The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the advantage of cork-mortars for renderings when compared to EPSmortars, from a thermal characteristics point of view, namely in steady and unsteady conditions. It was intended to develop specific rendering mortars able to be applied in thermal bridges to reduce condensation effects and heat transfer in buildings envelopes. The impact of this solution is significant, especially in building typologies as framed reinforced concrete structures. Cement mortars and cement-EPS mortars are used as a reference as their properties are easily recognized compared to cement-cork mortars, which are made with by-products from the cork industry. Several studies were made concerning fresh and hardened state behaviour of mortars, namely: rheological and mechanical properties, microstructure evolution with time and thermal behaviour. For a cement based mortar, different cork dosages (from 0% to 80%) were tested (as sand replacement by mass). Microstructural analyses show that the mechanical properties of cement-cork blends are not only controlled by cork's low density, but also by interaction of cork extractives with the cement hydration process. Thermal conductivity presents a linear decrease for an increasing cork dosage in mortars. Concerning the effect on thermal delay, cork-mortars seem to behave better than EPS-mortars.


This paper intends to depart from a critique of the nexus of contracts theory of the firmendowed with its moral personification to propose some theoretical foundations of the firm asa real entity. Some old legal views of the corporation are mobilized to complete theconceptual vacuity of economic theories. This provides crucial insights for modern complexorganizations such as the network-firm. The integrating and unifying role of intra-networkpower relationships is then emphasized and some law and economics of the network-firm areultimately proposed to clarify the argument that the network-firm − as the firm stricto sensu −is a singular real entity composed from distinct legal entities.


Abstract 6. Further Expansions.—Equations (4.3) and (5.5) enable a computer to transform coordinates from the Cassini projection to the Gauss projection without recourse to geographical coordinates. If applied to one or two points, no doubt these equations would be quite satisfactory; but if applied to 100,000 points their use would be laborious and it would be difficult to adapt them to machine computing.


Composite materials composed of aluminosilicate clays with organic molecules or biomolecules in the interlayer galleries are readily synthesized and have many applications in agriculture, medicine, environmental science, engineering, and geochemistry. Detailed characterization of the molecular-scale structure and dynamics of the interlayer galleries is difficult experimentally because of static and dynamic disorder but can be obtained by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation using classical force fields. This Article presents an MD study of smectite clay montmorillonite (MMT) intercalated with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with and without CO2 also present in the interlayer. Bulk PEG can incorporate large amounts of CO2 under supercritical conditions, and MMT–PEG composites have potential as gas-separation materials. The MD simulations of anhydrous MMT containing interlayer CO2 (MMT–CO2), PEG (MMT–PEG), and PEG + CO2 (MMT–PEG–CO2) provide new atomic-level insight into the molecular ordering of CO2 near the bas...


When radar and communication systems are co-located and operating simultaneously in the same frequency band, interference can be addressed by designing the systems to share resources. This paper develops a framework for cooperative operation of bistatic radar and wireless communication systems. We adopt a low-complexity linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) optimal pilot symbol aided modulation (PSAM) scheme, and show the achievability region of the joint radar-communication system designed for simultaneous operation in a wireless channel that is both frequency and time-selective.


Objective To study the effect of propyl gallate on the serum levels of urotensin Ⅱ(UⅡ)and adrenomedullin(ADM)in patients with diabetic foot.Methods Totally 92 patients with diabetes mellitus were enrolled and divided into two groups according to weather they had diabetic foot or not,and 30 healthy persons of our hospital were enrolled as the controls.The levels of serum UⅡ and ADM of all subjects were measured and compared,and the changes of serum UⅡ and ADM of in diabetic foot patients were observed before and after treatment with propyl gallate.Results The serum levels of UⅡ and ADM were significantly higher in diabetic foot patients than in those with no diabetic foot and controls(P0.01).After treatment with propyl gallate,the serum levels of UⅡ and ADM were significantly decreased in the diabetic foot patients as compared with those before the treatment(P0.01).Conclusion Applicati0on of propyl gallate plus an early comprehensive nursing can reduce the serum levels of UⅡ and ADM,and promote the recovery of foot lesion.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to first outline the central thrust of two currently non-convergent but intrinsically related streams of research – urban management and destination management – and explore the links between them. Both require an approach which coordinates and integrates multiple actors and functions in dynamic settings. Design/methodology/approach – The paper then analyses empirical examples from three New Zealand cities to illustrate relationships between destination management and urban management in practice. Findings – These cases show that without being labelled as such, quite a lot of activity takes place which reflects dimensions of both destination management and urban management, especially in terms of integration and coordination. This raises questions of just what constitutes destination management, a series of discrete ad hoc actions or some broader vision and framework. Originality/value – Empirical evidence from the three New Zealand cities shows that, with the except...


This study is to find out a way to foster self-directed learning math skills for the low-income youth at child care centers. Taking advantage of EBS materials, we found the youth, low-income youth in particular, were positively influenced to learn mathematics in the way of self-directed and action learning. This program gives a model of the self-directed math learning using the EBS mathematics materials. From the survey of this study, we found see that students started to have a positive attitude for learning and they started to gain new mathematical concept, and improved their problem solving, reasoning, communication and representation skills with these new leaning environments. This study tells us that this type of cooperative learning could help them to have an objective assessment, and gave a positive impact on self-directed learning.


The correlation of wet and dry year of runoff between the water-exporting and water-importing area of western route south-to-north water transfer project was analyzed by SPA,with description of identical,discrepancy and contrary corresponding to wet,normal and dry year respectively.The results show that the connected structure is reasonable between sets and more than ten years'cycle and quasi-3 years cycle of runoff exist in the water-exporting and water-importing area.Each hydrological station among water-exporting and water-importing area keeps close correlation with wet,normal and dry year respectively.Adjustment reservoirs will be laid out in somewhere of water-exporting and water-importing area in order to rationally reserve abundant water and reduce unfavorable impact on lower reaches of the water-exporting rivers.Set Pair Analysis(SPA) is an effective and new way to deal with the uncertainty problem.


The pyritic ores of the Yanahara district occur as irregular masses in felsic pyroclastic rocks (locally hornfels) of Permian age. Quartz porphyry and granite porphyry dikes cut both the ore deposits and country rock; zones of magnetite (with chlorite and plagioclase) are found adjacent to the dikes and country rock, and pyrrhotite (with small amounts of other sulfides, chlorite, and quartz) occurs between the magnetite zones and the pyritic ore, and also forms veinlike masses within the ore. Formation of the magnetite and pyrrhotite is attributed to processes of diffusion metasomatism as a result of interaction between the pyritic ore (and wall rocks) and ascending fluids associated with dike emplacement.


The mppSoC architecture is a parametric massive parallel architecture which aims to support modern data-intensive applications. In this paper, we explore different concepts that facilitate the design of such system from the specification to the application and the architecture implementations.


In the 1920's Fraenkel and Carnap raised the question of whether or not every finitely axiomatizable semantically complete theory formulated in the theory of types is categorical. Partial answers to this and a related question are presented for theories formulated in second‐order logic. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


The Radar is a kind of active remote-sensing device which has the abilities to detect and identify targets in all weathers. With the development of the radar system, the pursuit of higher SAR image quality makes the radar system more and more complicated so that the current radar systems need a revolution. Theoretical analyses show that a device processing quantum information has the potential to promote its sensitivity at utmost and the system performance would be increased as a result. This paper demonstrates the development history of quantum radar and predicts the feasibility of the quantum radar.


In this paper we compare two methods in control of the wave equation with a possibly destabilizing boundary force. Non-collocated actuation and measurement of boundary position is assumed. The Absolute Vibration Suppression (AVS) controller is based on an exact transfer function model and exploits the system traveling wave nature. It eliminates the wave reflections in the system and employs a dead time compensator that shifts the resulting poles to any desired location. The Back- Stepping (BS) controller is designed in time domain. Its general principle is using dedicated transformations to map the original unstable system to a stable target system. For the system at hand the target system is a wave equation with stable and adjustable boundary conditions. We show that for a certain choice of BS control parameters the methods coincide.


The article deals with the problem of geodetic monitoring of the technical condition of underwater gas pipeline crossings. The theoretical scheme of increasing the accuracy of depth determination is studied in detail. In this paper, the goal is to increase the accuracy of obtaining the depth of the gas pipeline. The accuracy of the planned position for the largest survey scale (1:500) is 0.75 meters and is achieved using satellite equipment, even without the use of a dynamic positioning system, which allows, if necessary, to increase the accuracy of the data obtained by determining the orientation angles of the vessel. Despite the high popularity of this complex, the accuracy of depth measurements does not correspond to regulatory documents, which raises the question of the need to change the method of measurement and data processing, since the performance of work on monitoring the technical condition of gas pipelines is an important and relevant task. In order to control the developed methodology and automate measurement processing, two programs were written in the Python 3.7 programming language in the Spyder environment.


Method of reducing the acid gas discharged from a carbonaceous fuel-fired power plants. Aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide dry cleaning method is used to reduce the formation of nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride from a power plant flue gas. These plants from the flue gas using an electrostatic precipitator to remove particulate material, thereby improving the performance of the composition by injection of potassium hydroxide to the upstream component. In addition to the advantage, the final product has the advantage that can be used commercially as fertilizers than are embedding process.


Objectives: To develop and evaluate a more robust approach for the detection of adverse events in hospital patients using an enhanced Institute for Healthcare Improvement Global Trigger Tool methodology. Methods: We refined the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Global Trigger methodology using a 2-stage review approach with initial review by 4 clinicians followed by a second review by 2 physicians and then a consensus process. We used a 2-step process for evaluation, and all 6 reviewers participated in both training and, then, testing phase. We measured agreement between all reviewers for the presence and severity of adverse events during the training and testing phase using percent agreement and kappa. Results: This study used 15 training records containing 22 adverse events and 50 testing records containing 49 adverse events. Initially, the 6 reviewer's agreement with the training records ranged from 38.5% to 76.9%, with kappa ranges from −0.077 to 0.512. After training, percent agreement with the testing records ranged from 66.7% to 93.9%, with kappa values ranging from 0.164 to 0.703. All levels of improvement in reviewer agreement were statistically significant, at the 0.05 level or better, except one of the nonphysician reviewers, whose improvement (71.7% to 83.5%) was significant at only the 0.06 level. Conclusions: We have developed a robust trigger methodology for detection of adverse events in hospital patients using a retrospective record review approach with a 2-stage review process. This approach has shown the capability, when used with trained reviewers, to achieve high levels of agreement on the presence and severity of adverse events.


SUMMARY: The aim of this study was to determine the tonguecoating status (using modern index system), the degree of gingival hyperplasia, to register the observed oral lesions in 30 patients with replaced renal function (hemodialysis and renal transplanted).


The invention discloses an energy-saving refrigeration device of a container-type data center. The energy-saving refrigeration device of the container-type data center comprises an outdoor air-cooled freeze water unit, and an equipment cabinet and a data center refrigeration system arranged in a container, wherein the air-cooled freeze water unit comprises a compressor, an air-cooled condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator; the compressor, the air-cooled condenser, the expansion valve and the evaporator are sequentially connected to form circulation; the data center refrigeration system comprises a fan coil unit, an expansion water pump assembly and a dry-type condenser which are sequentially connected, and is communicated with the evaporator to form freeze water circulation. According to the energy-saving solution of the container-type data center provided by the invention, the server cabinet is arranged in the container for central cooling, the blowing distance and the cooling capacity loss are greatly reduced, and the energy-saving requirement of using outdoor cold sources can be met; the container-type data center is flexible in arrangement, short in construction cycle, low in investment, simple and convenient to maintain and good in mobility and expansibility, and is a novel data center solution.


This study investigates the effect of the changes of economic policy uncertainty in the U.S. on the returns on stock markets of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The current study also examines how the stock market returns in the five countries respond to the changes in economic policy uncertainty in the U.S. The Granger causality tests are also performed to determine if the changes in economic policy uncertainty cause the returns on the five stock markets. The results, from analyzing monthly date from 1985:2 to 2012:2, show that the changes in economic policy uncertainty in the U.S. negatively affect the returns on the five ASEAN stock markets. Controlling for the effect of the U.S stock market, only Philippines coefficient becomes insignificant. The vector autoregression analyses show that returns on the five ASEAN stock markets negatively respond to the changes in economic policy uncertainty immediately. The Granger causality tests reveal that the changes in economic policy uncertainty in the U.S. causes the returns on the Singapore and Malaysia stock markets; the same cannot said for the case of Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.


The effect of ionization dcnsity on the decay time in CsI(Tl), KI(Tl), and NaI(Tl) crystals was investigated at room temperature. Alpha particles of 4 Mev, protons of 2.7 Mev, and the electrons liberated in the crystal by ThC'' gamma radiation were used as characteristic particles. The effect was determined by a measurement of the rise time of the pulse to its complete height. The results show a dependence of the pulse rise on the particle type in all three crystals. The particles of highest ionization density produced the most rapid pulse rise. The effect is most decided in the CsI(Tl) crystals. The method for the measurement of the pulse was simplified for the CsI(Tl) crystals. (J.S.R.)


In clinical practice the determination of the heart rate variability (HRV) has become a common measure to investigate the parasympathetic cardiac control. Especially the measurement of the respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) has gained importance to asses the HRV. The RSA can be seen as an indirect parameter for the physiological or psychological stress the patient is currently exposed to. Thus, this parameter is used to identify specific characteristics of disease in a broad field of clinical disciplines. In this contribution, we present a BSN-based approach of assessing the RSA in a long-term evaluation. For this purpose, we use two sensor types: A three channel ECG sensor node which was introduced before and a recently developed respiratory sensor based on conductive yarn. We further implemented an oscillatory model-based Unscented Kalman filter (UKF) to estimate the heart rate as well as the breathing rate and, thus, to calculate the RSA. The algorithm is finally validated by performing deep breathing tests (DBT) on a healthy test subject in order to force an increased occurrence of the RSA. The results of the developed system and proposed algorithm are finally discussed with respect to its applicability in different every days situations.


Microgrids create conditions for efficient use of integrated energy systems containing renewable energy sources. One of the major challenges in the control and operation of microgrids is managing the fluctuating renewable energy generation, as well as sudden load changes that can affect system frequency and voltage stability. To solve the above problems, hierarchical control techniques have received wide attention. At present, although some progress has been made in hierarchical control systems using classical control, machine learning-based approaches have shown promising features and performance in the control and operation management of microgrids. This paper reviews not only the application of classical control in hierarchical control systems in the last five years of references, but also the application of machine learning techniques. The survey also provides a comprehensive description of the use of different machine learning algorithms at different control levels, with a comparative analysis for their control methods, advantages and disadvantages, and implementation methods from multiple perspectives. The paper also presents the structure of primary and secondary control applications utilizing machine learning technology. In conclusion, it is highlighted that machine learning in microgrid hierarchical control can enhance control accuracy and address system optimization concerns. However, challenges, such as computational intensity, the need for stability analysis, and experimental validation, remain to be addressed.


In this paper, we consider a class of minimization problems with the objective functions having a form of summation of a penalized differentiable convex function, and a weighted $\ell _1$-norm. However, different from the common assumption of positive weights in existing studies, we shall address a general case where the weights can be either positive or negative, motivated by the fact that negative weights are also capable of inducing sparsity, and even achieving outstanding performance. To deal with the resulting problem, a generalized fixed-point continuation (GFPC) method is introduced, and an accelerated variant is developed. More importantly, the convergence of this algorithm is analyzed in detail, and its application to compressing sensing problems that employ the Shannon entropy function (SEF) for sparsity promotion is also studied. Numerical examples are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the GFPC algorithm.


A method and a probing implement for facilitating searches of hidden areas, such as inside pants pockets, under collars, or under belts is disclosed herein. The probing implement includes an elongated body with a handle portion at one end, a tacky portion at the other end, and a cover enveloping at least the tacky portion. The method includes removing the cover from the tacky portion of probing implement, grasping the probing implement by the handle portion, inserting at least the tacky portion of the probing implement into a recessed area of clothing, moving the probing implement within recessed area so that tacky portion has an opportunity to contact and adhere to any hidden objects, withdrawing the probing implement from the recessed area, and either disposing of the probing implement or placing the probing implement along with any attached objects into an evidence bag. In an alternative method, the covered tacky portion of the implement may be inserted into the recess and the cover subsequently withdrawn while the implement is within the recess.


We study a model of "information-based entrenchment" in which the CEO has private information that the board needs to make an efficient replacement decision. Eliciting the CEO's private information is costly, as it implies that the board must pay the CEO both higher severance pay and higher on-the-job pay. While higher CEO pay is associated with higher turnover in our model, there is too little turnover in equilibrium. Our model makes novel empirical predictions relating CEO turnover, severance pay, and on-the-job pay to firm-level attributes such as size, corporate governance, and the quality of the firm's accounting system.


Supermarkets use a variety of marketing techniques to attract potential customers to their shops and encourage them to buy their products. One of the newest techniques in this field has been neuromarketing, a science that studies the effects of advertising and other communication actions on the human brain with the intention of being able to predict consumer behaviour. This document focuses on the study of the neuromarketing techniques used by supermarkets in our country in their social networks during the confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so that it can be determined that these techniques vary in comparison with normal situations, for which Carrefour and Hipercor have been used as examples. A qualitative research study was carried out to compare the communication on social networks (Instagram, Facebook and Twitter) carried out by these supermarkets at national level before and during the COVID-19 crisis. It was observed that advertising varied from 10-30% customer-focused communication before the crisis to 100% during the crisis. This leads to the conclusion that in times of crisis neuromarketing comes to the fore, humanising companies more to get closer to the customer. It can also be observed that the techniques used vary depending on each supermarket and the stage of the crisis they are going through.


The purpose of this study is to define some terms that are frequently mentioned in determination of the values of non-market forest goods and services which has become increasingly important in recent years, and to create awareness for forest resource managers about including these concepts in decision processes related to forest resources and land use changes. In this context, firstly, the terms of value and benefit were economically and environmentally defined, then, the definitions of terms such as valuation, total economic value, externality, environmental cost, and environmental accounting which are closely related to these terms and their English and Turkish synonyms were given and the relationship among them are mentioned. It was emphasized that the concept of benefit is one of the elements that creates the concept of value, and that the concept of value is a response to changes in benefit level. As a result, it has been mentioned that if these concepts are not taken into account in the management of forest resources and land allocation decisions, economic losses and inefficiency in resource management may ocur. In addition, in order to reveal the real contribution of the forestry sector to the welfare level of the society, the importance of a forest resource management in which these concepts are taken into account was put forward.


Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) is best known as a historian of cities and technology, an activist for improvement of urban environments, and the most influential critic of architecture in the twentieth century. His range of ideas and interests, however, encompassed far more, including a complex view of human nature, the proper role ofliterature and art in life, conditions required for a "good life in a good place," and life-affirming value creation as the fulcrum of healthy civilizations. Probably there is not much he failed to touch regarding public and private domains of human existence, all of which was expounded readably in some 30 books and more than 600 articles between 1914 and 1982. 1 His views have much in common with institutional economics, but he seems mostly and strangely absent from the history of that domain (O'Hara 1999, 523-527). In a long career, Mumford was preoccupied with what it means to be human and how societies might help individuals achieve and sustain their humanity at the highest level. The backdrop for his thought is the imperative of material conditions for human realization, in short, the organization and expenditure of energy in economic systems with their supporting institutional structures. For him the key ideas for thought and action are a vital standard in support of a life economy that does full justice to human development. He also had much to say about how economics is conceptualized as a discipline and was alienated from neoclassical thinking quite as much as Thorstein Veblen. This essay aims to explain and critique Mumford's ideas about economics and related issues; elucidation comes first, criticism at the end. The main thesis is that Mumford was sensible and persuasive about principles but failed to take sufficiently into account stubborn realities of factional politics, divisive economic agendas, and irrational human behavior in mass consumer societies. A secondary thesis is that Mumford swam in the headwaters of institutional economics, even though he was never in any


Mobile video surveillance represents a new paradigm that encompasses, on the one side, ubiquitous video acquisition and, on the other side, ubiquitous video processing and viewing, addressing both computer-based and human-based surveillance. To this aim, systems must provide efficient video streaming with low latency and low frame skipping, even over limited bandwidth networks. This work presents MoSES (MObile Streaming for vidEo Surveillance), an effective system for mobile video surveillance for both PC and PDA clients; it relies over H.264/AVC video coding and GPRS/EDGE-GPRS network. Adaptive control algorithms are employed to achieve the best tradeoff between low latency and good video fluidity. MoSES provides a good-quality video streaming that is used as input to computer-based video surveillance applications for people segmentation and tracking. In this paper new and general-purpose methodologies for streaming performance evaluation are also proposed and used to compare MoSES with existing solutions in terms of different parameters (latency, image quality, video fluidity, and frame losses), as well as in terms of performance in people segmentation and tracking.


Abstract During a scientific mission to the Uzbekistan Republic, numerous coffins and tombstones were noted in various mausoleums and cemeteries, including the one chosen here for detailed study, to be found at the side of the Tashkent mausoleum. The study addresses the coffin inscriptions in regard to script type and forms of the letters, as well as the content of the inscriptions and their historical setting, and a comparison is made between this coffin and a parallel one in Samarqand for Muḥammad Shaybānī Khān.


Using 210Pb and 137Cs dating methods,based on observation on profiles of two sediment core samples,the average deposition rate of the Wulungu lake in recent decades is determinated. Sedimentation rates of 210Pb(CRS model) determination range from 0.018 to 0.071 g/(cm2·a) and sedimentation rates of 137Cs determination range from 0.034 to 0.060 g/(cm2·a).The results showed a relatively good agreement with each other.It is indicated that natural factors have much more influence than human activities on the sedimentation rate of Wulungu lake before 1960s.With the development of agriculture and implementation of water transfer project at the middle and lower reaches of Wulungu River,human activities gradually become the dominant factor in the evolution of lakes,thus affecting the sedimentation rate of Wulungu lake after 1960s.


Disaster management planning of all educational institutes in high earthquake prone-areas is a necessity. In this paper, the development of an earthquake management system for nursery schools is highlighted. The unavoidable nature of the disasters, the impossibility to predict them and the need for considering the safety of the very young generation who are the future assets of communities emphasises this priority. Furthermore, small children are indeed one of the most vulnerable groups of the society, therefore, their protection is considered as highly important. This paper aims to develop an appropriate earthquake disaster management system for Iranian nursery schools with the hope that other developing countries can also benefit from the proposed programme. The plan can be expanded and implemented in schools, high schools and universities subject to specific requirements.


Given the importance of early experience in algebraic thinking, we designed six consecutive lessons in which graders were encouraged to recognize patterns in the process of finding the relationships between two quantities and to represent a given problem with various mathematical models. The results showed that students were able to recognize patterns through concrete activities with manipulative materials and employ various mathematical models to represent a given problem situation. While students were able to represent a problem situation with algebraic expressions, they had difficulties in using the equal sign and letters for the unknown value while they attempted to generalize a pattern. This paper concludes with some implications on how to connect algebraic thinking with students' arithmetic or informal thinking in a meaningful way, and how to approach algebra at the elementary school level.


The dynamics of a two-layered rotating liquid at low angular velocity in a cylindrical container is explored, both experimentally and theoretically, using an oil-water system. In the two-layered liquid, a transient concave down paraboloid interface, containing undulations, is observed before the final, stable concave up paraboloid interface develops. A simple yet effective model is developed to explain the observed profile dynamics, in which the predicted maximal height of the paraboloid agrees well with experimental measurements over a fairly large range of rotation speeds.


If a natural philosopher from the sixteenth century were miraculously transported into our own, he would, of course, marvel at advances in science and technology. His inquisitorial outlook prepared the ground for those inventions, but he could not have foreseen them, and in the occasional pop culture artifact in which a notable thinker from the past leaps forward in time (for instance, Abraham Lincoln on the Starship Enterprise), his wonder at all the new gadgetry stands out. But while flying machines and televised images would amaze him, another development in the progress of inquiry might throw him into bewilderment. This is the subdivision and professionalization of knowledge. Whereas the natural philosopher regarded all of created nature as his field of study, today's inquirer is a micro-specialist. While the natural philosopher joined a diverse collection of minds scattered across Europe, their sense of unity based upon little more than quasi-scientific/religious curiosity and familiarity with one another's work, today's inquirer can't qualify as a colleague unless he has been accredited by a professional organization or academic department. Guilds, credentialing institutions, private and public funders with narrow agendas, certificate programs, and government agencies, not solitary geniuses, organize the terrains of


Purpose:  To assess cataract surgery visual outcomes 12 months postoperatively in patients with diabetes, with or without diabetic retinopathy (DR), compared to patients without diabetes.


The Law can not only support the changes in society but also make the possibilities for changes, or even to be the main social mechanism for changes in society, and that kind of law will be progressive Law. During the modernization of the Law its structure becomes clearer, composition of norms becomes unambiguous and notions become clear. The application of this kind of Law is not complicated and therefore it is not difficult, so that the layman can apply this law. The codification is the process in which many related branches of Law became one law. That means to harmonize norms and technically arrange norms from many related branches of Law. The codification is consequence that social and political stability has on legal order, which means that codification is legal verification of established social order. Codification brings the Law on a higher notional and technical level and at the same time codified Law becomes the base for further development of law.


of Lecturers MARIA PIA FANTI Department of Electrical and Information Engineering Polytechnic of Bari (Italy) Via Re David 200 70125 BARI (Italy) Tel. +39-080-5963643 Fax. +39-0805963410 E-mail: email@example.com http://www-dee.poliba.it/dee-web/Personale/fanti.html Decision Support Systems and Integrated Platforms: New Approaches for Managing Systems of Systems Nowadays, in different contexts of strategic relevance there is the increasing need of integrating and coordinating previously autonomous elements and systems, in order to reach a common goal otherwise not achievable. Such a challenge requires competences from many heterogeneous domains, leading to very complex and often ineffective management processes. Thus, the need to formalize a structured and unifying framework to support decision makers leads to the introduction of the Systems of Systems (SoS), i.e., "large-scale integrated systems that are heterogeneous and independently operable on their own, but are networked together for a common goal". This talk aims at presenting an efficient approach for modeling and managing SoS with different purposes based on the concepts of Decision Support Systems (DSSs) and Integrated Platforms (IP). Moreover, some practical applications of the DSS and IP approaches in different SoS of great interest, such as smart cities, smart grids and health systems, but also traditional domains of research like transportation, logistics and automated manufacturing systems. Quantized Consensus Algorithm for Distributed Task Assignment: Results and Applications The distributed coordination problem for networks of dynamic agents is an active research field, which attracts a significant interest due to the need to exploit the capabilities of large-scale networks and systems of the near future. This talk deals with a constrained distributed task assignment problem in which a set of different tasks has to be assigned to a group of agents by minimizing the maximum cost (typically the execution time) under communication, assignment and capacity constraints. To solve this problem, we provide a gossip-based discrete consensus algorithm that, starting from a random assignment of tasks, is able to reach a feasible solution while minimizing the global objective function by only local interactions among agents. The convergence properties and performances of the proposed gossip algorithm are characterized for two distinct network configurations, i.e., peer-to-peer networks and proximity networks. A simulation based study validates the theoretical analysis by considering more general and complex scenarios. Finally, an application proposing a solution for the distributed dynamic assignment of a set of electric vehicles to a network of charging stations is presented.


Maps of a region 10 arcmin in diameter around the galactic center made simultaneously in three wavelength bands at 30, 50, and 100 microns with about 1 arcmin resolution are presented, and the distribution of far-IR luminosity and color temperature across this region is derived. The position of highest far-IR surface brightness coincides with the peak of the late-type stellar distribution and with the H II region Sgr A West. The high spatial and temperature resolution of the data is used to identify features of the far-IR maps with known sources of near-IR, radio continuum, and molecular emission. The emission mechanism and energy sources for the far-IR radiation are analyzed qualitatively, and it is concluded that all of the observed far-IR radiation from the galactic-center region can be attributed to thermal emission from dust heated both by the late-type stars and by the ultraviolet sources which ionize the H II regions. A self-consistent model for the far-IR emission from the galactic-center region is presented. It is found that the visual extinction across the central 10 pc of the Galaxy is only about 3 mag and that the dust density is fairly uniform in this region. An upper limit of 10 million suns is set on the luminosity of any still unidentified source of 0.1- to 1-micron radiation at the galactic center.


Objective: To investigate the correlation of heart rate deceleration force( DC) and heart rate variability( HRV) in patients with hypertension combination with coronary heart disease. Method: 81 cases of patients with hypertension combination with coronary heart disease( study group) and 80 healthy volunteers( control group) were monitored by DC and HRV. Result: The results showed that the DC of the study group was significantly lower than that of the control group,P 0.05. The SDNN,RMSSD and PNN50 of the HRV of the study group were all significantly lower than those of the control group,all P 0.05. And there was positive correlation between the two groups of the SDNN,RMSSD and PNN50 of the HRV,all P 0.05. Conclusion: There's positive correlation of DC and HRV for patients with hypertension combination with coronary heart disease and which could be used as treatment based on collaboration.


In vitro assays for chromosome aberrations (i.e., in vitro micronucleus and in vitro metaphase analysis tests) frequently produce false‐positive or exaggerated‐positive results. Our previous work suggested that apoptosis interferes with these tests, producing misleading results. These previous studies were conducted by performing the in vitro micronucleus test in CTLL‐2 cells and a CTLL‐2 cell derivative stably transfected with the apoptosis inhibitor gene bcl2. In the present study, these previous observations were extended by examining micronucleus induction with a larger number of compounds in both CTLL‐2 and CTLL‐2 bcl2 cells and measuring apoptosis with annexin V‐FITC. Both cell lines were treated with different classes of compounds that were anticipated to be exclusively apoptosis inducers, or compounds known to be clastogens or aneugens, some of which were anticipated to be both genotoxic and apoptotic. We were able to confirm that compounds that are only apoptogenic induced micronuclei in CTLL‐2 but not CTLL‐2 bcl2 cells, indicating that the positive responses are due to apoptosis in CTLL‐2 cells. Some genotoxins (clastogens and aneugens) did not produce apoptosis by the annexin V assay and gave similar responses in CTLL‐2 and CTLL‐2 bcl2 cells. Finally, higher responses were induced in CTLL‐2 cells compared to CTLL‐2 bcl2 cells that were treated with aneugens or clastogens that were also apoptosis inducers, suggesting that the greater response in CTLL‐2 cells is a consequence of both genotoxicity and apoptosis. Finally, it was demonstrated that just eliminating CTLL‐2 cells having three or more micronuclei from scoring was not adequate for correctly evaluating agents that only produce apoptosis. The results indicate that coupling the in vitro micronucleus test in both CTLL‐2 and CTLL‐2 bcl2 cells with the measurement of apoptosis is able to distinguish the genotoxic effects of a test compound from its apoptotic potential and is able to avoid interference from apoptosis in the in vitro micronucleus test. These observations may provide the basis for a useful genotoxicity assay. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 41:14–27, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Introduction: Companies are facing an environment with fierce competition therefore to respond to the customers' needs and to deliver on time at a competitive cost is becoming more and more important. Integration between the actors in the SC is increasing in importance and is seen as a core competitive strategy to respond to the customers' demands. SCI can be achieved through efficient linkages among various supply chain activities however internal excellence is not enough and SCM seeks to integrate internal functions with external operations of suppliers, customer and other SC members. In SCI the TPL firms are said to play an important role because of their expertise and knowledge. Problem: Previous researchers have identified gaps in the SCI literature which does not consider the role of the TPL firm. Similar gaps have been found in the TPL literature which does not put emphasis on SCI. Nevertheless the importance of TPL firms in SCI has been pointed out as significant. Therefore this thesis will study the role of the TPL firm in SCI to improve the knowledge and create a better understanding. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study and uncover the role of the TPL firm Schenker Logistics AB Nassjo in supporting SCI with its customer Relacom and its supplier Nexans to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. By analyzing the drivers, barriers and outcomes of the SCI for each firm, the paper pursues the notion that SCI is a dynamic process and TPL firm plays an important role. Method: This thesis is based on a qualitative approach where interviews with key persons are the main approach to gathering information. The qualitative approach has its strengths is being able to obtain rich nuances in the information which fits our purpose to go deeper in a phenomenon. Conclusions: By analyzing the drivers, barriers and outcomes of SCI we have reached the conclusion that the role of the TPL firm is to achieve benefits through the three C's (the company, its customers and its competitors). The TPL firm also smooths out the friction between other members of the SC and help to create a better, faster, cheaper, smarter and greener SCI. Since the factors influencing SCI are constantly changing, all actors continuously have to keep updated to react to the pressures from the market.


We study the resonance behavior of the unusual Raman feature known as the coalescence-inducing mode (CIM), observed at similar to 1850 cm(-1), in samples of double-wall carbon nanotubes annealed at high temperatures. Resonance Raman spectra taken with different laser energies show that the intensity of the CIM band exhibits a maximum around 2.20 eV. By comparing the resonance Raman experimental results with first-principles calculations for the vibrational frequency and the energy gap, we propose that the CIM feature is associated with short carbon chains with an odd number of atoms, interconnecting the nanotube surfaces.


FIELD: information technologies. SUBSTANCE: virtual machine image is developed, a repository of a distributed system of revisions control is established, the required software is installed onto the virtual machine, software set-up is carried out, a series of change shots is formed, the target operating system is installed onto the target computer, the repository is copied to the permanent medium of the target computer, change shots are serially applied to the file system of the target computer. EFFECT: higher efficiency of installation, set-up and administration of software due to development of repeatedly used images of software, provision of images portability between computers with different hardware, elimination of dependence of carryover procedures on the used operating system. 18 cl, 2 dwg


Introduction T H IS paper deals only with a few derivatives of erythromycin, especially the stearate salt and ethylsuccinate ester. These compounds have particularly good safety records and are widely used. Although erythromycin has been in clinical use for about 25 years, much of the older data is no longer relevant because it is based on the use of outdated pharmaceutical formulations with low bioavailability. The results presented are of recent investigations using currently available preparations of erythromycin and showing the relationship between the physicochemical, biochemical and biopharmaceutical factors. Erythromycin is a macrolide antibiotic which is unstable under acid conditions (Nelson, 1962). Specific formulations are needed to protect the antibiotic from the acid pH of the stomach:


Abstract: The relations between creativity and morality require fresh attention in a time of rapid social and technological change and multiple global crises. World civilization as presently constituted is committed to policies entailing exponential growth, which in the long run, unfortunately, will be impossible to maintain (e.g., in any variable 2% growth per year yields a doubling period of about 40 years). Such conditions affect moral issues of fairness, justice, caring for others, and even truth. As a result, we witness a growing awareness of moral diversity and the slow—too slow?—emergence of new moral orientations, not least of which is planetary morality. In stable and simple enough conditions we may say that "Ought"; statements imply "Can"; and in turn Ought and Can together imply "Act";: We can reasonably insist that something ought to be done only if it can be done, and when ought and can converge, a moral imperative arises, we must do it. But if there is no such clear road to moral action then...


A number of studies demonstrated that virtual reality (VR) featuring pleasant scenarios and relaxing narratives is effective in promoting relaxation in users, both in healthy and pathological contexts. One important field for application of relaxing VR is breast cancer, because of therapy-related distress and changes in body imagine experienced by patients during the care process. However, comparisons between different relaxation techniques adapted to virtual reality are rare. In the present study, the same virtual environment has been integrated with audio narratives designed according to two different relaxation techniques (respiration control and body scan). As initial exploration, 16 breast cancer patients have been exposed to the two versions of the virtual environment to evaluate effectiveness, pleasantness, overall satisfaction with the technique and sense of presence, as well as the impact on the emotional dimensions of valence, arousal and control. Discussion offers recommendations for the content properties of VR for relaxation for breast cancer patients.


The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is conducting the "South Shore of Long Island, New York Regional Sediment Management Investigation" to further understand sediment dynamics and to develop a comprehensive regional sediment management plan for the south shore of Long Island, New York. Regional sediment management is a systems approach using best management practices for more efficient and effective use of sediments in coastal, estuarine, and inland environments. This investigation seeks to characterize sediment movement on the south shore of Long Island as a holistic system across the entire study area. It focuses on the regional system post-Hurricane Sandy (October 2012) as the storm significantly altered the physical landscape with severe shoreline erosion, which resulted in the construction of projects to reduce the risk of future storms and stakeholder priorities with a new emphasis on bay-side sediment dynamics, such as channel shoaling and disappearing wetlands. Despite the fact the storm caused severe erosion, the equilibrium beach profile, depth of closure, and general shoreline orientation seem to be unaffected. Previous studies have characterized sediment movement at specific sections of the south shore, but these data have not been incorporated to create a system-wide perspective. Coordinating sediment management across the six Atlantic Ocean inlets, Great South Bay Channel, Intracoastal Waterway, and coastal storm risk management (CSRM) projects could save the federal government millions of dollars in dredging and sand placement actions. This technical note presents the progress the investigation has made to date and will be followed with a more in-depth technical report titled South Shore of Long Island, New York Regional Sediment Management Investigation: A Post-Hurricane Sandy Shoreline Evaluation, currently in preparation.


The Expanding Finance for Productive Purposes Project of Mexico, which is being prepared with the WB, aims to increase the availability of financing to the rural economy through the National Agricultural, Rural, Forestry and Fisheries Development Fund (FND) and the Financial Intermediation Companies (EIF). Indigenous people constitute up to 15 percent of the population of Mexico, and indigenous communities, located in the marginalized parts of Mexico, represent a potentially important group of project beneficiaries. The project recognizes the importance of this client group and has a strategy in place to target their inclusion.


A food processor with bottom mounted mixer having a heating function, comprising: a base body (1) and a bottom cover (2); a mixer motor (3) is installed at the bottom inside the base body (1); a recessed area (11) is disposed at the upper part of the base body (1) above the mixer motor (3); an electromagnetic heating coil (4) is disposed on the periphery of the recessed area (11) inside the base body (1); a stainless steel container (5) is disposed in the recessed area (11); a drive rotor (31) is installed on the output shaft of the mixer motor (3), and is located in the recessed area (11) after passing through the bottom through hole (110) of the recessed area (11); a blending cutter group (6) is installed in the bottom of the stainless steel container (5), hermetically passing through the bottom surface of the stainless steel container (5), and is connected to a driven rotor (61) fitting and engaged with the drive rotor (31). The food processor employs a bottom mounted mixer structure and an electromagnetic heating coil (4), and combines a blending head and a heating mechanism with a base body (1), thus providing a more compact structure and a smaller size, and being easy to operate.


Abstract : Standard tracking algorithms involve processing measurements associated with a given target and forming an estimate of the target's state. However, many practical situations also include an uncertainty regarding the origin of the data. In the most general case one is faced with the problem of tracking targets in a multinsensor multitarget environment, possibly including highly dissimilar data types ranging from acoustic measurements to visual sightings. The term data association, as applied here, refers to the partitioning of a set of measurements according to their sources. Each such partition is termed a hypothesis, and the object is to find the best hypothesis. In this report the authors describe an algorithm which is intended to provide a general framework for data association. It is cast in a Bayesian context; that is, the relative merits of the hypotheses are evaluated in terms of their aposteriori probabilities. However, the presentation includes the development of a general data and scoring structure which should find application in most schemes which evaluate hypotheses recursively. In addition, a detailed model is provided for the case of bearings-only measurements in a convergence zone environment. The methodology used in developing this restricted case is considered a prototype for future models. (Author)


1. A substrate (70) which is intended for the manufacture of the blister pack (80) for packing therein moisture and acid-sensitive and are prone to oxidation and products made from a laminate (10) formed therein by cold forming depressions (72) and which a barrier layer (16) as a barrier, preventing the entry of water vapor into the package and gases, disposed on the first side of the barrier layer (16) a polymeric layer (12) as the outer layer and disposed on the second side of the barrier layer (16) thermobonded arivaemy inner layer (20, 21, 22), characterized in that on the second side of the barrier layer (16) is capable of absorbing moisture, oxygen, and acid absorbent (24). ! 2. The substrate (70) according to claim 1, characterized in that the inner layer (20) made of a polyolefin containing as an absorbent (24) at least one oxide from the group consisting of oxides of alkali and alkaline earth metals. ! 3. The substrate (70) according to claim 2, characterized in that forming the inner layer (20) comprises polyolefin as an absorbent (24), calcium oxide (CaO). ! 4. The substrate (70) according to claim 3, characterized in that the CaO content of the absorbent (24) in forming the inner layer (20) the polyolefin is from 0.5 to 50 wt.%, Preferably 10 to 30 wt.% . ! 5. The substrate (70) according to claim 2, characterized in that forming the inner layer (20) the polyolefin is polyethylene, especially high density polyethylene and / or linear low density polyethylene and / or low-density polyethylene and / or polypropylene and / or contains an acid modified polyolefin components, such as ionomers, copolymer of ethylene and acrylic acid and


The purpose of this study is (1) to determine the correlation between T1ρ and T2 and degenerative grade in intervertebral discs using in vivo 3.0‐T MRI, and (2) to determine the association between T1ρ and T2 and clinical findings as quantified by the SF‐36 Questionnaire and Oswestry Disability Index. Sixteen subjects participated in this study, and each completed SF‐36 and Oswestry Disability Index questionnaires. MRI T1ρ and T2 mapping was performed to determine T1ρ (77 discs) and T2 (44 discs) in the nucleus of the intervertebral disc, and T2‐weighted images were acquired for Pfirrmann grading of disc degeneration. Pfirrmann grade was correlated with both T1ρ (r = −0.84; P < 0.01) and T2 (r = −0.61; P < 0.01). Mixed‐effects models demonstrate that only T1ρ was associated with clinical questionnaires (R2SF‐36 = 0.55, R2O.D.I. = 0.56; P < 0.05). Although the averaged values of T1ρ and T2 were significantly correlated, they presented differences in spatial distribution and dynamic range, thus suggesting different sensitivities to tissue composition. This study suggests that T1ρ may be sensitive to early degenerative changes (corroborating previous studies) and clinical symptoms in intervertebral disc degeneration. Magn Reson Med 63:1193–1200, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Common object request broker architecture (CORBA) provides the framework and the mechanism for distributed object operation. It can also be applied to computer integrated manufacturing system (CIMS) application integration. This paper studies the CIMS information service requirement, presents a CORBA based integration approach including the CORBA based CIM information system architecture and the application integration mechanism, and discusses the relationship between CORBA and the CIM application integration platform.


MOLSCRIPT drawing of the Lck SH3 domain. The elements of regular secondary structure are emphasized as ribbon representation. The conserved residues that are known to be important for ligand binding are shown as red sticks. Position of residue 17 is marked by a yellow arrow. Sequence alignment of the SH3 domains from the tyrosine kinases Lck, Lyn, Hck, Src, Fyn, Yes and Abl and from phosphatidylinositol 3−kinase (PI3K). The numbering scheme of the Lck SH3 domain used in the present study is given at the top. Strictly conserved residues are denoted with an asterisk, and positions with conservative substitutions are denoted with a dot. Elements of secondary structure present in the structure of LckSH3 are given below the alignment. Gray boxes highlight those stretches of amino acids that are known to belong to the canonical binding site of SH3 domains including the RT loop, the n−src loop, and the 310 helix. The average (mass−weighted) residual backbone fluctuations are extracted from the trajectory−files using the PTRAJ program in AMBER 6.0. Figure 3 shows the mean values and standard errors of the backbone fluctuation for each residue. The proline to glycine exchange in position 17 increases the fluctuation of nearly all amino acids of the RT loop involved in interaction with proline−riche ligands. Likewise, the fluctuation of the n−src loop and the distal loop increases significantly, whereas the elements of regular secondary structure remain unchanged generating a rigid core. The increase of fluctuation of all loops indicates global effects on the conformational stability of the whole domain.


Early diagnosis and efficient treatment for sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) are urgently needed as the condition becomes an increasing burden within aging societies. We collected recent data on the progress towards effective treatments of AD, from targeting Aβ aggregation, passive immunization with anti-Aβ antibodies, fighting acute and chronic inflammation, modulating autophagy to balancing metals ions. We argue that from successful model studies and pre-clinical trials, insights into the critical pathogenic mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels are confirmed. They in one way or another seem to support the modified amyloid cascade hypothesis, in which Aβ oligomers are believed to impair intracellular membranes, possibly resulting in mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunctions that may lead to oxidative stress and impairment in protein clearance by autophagy, respectively. In accordance, chronic inflammation due to activation of microglia, is also consistently observed in AD brains.


Introduction
History
Isoprene
Polyisoprene
Other Copolymers

Chemical Synthesis
Isoprene
cis-1,4 Polyisoprene
trans-1,4 Polyisoprene
3,4 Polyisoprene
Others

Technical Production
Isoprene
Polyisoprene
Others

Properties
Isoprene
cis-1,4 Polyisoprene
trans-1,4 Polyisoprene
3,4 Polyisoprene
Others

Outlook and Perspectives
Isoprene
cis-1,4 Polyisoprene
trans-1,4 Polyisoprene
3,4 Polyisoprene
SBIR
Others

Relevant Patents


Blebitis is an uncommon infection that can occur following trabeculectomy. Because blebitis may transition to endophthalmitis, prompt and aggressive treatment is necessary. This case report describes a patient presenting with blebitis and the treatment course to resolution. Management of blebitis does not have a standard regimen, but the use of topical antimicrobials has been shown to result in favorable outcomes. The following case report explores the presentation, diagnosis and treatment of a bleb-related infection. The case may benefit third- and fourth-year optometry students as well as optometry residents in managing a complex eye condition in the setting of multiple ocular and systemic comorbidities. Understanding the management of blebitis and bleb-related infections is important for optometry students and residents. This condition may appear in their future practice, and prompt treatment will benefit patients. of sodium fluorescein dye (Ful-Glo, Akorn Inc.) was instilled onto the superior bulbar conjunctiva of both eyes. There was no Seidel sign on the corneas nor the blebs OU. One drop of Fluorescein Sodium and Benoxinate Hydrochloride Ophthalmic Solution USP, 0.25%/0.4% (Bausch & Lomb Inc.) was then instilled into both eyes. Intraocular pressures (IOPs) measured by Goldmann applanation tonometry were 3 mmHg OD and 9 mmHg OS, which were slightly lower than his typical reading in both eyes. The patient's right pupil was dilated with one drop of 1% tropicamide, one drop of 2.5% phenylephrine and one drop of 1% atropine. The patient deferred dilation of the left eye, which did not have signs or symptoms of inflammation. Internal eye examination of the right eye was performed utilizing a slit lamp with a 78D lens and binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy with a 20D lens. The posterior segment revealed a clear and centered posterior-Blebitis: day before, but they stopped the eye drops the day of the follow-up appointment. The caretakers also instilled the antibiotic ointment in the right eye at bedtime the prior night. The patient's distance visual acuity with correction was 5/300 OD on Feinbloom chart and 20/100+ OS on Snellen chart. The pupil OD was pharmacologically dilated, and the pupil OS was normal and reactive to light. No APD was noted by inverse testing. Anterior segment evaluation with slit lamp biomicroscopy revealed matted eyelashes and less discharge OD than at the initial presentation. The bulbar conjunctival injection was less diffuse and mainly localized around the white, avascular, elevated bleb OD. The cornea was clear. There was no Seidel sign on the corneas nor the blebs OU. Anterior chamber evaluation still showed a moderate 2+ cells without flare OD. All anterior segment findings OS were unchanged. One drop of sodium fluorescein/benoxinate solution was instilled into both eyes. IOPs measured by Goldmann applanation tonometry were 4 mmHg OD and 12 mmHg OS. Internal eye examination by slit lamp, funduscopy and binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy revealed unchanged findings OD compared to the prior visit. eye directions Instructions were given to every hour in the right eye and the neomycin combination ointment at bedtime in the right eye.


On a polarized uniruled projective manifold we pick an irreducible component K of the Chow space whose generic members are free rational curves of minimal degree. The normalized Chow space of minimal rational curves marked at a generic point is nonsingular, and its strict transform under the tangent map gives a variety of minimal rational tangents, or VMRT. In this survey we present a systematic study of VMRT by means of techniques from differential geometry (distributions,G-structures), projective geometry (the Gauss map, tangency theorems), the deformation theory of (rational) curves, and complex analysis (Hartogs phenomenon, analytic continuation). We give applications to a variety of problems on uniruled projective manifolds, especially on irreducible Hermitian symmetric manifolds S of the compact type and more generally on rational homogeneous manifolds G/P of Picard number 1, including the deformation rigidity of S and the same for homogeneous contact manifolds of Picard number 1, the characterization of S of rank at least 2 among projective uniruled manifolds in terms of G-structures, solution of Lazarsfeld's Problem for finite holomorphic maps from G/P of Picard number 1 onto projective manifolds, local rigidity of finite holomorphic maps from a fixed projective manifold onto G/P of Picard number 1 other than Pn, and a proof of the stability of tangent bundles of certain Fano manifolds.


Copyright © 2016 by Korean Geriatric Society This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Letter to the Editor: Specific and Stepwise Postoperative Rehabilitation Program Is Needed in the Elderly After Hip Fracture Surgery


A method was developed for the determination of carbendazim residue in dried-vegetable by high performance liquid chromatography tandem double detectors coupled with dispersive extraction.The sample was extracted with 1% acetic acid acetonitrile,cleaned up by dispersive solid phase extraction using florisil as an adsorbent,and analyzed with high performance liquid chromatography equipped with UV and FLD detectors in which quantitative and qualitative analysis were carried out by FLD detector in external standard method and UV detector,respectively.The carbendazin residue was separated by a ZORBAX SB-C18column,using water-methanol-acetonitrile as mobile phase in isocratic elution.The results indicated that the calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.02-2.00mg/kg with the limit of quantification(LOQ)of 0.030mg/kg.The spiked recoveries were from 90.0%-106.0%in the range of 0.02-0.10mg/kg with RSDs less than 10.0%.


This paper presents the work we have conducted concerning real time scheduling in Camille, an exokernel dedicated to smart cards. We show that it is possible to embedded a flexible real-time operating system despite the important hardware limitations of the smart card platform. We present the major difficulties one has to face when integrating real time support in an exokernel embedded on a very resource-limited platform. We first present a naive solution consisting in allocating an equal time slice to every system extensions and letting each one share it as needed amongst its tasks. We show that this solution does not account for loading of new extensions in the system, and that it can fail if some extensions have much more work to carry out than the others. We then present a more complex solution based upon collaborative schedulers grouped as virtual extensions. We show that this solution supports dynamic loading of new extensions and works even for very unbalanced task repartitions. We finally address the issue of trust between the collaborating extensions and we propose a solution based on exhaustive testing and formal proving of the plan functions.


Photographic precise positions of 13 minor planets obtained with the G.P.O. astrograph at E.S.O. (La Silla, Chile) in September 1987 are given.


Australia is a highly multicultural country that values its many cultures. We actively encourage immigrants to retain elements of their home country - linguistically, culturally and in terms of religious faith. A variety of faiths, including Islam, are practised by people from many different ethnic groups. Since the first Muslim immigrants made their home here in the nineteenth century, people from Muslim backgrounds have been active community members and built mosques and schools for their children.


The Semiconductor High-Numerical-aperture (NA) Actinic Reticle Review Project (SHARP) is an extreme ultraviolet (EUV)-wavelength, synchrotron-based microscope dedicated to advanced EUV photomask research. The instrument is designed to emulate current and future generations of EUV lithography (EUVL). The performance of the SHARP microscope has been well characterized for its low-NA lenses, emulating imaging in 0.25 and 0.33 NA lithography scanners. Evaluating the resolution of its higher-NA lenses, intended to emulate future generations of EUV lithography, requires a photomask with features down to 22-nm half pitch. The authors fabricated a sample with features down to 20-nm half pitch, exposing a wafer with a standard multilayer coating in the Berkeley microfield exposure tool, and used it to demonstrate real-space imaging down to 22-nm half pitch on the SHARP microscope. The demonstrated performance of SHARP's high-NA zoneplates, together with the extended capabilities of the tool, provide a platform tha...


We prove that an equivalence lattice L EqvA is arithmetical whenever for every 2 L anda 2 A there exists a compatible choice function modulo , havinga as a fixed point. The converse holds if L is finite. For arbitrary set A, all sublattices of EqvA are called equivalence lattices. Let us emphasize that our definition of equivalence lattice does not involve anything else than just being a sublattice of EqvA. In particular, every single equivalence relation ofA forms an equivalence lattice with universe fg. An equivalence lattice L is called arithmetical if it is distributive and every two members of L permute. It is well known that arithmeticity of an equivalence lattice is equivalent to Chinese Remainder Condition (see, for example, (2), Lemma 2.1). Several other characterizations of arithmeticity have been given in terms of compatible functions. A function f on A is said to beL-compatible if it preserves all equivalence relations 2 L. A ternary function p on A is called Pixley function if it satisfies the following equations: p.x;y;y/ Dp.x;y;x/ Dp.y;y;x/ Dx:


Following the Proceedings document is a copy of the Summer 1961 issue of "International Cooperation in Science: Quarterly Newsletter of the International Science Foundation". The issue details a "$65 Million International Science Center Proposed for San Francisco", and includes illustrations.


Signaling pathways have traditionally focused on delineating immediate upstream and down stream interactions, and then organizing these interactions into linear cascades that relay and regulate information from cell surface receptors to cellular effectors such as metabolic enzymes, channels or transcription factors. However, recent analyses of signaling pathways have revealed that cellular signals do not necessarily propagate in a linear fashion. Because of their size and complexity, these networks are often too complicated for the human mind to organize and analyze. AkT (protein kinase B) is a central signaling molecule in the phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase pathway that is frequently activated in human cancer. Here we provide an overview of recent findings, how AkT promotes cell survival by inhibiting apoptosis by phosphorylating and inactivating several targets, including forkhead transcription factors, and caspase‐9. The ability of AkT to promote survival was dependent on and proportional to its kinase ...


BACKGROUND: Central hypothyroidism is a well-known late effect of radiotherapy in children treated for brain tumours. AIM: To determine the risk of central hypothyroidism (CH) and the radiation dose-volume predictors of its onset. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 64 patients who received radiotherapy for brain tumours, with at least a 2-year-long serological follow-up, determined CH incidence and radiation predictive factors of its onset. To estimate the risk of CH according to the site of the tumour inside the central nervous system (CNS) we considered the sellar-suprasellar region, anterior cranial region, and others. For the same purpose, a further analysis was conducted comparing craniospinal radiotherapy (CSI) versus involved-field radiotherapy (IF-RT). Dose constraints for CH were determined using the Receiver Operating Characteristic to identify the pituitary mean dose cut-off and the probability of CH over time was assessed with the Cox model. RESULTS: 18 cases were excluded due to the presence of CH before RT; 17 of remaining 46 (37%) patients presented CH during follow-up: 14 of 17 (82%) patients received CSI, 3 (18%) IF-RT sellar-suprasellar region and anterior cranial region. A median dose higher than 30.5 Gy to the pituitary gland results in a 4-fold increased risk of central hypothyroidism (HR=3.9; 95% CI 1.1, 13.4; p=0.03). Almost 90% of events occurred within 5 years after treatment ended. 29 of 46 (63%) patients did not manifest CH and were in the "other regions". However, 14 of these (48%) underwent CSI. CONCLUSIONS: Our data confirm the relationship between central hypothyroidism and mean pituitary radiation dose, and suggest a minimum of 5 years follow up in children brain tumor survivors. Tumours outside the sellar-suprasellar region, treated with radiotherapy, are not associated with CH onset. A significant association between CSI and risk of CH, highlighted with our analysis, warrants further investigations and a longer follow up


Taking the construction of land use image bank in Zhengzhou City for an example,the establishment method of image bank was expounded based on MAPGIS geography information system though the operations such as the scanning,projection transformation,mosaic registration,image management and application of land image data.


Recently, the products operated by a touch panel hasbeen spreading. However, with multi-functionalization andadvanced features of home electronics, the number ofcommands increased and the number of buttons hasincreased. Therefore, the size of buttons become smaller,the area of touch panel is limited, and the shape is limited toplate. It becomes difficult to work with. Athree-dimensional touch panel may be mentioned as amethod of solving this problem. Three-dimension touchpanel provides a virtual touch on a space, so the size ofpanel and button are not dependent on the size of the deviceand can make any size of buttons. Moreover, intuitiveoperation is possible. In this paper, using a combination oftwo-dimensional PSD and ultrasonic sensors, we propose amethod for obtaining three-dimensional coordinates of theposition of the finger with high accuracy.


The main aim of the article is to present the results of the analysis concerning the role of territorial cooperation in the development of nautical tourism in the Southern Baltic rim. The Member States of the European Union have the opportunity to obtain financial support for the implementation of various types of projects. Many projects are realized in the cross-border, transnational and inter-regional cooperation. Examples of such projects include activities aimed at popularizing cross-border water areas, building new yacht ports and modernizing and developing existing port infrastructure. The aim is to increase the competitiveness, cohesion and sustainable development of the South Baltic Sea Region, as well as strengthening the integration of people and institutions. The analysis presents two international projects: MARRIAGE and South Coast Baltic implemented by states located in the Southern Baltic rim to develop nautical tourism in this area. The article also highlights the selected aspects of managing European programs and projects.


Receiving system includes a plurality of the touch event (event) according to one embodiment of the invention, and down the touch event - the first scaler down-scaling (down-scaling) - based on the touch event scale produce output receiving a touch path logic (logic) and a video image, and receives the output of the touch path logic, a video image in accordance with an output of the touch path logic combined with overlay data and generate the display image. Rendering and outputting the display image includes logic (rendering logic).


Subject of Research. The paper deals with the problems of higher order aspherical surfaces approximation using different equation types. The objects of research are two types of equations for higher order aspherical surfaces description used in different software for optical systems design (SАRО, OPAL, ZEMAX, CODE-V, etc.) and dependent on z-coordinate or on a radial coordinate on the surface. Conversion from one type of equations to another is considered in view of application in different software for optical systems design. Methods. The subject matter of the method lies in usage of mean square method approximation for recalculation of high-order aspherical surface. Iterative algorithm for recalculation is presented giving the possibility to recalculate coefficients for different types of equations with required accuracy. Recommendations are given for choosing recalculation parameters such as the number of result equation coefficients, the number of points for


The Aronoff Center in Cincinnati OH (1995) includes a 2700-seat multi-purpose hall used as a roadhouse, with a particular focus on touring Broadway shows. The Overture Center in Madison, WI (2005), has a 2250-seat multi-purpose hall that is the home to a professional symphony orchestra and opera company, as well as hosting touring Broadway shows. Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City IA (2016) has an 1,800-seat multi-purpose hall that acts as a roadhouse for a broad variety of performance types, as a presenter for dance, and as the largest performance space for the University of Iowa's arts programs. All three performing arts centers had Pelli Clarke Pelli as design architect, Theatre Projects Consultants as theater consultant, and Kirkegaard Associates as acoustics consultant. This presentation examines what these halls have in common, how they are different, and what drove these differences. It looks specifically at the degree to which the differences are a design response to the particular program of each ro...


The aim of the study is to identify the speech features of children with mild intellectual disabilities (ID) vs typically developing children (TD) based on the complex approach that includes perceptual, phonetic, linguistic, and spectrographic methods. The participants of the study were 60 Russian-speaking children aged 5–7 years: 20 children with ID and 40 children with TD. The peculiarities of the structure of dialogues between adult and children with ID and TD were described. Perceptual study showed that native speakers recognize the meaning of words of children with ID worse vs TD children. Listeners classify the emotional speech of children with ID with higher accuracy than the emotional speech of TD children. Spectrographic analysis revealed higher values of pitch and the duration of words and vowels in words of spontaneous and emotional speech of children with ID vs TD children.


Several camping impacts have been reported on campgrounds in natural settings (Hammit & Cole 1998). These impacts include trampling of vegetation, soil erosion, littering, growth of social trails, damage to trees and creation of fire sites. One study showed the enlargement of a campsite and increased vegetation loss around some designated campgrounds in Daisetsuzan National Park, Japan (Aikoh et al. 1995). This provoked the necessity of further monitoring and the establishment of a campground management strategy by park managers. Also, the number of visitors and managers who cared about the impact of feces and toilet paper around the campgrounds increased.


An unusual silver statuette of "Hercules and the Centaur" (private collection) is here traced back to a silver series of the Labours of Hercules including a "Hercules and the Hydra" (San Francsico, Museum of Fine Arts) and a "Hercules with a Club" (unknown location). On stylistic grounds, the paper seeks to assign "Hercules and the Centaur" and two other statuettes to the Florentine sculptor Giovanni Bandini, or Giovanni dell'Opera, who is known for his prolific -yet still unexplored- work as a goldsmith. The three silver pieces, which may be dated to the 1580s-1590s, reflect strong influences from both ancient sculpture and 15th-century Florentine figurative culture. Ultimately, they would appear to be the work of a sculptor indebted to the language of Michelangelo and Bandinelli, in marked contrast to the then prevalent taste inspired by Giambologna.


A social worker's professional experience in providing a service does not necessarily ease her own personal stress when she is the recipient of that same service. The author is a nursing home social worker whose own mother was a resident in the facility where she works. Her first-hand experience with the "system" and with her emotions brought new enlightenment to the practice of her profession.


Advertisement may be conveyed through a variety of media to inform consumers of brand existence. However, as the amount of marketing information in the environment increases, consumers intentionally avoid and do not readily intepret accidental exposure to marketing information. With the marketing communications techniques facing a decline, advertisers are forced to find alternative ways for communicating with consumers. This paper investigates the potential of washroom advertising as an alternative mean of communicating with the consumers. Advertising in washroom maybe an interesting application since washroom advertising is able to catch consumers' attention at an unique time and during advertisement exposure, consumers are physically idle and yet mentally engaged without interruptions or distractions. Although there is no previous academic literature on the effectiveness of washroom advertising setting, this study refers to some previous studies on advertising related issues focusing on the processing of advertisements by consumers in a washroom setting and their effects of those advertisements on consumers' responses. Specifically, this paper investigate the effects of different levels of product involvement and the types of advertisement that appeal to consumers' responses, namely the cognitive responses, affective responses and behavioral responses when viewing advertisements in washroom by incorporating a 2 X 2 between subject factorial design conducted on the university students. The high involvement product is represented by an electronic dictionary while the toilet roll represents the low involvement product. On the other hand, the two types of advertisement appeal are represented by rational appeal ad format and emotional ad format. Other variables such as attention, memory, ad-evoked feelings, attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand and purchase intention represents the dependent variables. This study has adopted and found support from theories such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model, Affect Transfer Hypothesis and Dual Mediation Hypothesis. By using statistical analysis such as exploratory descriptive analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, independent samples t-test, linear regression analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structure equation modeling, the results show that different levels of product involvement and types of ad appeal may lead to different kinds of consumers' responses. Specifically, for the high involvement product, results suggest that rational appeal ad format should be adopted to enhance the attention and advertising recall. On the other hand, in the case of low involvement product, results suggest that emotional appeal ad format should be adopted to enhance the consumers' feelings, ad attitude and brand attitude. However, both types of appeal can be used to enhance consumers' purchase intention. The study result will be very meaningful and important for marketers to design appropriate advertising to customers in a washroom setting. Besides that, the result of this study can also be provided as a reference point for further academic or theoretical validation.


We report the development of an observational scale of children's behavioral responses to preparation for diagnostic bone marrow aspiration procedures, the Behavioral Approach – Avoidance and Distress Scale (BAADS). This scale measures the dimensional constructs of approach–avoidance and behavioral distress. Data obtained on 43 pediatric cancer patients indicated moderate to high internal consistency. Significant correlations were obtained between observers' data and independent global ratings provided by the activity specialist preparing the child. Behavioral distress during preparation predicted both distress during the bone marrow procedure and distress during early hospitalization. High approach during preparation was related to low distress during the aspiration procedure as well as during early hospitalization.


For steady flows of a compressible polytropic and frictionless fluid through a nozzle, Bernoulli's equation assumes a very simple form when the 'actual' state of the fluid at any arbitrary cross‐section of the nozzle is treated as a reference state and dimensionless variables are used. The simple form of Bernoulli's equation enables us to draw some conclusions—a few of which are not well known—with a minimum amount of effort and also to find another method for determining the critical flow rates. † Research supported in part by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.


Leydig cell hyperplasia is a common histological finding in male infants of diabetic mothers. The functional correlates of this histological finding were investigated by measuring ²hCG, testosterone, androstenedione, dihydrotestosterone, and progesterone in mixed cord serum of male and female infants of diabetic mothers (n = 40) and normal mothers (n = 40) at term. Male and female infants of diabetic mothers had significantly higher cord serum =hCG levels than male and female controls. Male infants of diabetic mothers had significantly higher cord serum testosterone concentrations than male controls, female controls, and female infants of diabetic mothers. Cord serum testosterone concentrations were similar in female infants of diabetic mothers and female controls. In the male infants of diabetic mothers, there was a significant positive correlation between ²hCG and testosterone (r = 0.64; P < 0.01). There was no significant correlation between jShCG and testosterone in the male controls (r = -0.15; P = N...


Caring for patients with the novel coronavirus infection is placing great stress on health care systems and health care workers. On the basis of their experiences responding to other pandemics, the authors summarize lessons learned and offer some best practices for facilitating organizational resilience and supporting health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.


This paper proposed a test scheme for a dedicated,multi-channel,large capacitor load LCD driver chip.The 12.5 MHz basic clock,control vectors for state change and frame frequency selection are provided by the FPGA,decreasing data is written to registers in the chip.With 200 pF capacitive load,the output signal range can realize 1 024 gray level and over 12 V voltage swing.Through testing the DAC and output buffer module in the chip,it is found that charging speed of the buffer to miller capacitor and the DAC to sampling capacitor cause the problem of longer full-swing rising/falling time and nonlinear output.It can be improved by reducing the on-chip convert resister or sampling capacitor to some extent.Finally,an improvement scheme is proposed,which uses switched-capacitor DAC and Class-AB output buffer error amplifier.


The full scope of this program was to have included development tests, design and production of custom test equipment and acceptance and qualification testing of prototype and protoflight coupling hardware. This program was performed by Ball Aerospace Systems Division, Boulder, Colorado until its premature termination in May 1991. Development tests were performed on cryogenic face seals and flow control devices at superfluid helium (He II) conditions. Special equipment was developed to allow quantified leak detection at large leak rates up to 8.4 x 10(exp -4) SCCS. Two major fixtures were developed and characterized: The Cryogenic Test Fixture (CTF) and the Thermal Mismatch Fixture (Glovebox). The CTF allows the coupling hardware to be filled with liquid nitrogen (LN2), liquid helium (LHe) or sub-cooled liquid helium when hardware flow control valves are either open or closed. Heat leak measurements, internal and external helium leakage measurements, cryogenic proof pressure tests and external load applications are performed in this fixture. Special reusable MLI closures were developed to provide repeatable installations in the CTF. The Thermal Mismatch Fixture allows all design configurations of coupling hardware to be engaged and disengaged while measuring applied forces and torques. Any two hardware components may be individually thermally preconditioned within the range of 117 deg K to 350 deg K prior to engage/disengage cycling. This verifies dimensional compatibility and operation when thermally mismatched. A clean, dry GN2 atmosphere is maintained in the fixture at all times. The first shipset of hardware was received, inspected and cycled at room temperature just prior to program termination.


Talk presented at Rencontres de Moriond "Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories", March 15-22, 1997, based on work with F. Lepeintre and M. Schmaltz, hep-ph/9705411.


The article sets the task to consider the effectiveness of Holter monitoring during electrocardiographic monitoring of the state of the heart as a pivot factor in the functional state of the body during specific treatment of patients with cervical cancer. As a result, the authors prove that Holter monitoring of myocardial bioelectrical activity in the treatment of cervical cancer can detect heart rhythm disturbance both in individuals being examined according to indications, and in patients who had no indications for electrocardiographic monitoring at more early stages of the examination. Based on this, using Holter electrocardiographic monitoring as a mandatory test is advisable to ensure proper monitoring of the myocardium in patients with cervical cancer.


AN INCREASE in labor-management co-operation at the factory level and growing effectiveness of conciliation and arbitration machinery are noted in a report on world industrial relations which the International Labour Organization has made public. The report was debated by worker, employer, and government delegates of sixty countries when the 33rd ILO general conference met at Geneva, June 7. It proposed five new international regulations to deal with collective agreements on wages and conditions of work, voluntary conciliation and arbitration, employer-worker co-operation at the level of the factory or undertaking, co-operation between public authorities and employers' and workers' organizations at the level of the industry, and similar cooperation on a national basis. The report proposes that the regulations be in the form of official ILO recommendations rather than in the form of international conventions requiring ratification by member countries. With regard to labor-management cooperation, the report states: "In a considerable number of countries, there has been a remarkable advance since the end of the war in the establishment of agencies for co-operation in the undertaking." In the United States, out of 263 undertakings which replied to a questionnaire, 226 indicated that co-operation in some form had been their practice for several years. Co-operation between employers and workers was found to be more widespread than generally supposed. In Canada, on March 31, 1949, there were 615 committees, representing approximately 275,000 workers. The report said:


This paper describes a discrete adaptive linear quadratic regulator used to load current control in terms of variable DC voltage of inverter. Controller was designed by using linear quadratic optimization method. Adaptive LQR was used because of nonstationarity of the control system caused by Voltage Matching Circuit VMC. Gain values of the adaptive controller were approximated by using an artificial neural network. The VMC was realized as an additional buck converter integrated with the main inverter. As the load of the 2-level inverter a 3-phase symmetric RL circuit was used. Simulation tests show the behavior of the load current regulation during DC bus voltage level step changes. The dependence between current RMS value and inverter DC bus voltage level was also shown. There were also made a comparison of the traditional 2-level inverter structure with the modified structure uses VMC. Simulation test was made by using Matlab Simulink and PLECS software.


Modern Internet applications are subject to significant variations in workload demand and this may affect the applications performance. Such kind of applications are usually hosted on multi-tiered, cluster based web hosting environments. Dynamic resource allocation play a curial role in handling sudden events where servers are moved from another (quieter) pool to meet such demand. In this work two well-known dynamic switching policies -- the Proportional Switching Policy (PSP) and the Bottleneck Aware Switching Policy (BSP) -- alongside the proactive properties of a workload forecasting model -- Simple Moving Average (SMA) -- with several different interval times. The experiments have been conducted over a real-time Internet traces. The results show that changing the interval time alongside the workload forecasting model can be very effective when applied alongside dynamic resource allocation strategies. The improvement of the system performance can be up to 12.4% when the right combination are conducted between the proposed approaches.


HE "CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION" IN ISRAEL is often seen in light of three theoretical issues-the recognition given by the new Basic Laws to some basic human rights, the potential disqualification of "unconstitutional laws" by the Supreme Court, and the clear manifestation in the new Basic Laws of the dual character of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. While it is true that the constitutional revolution strengthens the status of some basic human rights in Israel, and that the constitutional definition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state is highly problematic, another important dimension of the revolution is often ignored--that is, its relations to the emerging new economic order in Israel. Now that five years have passed since the enactment of the new Basic Laws, we can begin to assess, by closely examining their interpretation in the courts, the direction the constitutional revolution has taken with regard to Israel's emerging new economic order.' In my opinion, the constitutional revolution reflects and promotes the neo-liberal, individualist, "free enterprise" worldview upon which the new economic order now emerging in Israel is based. In order to explicate this argument, the empirical section of this paper will focus primarily on recent developments in labor law and the constitutional status of labor-related social rights, since this is both a crucial and a little-discussed arena. The examination of this legal arena highlights a tension which exists between the role of labor law as a semi state-controlled legal protection against the "invisible hand" of the market, on one hand, and the retreat of the state from "recommodified spheres" (such as labor law) on the other. This tension provides an opportunity to examine the direction the constitutional revolution has taken along a continuum between the relatively wide scope of labor-related rights and the neo-liberal 136


This paper employs Anderson's imagined communities and their contributing elements that connect people - even if they have never met - to apply it to TripAdvisor, arguing that TripAdvisor has characteristics of an imagined community, a concept initially employed in defining nations but may well apply in the creation and maintenance of online communities. We aimed to examine in this exploratory study whether the characteristics of an imagined community such as the use of special language, the association of ideas, cohesion and membership, interaction and the presence of experts create an online community for TripAdvisor. Content analysis of tourist comments posted in TripAdvisor regarding top ten restaurants in Azores and Hawaii was performed over 2013. The coding was done by two coders and the unit of analysis was the tourists' posts. Final data composition derived from 686 customers that performed 813 reviews. TripAdvisor has all the characteristics of an imagined community. This is the first time that the concept of the imagined communities is applied in tourism studies and online communities, making a theoretical and practical contribution to the concept of imagined communities in the context of online travel communication through people's reviews.


Objective To investigate the reasons of the increasing cesarean section rate through changes of incidences and indications during the past two decades.Methods 1 579 cases of cesarean section (CS) were sampled during 1980 and 1999 to study the changes of incidences and indications.Results The average cesarean section rates was 23.79% in the 80s and 41.15% in the 90s, and there was significant difference. The changes in indications was a gradual decreasing in cephalo- pelvic disproportion, and pregnancy complications and a gradual increasing in fetus distress, elder primipara, macrosomia and social factors. Conclusions The high cesarean section rate should be controlled by changing the concepts on CS by both medical staff and women, strengthening prenatal care and management, handling indications of CS correctly and improving obstetric services.