Objective:To explore the migration,differentiation and the therapeutic effect of intracerebral transplantation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) after hypoxic-ischemic brain damage in rats,and to test whether three anti-hMSCs monoclonal antibodies prepared by our group can detect hMSCs in rat brains.Methods: hMSCs were isolated and purified by density gradient centrifugation and adherence to culture flask.Cells of passage 3-5 were prelabeled with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) for 72 h before transplantation.Animal models of hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD) were built with 1 month old Wistar rats.Three days after hypoxia-ischemia,HIBD rats in hMSCs-treated group (n=18) received intracerebral transplantation of 5×105 hMSCs.In control group (n=18) HIBD rats received phosphate buffered saline of the same volume.In sham-operated group (n=6) and HIBD group (n=6),rats did not receive any transplantation.Rats in hMSCs-treated group and control group were allowed to survive for 0 day,3 days,1 weeks,2 weeks (all n=3) and 4 weeks (n=6,after transplantation). Rats in sham-operated group and HIBD group were allowed to survive for 31 days (4 weeks after transplantation).Rats of all the 4 groups received behavior test (alternative electro-stimulus Y-maze) 4 weeks after transplantation before sacrificed;their brains were sectioned for H-E staining.The brains from all rats were also prepared for immunohistochemistry analysis to detect the distribution of hMSCs.Results: Immunohistochemistry results showed that hMSCs migrated mainly along the ventricular system 1 week later,and a few hMSCs migrated along the corpus callosum to the opposite side.Four weeks after transplantaion,hMSCs migrated to the parenchyma and distributed throughout the cerebra.Behavior test showed that the total errors (TE) in hMSCs-treated group (TE= 5.00±2.82) were significantly less than those in the control group (TE=12.67±3.72,P0.05).H-E staining showed that the brain damage in the hMSCs-treated group was slighter than that of the control group and HIBD group.Conclusion: After transplanted in the brain of rats,hMSCs can survive and migrate in the central nervous system (CNS).hMSCs can promote tissue repair and functional recovery of rat brain,suggesting that hMSCs might be a possible treatment for hypoxic-ischemic brain damage.


The pathogenicity of plant pathogens to Arabidopsis thaliana was investigated. Among the plant pathogens tested, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Erwinia chrysanthemi, Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotinia minor and Botrytis cinerea showed a compatible interaction and produced characteristic symptoms. The 2 strains of Fusarium, namely, F. oxysporum f.sp. ciceris and F. o. f.sp. radicis-lycopersici showed an incompatible interaction. Replication of the tobacco mosaic tobamovirus cowpea strain (TMVCc) was not detected.


every week, and it is now uncertain what will become standard in a few years." Ten years ago fenestration was still the main operation being performed for the surgical treatment of otosclerosis. When Watkins wrote his 1958 paper the various techniques of stapes mobilization were the focus of interest; this had the great advantage of being a minor procedure compared with fenestration. However, there was a strong tendency for the stapes to seize up again, and the improvement gained was too often soon lost. The operation for fenestration of the oval window" pioneered by J. J. Shea of Memphis, Tennessee, is now receiving much attention, and in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association there appear two papers, one a report by J. J. Shea" on the first four years of his operation, the other by C. M. Kos," in which he discusses a very similar operation which he terms "vein-plug stapedloplasty". These procedures, though very exacting for the operator, are still minor to the patient, as compared with fenestration. They are performed under local anresthesia via the external auditory meatus, and there is no exenteration of mastoid air cells with its attendant complications. In brief, Shea's operation involves the complete removal of the stapes, and the drilling away of the otosclerotic bone around the margins of the oval window. The fenestra is then covered with a graft made from a thin piece of vein taken from the back of the patient's hand. The sound-conducting mechanism of the middle ear is then reconstructed by the insertion of a piece of polyethylene tubing 3 to 4 mm. long to take the place of the stapes, one end engaging the process of the incus, the other, bevelled, resting on the vein graft. Shea has now performed this operation over 1400 times, and he states that about 94% of his patients have achieved a hearing improvement which has reduced the air-bone gap (the disparity between air and bone conduction) to 10 decibels or less. In discussing the complications of his operation, Shea notes that the commonest cause of failure is bony closure of the fenestra after the operation. He has performed second or third operations in some of these cases, but now believes that this is inadvisable, because of the danger that further hearing loss may result. Other failures are due to a mass of scar tissue immobilizing the prosthesis. In several cases good improvement in hearing was lost after a sudden blow on the head. In such cases it was found that this had dislocated the prosthesis, and the vein graft was "beautifully healed in the oval window with absolutely no strands of scar tissue to be seen". Shea states that when he first proposed his operation many of his colleagues feared that removal of the stapes might lead to labyrinthitis or meningitis. However, with very strict aseptic technique and thorough cleansing of the external meatus Shea has found that the risk of immediate infection is very slight, and once the vein graft has healed, it protects the labyrinth as el'fectively as the natural round window membrane. Nevertheless, in an earlier paper,' in which the technique of the operation is described in detail, he states that after the operation the patient is given one gramme of chloramphenicol daily for five days as a precaution. A risk in all such operations is that hearing may be made worse instead of better. Shea reports that this happened in only 14 of his patients, a result which he attributes in part to the fact that he never uses a chisel in middle-ear surgery. He also believes that prior interference in the torm of stapes mobilization or fenestration of the horizontal semicircular canal increases the risk of further hearing loss; for this reason he rejects the view of some authors that stapes mobilization should be first tried, since it is a relatively simple procedure and if it fails the more exacting operation can be undertaken.


TAP analog delay line having a plurality of sampling taps time spaced along the line. The modulated input carrier is sampled at a rate four times the carrier frequency to produce amplitude samples of the input. The taps of the delay line are divided into two groups comprising alter nate tap sets and the amplitude samples of each group are summed for decoding the I and Q channels of a modulated carrier. The summed signal of each of the channels is input to an individual sample and hold cir cuit which aliases the carrier frequency to baseband. The output of the first sample and hold circuit of each channel is provided to a second sample and hold circuit for the respective channels. The second sample and hold circuit of each channel is. clocked at a data rate derived from a bit timing loop. An estimation of the data is produced by each of the second sample and hold circuits with the data produced by the second sample and hold circuit of one channel providing a recovered carrier signal output. Further, the data produced by each of the second sample and hold circuits, after inver sion in one line by means of an inverting amplifier, is input to a phase comparator. The output of the phase comparator is filtered and used to drive a voltage con trolled oscillator that generates the clock pulses to oper ate the first sample and hold circuits and also to clock the delay line.


Abstract:The aim of this paper is to try to examine the impact of investment in human capital toeconomic growth rates in Algeria between the period (1970-2017), by measuring therelationship between the contribution of government expenditure on education from thestate budget and economic growth by taking explanatory variables for the economicgrowth rates of: the growth rate of exports of goods and services, spending on educationfrom the state budget, the inflation rate, the real exchange rate.


AbstractBACKGROUNDOligodendroglioma (ODG), a molecularly defined subtype of glioma, is a treatment responsive, slow growing tumour strongly associated with IDH mutation and 1p19q co-deletion. Mutations in CIC, located on chromosome 19q, have been found in up to 70% of IDH mutated, 1p19q co-deleted ODGs; suggesting that loss or altered function of CIC may be crucially associated with ODG's unique biology. CIC and ATXN1L have previously been implicated in neurodegeneration, however, this interaction has not been studied in cancer.METHODSCIC and ATXN1L interaction was confirmed using immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence in multiple cell lines. CIC and ATXN1L knockout (KO) cell lines were generated using CRISPR/Cas9 followed by gene expression profiling using Affymetrix microarray. Differential gene expression analysis was also performed on patient lower grade glioma (LGG) RNAseq data publicly available through TCGA. Functional biology experiments to further characterize CIC-ATXN1L interaction were also performed using KO cell systems.RESULTSImmunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence confirmed CIC and ATXN1L interaction within the cell nucleus of multiple cell lines. Differential expression (DE) analysis of CIC KO, ATXN1L KO and TCGA LGG cohort converged on activation of the MAPK pathway and dysregulation of central nervous system development; with significant overlap in differentially expressed genes (n=110). Furthermore, experiments using our KO cell systems suggest a functionally reciprocal relationship between CIC and ATXN1L and regulation of their respective pathways.CONCLUSIONSCIC and ATXN1L form a functionally reciprocal relationship where loss of one partner leads to dysregulation of both partners. Although CIC mutations are predominant in ODGs, the CIC-ATXN1L axis may be exploited in other gliomas and cancers which rely on maintaining MAPK signaling such as EGFR amplified glioblastoma and may be a target for future prognostics and therapeutics.


A new kind of analytical reagent, hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), and dithizone product-modified gold nanoparticle dispersion, is developed for colorimetric response to 10 types of heavy metal ions (M(n+)), including Cr(VI), Cr(3+), Mn(2+), Co(2+), Ni(2+), Cu(2+), Zn(2+), Cd(2+), Hg(2+), and Pb(2+). The color change of the modified gold nanoparticle dispersion is instantaneous and distinct for Mn(2+), Co(2+), Ni(2+), Cu(2+), Zn(2+), Cd(2+), Hg(2+), and Pb(2+). The color change results from the multiple reasons, such as electronic transitions, cation-π interactions, formation of coordination bonds, and M(n+)-induced aggregation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The different combining capacity of heavy metal ions to modifiers results in the different broadening and red-shifting of the plasmon peak of modified AuNPs. In addition, Cr(VI), Cu(2+), Co(2+), Ni(2+), and Mn(2+) cause the new UV-vis absorption peaks in the region of 360-460 nm. The interactions between the modifiers and AuNPs, and between the modifiers and M(n+), are investigated by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results confirm that AuNPs are modified by CTAB and dithizone products through electrostatic interactions and Au-S bonds, respectively, and the M(n+)-N bonds form between M(n+) and dithizone products. Furthermore, the experimental and density functional theory calculated IR spectra prove that dithizone reacts with NaOH to produce C6H5O(-) and [SCH2N4](2-). The validation of this method is carried out by analysis of heavy metal ions in tap water.


Visual landmarks are extensively used in contemporary robotics. There are a large number of different systems of visual landmarks. In particular, fingerprints give us unique identifiers for visually distinct locations by recovering statistically significant features. Therefore, fingerprints can be used as visual landmarks for mobile robot navigation. To create fingerprints we need one-dimensional color panoramas of high quality. In this paper, we consider a method for building the panoramic image using string matching algorithms. In particular, we propose the shortest common ordered supersequence problem.


Support: No external funding was received in the publication of this article. Refractive lens exchange (RLE) is frequently used as a refractive surgical procedure for the correction of high presbyopia and high hyperopia, for which laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK), photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) or phakic intraocular lens (IOL) refractive surgery is unsuitable. In an expert interview, Deepinder K Dhaliwal, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Director of Cornea and Refractive Surgery at the UPMC Eye Center, and Associate Medical Director of the Charles T Campbell Ocular Microbiology Laboratory, discusses the challenges of refractive lens exchange and other aspects of refractive surgery.


This preliminary report is based upon the experiences of six students who had recently completed their first semester of studying Unix. A phenomenographic analysis of the interview transcripts identified four categones of how students experienced Unix. One of the categories is Unix as a resource, in which the student focuses on characteristics of Unix such as its cost, vulnerability to attack, robustness, and load capacity. The other three categories focus on the direct user experience of Unix. These three categories form an outcome space that is linear and hierarchical. Those three categories are, from lowest to highest: Unix as a set of commands, Unix as a tool for solving certain problems, and Unix as a professional computing environment. For this outcome space, there are indications of a direct relationship between the category most prominently manifested in each student's interview transcript and the student's final mark in the Unix course. There are also indications of a similar relationship between the outcome space and the student's performance on the R-SPQ-2F test for deep and surface learning.


The number of diabetic patients are increasing worldwide. Increasing calorie expenditure is one of the methods to prevent diabetes. Measuring the current calorie expenditure can improve awareness in daily life and help increase calorie expenditure. Conventional research has estimated calorie expenditure using an acceleration sensor. However, in contact sensors such as acceleration sensors, the estimation accuracy changes with the mounting position. Therefore, we aim to estimate calorie expenditure using non-contact sensors that do not need to be worn by the user. In this study, we conducted experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of estimating calorie expenditure using a 3D range image sensor, which is a non-contact sensor. The effectiveness of the proposed method was verified by the results of the evaluation.


(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)If asked to identify the function in Figure 1, almost every reader of this journal would respond that it is a logarithmic function. In contrast, if the same question was posed to students at the end of a standard course in college algebra or precalculus, many students would likely say that it is a rational function. This is not all that surprising, given the relative emphases placed on both kinds of functions in traditional versions of these courses - on the order of a week analyzing rational functions of all types versus only a few minutes discussing the graph of a logarithmic function.However, in this case, it turns out that the students' likely response is the correct one. The graph in Figure 1 is that of the rational function...where A is a constant whose significance will be discussed later. Note that R has a vertical asymptote on the 7-axis and a real zero at x = 1.This leads to the question of just how similar a logarithmic function is to a rational function. Or, alternatively, how well can a logarithmic function be approximated by a rational function? Such a discussion, as seen below, can provide some valuable opportunities to reinforce key ideas and information for students on things such as:1. the behavior of logarithmic, exponential, and rational functions; 2. the symmetry of logarithmic and exponential functions; 3. behavior near vertical asymptotes; and 4. the relative rates of growth or decay among the different families of functions.As a preliminary answer to the above questions, consider Figure 2 that shows the graphs of y = In x and y = R(x) with A-\.4 on the interval [0, 2.5], where we see that the two functions are quite close to one another in the interval from 1 to 2.5. In fact, Figure 3 shows the graph of the error function, y = ln x - R(x), and we observe that the values of the error range from about -0.05 to 0.08 on the interval [0.5, 2.5]. This means that the rational function would give at least one-decimal place accuracy when approximating the logarithmic function on this interval.Clearly, the region where the two functions differ markedly is near the vertical asymptote. For now, we do not explicitly indicate which function is which in Figure 2. Instead, we use the behavior of each function to make this decision. Realize that, since the exponential and logarithmic functions are inverses of each other, their graphs are symmetric about y = x . In particular, the portion of the exponential function that is growing rapidly toward infinity as x increases to the right corresponds to the portion of the logarithmic function beyond x = 1 that is increasing, albeit extremely slowly, toward infinity in a concave down manner. It is convenient to think of this from a slightly different perspective, however. We tend to think of the height of the exponential function; instead, think of the horizontal distance from the y-axis to points on the exponential curve. Those distances grow, but ever more slowly, as one traces along the exponential curve toward the right. …


Heating mechanisms in two types of magnetized low pressure rf (13.56 MHz) discharges are investigated: a helicon discharge and a neutral loop discharge. Radial B-dot probe measurements demonstrate that the neutral loop discharge is sustained by helicon waves as well. Axial B-dot probe measurements reveal standing wave and beat patterns depending on the dc magnetic field strength and plasma density. In modes showing a strong wave damping, the plasma refractive index attains values around 100, leading to electron-wave interactions. In strongly damped modes, the radial plasma density profiles are mainly determined by power absorption of the propagating helicon wave, whereas in weakly damped modes, inductive coupling dominates. Furthermore, an azimuthal diamagnetic drift is identified. Measurements of the helicon wave phase demonstrate that initial plane wave fronts are bent during their axial propagation due to the inhomogeneous density profile. A developed analytical standing wave model including Landau damping reproduces very well the damping of the axial helicon wave field. This comparison underlines the theory whereupon Landau damping of electrons traveling along the field lines at speeds close to the helicon phase velocity is the main damping mechanism in both discharges.


The regional atmospheric model Consortium for Small Scale Modeling (COSMO) coupled to the MultiScale Chemistry Aerosol Transport model (MUSCAT), is extended in this work to represent aerosol-cloud interactions. Previously, only one-way interactions (scavenging of aerosol and in-cloud chemistry) and aerosol-radiation interactions were included in this model. The new version allows for a microphysical aerosol effect on clouds. For this, we use the optional two-moment cloud microphysical scheme in COSMO and the online-computed aerosol information for cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concen5 trations, replacing the constant CCN concentration profile. In the radiation scheme, we implement a droplet-size-dependent cloud optical depth, allowing now for aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions. In order to evaluate the model with satellite data, the Cloud Feedback Model Inter-comparison Project Observational Simulator Package (COSP) has been implemented. A case study has been carried out to understand the effects of the modifications, in which the modified modeling system was applied over the European domain with a horizontal resolution of 0.25 ⇥ 0.25 . Further, to reduce the complexity in aerosol cloud 10 interaction only warm-phase clouds are considered. It is found that the online coupled aerosol introduces significant changes for some cloud microphysical properties. The cloud effective radius shows an increase of 1 to 4 μm, and the cloud droplet number concentration is reduced by 100 to 200 cm 3. For both quantities, the new model version shows a better agreement with the satellite data. The microphysics modifications have a smaller effect on other parameters such as optical depth, cloud water content, and cloud fraction. 15


Occupations in the Lower Bengal Delta have been disrupted for various reasons, such as natural disasters, social degradation, economic crisis, and political revenge. It results in changing their traditional occupations. This study discusses how traditional occupations can be made sustainable in the future. An empirical study has been conducted in two villages in the Shyamnagor subdistrict of Satkhira district in southwestern coastal Bangladesh. The empirical methods included 310 household surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. Results show that 15 professions have been recorded and grouped into four categories: zero-capital instant wage occupations, minimum capital-end rewarding occupations, intellectual occupations, and capital-based occupations, depending on the type of capital. These categories accommodate mainly hand-based occupations—a trend most experienced in stressed environmental conditions. The intellectual occupations desire more institutional support for their sustainability. However, the sustainability of current occupational strides can be achieved by healthy external subsidies for applying knowledge and tangible inputs with information, communication, and technology support, as suggested by households (HH) involved in capital-based occupations. These HH suggested an integrated approach for occupational stride; however, such occupations are primarily land-based. The current climate-induced hazards to land and water's physicochemical attributes suggest an uncertain return from such capital-based, land-oriented occupations. Thus, this study suggests that hand-based occupations have a better chance for sustainability than subsidised capital-based land-oriented occupations.


and individuality and decision-making an awareness that what's right for one teenager may not be for another. The frustration in all this is that you can measure health knowledge, says Ms McKenzie, simply by giving a test as you would with any other subject but whether that knowledge has been applied is difficult to discern. So while the abracadabra seems slowly to be being taken out of health education, there's still a way to go in coordination, content and assessment. It seems particularly odd that physicians who know most about health but frequently complain that they're not consulted in matters of health-care policy aren't out in the schools talking not only about the body, about lifestyles, about chemicals but about the health-care system and how it works. That would be worthy and credible missionary work. And not bad public relations, either. U


Postharvest is an agricultural operation starting from the time of harvesting till the commodity reaches to the ultimate user/consumer. The postharvest life of horticultural produces is different from other produces in having shortest shelf life. In some horticultural crops which we call climacteric, there is an increase rate of respiration mainly due to a very high synthesis of the ripening hormone (ethylene), which has both beneficial and detrimental ("evil") effects depending on the type of commodity. The effect of ethylene is accumulative so continuous exposure to a low concentration of ethylene throughout marketing can cause significant harm. In climacteric fruits exogenous C2H4 caused the peel and flesh to ripen out of phase, with the flesh ripening faster than the peel. In a study of cut flowers, exposure to ethylene at 100 µl l -1 reduced vase life by about 30%. In order to minimize this evil effect different vase solutions have been investigated. STS (silver thiosulfate) and 1-MCP (1-methylcyclopropene) can effectively protect flowers against exogenous ethylene. Pre-treatment of plants with 1 µl l -1 1- MCP for 2 h completely inhibited ethylene-induced petal abscission. Applications of Silver thiosulphate (STS) and 1-MCP have a great role to withstand the impact of ethylene. Thus they give relief for those concerned with horticultural crops which are sensitive to ethylene action. However more researches have to be done about the level and time of application of these chemicals and a new chemical against ethylene should be investigated.


Direct electrochemistry of catalase (Ct) has been studied on single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode. A pair of well-defined nearly reversible redox peaks is given at --0.48 V (vs. SCE) in 0.1 mol/L phosphate solution (pH 7.0).The peak current in cyclic voltammogram is proportional to the scan rate. The peak potential of catalase is shifted to more negative value when the pH increases. Catalase can adsorb on the SWNTs modified electrode.


Self-imaging waveguide technology offers the high efficiency and brightness of a fiber laser, combined with higher pulse energies available from bulk laser. This paper describes performance trades, latest data for >100 W operation, and power-scaling potential


Firstly,the concept of 3D navigation was given.Secondly,the situation of technical research and system development of 3D navigation at home and abroad was summarized in detail.Thirdly,the key technologies of 3D navigation were briefly analyzed such as representation and modelling of 3D navigation background,integration of 2D and 3D navigation,support of 3D geographical data and etc.Finally,our work in 3D navigation is briefly introduced and some beneficial suggestions were presented.


'Oligomeric compounds' with three, four or six mesogenic groups in the chain were synthesized by the Wittig reaction from different bis Wittig salts and various heteroaromatic aldehydes. The mesogenic groups are connected via hexamethylene moieties. All derivatives containing at each terminal position of the chain E-1,2-di-(2-thienyl)ethylene units and one, two or four E,E-2,5-bis(2-thienylvinyl)thiophene units in the chain show nematic phases while heating and/or cooling the samples (2a, 4 and 5). Moreover, the oligomeric compound having the chain from 2a and one terminal formyl group (5) also has a nematic phase. The derivative with four E-2-(2-thienylvinyl)thiophene units in the chain (3a) melts without forming a mesophase. Also two 'oligomeric compounds' with benzene and thiophene systems in the mesogenic groups were synthesized. The compounds all-E-1,4-bis[5-{6-[5-(2-thienylvinyl)2-thienyl]hexamethylene}-2-thienylvinyl]b (2b) with three mesogenic groups and allE-1,6-bis{4-[5-{6-[5-(2-thienylvinyl)-2-...


Economic Scenario Generators (ESGs) simulate economic and financial variables forward in time for risk management and asset allocation purposes. It is often not feasible to calibrate the dynamics of all variables within the ESG to historical data alone. Calibration to forward-information such as future scenarios and return expectations is needed for stress testing and portfolio optimization, but no generally accepted methodology is available. This paper introduces the Conditional Scenario Simulator, which is a framework for consistently calibrating simulations and projections of economic and financial variables both to historical data and forward-looking information. The framework can be viewed as a multi-period, multi-factor generalization of the Black-Litterman model, and can embed a wide array of financial and macroeconomic models. Two practical examples demonstrate this in a frequentist and Bayesian setting.


There is a steady trend to decrease bump pitch and the total cost for the bumping process. Several techniques for bumping are available such as screen printing of solder paste through metal stencils, electroplating of bumps, ball placement or C4NP. Initially there appears to be a number of choices for bumping, however after looking at the details the choices are significantly reduced. The use of ball placement or screen printing is limited to larger sized bumps and coarser pitches. Bumping by electroplating which is popular for fine-pitch bumping is restricted to single or double component systems. Electroplating of triple component systems like SnAgCu which are interesting for lead free bumping requires a very complex process monitoring. Additionally, electroplating of ternary metal systems is not yet suitable for manufacturing. In this paper the basic process steps for a different bumping technology are discussed in detail. This technology uses a solder paste which is printed into photo-structured dry film. Test wafers with Ni + flash-Au final metallisation were provided. A dry film photo resist was laminated onto the wafers, exposed and developed. Next, solder paste was printed into the structured resist. The wafers were then passed through a Pb-free reflow profile. After the reflow, the dry film was successfully stripped. A variation of pad size and resist openings were investigated. Correlation between design and results are discussed.


A novel perspective of fuzzy control is introduced, by combining a continuous Takagi-Sugeno (TSFS) with a discrete-time recurrent fuzzy system (RFS). The developed hybrid dynamic recurrent Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy approach enables a recurrent rule base, which leads to a dynamical interpolation law between linear subsystems. The formalism is applicable to switched systems and hybrid automaton models. The stability concerning switched systems is ensured by a common quadratic Lyapunov function. Additionally, two multiple Lyapunov function-based stability relaxation conditions are shown. For the hybrid automaton case, practical stability is analyzed. The performance of the approach is validated by simulating a car distance control system (hybrid automaton) and an experimental application to an inverted pendulum (switched control).


At this moment, unmanned aerial vehicles, navigation, guidance and control are fairly popular research topics. There are lots of works which are being done to increase automation level and flight accuracy of these aircrafts. In many articles there are much of information about the efforts done to increase the independence of various decision making processes. The main topic of this article is to highlight the connections between navigation, guidance and control algorithms and their use for various problems solving. As problematic area to apply these navigation, guidance and control algorithms, we have chosen accuracy of aircrafts trajectory in various wind and other meteorological conditions. This article gives a short survey about the recent years works in UAV navigation, guidance and control, the measurements of various meteorological parameters using UAV and the accuracy of the UAV flight in different meteorological environments.


Digital Signal Processing (DSP) architectures are specialized for high performance numerical algorithms such as those found in communication and multimedia applications. The development of efficient compilers for DSP processors is a growing research area. The Texas Instruments TMS320C6x (C6x) is a Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) DSP architecture capable of issuing eight operations in parallel. In this paper, we present the results of implementing a software pipelining algorithm for the C6x. We provide a description of the C6x and detail the architectural features that impact software pipelining such as a moderately sized register file, constraints on code size, homogeneous resources, and multiple assignment code. We discuss how we adapted modulo scheduling to implement software pipelining for the C6x. Finally, we present the results of modulo scheduling a set of 40 loop kernel benchmarks and measure the algorithm in terms of schedule quality and algorithm complexity.


Many scientific applications tend to perform high-volume data storage, data retrieval, and data processing, all of which demand high performance from the I/O subsystem. The focus and contribution of this work is to study the I/O behavior of the Hartree-Fock (HF) method using PAS SION. HF's I/O phases can contribute up to 62.34% of the total execution time. The authors reduce the execution time and I/O time up to 54% and 6%, respectively, of that of the original case through PASSION and its optimiza tions. Additionally, the authors categorize the factors that affect the I/O performance of HF into key application- related parameters and key system-related parameters. Based on extensive empirical results and within the ex perimental space presented in this paper, the authors orderthe parameters according to the their impact on HF's I/O performance as follows: efficient interface, prefetching, buffering, number of I/O nodes, striping factor, and striping unit. The authors conclude that application-related factors have a more significant effect on HF's I/O performance than the system-related factors within the experimental space presented in this paper.


New content standards in English language arts and literacy, mathematics, and science expect all students, including English learners (ELs), to use multiple modes beyond language. Traditionally, conceptualizations of multimodality in EL education and the content areas have differed considerably. To acknowledge and begin confronting these differences, the author proposes weak and strong versions of multimodality. Whereas the weak version privileges language and takes nonlinguistic modes as scaffolds for language development with ELs, the strong version views multiple modes as essential to engaging in disciplinary practices. Adopting the strong version, the author analyzes work samples from a fourth-grade science classroom to illustrate how students deploy multiple modes strategically as they engage in scientific modeling. This analysis also shows how a multimodal lens can shed light on the unique affordances and limitations of language, a mode of particular relevance to ELs. The author argues that embracing the strong version of multimodality is not only necessary but transformative for ELs in the new content standards era, because it allows them to draw from the meaning-making resources at their disposal while engaging in disciplinary practices. In light of divergent conceptualizations of multimodality, the article ends with a call to action for closer collaboration between language and content educators. doi: 10.1002/tesq.443


This article presents the inception, design and implementation of a virtual reality system for learning in maintenance of an hydroelectric energy unity. The system adopts a modular architecture what makes it expansive and flexible for other areas of training in assembly. The system is subdivided in two main functional modules: educative and maintenance. The first one aims to set trainee to the structure and to the constituent pieces of an hydroelectric energy unity in his several levels of detail as well its general and technical information. The maintenance module disposes a program of training divided in three modes: automatic, guided and exploratory. The mode of training presents to trainee the procedures of maintenance so that it increases gradually his involvement in the system.


This case report emphasizes that we should analyze a patient's signs and symptoms as a whole rather than relying exclusively on a common pattern to diagnose the condition and indicates that thorough histological investigation and sample collection are needed to accurately diagnose this malignancy.


The study investigates an energy harvesting system utilising rotary motion. The system has three components: a rotary MR damper to vary the damping characteristics, a rotary power generator (energy extractor) producing electrical power, and a conditioning electronics unit to interface directly with the damper and the generator. The objective of the study is to examine the system performance through experiments. The paper outlines the structure of the damper and the generator, provides selected results of examination of the system components and the whole system under idle run and under load for the assumed speed range. The results demonstrate that the system is adaptable to external excitations, does not require an extra power supply and provides a smart solution with potential applications
to rotary motion control.


In this paper, we investigate the detection of a band-limited signal with unknown central frequency, exact bandwidth and the spectrum in white Gaussian noise with unknown variance. We propose a practically implementable Generalized Likelihood Ratio (GLR) detector with these unknown parameters and verify its performance through some simulation examples. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the performance of this detector, we derive a Most Powerful Invariant (MPI) detector in the case of known partial Signal to Noise Ratios (SNRs), i.e., where the SNR of the different Discrete Fourier Transform components of the signal are known. Our results show the close performance of the GLR detector and this MPI detector. In addition, we propose a locally MPI detector in small SNRs, that performs slightly better than GLR in these SNRs.


1. Enclosed in a multiphase separating metal housing and grounding switch for busbar, located in a housing (10), which are on opposite sides of the three are in the same plane of the flange, each of which serves for connection to a busbar, and in the third side flange serving to connect the circuit-breaker, provided with wires disposed within the housing elements of which the first conductor elements are connected with the busbar and the second conductor elements a pole circuit breaker, wherein chtosoedinennye with the circuit breaker poles of the second conductor elements (49, 50) oriented perpendicularly to the first conduction member connecting the busbars to each other, said first conductor elements (43, 44, 45) are approximately U-shaped and circled around the second conductor elements, and wherein between one of the inner walls of the housing and the first and second conduction elements provided NC system and grounding switching kontaktov.2. Isolating and earthing switch according to claim 1, characterized in that the NC and grounding switching elements are designed as separating circuit breakers with butt contacts, the line motion butt contact portions lie in a plane which extends perpendicularly to the plane defined shinami.3 teams. Isolating and earthing switch according to claim 1, characterized in that the NC and grounding switching elements comprise abutting contact portions, the line of motion of which lie in a plane cat


Rootkits are a major security concern for smartphones today. They have always been around, though largely operational on desktops and PCs. On the mobile platform, their presence was not very popular until the advent of smartphones and advanced mobile devices. The rapid developments and trends recorded on smartphones today make them highly vulnerable to rootkit attacks. Smartphone operating systems now come highly sophisticated and packaged with advanced functionality to keep record of users' diary, sensitive personal and security details, among others. These features make them a prime choice for attacks from rootkit authors, who explore all available avenues to exploit and extract this information for malicious purposes. Cases of rootkit attacks have continued to increase with more of such attacks targeted at popular smartphone operating systems like Android. In this research, we discuss rootkits, illustrating their operational architecture and operation with a design of a kernel rootkit for the Linux kernel 2.6. We explore possible measures to combat rootkits on the mobile platform, using Android as a case study


The muon decay medium-baseline facility (MOMENT) is a high intensity neutrino beam proposed in China, aiming to measure leptonic CP-violation. The primary proton beam has 15 MW of power provided from an ADS type of linac, which poses a radiation challenge to a capture system that consists of an adiabatic superconductive solenoid from 14 T to 3 T, and a high power liquid or fluidized target located inside the main capture coil in order to maximize the pions capture and reduce their transverse momentum. Though the initial baseline is the liquid Hg-jet, a novel fluidized waterfall-like granular target is also being studied. In this paper, we present updated studies for the compact waterfall granular target concerning simulations done with discrete element method and particle physics Monte Carlo analyses. Our continuous aim is to calculate the optimal physical parameters of the waterfall in order to comply with the physics (captured meson and muon yields) requirements of MOMENT and to remove the heat efficiently.


For large impact angle control problem (here, the "large impact angle" means the impact angle in the closed interval from −180° to 180°), estimating the time-to-go accurately is the key of impact time and impact angle control guidance (ITIACG). The objectives of this paper are to construct a new impact angle control guidance (IACG) law suitable for large impact angle control and present a time-to-go estimation procedure for the new IACG law suitable for designing ITIACG law. The constructed IACG law is a biased proportional navigation guidance law with large impact angle constraint, the rule of the cosine of the lead angle in the biased term is to guarantee that the lead angle remains in the open interval from −90° to 90°, which is required in the development of time-to-go estimation procedure. To estimate the time-to-go, by introducing a self-convergent angle named as alfa, the closed equations of motion are transformed to a different form, which can be solved conveniently under the assumption of small lead angle. For the case of large lead angle, the time interval of time-to-go is partitioned into n segments, the maximum increment of lead angle is supposed to be a small angle in each segment, the transformed closed equations of motion can be expressed as function of alfa angle and solved analytically. A geometric approach is proposed to determine conservatively a suitable alfa angle to guarantee that the maximum increment of lead angle is a small angle in each segment. The time-to-go estimation procedure for the new IACG law are illustrated. Simulations are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed IACG law and the accuracy of the time-to-go estimation procedure.


This article presents an opinon that the reform the conventional obligee's subrogation isn't successful."Compensated directly"damages the relativity and the equality of creditor's right, and it can't merge into the civil action. The obligee's subrogation has been declining in modern times. Our country should draw lessons from the foreign experiences. The obligee's subrogation can be taken place by a perfect execution in subrogation.


We find the static vortex solutions of the model of a Maxwell-Chern-Simons gauge field coupled to a (2+1)-dimensional four-fermion theory. Especially, we introduce two matter currents coupled to the gauge field minimally: the electromagnetic current and a topological current associated with the electromagnetic current. Unlike other Chern-Simons solitons the N-soliton solution of this theory has binding energy and the stability of the solutions is maintained by the charge conservation laws. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}


The feature of natural gas in Mahai gas field that was less studied before is integrated with fluid inclusion test results, the burial history and thermal evolution history of source rocks as well as structural development history in this paper. It is indicated that two stages of oil-gas fillings are found in Mahai structure. Oil at the first stage ended in dispersal for poor preservation; at the second stage Mahai structure only captured the highly evolutionary gas from Yibei sag. Gas from Mahai gas field and Nanbaxian field belongs to the same genetic type, but the latter is high- and over-mature coal-formed gas related with Lower Jurassic source rocks in Yibei sag.


INTRODUCTION Controlling blood glucose in patients with diabetes mellitus reduces the risk of cardiovascular (CV) complications.1 While the UK Prospective Diabetes Study and others have related fasting plasma glucose level (FPG) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) to CV outcomes, a recent interim analysis of the major NIH-funded study of patients with type 2 diabetes, the ACCORD trial, now indicates that there might be a limit to the benefits and degree of HbA1c reduction. Although specifics of the trial are yet to be published, the data analysis and safety board terminated the tight control arm of this treatment trial because of a small but significant increase in mortality. As a result, the target HbA1c for many patients with CVD will, in all likelihood, remain above the nondiabetic range. Glucose variability, another measure of glycemic control, also relates to CV outcomes. This metric quantitates the change in glucose concentration from before a meal to that obtained afterwards and can be used to assess risk a...


This dissertation examines signalling of hematopoietic growth factors in hippocampal neurons and cortical astrocytes. The activity patterns of Akt, ERK1/2 and Stat3 after treatment with thrombopoietin (TPO) or granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) were analyzed in different neural cell types with a focus on their relative contributions on both cell survival and proliferation. The actions of these growth factors showed remarkable cell type specificity. Also the importance of Stat5 for neuroprotective and neurotrophic actions of erythropoietin (EPO) was examined using neurons isolated from Stat5 knockout mice, and comparison to growth hormone. A model where neurotrophic but not neuroprotective effects of EPO depend on Stat5 signalling pathway is proposed.


The authors describe the male and the female of a new species of phlebotomine sand fly Lutzomyia brisolai n.sp., anthropophilic, encountered in several stations of the Andean piemont. This species is difficult to classify, possessing characteristics that are similar not only to L. oliveirai and L. minasensis but alto to species of the subgenus Nyssomyia.


The issue of whether there are equal rights in Germany between women and men in terms of pensions. The differences in the amount of pensions to which women and men are entitled are analyzed. It is argued that one of the main reasons for these disparities is the persisting gender pay gap between men and women in Germany. It is postulated that the recently introduced "basic pension" for long-time employees will be a step toward solving the problem.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the addition of a probiotic Bacillus on culture medium through growth rate and histopathological change in African Catfish who was infected by Aeromonas hydrophila . The study consisted of five treatments such as the addition of probiotic Bacillus ND2, Bacillus P4I2, Bacillus ND2 + Bacillus P4I2 (Kom), positive control (K+) and negative control (K-) (without probiotic addition). African Catfish (13.354±2.8 g) was maintained in 15 aquariums (40 L in volume) with 30 fishes each for 30 days. Probiotic bacteria was applied in water once a day, whereas pathogenic bacteria A. hydrophila  (10 3 CFU/mL) were added once in earlier treatment (except for the negative control) as assumption that A. hydrophila will shape up quorum sensing in unfortunate condition. The result showed that the highest spesific growth rate in the treatment of Bacillus ND2 probiotics (1,708 ± 0.114%). Histopathology showed that damaged of liver dan kidney in probiotics treatment were lightner than positive control (K+).  The addition of Bacillus P4I1 (10 4 CFU/mL) efective to increased the spesific growth rate of African Catfish and prevent the damage of liver and kidney of African Catfish was infected by Aeromoniasis.


. The discharge in pumping tests conducted on large-diameter wells declines with the fall of water level. This violates the basic requirement of pumping tests that the discharge should remain constant. A simple device to keep the discharge constant has therefore been developed. This device is also useful in keeping the discharge much lower than the rated capacity of the farmer's pump, and thus in increasing the total test period.

The discharge from the farmer's pump is released in a barrel having a V-notch at the top and an arrangement for returning a part of the discharge to the well. The return flow is gradually reduced through a control valve, and thus the net outflow is kept constant.

This device has been used for conducting pumping tests on several dug wells.


Low grade inflammatory condition which is predominately cytokine-mediated is observed to be closely involved in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes as well as role this inflammatory condition cannot be ruled out in involvement in pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. Since maximum world populations are at high risk of developing diabetes, we tested this hypothesis by estimat-ing circulating acute phase proteins in freshly diagnosed type 2 (T-2) as well as type 1(T-1) diabetic patients. The comparative study of the states of all these inflammatory markers in case of T-2 and T-1 patients is of interest in this present study. The acute phase proteins, α1- antitrypsin, α1- acid glycoprotein, ceruloplasmin and fibrinogen were estimated in the plasma in freshly di agnosed twenty-five T-2 cases and twelve T-1cases. Thirty normal controls to match the age and sex of the test groups were also studied. The levels of these proteins were correlated with their BMI and random plasma glucose values. In comparison with the controls, the values of all the four proteins studied were significantly elevated in the T-2 patients (p<.00001). In case of T-1 patient level of ceruloplasmin and fibrinogen are significantly elevated. Interestingly, no correlation was found with BMI or the degree of hyperglycemia in either of the types. By these study we can postulated that a low grade chronic inflammatory process is definitely implicated in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Same cannot be ruled out in case of type-1 diabetic patients also.


In presenting this dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree from Georgia State University, I agree that the Library of the University shall make it available for inspection and circulation in accordance with its regulations governing materials of this type. I agree that permission to quote from, to copy from, or to publish this dissertation may be granted by the author or, in his or her absence, the professor under whose direction it was written or, in his or her absence, by the Dean of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Such quoting, copying, or publishing must be solely for scholarly purposes and must not involve potential financial gain. It is understood that any copying from or publication of this dissertation which involves potential gain will not be allowed without written permission of the author. ____________________________________ Signature of the Author NOTICE TO BORROWERS All dissertations deposited in the Georgia State University Library must be used only in accordance with the stipulations prescribed by the author in the preceding statement. Users of this dissertation not regularly enrolled as students at Georgia State University are required to attest acceptance of the preceding stipulations by signing below. Libraries borrowing this dissertation for the use of their patrons are required to see that each user records here the information requested. ACCEPTANCE This dissertation was prepared under the direction of the candidate " s Dissertation Committee. It has been approved and accepted by all members of that committee, and it has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics in vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to praise God for the strength, guidance and blessings that I have received with every step of my journey. Thank You for being a loving, patience and merciful Father to me. I am fortunate to have not one, but two mentors during my time at Georgia State University. My deepest gratitude goes to Dr. Jamie Boex who taught me the skills and tools to do research since my first time working as his research assistant. More importantly, I thank Dr. Boex for encouraging me to grow as an academic and a researcher. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez for the opportunity to work with him, which over the years add greatly to my education and experience. I am especially grateful to Dr. …


Centralized localization dissipates a lot of energy in pooling the proximity information of the individual nodes. In contrast a distributed algorithm usually uses only local information at each node. Most localization algorithms available in the literature are are anchor based or they estimate the position of the sensors at the cost of losing accuracy. In this paper, we propose an anchor-free length-based distributed localization technique under a restricted model which solves a specialized case of this problem. The model assumes that all known distances between the sensors are less than the communication range of the sensors and all unknown distances are greater. We also assume that communication range is at least twice as much as the sensing range. Every point in the field of interest is assumed to be covered by some sensor. Each sensor localizes some of its neighbours with information from its neighbours. Each node communicates information for localization to its neighbours only; thus reducing traffic over the network. We also show that, the time required to localize all sensors uniquely under this model is linear in the number of sensors.


An important aspect of the development of intermediate‐scale length (approximately hundred meters to few kilometers) irregularities in an equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) that has not been considered in the schemes to predict the occurrence pattern of L‐band scintillations in low‐latitude regions is how these structures develop at different heights within an EPB as it rises in the postsunset equatorial ionosphere due to the growth of the Rayleigh‐Taylor instability. Irregularities at different heights over the dip equator map to different latitudes, and their spectrum as well as the background electron density determine the strength of L‐band scintillations at different latitudes. In this paper, VHF and L‐band scintillations recorded at different latitudes together with theoretical modeling of the scintillations are used to study the implications of this structuring of EPBs on the occurrence and strength of L‐band scintillations at different latitudes. Theoretical modeling shows that while S4 index for scintillations on a VHF signal recorded at an equatorial station may be >1, S4 index for scintillations on a VHF signal recorded near the crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) generally does not exceed the value of 1 because the intermediate‐scale irregularity spectrum at F layer peak near the EIA crest is shallower than that found in the equatorial F layer peak. This also explains the latitudinal distribution of L‐band scintillations. Thus, it is concluded that there is greater structuring of an EPB on the topside of the equatorial F region than near the equatorial F layer peak.


This datasheet on Carissa edulis covers Identity, Overview, Associated Diseases, Pests or Pathogens, Distribution, Biology & Ecology, Uses, Management, Genetics and Breeding, Food Quality, Economics.


This paper discusses thermodynamic and kinetic influences on nucleation processes of polymorphic crystalline systems in bulk and emulsion states in comparative ways. Three main characteristics may be revealed in the crystallization processes in emulsion droplets: (1) reduction in nucleation rate caused by thermodynamic and kinetic effects, (2) interfacial crystallization caused by molecular interactions between interfacial membrane and the solute molecules, and (3) droplet-droplet interactions of two kinds; dilution of solute/solvent molecules which are slightly soluble in the continuous phase, and partial coalescence of the particles after crystallization. Based on recent experimental work of melt crystallization of long-chain lipophilic materials in oil-in-water emulsion droplets, we discuss the polymorphic crystallization behavior related to the reduction in nucleation rate and the interfacial crystallization.


I read with great interest the article by Sahutoglu et al. (1), in which they investigated the association of the Brain arrest neurological outcome scale (BrANOS) with mortality and morbidity in patients after cardiac arrest (1). They emphasised the relationship of the BrANOS score with patients' neurological outcomes and mortality rates. I thank the authors for conducting such a detailed study, including a considerable number of patients and providing long-term data of the clinical follow-up of these patients. However, I would like to comment on the article to add some new perspectives and provide a better understanding.


Cultivating and retaining special educators competent to serve students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs) has proven persistently difficult. Improving educational systems' capacity to meet this challenge will require better understanding of the roles special educators in these settings should be prepared for and supported to fulfill. The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to explore how four special educators in self-contained classes for students with EBD defined and experienced their roles. We found that teachers defined their primary roles as promoting students' behavioral and academic growth; however, they also described experiencing dissonance between their ideal roles and their actual daily work. This dissonance was evident in two respects. First, extra responsibilities and emergent responsibilities occupied substantial energy. Second, social and material contexts often facilitated their behavioral role but less often supported their academic role. Findings have implications for improving the quality of the teacher workforce in self-contained settings for students with EBD.


This book argues that policy makers' idealized conceptions of middle-class masculinity directly affected who they targeted for conscription during the Cold War. Along with much of the American population, federal officials, including those within the Selective Service System, believed college educated men could better protect the nation from the threat of communism as civilians than as soldiers. The availability of deferments for these men grew rapidly between 1945 and 1965, militarizing their occupations and making it less and less likely that middle-class white men would serve in the Cold War military. Meanwhile, officials used the War on Poverty to target poorer men for conscription in the hopes that military service would offer them skills they could use in civilian life. Therefore, while some men resisted military service in Vietnam for reasons of political conscience, most of those who avoided military service did so because manpower polices made it possible. By protecting middle-class breadwinners in the name of national security, policy planners militarized certain civilian roles, a move that, ironically, separated military service from the obligations of masculine citizenship and, ultimately, helped kill the draft in the United States.


We give an example of a purely bosonic model--a rotor model on the 3D cubic lattice--whose low energy excitations behave like massless U(1) gauge bosons and massless Dirac fermions. This model can be viewed as a ''quantum ether;'' a medium that gives rise to both photons and electrons. It illustrates a general mechanism for the emergence of gauge bosons and fermions known as ''string-net condensation.'' Other, more complex, string-net condensed models can have excitations that behave like gluons, quarks and other particles in the standard model. This suggests that photons, electrons and other elementary particles may have a unified origin: string-net condensation in our vacuum.


Information technology's introduction of online retail has deeply influenced methods of doing business. However, offline retail has not changed as radically in comparison to online retailing. Recently, studies in computer science have suggested new technology that can support offline retailers, including sensors, indoor positioning, augmented reality, vision, and interactive systems. Retailers have recently shown interest in these technologies and rapidly adopted them in order to improve operational efficiency and customer experience in their retail shops. Marketing studies also address immersive marketing that employs these technologies in order to change ways of doing offline retail business. Even though there is much discussion concerning new trends, technologies, and marketing concepts, there is, as of yet, no investigation that comprehensively explains how they can be combined together seamlessly in the real world retail environment. This paper employs the term "smart store" to indicate retail stores equipped with these new technologies and modern marketing concepts. This paper aims to summarize discussions related to smart stores and their possible applications in a real business environment. Furthermore, we present a case study of a business that applies the smart store concept to its fashion retail shops in Korea.


The impact of Fusarium spp. contamination on baking quality of common wheat (variety Bohemia) from organic farming system was monitored by rheological system Mixolab. The mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) content and standard technological quality characteristics  were measured, too. Considerably worse technological parameters were determined in variant with higher Fusarium spp. contamination, evoked by the artificial inoculation of flowering ears. Simultaneously, increased intensity of Fusarium spp. contamination evidently worsened rheological quality and its negative effect on protein and starch part of the grain was obvious from the Mixolab characteristics. Keywords: wheat, Fusarium spp., technological quality, Mixolab


In this work, two different techniques to modify polymeric surfaces are compared: laser irradiation and ion implantation. The treated polymers were samples of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene. The irradiation treatment was performed by utilizing two different laser sources operating in the UV and IR range by applying many laser shots in an air atmosphere. Ion implantation was performed using a new laser ion source accelerator with an accelerating voltage of 40 kV. Contact angle, roughness and Fourier transform infra red measurements were carried out before and after the treatments in order to compare surface characteristics. An increase of the wettability and roughness was observed when using UV laser treatment, while an increase of the hardness was obtained by ion implantation.


The present invention relates to a flame-retardant panel manufacturing method including: (A) a step in which a panel material is prepared by the bark of a tree as a raw material being removed and its heartwood part as its heart being extracted; (B) a step in which the panel material is cut and turned into elongated chips for chip preparation; (C) a step in which the panel material turned into the chips is subjected to a pulping process, during which mixing is performed with a flame-retardant agent used; (D) a step in which the pulped material mixed with the flame-retardant agent is poured into a molding frame for molding in a mat form; and (E) a step in which the molded mat is turned into a high-density, flame-retardant, and hard flame-retardant panel by hot pressing being performed for the formation of a high density of at least 700 kg per cubic centimeter. Both the outer surface and the inside of the flame-retardant panel that is manufactured by the method described above are capable of containing flame-retardant materials. In addition, a flame-retardant treatment sheet for providing flame retardancy does not have to be used as a finishing material as in the prior art. Because the flame-retardant panel itself is excellent in terms of flame retardancy, it can be used with only an interior sheet simply attached. The flame-retardant panel that is manufactured by the flame-retardant panel manufacturing method according to the present invention is capable of satisfying flame retardancy performance standards even in that case.


We generalize Shimizu et al's (2006) ICA-based approach for discovering linear non-Gaussian acyclic (LiNGAM) Structural Equation Models (SEMs) from causally sufficient, continuous-valued observational data. By relaxing the assumption that the generating SEM's graph is acyclic, we solve the more general problem of linear non-Gaussian (LiNG) SEM discovery. In the large sample limit, LiNG discovery algorithms output the set of distribution-equivalent SEMs that represent the population distribution. We also give sufficient conditions under which only one of the distribution-equivalent output SEMs is "stable", and apply a LiNG discovery algorithm to simulated data.


PurposeWhile the contribution of educational students to the economies of developed countries is critical, educational immigrants rarely find employment in the regulated unionized sectors of these countries and are found instead setting up their own business. The purpose of this paper is to understand how educational immigrants use their cultural and social heritage for entrepreneurial purposes.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative method was undertaken, comprising face-to-face in-depth interviews with 12 respondents, involved in the hospitality industry for various purposes such as inspiration, challenges, frustrations and attracting investments. A convenience sampling method coupled with snowball sampling was chosen because of the availability of the informants and their willingness to be a part of the study. A thematic analysis was conducted in the transcripts of interviews to understand the aim and motivation factors of each individual followed by content analysis process.FindingsThe findings reveal that, while the informants suffer of language barriers, lack or shortage of experience in understanding the laws and legislations, unfamiliarity with the host culture, as well as financial constraints, the entrepreneurial sprite drives them to establish their businesses.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has important consequences for understanding how educational immigrants transition from an educational to a business setting.Practical implicationsAs the increase in educational immigrants becomes more important to the economic and social performance of countries, it is important to understand how young entrepreneurs start their businesses.Originality/valueEducational immigrants are an important source of regional innovation and development. This paper focuses on the role of international higher education and the link to entrepreneurship by focusing on young Chinese entrepreneurs.


For a class of nonlinear systems, referred to as Volterra systems, some important properties for system output frequencies are studied in this paper. These properties demonstrate several novel frequency characteristics of system output spectrum and reveal clearly the nonlinear effects on system output spectrum from different kind and degree of nonlinearities. These new results have significance in the analysis and design of nonlinear systems or filters in order to achieve a specific output spectrum in a desired frequency band by taking advantage of nonlinearities, and provide an important guidance to applications of Volterra system theory in practices.


In this paper we employ input - output analysis in order to estimate the size of regional multipliers for the Greek prefectures (NUTS III). Then we attempt to analyse and evaluate the observed differences amongst the multipliers and to uncover likely correlations between the multipliers on the one hand, and selective economic indicators on the other hand. The analysis suggests that the most important indicators are "prosperity level", "level of development", "population potential" and "geographic distances". Drawing from the analysis on regional multipliers we construct a mathematical model that includes variables describing the distribution of the public and private investment targeted at achieving economic convergence. The study concludes by offering some general comments on the results of the preceding analysis.


Background: Cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI) is a devastating consequence of trauma. Restoration of upper limb function can improve quality of life, reduce long-term care needs and is highly rated by patients. Methods: We performed a non-systematic review of all studies reporting nerve transfer in CSCI to derive a putative reconstructive algorithm based primarily on nerve transfers. Results: For CSCIs above C5, no intraplexal donors exist. For CSCIs at C5 or below, axillary nerve (C5) branches may be transferred to triceps to restore elbow extension, musculocutaneous nerve (C6) branches may be transferred to the median nerve to restore pronation/ finger flexion whilst nerve branches to supinator (C6) may be transferred to re-innervate finger extensors. Further functional gains such as re-innervation of hand intrinsics, accessory respiratory function and postural control of the trunk may be possible but are not reported. Conclusions: Nerve transfers following CSCI represent an emerging area of upper limb surgery where bespoke surgical strategies undertaken early during rehabilitation course have the potential to change functional outcomes.


Rice is an important food crop in the world. At present the availability of an array of molecular markers allows easy identification of genetic variability present among genotypes as well as species. There are enormous examples of use of molecular markers for hybrid/genetic purity testing in rice crop. The present review highlights applications of molecular markers for genetic diversity analysis as well as genetic/hybrid purity testing in rice.


Until about 10 years ago, the study of electoral administration was almost totally neglected in Australia apart from the pioneering but lonely work of Colin Hughes. All this has changed in the past decade, thanks in part to the efforts of lawyers such as Graeme Orr and Joo-Cheong Tham. They have worked alongside political scientists on interdisciplinary projects such as the Democratic Audit of Australia, while the crossover of disciplines is also illustrated by Anika Gauja's recent Political Parties and Elections: Legislating for Representative Democracy (2010). The Law of Politics and Money and Politics are both fine contributions but they are different in character. Joo-Cheong Tham provides a passionate account of Australia's current political finance regime and what should be done about it in the interests of democracy. Graeme Orr provides, in his own words, a 'legal exegesis' (p. xv) of every aspect of electoral law, from redistributions, the franchise and enrolment to the calling of elections, disputed returns and the regulation of political parties and campaigning. Whereas Tham finishes with a reform blueprint for a more democratic political funding regime, Orr's final chapter is on referenda and direct democracy, hardly pressing issues. There is no narrative drive or emotional highs in Orr's text and occasionally legal exegesis becomes legal jargon:


Following the itinerary of dreams is an excellent way of following the analytic pro-cess. It attests to the elaborative capacities of the unconscious ego in its continuous function-ing. The case of Mr A will illustrate this functioning through a fragment of analysis and the analysis of his five dreams.


Abstract In this study we hypothesized that Grammostola rosea Walckenaer 1837, an active predator of large size that depends on its two paired book lungs for respiration, would have a refined low energy strategy based on its thin air-hemolymph barrier. The morphology of book lungs and the oxygen consumption at 20° and 30° C under normal and starvation conditions were studied. The oxygen consumption was low compared to that expected for spiders from the allometric relationship, 0.027 ± 0.01 ml O2 g−1 h−1 (average ± standard deviation), and it was depressed at 30° C under starvation. The harmonic mean thickness of the air-hemolymph barrier was 0.14 ± 0.03 µm, the respiratory surface density was 122.99 ± 35.84 mm−1, and the book lung volume ranged from 12.2 to 37.5 mm3. With these parameters a high oxygen diffusion capacity was estimated. The combination of low resting oxygen consumption and high pulmonary oxygen conductance results in very low gradients of partial oxygen pressures across the air-hemolymph barrier (0.12–0.16 kPa) required to satisfy the resting oxygen demands.


The GLOBE with all colors of Peace and happiness has the right place of living. All creatures in the world is having equal chances of living. HUMAN has the dominance of all. Making one's human life easier has become the prime motto. Towards creating an easier life, Humans make environment polluted neither concentrating on other bio-diversities nor on the ambiance. Having a better life is more important than having easier life. This module has scrapped for making aware to humans about their living. Among the various natural resources tree and water are chosen for the analysis. Main theme of the module is towards TREES and POLLUTION. This module has taken Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India as the study area. The Population of a specific region is selected also Population count of trees in the same selected region is taken. The demand of oxygen in atmosphere in future is calculated by comparing the intake of oxygen by human and exhale of oxygen by trees. The comparisons are done by taking the rate of increase in population and rate of decrease in trees. This module also concentrates on the water wasted in an area than the water must be consumed. The comparisons are made with the water consumed by a normal human and with the strategy (by WHO) of water consumed by normal human. This module also concentrates in the pollution made in the environment. The pollution particles present in normal clean pure air is taken as base condition. This base condition is frequently checked for deviation in the environment and analyzed. All these deviations are plotted as graph and provided in a website as cumulative results. Hoping a change, the results are manipulated for HUMANS.


Abstract Russian depositories contain a corpus of large‐scale Russian manuscript coastal and navigational charts of the Straits (the Bosporus and the Dardanelles) compiled in the late 1770s either by naval officers in the field or by the Drawing Office of the Admiralty Board, St Petersburg. This mapping was undertaken after the Russo‐Turkish war of 1768–1774 in anticipation of further naval warfare in the Black and Aegean seas. The author of the earliest charts was Sergey Pleshcheyev, who conducted his surveys while a member of the Russian embassy in Constantinople. Additional hydrographical information was obtained during the voyages of Aleksey I. Timashev and Gavriil Glotov from the newly founded naval bases in the Black Sea. Between 1776 and 1779, a Russian squadron disguised as merchant ships attempted to chart the Straits. The Admiralty's Drawing Office, supervised by Ivan L. Golenishchev‐Kutuzov, then assembled the original drafts and summarized the collected data. The results are found in the Atlas of the Archipelago, engraved in 1781 and published in 1788.


This work focuses on the area of face processing and aims at designing a reliable framework to facilitate face, and gender recognition. Gender recognition aims at recognizing a person's gender (Male/Female). Automatic Gender recognition has become relevant to an increasing amount of applications gender recognition by face such as human computer interaction systems, content based image search, video surveillance, and more. Extensive experiment shows that the proposed model is able to capture both global and local information about faces. Tasks perform by system algorithm face detection, histogram of that particular for getting image information, reduce the image information by using histogram equalization and adaptive histogram equalization, noise remove by proposed NRCustom filter, human face characteristic extraction system and finally feature vector matching, classification. For experiment, purpose we adopted colored face image with different complex lighting condition (dark/dim/shaded) of random size and perform their simulation. Then finally, the system classifies the gender (Male/Female), count total no of images in database and separate number of males and females are present in the database.


Rachel Dauch as Little Bo Peep and Michael Sloan as Little Boy Blue are in the Nursery Rhyme Musical "Little Bo Peep" at the Christian Wee-Care Center in Clyde, Ohio. The Center is an extended pre-school ministry of the Clyde Baptist Church. After the musical, a slide presentation of the Center's program and objectives will be given.


A DFT-based digital scheme to demodulate π/4-QDPSK signals is presented. Considering π/4-DQPSK waveform can be divided into transitional section and steady section actually, only samples in steady section are selected to do DFT. Simulation of this scheme was given out: comparing with differential demodulation, it is easier and its noise immunity is better when SNR is more than 3 dB. This method is expected to be applied to π/4-DQPSK software radio receiver design.


Refer to the first paragraph of Article I of the Law of Legal Medicine Organization, including commenting and investigating crimes against chastity as well. This study sought to determine the scope of Forensic Medicine, the discovery is a crime against chastity. The study of scholars from different perspectives, we can see that Iranian legislator to determine the scope of forensics to discover crimes against chastity, imposed various materials and the various interpretations and sometimes it is inadequate to determine Which, doubts about the competence of the arrival of forensics to uncover crimes against chastity, is created. The results of this study show that the principle of reference to investigate and prosecute crimes by virtue of Article 22 procedure law courts of general and revolution in criminal matters, court system, however no crimes against chastity reality does not by virtue of Article 306 of Law special measures are referred to the coroner.


While attribute-value pairs are a popular method to name objects, information retrieval from those attribute-based namespaces is not an easy task. The user has to recall correct attribute names and values and master the syntax and semantics of query formulation. This paper describes hierarchical structures in attribute-based namespaces, shows how to extract them efficiently and evaluates the quality of these structures in an user experiment. It proposes an user interface for browsing attribute-named object sets which makes this task resemble todays file-system browsers and compares the usability of this interface to normal form-based methods in an user study.


The objective of this design project is to implement an auditory analogue to the kaleidoscope. First the FPGA kit will be used to sample from a set of stored audio waveforms. Then, these waveforms will be mixed in various aurally pleasing ways through an algorithm based in musical knowledge. Variables to consider would be pitch, tempo, volume, and timbre. The synthesized tones will then be output through a speaker. In addition to this "autopilot" mode, the user will be able to tweak limited characteristics of the final product, and the algorithm should be able to adjust accordingly in real time. Thus, the created music can be as random and pleasing as the visuals of a kaleidoscope, but appealing to the ear rather than the eye.


Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been implemented globally and their implementation has been extensively studied during the past decade. However, many organizations are still struggling to derive benefits from the implemented ERP systems. Therefore, ensuring post-implementation success has become the focus of the current ERP research. This study develops an integrative model to explain the post-implementation success of ERP, based on the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) theory. We posit that ERP implementation quality (the technological aspect) consisting of project management and system configuration, organizational readiness (the organizational aspect) consisting of leadership involvement and organizational fit, and external support (the environmental aspect) will positively affect the post-implementation success of ERP. An empirical test was conducted in the Chinese retail industry. The results show that both ERP implementation quality and organizational readiness significantly affect post-implementation success, whereas external support does not. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.


On a laser machining tool (10) having a supporting structure (13), on the one side of which at least one laser machining head (17, 18) is arranged, and further having a tool holder and/or tool support (11), wherein the laser machining head (17, 18) and the tool holder and/or tool support (11) can be moved relatively to each other, at least one laser machining head (17, 18) is arranged on two opposing sides of the supporting structure (13). A beam switch is provided, by which a laser beam can be switched between the laser machining heads. Thus, the work space can be enlarged.


Objective:To investigate the effect of neuropeptide Y(NPY) on [Ca~2+] in plasma and nuclear of cardiomyocytes during various period. Method: Cardiomyocytes of neonatal Wistar rats were cultured with NPY (100 nmol/L) for 0 min, 5 min, 10 min and 24 h. Fluorescent assay with Fluo3-AM was used to detect [Ca~2+] in plasma and nuclear of cardiomyocytes. Result: Within 10 min,there were no considerable changes of the [Ca~2+] in plasma and nuclear stimulated by NPY(100 nmol/L). 24 hours after incubation, the [Ca~2+] in plasma (16.81±2.1)was significantly elevated compared with control group(7.45±1.96)(P0.01), and the [Ca~2+] in nuclear(30.65±4.06)was also distinctly increased compared with control group(15.64±2.16)(P0.01). Conclusion: NPY caused the enhancement of [Ca~2+] in plasma and nuclear of cardiomyocytes in rats.


Objective
To investigate the predictive value of early diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for early neurological deterioration (END) after acute isolated basal ganglia infarct.

Methods
Patients with acute isolated basal ganglia infarct in middle cerebral artery perforators completed head MRI examination at 24 h after onset were analyzed retrospectively. According to the axial DWI revealed lesion size, the maximum diameters were divided into 30 mm. END was defined as an increase in the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score ≥2 or the motor score of NIHSS≥1 at any time within the first 72 h after admission compare with the baseline scores.

Results
A total of 336 patients were enrolled, including 126 patients (37.5%) with END. There were significant differences in the constituent ratios of the sex (P=0.044), maximum diameter of the lesion (P=0.001), and guilty artery stenosis (P=0.006), as well as baseline NIHSS score (P=0.001), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (P=0.033), and C-reactive protein (P=0.039) between the END group and the non-END group. Multiple logistic regression showed that the maximum diameter of the lesions 15-30 mm (odds ratio [OR] 2.360, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.370-4.066; P=0.002), female (OR 1.660, 95%CI 1.024-2.691; P=0.040), and guilty large artery stenosis (OR 1.713, 95%CI 1.036-2.833; P=0.036) were the independent risk factors for patients occurring END, while the high HDL-C (OR 0.355, 95%CI 0.141-0.894; P=0.028) was an independent protective factor of occurring END.

Conclusion
Early DWI revealed that the maximum diameter of the lesions may have certain clinical value for prediction of the occurrence of END in patients with acute isolated basal ganglia infarct.

Key words:
Cerebral Infarction; Brain Ischemia; Disease Progression; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Magnetic Resonance Angiography; Risk Factors


A Great progress of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) tasks has been achieved by the transformer models in recent years, which is largely owing to the careful design of multi-head attention and feed-forward neural network layers in its encoder-decoder architecture. However, these layers are often manually designed by expertise, makes it time-consuming and hard to explore potentially promising ordering patterns. In this paper, an automatic transformer architecture design algorithm based on genetic algorithm is proposed to evolve the optimal transformer architecture for NMT tasks. Particularly, a novel gene encoding strategy is developed in the proposed algorithm to effectively enable transformer architectures to have various layer ordering patterns and hyper-parameters, and then the effective genetic operators are designed to perform the efficient evolutionary search for finding optimal architecture. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, the experiments are conducted on a widely used machine translation benchmark, and the result shows that the model automatically searched by the proposed algorithm outperforms the vanilla transformer under different model sizes.


This paper provides a basis for the possibility of using optical schlieren sensors to record hydroacoustic vibrations in the frequency range omega greater than or equal to 1-100 kHz (which is an interesting range from the viewpoint of practical applications) on the background of permittivity fluctuations of the marine medium caused by the presence of turbulence and suspended matter. © 2004 Optical Society of America


This study investigates the educational and economic attainment of Mexican Dreamers over the 4 years since DACA was implemented (2012–2016). A time-space stream of benefits and barriers is evaluated at the national, state, and individual levels. Based on assumptions linking the DACA-eligible to DACA recipients, I examine the annual American Community Survey (ACS) to glean insights not provided elsewhere. At national level, the results suggest that young Mexican Dreamers entered the workforce at higher rates, but college at lower rates, than a control group of Mexican Americans. At state level, in supportive states these Dreamers entered college at higher rates but the work force at slightly lower rates, than they did in restrictive states. At the individual level, it is revealed that DACA strongly promoted college over work for women, but just the reverse for men. These distinctions are bringing about new inequalities within the Mexican Dreamer community in the United States.


This paper indicates methods Shanxi Hongxia No.1 Construction taken to implement "mass line" campaign and analyzes effect and inspiration of this campaign.


Several tumor‐related antigen peptides that are recognized by autologous cytolytic T cells (CTL) have been reported. However, most human solid tumors, including gastric carcinoma, are only weakly immunogenic. In this study, we focused on interleukin (IL)‐12 and interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) as key cytokines for estimating positive cellular immune responses.


Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) of myocarditis may include early gadolinium enhancement (EGE) and global relative enhancement (GRE) by T1‐weighted images acquired before and early after contrast administration. However, the importance of timing for post‐contrast imaging has not been evaluated using T1 mapping. We aimed to improve the understanding of the contrast mechanisms by evaluating whether early or late post‐contrast T1 mapping was better at detecting myocarditis.


IN recent years there have been numerous advances in our understanding of the increasingly varied range of microorganisms that infect the gastrointestinal tract. These agents range from newly identified bacterial pathogens, such as Helicobacter pylori, and a still growing range of types of Escherichia coli to protozoal, algal, and fungal enteric pathogens. This overview will provide an update and a practical approach to the understanding, diagnosis, and management of nonviral infectious diarrhea. It is particularly important to understand the epidemiologic setting and pathogenesis of these infections, because they provide a clinical basis for diagnosis and management. A highly selective . . .


The dynamic changes of the relative electrical conductivity,MDA、H2O2 contents,·O-2 generation rate,SOD、POD activities in ginkgo seedling were studied in pot under stimulated high temperature stress in summer.The results showed that,in the earlier stage of warming,the relative electrical conductivity,MDA content,SOD activity,H2O2 content and POD activity in ginkgo decreased,while ·O-2 generation rate increased,which showed that cell membrane in ginkgo leaf had a certain extent stability.In the later stage of warming,the relative electrical conductivity,MDA content in ginkgo,·O-2 generation rate,SOD activity,H2O2 content increased,while POD activity decreased.The highest values of the relative electrical conductivity and ·O-2 generation rate appeared at 40 ℃ of cooling,those of MDA and H2O2 contents did at 35 ℃ of cooling,and that of SOD activity did at 30 ℃ of cooling,which showed the hysteresis of the above indexes to short-term high temperature.·O-2 generation rate and H2O2 content decreased,activate oxygen metabolism kept the balance,so that the relative electrical conductivity and MDA content decreased.


Teleoperated mobile robots, equipped with object manipulation capabilities, provide safe means for executing dangerous tasks in hazardous environments without putting humans at risk. However, mainly due to a communication delay, complex operator interfaces and insufficient Situational Awareness (SA), the task productivity of telerobots remains inferior to human workers. This paper addresses the shortcomings of telerobots by proposing a combined approach of (i) a scalable and intuitive operator interface with gestural and verbal input, (ii) improved Situational Awareness (SA) through sensor fusion according to documented best practices, (iii) integrated virtual fixtures for task simplification and minimizing the operator's cognitive burden and (iv) integrated semiautonomous behaviors that further reduce cognitive burden and negate the impact of communication delays, execution latency and/or failures. The proposed teleoperation system, TeMoto, is implemented using ROS (Robot Operating System) to ensure hardware agnosticism, extensibility and community access. The operator's command interface consists of a Leap Motion Controller for hand tracking, Griffin PowerMate USB as turn knob for scaling and a microphone for speech input. TeMoto is evaluated on multiple robots including two mobile manipulator platforms. In addition to standard, task-specific evaluation techniques (completion time, user studies, number of steps, etc.)—which are platform and task dependent and thus difficult to scale—this paper presents additional metrics for evaluating the user interface including task-independent criteria for measuring generalized (i) task completion efficiency and (ii) operator context switching.


The present invention provides a mobile ad processing method, and a terminal proxy server. A method comprising: receiving a proxy server to proxy SDK embedded advertisement request sent by the application, the advertisement request message carries an identifier of the application; identifying and obtaining a corresponding Network traffic allocation according to the identifier of the application; according the traffic allocation select identification network, and transmits the advertisement information requests according to the corresponding advertisement identifier of the selected network ad network; receiving the advertisement corresponding to the advertisement information returned by the network request according to the advertisement information, and SDK is sent to the proxy, the proxy SDK so that the information display position of the advertisement in the advertisement application.


Extracorporeal life support use in redo‐lung transplant is limited due to poor outcomes. Extracorporeal circulation with a single duo‐lumen cannula provides the advantage of more comfortable mobilization particularly in patients in which we expect a longer bridge to transplant.


The sympathetic nervous system has been postulated to play a role in the maintenance of renal hypertension. Permanent peripheral sympathectomy was performed by treating newborn rats for 21 days with guanethidine. Sympathectomy was confirmed by (1) relative insensitivity to tyramine, (2) lack of responsiveness to renal nerve stimulation, and (3) absence of dopamine-/J-hydroxylase immunofluorescence in renal blood vessels. Placement of a clip on the left renal artery led to the development of two-kidney renal hypertension. No differences were observed between the two-kidney renal hypertensive normal and sympathectomized rats; both had elevated plasma renin activity and vasodepression with angiotensin antagonists which were maintained up to nine weeks. Furthermore, in normal rats chronic β-adrenergic blockade with propranolol caused no change in the development of the two-kidney renal hypertension. Similarly, no differences were seen in blood pressure, plasma renin activity, or response to antagonists between the one-kidney renal hypertensive (clip plus contralateral nephrectomy) normal and sympathectomized rats. Both showed sustained low renin hypertension up to 12 weeks. The absence of the peripheral sympathetic nervous system did not affect the development or maintenance of hypertension in either model of hypertension.


This article aims to make visible the transformation proposed by the progressive governments of Latin America after their irruption in the political scene of the 21st century. Their political and communication agendas, framed in the concept of Communicational State, are based on considering communication as a right and not as a commodity. It is based on a conceptual and analytical review, through readings of speeches, documents and news, of three cases of political interest that have originated in Argentina (referring to the Audiovisual Communication Services Law), Bolivia (regarding women's participation in politics) and Venezuela (regarding the promotion of community media, as a confrontation with the private system). It should be clarified that this article synthesizes some of the results of a research project aimed at recognizing the impact of some political issues from the communication action of governments in the Latin American region during the period 2010-2015. In conclusion, it can be said that governments have articulated public policies, in the field of communication, aimed at building their own political agendas capable of entering fully into the disputes of the political media scene, as well as expanding new media, leaving a mark on the work of journalists.


Pap smears is a very effective screening test for cervical precancerous. However, hundreds of small windows have to be looked under microscope by a trained cytologist for a single slide from each patient. It makes this process very tedious and erroneous. The proposed system is designed to give a discriminati on ability of the adopted features to do suc- cessful classification for the extracted ROI (i.e., nucleus of the cells). Two kinds of features have been used for discriminati on purpose; the first kind is a set of geometrical features because many of the extracted Pap smear ROI are categorized ac- cording to their shapes (i.e., circular, oval, irregular, small, big). While the second kind of features is a set of texture fea- tures (local and global color features) because one of the main differences between cancerous cells and other types is the local changes in the brightness.


The Early Gaia Data Release 3 (EDR3) provides precise astrometry for nearly 1.5 billion sources across the entire sky. A few tens of these are associated with neutron stars in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds. Here, we report on a search for EDR3 counterparts to known rotation-powered pulsars using the method outlined in Antoniadis. A cross-correlation between EDR3 and the ATNF pulsar catalog identifies 41 close astrometric pairs (≲05 at the reference epoch of the pulsar position). Twenty six of these are related to previously known optical counterparts, while the rest are candidate pairs that require further follow-up. Highlights include the Crab Pulsar (PSR B0531+21), for which EDR3 yields a distance of 2.08−0.45+0.78 kpc (or 2.00−0.38+0.56 kpc taking into account the dispersion-measure prior; errors indicate 95% confidence limits) and PSR 1638−4608, a pulsar thus-far considered to be isolated that lies within 0056 of a Gaia source.


The 2013 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the 2014–2020 period aimed to be a flagship initiative for the delivery of more environmental and climate friendly agriculture, encapsulated in the slogan "public money for public goods". To achieve its environmental and climate change goals, the EU uses key instruments of Pillars 1 and 2 to provide more public goods from EU agriculture. Organic farming is recognised under both instruments for the first time in terms of its contribution to public goods.