Social computers have been characterised as goal oriented complex systems comprised of humans as well as

computational devices. Such systems can be found in natura in a variety of scenarios, as well as designed to

tackle specific issues of social and economic relevance. In the present article we introduce the Lightweight

Situated Social Calculus (LS2C) as a language to design executable specifications of interaction protocols for

social computations. Additionally, we describe a platform to process these specifications, giving them a computational

realisation. We argue that LS2C can be used to design, implement and execute social computations.


Companies are continuously looking to improve their production systems using excellence models, with lean thinking, the Shingo model, six sigma and lean six sigma being the most comprehensive and applied. It is expected that the initial focus for the survival of companies is their economic profitability, but when economic needs are met, the next step is to achieve operational excellence. For this, in addition to economic objectives, it is necessary to include social and environmental objectives, i.e., the other two pillars of sustainability. This study aims to propose a conceptual model identifying the tools that can help achieve the desired results in the three pillars of sustainability aligned with operational excellence. The design of the conceptual model was based on a bibliometric analysis of the literature that relates the concepts of lean thinking, six sigma, lean six sigma and the Shingo model. The Web of Science was the platform selected for the collection of data, and the timeframe considered was 2010 to 2021. A total of 125 articles were analyzed using the VosViewer software, through which it was possible to analyze different topics of study related to the literature. The bibliometric analysis allowed for the identification of the temporal distribution of publications, the categorization of topics, different areas of application and the importance of the tools used in different practical cases. This study points out that companies have at their disposal several tools to achieve economic objectives. On the other hand, there is a set of more restricted tools that are used to meet the objectives of the social and environmental pillars. Future research should focus on identifying tools that meet social and environmental goals in order to strengthen these pillars that are essential for operational excellence and for the sustainability of companies.


Domain-specific hardware is becoming a promising topic in the backdrop of improvement slow down for general-purpose processors due to the foreseeable end of Moore's Law. Machine learning, especially deep neural networks (DNNs), has become the most dazzling domain witnessing successful applications in a wide spectrum of artificial intelligence (AI) tasks. The incomparable accuracy of DNNs is achieved by paying the cost of hungry memory consumption and high computational complexity, which greatly impedes their deployment in embedded systems. Therefore, the DNN compression concept was naturally proposed and widely used for memory saving and compute acceleration. In the past few years, a tremendous number of compression techniques have sprung up to pursue a satisfactory tradeoff between processing efficiency and application accuracy. Recently, this wave has spread to the design of neural network accelerators for gaining extremely high performance. However, the amount of related works is incredibly huge and the reported approaches are quite divergent. This research chaos motivates us to provide a comprehensive survey on the recent advances toward the goal of efficient compression and execution of DNNs without significantly compromising accuracy, involving both the high-level algorithms and their applications in hardware design. In this article, we review the mainstream compression approaches such as compact model, tensor decomposition, data quantization, and network sparsification. We explain their compression principles, evaluation metrics, sensitivity analysis, and joint-way use. Then, we answer the question of how to leverage these methods in the design of neural network accelerators and present the state-of-the-art hardware architectures. In the end, we discuss several existing issues such as fair comparison, testing workloads, automatic compression, influence on security, and framework/hardware-level support, and give promising topics in this field and the possible challenges as well. This article attempts to enable readers to quickly build up a big picture of neural network compression and acceleration, clearly evaluate various methods, and confidently get started in the right way.


Abstract : Shielding effectiveness for a screened work area in building 3208 of the Picatinny Arsenal has been measured using techniques and processes defined in MIL-STD 188-125-1. The measured frequency ranges go beyond the MIL-STD 10 MHz to 1 GHz, to include the frequency range of 1 to 10 GHz. The results of the measurements show that attenuation factors provided in the current configuration are sufficient to provide acceptable environmental and safety protection from high-power RF impulse sources radiated from within.


1. Becker AJ, McCulloch EA, Till JE. Cytological demonstration of the clonal nature of spleen colonies derived from transplanted mouse marrow cells. Nature 1963;197:452-4. 2. Siminovitch L, McCulloch EA, Till JE. The distribution of colonyforming cells among spleen colonies. J Cell Comp Physiol 1963;62:32736. 3. Weissman IL. Translating stem and progenitor cell biology to the clinic: barriers and opportunities. Science 2000;287:1442-6. 4. Evans MJ, Kaufman MH. Establishment in culture of pluripotent cells from mouse embryos. Nature 1981;292:154-6. 5. Martin GR. Isolation of a pluripotent cell line from early mouse embryos cultured in medium conditioned by teratocarcinoma stem cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1981;78:7634-8. 6. Thomson JA, Itskovitz-Eldor J, Shapiro SS, et al. Embryonic stem cell lines derived from human blastocysts. Science 1998;282:1145-7. [Erratum, Science 1998;282:1827.] 7. Weissman IL. Stem cells: units of development, units of recognition, and units in evolution. Cell 2000;100:157-68. 8. Anderson DJ, Gage FH, Weissman IL. Can stem cells cross lineage boundaries? Nat Med 2001;7:393-5. 9. Weissman IL, Anderson DJ, Gage F. Stem and progenitor cells: origins, phenotypes, lineage commitments, and transdifferentiation. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol 2001;17:387-403. 10. Morrison SJ. Stem cell potential: can anything make anything? Curr Biol 2001;11:R7-R9. 11. Blau HM, Brazelton TR, Weimann JM. The evolving concept of a stem cell: entity or function? Cell 2001;105:829-41. 12. Wright DE, Wagers AJ, Gulati AP, Johnson FL, Weissman IL. Physiological migration of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Science 2001;294:1933-6. 13. Wakayama T, Tabar V, Rodriguez I, Perry AC, Studer L, Mombaerts P. Differentiation of embryonic stem cell lines generated from adult somatic cells by nuclear transfer. Science 2001;292:740-3. 14. Munsie MJ, Michalska AE, O'Brien CM, Trounson AO, Pera MF, Mountford PS. Isolation of pluripotent embryonic stem cells from reprogrammed adult mouse somatic cell nuclei. Curr Biol 2000;10:989-92. 15. Hochedlinger K, Jaenisch R. Monoclonal mice generated by nuclear transfer from mature B and T donor cells. Nature 2002;415:1035-8. 16. Kawase E, Yamazaki Y, Yagi T, Yanagimachi R, Pedersen RA. Mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell lines established from neuronal cell-derived cloned blastocysts. Genesis 2000;28:156-63. 17. Committee on the Biological and Biomedical Applications of Stem Cell Research. Stem cells and the future of regenerative medicine. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2002. 18. Panel on Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning. Scientific and medical aspects of human reproductive cloning. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2002. 19. California Advisory Committee on Human Cloning. Final report of the California Advisory Committee on Human Cloning. Sacramento: California Department of Health Services, 2002. (Accessed April 23, 2002, at http://www.law.stanford.edu/features/greely/.)


As an important part of smart grid,the metering automatic system( MAS) should be improved to meet the access of distributed power generation. The definition and overall framework of MAS,and the operation status of MAS in Guangzhou power grid were introduced. Based on the business demand of Guangzhou power supply bureau Co.,Ltd.,the overall function deployment program for new MAS was designed. Then the data acquisition,line loss rate and online / offline time statistics of the distributed power sources that connected to power grid were studied,so as to propose some suggestions for the development direction of MAS in Guangzhou power grid.


Based on experimental data,the relation among irrigation,fertilizer and crop yield was analyzed preliminarily with considering water and N fertilizer in the paper.The connotation of efficiency of crop nitrogen uptake was discussed,three models were built about efficiency of crop nitrogen uptake,nitogen production function,two factorial(water and fertilizer) Production function.It provides a reference for establishing water saving irrigation and fertilizer dressing.


The present invention discloses a method for growing organic jasmine, the method comprising selection of jasmine, soil pH adjustment, seeding, soil preparation, planting, pruning shears cutting, weeding, fertilizing, controlling pests, primarily for the production of pesticide, without hormones and chemical pollution-free high-quality organic jasmine, provide the production of high-grade organic jasmine tea, jasmine production of edible flowers and dried flowers, jasmine or need spice, with a full ecological cultivation techniques of the present invention obtained by the method of jasmine natural, floral fragrance , no smell, color white.


At regional to local scales internal variability is expected to be a dominant source of uncertainty in analyzing precipitation extremes and mean precipitation even far into the 21st century. A debated topic is whether a faster increase in subdaily precipitation extremes can be expected. Here we analyzed seasonal maximum precipitation in various time steps (3 hr, days, and 5 days) from a high‐resolution 50‐member large‐ensemble (CRCM5‐LE) and compared them to changes in mean precipitation over Europe. Our results show that the magnitude of change in extreme precipitation varies for season and duration. Subdaily extremes increase at higher rates than daily extremes and show higher scaling with temperature. Northern Europe shows widespread scaling above Clausius‐Clapeyron of subdaily extremes in all seasons and for daily extremes in winter/spring. Scaling above Clausius‐Clapeyron is also visible over Eastern Europe in winter/spring. For most regions and seasons the forced response emerges from the internal variability by midcentury.


The invention relates to a waterborne hinokitiol wood preservative and a preparation method thereof, and is used for solving the problems that hinokitiol giving a natural corrosion resistance to wood has poor water solubility and is difficult to use. The wood preservative comprises the components according to mol ratio: 0.2-2 mol of hinokitiol, 1 mol of a solubility promoter, and 0.01-1 mol of a tannin extract (the molar ratio calculated according to the content of phenolic hydroxyl group). The wood preservative is used for processing the wood, and when the mass concentration of hinokitiol is about 1%, the resistance of the processed wood to Aspergillus niger, Penicillium citrinum, Trichoderma is up to 100%, and the fungal growth is completely inhibited; and moreover, the molding resistance of the processed wood to Coriolus versicolor and Gloeophyllum trabeum can achieve strong molding resistance level.


The paper focuses on the results of the study of the shifts in communicative leadership styles practised at the Ukrainian organization as the reflection of overall behavioural and communicative changes in the Ukrainian society, namely, in higher education in the post-Soviet period. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University focusing on the communicative leadership styles realized between 2014 and 2021. Communicative leadership is regarded in terms of the interplay between positional leaders and co-workers in the organization. At the same time, communicative leadership is addressed as a complex psycholinguistic phenomenon. Its potential is viewed as a means for teambuilding, satisfaction of institutional, personal and professional goals and demands in a given situation or context. Correspondently, it is evaluated according to communicative and pragmatic effectiveness, fulfilment of organizational and team tasks connecting co-workers with common goals. We also take into consideration people's emotional satisfaction after the communication with the leader. We regard a communicative leader as a person who has moral authority in the team, takes responsibility for the staff and unit in a broad sense. We address a communicative leader as a person who suggests concrete things to deal with a situation, speaks the language people speak, shares the same values and problems with people, thus, uniting and integrating the co-workers. The objective of the research is to analyze and contrast the effectiveness of the communicative leadership styles in the Ukrainian organization, namely, the HEI. The research embraces the following stages: preparatory (analysis of the existing research in the area); research (observing the situational context, discourse analysis of the participants' responses in the interview, conducting an associative experiment); findings and conclusions (making parallels and diversifying communicative leadership styles and their pragmatic effects for the team and the organization).


In order to perform tracking a moving object, a vision-based tracking system mounted on a low-altitude flying unmanned helicopter is established. It is most important that the moving object must accurately be detected and tracked from dynamic scene. The multi-threshold segmentation algorithm with adaptive tolerance based on grey-level histogram is presented. And then the object dynamic clustering algorithm with double sub-windows is used in order to avoid the disturbance of other similar object. The motion region is segmented in the shade by several appended thresholds for different illuminance. The object centroid position can be obtained correctly through 2~3 iterations in the process of dynamic clustering. The pan and tilt head is controlled based on the warping distance of the object centroid. Its pace is adjusted according to the direction of the object moving. The system produces good tracking results at a frame rate of 15 fps. These algorithms and methods are available, and the system has a certain extent practicability.


This paper discusses the applicability of an orthogonally extracted Volterra series behavioural model to the system level simulation of a wide range of RF blocks. Two reference circuits were used in a simulator as test systems for model extraction and validation: a nonlinear system with linear memory (Hammerstein system) and a nonlinear system with nonlinear memory (feedback system) [1]. Using these system level blocks, we were able to vary both their nonlinearity and memory effects and show how the proposed model keeps its accuracy even when validated under a different signal excitation and varying power level.


RUBELLA is now widely accepted as a cause of congenital malformations and fetal death.1 2 3 4 5 Consequently, gamma globulin is commonly used to prevent rubella in pregnant women exposed to the disease. However, there has been only limited experimental evidence supporting this use of the agent.5 6 7 8 An opportunity for study of its effectiveness in the prevention of rubella was afforded by the widespread rubella epidemic that occurred in Taiwan between September, 1957, and May, 1958. Epidemic rubella had not occurred in Taiwan since 1944, and attack rates were high, with nearly 1,000,000 cases in a population of 10,000,0009; in this study, . . .


The process of social science as public philosophy has applicability for a new and different kind of religious research underlying local church planning. Since theory, research and planning interact, critical analysis of their connectedness is called for. The literature differs on whether or not they are essentially connected, whether social science research is even compatible with church planning, and whether or not adequate rationales for planning already exist. A review of this literature concludes that sources are not available which critically blend a theory of research with applications to church planning. Criteria useful for doing such an analysis are drawn from both theoretical and practical sources and social science as public philosophy is demonstrated to meet those criteria and to employ epistemological underpinnings that ground moral inquiry as properly scientific and germane to church planning. Pertinent features of the epistemology of Michael Polanyi are the sense of indwelling and commitment, the role of judgment and the role of enacted growth in hermeneutical understanding, a growth which transforms a congregation thus constituting a new state of affairs. Discussion draws out some implications that this position has for application to church planning and suggests strategies that a planning model could build upon.


The culture of shrimps received maximum importance due to its unique taste, high nutritive value and persistent demand in world market. In the present study an attempt has been made to culture the giant tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon in ten ponds each with 0.5 ha near Mahendrapalli village of Nagai district in Tamil Nadu, India. In 5 ponds the seeds were stocked in high stocking density (15/m^2) and remaining 5 ponds in low stoking density (8/m^2). In both the cases, the Cyclop-eeze feedwas mixed with Cp feed and provided to the seeds and survival was calculated and compared. The salinity of the ten ponds was ranging between 10-26 ppt and pH was 7.7 to 8.4. Minimum 3.3 ppm dissolved oxygen and maximum 4.2 ppm was recorded during the culture period. The temperature was ranging between 25 to 31℃ and the transparency was 25 to 45 cm. Harvesting was done in low density ponds (G1, G2, G3, G4 & G5) at DOC 120 &121 and high density ponds (H1, H2, H3, H4 & H5) it was harvested at D OC (Days of culture) 140 and 141. Average body weights of the low density ponds were 36.5 g and high density ponds were 27.2 g. Highest survival (97%) was recorded in low density ponds and the lowest survival was (92%) recorded in high density ponds. Maximum production was reported in low density ponds (1,416 Kg / 36.5 g / 121doc) and minimum production was observed in high density ponds (1,877 kg / 27.2 g / 141 doc). The maximum amount of feed was consumed by the shrimps in high density ponds (3,190) and minimum was in low density ponds (1,840). So the FCR (Food conversion ratio) for low density ponds were 1.3 and high density ponds were 1.7. Maximum net profit was obtained from low density ponds (Rs. 1, 92,480) and minimum was in high density ponds (Rs. 68,416). so it is confirmed that 8/m^2 is an ideal stocking density for the culture of P. monodon as evidenced from the high net profit (Rs. 1,92,480). To get this profit, proper nursery stocking, feeding with Cyclop-eeze feed, proper water quality management and feed management is essential.


Significance Although the United States needs to expand its STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) workforce, United States postsecondary institutions struggle to retain and effectively teach students in STEM disciplines. Using teaching techniques beyond lecture, such as pair discussions and reflective writing, has been shown to boost student learning, but it is unknown what proportion of STEM faculty use these active-learning pedagogies. Here we describe DART: Decibel Analysis for Research in Teaching, a machine-learning–derived algorithm that analyzes classroom sound to predict with high accuracy the learning activities used in classrooms, and its application to thousands of class session recordings. DART can be used for large-scale examinations of STEM teaching practices, evaluating the extent to which educators maximize opportunities for effective STEM learning. Active-learning pedagogies have been repeatedly demonstrated to produce superior learning gains with large effect sizes compared with lecture-based pedagogies. Shifting large numbers of college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty to include any active learning in their teaching may retain and more effectively educate far more students than having a few faculty completely transform their teaching, but the extent to which STEM faculty are changing their teaching methods is unclear. Here, we describe the development and application of the machine-learning–derived algorithm Decibel Analysis for Research in Teaching (DART), which can analyze thousands of hours of STEM course audio recordings quickly, with minimal costs, and without need for human observers. DART analyzes the volume and variance of classroom recordings to predict the quantity of time spent on single voice (e.g., lecture), multiple voice (e.g., pair discussion), and no voice (e.g., clicker question thinking) activities. Applying DART to 1,486 recordings of class sessions from 67 courses, a total of 1,720 h of audio, revealed varied patterns of lecture (single voice) and nonlecture activity (multiple and no voice) use. We also found that there was significantly more use of multiple and no voice strategies in courses for STEM majors compared with courses for non-STEM majors, indicating that DART can be used to compare teaching strategies in different types of courses. Therefore, DART has the potential to systematically inventory the presence of active learning with ∼90% accuracy across thousands of courses in diverse settings with minimal effort.


The Queensland State Films Board of Review banned the film The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. The board is not required to explain its decisions. However, it is generally assumed that the criterion of blasphemy was employed. It is also generally assumed that this criterion was applied to a short scene in the film depicting a fictional sexual fantasy by Jesus. The category of blaspbemy in the censorship criteria is one of the most explicitly religious principles retained in an Australian law, and the hoard received strident support from many Christians. The banning raises the issue of the right of Christians to make laws binding on a whole society. Christians draw their authority from the Bible; but a re-examination of the New Testament shows that the weight of scripture is against Christian involvement in legislative action.; ;


Regional Open-space Conservation Strategies: A Case Study of the Intertwine Alliance's Regional Conservation Strategy Travis Richard Curry Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Branden Born Urban Design and Planning Ecological processes do not adhere to political boundaries. As planners grapple to accommodate natural processes with human development, these borders must be reevaluated and strategies of coordination across them must be developed. Transcending these boundaries is necessary to achieve environmental goals. This transformation is currently occurring in metropolitan areas across the country, as regional planning institutions evaluate mechanisms and strategies for collaboration, conservation, and protection. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the methods used by the Intertwine Alliance, a collaborative partnership of public, private, and nonprofit actors in the greater Portland, Oregon region, to develop a regional open-space conservation strategy. By comparing the strategies, difficulties, and opportunities discussed in the existing literature with lessons learned from the Intertwine Alliance case study, this study attempts to identify critical factors essential to the development of open-space planning efforts at a regional scale and details possible solutions to address the greatest challenges presented by this type of work.


It is known that next generation mobile communications systems will most likely employ multi-cell signal processing - often referred to as network MIMO - in order to improve spectral efficiency and fairness. Many publications exist that predict strong achievable rate improvements, but usually neglecting various practical issues connected to network MIMO. In this paper, we analyse the impact of a constrained backhaul infrastructure and imperfect channel knowledge on uplink network MIMO from an information theoretical point of view. Especially the latter aspect leads to the fact that the channel conditions for which network MIMO is reasonably beneficial are strongly constrained. We observe different base station cooperation schemes in scenarios of maximal 3 base stations and 3 terminals, provide simulation results, and discuss the practicability of the discussed schemes and the implications of our results.


Purpose of the study: PEEK (polyetheretherketone)is increasingly used for spinal fusion since its elasticity modulus is close to that of cancellous bone. This favors harmonious force distribution within and around the implant and thus stimulates bone healing by remodeling. The purpose of this work was to report the mid-term radiographic outcome with this material used for sagittal correction. Material and methods: Fifty-seven patients aged 54.6 years on average were reviewed 4 to 8 years after isolated intervertebral fusion for degenerative disease. Levels varied from L2L3 to L5S1. Posterior instrumentation used a rigid or semi-rigid pedicle screw-plate configuration associated with an anterior approach to install a lordozing intersomatic PEEK cage and a cancellous autograft. Six patients were overweight. Regional lordosis was unchanged postoperatively for 47 patients but increased 8.2° on average for ten. The clinical outcome and radiographic fusion were noted using the Brantigan classification. Multivariate analysis was used to search for correlation between regional sagittal correction at last follow-up and the following variables: age, body weight, level, quantity of intersomatic autograft as assessed by CT, rigidity of the posterior instrumentation, posterior regional correction and size of the cage. Results: The clinical outcome was excellent for 24 patients, good for 25, fair for 6 and poor for 2. Mean sagittal correction was decreased in 13 (5.6° on average). Multivariate analysis demonstrated a significant correlation (p Discussion and conclusion: Despite the excellent rate of fusion, sagittal correction of the regional lordosis did not persist over time and tended to return to the initial state irrespective of the patient's weight or the quality of the initial graft. A rigid posterior instrumentation should be considered in parallel with the effect of the PEEK for explaining its role in the loss of correction.


OBJECTIVE
The inter-arm SBP difference (IASBPD) can serve as a predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In this study, we aimed to determine the relationship between IASBPD and central blood pressure (CBP).

METHODS
The study cohort comprised of 7842 eligible individuals. Their BPs were assessed simultaneously in both arms using an Omron BP-203RPEIII vascular profiler, and the IASBPD was measured as the absolute difference in these values (absolute value of left minus right). The CBP was noninvasively measured using an Omron HEM-9000AI device. Multivariate regression analysis was used to assess the association between the central SBP (cSBP) and the IASBPD.

RESULTS
An IASBPD of ≥10 mmHg was positively associated with the cSBP (β = 2.26; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-3.48; P < 0.001). The interaction test showed no significant interactions between the IASBPD and any of the assessed covariates (age group; sex; BMI; smoking status; heart rate group; the presence of hypertension, diabetes, or CVD; and antihypertensive drug use) when the cSBP was used as the outcome in the subgroup analysis.

CONCLUSION
The mechanism underlying the ability of the IASBPD to predict CVD may partly involve an increase in the CBP.


A prenylated xanthone has been isolated from the seeds of Symphonia globulifera together with the known compounds sitosterol and oleanolic acid. The structure of the new compound was elucidated by spectroscopic methods.


Flow or flow experience, a positive psychology concept, is characterized by intense focus, cognitive efficiency, a perceived skills-challenge balance, immediate feedback, merging of action and awareness, a sense of control, enjoyment, the opinion that time passes quickly, clearly defined task objectives and a lack of self-consciousness. The application of flow theory in foreign language teaching is a new subject worth studying. The concept and components of flow, the conditions that flow occur, flow model and its application are introduced. The flow model and the principles in creating and achieving flow in foreign language teaching and learning is then presented. Flow theory is later applied in translation teaching, in which the translation course design and task requirement, the translation teaching and learning environment, learners' performance and the roles of learners and teachers are discussed. Flow experience emerged from the well-designed translation tasks will significantly improve the students' English learning intrinsic motivation and overall level. In the design of the translation teaching syllabus and students' translation tasks, teachers should have the "flow state" into consideration, in order to make the effect of translation teaching reach optimization.


During dialysis, if blood flow rate increases above 1500ml/min. there is an increase in pulsation and a high possibility of heart failure.
 In the long run, it can cause valvular disease and arrhythmia. In EDTA 2015, we presented a method of blood flow suppression for dialysis patients who had heart failure caused by excessive blood flow. However, within one year, 30% of the cases had relapsed. To solve this problem, we were able to prevent the recurrence of excess blood flow through improvement measures with a new device. Report including theoretical mechanisms.
 During vascular access excessive shunt blood flow creates a heavy load on cardiac function. Performing blood flow control surgery on dialysis patients with heart failure symptoms improves said function. Depending on the surgical method, it may recur. For this reason, we devised a surgical method that theoretically considers recurrence suppression.

 Clinical symptoms before surgery were based on trial hemodialysis patients with significant arrhythmia and shortness of breath at the time of exertion (6 males 4 females) using EPTFE of 4mm in diameter and 4cm in length or more replaced veins extended from anastomosis. (As shown in Poiseuille's law, it is necessary to replace veins with a shunt of smaller diameter but longer length than the vein being replaced.) The point of insertion at the anastomosis portion of the artery is 4mm. In order to connect to the larger section of the vein to the other end, it is cut diagonally to make the connection secure. During the operation, blood flow was monitored using ultrasound. The central side of the tibia artery was also tied off in some cases to control blood flow.

 Blood flow was reduced to 787 ml/min immediately after surgery from 1970ml/min before surgery, 1007ml after 6 months, and 721 ml/min after one year. Symptoms of arrhythmia disappeared in two patients during surgery and in all cases shortness of breath during exertion disappeared the day after surgery. Cardiac index improved three months after surgery in three cases. In none of the cases did we observe the complete rekindling of blood flow after one year. The average blood flow was less than 63% of the rate before surgery.

 Replacement of 4cm or more length sections of veins with a 4mm diameter graft was useful in improving cardiac function in dialysis patients with heart failure.


Although web search remains an active research area, interest in enterprise search has not kept up with the information requirements of the contemporary workforce. To address these issues, this research aims to develop, implement, and study the query expansion techniques most effective at improving relevancy in enterprise search. The case-study instrument was a custom Apache Solr-based search application deployed at a medium-sized manufacturing company. It was hypothesized that a composition of techniques tailored to enterprise content and information needs would prove effective in increasing relevancy evaluation scores. Query expansion techniques leveraging entity recognition, alphanumeric term identification, and intent classification were implemented and studied using real enterprise content and query logs. They were evaluated against a set of test queries derived from relevance survey results using standard relevancy metrics such as normalized discounted cumulative gain (nDCG). Each of these modules produced meaningful and statistically significant improvements in relevancy.


We propose a diagnostic to assess the influence of a unit u i in the sample s, selected from a finite population U = {u 1 ,..., u N } using a sampling design D, on θ(s) as an estimator of a population parameter 0 = θ(Y 1 Y N ). We adjust the definition of conditional bias (Munoz-Pichardo et al., 1995), in order to obtain an influence diagnostic in survey sampling. Conditional bias as an influence measure of unit u i (u i ∈ s) on θ(s), depends on Y i and on the sampling design, D. This is a distinctive feature of sample surveys. Only in particular cases is the proposed influence measure a case-deletion diagnostic.


Negative attitude of the interrogated 313 medical workers to HIV+ touches upon the spheres of public health services, employment, education and social well-being in whole. It is connected with their relatively low knowledge concerning HIV-infection, absence of work experience with HIV+, socially-demographic and psychological factors of respondents.


To meet the Paris agreement goal (to preventing earth temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius) Use of 100 % renewable energy is the best option. The proposed model is tested with different temperatures and irradiation, resultant of P-V and I-V characteristics proved the validation of the proposed MATLAB/SIMULINK model. Tropic of Cancer passes through 8 states of India (Mizoram, West Bengal, Tripura, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan, and Gujarat) that's why India receives maximum energy from the sun. For India, it is appropriate time to shift our 100 % electrical load to solar energy. In this paper modeling of a complete PV system with MPPT (maximum power point tracking) has been presented. The control strategies have been associated with maximum power point tracking technology to maximize PV-generated power to load. PV power with MPPT has been compared with PV power without MPPT. MATLAB tool has been using to design and analyze the PV system.


H] Dihydroetorphine binding sitesin the rat brain were observed bv in vitro quantitativeautoradiography,The high density of binding sites wasin patches of striatum, nucleus accumbens,Ⅰand Ⅲlaminae of cerebral cortex,thalamus,habenula,amygdaloid complex, interpeduncular nucleus andlocus coeruleus. Olfactory bulb,other parts of cerebralcortex,superior and inferior colliculus were of mediatedensity. Septum, hypothalamus,central grey were atlow density. Competitive experiments perhrmedwith ohmefentanyl,[D-pen ̄2,D-pen ̄] enkephalin,andU-50488H,the ligands of μ,δ,and κ opioid receptorsrespectively,showed dihydroetorphine bound μreceptor.


There are greater defects for the small and micro enterprise credit rating indicator system at present; there is no consideration in most rating indicators of the actual situation of small and micro enterprises in terms of financial status,industry characteristics,financing mode,etc. In view of this,it's a rule for small and micro enterprise credit rating indicator to follow: weakening financial statements,treating the industries in classification,conciseness and pragmatism,qualitative analysis,focusing on cross validation; highlighting the quality of main leaders,stability of the business,the solvency of the enterprises,the future competence of the enterprises,the risks confronted with enterprises; and the rating indicators are divided into general evaluation indicator and evaluation indicator of concern.


This paper presents an efficient structural topology optimization strategy for crashworthiness. The proposed method combines the equivalent static loads (ESLs) method with the crash model order reduction method. The ESLs method transforms crashworthiness topology optimization problems into a series of linear static topology problems. The crash model order reduction scheme is applicable to speed up the crash simulation. Therefore, the crashworthiness topology optimization is performed in a reduction manner and the efficiency is improved. The topology optimization results are filtered into a black-white design for the crash simulation to avoid the element distortion problem. The process is repeated until the convergence criteria is satisfied. The effectiveness of proposed method is demonstrated by investing a numerical example. The results show that, the proposed method can efficiently solve structural topology optimization problems for crashworthiness.


The aim of this paper is to identify and describe the difficulties faced by
 families with nonmarital children (especially single-parent), available help
 and support, participation of the father in raising a child, and expected
 institutional help. That represents a first step toward better understanding
 of these families. The paper presents part of the results of research carried
 out in Belgrade with the aim of insight into the phenomenon of nonmarital
 childbearing at the individual level. It was conducted on a sample of 100
 respondents, mothers of nonmarital children, who attend preschool. The survey
 was anonymous, carried out by the interview method. For this purpose a
 questionnaire with more than 50 questions was made, standardized to a great
 extent. In this paper, the focus is on the hardships and needs of the group
 of lone mothers. Though some issues take into account the answers of all
 respondents (21 cohabited mothers and 79 lone mothers), the analysis is
 largely related to the experiences and reflections of lone mothers. The 2011
 Census data on prevalence of consensual unions and characteristics of persons
 living in them, as well as earlier data on the acknowledgment of paternity,
 do not indicate that nonmarital childbearing in Serbia takes place primarily
 in stable unions. It is realistic to assume that a large percentage of
 mothers with nonmarital children are lone mothers. The research results are
 generally consistent with the findings of relevant studies from our and
 foreign countries. As the largest difficulties, lone mothers emphasize
 financial problems, unemployment, housing difficulties, and child care, as
 well as a pronounced feeling of loneliness. Most of them in solving problems
 and rising children rely on their parents and siblings, with whom they often
 live in the same household. Every fifth lone mother when faced with a major
 problem, and every ninth in everyday raising a child can count on the father
 of the child. About a third of the children have no contact with their
 father, and as many fathers do not make any financial contribution. Actually,
 insufficient presence and participation of the father, in the lives of
 children and in daily performing parental responsibilities of their mothers,
 is one of the most important aspects that deserve the attention of
 researchers and policy-makers when it comes to lone mothers with unmarital
 children. The realization of children's rights in relation to financing and
 visitation the fathers after parental separation, is far more difficult than
 in divorced or widowed single-parent families. Some considerations about
 measures of state and local community support can be based on the selected
 research results presented in this paper. Support measures are possible in
 multiple domains, social policy (financial support and assistance in
 employment), institutions of preschool education, as well as in health,
 education, pre-school and social system counseling services. Greater
 involvement of men in family life and parenthood stands out as a very
 important objective, as well as motivation of fathers to involve in raising
 their nonresident children, including financial support. Three-quarters of
 the total number of respondents expect the state support to lone unmarried
 mothers. Three-quarters of lone mothers and one third of cohabited mothers
 expressed the need for state assistance in solving their own most important
 existential issues.


Bounds is a tool that enables parameterised verification by determining cut-offs for the values of parameters and generating the specification and system instances up to the cut-offs. After that, the verification can be completed by using an existing finite-state verification tool. A unique feature of Bounds is that it allows multiple and topology related parameters and terminates on every input.


The Retina Service of Wills Eye Hospital, Mid Atlantic Retina, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA Abstract: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading and preventable cause of childhood blindness worldwide. Although laser photocoagulation remains the gold standard for treatment, the off-label use of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy to treat ROP, particularly posterior zone I disease, is increasing. Although initial studies on anti-VEGF therapy for ROP have focused on bevacizumab, recent studies have proposed that ranibizumab may be a safer and more effective alternative for use in this population. This review updates recent evidence regarding the use of ranibizumab in the management of ROP.


Analytical investigations of two-impulse transfers between inclined elliptical orbits, using vector analysis and other mathematical techniques, have yielded pertinent, heretofore unknown facts about an orbital transfer function. A geometric analysis helped to show not only that the minimum velocity increment solution between two points on elliptical orbits could be along a hyperbola, but also that there could be two relative minima in this impulse function. Particular examples of both of these phenomena are given. An eighth-order polynomial expression, the real roots of which may refer to extrema in the impulse function, is then determined. Since it can be shown that some of these roots are extraneous, not corresponding to impulse minima, two test functions are next determined which define regions in which all extrema must lie. These regions identify those roots that do correspond to extrema in the impulse function and those that are extraneous. These new analytical findings have been incorporated into an earlier computer contour mapping program that locates the optimum transfer between elliptical orbits.


This project is Entitled as "COLLEGE BALLOT SYSTEM". Online Ballot System is a web-based voting system that will help you to manage your elections easily and securely. This voting system can be used for casting votes during the elections held in colleges and it minimizes the errors of vote counting. The individual votes are submitted in a database which can be counted to get the highest number of votes of the candidates for a given post. The system computes the election result for all the posts and provides report for the entire election process. The main objective of this system is to design, develop and implement an efficient and interactive web based student voting system. This project is titled as "COLLEGE BALLOT SYSTEM" and was developed using PHP as front end and MYSQL as back end.


Topic modelling and citation recommendation of scientific articles are important yet challenging research problems in scientific article analysis. In particular, the inference on coherent topics can be easily affected by irrelevant contents in articles. Meanwhile, the extreme sparsity of citation networks brings difficulty to a valid citation recommendation. Intuitively, articles with similar topics are more likely to cite each other, and cited articles tend to share similar themes. Motivated from this intuition, we aim to boost the performance of both topic modelling and citation recommendation by effectively leverage this underlying correlation between latent topics and citation networks. To this end, we propose a novel Bayesian deep generative model termed as Neural Relational Topic Model (NRTM), which is composed with a Stacked Variational Auto-Encoder (SVAE) and a multilayer perception (MLP). Specifically, the SVAE utilizes an inference network to learn more representative topics of document contents, which can help to enrich the latent factors in collaborative filtering of citations. Furthermore, the MLP network conducts nonlinear collaborative filtering of citations, which can further benefit the inference of topics by leveraging the knowledge of citation networks. Extensive experiments on two real-world datasets demonstrate that our model can effectively take advantages of the coherence between topic learning and citation recommendation, and significantly outperform the state-of-the-art methods on both tasks.


Convective heat transfer of laminar, single-phase flow in rough microtubes is studied. Wall roughness and slope are assumed to possess Gaussian, isotropic distributions. Fractal concepts are used to model the rough microtube. It is shown that due to the existence of wall roughness, both cross-sectional and inside surface areas are increased. A new concept is defined as a figure of merit for assessing thermal performance of rough microtubes. As a result of increasing roughness, an enhancement is observed in the thermal performance of microtubes. The present model can be extended to analyze other geometries such as rectangular and trapezoidal microchannels.


The educational proposals are complemented by the growth of distance and virtual education, with the use and inclusion of Web resources and virtual platforms. Teachers are ready to develop digital, educational and disciplinary skills, and educational institutions begin to create learning environments conducive to the generation of knowledge in today's information society. In this article educational practice and teaching are contextualized on this scenario, and presents a context of the communication tools and Web resources most used in education. Finally, we provide an educational learning experience with Proyecto Aula of the Universidad Veracruzana, a model of management and mediation to transform educational practices in which the incorporation of ICT in teaching-learning process seeks the creation of educational environments that enrich the training of students and teacher knowledge. Palabras clave aprendizaje, competencias digitales, docente, ensenanza, TIC, Universidad Veracruzana.


Social support plays a crucial role in managing and enhancing one's mental health and well-being. In order to explore the role of a robot's companion-like behavior on its therapeutic interventions, we conducted an eight-week-long deployment study with seventy participants to compare the impact of (1) acontrol robot with only assistant-like skills, (2) acoach-like robot with additional instructive positive psychology interventions, and (3) acompanion-like robot that delivered the same interventions in a peer-like and supportive manner. The companion-like robot was shown to be the most effective in building a positive therapeutic alliance with people, enhancing participants' well-being and readiness for change. Our work offers valuable insights into how companion AI agents could further enhance the efficacy of the mental health interventions by strengthening their therapeutic alliance with people for long-term mental health support.


The most recurrent theme in the early literature on women and farming is of women's invisibility. By the end of the 1990s, however, an important shift had occurred with farm women's increased visibility. Two international conferences had been held on women and agriculture, numerous rural women's groups had been formed across the world and a substantial literature had emerged documenting women's role and work on farms. However, despite the increased prominence given to the private lives of women farmers, they are still largely unrepresented in the public sphere of agriculture. In the Australian cane industry, for example, women hold none of the 181 elected positions of leadership in their agri-political group, CANEGROWERS. This anomaly between what we now know about women's important role in farming and their absence from decision-making positions in the sector, has shifted the focus of academic work on women and agriculture from examining family farming to studies of organisational culture and leadership.

This thesis contributes to this shift in academic focus by reporting on an in-depth study of a single agri-political organisation, the Australian sugar industry's, CANEGROWERS. Its significance is that it makes important and critical links between the gendered processes and practices on the farm and the gendered processes and practices of the agri-political group. In both metaphorical and real terms it makes links between the 'paddock' and the 'board room'.

This research derives its feminist perspective from a commitment to five key principles. These are focusing on women, valuing women's experiences and knowledge, rejecting the split between subject and object, emphasising consciousness raising and emphasising political change and emancipation.

The research design includes both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. A case study of CANEGROWERS using in-depth interviews with fifteen elected members, participant observation and document analysis, provides contextual data on the organisation and its practices and processes. A survey of 234 women involved in the industry gives a quantitative perspective on the nature of women's farm work, the barriers to their participation in CANEGROWERS and possible strategies to facilitate greater participation. Two final case studies of the district locations of Mackay and the Herbert River are used to present a descriptive and localised understanding of the issues. Both case studies use a range of methods including focus groups with forty women, in-depth interviews with CANEGROWERS' staff members and women who have stood for election, participant observation and document analysis.

The main finding that emerges from this thesis is that the path to leadership within the agri-political group CANEGROWERS is subjective, closed and distinctly gendered. This is in distinct contrast to the way it is represented by elected members and some CANEGROWERS' staff as a process which is objective, open and gender neutral. This gendered path to leadership begins with how the notion of farmer is constructed solely in terms of the on-farm physical work undertaken largely by men. Thus; importantly, women's work on sugar cane farms, what they do and what they do not do, is intricately connected with their level of participation in the organisation CANEGROWERS.

The research provides evidence of the fact that women are actively involved on sugar cane farms performing a myriad of roles which contribute to the industry's sustainability. However, the roles they perform and the knowledge needed to conduct these roles are not valued. What work and knowledge is valued is that relating to on-farm physical labour. Despite the popular and mainstream rhetoric about the need for new types of farming and new types of farmers, there persists across the industry a view that the farmer is involved solely (or most importantly) in physical work and it is this which is given status. To be a farmer is to do physical work and to do physical work is to be a male. Furthermore, having legitimacy within the industry as an elected leader is equated with one's status as a farmer and the knowledge one has as a result of participation in on-farm physical work. Thus, while elected members cite the importance of having a diversity of knowledge to make up an effective agri-political board, the knowledge to which they refer is extremely narrow. The knowledge that women might have, for example, as a result of their high level of participation in financial management, is not afforded the same status and therefore does not entitle them to be a contender for industry leadership.

Even on those few occasions in the sugar industry, where; because of their involvement in physical work, women have seen themselves as having a right to stand as an elected member, the gendered path to leadership continues to militate against their involvement. They are told to be visible in an industry where women are seldom seen, in an industry which rarely gives visibility to the work they do or the knowledge they have and in an industry where their contribution as partners in a farming enterprise does not necessarily entitle them to :franchise in the organisation. In addition, women do not have access to the same opportunities as men for demonstrating their visibility because the types of forums where visibility is judged (such as at industry meetings) are the very forums where women report their presence as being either denigrated or questioned.

An understanding of rural culture provides further insight into the gendered nature of visibility and the way in which men's visibility is judged very differently from women's visibility. Within this culture, a woman who does demonstrate visibility may find herself censured by both women and men for operating against the status quo.

The gendered path to leadership within CANEGROWERS culminates in both the definition and application of merit. While the term is purported by CANEGROWERS' elected members to be gender neutral an examination of the many extraneous factors which impact on the electoral process and the way in which they have differential meanings for women and men indicate that this is not the case. These factors include lack of options, longevity in office, grooming for office, the concept of tradition and family name, popularity, appointments outside of election, the conservatism of the constituency and protocol. Ultimately, within the organisation CANEGROWERS, merit has been equated with being a male.

The research concludes that, while very few strategies have been initiated by CANEGROWERS to address the question of women's representation, there is some possibility for change in industry-based networks for women. These networks have the potential to challenge homogeneous and androcentric constructions of terms such as 'knowledge' and 'merit' and the potential to give women the confidence, space and opportunity to be 'visible'. Unfortunately, the findings indicate that there has been a high level of resistance to these networks. The resistance has characterised the involvement of women as a divisive force for families, communities and the broader industry. The potency of this discourse in terms of limiting women's involvement in networks is evident when one appreciates the way in which farm women so often subjugate their own needs to ensure that harmonious relationships are maintained.

Overall, to be a successful force for positive change, sugar industry networks for women must be seen as legitimate forums for women to practice industry leadership, must be given unequivocal support from industry leaders and must be adequately resourced by the organisation. Most importantly, the formation of these networks must not be viewed as absolving the organisation from any need to make changes to its culture, processes and practices. The aim must be to make CANEGROWERS not just a 'men's organisation' as it was so often described in this research, with women's networks on the margins, but an organisation where both men and women can participate fully and equally.

It would be unjust and inexcusable if CANEGROWERS' commitment to this research was used to suggest that impediments to women achieving leadership positions exist only in the sugar industry. The evidence that is available from the broader studies cited above is that this is not the case. What is different about CANEGROWERS is that they have commissioned research which has examined the nature of the culture and the construction of merit within the industry. That other agricultural industry groups have not cannot be used to suggest that CANEGROWERS or the sugar industry are particularly different from other agencies or industries. It is likely that very similar cultural constraints exist within their own agencies and industries. At the same time, knowing that women are likely to experience difficulties in participating in leadership in other agricultural agencies does not excuse or justify women's lack of inclusion in CANEGROWERS. This merely indicates that the entire agricultural sector needs to work harder to achieve greater diversity in representative decision-making positions.


The article reveals the importance of tea trade route starting in Hankou and passes through Kyakhta in Russia and Europe that has existed for nearly 200 years, until the mid-twentieth century. A.G.Grigorjan desire to recreate the tourist route along the ancient ways of the tea trade in the twenty-first century


The Hybrid Rat Diversity Panel (HRDP) is a stable and well-characterized set of more than 90 inbred rat strains that can be leveraged for systems genetics approaches to understanding the genetic and genomic variation associated with complex disease. The HRDP exhibits substantial between-strain diversity while retaining substantial within-strain isogenicity, allowing for the precise mapping of genetic variation associated with complex phenotypes and providing statistical power to identify associated variants. In order to robustly identify associated genetic variants, it is important to account for the population structure induced by inbreeding. To this end, we investigate the performance of various plausible approaches towards modeling quantitative traits in the HRDP and quantify their operating characteristics. Towards facilitating study planning and design, we conduct extensive simulations to investigate the power of genetic association analyses in the HRDP, and characterize the impressive attained power.


A generalization of compatible maps called "biased maps" is introduced and used to prove fixed point theorems for Meir-Keeler type contractions involving four maps. Extensions of known results are thereby obtained. In particular, a theorem by Kang and Rhoades is generalized.


Biodiversity measurement served as baseline data for the development of effective conservation plans. The accuracy of the measurement was highly dependent on the size of the sample plot. Even though Indonesia had various ecosystems, the standard sample plot size for measuring plant species diversity was only available for lowland, lower montane, and mangrove forests. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the optimal dimension of plots for measuring plant species diversity in coastal forest ecosystems. The data was collected in Ujung Kulon National Park using various dimensions of sample plots ranging from 2 m × 2 m to 150 m × 50 m. Furthermore, the rarefaction method and species-area curve were used to examine the data. The curves showed that the optimal sample plot dimensions for seedling, sampling, and pole levels were 110 m × 50 m and 150 m × 50 m for tree stages.
tree stages.


The study search to understand the production process of agroecological farming family in District Pains, Santa Maria, RS. Then, we sought to understand the importance of family farming as a way of valuing community in social, economic and environmental. Furthermore, we tried to meet the changes in agricultural practices District Pains, highlighting alternative farming practices and sustainable benefits to the local community. The paper presents a qualitative approach where they were used as instruments of research interviews that have been applied to social subjects involved.


Rehistoricising and repositioning: perspectives on aspects of historical
practice in contemporary South Africa
This article comments critically on certain aspects of the involvement of the
African National Congress government with historical practice in South Africa. It
highlights the weaknesses of nationalistic inspired political histories and the
shortcomings of the history report authored by the Truth and Reconciliation
Committee. In a concluding section it seeks to reposition the discipline as
practised at predominantly Afrikaans universities. End
Herhistorisering en herposisionering: perspektiewe op aspekte van
geskiedsbeoefening in hedendaagse Suid-Afrika
Hierdie artikel lewer kritiese kommentaar op sekere aspekte van die
betrokkenheid van die African National Congress-regering by geskiedsbeoefening
in Suid-Afrika. Dit beklemtoon die leemtes van nasionalistiese geinspireerde
geskiedenisse en die tekortkominge van die geskiedenisverslag van die
Waarheids- en Versoeningskommissie. Ten slotte word gepoog om die dissipline
soos dit aan dominant Afrikaanse instellinge beoefen word, te herposisioneer End


The study of second brain injury(SBI) is focused on clinic field,but there is little research in forensic medicine field.The article outlines animal model making of SBI and pathophysiologic mechanism of the occurring of SBI,and analyzes the prospect of SBI study from the view of forensic medicine.


The Ryan White CARE act was executed as a program to provide HIV care to patients who do not have enough insurance or financial resources.When patients seek health care, they either already have an established physician at the time they are diagnosed with HIV, or they present to a physician because they have been diagnosed with HIV in the past. Our hypothesis was that patients who are not insured or are underinsured at the time of arriving for HIV care, do so at a later stage than those who already have insurance. We sought to evaluate whether insurance was a barrier for patients to enter care for HIV infection by comparing the CD4 cell count levels and HIV viral loads at the time of entry into medical care to three different types of infectious disease practices.


RESEARCH studies in reading at the high-school and college levels continue to appear in large numbers. Gray (34, 35) discussed seven contributions of research in the field of reading and summarized significant findings in his article on reading in the new Encyclopedia of Educational Research. Durrell (19) outlined recent trends in the teaching of reading. Witty (118) published a new manual for teachers and others in the field.


One of important problems in supply chains management is supplier selection. In a company, there are massive data from various departments so that extracting knowledge from the company's data is too complicated. Many researchers have solved this problem by some methods like fuzzy set theory, goal programming, multi objective programming, the liner programming, mixed integer programming, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), analytic network process model, TOPSIS, etc. Past research gaps are lack of attention to enterprise historical data and extract knowledge from them, review the past performance of suppliers and use effect of the their past performance to their future work. The aim of this paper is to solve supplier selection problem based on historical data by a novel model. The proposed model has tried to uncover hidden relation in massive unstructured industrial data and has used them to extract knowledge for optimizing decision making and predicting in supply chain management by BI tools. The model is based on FP-Growth algorithm integrated with AHP. Moreover, the proposed model is a multi-criteria decision making model (MCDM) with four criteria: quality, priority, delay on delivery and cost that have chosen from literature review. The criteria have been weighed by AHP and finally the model has been validated by industrial group's historical data.


Introduction:
 Trastuzumab (TRZ) has been broadly used as a chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of advanced human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2-expressing malignancies. However, cardiotoxicity exacerbated by TRA has become an adverse clinical manifestation of oncologic treatment. Although cardioprotective outcomes of a mitochondrial division inhibitor (Mdivi-1) have been demonstrated for a wide range of cardiovascular pathologies, the anti-cardiotoxic effects of Mdivi-1 against TRZ are unknown.

 Hypothesis:
 Treatment with Mdivi-1 rescues cardiac mitochondrial dysfunction, resulting in improved left ventricular (LV) function in rats with TRZ-induced cardiotoxicity.

 Methods:
 Male Wistar rats (n=18) were divided into either TRZ group (4 mg/kg/day for 7 days, I.P., n=12) or control group (CON, n=6). In the TRZ group, rats also received one of the following co-treatments: 1) vehicle (VEH, n=6) or 2) Mdivi-1 (MDV, 1.2 mg/kg/day, n=6) via I.P. injection for 7 days. LV ejection fraction (LVEF) and cardiac mitochondrial function were determined.

 Results:
 TRZ-treated rats had impaired cardiac mitochondrial function as shown by increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, mitochondrial depolarization (reduced red/green fluorescence intensity), and mitochondrial swelling (reduced absorbance intensity), leading to LV dysfunction (75% LVEF for TRZ vs. 88% LVEF for CON) (Fig. 1A-D). Mdivi-1 co-treatment attenuated cardiac mitochondrial dysfunction and LV dysfunction as evidenced by a decrease in ROS, mitochondrial depolarization, mitochondrial swelling, and increased LVEF (83%, 11% improvement from VEH group) (Fig. 1A-D).

 Conclusions:
 Mdivi-1 effectively protected the heart against TRZ-induced cardiotoxicity by attenuating mitochondrial and LV dysfunction, thus indicating that pharmacological inhibition of mitochondrial fission could be a novel anti-cardiotoxicity in TRZ-induced cardiotoxicity.


We numerically and experimentally investigate parabolic pulse generation from 5.7-ps initial pulse using an alternate concatenation of erbium-doped fiber and dispersion-compensating fiber. The parabolic pulse is compressed to 1.8 ps.


Blinded independent central imaging reads (BICR) are compared against the local evaluation of site. In clinical trials, it has been noted that BICR have lesser bias in comparison to local evaluation. The discordance rates in central reads may still exist but its advantages over weighs the existing dis-advantages. Overall survival measurement still remains the gold standard for any compound efficacy although progression free survival measurement needs to be well documented, if a compound is so tested. There is always a potential for informative censoring with central reads.


The locomotory behavior of woodlice (Oniscus asellus (L.)) collected along a gradient of pollution from a plastics fire was quantified automatically for 4 h in the laboratory employing computer‐aided video tracking. Six locomotory parameters were measured and the corresponding individual body metal concentrations determined. Additional woodlice were collected from the same site for total protein and glycogen analyses. Woodlice collected from the litter layer overlying a pyrolyzed plastic layer spent significantly less time in activity, resulting in a walked distance less than 50% of that of woodlice collected from a nearby reference location. Furthermore, a tendency to turn predominantly in either a left or a right direction and a tendency toward a higher discontinuity in moving was found for the woodlice collected on the pyrolyzed plastic. Overall, the aberrant behavior coincided with significantly elevated body concentrations of heavy metals and lowered protein and glycogen levels. The interference of metals with neurological and metabolic processes is discussed in relation to locomotion.


The capillary-porous structure of cement stone and concrete is known to be mainly characterized by the presence of two major structural components – crystalline and gel-like products in the form of calcium sub-microcrystals of variable composition. The environmental factors cause changes in the structural-mechanical properties of the concrete structure which can be divided into "internal" and "external" ones. The number of internal properties includes those that change the relative content of the structural components of concrete – its composition, hardening conditions, and etc. The external factors include those that act directly on the already formed structure of concrete in operating conditions. These include mechanical, physical, chemical and other factors that affect the properties of the structure over time.


This research aims to analyses the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the stock market in Indonesia. This research is a quantitative descriptive study by collecting various sources from journals and current case studies about the COVID-19 outbreak. The technique of collecting data uses quotations and related news. The results in this study are The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak harms the capital market, where the occurrence of this pandemic has affected many investors in making investment actions that are very influential on the IHSG.


It is necessary to guarantee an optimal supply of all kinds of resources in construction production processes during the construction phase, including information in order to fulfil the requirements of optimal tunnelling logistics. This requires a systematic and holistic planning and decision model for logistics in tunnelling. In this paper, a basic planning and decision model is introduced with the aim of a systematic development of an overall logistics system (OLS) in tunnelling. This OLS will be developed on the basis of Supply Chain Management (SCM) and is comprised of different partial logistics systems (PLS). These PLS (e.g. conveyor belt, trucks etc.) have to be defined for all different steps in the Supply Chain (SC) of all necessary resources (e.g. disposal of concrete, removal of construction waste etc.). After the definition of different PLS for each step, their merging to different OLS follows. Afterwards, a systematic decision making process (Outranking) identifies the optimal OLS out of all different OLS. At the end of the paper, a short summary is provided as well as an outlook of how the presented model can be improved with additional parts.


Abstract Skelton (1981) and Skelton and Yousuff (1983) use component cost analysis to obtain a reduced-order model that is ' coat-equivalent ' to a full-order stochastic system. This paper presents a more direct and numerically efficient method to obtain the same reduced-order model, which is shown to be a first-order autoregressive model.


My friend Professor Lapworth kindly sent me, for identification, in July last the split portions of two nodules containing examples of the interesting little Crustacean genus Cyclus, from the 'Pennystone' Ironstone of the Coal-measures near Dudley, obtained by Miss Ethel M. R. Wood, M.Sc., of the University of Birmingham, and I have obtained permission to publish a note thereon, supplementary to my paper in 1894. In that paper I described, among other species, one which I named Cyclus Johnsoni (op. cit., Pl. XV, Figs. 4–7, pp. 537–538), from the Coal-measures, Coseley, near Dudley, which is identical with Miss Wood's specimens. As one of these latter displays some further details of appendages I have given a figure of it here as tending better to elucidate the structure of this curious genus. (See Woodcut on p. 491.)


This paper expounds the application of the cast-in-place pile for its function and grouting technique in the foundation project of bridge construction.The grouting test result shows that this technique of pile foundation construction is effective,it can not only increase the upper and skin friction of the cast-in-place pile,but also improve the bearing capacity of the cast-in-place pile,and gain a larger economic benefit for whole project at the same time.


An ultra-low voltage operation of 0.5 V, 5-bit Flash ADC has been developed and achieved an ENOB of 4.2-bit at a conversion rate of 600 MS/s. It consumes only 1.2 mW and attained an ultra-low FoM of 160 fJ/conv. steps at an ERBW of 200 MHz. A forward body bias technique and gate-interpolated double-tail latched comparator with variable delay method to compensate the mismatch voltage are introduced.


In this brief note the author comments on Carlo D'Adda's Greater precision regarding " crowding out " , offering three additional observations on the topic. While it is true that the concept was used largely in ideological terms in Italy, it resulted in the widespread belief that an increase in spending and the public debt was simultaneously the cause and effect of the weakening of the productive structure - in the way in which it alternately depended on a reduction in the propensity to spend in the private sector or on a restrictive monetary policy. Even if imprecise, this diagnosis does not seem to be far from reality. JEL: E51, H63, E52


The influence of acetic acid on the pore structure and surface area of silica prepared by the sol-gel method was investigated. Experimental conditions of synthesis, such as gelation temperature and solvents, were also studied. N2 adsorption isotherms of the samples were type 1, typical of microporous materials, explaining the high surface area values (BET) observed. The simultaneous addition of acetic and hydrochloric acids as catalysts and of acetone as solvent, together with the use of a gelation temperature of 20 oC, made it possible to prepare amorphous silica materials with surface area values up to 850 m2 g-1. The high surface area value of these samples could be explained by the microporosity and the nanometric size of the particles.


Tourists are not all the same, they have different pictures of their ideal vacation. Tourists are heterogeneous. Market segmentation is the strategic tool to account for heterogeneity among tourists by grouping them into market segments which include members similar to each other and dissimilar to members of other segments. Both tourism researchers and tourism industry use market segmentation widely to study opportunities for competitive advantage in the marketplace. This chapter explains the foundations of market segmentation, discusses alternative ways in which market segments can be formed, guides the reader through two practical examples, highlights methodological difficulties and points to milestone publications and recently published applications of market segmentation in the field of tourism.


The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and millimeter wave (mmWave) technology can provide high data rate for the fifth generation (5G) and beyond wireless networks. In this paper, a non-stationary geometric mmWave multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel model is proposed for air-to-air (A2A) communications based on a three-dimensional (3D) cylinder model. To describe the real A2A propagation environments, a two-state continuous-time Markov process is introduced to model the dynamic properties (appearance and disappearance) of scatterers. The movements of the transmitter and receiver result in time-varying angles and propagation distances that make the model more general. Based on the proposed model, the space-time-frequency correlation functions are derived using the survival probabilities of scatterers. The effects of some important model parameters on channel correlation and non-stationarity are investigated. The observations and conclusions can be used to evaluate and optimize the performance of mmWave UAV A2A communication systems.


An analytical potential function for the pairwise interaction of methane and water is reported. The function is representative of 225 ab initio quantum-mechanical calculations of the intermolecular interaction using 6–31G self-consistent-field molecular-orbital theory. The statistical parameters of the curve fitting are given and isoenergy contour maps of the interaction energy are presented and discussed.


Dear Editor, Domestic animals like buffalo, camels, cattle, goats, and sheep can develop severe illness from the acute arthropod-borne viral disease known as Rift Valley fever (RVF), which is another significant zoonotic disease that can lead to serious illness in humans. In 2000, the illness was discovered for the first time outside of Africa on the Arabian Peninsula. This sparked worries that the Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) would spread to other regions of Asia and Europe. Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa both have outbreaks. The severity of the illness in susceptible animals can vary, but symptoms such as fever, listlessness, anorexia, a disinclination to move, abortions, and high rates of morbidity and mortality in neonatal animals are common. After a case of RVF was confirmed in a lab by PCR at the National Institute for Public Health Research onAugust 29, theMauritaniaMinistry of Health alerted the WHO of an outbreak on August 30, 2022. A 25-year-old male animal breeder from Tintane moughataa (also known as district), Hodh El Gharbi wilaya, was the subject of the lawsuit (also known as region). He first showed up at a clinic on August 25 with the hemorrhagic syndrome (epistaxis) and acute thrombocytopenia. The next day, he was moved to a nearby hospital, where he passed away on August 29. Nine of Mauritania's 15 wilayas have reported a total of 47 confirmed cases as of October 17, 2022, including 23 deaths (case fatality rate 49%), largely among those who breed animals. Men outnumber women among the 47 confirmed cases (sex ratio of male : female cases is 4.4 : 1). The cases range in age from 3 to 70 years, with a median age of 22 years. The hemorrhagic syndrome (petechiae, hematemesis, and gingivorrhagia) symptoms included severe thrombocytopenia and fever, and nearly all of the 23 deaths took place in hospitals. Since the 1950s, countries in East and Southern Africa have seen severe RVF outbreaks and endemic human disease. In the 1980s, there was an epidemiologic shift in several West African nations, which was thought to be related to climate change. It has been suggested that the cattle trade was responsible for the virus's early 2000s geographic spread to Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In addition to those places, outbreaks have also occurred in the 21st century in Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Madagascar, the Republic of South Africa, Niger, Namibia, Mauritania, Uganda, and most recently in Mayotte and Sudan in 2019. People who come into contact with sick animals, get bitten by mosquitoes, or both, such as farmers and herders, are risk factors. It has been observed that there is a male predominance with a male : female ratio of 3.5 : 1. Ocularmanifestations affect 0.5–1.5%of the RVF patients, though visual symptoms affected 15% of the infected community during an outbreak in southwest Saudi Arabia in 2000. The incubation phase lasts somewhere between 2 and 5 days. The symptoms of basic human RVF and nonsymptomatic infections include an acute influenza-like illness with a transient fever, rigors, headache, agonizing muscle and joint pain, photophobia, and anorexia. Patients may occasionally experience epistaxis, nausea, vomiting, and a petechial rash. The illness lasts between 4 and 7 days, with a 2-week healing period. A hemorrhagic diathesis with hepatitis is a severe type of condition that is characterized by an initial febrile illness lasting 2–4 days, followed by jaundice and extensive hemorrhages in the mucosae and subcutaneous tissues. When a needle is inserted, bleeding might happen from the nose and gums. Melena-related hematemesis and diarrhea are possible. Within the next 3–6 days, patients typically pass away. After a protracted, sluggish convalescence, some people might recover. Retinitis, which typically develops bilaterally and manifests 1–3 weeks after the initial feverish illness, is the most common consequence. In 50% of cases, the center vision is permanently lost; permanent unilateral or bilateral blindness is also possible. The second febrile phase is when encephalitis can emerge. Patients experience confusion, hallucinations, dizziness, and choreiform movements, which can occasionally result in coma. Although the case fatality rate is often low, full recovery may take a while, and there have been reports of long-term neurological problems. Blood, bodily fluids, or tissues of infected animals, primarily livestock, including cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, and camels, are the usual routes by which people contract RVF. When caring for sick animals, during veterinary operations including supporting an animal during childbirth, during butchering or slaughter, or when consuming Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh


Information is provided on interstate pipeline companies' supply of natural gas during calendar year 1982, for use by the FERC for regulatory purposes. It also provides information to other government agencies, the natural gas industry, as well as policy makers, analysts, and consumers interested in current levels of interstate supplies of natural gas and trends over recent years.


In this project, three nanoscale M-Al LDHs, which M is a divalent metal (Mg2+, Zn2+ and/or a mixture of them and LDH = Layered Double Hydroxide) were synthesized by co-precipitation and characterized by general techniques, such as FTIR, XRD, FESEM, and EDS. LDHs have got different physical properties, such as; crystal size, lattice parameters, morphology and drug delivery. These M-Al LDHs were used as drug carriers for diclofenac and ibuprofen, which adsorption and release percentages of drugs by them were studied and compared. The results showed that Al-LDHs including transition metal (Zn2+) are suitable for drug delivery purposes. As the mixed divalent (Zn/Mg)-Al LDHs are more efficient drug carriers for both diclofenac and ibuprofen drugs.


Fluoresent chemosensors have received considerable attention due to their potential applications in detection and quantification of the speices over many fields. In their protocols, the fluoroionophores have been prepared by coupling binding units (receptor part) and signaling units for the transduction of the binding event (input signal) into an observable output signal. Owing to their selective complexation with metal ions as well as great structural variety, macrocyclic ligands make them ideal candidates for the receptor part in the fluoroionophores. In this regard, many efforts have been devoted to the development of new fluorescent macrocycles. In the view of the receptor part, several NO2S2 macrocycles involving L that show an affinity for Hg and bind to this cation in both an exoor endocyclic manner were reported by us and another group. Based on this results, we have investigated the N-azo-coupled analogue, which shows Hg selectivity; with the color of the Hg complex also controlled by the nature of the anion present. We have also been involved in a program of preparing single and linked macrocycles with mixed donor sets exhibiting high selectivity for heavy metal ions. For instance, we have reported the synthesis and structures for soft metal complexes of mono and linked macrocycles based on L and structurally characterized. As an extension of our previous studies, we have been interested in the mono and di-linked macrocycles with the mixed-donor set to develop chemosensors for thiaphilic metal species. As a preliminary work, we herein report the synthesis and characterization of the anthracene-attached (L) and anthracene-bridged (L) NO2S2-macrocycles of the parent NO2S2 macrocycle L.


Case.?The patient, a man set. 27, had suffered from an inguinal hernia for some years, and had worn a truss, which was ineffective. The hernia became strangulated, and I saw him about six hours later. By that time the symptoms were acute, and a large, very tense, scrotal swelling was present. On opening the sac, a large loop of congested small intestine was seen. The anterior wall of the canal was slit up, and when examining the loop of bowel a second similar, but smaller, loop of small intestine was discovered immediately behind it. Both were pulled down with a view to seeing the condition of the bowel between the loops; but as the connecting portion appeared to be of considerable length, it was thought unadvisable to explore more than about a foot of the bowel at either end of the intermediate portion. Beyond a well-marked congestion, nothing abnormal was found.


Arsenic contamination of groundwater has emerged as a severe environmental disaster in Bangladesh over two decades. The number of patient seriously affected by arsenic from drinking water has now risen to thousands. The paper focuses on GIS based risk analysis for assessing the breadth of the arsenic contamination in the district of Chapai Nawabganj. GIS ArcView has been used to make a risk assessment about the extent and magnitude of the problem based on estimated exposed population and degree of contamination. The study shows 78% of the tested tubewells were found having arsenic contamination greater than Bangladesh standard with estimated population of 71,413 are exposed to high risk zone, 140,298 are exposed to medium risk zone and 199,957 are exposed to low risk zone in the study area. It is expected that based on the risk analysis the decision makers will be able to take potential mitigation options.


This article surveys the literature on risk aversion in medical decision making. Risk aversion concepts are presented in the frameworks of Subjective Expected Utility and Rank Dependent Expected Utility theories. The methodologies for measuring risk aversion and its applications to clinical situations are examined from the points of view of economics and psychology.


Incremental sheet forming (ISF) is one of the novel processes practised for more than the last decade in the field of sheet metal forming. ISF, although recognised as a promising manufacturing process over conventional forming, does not give good results in terms of geometrical accuracy, sheet thinning, surface finish and the forming forces. To make the ISF process more efficient, strategies to enhance the forming limits and capabilities are constantly being developed. Two such adaptations to the ISF process are ultrasonic vibration-assisted incremental sheet forming (UVaISF) and elevated temperature incremental sheet forming (ET-ISF). In the present work, investigations have been carried out to compare ISF, UVaISF and ET-ISF on 1 mm thick AA1050 and Titanium Grade 2 sheets with the help of numerical simulations using Abaqus/CAE. Response parameters like stress, strain, thickness distribution, the final shape of the geometry, strain energy, energy dissipated during plastic deformation and the forming forces are evaluated to measure the effectiveness of the processes. It is observed that there is a considerable reduction in the forming forces and spring-back with the UVaISF and ET-ISF processes, in comparison to the ISF at room temperature. This considerable reduction in the forming forces and spring-back is due to the softening behaviour of sheet material and the drop in yield strength during UVaISF and ET-ISF processes. The work overcomes some of the limitations of the ISF process and enlarges the scope of application of the process.


The invention discloses a disinfectant combination and application of disinfectant combination to preparation of disinfectant. The combination contains active ingredients and is characterized in that the active ingredients contain fluazinam and iprodione, of which the weight ratio is 1:(0.01-90). The invention further provides a preparation agent prepared by the disinfectant combination, and besides, provides the application of both the disinfectant combination and the preparation agent thereof to preventing and curing of plant diseases caused by fungus. Compared with monotonic fluazinam and iprodione, the disinfectant combination has a synergized action, can improve the preventing and curing effects, has low probability of drug resistance due to nonmonotonic active ingredients and can prevent and cure various different diseases all together, thereby decreasing dosage, saving the cost and reducing environmental pollution.


Abstract : This report evaluates the AGARD Flight Mechanics Panel Symposium on 'The Use of Computers as a Design Tool (held from 3-6 September 1979 at Neubiberg, Germany. The primary conclusions were that the human being still plays a critical role during all steps of computerized aircraft design and that remarkable progress has been made in many areas related to aircraft design because of recent developments in computer hardware and software. However, there are still areas where the designer has to rely on wind tunnel and structural testing. The computer has reduced the routine work-load of the engineer to save time for creative work. But there is still a need for faster and larger computers that will probably incorporate new architectures. Recommendations are made for future activities by AGARD. The full papers of the Proceedings are published as AGARD Conference Proceedings No. 280. This Advisory Report was prepared at the request of the Flight Mechanics Panel of AGARD. (Author)


Conventional civil Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems are able to detect targets and identify collaborative aircrafts in the air space but they don't ensure full coverage at low altitudes, in presence of non-cooperative targets (NCTs) and aircraft (A/C) with a low value of radar cross section (RCS). This paper describes the ARGUS 3D (AiR GUidance and Surveillance 3D) project funded by the European Union (FP7). This project intends to improve the current ATC systems for civil applications, extending their coverage and making them able to detect, recognize and track NCTs, by means of innovative sensors, such as a new enhanced Primary Surveillance Radar (PSR), passive and bistatic radar network. This work is focused on the activities performed by DIET Dept. of University of Rome "La Sapienza" within ARGUS 3D, related to the development of an effective FM-based Passive Bistatic Radar (PBR). Specifically, the processing scheme, the prototypal receiver architecture and dedicated tests performed in a real environment, are described. Aiming at validating the passive radar contribution to ARGUS 3D system, a specific acquisition campaign, with a dedicated flight, has been carried out in cooperation with ENAV, the Italian Air Navigation Services Provider (ANSP).


Lightcurves for five L5 Jovian Trojan asteroids were obtained at the Center for Solar System Studies (CS3) from 2019 April to June.


For the limited logic operation and performance instability of traditional motor testing systems,this paper puts forward an embedded motor testing system based on ARM and μC/OS-Ⅱ,and introduces the hardware circuit based on ARM microcontroller S3C2410X in detail,as well as the realization of embedded operating system μC/OS-Ⅱon S3C2410X.This system is able to acquire the data of motor voltage,current and speed in real-time,which can improve the testing system's stability and real-time ability.


The shelf life and bioefficacy of Rhizobium leguminosarum loaded on various carriers was assessed under laboratory and field conditions at JNKVV, Jabalpur (India). The carriers tested were lignite, coal, vermi-compost, poultry manure, dolomite, Azolla, lignite + coal, lignite + vermicompost, lignite + poultry manure, lignite + dolomite and Azolla + lignite. R. leguminosarum culture isolate G4 was multiplied in YEM broth under aseptic conditions and after specified growth, the rhizobial liquid broth was mixed with eleven carriers, each separately, in a ratio to obtain 40% moisture in the finished product. The initial rhizobial population in the finished product was estimated before final packing and storage. For shelf life assessment, the samples were drawn from the stored products at 30 days intervals upto 180 days and rhizobial population assessed. The bioefficacy of carrier loaded R. leguminosarum biofertilizers were studied in field on chickpea variety JG-74. The nodule number plant−1, nodule dry weight plant−1 and nitrogen content in nodules were recorded 45 days after sowing (DAS) while grain yield, total biomass, nitrogen content in seed and straw and total nitrogen uptake were studied at harvest. Lignite proved best carrier followed by coal, while other indigenous carriers failed to support rhizobia. Use of these carrier materials in conjunction with lignite (1:1) did not yield satisfactory results. It may be concluded that vermicompost, poultry manure, dolomite and Azolla cannot substitute lignite as a carrier for rhizobial inoculants, although coal proved safe for this purpose.


Research on multi-agent systems, in which autonomous agents are able to learn cooperative behavior, has been the subject of rising expectations in recent years. We have aimed at the group behavior generation of the multi-agents who have high levels of autonomous learning ability, like that of human beings, through social interaction between agents to acquire cooperative behavior. The sharing of environment states can improve cooperative ability, and the changing state of the environment in the information shared by agents will improve agents' cooperative ability. On this basis, we use reward redistribution among agents to reinforce group behavior, and we propose a method of constructing a multi-agent system with an autonomous group creation ability. This is able to strengthen the cooperative behavior of the group as social agents.


Wideband and isolated current measurement is required in many applications, including power electronics converters, when the switching frequency is above 1 MHz. This paper proposes a hybrid noncontact isolated current sensing scheme consisting of a magnetoresistor-based sensor and a planar Rogowski coil with complementary characteristics. In the proposed current sensing scheme, the folded trace technique is used to improve the magnetic field homogeneity in a wide frequency range, and hence the bandwidth of the sensing scheme. This paper presents the design procedures for the proposed hybrid sensing scheme. We demonstrate through experimentation that the proposed scheme yields a detection bandwidth of dc-10 MHz for 12-A current.


Aim: To compare the incidence of sore throat in the initial postoperative period in patients experiencing general anaesthesia and endotracheal intubation for surgery of the abdomen using normal saline and dexamethasone. Study design: A Randomized-Controlled trial Place and Duration: In the Department of Anaesthesiology, Divisional Headquarter teaching Hospital Mirpur Azad Kashmir for six months duration from June 2021 to November 2021. Methodology: 110 patients enduring planned for abdominal surgery under general anaesthesia were included. They 2 groups of the patients were made with equal number of patients. Group I were given 8 mg (2 ml) of dexamethasone I.V before surgery, and 2 ml of saline I.V was given in group II before surgery. The two groups pain comparison was done with chi-square test. The sore throat grading was done with visual analogue scale (VAS). ≤ 4 VAS score was accepted as no sore-throat and a VAS score> 4 as sore-throat. Results: The incidence of postoperative sore throat was lower in group (I) than in control group (II) after the first 24 hours after GA and endotracheal intubation. In this study, nine (16.4%) patients out of 55 who received pre-operative doses of I.V dexamethasone had sore throat post-operatively compared to the control group, i.e., 30 (54.5%) subjects, and the variance was statistically significant (p <0.01). Conclusions: Preoperative usage of dexamethasone was related with a lower frequency of postoperative sore-throat. Keywords: General anaesthesia, visual analogue scale (VAS) and postoperative sore-throat,


In situ x-ray photoemission spectroscopy is used to study the deuterium and hydrogen oxygen etching effect in nitrogen-implanted iron alloys. A suitable deuterium-nitrogen mixture can increase the surface original steel hardness up to ∼40%. In similar conditions, hydrogen-nitrogen mixtures improves the hardness by ∼10%. On deuteration, the main change is the reduction of the zero-point energy of the hydrides bond. Due to this, the lower scission energy of hydrogen-metal bonds as compared with deuterium-metal bonds determines the favorable effect of deuterium on the nitriding process.


Using computing techniques serves to developing areas of applying complicated network projects noted for a great number of activities and/or their composite connections. A number of new algorithms of optimizing complicated network models of the "activity on arrow" type are presented in the author's works under the direction of Professor A.E. Dyknov.


The purpose of the paper is to derive various properties and char- acteristics of certain subclass of analytic functions using multiplier transfor- mations and the method of differential subordination.