Objective: To observe the effects of individualized nutritional intervention and body mass index management on improvement of maternal and infantile outcomes of patients with gestational diabetes mellitus( GDM). Methods: A total of 386 GDM patients were selected as study objects,then they were divided into control group and experimental group; 196 patients in control group going to the hospital before September 2012 were treated with routine nursing intervention,while 190 patients in experimental group going to the hospital after September 2012 were treated with individualized nutritional intervention and body mass index management; maternal and infantile outcomes in the two groups were observed and compared. Results: In the two groups,fasting blood glucose levels after intervention were improved significantly compared with before intervention( t = 38. 1541,P 0. 000 1; t = 8. 376 9,P 0. 000 1),the effect in experimental group was more ideal( t = 37. 229 3,P 0. 000 1); the body weight fain every week during the second and the third trimesters of pregnancy and maternal and infantile outcomes after intervention in experimental group were statistically significantly higher than those in control group( P 0.05). Conclusion: Individualized nutritional intervention and body mass index management can effectively control blood glucose levels and increase of body mass index of GDM pregnant women and improve maternal and infantile outcome.


The article is aimed at analyzing the formation and development of foreign economic commercial relations at the sectoral and regional levels. The article analyzes the foreign economic innovation process, commercial relations, activities. The purpose of the study is to offer recommendations on state regulation in crises to protect domestic producers. The article uses methods of induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, abstraction and concretization, analogies, observation, expert, logical, monographic, economic- statistical, computational-constructive and sociological methods. It was concluded that the main forms of foreign economic commercial relations are trade relations, joint entrepreneurship, business for the provision of services, scientific, technical, information, financial and economic cooperation, currency-financial, credit relations.


INTRODUCTION: Prior data indicate that sepsis survivors face persistent health challenges and fail to receive adequate support after hospital discharge. Delivery of high-quality transition care may be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We assessed patient reported satisfaction with transitional care and health outcome status for survivors of respiratory sepsis (due to COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 pneumonia) during the pandemic. METHOD(S): We enrolled patients (or surrogate caregivers) from both usual care and intervention arms of ENCOMPASS, an ongoing clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of a multicomponent sepsis transition program. Individuals who consented to participate completed health related quality of life (HRQoL;EQ-5D-5L) and other outcomes measures (Mini-MOCA, IES-6, mMRC) 3 months after hospital discharge and responded to questions about post-discharge support. Interviews were conducted via telephone. Data were collected in REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) and analyzed with SAS. RESULT(S): Among 18 participants (14 patients, 4 caregivers [non-overlapping]), 56% were female, median patient age was 67 years, median Charlson index was 4, median SOFA was 4, and 2 patients were recovering from COVID-19. Most reported being satisfied/very satisfied with their transitional care (15, 83%) and were able to get all of the healthcare services needed during the pandemic (14, 78%). Many participants reported persistent problems at 3 months after discharge (mobility [17, 94%], self-care [17, 94%], usual activities [18, 100%], pain or discomfort [17, 94%], and anxiety or depression [15, 83%]), independent of coexisting chronic disease burden. The median EQ-5D visual analog scale was 65 (IQR=40-80). 12 (86%) patients reported persistent dyspnea, 2 (14%) had cognitive impairment by mini-MOCA, and 3 (21%) had symptoms of post-traumatic stress by IES-6. CONCLUSION(S): Sepsis survivors experience multidimensional HRQoL problems 3 months after discharge. Despite concerns about the provision of transitional support during the pandemic, most patients in this small study were satisfied with the transitional support received. Our findings reinforce the need for high-quality transitional support that addresses the new or worsening health problems experienced after sepsis.


In discrete red and black, you can stake any amount s in your possession, but the value of s takes positive integer value. Suppose your goal is N and your current fortune is f, with 0<f<N. You win back your stake and as much more with probability p and lose your stake with probability, q= 1 - p. In this study, we consider optimum strategies for this game with the value of p less than ½ where the house has the advantage over the player. It is shown that the optimum strategy at any f is the DBold strategy which is to play boldly in discrete red and black when p<½. And then, we perform the simulation study to show that this strategy, which is to bet as much as you can, is optimal in discrete case.


In two-fluid modeling and three-fluid modeling, the accurate prediction of the interfacial area concentration, interfacial heat transfer and interfacial shear stress, were required. In this works, the axial profiles of void fraction, interfacial area concentration and interfacial heat transfer coefficient along the flow direction could be measured. For the steam bubbles whose diameter were less than 8mm, the interfacial area concentration and the mean bubble diameter had a correlation with void fraction despite the variation of liquid flow rate and subcooling. In case the steam bubble collapse occurred due to an irregular bubble condensation and a turbulence of liquid flow, interfacial heat transfer coefficient with the bubble collapse was about twice of that without a bubble collapse. And the interfacial heat transfer coefficient without bubble collapse showed a good agreement with the correlation proposed by Akiyama. In addition, the supposed image processing method could be applied to the present experimental condition.Copyright © 2002 by ASME


Index modulation multiple access (IMMA) is a promising sixth-generation (6G) technique to prominently improve the spectral efficiency, energy efficiency, system performance, and support massive connectivity, which is considered as a new extension of conventional non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). In this article, we first introduce the basic principle of IMMA, and then investigate the potential applications of IMMA to vehicular networks, reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) aided networks, cooperative networks, and secure networks, which demonstrate the flexibility and practicability of IMMA. Finally, we reveal some potential challenges and research opportunities for IMMA. This article aims to draw more attention from academia and industry to IMMA and intends to promote the practical implementation of IMMA in future 6G networks.


The author writes in his article about of the newspaper «Kazakh tili», released in the years 1919-1928 in Semey, so effused entire Kazakh land, and part of Mongolia, a thematic blog of the newspaper. In the «Kazakh tili» enough to those who are constantly raised by the authors diligently. For example, the problem of the Kazakh language, its implementation, training and educational matter, a matter of health, inequality of women in society, the issue of young people, the restoration of the rural economy, the movement of big industry, etc. The paper raised important issues such as the formation of literacy of the people in the impact of the national knowledge through a national school to give the young generation of national education. And also to deliver the news about the school, about science, and to promote progressive thinking to the people of the Kazakh educators.


The present work documents the design and implementation of a wavelet-based excitation algorithm for low sample-rate audio files. This algorithm is an analysis/resynthesis method which converts a low sample-rate audio file to a higher sample-rate audio file, while inserting high frequency content in the wavelet domain. This paper presents relevant wavelet theory, along with the theory of the excitation algorithm and some sonic results. We find that the excitation algorithm works reasonably well for percussive, transient-oriented sounds, but fails for highly-resonant steady-state sounds, e.g., vocalic segments of speech.


This paper presents isogeometric analysis of free f orm shells based on Kirchhoff-Love and Reissner-Min dlin theories. The isogeometric approach utilizes Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) for different order approximatio n f the variables defining the geometry as well as the unknown functi ons. The geometry is defined for both theories by t he NURBS technique for surface generation. In the employed Reissner-Mindli n shell theory, by making use of the anchor point c oncept the normal vector is calculated accurately. The Kirchhoff-Love shell the ory uses three displacements degrees of freedom per node, but the ReissnerMindlin theory uses five degrees of freedom, three displacements and two rotations. Also, for Kirchhof f-Love shell theory C1 continuity of the NURBS basis functions is needed, while for the Reissner-Mindlin shell theory C0 cont inuity is sufficient. Several standard benchmark examples with available analytic solutions are presented to demonstrate the perfo rmance and accuracy of the approaches. Also, a new benchmark problem is design d to study the performance of the methods as well as the convergence behavior of the presented approach when applied to completely free form shells.


This study explores the effects of both Oxygen and temperature on the carrier dynamics of isoelectronic ZnSe1−xOx (x=0.027 and 0.053) semiconductors using photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL spectroscopy. We find that the Kohlrausch law is highly consistent with the complex decay traces induced by isoelectronic O traps, and the mechanism of carrier recombination undergoes a complicated change from trapped to free excitons with the increase in temperature. Complex recombination processes are clarified using the relaxation model based on various decay channels. These findings are consistent with the initial fall in the stretching exponent β followed by its monotonic increase with increasing temperature.


AbstractThis paper, 'Sufism and Modernity ', looks at Sufism in terms of religious experience usual to all religions, including Buddhism and Islam The paper takes modernity to be a product of European history and defines it in terms of change of worldview from a theocentric to an anthropocentric one. In a theocentric worldview, norms of good society are believed to be derived from revelation. Anthropocentric view asserts that God and his revelation are not necessary for good society. It is claimed, on the other hand, that man could build durable and prosperous society through the use of his natural reason. In Europe, this view passed through Renaissance and Reformation culminating in the Enlightment period. Sufism partakes of both the theocentric and anthropocentric views. Muslim mystics claimed a direct experience of the divine, resulting in burning love for God. But such love for God overflowed in the form of love for fellowman. The Sufi tradition of participation in public life during Muslim history has been revived during these times and is seen relevant to mitigate the inhuman consequences of man's overemphasis on acquisition of material abundance and consequent deadly conflicts.The title of the conference can be interpreted in at least two ways. Putting Buddhism and Sufism in the same category, we can look at them with reference to modem times i.e. times which we are passing through, now. Or, we can look at them with reference to modernity as such, modernity as a concept. Alternatively, we could take Buddhism and Sufism as separate categories and then look at each one with reference to modernity, in terms both of modem times and modernity as a concept.This study puts Buddhism and Sufism in the same category: religion and religion's relationship with mystic experience (Stace 1960: 68); the other name of Sufism is Islamic Mysticism, also known as Tasawwuf. I believe the spirit of the conference is to look at Buddhism and Sufism falling in the same category. Such delimitation lessens the burden of this study as well as burden on the writer herself who cannot claim much knowledge of Buddhism except that which ordinarily comes to an educated citizen of a country that houses much of the remains of Buddhist religion, namely Pakistan.The mankind has been engulfed by destructive circumstances all around, destructive to physical environment as well as to human life. The new weapons to end human life do not consist in the form of simple iron made into killing arms; modem weapons wreak havoc and their ingredients of today's weapons lethally pollute the environment on which the very human life is based. The visible and invisible wars among human groups have all the makings of extermination of humankind. The hope that Buddhism and Sufism could contribute in avoiding the impending catastrophe is not a vain hope. It is a serious hope. And I pray that the conference sets a tone in that spirit.In writing his book Islam in Modern History, W. C. Smith claimed that his book would promote "mutual comprehensibility" among Christians and Muslims (Armstrong 1999: 498). Smith feared that his claim might sound pretentious as he characterized himself an outsider not having much business to delve into the spiritualities of an alien community. He invited Muslims to undertake a work of interpretation about Christianity and the West in the same way as he was going to do in his book about Islam. In his view, globalization in the 20th century obliged man "to strive for some apprehension of each other's presuppositions". He continued: "Isolation is gone, and with it the kind of world in which it was feasible for one civilization or culture to ignore the values and convictions of another" (Smith 1960).As Smith expressed his views on globalization and the need for inter-civilization/inter-faith understanding, a book The Teachings of the Mystics was in the offing. Walter T. Stace compiled a volume containing views of celebrated mystic masters from some eight wellknown traditions/civilizations, adding an excerpt from Arthur Koestler as a specimen of 'contemporary mystical experience' (Stace 1960: 230). …


Nowadays, classification of imbalanced data is a major challenge in the machine learning (ML) algorithms, especially in medical data analysis, In this paper, deep learning algorithm which is the advance artificial neural network (ANN) is used for classifying five white blood cells (WBCs). Different preprocessing image techniques and algorithms are applied to isolate WBCs and segment the nucleus for the cytoplasm. Geometric, statistical and color features are extracted, the principal component analysis technique is applied to select the optimal features. The classification process has been repeated several times to tune the algorithm parameters and to find the best pattrens match through the training data in the learning process until achieve best classification accuracy. Multi-class classification results show high accuracy of more than 94% for the five types of WBCs. We evaluate the classification model using the geometric mean, Cohen's Kappa, Receiver operating characteristic curve, Root mean squared error, relative absolute error and cross-validation techniques. The algorithm model achieves high accuracy and can conduct a multi-class classification of imbalanced datasets in terms of the above-mentioned metrics.


Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) kills humans and animals. The agent, an RNA virus, can infect humans by multiple routes (e.g., tick bite, direct or aerosol spread from infected humans or animals). In 1994 CCHF caused a cluster of deaths in butchers and …


An effective comprehensive transportation plan is crucial to ensuring the social and economic growth of a region. This plan should be the consequence of the assessment of the current transportation systems. The current transportation plan cannot be used exactly in guiding transportation construction since the current evaluation indexes are isolated from the transportation planning. In order to provide the link between the plan and the evaluation tools, the proposal is to use the balanced scorecard which is proven to keep track of the execution of activities within control and monitor the consequences. In this paper, we built an evaluation index system of comprehensive transportation by using a balanced scorecard to keep track and monitor transportation construction and ensure the construction coincided with the transportation plan. We designed a new method to convert the transportation system strategies into a set of targets and developed evaluation indexes according to the targets.


Abstract Enterprises which want to ensure a secure and stable market position must constantly look for ways to convince customers (current and potential) that their goods and services are competitive and represent a sufficiently high level of quality, consistent with the their needs. Service enterprises use specific methods and tools to analyze the quality of their services and to be sure that these services are competitive on the market. One of the important elements of such an analysis is the assessment of customer satisfaction. This research should be treated as a key stage in the customer satisfaction management system. Without knowing the customers' expectations, the enterprise is unable to determine what to improve and correct. In this case, the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), which not only indicates what to improve, but also shows the level of customer satisfaction, should be used. The purpose of the paper is to assess customer satisfaction in a service point of a known producer of men's clothes. The CSI index and a specially developed survey were used for the research. The questionnaire was filled in by the customers of the research service point after the service delivery. According to the obtained results, individual determinants should be maintained and monitored by the enterprise. The research also identified areas for improvement, i.e. product quality, design and ways of payment. However, the overall CSI score is good, which means that despite few problems with customers' satisfaction, they are satisfied with the research service point.


OBJECTIVE
This study investigated the effects of aortic root infusion of sufentanil on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in patients undergoing elective mitral valve replacement (MVR) with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).

DESIGN
A prospective, randomized, clinical study.

SETTING
A university-affiliated teaching hospital.

PARTICIPANTS
Fifty-three adult patients undergoing elective MVR with CPB.

INTERVENTIONS
Bolus infusions of sufentanil (0.2 μg/kg, n = 24) or normal saline (n = 29) were administered through the aortic root cardioplegia perfusion catheter 5 minutes before aortic unclamping.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Plasma concentrations of CK-MB and cTnI and variables including heart rate, mean arterial pressure, central venous pressure, cardiac output, stroke volume, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of ICU stay, length of hospital stay, and 24-hour postoperative inotropic scores were recorded. Plasma concentrations of CK-MB and cTnI were significantly lower 4 and 8 hours after aortic unclamping in the sufentanil postconditioning group compared to control (p<0.05). Inotropic drug use, duration of mechanical ventilation, and length of ICU and hospital stays were reduced significantly in the sufentanil postconditioning group compared to control (p< 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
The present study demonstrated that sufentanil can attenuate myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in patients undergoing elective MVR with CPB.


We consider the problem of controlling continuous-time sec tor bounded Lur'e systems subject to state and input constraints. First, we derive a linea r st tic feedback law which stabilizes Lur'e systems with uncertain nonlinearities. The approach is the n us d to calculate the terminal region and the terminal penalty term for quasi-infinite horizon nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC). The results are further extended to a robustly stabilizing NMPC scheme a nd finally to an NMPC approach with low online computational demand which is based on the offline cal cul tion of a set of ellipsoids and associated feedback laws. All controllers are calculated by solvi ng l near matrix inequalities and satisfy state and input constraints. To illustrate their effectiveness t he controllers are applied to a flexible link robotic arm and their properties are discussed by means of the obtain ed s mulation results.


ABSTRACT Shannon entropy is offered here to establish an urban diversity indicator using the city of Sheffield, UK as an illustrative case. Diversity is calculated for several time periods throughout the city's evolution and provides a means to evaluate the 'mix' of green and urban space throughout its expansion and development. Secondly, three statistics models are developed to open discussion around alternative forms of urban development extrapolating from early settlement origins to the present day; these include an entropic, deterministic, and a hybrid model. Through this approach, the paper aims to aid the hypothetical exploration of urban growth dynamics.


Web attack has occupied a majority of the attacks, and the combination of VMs and springboards has been the most common way to hide oneself. Most of related researches about virtual machines are targeting at the detection of VMs, while few of the technologies aim to track hidden attackers behind the VMs and IP proxy. With the fact that the browser is a necessary tool when attackers implementing an attack, we propose the technology of tracking VM attackers based on the browser fingerprinting. We first track the attacker separately in the VM and host by updated browser fingerprinting, and then associate the VM with host by hardware level tracking technologies. With shared information of the VM and host, our technology shows significant effect in tracking hidden attackers, moreover it even can associate the different VMs based on the same host. Keywords—tracking VM attackers;updated browser fingerprinting; virtual machine


Of the Spanish unexpected poetry it emphasizes trovo of Cartagena for being a strengthened popular art in its own characteristics and their bet by the quality and technique of verses. In its 150 years of history, from its mining origins to the international unexpected poetry festival TROVALIA, trovo of Cartagena he is a referring one of weight in the oral poetry of Spain and Ibero-America.


Professor Frances P. Leavenworth, emeritus professor of astronomy of the University of Minnesota, and director of its Observatory. Professor Leavenworth retired from active service in June Î927 when he had reached the retirement age of 68 years. He was specially known for his long series of accurate measures of double stars, for his observations of variablé stars and for work in astronomical photography.


When a particular 3D point is fixated by a robotic stereo system different portions of the world are brought into interocular alignment. This region is known as the horoptor. Purposeful modifications to the binocular geometry can be used to bring different regions of three-space closer to the horoptor: camera pan and tilt define the rough structure of the horoptor, while camera torsion can be used to change its local shape. Theoretical and empirical results suggest that for binocular vision tasks: 1) it is important to understand the region of three space that contains the horoptor curve; and 2) it is possible to control this shape in an active way so as to simplify certain binocular tasks.


Modern operating systems for personal computers (including Linux, MAC, and Windows) provide user-level APIs for an application to access the I/O paths of another application. This design facilitates information sharing between applications, enabling applications such as screenshots. However, it also enables user-level malware to log a user's keystrokes or scrape a user's screen output. As an example, between 2013 and 2015, attackers used the Carbanak malware [1] to infect bank computers and then recorded videos of a victim's screen and keystrokes to obtain sensitive banking information. They successfully stole money from around 100 financial institutions and the total financial loss amounted to almost one billion dollars. Previous proposals to address this challenge fall into four broad categories. Work in the first category protects a user's I/O paths at the hardware level. An example is the Intel Protected Transaction Display (PTD) solution [2]. Work in the second category proposes to use a second mobile device as a trusted input/output device [3]. Work in the third category uses virtual machines to isolate trusted applications [4]. Finally, work in the fourth category proposes to enhance an OS by implementing fine-grained access control for I/O interfaces so that one application cannot access another application's I/O paths by default [5]. Each of the previous solutions requires a unique trusted computing base (TCBs). However, they all require significant user management to achieve the desired level of security. A user needs to decide which data are sensitive and then switch to a trusted hardware (e.g. a mobile device) or a trusted terminal (e.g., one runs inside a trusted virtual machine) or both to input/output sensitive data. We hypothesize that it is challenging for a non-expert user to manage these tasks. Therefore, it is beneficial to explore a design alternative that can automatically manage the switching to sensitive data input/output without user involvement. In this work, we propose SwitchMan, an architecture that enables a server to switch a user to a secure terminal for sensitive user input/output. At the heart of SwitchMan lies a protocol that enables a remote server (e.g. a web server) to embed a secure terminal switching request inside its traffic stream even if the client's software (e.g. a browser)


Aphis gossypii Glover (Homoptera, Aphididae), Amrasca biguttula biguttula (Ishida) (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae) and Leocinodes orbonalis Guenee (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae) are serious pests of S. melongena in Pakistan. Using host plant resistance can be safe and cheap alternative to insecticidal control of insect pests of S. melongena. The present study was conducted at the New Developmental Farm (NDF) of The University of Agriculture, Peshawar (UAP) in 2014. Three Brinjal genotypes Shamli, pearl long and black beauty were used in the study. Pest infestation started in the first week of May. Overall mean density of A. gossypii was non-significantly higher (0.71 individuals leaf -1 ) on Black Beauty and lower (0.66 A. gossypii leaf -1 ) on Pearl Long. Overall mean density of A. biguttula biguttula was non-significantly higher (each 0.47 individuals leaf -1 ) on Shamli and Black Beauty and lower (0.44 individuals leaf -1 ) on Pearl Long. Fruit infestation by L. orbonalis was significantly lower (35 infested fruits/100) for Shamli and higher (53 infested fruits/100 fruits) for Black Beauty. L. orbonalis produced significantly higher number of holes (7.7 holes/fruit/week) on Black Beauty and lower number (2.6 holes/fruit/week) on Shamli. Overall mean yield of the brinjal genotypes was significantly higher for Shamli with 4923.1 kg/ha and lower for Pearl Long with 1230.8 kg/ac. Density of the three pests was comparatively lower on Shamli and its yield was significantly higher than the other two genotypes. Based on the above mentioned results Shamli brinjal genotype is recommended to the growers in Peshawar.


A method for forming an organic thin film using solvent effect, an organic thin film manufactured by the method, and an organic electronic device comprising the same are provided to obtain an organic thin film having good properties like uniformity and good ordering degree, etc. Non-solvents are added into compounds including organic material and good solvents. The compounds having the non-solvents are sprayed on a substrate, a thin film is then formed. The organic material is organic semiconductor material or organic insulating material. The organic insulating material is one selected from a group consisting of polyimide, benzene cyclobutene, parylene, polyacrylate, polyvinylealcohol, and polyvinilephenol.


4024 Background: Proton beam radiotherapy (PRT) has an excellent depth-dose profile that can deliver high dose to the liver tumor without debilitating liver function compared to photon beam radiotherapy. It is reasonable to evaluate the safety and efficacy of PRT prospectively for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

METHODS
Eligibility criteria for this study were: solitary HCC; neither surgery nor local ablation therapy were indicated; no ascites; age ≥20 years; Zubord performance status is 0∼2; no serious co-morbidities other than liver cirrhosis; written informed consent. Tumor close to the stomach or intestinal loop was not considered as a subject for this study. Clinical target volume (CTV) was defined as gross tumor volume plus 5 mm of lateral and cranio-caudal margin. PRT administering 76 GyE/20 fractions/5 weeks to the CTV was done using respiration-gated irradiation system (ReGIS) with 150∼190 MeV proton beam. Relative biological effectiveness of our proton beam was defined as 1.1. No patients received transarterial chemoembolization or local ablation in combination with PRT.

RESULTS
Thirty patients were enrolled between May 1999 and Feb. 2003. There were 20 male and 10 female with a median age of 70 years (range: 48∼87 years). Maximum tumor diameter ranged from 25 ∼ 82 mm (median 45 mm). All patients had liver cirrhosis of which the degree was Child class A in 9, B in 19, and C in 2. Acute reactions of PRT were well tolerated, and PRT were completed as planned in all patients. After a median follow-up period of 31 months (14∼54 months), only 1 patient experienced tumor recurrence within the CTV and 2-year actuarial local control rate was as 96% (95% confidence interval: 88%∼100%). Actuarial overall survival rate at 2 years was 64% (46∼83%). Pretreatment liver function that was evaluated with indocyanin green clearance at 15 minutes (ICG 15), and liver volume that received 30 GyE or more (V30) significantly correlated with overall survival.

CONCLUSIONS
Since PRT showed minimal acute toxicity and excellent tumor control within CTV, it is expected as one of the convincing non-surgical treatment options for HCC. ICG 15 and V30 were considered as useful indicators of patient prognosis. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


In the past two decades,Chinese online literature had rapid development,due to increased platforms,frequent competitions,and operation of diversity.Compared with the traditional literature,the fission of text form,the tolerance,pioneering spirit and criticism on content show its distinctive modern features.


In this article, we investigate the Drazin invertibility for the elements of an arbitrary semiring. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and expressions of the Drazin inverse of an element in an arbitrary semiring. Moreover, we consider the product paq under some additional necessary conditions for which the Drazin inverse of the product paq exists.


Recent years have seen an exponential increase in the amount of available information in both print medium and electronic medium. The acceptance of electronic/digital medium has increased dramatically in recent years, which had led to the demand for more organized and accessible information in the digital medium. Hence, Digital libraries (DL's) emerged as the digital counterpart of the traditional library system. Digital library environments had negated the traditional limits on representation and distribution of information, by facilitating global access, round the clock service, classification, and organization of the available information, by adding more information retrieval elements. Another challenge emerged with the advancement of technology, which had increased applications of new forms of information, such as multimedia files, scientific data, unstructured data, semi-structured data, heterogeneous structured data, which is being generated, stored and utilized by digital libraries worldwide. There a large amount of data generated every day for different domains such as medicine, healthcare, engineering, energy, and more. As a consequence, retrieving relevant information related to any domain from heterogeneous knowledge sources had become a challenging task. Ontologies have emerged as a potential solution in this field, as they have the ability to manage information resources efficiently, manage web complexities, and automate bibliofigureic storage and annotation management and more. Ontologies play a significant role in digital libraries by promoting interoperability by defining a common vocabulary for the ease of sharing information in a particular domain. Ontologies also tackle the challenge presented by the availability of heterogeneous information sources and improve the accuracy of information retrieval. This paper discusses, the need and potential applications of domain-specific ontologies and semantic technologies in DL's, which can be used to address the issue of increasing volume of information as well as enhancing the information retrieval capacity of Digital Libraries. The paper also discusses the designing and developing of domain-specific ontologies for Digital Library and suggest a model of Ontology-based Digital Library search system which retrieves exact results for queries and eliminates irrelevant results by having refined queries


Americans spend billions of dollars a year fueling enormous commercial agricultural operations to plant more crops than we need, while tens of millions of Americans – and a huge number of American children – live tenuously close to hunger. Millions more are kept from the brink by our Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, that provides a paltry $4.13 per person each day.1 Having a two-headed policy that addresses production and consumption is necessary. Just having a bounteous supply does not ensure each American will be fed. And just giving poor Americans money to buy food does not ensure they can or will do so. However, when the end result is that we produce far more food than we need, because of subsidies, whilemillions of our citizens both have inadequate food on the table and suffer from nutrition-related diseases in epidemic proportions, there is clearly a problem in need of an urgent solution. Post-depression-era farm subsidies made sense because they relieved farmers' poverty, allowing them to keep producing food so that the nation could feed itself. The 21st century is not the 1930s. While many might nostalgically think of the family farmer in overalls and a straw hat, the vast majority of farm subsidies go to a small number of very large American corporations and conglomerates that wield disproportionate political power. Modern subsidies do not tackle modern dietary problems and, in fact, exacerbate the health problems associated with Americans' distorted diets. These dietary distortions have had devastating consequences, especially in low-income areas: exploding obesity rates, increasing rates of Type 2 diabetes, and declining learning outcomes. Dietary inequality is a factor that reduces quality of life amongst those most affected by income inequality. Poor nutrition is a cause of the epidemic level of diabetes2 and other poor health outcomes. The food paradox is that we collectively spend huge amounts on farm subsidies, yet many citizens do not have access to high-quality, nutritious food. We collectively spend huge amounts on healthcare, yet our health outcomes, particularly for those living in poverty, are a national emergency. A chain of poor policy choices is exacerbating inequality. One of our main anti-poverty efforts is SNAP (modern-day food stamps). Despite providing only $125.50 per person permonth,3 the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that SNAP kept 10.3 million Americans out of poverty in 2012.4 However, a two-person household receiving SNAP benefits and a $7.25 per hour minimum wage job is still below the poverty line, and more so if that income is the sole source for a family of four or more.5 We clearly need a stronger food stamp program and more rational subsidies for food production. Stagnant minimumwages with rising costs of living magnifies the health and human development problems associated with poor access to nutrition. Budget constraints and thework requirement to obtain benefits6 have reduced the number of SNAP claimants and the average monthly benefit per claimant.7 All the while, one-third of adults are obese and 10% of adults have diabetes.8 Where do we go from here? This special issue of the Economists' Voice focuses on the interplay between nutrition and poverty, how they are related, and what we can do about it. We aim to provide the most relevant information and analysis for economists, legislative bodies, and policy makers to consider as our society tries to address the complex issues of food security, quality, and affordability, especially amongst our most vulnerable. This edition provides papers that advocate for economic and nutrition policies that can provide the greatest help to low-income Americans, including improving SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program forWomen, Infants and Children, raising the minimumwage, offering price incentives for healthier foods, providing nutrition education, and reforming our tax and subsidy system to incentivize better food choices. Policy makers must recognize the interplay between the enormous long-term health costs generated by a shortsighted pandering to agribusiness lobbying.


In this paper the concept of matrix measure or initial growth rate is generalized to dynamical systems on time scales. With this definition an analogue of Coppel's inequality bounding the growth behaviour of time-varying linear systems is obtained. We briefly discuss applications to the stability theory of time-varying linear systems on time scales. For the classic norms explicit formulas are given for the matrix measure which naturally extend the classic case.


A novel and efficient catalyst-free and oxidant-free tandem aza-Mannich/cyclization/aromatization reaction of C,N-cyclic azomethine imines with enamides has been developed. This practical one-step protocol enables a simple and environmentally friendly route...


Various remote communication systems so far developed are still far away from the awareness of face-to-face communication. There may be several reasons. One of them may be due to the fact that even if a participant changes his/her position and posture, the pictures of other participants on the display does not change. Here, we regard a display window for remote communication as a real window and simulate communication through the real window. We propose a method of capturing the position and posture of each participant by an infrared sensor and reflecting it into the view of the others on their windows as if they were talking through the windows. This enables each participant to change the view of the other participants by changing his/her position and posture. We designed a remote communication system incorporating this feature, made a prototype and preliminary evaluated the feature.


In this paper we exploit properties of Dao's eta-pairing as well as techniques of Huneke, Jorgensen, and Wiegand to study the vanishing of Tor_i(M,N) of finitely generated modules M, N over complete intersections. We prove vanishing of Tor_i(M, N) for all positive integers i under depth conditions on M, N, and their tensor product. Our arguments improve a result of Dao and establish a new connection between the vanishing of Tor and the depth of tensor products.


Fifty years have passed since the parameter "L‐star" was introduced in geomagnetically trapped particle dynamics. It is thus timely to review the use of adiabatic theory in present‐day studies of the radiation belts, with the intention of helping to prevent common misinterpretations and the frequent confusion between concepts like "distance to the equatorial point of a field line," McIlwain's L‐value, and the trapped particle's adiabatic L* parameter. And too often do we miss in the recent literature a proper discussion of the extent to which some observed time and space signatures of particle flux could simply be due to changes in magnetospheric field, especially insofar as off‐equatorial particles are concerned. We present a brief review on the history of radiation belt parameterization, some "recipes" on how to compute adiabatic parameters, and we illustrate our points with a real event in which magnetospheric disturbance is shown to adiabatically affect the particle fluxes measured onboard the Van Allen Probes.


Abstract In this report the authors describe a recently developed methodology for assessing emotional expression in infants that they believe has promise for the study of individual differences in the capacity to adaptively "regulate" affective states. The methodology involves exposing the infants to an experimental paradigm designed to elicit a range of emotional behavior. The presence and intensity of each of six emotions (pleasure, interest, fear, anger, sadness, and distress) are rated at consecutive intervals throughout the session. A picture of the fluctuating intensity of each of these emotions during the observation session is thus obtained. One normal infant and four infants from disturbed caretaking backgrounds who showed distinct patterns of emotional response are presented. Brief histories of the children's backgrounds are provided, which lend support to the authors' belief that affective patterning in the child is determined to a large extent by the quality of affective interchanges with primary caretakers.


A 79-year-old non-smoker woman was admitted to our hospital following 15 days of unproductive coughing, moderate fever (38°C) and asthenia. She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis five years before; the dia gnosis was made based on the presence of morning stiffness, symmetric joint pain and swelling in fingers, wrists, elbows, and ankles, and a positivity for both rheumatoid factor (1/160) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (52.4 U/ml); disease activity was high (disease activity score [DAS]-28 was 5.4). How ever, radiograph showed the absence of bone erosions. In addition, health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) score was 1. Therefore, the woman started treatment with hydroxychloroquine 400 mg daily, and methyprednisolone 8 mg daily. After 12 weeks of treatment, disease activity was moderate (DAS-28 was 3.8). However, the woman complained of frequent episodes of headaches during the last weeks; this was considered as an adverse effect of the hydroxychloroquine, and therefore the dose was tapered to 200 mg daily; within six months, the patient achieved stable low disease activity (DAS-28 was 2.8), HAQ score was 0, and radiograph confirmed the absence of bone erosions. Hydroxy chloroquine 200 mg daily was continued, and methyprednisolone was tapered to 4 mg daily. At the time of the admission to our ward, the patient was under trea tment with hydroxychloroquine 200 mg daily, and me thyprednisolone 4mg daily. Physical examination revealed inspiratory crackles at both lung bases. Articular examination showed no joint swelling/pain except for both wrists. Arterial blood gas values were the following: pH 7.45, pO2 69 mmHg, pCO2 34 mmHg, SO2 94%. White blood count was in the normal range, C-reactive protein was 103 mg/dl and erythrocyte sedimentation rate was 60 mm/h. Biochemical variables were unremarkable. Chest x-ray showed bilateral Mario F Damiani1, Pierluigi Carratu1, Vitaliano N Quaranta1, Valentina A Ventura1, Carlo Florio2, Onofrio Resta1


Saussurea obvallata (S. Obvallata) is one of the beneficial plant which has been used in various countries as traditional medicines. Some of the species have been identified as endangered ones. Realizing the importance of one of S. Obvallata in ornamental, spiritual and traditional purposes, a review studies was undertaken to understand the scientific investigations carried out on the plant and spiritual practices in India have been focused as a part of germplasm conservation in India.
Keywords: S. obvallata, Brahma kamal, medicinal, spiritual plant


Observations to determine the radiance of forward scattered sunlight from particles in lunar libration regions have been attempted with the white light coronagraph on Skylab. The libration regions could not be distinguished against the solar K + F coronal background; the upper limit to the libration cloud radiance is determined to be -11 2.5 x 10 B , where B is the radiance of the mean solar disk. Employing models of the particle type and size distribution in the libration clouds, density enhancements have been calculated on the basis of the upper limit of the forward scattered radiance presented herein, and on the basis of earlier observations of the libration region backscattered radiance. The cases where the power law particle size distribution exponent K and complex index of refraction m are 2.5* 1.33-0.051 and 2.5, 1.50-0.05i, respectively, are inconsistent with the forward and backscatter observations. Finally, the brightness contrast of remaining possible models of the libration clouds with respect to the Kand F-coronal background is calculated, and is shown to be a maximum in the vicinity of elongation angle ~30°.


OBJECTIVE
Demonstrate oral histone deacetylase inhibitors increase frataxin expression in Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) patients at doses that can be safely administered.
BACKGROUND
In culture, histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) increased FXN mRNA and protein expression in ex vivo treated patient blood cells. In vivo treatment using transgenic animal models for FRDA increased FXN mRNA and protein in target tissues and reduced disease related pathology. A 2-aminobenzamide HDACi (109/RG2833) was evaluated in nonclinical toxicology, pharmacology and safety studies to support use of this compound in FRDA patients.
DESIGN/METHODS
A Phase I clinical study to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of orally administered 109/RG2833 in 20 adults with FRDA was approved after national and hospital regulatory review. Four cohorts of 5 FRDA patients where Cohort 1 and 2 were open label, with single 30-120mg doses. Cohorts 3 and 4 were randomized, double blind, placebo controlled crossover studies. Cohort 3, a single 180mg or placebo dose; cohort 4, two 120mg or of placebo doses, 4 hours apart. Primary outcome was safety and pharmacodynamic response on HDAC inhibition and FXN mRNA and protein levels in patient blood cells. HDAC activity in patient PBMC was measured with a deacetylase assay using the Fluor-de-LysTM substrate. qRT-PCR and frataxin dipstick assays were used to measure FXN mRNA and protein respectively.
RESULTS
RG2833 was well tolerated with no limiting toxicities reported. We detected dose dependent suppression of deacetylase activity in the PBMC lysates from the RG2833 treated subjects. An average induction of 1.5-1.6 fold of FXN mRNA levels was observed in patients treated with 120-240mg doses. Small frataxin protein induction was observed in 3 patients with 180-240mg doses.
CONCLUSIONS
This study provides proof of principal for orally administered class I HDAC inhibitor as potential therapeutics for Friedreich's ataxia.
Study Supported by: Repligen Corporation, GoFAR and EFACTS Disclosure: Dr. Jacoby has received personal compensation for activities with Repligen and BioMarin as an employee. Dr. Rusche has received personal compensation for activities with Repligen Corp. Dr. Rusche holds stock and/or stock options in Repligen Corp. which sponsored research in which Dr. Rusche was involved as an investigator. Dr. Rusche has received research support from Repligen Corp. Dr. Iudicello has nothing to disclose. Dr. De Mercanti has nothing to disclose. Dr. Clerico has nothing to disclose. Dr. Gibbin has nothing to disclose. Dr. Longo has nothing to disclose. Dr. Miao has received personal compensation for activities with Repligen. Dr. Miao holds stock and/or stock options in Repligen which sponsored research in which Dr. Miao was involved as an investigator. Dr. Rai has nothing to disclose. Dr. Piga has received personal compensation for activities with Repligen as a member of a Safety Committee Board. Dr. Pandolfo has received personal compensation for activities with Repligen and Apopharma. Dr. Pandolfo has received royalty payments from Athena Diagnostics. Dr. Pandolfo has received research support from Repligen. Dr. Durelli has received research support from Repligen Corp.


This paper describes an advanced microelectronic PCM multicoder. The objective of the system was to prove the feasibility of an all microelectronic multicoder. The problems solved include power dissipation, circuit design, circuit fabrication, and system packaging techniques. Monolithic integrated circuits designed especially for PCM are used throughout. Multicircuit packages are extensively employed. Other unique features include use of twosided multilayer boards and a three dimensional card-to-card interconnect scheme.


Alpin helmet for protecting the head of a wearer when wearing the helmet over a wide temperature range, wherein the helmet includes the following: an outer shell; and an energy-degrading cushion assembly, which is connected to an interior of the outer shell, said cushion assembly having a first layer which is disposed inwardly of a second layer, said first layer having structural changes that weaken the first layer structurally.


2,6-Diaminopurine was used as a ligand to prepare Fe-Hdap complexes for the development of a new oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) catalyst.The prepared Fe-Hdap complexes were heat-treated at 600,700,800 and 900 ℃ to optimize their activity for ORR.It was found that the 800 ℃ heat-treatment yielded the most active Fe-Nx/C catalyst.Fe-Nx/C catalyst with several Fe loadings(3%,4%,5%,6%,7%,mass fraction) were also synthesized and a 5% Fe loading yielded the best catalytic ORR activity.XRD,TG,TEM,XPS and line-scan voltammograms techniques were used to characterize the structural changes in these catalyst after heat-treatment,including the catalyst composition,structure,morphologe and the electrochemical activity.As observed by XRD,when the heat-treatment temperature or Fe content was too high,Fe3O4 could be produced.This would lead to a decrease in ORR activity.XPS analysis revealed that the catalyst surface consisted of 0.61%(mass fraction) N(largely pyrrolic-like).The ORR activities of catalysts synthesized using ligands with different structures were studied.The result indicated that the catalyst prepared using the compound containing more pyridinic N as ligand had enhanced activity,and the S element in ligand can improve the activity of Fe-Nx/C catalyst.The stability of the Fe-Nx/C catalyst in the voltage region having ORR kinetic limiting was tested by fixing a electrode potential to record the change in current density with time.The obtained degradation rates for this catalyst is 0.0048 mA/(cm2\5h).


The Career Beliefs Inventory (CBI) is a counseling tool with the purpose of identifying beliefs as they relate to occupational choice and the pursuit of a career. The inventory can be administered individually or to a group ranging in age from grade 8 to adult. The CBI is a 96-item paper-and-pencil test written at an eighth-grade reading level. Items are grouped into 25 scales organized under 5 headings. All test items are in a Likert format. The materials are straightforward and easy to use. Scoring and interpretation are easy to understand if the computer-scoring services of the publisher are used. Hand-scoring is confusing, and the procedures are not outlined in the manual. Norms are available based on a sample of over 7,500 people in the United States and Australia, ranging from junior high students to employed adults. Evidence for test-retest reliabilities, face validity, and construct validity is reviewed. Strengths of the CBI include ease of administration, clarity of instructions, attractive appearance, and the organization of the test booklet and answer sheet. The recent introduction of the instrument makes the psychometric properties hand to evaluate, but the evidence for reliability and validity does not seem adequate. Further research focusing on reliability and validity would enhance the useful information generated by the CBI. (SLD) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. * *********************************************************************** U.S. IMPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received iorn the person or organization originating n C' Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions staled in this clocu. ment do not necessarily represent official OE RI positron or policy The Career Beliefs Inventory 1 "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY BEVE,eLy oc Buz TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." The Career Beliefs Inventory: A Review and Critique


This study examined the effect of Training, Customer Orientation and Supervisory Behavior on Salesforce Performance in the context of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). The diffusion of technology, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems and social media, has created a need to improve the understanding of how to manage interactions with customers in today's digital era. The importance of technology is raised in term of social media and as the world is treated as the "global village'. More importantly beginning of novelties such as cloud computing and webbased technology safe time and human efforts. The term sales performance is the key to success for many organizations and treated as most demanding topic for firms. For this study, three hypotheses were formulated and tested with the help of Pearson correlation by using SPSS. Findings indicate that all the Training, Customer Orientation and supervisory behavioral dimensions were statistically significant and positively related to salesforce performance. Implications were drawn for future research and managerial attention.


A technique has been developed for the determination of the exchangeable cation population of calcareous sandy material with cation exchange capacities of less than 1 meq/100 g. The technique involves the addition of exchange salt in the dry state to samples of porous media using original pore water as the exchange salt solvent. In applying this technique to samples from below the water table, the amount of pore water available for reaction is reduced by centrifuging in the field to bring the moisture content close to field capacity values. By utilizing the minimum amount of pore water, interferences during the exchange process due to calcite precipitation or dissolution are minimized. The extent of calcite dissolution or precipitation that occurs can be appraised by measuring alkalinity or total carbon on the pore water before and after addition of the exchange salt. Three salts, NH4C1, CsCl and LiCl were tested for their suitability for this technique. CsCl was found to be preferable because of its low tendency to dissolve carbonate and the preference of Cs+ on exchange sites.

Application of the method to a field site in southern Ontario yielded a value of 0.51 ± 0·09 meq/100 g over 15 samples for the cation exchange capacity of a near surface glaciofluvial sand deposit. It is believed that this technique could be applied with reasonable accuracy and reproducibility to materials with exchange capacities of as low as 0·1 meq/100 g.


Generalizing concepts from semigroups, we initiate a study of singular algebras. We determine their endomorphisms and investigate their algebras of selfmaps with the operation of composition adjoined.


An Australian study attempted to uncover an explanatory model of high school students' expectations of enrolment in alternative business schools. The methodology is suggested as a general approach for further research in the American context. An application ofFishbein' sExtended Multi-Attribute model supported the notion that student's expectations of enrolment were associated more with attitudes towards the consequences of enrolment than with attitudes towards the institution itself. The views of parents and significant others had a marginal influence. The relationship was mediated by situational constraints: expected Tertiary Entrance score and the amount of Infonnation, students felt they had about an institution. Details of the survey and data analysis procedures are discussed and suggestions made for further research. 2 B o N D u N I v E R s I T y


Location-based services are used as core services in various fields. In particular, in the field of public services such as emergency rescue, accurate location estimation technology is very important. Recently, the technology of tracking the location of self-isolation subjects for COVID-19 has become a major issue. Therefore, location estimation technology using personal smart devices is being studied in various ways, and the most widely used method is to use GPS. Other representative methods are using Wi-Fi, Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons, and LTE signals. In this paper, we introduced a positioning technology using deep learning based on LTE Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS) data, and confirmed the possibility through an outdoor location estimation experiment using a commercial LTE signal.


In recent years evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have come of age because of improvements in computing technology that enabled the successful implementation of this type of algorithm. EAs are a family of stochastic techniques, based on models of organic evolution, that can be used to solve optimization problems. In the literature EAs are divided into three different classes: genetic algorithms (GAs) [1], evolution strategies (ESs) [2], and evolutionary programming (EP) [3]. These classes of algorithms were developed independently of each other at different periods of time [4]. Nevertheless, the theme of this first special issue on this topic was extended to cover other areas ofartificial life (or a-life for short) such as cellular automata, neural networks, molecular computing, annealing algorithms; because of the realization that these techniques have great potential to solve problems in parallel and distributed computing (PDC). The intent of this special issue is not to address evolutionary computing (EC) research because of the availability of other journals and conference proceedings that report on this type of work, but rather to explore the link between EC and PDC. However, the reader will find that all the studies reported in the papers of this issue are dominated by the GA paradigm. This is due to the fact that GAs are more robust, more global, and more straightforward to apply. It is hoped that future special issues on this topic will explore other rich facets of artificial life. Since all the papers in this issue deal with GAs in one form or another, the next few pages will be devoted to a description of some of the fundamental operations employed by GAs. It is important to note that these basic operations are shared by some of the other a-life techniques such as ESs and EP.


: The tongue body is with special physiological functions of organs, function recovery after the defect is the major problem of the oral and maxillofacial surgery. At present, the tongue. Over the years, scholars have been committed to studying a variety of tongue reconstruction methods based on anatomical and functional repair. With the continuous introduction of the concept of functional surgery, the goal of tongue defect reconstruction after tongue cancer surgery has been raised from physical recovery to equal attention to function and appearance, and various tissue flap repair technologies have been widely used in clinical practice and mature, so it has become possible to reshape the original shape of patients' tongue.


Government regulations define how an industry operates within limitations. E-Government takes these regulations to form an information system to manage that regulated industry. This paper proposes an Air Traffic Information System to replace the current federal aviation system. The ISO Air Traffic Network is a ground and airmobile network to connect the computers located at control towers, air route traffic control centers, and airplanes. The Air Traffic Communication Protocol includes air traffic management, voice communication, radar communication, and airplane location information. An Airplane System is discussed using an Airplane Communication Protocol to network the different airplane parts together.


Acknowledgments vii 1 Where are the Radicals? 1 2 Seeing Like a Corporation 29 3 Securitizing Dissent 55 4 Privatizing Social Life 82 5 Institutionalizing Activism 108 6 A Corporatized World Order 134 Notes 157 Index 193


A solvent‐free approach was developed to incorporate carbon nanotube (CNT) into castor oil derived poly(urethane urea) (PPU) covalent adaptable network (CAN) based on dynamic piperidine‐urea bonds to fabricate CNT reinforced PPU composites. The approach includes two steps i.e., pre‐polymerization of castor with isophorone diisocyanate in flask and subsequent chain‐extension with 1,3‐bis(4‐piperidinyl)propane (PIP) in the presence of CNT in an internal mixer. The effect on CNT content of the morphology, mechanical property, stress relaxation, and reprocessability of the PPU/CNT composites was investigated in detail. The results demonstrated that CNT dispersed well in the PPU networks due to the applied strong shear force which facilitated the dispersion of CNT in the PPU matrix before cross‐linking. The well‐dispersed CNT reinforced the mechanical properties of PPU significantly and the Young's modulus (E) of the composites were enhanced significantly when the content of CNT was ≥6 wt% due to the formation of CNT network in the PPU matrix. When the content of CNT was 10 wt%, the E of PPU‐10%CNT was 927.59 ± 149.05 MPa, which was improved by ~60% compared to PPU. The reprocessability of the PPU network was remained although the stress relaxation rate was reduced with incorporation and increasing content of CNT. In addition, the PPU/CNT composites could be degraded chemically to recycle CNT through reaction of the dynamic piperidine‐urea bonds with additional PIP.


In the present paper we have used a model of open birth interval OBI) to study the systematic component of variation in the length of open birth interval by taking a priori distribution of the risk of conception as the type III distribution. The approach is further extended to study the above component of variation in OBI regardless of parity and is illustrated a set of a priori values of the parameters involved in the model.(excerpt)


Monograph Article dissertation (summary + original articles) Department Laboratory Field of research Opponents Supervisor Abstract Keywords Network security, denial of service attacks, attack mechanisms, defense mechanisms. X This dissertation studies how to defend against denial of service (DoS) attacks in computer networks. As it is not possible to prevent these attacks, one must concentrate on mitigating them. A comprehensive approach for mitigating DoS attacks is presented here. This approach is based on understanding both attack and defense mechanisms, and selecting a cost-effective set of defenses using risk management. Defense mechanisms are, however, not available against all possible attack types. For example, organization-specific servers of the Domain Name System are typically not well-managed, and DoS attacks against these kinds of name servers can easily be successful. This dissertation describes and simulates a new defense mechanism for protecting these authoritative name servers. A new approach in implementing defenses is cross-layer security, in which information from different protocol layers is used in a coordinated fashion instead of separating layers strictly. Two cross-layer designs are presented here for mitigating range attacks in ad hoc networks. The range attack is a new DoS attack where an attacker modifies the transmission range of a wireless node periodically. This overloads an ad-hoc routing protocol. The simulation results indicate the usefulness of cross-layering in mitigating the range attack. Resilience of different ad-hoc routing protocols against the range attack is also analyzed here. According to the simulation results this resilience is situation dependent. Depending on the quality of service requirements of the primary application, different ad-hoc routing protocols are resistant against the range attack. Game theory is used here to study the selection of defense strategies. The analysis shows that it can be beneficial to use different defense strategies randomly, one at a time. The game theoretic approach points out a possibility for using meta-strategies where an attacker can force a victim to perceive the benefits and weaknesses of a defense mechanism in an unrealistic way. Evaluations of existing defense mechanisms are typically carried out under ideal conditions or relevant risks are completely ignored. This dissertation presents a taxonomy of criteria for evaluating defense mechanisms against DoS attacks. This taxonomy gives a list of issues to be considered during an evaluation process. The effectiveness of rate limiting is evaluated here with special attention paid to the damage on legitimate traffic.


This brief case history is of the investigation, design, construction and operation of some of the World's major iron ore railways during the last two decades in the ancient cratonic region of Western Australia. The method outlined in this paper is the basic scientific approach that creates a conceptual model indicative of likely ground conditions and then tests it by the ground investigation.


The pathogenesis of paradoxical hypertension after resection of coarctation of the aorta was investigated by comparing the course of seven children undergoing repair of coarctation with five acyanotic children undergoing elective cardiovascular surgery. During the first 24 hours after surgery, all coarctation patients demonstrated a rise in systolic blood pressure (35 +/- 15.5 mm Hg; P less than 0.001), a significant depression in cold pressor test response, and only a slight elevation in plasma renin activity. In the next 24-72 hours, coarctation patients developed a rise in diastolic blood pressure (26.8 +/- 10.6 mm Hg; P less than 0.001), plasma renin activity (22.9 +/- 10.2/ml/hr; P less than 0.001) and fluid retention. By contrast, control patients had no significant postoperative changes. Abdominal pain occurred in five coarctation patients during the period of maximal plasma renin activity. The data suggest that the sympathetic nervous system may be responsible for the initial phase of hypertension...


In this paper,an system of audio and video data communication over the Internet was designed for embedded multimedia device.This system implemented the centralized management and remote control of embedded device.The system used DM36x as the processor of its hardware platform,running Linux operation system.The collection of audio and video data,the design and configuration of streaming media server and embedded Web server and design of CGI programs were introduced in the paper.Considering the transfer pressure of high-definition video data over the Internet,the transfer protocol of multimedia data has been improved and this improvement makes the RTSP streaming media server achieve a large capacity and smooth communication.The test results have proved that users can get good result,fine real-time and stability under conditions of low bandwidth and complex network environment.


Most research and interventions addressing youth reproductive health (RH) and HIV issues have focused on older adolescents (ages 15 to 19) or young adults (ages 20 to 24). Recently a growing number of projects are focusing on the needs of young adolescents (ages 10 to 14). Few of these projects have been evaluated however and more rigorous research is needed to identify the most promising aspects of the new projects for replication and expansion. Worldwide nearly 10 percent of people are ages 10 to 14 and in developing countries the percentage is often higher (e.g. Uganda 16 percent). Early adolescence marks a critical time of physical developmental and social changes. Interventions during early adolescence may be more effective in shaping healthy attitudes and behaviors than in late adolescence when attitudes and behaviors are more established. Young adolescents are also more likely to still be in school and less likely to have begun sexual activity. This brief discusses the important reproductive health risks facing young adolescents along with community-based approaches and school-based efforts. (excerpt)


This study aimed to evaluate the soil chemical properties of a jackfruit-based multistoried agroforestry system of a farmer's field in Belabo upazila of Narsingdi district located in the central terrace ecosystem of Bangladesh. The three-storied of crops viz. upperstorey - jackfruit trees; middlestorey - papaya, lemon, mandarin and sweet orange and lowerstorey - seasonal vegetables such as eggplant, bottle gourd and ash gourd were included in the system. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. There were five treatments covering agroforestry with four orientations and sole cropping (jackfruit trees). The agroforestry system improved the chemical properties of top soil layer compared to the sole cropping with jackfruit trees. Soil pH (4.62), total nitrogen (0.081%), organic carbon (0.61%), organic matter (1.05%), phosphorus (4.23 ppm), sulphur (10.17 ppm), calcium (2.27 meq/100g), magnesium (0.46 meq/100g) and potassium (0.52 meq/100g) were recorded in the agroforestry systems that were higher than those of the soil properties of sole cropping (jackfruit trees). The result revealed that practicing agroforestry can help in improving the soil fertility status for successful sustainable crop production.
Ann. Bangladesh Agric. (2021) 25 (1) : 105-115


The small-signal characteristics and the frequency response of the diode-stabilized linear integrated devices (circuits) are examined. The built-in feedback property is explained. It is found that the circuit provides low input impedance, high output impedance, and small internal feedback. The frequency response of the circuit with the bias-diode is superior to that without the bias-diode. The current gain of the circuit can be controlled by appropriate design of active or passive elements. The experimental results using discrete components agree with the analysis.


A series of chiral bipyridine-type ligands 5−12 has been synthesized via a de novo construction of the pyridine nucleus. The chiral moieties of the ligands originate from the monoterpene realm, namely, pinocarvone (13 → 6, 7, and 9), myrtenal (18 → 5), nopinone (21 → 8 and 10), and menthone (28 → 11 and 12); the first three precursors can be obtained in one step from β- and α-pinene, respectively. Complexes of these ligands with molybdenum(0) (38−40) and copper(II) (41) have been characterized by single-crystal X-ray crystallography. While complex 38 exhibits polymorphism (monoclinic and tetragonal forms crystallize from the same batch), 41 is characterized by a tetrahedrally distorted geometry of the metal coordination. The Mo and Pd complexes exhibit modest asymmetric induction in allylic substitution (43 → 44), and the Cu(I) counterpart of 41, derived from 10 (PINDY) and Cu(OTf)2, shows promising enantioselectivity (49−75% ee) and reaction rate (≥30 min at room temperature) in allylic oxidation of cycl...


In this paper, based on a reasonable nucleus site density model and considering conjugate heat transfer, the coupled volume-of-fluid and level set method is adapted to study subcooled flow boiling in an inclined three-dimensional rectangular mini-channel (0-180{degree sign}) with a characteristic size of 1.0 mm at a low flow rate of 88.8 kg∙m-2∙s-1. The inclination angle is found to have a slight effect on the boiling of the flow. A bubbly flow appears when a heat flux of 300 kW/m2 is added. An unconventional impact force is exerted on larger bubbles because of the reduction in liquid flow area in the downstream region of the mini-channel. This causes large bubbles to slip along the heating wall, with slight differences in the flow pattern under different inclination angles. When the inclination angle is close to 0{degree sign}, the upstream small/medium bubbles leave the heating wall under gravitational effects, which is conducive to heat transfer. As the inclination angle approaches 90{degree sign}, gravity pushes the large bubbles downstream to leave the channel, favoring the rewetting of the dry patches below. These two positive effects begin to fail as the inclination angle approaches 180{degree sign}, leading to slightly worse overall heat exchange efficiency. However, the maximum differences in the average and local wall superheating of the mini-channel are only 8.4% and 20.1%, respectively, across the range of inclination angles because the flow pattern remains similar under the effect of the impact force.


20dB gain in C-band with only 5.3W of pump is achieved with an all-fiberized 12-core Er/Yb doped fiber amplifier. This result is a first step towards SDM transmission including power efficient amplifiers and ROADM.


BACKGROUND: The abdominal compartment syndrome and its repercussion on hemodynamic and central nervous system repercussions were studied experimentally in an animal model. METHODS: Eigth dogs were operated under general anesthesia. Intracranial pressure(ICP), mean arterial pressure(MAP), cerebral perfusion pressure(CPP), central venous pressure(CVP) and cardiac output(CO) were studied. Baseline measurements were obtained, and then an abdominal pucture was performed in order to raise the IAP by air insufflations. The IAP was initially increased to 10cmH2O and further elevated by increments of 10cmH2O. All parameters were measured after a 15 minute stabilization period of each pressure increase. When the abdominal pressure reached 40cmH2O, all parameters were measured again and decompression of the abdominal cavity was carried on. Final measurements were then obtained. RESULTS: The increase of IAP caused the following physiologic changes: ICP progressively increase; initial MAP increase until 20cmH2O IAP and decrease at 40cmH2O; initial CPP increased until 10cmH2O intra-abdominal pressure and progressively decreased beyond 30cmH2O; CVP progressive increase; CO decrease beyond 30cmH2O. ICP, MAP, CPP, CVP and CO returned to near baseline level after abdominal surgical decompression. CONCLUSION: The progressive increase of IAP is associated with several hemodynamic and central nervous system changes, that returned to near initial values after abdominal cavity surgical decompression.


SUMMARY Theresponseofplasma immunoreactive insulin (IRI), freefatty acids (FFA), andbloodglucose tointravenous (I.V.) glucagon isevaluated intenhealthy subjects andin22patients following acutemyocardial infarction (MI).Heparinized venous bloodsamples were drawnfrompatients andsubjects inthefasting stateand2,5,15,30, 60, 90,and120minafter 1mg I.V.glucagon. Healthy subjects showed a significant increase ininsulin (peak at5min)andbloodglucose (peak 15min), anda persistent fall inFFA (nadir 90min). Inpatients inthefirst weekafter suffering an acuteMI,there was a significant elevation infasting bloodglucose whereas fasting insulin was lowandFFA,normal. After glucagon administration, there was a pronounced rise ininsulin anda significant rise inglucose andFFA.Sixweeksafter theacuteMI,themean fasting bloodglucose reading showed a fall whereas insulin rosetonormal range.Glucagon elicited a rise ininsulin, glucose,andFFA.Theseresults suggestthatafter MI theinsulin resistance isa stronger influence thanfailure ofinsulin secretion. Therelevance ofthese results inrelation touse ofglucagon in large doses incardiogenic shockofMI isdiscussed.


SUMMARY

An outline is given of a novel breeding scheme for onions to produce highly vigorous, good quality inbred lines adapted for autumn-sowing in the UK. The scheme involves the production of advanced generation inbred lines in the absence of selection, by single seed descent, starting with 1500 F2 plants from a Japanese × European cross. Concurrently a genetical analysis designed to predict the range of recombinant inbred lines derivable from this cross has been conducted using triple test cross (TTC) and basic generation (BG) families. Four trials are described, the results of which are used to define trialling techniques for the TTC and BG material which enable genetical predictions to be applied to direct-drilled onions at commercial spacings. The ranking of genotypes for important agronomic characters remains unchanged whether they are grown as transplanted spaced single plants or direct-drilled, however interactions may occur if pre-chitted seed is used.


In a recent paper, Flohr, Grabow and Koehn conjectured that the characters of the logarithmic conformal field theory ck,1 admit fermionic representations labelled by the Lie algebra Dk. In this paper, we provide a simple analytic proof of this conjecture.


Spatial Data Mining is an exploratory process aimed at discovering hidden patterns from spatial data. The extracted knowledge can be used to perform efficient spatial prediction. It allows taking advantage of the growing availability of geographically referenced data and their potential richness. Spatial data mining techniques can be applied to various fields' namely health care, metrological data, traffic analysis, customer intelligence, transport management, urban planning and utilities industry. This paper proposes to support spatial data mining techniques of air pollution. A web based system is proposed to investigate the effect of meteorological and air pollutant elements on air pollution. It majorly consists of the collection, transformation and query and mining elements. The collecting element helps providing access to collection of data. The transformers convert the data into the required format and the query and mining element provide an interface to the user, for querying and mining requests and provide the results.


The invention relates to a cycle-based time-controlled communication system (1) for transmitting user data (DATA) between users (3) of the system (1). The system (1) comprises a data bus (2) and connected thereto, the participants (3). The data transmission occurs within cyclically recurring time frames (4) each having at least two time slots (5). Each time slot (5) is provided for transmitting a message (Ni). A message (Ni) includes at least a portion of the payload data (DATA) and each message (Ni) is associated with an identifier (ID). In order to exploit the available data transmission bandwidth better, it is proposed that the identifier (ID) as part of the message (Ni) is stored in the latter, in question (5) that each message (Ni) in addition to the time slot and the identifier removable time information is associated, and that at least one of the time slots (5) of the time frame (4) is available in various cycles for the transmission of different messages.


Abstract Populist attributions of blame have important effects on citizens' attitudes, cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. Extending previous studies that have mostly looked at populist messages blaming political elites, we use an online survey experiment (N = 805) to investigate the effects of blaming different elitist actors in populist and non-populist ways: (1) political elites, (2) corporate elites, (3) scientific elites, and (4) a combination of these elites. We compare mere causal responsibility attribution to populist blame attributions that highlight a central opposition between "pure ordinary people" and "corrupt elites" to tease out the specific effect of populist rhetoric. Results suggest that populist messages blaming all elites have stronger effects than isolated cues. Furthermore, populist blame attribution leads to more negative perceptions of the elites than non-populist blame attribution. The finding that populist frames can – under some conditions – activate negative perceptions toward different elites is alarming in times of declining trust in societal institutions, and calls for a more encompassing understanding of populists' scapegoats.


A novel composite approach to generate ultra-wideband (UWB) doublet pulses in optical domain through an electrical Gaussian pulse is proposed and demonstrated in this letter. Two pulses with reversed polarity generated by polarization modulation are fed into a differential group delay device and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) wherein the optical pulse profile is modified. Doublet pulses are obtained after optical-electrical detection due to gain saturation and recovery mechanism in the SOA. The fractional bandwidth of doublet pulses exceeds 180%, fulfilling the UWB requirements. Index Terms—Doublet pulse, polarization modulation, semicon- ductor optical amplifier (SOA), ultra-wideband (UWB).


A capacitance cell and oven capable of temperature control in the range of 30–220°C has been designed and constructed. The dielectric properties of several side-chain polymer liquid crystals have been measured at 17 frequencies ranging from 10 Hz to 100,000 Hz using a fully automated, microprocessor controlled bridge built by one of the authors (CGA1. The dielectric features will be compared with DSC studies of these materials


Subtitle: With safety and recalls, sustainability, rising costs, and infrastructure improvements the usual suspects, food companies investigate strategies for locking down supply chain management efficiencies.


This study aims to find the institutional existence and ownership structure of credit rating agencies of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. Institutional and Ownership Structure of Credit Rating Agencies MSMEs in Indonesia is conducted through the ministry of cooperatives and SMEs, the ministry of communications and information, the tourism ministry, agency securities in Indonesia, Bank Indonesia, the national banking associations, and ministries of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have an important role in the economy in Indonesia. MSMEs have a proportion of 99.99% of the total businesses in Indonesia or as many as 59.313 million of MSMEs units also prove to have contrubuted for 19.86% of the total Gross Domestic Product of Indonesia


Objective: To identify whether personal experience of skin cancer in people who regularly participate in recreational boating is associated with their level of midday sun exposure, current sun protective behaviours and sun-induced skin damage.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey with 24-hour follow-up of recreational boat users who regularly go boating between 9am and 3pm. The study was conducted in Townsville, North
Queensland (latitude 19°S), during the summer of 2003. Of the 134 boat users approached, 124 consented to participate, with 5 later excluded from analysis (n=119, response rate=92%).

Results: In comparison to people reporting no personal experience of skin cancer, people with personal experience of skin cancer were more likely to: (1) report spending fewer hours on the boat between 9am to 3pm (p=0.010), (2) report using a canopy during the boat trip (p=0.038), (3) report wearing sunglasses (p=0.013), and (4) spend more than one hour in the sun on a typical workday (p=0.059). People who reported having previous skin cancer were no more likely to use personal sun protection or have a lighter tan, and no less likely to experience sunburn from the boat trip, than people not having skin cancer.

Conclusions: During recreational boating, people who reported previous skin cancer were more likely to use a shade structure and spend less time in the sun during peak UVR hours (particularly those who typically worked indoors), but not to use more individual sun protection practices excepting sunglasses, than people not having skin
cancer.


Periodically recurring paralysis of the oculomotor nerve (migraine ophthalmoplegique French authors) is not often observed. In foreign literature, I managed to collect 24 cases, and in Russian literature, as far as I know, there is only one observation by prof. L.O.Darkshevich. In view of this, I think it is interesting to give a brief history of the illness of one patient, in whom, during the last day, I observed periodic paralysis of the oculomotor nerve


: Rice blast is one of the major threats to stable rice production. In modernized rice breeding system, development of rice cultivars harboring resistance gene is one of the most efficient approaches against blast disease. Wild rice species, to the context, have been recognized as valuable genetic resources in improving resistance or tolerance level of modern commercial rice cultivars against biotic or abiotic stresses. National Institute of Crop Science (NICS), Korea developed an introgression line, 'Suweon 506', which has inherited the rice blast resistance from a BBCC genome wild Oryza species, O. minuta (Acc. 101141). Genetic analysis was carried out to localize the chromosomal region responsible for the rice blast resistance of 'Suweon 506' by using F 2 progenies from 'Suweon 506' × 'Milyang 23'. Association analysis between marker genotypes and their inferred resistance levels of F 2 progenies against a Korean blast isolate, '93-072' localized the target genetic region on rice chromosome 12. Further association analysis with increased number of DNA markers, and e -Landings on the rice pseudomolecule 6, the segment of 'RM101-S10704-RM1337' was identified to be tightly linked to the rice blast resistance gene from O. minuta at the 8.8 ∼ 11.9 Mbp physical region of rice chromosome 12, where at least 9 rice blast resistance genes have been also identified. The 3.1 Mb equivalent virtual contig, composed with 31 BAC/PAC clones will be further analyzed for fine mapping and gene identification.


Objective: Few data are available regarding the long‐term psychological impact of uninformative BRCA1/2 test results. This study examines change in distress from pretesting to 12‐months post‐disclosure, with medical, family history, and psychological variables, such as pretesting perceived risk of carrying a deleterious mutation prior to testing and primary and secondary appraisals, as predictors.


Strategic leadership is a critical component in the effective development of schools. Currently the educational debate is shifting to focus on how short-term improvements can become strategically sustainable. This article will put forward the view that renewed attention needs to be paid to the strategic dimension of leadership to ensure this sustainability. Much of the orthodox perspective of leadership development suggests that new leaders tend to .rst address current administrative and managerial issues to build con.dence and organizational ability before moving to a strategic and futures activities. The article argues that schools need a concurrent or parallel view of leadership development in which leaders focus not only on the 'now' of school improvement but concurrently build strategic capability within the school.


The global production of oil is predicted to have reached a peak in the first decade of this century and will gradually decline, while demand outstrips the discovery and exploitation of new oil sources. This paper investigates issues of adapting urban development to an oil-constrained future, exploring the analogy between oil depletion and climate change. These issues are two of the global wicked problems this century; however, oil depletion is likely to have greater certainty in its predicted impacts. The terminology of climate change mitigation and adaptation is modified to assess its application to oil depletion actions, referring to recent policy research by Hirsch et al on oil supply mitigation as a case study. The categorisation of the proposed administrative measures and physical options is analysed using a non-metric ordinal scale, to indicate how closely they align with the proposed mitigation and adaptation definitions. It is concluded that while there is some blurring between the categories (in a similar way to global warming actions); the modified terminology is a useful way to categorise and analyse oil depletion actions. Current oil strategies are geared to mitigation actions, but adaptive measures will become much more important in the longer term future as oil supply becomes constrained.


It is shown that the frequency shift of the excited ion sound wave in Tonks‐Dattner resonance is due to the nonlinear phenomenon represented by the frequency‐mismatched factor of the nearly free resonance parametric theory derived by Nishikawa. It is also shown that the increase of the electron temperature is negligibly small so that the effect of the increase of the electron temperature on the shift can be neglected.


For a systematic analysis of the influence of moisture content on the dielectric properties and on the detectability of structural features in building constructions, investigations have been performed within the framework of a European research project with the title "Subsurface Radar as a Tool for Non-Destructive Testing and Assessment in the Construction and Building Industries." Several results are presented where the influence of material properties, moisture content, salt content, frequency and polarization of the electromagnetic field of the microwave impulses were taken into account. Test specimens made of brickwork were investigated with regard to the detection of filled and unfilled joints, voids and multiple layers.


Irrigated agriculture provides about 40 percent of the world's food resources from 18 percent of the world's cultivated land. Compared to other water uses, irrigation is a high volume, low quality, low cost use accounting globally for 70 percent of the world's water usage. Given this existing pressure on the world's water resources, it is unlikely that many major new sources of water will be developed for irrigation use. Most of the world's major irrigation districts were developed more than 30 years ago. Many are now in need of rehabilitation because of either failing infrastructure, excessive leakiness, or poor management. Even small improvements in water usage rates (more crop per drop) can result in significant water savings, which can be used for other purposes including the production of more food. Furthermore, their environmental performance is often unacceptable by modern standards.


New chemical analyses and petrographic descriptions for 10 previously unanalyzed Apollo 17 rock samples are provided. Attention is focused on several that appear to be pristine. All samples were analyzed in INAA using a procedure based on that of Kallemeyn et al. (1989). One sample was found to be unambiguously pristine, and is the first pristine ferroan-anorthositic suite (FAS) sample from Apollo 17. It exhibits extremely low-mg(asterisk) mafic silicates, coupled with relatively sodic plagioclase. It has an unusually high augite/low-Ca pyroxene ratio and contains incompatible trace elements at levels unprecedentedly high compared to FAS anorthosites from the Apollo 14, 15, 16 sites. It is inferred that 74114.5, and Apollo 17 anorthosites in general, formed at a relatively late stage in the evolution of the primordial magmasphere.


Objective. To evaluate the presence of Lactobacillus plantarum in large intestine of piglets. Materials and methods. Fifty piglets were randomly allocated into 5 (n=10) treatment groups (T0: without probiotics; T1:with L. plantarum 1 H1; T2:with L. plantarum 1 H2; T3: with commercial probiotics; T4:without commercial probiotics). After treatment, 3 piglets, from each group, were randomly selected and large intestine samples were taken and analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and serum for blood chemistry. The determination of immunoglobulin A (IgA) was made by turbidimetric method; and the total cholesterol and blood ureic nitrogen (BUN) by espectrophotometry. The differential leukocyte count and polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) was examined in blood smears. Results. Adhesion of L. plantarum 1 H1 and L. plantarum 1 H2 was found in the mucosa of the large piglet intestine. Was observed secretion of mucin, and inflammation in the lamina propria and connective tissue edema as part of the immune response. IgA showed high concentrations in T2 (L. plantarum 1 H1, 333 mg/100 ML) and T3 (L. plantarum 1 H2, 300 mg/100 mL). The T2 and T3 values in polymorphonuclear neutrophils were elevated (65% and 55% respectively). Total cholesterol was lower in T2 (113.83%) and T3 (93.8%). T2 and T3 showed the lowest BUN values (7.83 and 8.76 mg% respectively). Conclusions. The use of probiotics with L. plantarum 1 added in the ration showed a positive effect in the colonization and adhesion in the large intestine, as well as, a positive response in their immune system.


Nonlinear electrical characteristics of three-branch junction (TBJ) devices are investigated experimentally and numerically as a function of frequency. Based on the bell-shaped output voltage obtained under push-pull input we analyze the low frequency performance (≪1 MHz) of TBJs operating as mixers. Concerning high frequency, by means of Monte Carlo simulations we illustrate the functionality of the device as a frequency doubler or rectifier up to 1 THz.


This paper develops a business cycle model with heterogeneous debt constrained rms exposed to idiosyncratic production risk. An agency problem causes rms to trade o the bene t of debt (a reduction in the damage caused by malfeasant managers) and the cost of debt (an increase in the risk of costly bankruptcy). Firm debt capacity, the amount of debt a rm can take on without going bankrupt, is given by the liquidation value of the rm's capital, which is in turn determined by the market for old capital. I show that a rm's production, investment and nancial behavior depend on the rm's debt-capital ratio and the liquidation value of the rm's capital stock. The model predicts that a rm's debt-capital ratio a ects the rm's behavior even when the debt capacity constraint is not momentarily binding, b) the model predicts a non-degenerate distribution of debt-capital ratios across rms, and c) debt capacity depends on the distribution of debt-capital ratios across rms. Using a spectral approximation method, the paper shows how to calculate the general equilibrium dynamics of the model. Shocks to the distribution of rm debt-capital ratios provide a new source of business cycle impulses. Moreover, the perturbation of the distribution of rm debt-capital ratios by aggregate technology shocks (which occurs even in the presence of nancial markets which are fully contingent on aggregate technology shocks) provides an ampli cation mechanism for business cycle disturbances. The time it takes for the distribution of debt-capital ratios to return its steady state provides a new propagation mechanism. The dependence of the liquidation value of capital on the distribution of debt-capital ratios across rms plays an important role in these e ects. The model nests the standard stochastic growth model and thus allows for an assessment of the quantitative importance of debt constraints, time-varying liquidation values and rm heterogeneity for business cycle dynamics.


Introduction • Carcinoma buccal mucosa and gingivobuccal sulcus are common malignancies in our country. • Following wide local excision / composite resection of tumour, there are large cheek defects. • The Narayanan bilobed flap can be used specially for reconstruction of these large post-excisional defects in patients with advanced malignancies. • This flap uses both anterior and posterior branches of the superficial temporal artery to harvest the forehead skin and a scalp flap on a single pedicle.