Abstract The juxtaposition of the ALCAPA and Tisza–Dacia continental blocks, although one of the key issues in the evolution of the Carpathians, is not well known in terms of associated effects on the sedimentary systems during frontal foreland development. Most of the contact between ALCAPA and Tisza–Dacia being covered by post-tectonic deposits, these effects can best be observed in northern Romania. Sedimentological data on facies, palaeocurrents and modal composition of sandstones combined with micropalaeontological data and 2D well-calibrated seismic lines constrain the tectonic history of the contact zone between ALCAPA and Tisza–Dacia. Pervasive deposition of sand-dominated siliciclastics beginning in late Early Oligocene (Late Rupelian) times is interpreted to reflect the onset of convergence between ALCAPA and Tisza–Dacia in the study area. The depocentre of coarse siliciclastic material migrates southward, finally forming a southeastward-thinning clastic wedge in the Transylvanian Basin. This Burdigalian-age clastic wedge is interpreted as fill of a flexural foreland basin that formed in response to the coeval thrusting of parts of ALCAPA (Pienides) over Tisza–Dacia. A shift from an E–W to SE–NW striking basin axis during Oligocene times towards a WSW–ENE oriented basin axis during Burdigalian times is interpreted as a result of clockwise rotation of Tisza–Dacia during basin formation.


Acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (APSGN) is the major cause of acute glomerulonephritis among children, especially in low- and middle-income countries. APSGN commonly occurs following pharyngitis due to the activation of antibodies and complements proteins against streptococcal antigens through the immune-complex-mediated mechanism. APSGN can be presented as acute nep-hritic syndrome, nephrotic syndrome, and rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis, or it may be subclinical. The management of APSGN is mainly supportive in nature with fluid restriction, anti-hypertensives, diuretics, and renal replacement therapy with dialysis, when necessary, as the disease is self-limiting. Congestive heart failure, pulmonary edema, and severe hypertension-induced encephalopathy might occur during the acute phase of APSGN due to hypervolemia. APSGN generally has a favorable prognosis with only a small percentage of patients with persistent urinary abnormalities, persistent hypertension, and chronic kidney disease after the acute episode of APSGN. Decreased complement levels, increased C-reactive protein, and hypoalbuminemia are associated with disease severity. Crescent formations on renal biopsy and renal insufficiency on presentation may be the predictors of disease severity and poor outcomes in APSGN in children. Core Tip: Acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (APSGN) is the major cause of acute glomerulonephritis among children, especially in the low- and middle-income countries. The clinical spectrum of APSGN can vary as acute nephritic syndrome, nephrotic syndrome, and rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis, or it may be subclinical. APSGN is generally self-limiting and has a good long-term prognosis. However, a small percentage of patients may have persistent urinary abnormalities, persistent hypertension, and chronic kidney disease after the acute episode of APSGN. This review discusses the management, prognosis, and outcomes of APSGN.


A novel continuous‐flow photocatalytic reactor was designed to decompose toluene by using porous nickel sheets that were coated with a Fe‐doped TiO2 catalyst. While locating the UV lamp at the central axis, the catalyst sheets were located along the inner wall and positioned vertically with an equal space of 50 mm along the reactor. This geometry ensures better use of UV light, and a zigzag flow pattern of gas between the vertically located sheets provides for better mass transfer. The X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and electric field‐induced surface photovoltage spectra characterizations showed that Fe3+ ions were embedded effectively and distributed evenly throughout the TiO2 crystal lattice and an optimum molar ratio of Fe:Ti was 0.007. The reactor was used to investigate the factors that affect toluene degradation. The results showed that inlet toluene concentration, relative humidity and gas flow rate significantly affect toluene decomposition. The conversion decreases as inlet concentration increases. Degradation efficiencies of more than 95 % can be achieved provided that the toluene concentration is kept below 3200 mg/m3. The conversion is affected little when oxygen content exceeds 21%. The optimal relative humidity is 25%. From the experimental data, a rate constant k of 131 mg/(m3.min) and Langmuir adsorption coefficient K of 0.0175 m3/mg were obtained.


The reducing temperature and gas hourly space velocity were varied to obtain different Fe phase compositions for a fused-iron catalyst. These model catalysts were subject to the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) and phase evolution was monitored. The BET surface area decreased as the reduction temperature was increased from 350 °C to 650 °C, and the pore diameter changed by the opposite trend. XRD and Mossbauer spectroscopy were used to quantitatively determine the phase composition. They indicated that a high reduction temperature and high GHSV (gas hourly space velocity) favored the transformation from Fe3O4 to α-Fe, although a higher reduction temperature led to larger α-Fe crystallite sizes. Furthermore, α-Fe gradually transforms to an iron carbide (χ-Fe5C2) phase in a period of 12 h when exposed to syngas (CO + H2). After a 500 h run in the FTS, the partial carbide regenerated into Fe3O4 again. Magnetite had negligible catalytic activity for the FTS, whereas iron carbide was active. Nonetheless, the activity was proportional to the surface area of iron carbide. Higher reduction temperatures guaranteed lower methane selectivity and a higher olefin to paraffin ratio for C2–4 hydrocarbons, and possibly high reducibility and large pore sizes as well.


Abstract Building a new political economy requires transforming our markets, our institutions, and our policy and regulatory regimes. In this essay, I argue that it also requires transforming the purpose of the firm: from a singular focus on maximizing financial returns to the recognition that firms exist to support human flourishing, with profits merely a means to an end. I suggest that this transformation is already under way and indeed that it may help support fundamental change in the wider society, but that significant shifts in law, policy, and in the social and normative context are almost certainly essential if this new model is to become the norm.


Following the publication of this paper, it was drawn to the Editors' attention by a concerned reader that certain of the Transwell cell migration assay data shown in Figs. 4B and 5B were strikingly similar to data appearing in different form in other articles by different authors. Owing to the fact that the contentious data in the above article had already been published elsewhere, or were already under consideration for publication, prior to its submission to Molecular Medicine Reports, the Editor has decided that this paper should be retracted from the Journal. After having been in contact with the authors, they agreed with the decision to retract the paper. The Editor apologizes to the readership for any inconvenience caused. [the original article was published in Molecular Medicine Reports 12: 6316‑6322, 2015; DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2015.4165].


Too little is known about what happens, when they grow up, to youths who reason extremely well mathematically. Few tell their story to specialists in education of the gifted, either in writing or orally. Julian Stanley brought two successful former "radical accelerants" to the November 1993 annual meeting of the National Association for Gifted Children in Atlanta and also provided some information about 12 other mathematically precocious youths. Jane C. Charlton and Donald M. Marolf, the two young adults featured, told the symposium audience about themselves and answered questions. They were amazingly frank, insightful, and humorous about their lives thus far. Both are convinced, and are convincing, that rapid progress through school grades all the way to the Ph.D. degree is the nearly optimal way for persons like themselves to enrich their education and prepare for adulthood. All three speakers agreed, however, that extremely fast educational advancement might not be the ideal curriculum path for some other equally capable boys and girls.


In a model of experimental Chagas' disease induced with metacyclic forms of Trypanosoma cruzi, CD4+ but not CD8+ T cells undergo T-cell receptor (TCR)-CD3-mediated activation-induced cell death (AICD) in vitro. CD4+ T cells from T. cruzi-infected mice also developed unresponsiveness in proliferative responses to TCR-CD3-mediated stimulation. A linear correlation was found between extent of proliferative unresponsiveness and loss of CD4+ T-cell viability. CD4+ T-cell activation through the CD69 or Ly-6 A/E pathway, on the other hand, did not result in proliferative unresponsiveness compared with controls. Lack of suppression in proliferation assays correlated with lack of AICD by cells stimulated through the CD69 or Ly-6 A/E pathway. Concomitant stimulation through CD69, however, did not rescue CD4+ T cells from CD3-induced death. Flow cytometry study of cells stimulated in vitro showed no defect in interleukin-2 receptor expression by CD4+ T cells from infected donors, which escaped TCR-mediated AICD. In vivo injection of anti-CD3 into acutely infected mice, but not into control mice, led to splenocyte DNA fragmentation and failed to increase splenic CD4+ T-cell numbers. These results show that TCR-CD3-mediated AICD is involved in CD4+ T-cell unresponsiveness in vitro following infection with T. cruzi. In addition, successful activation of these cells through the CD69 and Ly-6 pathways is due to differences in the inability of these stimuli to trigger AICD. Since TCR-CD3-mediated AICD can be induced in vivo in infected mice, these findings may be relevant for the onset of immunological disturbances in the host.


Regional Integration and Leadership in South
America: The Complex Rise of a Brazilian Led Pole

S
outh America is one of the most dynamic regions in terms of integrationalist initiatives. This regionalism accompanies the process of globalization and allows the continent to affirm itself in the context of ever present global interdependence. In this configuration, how can we understand Brazil's foreign policy choices? In fact, the Lusophone power seeks to create a South American pole to maximize its insertion into the new multipolar international system. Brazil's strategic rapprochement with its neighbors nonetheless carries mutual distrust and rivalries between actors in the region. Brazil is thus ensuring the building of a regional leadership on the basis of "consensual hegemony", by seeking approval from its neighbors in its immediate geopolitical space. It is an attempt for Brazilian policy makers to move beyond a short-term strategy in terms of defending their national interests, by obtaining the approbation of neighboring states to a truly collective project. This will imply that Brazil incurs some of the necessary costs of leadership. ■


Surveys of the obstetrician-gynecologists attending the breast disease postgraduate courses at the 1988 and 1990 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists annual clinical meetings report a high level of practice involvement in breast disease evaluation and cancer screening for their patients. A consistently high percentage stated they performed regular clinical breast examinations, documented the examinations with a diagram in the medical record, gave breast self-examination instruction, advised screening mammography following the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines, utilized a patient tracking system for follow-up and referred patients with undiagnosed dominant breast masses. Most stated that they did breast cyst aspiration; those who did not mostly referred their patients for cyst aspiration. The accurate and cost- and time-effective office technique of fine needle aspiration of palpable dominant solid breast mass continues to be underutilized even though the procedure has been proven effective and accurate in the cytologic diagnosis of benign and malignant breast neoplasms. Instruction in the technique of fine needle aspiration of palpable breast cysts and solid masses is available in many clinics, workshops and postgraduate courses.


Transfer learning is essential when sufficient data comes from the source domain, with scarce labeled data from the target domain. We develop estimators that achieve minimax linear risk for linear regression problems under distribution shift. Our algorithms cover different transfer learning settings including covariate shift and model shift. We also consider when data are generated from either linear or general nonlinear models. We show that linear minimax estimators are within an absolute constant of the minimax risk even among nonlinear estimators for various source/target distributions.


Embedded systems require maximum performance from a processor within significant constraints in power consumption and chip cost. Using software pipelining, processors can often exploit considerable instruction-level parallelism (ILP), and thus significantly improve performance, at the cost of substantially increasing register requirements. These increasing register requirements, however, make it difficult to build a high-performance embedded processor with a single, multi-ported register file while maintaining clock speed and limiting power consumption.
Some digital signal processors, such as the TI C6x, reduce the number of ports required for a register bank by partitioning the register bank into multiple banks. Disjoint subsets of functional units are directly connected to one of the partitioned register banks. Each register bank and its associate functional units is called a cluster. Clustering reduces the number of ports needed on a per-bank basis, allowing an increased clock rate. However, execution speed can be hampered because of the potential need to copy "non-local" operands among register banks in order to make them available to the functional unit performing an operation. The task of the compiler is to both maximize parallelism and minimize the number of remote register accesses needed.
Previous work has concentrated on methods to partition virtual registers amongst the target architecture's clusters. In this paper, we show how high-level loop transformations can enhance the partitioning obtained by low-level schemes. In our experiments, loop transformations improved software pipelining by 27% on a machine with 2 clusters, each having 1 floating-point and 1 integer register bank and 4 functional units. We also observed a 20% improvement on a similar machine with 4 clusters of 2 functional units. In fact, by performing the described loop transformations we were able to show improvements of greater than 10% over schedules (for un-transformed loops) generated with the unrealistic assumption of a single multi-ported register bank.


This research investigates the accelerated hydrolytic degradation process of both anatomically designed bone scaffolds with a pore size gradient and a rectangular shape (biomimetically designed scaffolds or bone bricks). The effect of material composition is investigated considering poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) as the main scaffold material, reinforced with ceramics such as hydroxyapatite (HA), β-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) and bioglass at a concentration of 20 wt%. In the case of rectangular scaffolds, the effect of pore size (200 μm, 300 μm and 500 μm) is also investigated. The degradation process (accelerated degradation) was investigated during a period of 5 days in a sodium hydroxide (NaOH) medium. Degraded bone bricks and rectangular scaffolds were measured each day to evaluate the weight loss of the samples, which were also morphologically, thermally, chemically and mechanically assessed. The results show that the PCL/bioglass bone brick scaffolds exhibited faster degradation kinetics in comparison with the PCL, PCL/HA and PCL/TCP bone bricks. Furthermore, the degradation kinetics of rectangular scaffolds increased by increasing the pore size from 500 μm to 200 μm. The results also indicate that, for the same material composition, bone bricks degrade slower compared with rectangular scaffolds. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show that the degradation process was faster on the external regions of the bone brick scaffolds (600 μm pore size) compared with the internal regions (200 μm pore size). The thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) results show that the ceramic concentration remained constant throughout the degradation process, while differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results show that all scaffolds exhibited a reduction in crystallinity (Xc), enthalpy (Δm) and melting temperature (Tm) throughout the degradation process, while the glass transition temperature (Tg) slightly increased. Finally, the compression results show that the mechanical properties decreased during the degradation process, with PCL/bioglass bone bricks and rectangular scaffolds presenting higher mechanical properties with the same design in comparison with the other materials.


Purpose: Multimodal cerebrovascular CT and MR can now provide information about tissue viability, site of occlusion, and collateral status in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). If MRI is to compete with CT for evaluation of AIS, there is need for further improvements in acquisition speed. The purpose of this study was to establish the feasibility of a fast MR protocol with a 6 minute acquisition time for evaluation of AIS. Methods: Patients with suspicion of AIS and absence of MRI contraindications were prospectively enrolled. A combination of echo-planar imaging (EPI) and parallel acquisition technique were used on a 3T MR scanner to accelerate the acquisition time. The imaging protocol included: DWI (1 min), EPI-FLAIR (52 sec), EPI-GRE (50 sec), contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) of the entire supra-aortic arteries (20 sec), and DSC perfusion (2 min). Using a modified 2-phase contrast injection scheme, high spatial resolution CE-MRA of the supra-aortic arteries was performed just before DSC perfusion without the need for additional contrast. Image analysis was performed independently by two neuroradiologists and interobserver agreement was calculated using Kappa test. Results: A total of 50 patients were included. Diagnostic image quality was achieved in 100% of DWI, 96% EPI-FLAIR, 98% EPI-GRE, 90% neck MRA, 96% of brain MRA, and 94% of DSC perfusion scans. Thirty eight patients (76%) had acute infarction. Using Tmax perfusion maps and applying DEFUSE criteria, 42% of patients had perfusion-diffusion mismatch with interobserver agreement of k=0.90. The mean of the signal-intensity-ratio values of the infarction on EPI-FLAIR was 1.08 for patients presenting 4.5 hours (n=22) from the time of imaging. Three patients had evidence of intracranial hemorrhage detected on EPI-GRE and confirmed by non-contrast CT. CE-MRA showed 27 segmental stenoses of the extra-cranial arteries and 24 segmental stenoses of the intracranial arteries with interobserver agreement of k= 0.82 and 0.74 respectively. Conclusion: Described multimodal MR protocol is feasible for evaluation of patients with AIS and can result in significant reduction in scan time rivaling that of the multimodal CT protocol.


Breast cancer diagnosis currently requires biopsy samples to be analysed by a histopathologist a time consuming, highly specialised process. X-ray diffraction is a quantitative technique that can distinguish between healthy and diseased breast biopsy samples using the change in proportions of fat and fibrous tissue that occurs when cancer invades. A semi-automated breast biopsy analysis system based on X-ray diffraction could yield a faster patient diagnosis. Recording X-ray diffraction patterns is a challenging task needing low noise, large area, and wide dynamic range detectors. Scientific complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) Active Pixel Sensors will soon be able to meet all of these demands in a single device. Characterization of two novel Active Pixel Sensors that advance towards an ideal X-ray diffraction detector is presented. 'Vanilla' exhibits a low read noise of 55e r.m.s. and high quantum efficiency of up to 70% so was selected for the design and implementation of the first 'Active Pixel X-ray Diffraction' (APXRD) system. Following on from Vanilla, the 'Large Area Sensor' (LAS) covered an area of over 29cm2 and had a wide dynamic range of over 95dB. The first linear systems model of an Active Pixel Flat Panel Imager (scintillator coupled APS) was formulated in the design of the APXRD system, to select filters to narrow the spectral width of the X-ray beam and predict the recorded scatter intensity. Following system implementation, scatter signatures were recorded for numerous breast tissue equivalent samples. A multivariate analysis model calibrated with these was able to predict the percentage fat content of an 'unknown' sample to within 3% a very promising result. The width of the filtered polychromatic X-ray spectrum had only a minor influence on the APXRD scatter signatures indicating that the system preserves all relevant structural information.


The existing systems of hand rehabilitation always design different rehabilitation medical apparatus and systems according to the patients' needs. This kind of system always contain problems such as complexity, using only single training programs, inconvenient to wear and high cost. For these reasons, this paper uses gesture recognition technology and augmented reality technology to design a simple and interactive hand rehabilitation supplementary system. The system uses a low-cost, non-contact device named Leap Motion as the input device, and Unity3D as the development engine, realizing three functional modules: conventional training, AR game training and auxiliary functions. This rehabilitation training project with different levels of difficulty increases the fun and challenge of the rehabilitation process. Users can use the system to assist the treatment activity of hand rehabilitation anytime and anywhere. The system, which has good application value, can also be used in other physical rehabilitation fields.


Informed by the theoretical lens of opportunity hoarding, this study considers whether STEM postsecondary fields stand apart via the disproportionate exclusion of Black and Latina/o youth. Utilizing national data from the Beginning Postsecondary Study (BPS), the authors investigate whether Black and Latina/o youth who begin college as STEM majors are more likely to depart than their White peers, either by switching fields or by leaving college without a degree, and whether patterns of departure in STEM fields differ from those in non-STEM fields. Results reveal evidence of persistent racial/ethnic inequality in STEM degree attainment not found in other fields.


Studies that accurately identify myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke within populations would provide valuable epidemiological information as well as data on vascular disease prevention. We performed a pilot study to assess the feasibility of adding MI surveillance to an ongoing population-based stroke surveillance study, the Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi (BASIC) Project. We also tested two screening methods for MI ascertainment: discharge International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes and cardiac biomarker screening. This pilot study suggests that the addition of MI surveillance to community-based stroke surveillance studies is feasible. Screening for abnormal cardiac biomarkers to identify potential MI cases may be more accurate and efficient than using ICD-9 codes.


Objective: To identify sociodemographic, clinical, and physician/practice factors associated with deep brain stimulation (DBS). DBS is a proven surgical therapy for Parkinson disease (PD), but is recommended only for patients with excellent health, results in significant out-of-pocket costs, and requires substantial physician involvement. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of more than 657,000 Medicare beneficiaries with PD. Multivariable logistic regression models examined the association between demographic, clinical, socioeconomic status (SES), and physician/practice factors, and DBS therapy. Results: There were significant disparities in the use of DBS therapy among Medicare beneficiaries with PD. The greatest disparities were associated with race: black (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.20, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.16–0.25) and Asian (AOR 0.55, 95% CI 0.44–0.70) beneficiaries were considerably less likely to receive DBS than white beneficiaries. Women (AOR 0.79, 95% CI 0.75–0.83) also had lower odds of receiving DBS compared with men. Eighteen percent of procedures were performed on patients with PD who had cognitive impairment/dementia, a reported contraindication to DBS. Beneficiaries treated in minority-serving PD practices were less likely to receive DBS, regardless of individual race (AOR 0.76, 95% CI 0.66–0.87). Even after adjustment for demographic and clinical covariates, high neighborhood SES was associated with 1.4-fold higher odds of receiving DBS (AOR 1.42, 95% CI 1.33–1.53). Conclusions: Among elderly Medicare beneficiaries with PD, race, sex, and neighborhood SES are strong independent predictors of DBS receipt. Racial disparities are amplified when adjusting for physician/clinic characteristics. Future investigations of the demographic differences in clinical need/usefulness of DBS, ease of DBS attainment, and actual/opportunity DBS costs are needed to inform policies to reduce DBS disparities and improve PD quality of care.


Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of low output power irradiation of erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Er:YAG) laser on surface morphology, roughness, and microhardness of the root dentin. Materials and Methods: Flat root dentin surfaces were prepared from extracted human molars. The surfaces were irradiated by an Er:YAG laser at 10 pps, 30 mJ, sweeping at approximately 2 mm/s by hand. Irradiated power was changed by means of the distance between laser tip and surface kept at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 mm. No irradiated surface was employed as control. Those surfaces and crosscut surfaces were observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Specimens of irradiation distance at 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 mm and control (no irradiation) were further prepared and then, surface roughness (Ra) and microhardness (Vickers hardness) were measured. Results: Ablation of dentin was observed at distance between 0-15 mm. At 20-30 mm, degenerated layer was observed without ablation. At 35 and 40 mm, ablation and degenerated layer were not found. Ra values of all experimental groups (0-40 mm) showed statistically higher than that of control group (p < 0.05). Among the experimental groups, 0 mm group showed statistically higher Ra values than the other groups (p < 0.05). For Vickers hardness, no significant difference was found all groups except 0 mm group (p > 0.05). Conclusion: It was concluded that specific low output power Er:YAG laser irradiation produced thin degenerated layer on the root dentin without ablation. This irradiated surfaces showed slight increase of roughness without decrease of microhardness. (Asian Pac J Dent 2019; 19: 33-37.)


Although propositional models of associative learning are often referred to in the literature on evaluative conditioning (EC), it has not yet been clearly stipulated what propositional models of EC entail. The aim of this paper is to describe in more detail the assumptions of propositional models of EC. This includes a discussion of the core assumption that EC is mediated by propositions about stimulus relations, as well as assumptions about the processes via which those propositions are formed and influence liking. Based on this discussion, I put forward the Integrated Propositional Model that combines a number of these assumptions and discuss some of the predictions that can be derived from this model. The paper ends with a reflection on the limitations and strengths of propositional models of EC.


A novel hybrid learning algorithm based on a genetic algorithm to design a growing fuzzy neural network, named self-organizing fuzzy neural network based on genetic algorithms (SOFNNGA), to implement Takagi-Sugeno (TS) type fuzzy models is proposed in this paper. A new adding method based on geometric growing criterion and the epsiv-completeness of fuzzy rules is first used to generate the initial structure. Then a hybrid algorithm based on genetic algorithms, backpropagation, and recursive least squares estimation is used to adjust all parameters including the number of fuzzy rules. This has two steps: First, the linear parameter matrix is adjusted, and second, the centers and widths of all membership functions are modified. The GA is introduced to identify the least important neurons, i.e., the least important fuzzy rules. Simulations are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm


In the present study an attempt was made to focus on pragmatic instruction and feedback as a kind of discriminatory factor. To teach English compliment and compliment responses, this paper evaluated the relative effectiveness of input-based instruction involving 132 Iranian EFL learners at intermediate and advanced levels. The main purpose of the study was to investigate to what extent instruction affected learners' knowledge and ability to use compliment strategies. Students were divided into three groups: explicit, implicit and control. They were taught common strategies regarding how to compliment and respond to it. Whereas the explicit groups received instruction by means of explicit feedback on the use of appropriate compliments, the implicit groups were provided with instruction plus implicit feedback. The results of the data analysis based on the pre-tests, post-tests and follow up tests including discourse-completion tasks and self-assessment tests indicated that although instruction had a positive effect on the development of students' socio-pragmatic competence of both explicit and implicit groups, the explicit group did better. The study may have some implications for teaching compliment forms which have been forgotten somehow in EFL classrooms today.


In German. Enclosed with No. 1177. Many people now understand National Socialism has one principle; the end justifies the means, and only purpose of Hitler is rule by force; he and his crew capable of any crime; it is Hitler, Mussolini and their gangs who oppose world peace; situation can be saved by following action: (1) world must form moral front against men who seek to exploit world; declaration should be promulgated by Churches under leadership of Pope; (2) stop supplying such men with raw materials to make weapons of destruction; (3) if Mussolini seeks understanding with peace-nations, his demands should be refused, but attitude should not extend to Italian people; King and Crown Prince should be informed of their mission to wrest control of Italy from Mussolini; if Pope will use his influence to that end he will have cooperation of England, France, and U.S.; action should be taken immediately.


Background and Aim: The drug resistance mutations are key elements in the failure of long-term treatment of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections. The mutation in the YMDD motif in the P gene of HBV is the most critical factor in antiviral drug (especially lamivudine) resistance. This study aimed to assess the YMDD motif and other polymerase gene mutations in individuals with HBV/HIV coinfection. Materials and Methods: All enrolled patients were under lamivudine treatment. Blood samples were collected from 37 HBV/HIV-positive patients, and DNA was extracted. The P gene was amplified by the PCR method with appropriate primers. The PCR products for detecting mutations in the P gene were sent to the Macrogen. To investigate the P gene mutations, the obtained sequences were compared with the polymerase gene of the HBV standard sequence in the GeneBank (accession number AB033559). Results: The mean age of the patients was 34.1±5.7 years, of which 59.5% were male, and 40.5% were female. Of all patients, 56% were drug abusers, 35% had risky sexual behavior, 56% had prison history, and 33% had addicted wives. The 37 extracted samples were sequenced successfully. Among the studied samples (n =37), 28 patients had simultaneous mutations of YIDD and FLMAQ, 1 patient had YINN and FLIPH and 1 patient had YIDD and FSLAQ. Conclusion: In summary, drug-resistant variants were detectable in most coinfected patients with chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) and HIV. As a result of mutations, therapeutic strategies sometimes are not effective. Therefore, recognition and monitoring of drug resistance mutations are critical.


Positron emission tomography was used to measure regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 12 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and six age-matched controls. Scans were performed at rest, and while subjects performed stereotyped and freely selected movements of a joystick with their right hand. Statistical parametric mapping was used to determine significant differences in rCBF between the two groups at rest and during activation. The ALS group showed no significant difference in global cerebral blood flow at rest compared with controls. However, rCBF at rest was significantly (P < 0.01) reduced in the ALS group in the primary sensorimotor cortex, the lateral premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, the anterior cingulate cortex, the paracentral lobule and the superior and inferior parietal cortex. Comparison of the increase in rCBF caused by freely selected joystick movements over the resting state between the two groups of subjects showed significantly (P < 0.001) greater activation in ALS patients in the ventral third (face area) of the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex and in the adjacent contralateral ventral premotor and parietal association cortices; significantly (P < 0.01) greater activation of the contralateral anterior insula and the ipsilateral anterior cingulate cortex (dorso-caudal area 24) was also present in ALS patients. When a comparison of the rCBF response to the free selection task with that to the stereotyped task was performed between the two groups of subjects, ALS patients showed significantly impaired (P < 0.01) activation of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (area 32), medial prefrontal cortex (area 10), left parahippocampal gyrus and retrosplenial cortex. The pattern of reduced rCBF at rest in ALS patients probably reflects a combination of neuronal loss in all areas of cortex projecting through the pyramidal tract together with loss of projections from the sensorimotor cortex to the motor association areas. The expansion of the upper limb output zone of the sensorimotor cortex in ALS patients during contralateral upper limb movement may represent cortical reorganization in response to Betz cell loss or corticospinal tract disruption. Abnormal recruitment of non-primary motor areas may also represent functional adaptation to a corticospinal tract lesion. Focally impaired activation of the medial prefrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus in ALS patients during the process of internal generation of movement could underlie the frontal lobe cognitive deficits reported in previous neuropsychological studies of ALS.


Tajweed is a set of rules to read the Quran in a correct Pronunciation of the letters with all its Qualities, while Reciting the Quran. which means you have to give every letter in the Quran its due of characteristics and apply it to this particular letter in this specific situation while reading, which may differ in other times. These characteristics include melodic rules, like where to stop and for how long, when to merge two letters in pronunciation or when to stretch some, or even when to put more strength on some letters over other. Most of the papers focus mainly on the main recitation rules and the pronunciation but not (Ahkam AL Tajweed) which give different rhythm and different melody to the pronunciation with every different rule of (Tajweed). Which is also considered very important and essential in Reading the Quran as it can give different meanings to the words. In this paper we discuss in detail full system for automatic recognition of Quran Recitation Rules (Tajweed) by using support vector machine and threshold scoring system.


The existing medical intern-structures of Military Districts and Fleets cannot meet modern requirements on post-graduate training of military physicians because of its restricted possibilities. It is proposed to reform these structures in the regional Military Medical Institutes (each institute in the interests of several Military Districts or Fleets) for advanced training of physicians. The further improvement of the military physicians' qualification will require new forms and methods of training. It's necessary to increase the efficiency and quality of current and long-term planning of the training process by a wide application of computers. It is reasonable to conduct proficiency test cycles, which will directly influence upon further transfer or/and medical classification estimate of the physician. The training must be performed concerning the principle "work-and-study". The goals of training must converge towards further medical activities, and the final results of studies must provide for thorough professional skill of the physician. It is advisable to apply more widely the active methods of training, such as practical and clinic games, methods of concrete situation analysis, etc.


The decision making process is becoming very complex, especially when it comes to
the problem of enterprise restructuring. Intelligent solutions have to be utilized in
order to cope efficiently with this issue. For this purpose the model for enterprise
restructuring, named as COMPASS was developed. It aims to systematise the complex
process of enterprise restructuring and to attach appropriate methods in the key
decision making points, supporting the industry praxis with robust, scientifically
founded, but practical and easy to use methods/tools. COMPASS is meant to be under
continuous development. Now, the improvement of the process of generation of
success factors (as a dominantly heuristic activity) and the optimization of the
simulation process are the focal points. Here, the improvement of the generation of
success factors through an application of finite-stage Markov decision processes
(MDP) in the inventory problem is introduced. The objective is to find the optimal
inventory policy and to determine the utility function. MDP are a flexible technique for
stochastic and dynamic optimization problems and provide a powerful tool for
optimizing performance in very different areas and their application in inventory
management is only one of the examples.


To study the accurate calculation and failure mode diagnosis of supply chain, the idea that GO methodology is introduced into the reliability analysis of supply chain system is brought forward. Through analyzing detailedly every important factor leading to success of supply chain system and taking three-tier supply chain as the object, The GO model of reliability analysis of supply chain is found, which is universal. It can not only calculate reliability of supply chain system in detail, but also diagnose its failure mode and calculate its importance, which provides a way for improving and optimizing supply chain system. The example is presented to prove the method's feasibility and validity.


Model-based reinforcement learning (MBRL) aims to learn a dynamic model to reduce the number of interactions with real-world environments. However, due to estimation error, rollouts in the learned model, especially those of long horizon, fail to match the ones in real-world environments. This mismatching has seriously impacted the sample complexity of MBRL. The phenomenon can be attributed to the fact that previous works employ supervised learning to learn the one-step transition models, which has inherent difficulty ensuring the matching of distributions from multi-step rollouts. Based on the claim, we propose to learn the synthesized model by matching the distributions of multi-step rollouts sampled from the synthesized model and the real ones via WGAN. We theoretically show that matching the two can minimize the difference of cumulative rewards between the real transition and the learned one. Our experiments also show that the proposed model imitation method outperforms the state-of-the-art in terms of sample complexity and average return.


Twitter has become one of the largest platforms for users around the world to share anything happening around them with friends and beyond. A bursty topic in Twitter is one that triggers a surge of relevant tweets within a short time, which often reflects important events of mass interest. How to leverage Twitter for early detection of bursty topics has therefore become an important research problem with immense practical value. Despite the wealth of research work on topic modeling and analysis in Twitter, it remains a huge challenge to detect bursty topics in real-time. As existing methods can hardly scale to handle the task with the tweet stream in real-time, we propose in this paper TopicSketch , a novel sketch-based topic model together with a set of techniques to achieve real-time detection. We evaluate our solution on a tweet stream with over 30 million tweets. Our experiment results show both efficiency and effectiveness of our approach. Especially it is also demonstrated that TopicSketch can potentially handle hundreds of millions tweets per day which is close to the total number of daily tweets in Twitter and present bursty event in finer-granularity.


At the turn of the millennium, perfusion teaching programs are faced with significant difficulties. The number of students in pediatric perfusion training has increased, and more importantly, the number of pediatric open-heart procedures has decreased because of a variety of reasons. Hence, they could barely satisfy the minimum requirements of pediatric cases established by the teaching programs. The idea of "a teaching circuit" that could reproduce and simulate cardiopulmonary bypass was designed. The trainee is able to manipulate the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit according to patient responses, to perform perfusion related-maneuvers in establishing and maintaining hemodynamic stability. The aim of this study was to simulate a patient on CPB, maintain stability during varying clinical situations, and then to wean the patient off CPB. The equipment used was reusable and nonsterile.


Basal thyroid function was assessed from the serum thyroxine, triiodothyronine, and thyroid-stimulating hormone concentrations in 114 patients (mean age 13·6 years), designated group 1, with thalassaemia major. Forty of these patients were further evaluated (group 2) for serum-free thyroxine, and free and reverse triiodothyronine concentrations. The response of thyroid-stimulating hormone to thyrotrophin-releasing hormone was measured in 25 patients from this subgroup. Results were compared with those from 53 control subjects. Primary hypothyroidism, defined by a raised thyroid-stimulating hormone level above the upper range limit of 6·5 μIU/ml of the controls, was present in 17·5% of the 114 patients. In group 2 patients, a spectrum of thyroid disease spanning uncompensated and compensated primary hypothyroidism and decreased thyroid reserve was evident. The presence of primary hypothyroidism (uncompensated and compensated) was associated with an age of at least 10 years, an increased incidence of iron toxicity-related systemic complications, and an increased transfusion iron load, but not with an increased serum ferritin level. In the total 114 patients there were 9 who had the low triiodothyronine (sick euthyroid) syndrome. Primary hypothyroidism occurs in a significant proportion of thalassaemia major patients in the absence of obvious clinical signs of hypothyroidism; the low triiodothyronine syndrome associated with non-thyroidal disease is not uncommon.


Political theatre has often relied upon farce and satire to make a veiled but effective critique of political trends. In contemporary India, however, political theatre is facing a new challenge in trying to find ways to "out-farce" a political arena that already has become inherently farcical. There are two special challenges addressed here. The first comes from the state of Kerala in southwestern India, where a self-styled progressive state government in the hands of the Communist Party has come under attack by critical play-wrights for ossifying into orthodoxy and complacency. The second challenge centers on the difficulties faced by playwrights who have turned toward so-called indigenous or folk models of theatre to voice their critiques. Since the national government in Delhi has tried to utilize the symbols of an invented indigenous past to establish its legitimacy, critical theatre often finds itself applauded and even co-opted by the very political forces against which it has directed its dissent. This article examines the difficulties of establishing a "pure" space for political theatre in contemporary India and offers as a conclusion a possible path toward resolution.


This article provides an assessment of the enforcement of the law governing commercial kangaroo killing, focusing particularly upon inspectorial practices. Australia's kangaroo industry is the largest commercial kill of land-based wildlife in the world. Professional shooters hunt kangaroos in rural and remote locations at night. Due to the remote and decentralised nature of the killing, the industry presents unique challenges to law enforcement agencies that are responsible for the enforcement of animal welfare standards. This article focuses upon the role that inspections have in detecting offences within the commercial kangaroo industry. It provides a comparative analysis across the states, highlighting key differences in terms of inspectorial practices and the resulting outcomes. A common theme across all of the jurisdictions is that none of the agencies responsible for enforcement regularly conduct inspections of shooters, making it impossible to ensure that these parties are complying with the National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies. Recommendations for reform are offered, including stronger compliance policy, higher rates of inspection, increased resourcing and the introduction of alternative methods of inspection.


Rationale: Impairment of autophagy maturation has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. However, the mechanism for this impairment has not been elucidated, and whether enhancing autophagy maturation is a viable therapeutic strategy for AD has not been verified. Methods: We examined the autophagosome maturation process in AD cell and mouse models by immunoblotting. To further understand the changes in autophagy in AD brains, we analyzed the transcriptome by RNA-sequencing and measured the expression of RAB7, CCZ1 and MON1A. We performed brain stereotaxic injections of AAV into 3xTg AD mouse brain and WT mouse brain to over-express MON1A/CCZ1 or knockdown MON1A. For in vitro studies, we purified autophagosomes, and determined GTP-RAB7 level in autophagosome fractions by GST-R7BD affinity-isolation assay. Results: We report that the active form of RAB7 was selectively decreased in autophagosome fractions isolated from cells and tissues of AD models, and that this decrease was accompanied by impaired activity of its guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GFE) CCZ1-MON1A. Overexpressing CCZ1-MON1A increased the active form of RAB7, enhanced autophagosome maturation, and promoted degradation of APP-CTFs, Aβ and P-tau in an autophagy-dependent manner in cells and a mouse AD model. Conclusions: Our data reveals that CCZ1-MON1A-RAB7 complex dysfunction is a potential mechanism for autophagosome maturation defects in AD, and advances the possibility that enhancing autophagosome maturation is a novel therapeutic strategy against AD.


The available reports on the medicinal use of Fijian plants are brought together in a comprehensive, up-to-date compilation, presented in a readable form. The introduction covers a range of topics: the origin and dispersal of plants; literature in the field; use of medicinal plants within traditional Fijian culture; diseases of Fiji; and medicinal chemicals from plants. Other chapters describe 450 plant species; each entry is arranged by plant family, and gives current botanical name, Fijian/local name, brief botanical notes, medicinal uses and chemistry. The book includes an index to plant species, an index of Fijian names and a glossary of medical and botanical terms. Of interest to botanists and pharmacologists, however, "everyday" terms are used as much as possible. This book may assist scientists in further investigations and point the way to plants from which new and effective cures may be obtained.


The chemical and physical characteristics of PM2.5, especially their temporal and geographical variations, have been explored in metropolitan Hangzhou area (China) by a field campaign from September 2010 to July 2011. Annual average concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 during non-raining days were 106 - 131 μg.m-3 and 127 - 158 μg.m-3, respectively, at three stations in urban breathing zones, while corresponding concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 at an urban background station (16 mabove ground level in a park) were 78 and 104 μg.m-3, respectively. For comparison, the annual average PM10 concentration at a suburban station (5 mAGL) was 93 μg.m-3. Detailed chemical analyses were also conducted for all samples collected during the campaign. We found that toxic metals (Cd, As, Pb, Zn, Mo, Cu, Hg) were highly enriched in the breathing zones due to anthropogenic activities, while soluble ions (, , ) and total carbon accounted for majority of PM2.5 mass. Unlike most areas in China where sulfate was several times of nitrate in fine PM, nitrate was as important as sulfate and highly correlated with ammonium during the campaign. Thus, a historical shift from sulfate-dominant fine PM to nitrate-dominant fine PM was documented.


Using VLTI/VINCI angular diameter measurements, we constrain the evolutionary status of three asteroseismic targets: the stars δ Eri, ξ Hya, η Boo. Our predictions of the mean large frequency spacing of these stars are in agreement with published observational estimations. Looking without success for a companion of δ Eri we doubt on its classification as an RS CVn star.


The objective of the present study is to explore the relationship between MRI characteristics and outcome after gamma knife radiosurgery for astrocytoma. According to the characteristics of the definition and contrast enhancement of the lesions in the MRI examination, subjects were divided into three groups. The effectiveness was defined as astrocytoma shrinkage. The relationship between MRI characteristics and outcome after gamma knife radiosurgery were assessed. Twenty of 43 patients showed effectiveness. Thirteen of 18 showed effectiveness in type I group, 5 of 15 in type II group, and 2 of 10 in type III group. No significant difference was found among three type s in the age, gender, Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), lesion location, mean maximal diameter of lesion, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The WHO grade I/II glioma was more frequently found in the type I or II group than in type III group (P = 0.000, for both), but significant difference in the number of WHO I/II grade glioma was absent between type I group and type II group. The therapeutic effectiveness in the type I group was superior to that in type II and III groups (P< 0.05 for both), but there was no significant difference between type I group and type II group. The mean survival time was 15.8, 12.9 and 11.9 months in the type I, type II and type III groups, respectively, and marked difference was noted between type I group and type III group (P=0.025). Conclusion: Some MRI characteristics are related to outcomes after gamma knife radiosurgery for astrocytoma.


Background: Few studies have considered the impact of demographic and clinical variables on help received respectively from services and relatives to satisfy needs of adults with severe mental disorders (SMD). Purposes: To identify major needs receiving help and, using the Andersen's Behavioural Model of Health Service Use, to identify and compare predisposing, enabling and need factors associated with help given respectively by services and relatives. Methods: 352 adults with SMD from Montreal (Canada) were interviewed using six standardized instruments. Clinical records were consulted. Multiple linear regression analyses were processed to measure level of help received from relatives and services. Results: Factors significantly associated with help from relatives were: higher number of perceived needs; fewer diagnoses; better community functioning; being younger, and in a conjugal relationship; living autonomously; having social support and better quality of life; and, marginally, being an immigrant. Factors significantly associated with help from services were: higher number of perceived needs, better quality of life, supervised housing, adjustment disorder and schizophrenia. Conclusions: Help overall is insufficient to meet users' needs. Services are more helpful than relatives, in particular regarding health needs. Comparatively to help from services, help from relatives is associated with predisposing factors like age, marital status and nationality.


The repertoire of images derived from the formation of morphogenetic processes has been widely investigated in any scientific and humanistic study sector: from the pioneering kinetic art experiences, programmed art and generative art of the 60s and 70s, to digital spatiality and digital utopian architecture projects or morphogenetic architecture, to the 90s or recent experience, you can have a look at these currents with a critical eye which is in part appropriately detached given the temporal distance that has come to develop. Kinetic Art, Programmed Art, Generative Art, de–formative Architecture, and other names1 to indicate the processes and application experiences in different fields but which are derived from a common intellectual matrix: to generate forms, shapes, images or spaces from automated IT processes that do not delineate as a deterministic figuration from the hands of the author but as interaction between the author himself or herself and a computational thinking declined in various ways.


AIM
To report the cytology results of 25-gauge transconjunctival (25G-TSV) diagnostic vitrectomy in cases suspicious for intraocular lymphoma (IOL), and compare the results to those reported in the literature.

METHODS
Clinical and cytopathological records of 18 vitreous biopsy specimens obtained via 25G-TSV diagnostic vitrectomy in 12 patients suspicious for IOL were reviewed retrospectively. A review of the literature in regards to the diagnostic yields of vitreous specimens obtained via 25-gauge and 20-gauge diagnostic vitrectomy in suspected cases of IOL was performed.

RESULTS
Eighteen eyes from 12 patients with clinical suspicion of IOL underwent diagnostic 25G-TSV. The cytopathological investigations demonstrated IOL in 15 eyes (83.3%). Vitreous analysis was non-diagnostic in 3 eyes (16.7%).

CONCLUSION
Twenty-five-gauge diagnostic vitrectomy yields adequate sample for cytological evaluation of the vitreous in cases suspicious for IOL. The diagnostic results of the 25G-TSV in the current study are superior to those reported for 20-gauge vitrectomy but equivalent to those reported for 25G-TSV in the published literature.


The rhizosphere of the great diversity of plants is a complex ecosystem that houses thousands of rhizobacteria that promote plant growth. In the current investigation, three bacteria were isolated from the root of Suaeda sp., which were evaluated to determine the ef fect of their inoculation on Arabidopsis thaliana at distances of 2 and 5 cm and in divided boxes. In the 2 cm test, we noticed that Endo10(7) and Endo10(5) stimulated the plants more than the control, while the proximity to Ecto10(6) caused them to wilt and die. However, at 5 cm, the bacterium that most promoted the development of Arabidopsis was Ecto10(6). In the divided box test, all three bacteria showed the ability to promote growth. In addition, a shade mesh assay was carried out with the inoculation of the bacteria in Solanum lycopersicum L. (Sahariana) and it was found that the promoting ef fect was also observed in the germination and growth of tomato plants. Tests were conducted to determine its ability to produce IAA, siderophores, and solubilize phosphates. Through molecular techniques it was confirmed: the identity of Ecto10(6), Endo10(7), and Endo10(5) as Aneurinibacillus migulanus, Staphylococcus sp. and Bacillus cereus, respectively. Our results provide the rationale for suggesting that these rhizobacteria may increase the growth and development of Arabidopsis thaliana and Solanum lycopersicum.


The paper presents closed-form expressions for the harmonic components of the space-vector modulated waveforms for four-switch VSI.. The analysis is based on space-vector decomposition technique for finding the symmetrical vector sequences. From the Laplace transform of the symmetrical voltage vectors we can derive relations for the harmonic spectrum. The harmonic spectrum are compared and verified with the measured results. As shown, there is an excellent agreement between the analytically calculated waveforms and the experimentally


The Doppler-broadened profile of the He II 4685.75 AA line was measured along a chord in a rotating plasma, transverse to the magnetic field. Using a single-particle orbit picture, the corresponding velocity spectrum of ions confirm the measurements, so it can be concluded that the single-particle orbit picture is valid for the discharge period under investigation, except for the first few microseconds during breakdown when a strong interaction between plasma and remaining neutral gas takes place by Alfvens critical velocity mechanism. A simple relation is given between the measured half-width and shift of the Doppler profile and the macroscopic quantities of ion velocity and energy. Several Doppler-broadened profiles are shown for different plasma parameters.


Microservices transform monolithic applications into simple, scalable, and interacting services. It allows for faster development and fine-grained deployments. However, the cooperation of several services leads to intricate dependencies, hindering the detection of performance bottlenecks. Current microservice performance analysis methods require real deployments, a costly process both in time and resources, while performance prediction through simulation relies on models that are complex to develop and instantiate. In this paper, we propose a microservice performance analysis approach based on simulation. Our contribution first introduces a microservice performance model requiring few instantiation parameters. We then propose a methodology to automatically derive model instantiation values from a single execution trace. We evaluate this methodology on two benchmarks from the literature. Our approach accurately predicts the deployment performance of large-scale microservice applications in various configurations from a single execution trace. This provides valuable insights on the performance of an application prior to its deployment on real platform.


Let $\lambda$ be a complex number in the closed unit disc $\overline{\Bbb D}$, and $\cal H$ be a separable Hilbert space with the orthonormal basis, say, ${\cal E}=\{e_n:n=0,1,2,\cdots\}$. A bounded operator $T$ on $\cal H$ is called a $\lambda$-Toeplitz operator if $$ \langle Te_{m+1},e_{n+1}\rangle=\lambda\langle Te_m,e_n\rangle $$ (where $\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle$ is the inner product on $\cal H$). The subject arises naturally from a special case of the operator equation \[ S^*AS=\lambda A+B,\ \mbox{where $S$ is a shift on $\cal H$}, \] which plays an essential role in finding bounded matrix $(a_{ij})$ on $l^2(\Bbb Z)$ that solves the system of equations $$ \left\{\begin{array}{lcc} a_{2i,2j}&=&p_{ij}+aa_{ij}\\ a_{2i,2j-1}&=&q_{ij}+ba_{ij}\\ a_{2i-1,2j}&=&v_{ij}+ca_{ij}\\ a_{2i-1,2j-1}&=&w_{ij}+da_{ij} \end{array}\right. $$ for all $i,j\in\Bbb Z$, where $(p_{ij})$, $(q_{ij})$, $(v_{ij})$, $(w_{ij})$ are bounded matrices on $l^2(\Bbb Z)$ and $a,b,c,d\in\Bbb C$. It is also clear that the well-known Toeplitz operators are precisely the solutions of $S^*AS=A$, when $S$ is the unilateral shift. In this paper we verify some basic issues, such as boundedness and compactness, for $\lambda$-Toeplitz operators and, our main result is to give necessary and sufficient conditions for finite rank $\lambda$-Toeplitz operators.


Characterizing the distribution of times to failure in 2-component systems is an important special case of a more general problem, finding the distribution of a function of random variables. Advances in this area are relevant to reliability as well as other fields, and influential papers on the topic have appeared in the reliability field over a span of many years. Using failure times of 2-component systems as a vehicle, this report begins by reviewing a technique for characterizing distributions of functions of random variables when the dependency relationship between the random variables used as inputs to the function is unknown. The technique addressed is called Distribution Envelope determination (DEnv). Using this review as a foundation, an extension to DEnv is described which applies to cases where means and variances of the input distributions are known, and partial information about dependency is available in the form of a value for correlation. Pearson correlation is used because it is the most commonly encountered correlation measure. This reason is important because the assumption of independence, while common, is frequently problematic. Yet the opposite extreme of no assumption about dependency may mean ignoring available information which could affect the analysis.


Introduction RCTs have demonstrated CRC screening efficacy. However, programme implementation requires substantial resources. Reliable estimates of the potential screening impact in a population would facilitate timely decisions about establishing programmes. Many countries lack the capacity and detailed knowledge of the distribution of the disease in the population for complex modelling, particularly medium-resource countries. Simple methods for estimating the future impact of CRC screening in such settings would be a useful tool in cancer control planning. Methods For the 27 EU countries, population projections by country, sex and quinquennium were obtained from the UNpopin database. Country-, sex- and age-specific mortality rates were obtained from GLOBOCAN2002. The method requires stating parameters for the following factors: screening interval, age at screening attendance, participation rate and programme duration. Estimates for these parameters were derived from FOBt RCT results; simultaneous programme introduction throughout a country and high quality management were assumed. Results 600 000 to 1.05 million CRC deaths could be avoided over 25 years in the EU depending on the screening interval and compliance rate, for programmes offered to the 50–74-year-old population. Conclusions A method for estimating the population impact of CRC screening has been developed which requires minimum epidemiologic and technical support. The accuracy of the method should be assessed by comparing these preliminary results with sophisticated modelling approaches and with up-to-date estimates of CRC burden in populations in which screening coverage is known. Countries contemplating CRC screening, but lacking detailed knowledge of the disease burden, should develop this capacity in the early translational phase of programme planning.


This study shows the effect of climate change on the growth and survival of early life history stages of common sole (Solea solea) in different nursery areas of the North Sea, by combining a larval transport model with an individual-based growth model (Dynamic Energy Budget) to assess the fate from egg to young of the year at the end of the first growth season. Three scenarios of climate change, inspired by the 2040 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections, are tested and results are compared to a reference situation representative of current climate conditions. Under climate change scenarios where wind changes, water temperature increases and earlier spawning are considered, the early arrival of fish larvae in their nurseries results in larger young of the year at the end of summer. However, early arrival leads to higher mortality due to initially slow growth in spring. Future climate scenarios result in higher biomass and reduced first-year survival. How this result translates into changes at population level and stock management needs further investigation. Nonetheless, this study illustrates that processes linking life stages are paramount to understand and predict possible consequences of future climate conditions on population dynamics.


C1 inhibitor (C1INH) protects mice from lethal Gram-negative bacterial LPS-induced endotoxin shock and blocks the binding of LPS to the murine macrophage cell line, RAW 264.7, via an interaction with lipid A. Using the cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model for sepsis in mice, treatment with C1INH improved survival in comparison with untreated controls. The effect was not solely the result of inhibition of complement and contact system activation because reactive center-cleaved, inactive C1INH (iC1INH) also was effective. In vivo, C1INH and iC1INH both reduced the number of viable bacteria in the blood and peritoneal fluid and accelerated killing of bacteria by blood neutrophils and peritoneal macrophages. In vitro, C1INH bound to bacteria cultured from blood or peritoneal fluid of mice with CLP-induced sepsis, but had no direct effect on bacterial growth. However, both C1INH and iC1INH enhanced the bactericidal activity of blood neutrophils and peritoneal exudate leukocytes. C1INH-deficient mice (C1INH−/− mice) subjected to CLP had a higher mortality than did wild-type littermate mice. Survival of C1INH−/− mice was significantly increased with two doses of C1INH, one given immediately following CLP, and the second at 6 h post-CLP. C1INH may be important in protection from sepsis through enhancement of bacterial uptake by, and/or bactericidal capacity of, phagocytes. Treatment with C1INH may provide a useful additional therapeutic approach in some patients with peritonitis and/or sepsis.


In a three-dimensional virtual environment, aspects such as narrative and interaction largely depend on the placement and animation of the virtual camera. Therefore, virtual camera control plays a critical role in player experience and, thereby, in the overall quality of a computer game. Both game industry and game AI research focus on the development of increasingly sophisticated systems to automate the control of the virtual camera integrating artificial intelligence algorithms within physical simulations. However, in both industry and academia little research has been carried out on the relationship between virtual camera, game-play and player behaviour. We run a game user experiment to shed some light on this relationship and identify relevant differences between camera behaviours through different game sessions, playing behaviours and player gaze patterns. Results show that users can be efficiently profiled in dissimilar clusters according to camera control as part of their gameplay behaviour.


The postharvest losses of litchi caused by litchi downy blight are considerably high. We identified a natural antifungal volatile pyrone, 6-pentyl-2H-pyran-2-one (6PP), synthesized by Trichoderma erinaceum LS019-2 and investigated as biocontrol for litchi downy blight and preservation. 6PP significantly inhibited the growth and sporangial germination of Peronophythora litchii, the causal agent of litchi downy blight, and caused severe cellular and intracellular destructions, as evidenced by electron microscopic analysis. Furthermore, in the treatment, the fruit kept better color, higher weight, and antioxidant activity, so it can maintain freshness and prolong shelf life. Metabolome analysis confirmed the decline of lipids and the accumulation of organic acids in litchi fruits in response to 6PP treatment. These effects from 6PP could alleviate disease effects and prolong the shelf life of litchi fruits. These findings suggested that 6PP could be a useful natural product to control downy blight disease and a new preservative of litchi fruits.


outcome were significantly increased in infants with abnormal S/D ratio (P < 0.001). When logistic regression analysis was performed after adjusting for gestational age, the odds ratio for poor perinatal outcome was 3.7 in the group showing abnormal S/D ratio (95% confidence interval 1.42–9.54, P = 0.007). Conclusion: Umbilical artery Doppler velocimetry is shown as a significantly efficient method in predicting perinatal outcome in preterm neonates with small-for-gestational age, and it may be useful in managing preterm patients with small-for-gestational age fetuses.


The present study was carried out to understand the possible sources of bio available organic compounds and food sources to the four different fishes at Visakhapatnam coastal waters during monsoon and non-monsoon seasons. This study revealed that presence of high suspended matter (25.2 ± 2 mg/l) and low phytoplankton biomass (Chl-a; 0.6 ± 0.2 mg/m3) during monsoon season and low suspended matter (15.1 ± 1 mg/l) and high Chl-a (2.7 ± 0.6 mg/m3) during non-monsoon season in water column. Total protein (WTPRO) to total carbohydrate (WTCHO) ratios in water column suggesting that presence of freshly produced organic matter during non-monsoon season and terrestrial or modified organic matter during the monsoon season. In addition to this total protein (GTPRO) to total carbohydrate (GTCHO) ratios in four fish guts also showing 1 during non-monsoon seasons suggesting that the major food source during monsoon is terrestrial originated organic matter and during non-monsoon in situ produced organic matter.


The Internet of Things, or IoT, is continuously growing with more devices being
connected every day, adding new features and functionality to our personal and home
devices by connecting them to the Internet. However, with the increase of devices
and components, new security threats arise in previously offline systems that used
to be immune to network attacks. This increase calls for better security options that
can ensure protection of the data flowing in IoT networks by detecting and mitigating
new threats. To contribute to the mentioned area, the goal of this thesis was to
develop and evaluate a modified version of Snort, a widely used intrusion detection
system. The idea was to improve the efficiency of computationally expensive pattern
matching by extending Snort to use a graphical processing unit for such work. The
Snort modification was tested by comparing it to that of an unmodified version of
Snort in a closed environment with simulated network traffic. The tests were run
on a single-board-computer to simulate the IoT context. The results show that
the new functionality yields a speedup of 1.3 when analyzing captured traffic, a
throughput increase of a factor of two when inspecting live traffic, and slightly less
energy consumption, all when comparing to original Snort. With these results, it
seems plausible to use the IoT devices as a means of strengthening their own security
and protect them from network attacks.


Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa) females reproduce asexually, but they need sperm to initiate the process. Such gynogenetic reproduction can be called sperm parasitism since the DNA in the sperm is not used. Since all offspring of asexually reproducing females are females, they can locally outcompete sexually reproducing ones, but their persistence is threatened by the lack of males. Therefore, the existence of Amazon mollies is puzzling. A metapopulation structure has been suggested to enable the coexistence of gynogenetic and sexual species. Previously only Levins-type metapopulation models have been used to investigate this question, but thy are not defined on the individual level. Therefore we investigate the evolution of sperm parasitism in a structured metapopulation model, which incorporates both realistic local population dynamics and individual-level dispersal. If the reproduction strategy is freely evolving in a large well-mixed population or in the structured metapopulation model, strong discrimination of asexually reproducing females by males results in evolution to full sexuality, whereas mild discrimination leads to too small probability of sexual reproduction, so that the lack of males causes the extinction of the evolving population, resulting in evolutionary suicide. This classification remains the same also when both sexual reproduction and dispersal are freely evolving. Sexual and asexual behaviour can be observed at the same time in this model in the presence of a trade-off between the reproduction and dispersal traits. However, we do not observe disruptive selection resulting in the evolutionarily stable coexisence of fully sexual and fully asexual females. Instead, the presence of sexual and asexual behaviour is due to females with a mixed reproduction trait.


Author(s): Seelhorst, Michael | Advisor(s): Hansen, Mark | Abstract: Flight cancellations are costly events for both airlines and passengers, yet are poorly understood. This dissertation expands upon literature that has studied flight cancellations by incorporating more variables and using advanced model specifications. In addition, it is necessary to understand the drivers of flight cancellations to quantify the relationship between flight cancellations and flight delay forecasts, which has been poorly documented in the literature. This dissertation investigates the factors leading to flight cancellations and quantifies the effect of flight cancellations on flight delay forecasts.First, econometric choice models are applied to a large dataset of historical flight information to determine the preferences and behaviors of airlines with respect to flight cancellations. The binary logit estimation results show that flight characteristics, such as load factor, distance, and flight frequency, are significant for determining the likelihood of flight cancellations, even when accounting for adverse weather effects. Airline-specific logit models indicate large heterogeneity with respect to flight cancellation tendencies across the industry. Inter-flight heterogeneity is explored through the use of mixed logit and latent class models, but lack of significant heterogeneity and long computation times provide evidence that a basic binary model can be sufficient for capturing the flight cancellation behavior of airlines. Cancellation predictions are made at an airport-level, but the distribution of predicted cancellations does not match well with the actual distribution observed in the data. Second, deterministic queueing methods are used to quantify the effect flight cancellations have on queueing delay forecasts. The cancellation model estimates are used to predict flight cancellations for a sample of all flights for 160 airport-days. The reductions in delay due to cancellations are captured using Monte Carlo simulation and a first-order approximation. The simulation results show that delays are reduced by 22% when considering the effect of cancellations and the first-order approximation results are no more than 4% larger than those from the Monte Carlo simulation.Finally, a case study was performed based on the current operating environment at San Francisco International Airport, where capacity reductions are expected during the summer of 2014 due to runway construction. Moreover, airlines are proposing schedules with 5% more demand. The increased schedule combined with the capacity decrease leads to an large increase in the queueing delay forecasts. A cancellation model is used to predict the changes in delay that result from cancellations induced by the change in operating conditions. The results from the cancellation model indicate that departure cancellations will increase at an almost one-to-one ratio with the proposed demand increase, thus negating any benefit to airlines from a denser schedule. The feedback of cancellations on queueing delay is further explored with analytical models. As witnessed in the case study, queueing delay can reach a theroetical maximum where any additions to the flight schedule results in higher queueing delays and an associated increase in flight cancellations that compensate for the additional flight and return the demand, and queueing delay, to its original level.


The goal of this study was to characterize and quantify the occurrence of data voids in data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) for the conterminous United States. For this purpose, SRTM data and corresponding data from the national elevation data were downloaded in 21 samples spatially organized to cover the main topography of the U.S. Void locations in SRTM data were compared to terrain attributes and subsequently the area of individual data voids to the same attributes. It was found that data voids amounted to 0.3% of the total dataset. Data voids were found in all topographic settings but more often in slopes steeper than approximately 20/spl deg/ that face south (170/spl deg/), and also in flat areas such as lakes and rivers. It was also found that more than 50% of all data voids were composed of connected pixels in groups less than six pixels. The largest data voids could be attributed to water bodies, while the rest could be explained by terrain-radar interaction characteristics.


In this work, we address the Text-to-Speech (TTS) task by proposing a non-autoregressive architecture called EfficientTTS. Unlike the dominant non-autoregressive TTS models, which are trained with the need of external aligners, EfficientTTS optimizes all its parameters with a stable, end-to-end training procedure, while allowing for synthesizing high quality speech in a fast and efficient manner. EfficientTTS is motivated by a new monotonic alignment modeling approach (also introduced in this work), which specifies monotonic constraints to the sequence alignment with almost no increase of computation. By combining EfficientTTS with different feed-forward network structures, we develop a family of TTS models, including both text-to-melspectrogram and text-to-waveform networks. We experimentally show that the proposed models significantly outperform counterpart models such as Tacotron 2 and Glow-TTS in terms of speech quality, training efficiency and synthesis speed, while still producing the speeches of strong robustness and great diversity. In addition, we demonstrate that proposed approach can be easily extended to autoregressive models such as Tacotron 2.


Due to the extremely hostile environment in the lower part of the ironmaking blast furnace, where three different phases exist and interact at high temperatures, direct measurements of the prevailing conditions are not available. Tuyere core drillings reveal information about both physical and chemical conditions at the high temperature region. In this paper some results from drillings performed relatively regularly at an industrial blast furnace are analysed and correlated with cyclic changes detected in the furnace hearth lining temperatures. The analysis s based on the lengths of the different zones, such as raceway, bird's nest and deadman, that can be detected from the drill core. The relation between the zone lengths and hearth state derived from the thermocouple readings is modelled and studied with neural networks using different combinations of the measured zone lengths as inputs. The final model can be used to study the relationship between the examined variables and also to quickly classify the hearth state on the basis of future core drillings.


Ten patients receiving long-term hydantoin therapy had progressive neurological deterioration indistinguishable from a degenerative central nervous system disease. The deterioration abated in all cases and in six of the patients, restoration to pretherapy status subsequently occurred after discontinuation of the therapy. The patients exhibited not only the cerebellar signs of nystagmus and ataxia characteristic of hydantoin intoxication, but also variable manifestations of more diffuse encephalopathy, including impaired intellectual performance, bizarre behavior, increased seizure frequency, impaired speech, and electroencephalographic changes. This series extends the spectrum of hydantoin neurotoxicity to include neurologic and mental deterioration over many years and underscores the irreversibility and severe disability that may characterize this easily overlooked and entirely preventable disorder of therapy.


Modern key exchange protocols are usually based on the Diffie–Hellman (DH) primitive. The beauty of this primitive, among other things, is its potential reusage of key shares: DH shares can be either used a single time or in multiple runs. Since DH-based protocols are insecure against quantum adversaries, alternative solutions have to be found when moving to the post-quantum setting. However, most post-quantum candidates, including schemes based on lattices and even supersingular isogeny DH, are not known to be secure under key reuse. In particular, this means that they cannot be necessarily deployed as an immediate DH substitute in protocols.
In this paper, we introduce the notion of a split key encapsulation mechanism (split KEM) to translate the desired key-reusability of a DH-based protocol to a KEM-based flow. We provide the relevant security notions of split KEMs and show how the formalism lends itself to lifting Signal's X3DH handshake to the post-quantum KEM setting without additional message flows.
Although the proposed framework conceptually solves the raised issues, instantiating it securely from post-quantum assumptions proved to be non-trivial. We give passively secure instantiations from (R)LWE, yet overcoming the above-mentioned insecurities under key reuse in the presence of active adversaries remains an open problem. Approaching one- sided key reuse, we provide a split KEM instantiation that allows such reuse based on the KEM introduced by Kiltz (PKC 2007), which may serve as a post-quantum blueprint if the underlying hardness assumption (gap hashed Diffie–Hellman) holds for the commutative group action of CSIDH (Asiacrypt 2018).
The intention of this paper hence is to raise awareness of the challenges arising when moving to KEM-based key exchange protocols with key-reusability, and to propose split KEMs as a specific target for instantiation in future research.


At stations on the Natsui River and the Same River in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, effects of a heavy rain event on radiocesium export were studied after Typhoon Roke during 21–22 September 2011, six months after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. Radioactivity of 134 Cs and 137 Cs in river waters was 0.009–0.098 Bq L −1 in normal flow conditions during July–September 2011, but it increased to 0.85 Bq L −1 in high flow conditions because of heavy rains occurring with the typhoon. The particulate fractions of 134 Cs and 137 Cs were 21–56% of total radiocesium in the normal flow condition, but were close to 100% after the typhoon. These results indicate that the pulse input of radiocesium associated with suspended particles from land to coastal ocean occurred because of the heavy rain event. Export flux of 134 Cs and 137 Cs attributable to the heavy rain accounts for 30–50% of the annual radiocesium flux from inland to coastal ocean region in 2011. Results show that rain events are one factor contributing to the transport and dispersion of radiocesium in river watersheds and coastal marine environments.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the correlation between different personality characteristics and self-management attitude such as medication, exercise and diet in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

METHODS
The patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus from 4 Community Healthcare Services and 22 affiliated community stations of Tongzhou District and Shunyi District of Beijing were selected as subjects. The Chinese big five personality inventory and the self-designed scale including the attitudes of medication, exercise and diet were used in the study.

RESULTS
In this study, 642 subjects were finally included, among whom the sex ratio of male and female was basically the same, 61.21% were over 61 years old. In this study, different genders had differences in neurotic personality (P<0.05), different age groups had differences in agreeableness and openness (P<0.05), different education levels had differences in openness and extraversion (P<0.05), and different income levels had differences in agreeableness, openness and extraversion (P<0.05). The linear correlation analysis of the five-factor moldel of personality traits with medication, exercise and diet attitude showed that three items of perceived disorders of medication were positively correlated with neuroticism (r=0.125, 0.187, 0.151, P<0.05), four items of perceived disorders of exercise were positively correlated with neurotic personality (r=0.163, 0.129, 0.119, 0.104, P<0.05), and perceived benefits of exercise were positively correlated with conscientiousness (five items, r=0.156, 0.111, 0.131, 0.104, 0.131, P<0.05), agreeableness (two items, r=0.092, 0.078, P<0.05) and extraversion (four items, r=0.079, 0.122, 0.115, 0.123, P<0.05), three items of perceived disorders of diet were positively correlated with neuroticism (r=0.115, 0.137, 0.108, P<0.05), and two items of were negatively correlated with conscientiousness (r=-0.126, -0.161, P<0.05) and agreeableness (r=-0.103, -0.115, P<0.05). In the canonical correlation analysis, according to the formula combination of three groups of typical variables and canonical structure diagrams, neuroticism and agreeableness played major roles in personality traits, and items that represented "obstacles" in medication, exercise, and dietary attitudes played a major role.

CONCLUSION
All the five personality traits were correlated with the self-management attitude of type 2 diabetes patients, and different personality traits have an impact on the self-management of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. In particular, it is of great significance to understand neuroticism for improving the mental health and quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Therefore, attention should be paid to the influence of psychological factors in community management of type 2 diabetes and disease self-management, and the personalized care and health education should be carried out according to the personality traits of patients.


'Jintao' is a new yellow-fleshed kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis Planch) developed from the breeding program at the Wuhan Institute of Botany (WIB), in Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China. 'Jintao' is a midseason cultivar that ripens three to four weeks before the standard commercial cultivar [A. deliciosa (A. Chev.) C.F. I,iang et A.R. Ferguson] 'Hayward'. It is sweeter than 'Hayward' and has a smooth skin. 'Jintao' was selected from A. chinensis and offers growers in warmer climates an alternative to 'Hayward', because of its higher productivity, better fruit quality, and improved heat tolerance. 'Jintao', which means golden peach in Chinese, is named in recognition of its yellow flesh and the common Chinese name, Mihou-tao, or monkey peach.


Mechanical stimuli control cell behaviors that are crucial for bone tissue repair. Osteocytes sense extracellular mechanical stimuli then convert them into biochemical signals to harmonize bone remodeling. However, the mechanisms underlying this process remain unclear. Autophagy, which is an evolutionarily preserved process, that occurs at a basal level when stimulated by multiple environmental stresses. We postulated that mechanical stimulation upregulates osteocyte autophagy via AMPK-associated signaling, driving osteocyte-mediated osteogenesis. Using a murine model of orthodontic tooth movement, we show that osteocyte autophagy is triggered by mechanical tension, increasing the quantity of LC3B-positive osteocytes by 4-fold in the tension side. Both in vitro mechanical tension as well as the chemical autophagy agonist enhanced osteocyte Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) secretion, which is an osteogenenic related cytokine, by 2-and 3-fold, respectively. Conditioned media collected from tensioned osteocytes enhanced osteoblast viability. These results indicate that mechanical tension drives autophagy-mediated FGF23 secretion from osteocytes and promotes osteogenesis. Our findings highlight a potential strategy for accelerating osteogenesis in orthodontic clinical settings.


Background/Objectives: The study is dedicated to analyzing taxation in oil industry that is one of the principal instruments of governmental regulation in subsoil resource control along with subsurface resource management, investment and antitrust policies. Methods/Statistical Analysis: While studying taxation in oil industry, statistical methods have been applied together with the methods of strategic and comparative analysis and systemic approach. Theoretical and methodological foundations of the study are represented by the investigations of domestic and foreign authors, Russian legislative and regulatory instruments relating to taxation problems, statistical and reporting data of the oil companies, the State Statistics Service and the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation. Findings: Basic trends and issues in developing the taxation system in oil industry in Russia have been identified. The priorities for its improvement have been suggested. Studying foreign practices of oil industry taxation, stages of developing tax regulations in Russian oil industry, key characteristics of modern tax system made it possible to identify the principal problems of taxation among which several major issues can be highlighted: The lack of tax incentives for the companies applying innovative technologies; absence of differential approach to calculating tax payments depending on the stage of the field development and tax advantages for the companies undertaking prospecting and exploration activities; tax distribution between the budgets; frequent amendments introduced to taxation schemes. These challenges make it difficult for the oil companies to elaborate and implement any long-term development strategy. In addition, the oil companies fail to take into account the changing business environment in the course of calculating tax payments, particularly, volatility of oil prices under current conditions and differences in the companies' export orientated businesses. Application/Improvements: Some measures have been suggested to improve efficiency. The results of the study have practical significance for developing the system of economic regulations in oil industry.


[ANGLES] Stainless steel is a relatively recent material that combines excellent corrosion
resistance and mechanical properties suitable for structural applications. But its
nonlinear stress-strain behaviour, different from the typical carbon steel, explains,
among other reasons, that it has had very little presence in the field of construction as a
structural element. In the literature, there are different analytical expressions that
reproduce this behaviour, all of them based on the original expression of Ramberg-
Osgood.
In this paper, the differences between these models are analyzed in order to determine
the most appropriate expression, and suggest values for the parameters that fit properly
the behaviour of the material, especially for different grades of ferritic stainless steel.
Therefore, an interactive program is developed, reusable for any series of experimental
data, and criteria for the determination of the initial elastic modulus (E0) are proposed.
It is also demonstrated that the analytical expressions proposed by Rasmussen for
determining, on the one hand, the parameters of non-linearity (n, m) and the ultimate
strain (eu), included in the European code Eurocode 3, and on the other hand the
ultimate tensile strength (σu) obtained from the Ramberg-Osgood parameters (E0, σ0.2
and n), do not provide good estimations in the case of ferritic alloys. Therefore, new
analytical expressions to determine these parameters are developed in this paper.
Compared with a reasonable range of experimental data, the expressions provide a
good accuracy, which then participates in improving the modelling of the stress-strain
behaviour for ferritic stainless steel.


Coloured rice genotypes have greater nutritious value and consumer demand for these varieties is now greater than ever. The documentation of these genotypes is important for the improvement of the rice plant. In this study, 42 coloured rice genotypes were selected for determination of their genetic divergence using 25 simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers and 15 agro-morphological traits. Twenty-one out of the 25 SSR primers showed distinct, reproducible polymorphism. A dendrogram constructed using the SSR primers clustered the 42 coloured rice genotypes into 7 groups. Further, principle component analysis showed 75.28% of total variations were explained by the first—three components. All agromorphological traits showed significant difference at the (p 0.05) and (p 0.01) levels. From the dendrogram constructed using the agro-morphological traits, all the genotypes were clustered into four distinct groups. Pearson's correlation coefficient showed that among the 15 agro-morphological traits, the yield contributing factor had positive correlation with the number of tillers, number of panicles, and panicle length. The heritability of the 15 traits ranged from 17.68 to 99.69%. Yield per plant and harvest index showed the highest value for both heritability and genetic advance. The information on the molecular and agro-morphological traits can be used in rice breeding programmes to improve nutritional value and produce higher yields.


The article presents the results of studying the geological structure of the Bazhenov Formation in the Nadym-Ob interfluve of Western Siberia with the aim of predicting the oil content of this black shale stratum. As a result of interpretation of a wide range of well logging represented by electric, radioactive and acoustic logging, with subsequent matching of these results with paleontological definitions of micro- and macrofauna, the distribution of the Salym, Nizhnevartovsky and Tarkosalinsky types of sections of the Bazhenov Formation was clarified, transitional areas between them were identified. It has been established that the Tarkosalinsky type is more widespread in the western direction than was shown earlier and is also distinguished in the Vengayakhinskaya, Yaraynerskaya and other areas. The Nizhnevartovsky type, on the contrary, has a narrower distribution and stands out directly within the same name arc and to the south by the Variegasky-Tagrinsky megahigh. On the basis of geological, geochemical, geophysical criteria and the results of an inflow test in deep wells, a map of the oil potential prospects of the "classical" sections of the Bazhenov Formation has been compiled. Regional prerequisites (high catagenesis of organic matter, significant modern concentrations of organic carbon, etc.) for the discovery of industrial accumulations of oil in the Bazhenov Formation in the southern regions of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area are identified. The results of the test for the inflow of the Bazhenov Formation in this area in the 70–90s XX century were analyzed; repeated, interval testing of these deposits using modern methods of stimulation of the inflow is recommended. The necessity of laboratory lithological, petrophysical, geochemical study of the core of the Bazhenov Formation in the southern part of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area is substantiated with the aim of determining its lithological composition, identifying oil source and oil productive intervals, studying the reservoir structure and the nature of saturation of its void space, developing recommendations for calculating oil reserves and creating technology for its cost-effective production.


When Tennessee became the 36th and final state needed to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment in August 1920, giving women the right to vote, one group of women expressed bitter disappointment and vowed to fight against "this feminist disease". Why this fierce and extended opposition? In "Splintered Sisterhood", Susan Marshall argues that the women of the antisuffrage movement mobilized not as threatened homemakers, but as influential political strategists. Drawing on surviving records of major antisuffrage organizations, Marshall makes clear that antisuffrage women organized to protect gendered class interests. She shows that many of the most vocal antisuffragists were wealthy, educated women who exercised considerable political influence through their personal ties to men in politics as well as by their own positions as leaders of social service committees. Under the guise of defending an ideal of "true womanhood", these powerful women sought to keep the vote from lower-class women, fearing it would result in an increase in the "ignorant vote" and in their own displacement from positions of influence. This book reveals the increasingly militant style of antisuffrage protest as the conflict over female voting rights escalated. "Splintered Sisterhood" adds a missing piece to the history of women's rights activism in the United States and illuminates current issues of antifeminism.