the ice volume estimated by radio-echo sounding data from 2013. We estimate the uncertainty of our projections based on the spread of the results when forcing with different global climate models and on the uncertainty associated with the variation of the equilibrium line altitude with temperature change. Considering our results, we project a considerable deglaciation of the Chilean Lake District by the end of the 21st century.


Abstract Denef and Loeser denned a map from the Grothendieck ring of sets definable in pseudo-finite fields to the Grothendieck ring of Chow motives, thus enabling to apply any cohomological invariant to these sets. We generalize this to perfect, pseudo algebraically closed fields with pro-cyclic Galois group. In addition, we define some maps between different Grothendieck rings of definable sets which provide additional information, not contained in the associated motive. In particular we infer that the map of Denef-Loeser is not injective.


Background This study was designed to validate the &agr;-fetoprotein model for predicting recurrence after liver transplantation in Korean hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Methods Patients who underwent liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma at Samsung Medical Center between 2007 and 2015 were included. Recurrence, overall survival, and disease-specific survival of patients divided by both the Milan criteria and the &agr;-fetoprotein model were compared using Kaplan-Meier log-rank test. The predictability of the &agr;-fetoprotein model compared with the Milan criteria was tested by means of net reclassification improvement analysis applied to patients with a follow-up of at least 2 years. Results A total of 400 patients were included in the study. Patients within Milan criteria had 5-year recurrence, and overall survival rates of 20.9% and 76.3%, respectively, compared with corresponding rates of 50.3% and 55.7%, respectively, for patients who were beyond Milan criteria. &agr;-Fetoprotein model low-risk patients had 5-year recurrence and overall survival rates of 21.1% and 76.2%, respectively, compared with corresponding rates of 57.7% and 52.2%, respectively, in high-risk patients (P < 0.001, all). Although overall net reclassification improvements were statistically nonsignificant for recurrence (net reclassification improvements [NRI] = 1.7%, Z = 0.30, P = 0.7624), and overall survival (NRI = 9.0%, Z = 1.60, P = 0.1098), they were significantly better for predicting no recurrence (NRI = 6.6%, Z = 3.16, P = 0.0016) and no death. (NRI = 7.7%, Z = 3.65, P = 0.0003). Conclusions The &agr;-fetoprotein model seems to be a promising tool for liver transplantation candidacy, but further investigation is needed.


The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in associations of serum acylated and des-acylated ghrelin, peptide YY (PYY) and leptin levels with physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CReF) in adolescent boys (mean age of 14.0 years) with overweight (OWB; n=55) and with normal weight (NWB; n=154). Methods: Total PA was measured by 7-day accelerometry (counts/min) and CReF by peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak/kg). Results: No differences were found in serum PYY, acylated ghrelin or des-acyl ghrelin levels, whereas mean leptin (11.6±10.6 vs. 2.0±2.7 ng/ml; p<0.05) and insulin (18.1±8.7 vs. 11.0±6.2 mU/l; p<0.05) levels were significantly higher in OWB compared to NWB. Mean CReF was significantly lower in OWB compared to NWB (39.7±8.7 vs. 50.5±6.8 ml/min/kg; p<0.05). Leptin was negatively correlated with CReF in both groups (r=-0.43; p<0.05), des-acylated ghrelin with CReF only in OWB (r =-0.36; p<0.05). In OWB leptin was negatively correlated with total PA (r=-0.32; p<0.05) and positively with sedentary time of PA (r=0.35; p<0.05). In NWB 28.1% of the variability of CReF was determined by leptin and insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), whereas in OWB 71.9% was determined by trunk FM and BMI. Conclusions: Leptin concentration was inversely associated with CReF in adolescent boys independently of BMI in both groups, while des-acylated ghrelin was associated with CReF only in OWB. Low PA in OWB was associated with high serum leptin level.


A novel power modulation method for resonant inverter and a simple and practical analog frequency auto-tracing circuit are proposed. The power modulation method when is compared with the pulse density modulation method exhibits the following advantages: simple implementation in analog or digital control; reduction of the inverter cost. Compared with the conventional frequency auto-tracing circuit, the proposed frequency auto-tracing circuit has the advantages as follow: the output voltage sensor is not needed, which reduces the cost of induction heating applications and EMI noise; the compensating effect of the phase compensating circuit has no relationship with output current magnitude. The disadvantage of the power modulation method is that the current of induction heating coil is not continuous in low power. In this paper, the principle of circuit is analyzed in detail. Practical engineering application results show that the time division power modulation method and the frequency auto-tracing circuit have the advantages of simple realization, high reliability, low cost and great engineering application value.


The compositional functional logical models of natural language are recast as compact closed categories. Composition is based on the geometrical representation of information flow characteristic for these categories. The functional logical interpretation of (strings of) words is carried over to projectors in a finite tensor product of 2-dimensional spaces such that the truth of a sentence is equivalent to the truth of the corresponding projector. Examples include sentences with compound noun phrases involving quantifiers, adjectives and negation.