The subject of weighted polynomial approximation on the whole real line was the main interest of Professor Freud during the last ten years or so of his life. In this paper we shall survey some aspects of the final stages of his efforts. We do not intend to be exhaustive, however, and thus if we fail to mention certain results here, it does not imply that we consider them uninteresting. As with many other problems in approximation theory, the subject of weighted approximation goes back to S. N. Bernstein who posed the following problem: Let w be a continuous function on IR such that x"w(x) -+ 0 as 1x1 -+ GO, IZ =O, 1, 2 ,.... Find necessary and sufficient conditions on w for {x"w(x)} to be fundamental in C,(R). While this problem was investigated in great detail by several mathematicians, (see, e.g., [ 1, 34, 581 for reviews), the important question of determining the degree of approximation by "weighted polynomials" (i.e., expressions of the form w(x) P(x), where P is a polynomial) was rarely discussed. A notable exception was the work of M. M. Dzrbasyan and his collaborators. Out of historical interest, we note one of their results.


A recent generalization of the classical Ornstein–Zernike theory of critical scattering is used to derive inequalities for the critical‐point exponents which characterize a first‐order phase transition. These inequalities for fluids are found to differ from the corresponding Buckingham–Gunton inequalities for Ising ferromagnets and the Josephson inequality.


A hardfacing alloy containing 20Cr2Mn12 Ni Mo N ductile transition layer,Cr12W3 Mn buffer layer and Cr20 Ti Mn Si high-chromium wear-resisting layer was deposited on Q235 base metals by the method of flux-cored wire submerged arc welding and self- shielded open arc welding. The characteristics and the properties of interface phase were researched by optical microscopy(OM),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),X-ray diffraction(XRD)and micro-hardness tester. The results show that a gradient hardfacing alloy layer can be made by depositing a ductile transition alloy layer on base metals as well as a buffer alloy layer. The residual stress can be reduced. The dilution effect of base metal on wear-resisting layer composition can be restrained and brittle phases such as reticular carbides and the eutectic can be refrained from the hardfacing alloy layer.


The interface transformation phenomena occurring during the growth of frost crystals were studied for better understanding the mechanism of frost formation on cold surfaces.The formation mechanisms of different initial frost crystal shapes were explained from a crystal growth point of view.An interface stability theoretical analysis shows that the temperature field and water vapor concentration field are the main factors affecting frost crystal growth,with the competing and coupling effects of the two fields was the fundamental reason for the phase change and interface transformation phenomena in frost crystals.A mathematical model was then developed to analyze the frost crystal growth rate.The results shows that the frost crystal growth rate increases with decreasing frost crystal temperature or increasing water vapor partial pressure,witch is consistent with experimental results and analyses based on molecular dynamics.


In four days of desperate fighting, from 29 February to 3 March 2000, a large force of Chechen fighters wiped out a Russian paratroop company in the harsh defiles and ridges of the Argun Gorge in the mountains of southern Chechnya. Although the battle was a catastrophic tactical defeat for the Russian airborne force, the company's stubborn defense to the last man and the concentration of Russian relief forces inflicted a strategic setback on the Chechens. The Russians stumbled into this catastrophe through poor unit leadership, but Russian blood and valor transformed it into victory. Hatred to the Bone In Fall 1999, the Second Chechen War began. The Russian Army sought to reimpose the Russian Federation's authority in lawless, breakaway Chechnya. The Rus sians and Chechens' shared 200year history had been punctuated by convulsions of blood and cruelty. The First Chechen War, from 1994 to 1996, had ended in the Russian Army's humiliation and left Russia with its highest loss of resources and professionalism since the Soviet Union's demise. The loss of basic combat skills also had been horrific. This second round was the Russian Army's opportunity to show that it had recovered something of its former ability. Nothing expressed the depth of Russian-Chechen animosity more than the battle cries hurled back and forth across the firing lines during the siege of Groznyy. To the Chechen shouts of "Allah Akhbar!" the Russians would respond, "Christ is Risen!" After Gromyy fell, Chechen forces regrouped in the rough, mountainous areas of southern Chechnya. By late February, a large Chechen force of from 1,600 and 2,500 fighters had concentrated in the town of Ulus-- Kert, where the Abazolgul and Sharoargun rivers join.I The area was one in which the Russians had not dared enter during the First Chechen War. This time, they did not hesitate to follow. A Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) tactical group attacked Chechen forces at Ulus-Kert, forcing them southeast. One of the VDV tactical group's regimental task forces, based on the 104th Guards Parachute Regiment (GPR) of the 76th Guards Airborne Division (GAD), was to block the gorge while the VDV tactical group encircled the Chechens. Area of Operations The small town of Ulus-Kert is surrounded by extremely steep, mountainous terrain. Approximately 6 kilometers south of the town and extending far to the southeast are the Dargenduk Mountains. A road leading generally south out of Ulus-Kert and up the northeastern edge of the Dargenduks crosses over a 1,410meter hill, referred to as Hill 14 10. Approximately 1.5 kilometers directly southeast of Ulus-Kert is Hill 705.6. Just about one-half kilometer south of Hill 705.6 is a narrow opening to a small gorge. Three and one-half kilometers southeast of Ulus-Kert, on the gorge's easternmost side, is Hill 776. Hill 787 is only 1 kilometer farther south. A road leading southeast from Ulus-Kert over Hill 705.6 turns south into the gorge. Another road intersects the first then leads to the western edge of the saddle between hills 776 and 787 where it divides into mountain paths crossing the saddle. Hill 787 is approximately 4.3 kilometers north of Hill 1410. At the time of the operation, the weather was foggy and cold, with snow on the ground. The Chechens planned to escape advancing Russian forces by using the advantage of the mountainous terrain southeast of Ulus-Kert. After slipping through the passes, the fighters could seize the strategic population centers of Makhkety, Elistanzhi, Zaduli, Kirov-Yurt and Vedeno, which provided a west-to-- east corridor in relatively low, flat terrain through which remaining Chechen forces could withdraw to Dagestan.2 From Dagestan, they could renew the struggle on more favorable terms. The VDV tactical group's mission was to counter the Chechen force's objectives by blocking its escape through the mountains then encircling it so artillery and combat air support could be used. …


We report high performance IR photocurrent response of two-dimensional hybrid materials consisting of layered WS2 nanosheets and reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Comparative photocurrent response studies of WS2 nanosheets, RGO, and WS2/RGO hybrids were carried out by performing current-voltage (I-V) and time-dependent current measurements with a laser excitation source having a wavelength of 808 nm. The experimental investigations indicate that WS2/RGO hybrids show negative photocurrent response, whereas WS2 and RGO show positive photocurrent response. The negative photocurrent response of the WS2/RGO hybrids is explained using a band alignment diagram and attributed to a charge transfer mechanism between WS2 and RGO. This analysis is further corroborated by first-principles density functional calculations. The fabricated device based on WS2/RGO hybrids shows a photosensitivity Rλ of about 6 AW−1 and a quantum efficiency η of ∼924%, which demonstrates high sensitivity of the hybrid material towards IR detect...


This paper explores changes in the level and composition of per capita food consumption across the world; it does not discuss intra-country inequalities in food access, nor the prevalence of hunger resulting from those inequalities. The world's food output has more than trebled since 1961 whilst population only doubled, causing a marked increase in per capita food supply. By 2011 the average human was consuming nearly 2900 daily kilocalories per person, up from less than 2200 in 1961; per capita protein intake had also increased significantly from 61 to 80 grams per day. Besides these overall increases in food consumption, the composition of the average diet also changed. One major finding in this regard is that per capita consumption of cereals reached a plateau (or slightly declined) in recent decades, whilst consumption of other foods increased significantly. All the increase in per capita dietary energy supply since 1990 reflects higher consumption of non-cereal food; per capita cereal food consumption stabilised or declined. The saturation level at which cereal food consumption stabilises seems to vary across regions, probably due to local culture and custom. Due to changing dietary patterns, some regions of the world have enormously increased their consumption of fats, especially vegetable oil, contributing to a growing obesity epidemic. In some regions, chiefly North America, this has been compounded by a significant increase in per capita consumption of sugar. But humans have also changed their diets in beneficial ways, consuming more pulses, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, milk and eggs. These trends are present in all major regions, albeit varying across regions. Most of these trends imply greater intake of micronutrients. More diversified diets, with increased presence of fruits, vegetables and foods of animal origin, suggest that the micronutrient content of per capita food supply is increasing, at the world level and for all major regions.


In this paper, a filtering performance degradation problem of the globally optimal unbiased minimum-variance filter (GOUMVF) for systems with unknown inputs has been explored. The main problem encountered in the GOUMVF lies in the fact that its gain matrix is in some degeneration forms, which are defined as those that are not fully connected to the process noise and the measurement noise covariances; in such cases, the filter may not preserve the minimum-variance property. To remedy this problem, a parameterized augmented system reformation approach has been proposed, and the parameterized augmented RTSKF (PARTSKF) is proposed to give a tradeoff between the unbiasedness and the minimum variance in a practical unknown input filtering. An illustrative example is given to show the usefulness of the proposed results.


Coronary chronic total occlusions (CTOs) were identified as coronary lesions with thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) grade 0 flow for the duration of at least 3 months. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of chronic total occlusions (CTOs) can be opted to derive significant clinical benefits in terms of alleviation of stable angina, improvement in left ventricular function, enabling long term survival and in improvement of quality of life. Previously the CTO recanalization success rates were low ranging from 51 to 74%. The CTO crossing techniques include antegrade wire escalation, antegrade dissection‐reentry and retrograde approach. Over the recent years clinical research and development has resulted in finer elucidation and understanding of histopathology associated with chronic total occlusions and concomitant technological progress in the material science and medical instrumentation led to the development of new techniques, procedures and equipment for CTO-PCI with over 80% success rates. However the ability to cross the occlusion remains the main challenge. Antegrade wire escalation (AWE) along with intimal tracking is especially preferred as initial method for short CTO (Figure 1).


Objective: Wedelolactone is a naturally (WDL) occurring coumestan of phytoestrogen category that possess anticancer and anti-inflammatory property. In this study, the anti-inflammatory effect of WDL on human cervical cancer cells (HeLa) and initiation of apoptosis mechanism were investigated. Methods: MTT assay and Trypan blue assay were demonstrated to detect the inhibitory effects of WDL on cell proliferation. The mRNA expression of IL-1β, TNFα, IL-6, TGFβ, and NFκB were detected by RT PCR. Western blotting was performed to detect the expression of apoptosis-associated proteins; cleaved caspase-3, cleaved PARP, Bcl2, and Bax. Results: WDL significantly inhibited the growth and proliferation of HeLa cells in a concentration dependent manner with the IC50 of 10μM. mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines and NFκB was significantly reduced in WDL treated groups. Moreover, WDL promoted the apoptosis of HeLa cells dosedependently by down-regulating Bcl-2 and up-regulating cleaved caspase-3, cleaved PARP, and Bax. Conclusion: Collectively, WDL exerted anti-inflammatory effect through the suppression of NF-kB activation, IL-1β, TNFα, IL-6 and promoted apoptosis in HeLa cells. Thus, use of WDL, especially through its anti-inflammatory effect, may have future applications in treating human cancers by sensitizing cancer cells to conventional cancer therapies. INTRODUCTION: Cervical cancers are the most common malignancies among the gynecological oncology. They pose an exclusive threat to treat and cause morbidity. Especially inflammation exerted by HPV (Human papillomavirus) leads to cervicitis that can progress into cervical cancer 1 . Unregulated chronic inflammation seems to play a compelling role that leads to the pathogenesis of various malignant tumors such as cervical, ovarian, hepatic and esophageal cancers 2 . Inflammation plays essentially an important role in governing cervix pathology and viral infection, such as HPV sensitivity establishing tumor environment 3 . QUICK RESPONSE CODE DOI: 10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.10(12).5657-63 This article can be accessed online on www.ijpsr.com DOI link: http://dx.doi.org/10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.10(12).5657-63 Biochemical, epidemiological, immunological and genetic studies have proved the link between inflammation and malignancy development. Infiltrated immune cells along with its cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors at inflammatory sites lead to cervical cancer. Dysregulated cytokine secretion increases excessive cell growth, transformation into malignancy and its survival 4 . Once the tumor initiation stage is established it creates excessive inflammation, which in turn tends to facilitate tumor progression 5 . NF-κB, the key switch mediates crosstalk between inflammation and cancer at various levels. Constitutive activation of NFκB piles up proinflammatory cytokines and establish protumorigenic environment, enhancing the expression of antiapoptotic genes 6 . This contributes to the cell survival mechanism by combating the physiological stress that induced the inflammatory response.


The impoverished college students' issues has aroused a lot of attention from various circles of society under the new situation.This paper mainly sets three colleges' impoverished students of Qiannan District to take research into both of their studying life and living life.This paper also concludes that it can not solve the problems of the impoverished students only by means of economical methods.In the other way something has to be done in the harmonious cooperation between the college,instructor and impoverished students so that can make a difference.


This work is a modelling of the Aireco® filtration system. This heat exchanger, with particle catching capabilities, is made of a cyclonic body which contains refrigerated coils. The water vapour contained in the gas to be treated condensed on the coils surface. Our modelling considers two main capture surfaces: the entry zone in which particles are collected by inertial impaction and the cyclonic body in which particles diffused by centrifugal force is the main phenomena. We found that these considerations explain our experimental results with an accuracy more than 90%, when the Aireco® is on a normal point of working.

Ce travail consiste a modeliser l'efficacite de filtration du systeme d'epuration Aireco®. Cet echangeur epurateur se compose d'un corps cyclonique et de nappes de serpentins refrigeres provoquant la condensation de la vapeur d'eau contenue dans le gaz pollue traite. Dans ce modele nous modelisons l'echangeur en considerant les zones de piegeage preponderantes que sont l'entree et le corps cyclonique. Notre modele prend en compte les effets d'impaction inertielle en entree et la centrifugation dans le corps du systeme. Cette demarche theorique corrobore a plus de 95 % les valeurs obtenues experimentalement lorsque l'Aireco® fonctionne dans ses conditions nominales.


Background—The apoptosis of cardiac myocytes may play a role in the development of heart failure. Norepinephrine is one of the factors activated in heart failure and can induce myocardial cell apoptosis in culture. However, it is unknown if aand b-adrenergic pathways coordinately or differentially regulate apoptosis and if this apoptotic pathway uses common or cell type–specific apoptotic signals. Methods and Results—We stimulated cultured neonatal rat cardiac myocytes with an a1drenergic agonist (PE, phenylephrine), ab-adrenergic agonist (isoproterenol [Iso]) or a membrane-permeable cAMP analogue (8-Br-cAMP) in serum-free conditions for 48 hours. Iso and 8-Br-cAMP markedly increased the number of TUNEL-positive cells (%TUNEL-positive nuclei.40%) compared with saline stimulation ( ,10%). DNA fragmentation was also confirmed by ladder formation in agarose gels. Apoptotic myocytes were characterized by cell shrinkage and nuclear condensation, consistent with morphological features of apoptosis. The Iso-induced apoptosis was almost completely inhibited by the protein kinase A–specific inhibitor KT5720. In contrast, PE inhibited 8-Br-cAMP–induced myocardial cell apoptosis. The apoptosis-inhibitory effect by PE was negated by the a1-adrenergic receptor antagonist prazosin and the MEK-1–specific inhibitor PD098059. Interestingly, although 8-Br-cAMP markedly induced apoptosis in cardiac myocytes, it completely blocked serum depletion–induced apoptosis in PC12 cells, a rat pheochromocytoma cell line. Conclusions—These findings indicate that aandb-adrenergic pathways differentially regulate myocardial cell apoptosis. The results also suggest that a cAMP– protein kinase A pathway is necessary and sufficient for b-adrenergic agonist–induced apoptosis and that this apoptotic pathway is not functional in other cell types, for example, PC12 cells. (Circulation. 1999;100:305-311.)


Ca3(VO4)2:Eu3+,Bi3+was prepared by modified combustion synthesis. These phosphors were characterized. The SEM image shows that the size of the phosphor particles is uniform. The main emission peak of Ca3(VO4)2:Eu3+,Bi3+ was 615.0 nm. It is expected that Ca3(VO4)2: Eu3+,Bi3+ would be promising red emitting phosphors.


The problem of transferring unclaimed land shares as a form of state management of land resources for targeted use to agricultural producers, actually cultivating farmland, is disclosed. Proposals are formulated to involve unclaimed agricultural land in the economic circulation by ensuring proper procedural notification to peasant farms or corporate agricultural organizations that actually carry out production activities within the boundaries of this administrative region with a proposal to buy out a land plot formed at the expense of unclaimed land shares and transferred by a court decision to municipal property.


In article are systematized theorist-methodological positions of the analysis to efficiency agro-industrial integration (the approaches, criteria, analytical toolbox). The algorithm of the developed procedure of an assessment of efficiency of functioning of the integrated structures in agrarian and industrial complex is brought, the phased content of works and possibilities of use of the approach in practice is described. The analysis of efficiency is organized and system laws of progress of cooperative-integrated processes in agro-industrial complex of the Gomel area of Republic Belarus are revealed.


Of and dry durability foam in a variety of applications; aqueous-based dispersion olefin polymer, floss, durable open cell foam composition, structures and articles derived therefrom; such flosses and methods of making foam use is disclosed. Among other properties, good absorption capacity of the foam, due to softness and / or flexibility and recyclable nature thereof, absorption, filtration, insulation, in the buffer and the backing applications, especially deodorant, hygiene and medical applications for then further describe the use of foam and structures and articles manufactured.


Abstract A new technique is presented which enables us to discuss the existence of one or more solutions to singular conjugate, focal and ( n ,  p ) boundary value problems. Our nonlinearity f ( t ,  y ) may be singular at y =0, t =0 and/or t =1.


Introduction One of the supreme challenges faced in cancer therapy is the small therapeutic window afforded by chemotherapeutic agents and radiation therapy. Many of these agents act by damaging DNA. This DNA damage is believed to be directly lethal to rapidly growing cancer cells but also produces toxicity through effects on normal cells. A major therapeutic research goal in molecular oncology is to identify factors and pathways with unique roles in tumor cells, potentially providing explanations for therapeutic successes and targets for new drug discovery. There has been an accumulation of data in recent years indicating that the DNA damage induced by chemotherapy or radiation may function in certain contexts as a signal to trigger apoptosis, a characteristic and orderly suicide program inherent to the cell. A number of genes have been identified as regulators of this process. One such gene, p53, also has emerged as one of the most commonly aberrant tumor suppressor genes in human cancers. The roles ofp53 in tumorigenesis and cell death and the potential implications of these activities are explored in this review.


The effect of electron temperature on the space-time evolution of nonlinear plasma oscillations in an inhomogeneous plasma is studied using an in-house developed one-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code. In contrast to the conventional wisdom, it is found that for an inhomogeneous plasma, there exists a critical value of electron temperature beyond which wave breaking does not occur. This novel result, which is of relevance to present day laser plasma experiments, has been explained on the basis of interplay between electron thermal pressure and background inhomogeneity.


The importance of human capital for economic well-being is historic. Theories show that people's development is the basis for the sustainable growth of the economy. The state of health of the population has always influenced the economic state and was also influenced by the economy; thus, in the context of a precarious economy, lack of food and low levels of living lead to various diseases, as in France, eighteenth century to the revolution of 1789, there have been 30 years of famine and disease caused by lack of food, which has stagnated economic evolution. Thus, the topic of actuality, regarding the field of economic growth and the increasing integration of human health in this process, are the premises of a complex analysis of an interdisciplinary approach. The importance of the topic is derived from understanding the health of human capital as a resource for the development of society and not as a resource consumer while understanding the role of the individual decision in managing their health. Beyond the individual perspective on health, its subjective perception and individual decision-making for the choice of behavior that maximizes health, the state can be an important factor in ensuring the functioning of national health systems. The main objective of this paper is to identify, based on the specialized literature consulted on the impact of human capital and, in particular, its health, on economic growth, by analyzing the ways and the factors by which human capital influences economic activity.


The Mexican land reform, one of the most sweeping in the world, proceeded in two steps: it granted peasants highly incomplete property rights on more than half of the Mexican territory starting in 1914, creating strong economic and political dependence for beneficiaries on the ruling political party; and complete property rights starting in 1992, allowing beneficiaries to relate directly to the market. We analyse the impact on political behaviour of switching from incomplete to complete property rights.


Probabilities for electron shake-up and shake-off are calculated as relaxation processes following the beta decay of 6 He to form 6 Li, including corrections due to nuclear recoil. Within the sudden approximation, it is found that the correction due to nuclear recoil is nearly an order of magnitude less than that measured by Carlson et al . Phys. Rev. 129 , 2220 (1963).


Irrigation that decreases the leaching fraction (LF; leachate/water applied) has been shown to reduce fertilizer N and P leaching during the production of sprinkler-irrigated, container-grown plants; however, little research involving outdoor production of microirrigated plants in large containers has been conducted. Two microirrigation schedules based on routine leaching fraction testing were compared to determine their effects on water use and leaching losses of N and P during the production of Dwarf Burford holly in 36-cm-diameter (trade #7) containers. Applied irrigation water and leachate were collected continuously and sampled weekly during the 12-month experiment. An irrigation schedule adjusted once every 1 to 3 weeks to a target LF of 20% resulted in the application of 36% less water (383 vs. 597 L/plant) and 43% less leachate (255 vs. 445 L/plant) than a schedule adjusted to a target LF of 40%; plant growth was unaffected (P > 0.05). Irrigation schedules had no effect (P > 0.05) on cumulative N and P leaching losses, which were attributed in large part to rain. Average leaching losses of N and P were 15.2 and 2.2 g per container (210 and 30 kg·ha−1·year−1), respectively. Both N and P leaching losses represented 35% of the 43.5 g N and 6.3 g P applied per container in two controlled-release fertilizer applications. The results support the best management practice of scheduling irrigation based on routine LF testing to reduce irrigation water use but not reduce N and P leaching.


The proposed technology of polyethylene pipe socket welding can be used in construction of polyethylene piping systems in the mining industry. Based on numerical simulation of thermal process, the effect of low temperatures on the temperature field dynamics in socket weld joint is investigated. The need of preheating and usage of thermal insulation at the cooling stage during welding at low temperatures for the thermal process to develop according to the patterns of welding at acceptable temperatures is shown. A procedure is given for determining the size of a heat-insulating chamber for cooling a welded socket joint at low temperatures from the condition of ensuring the cooling rate characteristic of welding at permissible temperatures.


Six polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed for the ectomycorrhizal fungus Pisolithus microcarpus. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based technique was used in which random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fingerprints were probed with labelled SSR oligonucleotides by southern hybridization. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two to nine with expected heterozygosity values from 0.33 to 0.76. These loci will be potentially useful for genetic structure and gene flow studies of P. microcarpus populations. Cross-species amplification with Pisolithus albus isolates at all loci was also observed.


AbstractArchaeologicai reaearch at a large lithic workshop site, 41Bo39, in Boone County, Indiana is describecL The site is located near a chert source at which two beds of chert are exposed. A general model is set forth, describing the lithic reduction sequence at the site.


Where accurate energy loss measurements are to be attempted, counter proportionality must be preserved over the entire active length of the anode wire. This may be endangered by attachment to electronegative impurities in the counter gas ; or by the counter end effect, which causes a serious loss of gas amplification at the wire terminations (Curran, Angus, and Cockroft 1949 ; Rossi and Staub 1949).


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an internal combustion engine camshaft which is high in strength and light. SOLUTION: A camshaft body 3 is equipped with a plurality of camshaft journal bearings 7a-7g positioned with mutual separation made along its longitudinal direction and a hollow inner part 21 extending axially. The hollow inner part 21 communicates with an axial passage 23 smaller in diameter than it. The camshaft journal bearings 7a, 7g located at both the end sides of the camshaft body 3 are severally provided with lubricant carrying grooves 13a, 13b, and moreover flow passages 15a, 15b to communicate these groove 13a, 13b with the hollow inner part 21 are formed.


Objective
To investigate the effects of matrine on proliferation and apoptosis of human Tenon capsule fibroblasts (HTFs) in vitro.

Methods
After treated with 0, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 g/L matrine in vitro, cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) method was used to assay the proliferation of HTFs at 24, 48 and 72 hours, Western blot and PCR were performed to evaluate the expression of apoptosis-associated factor caspase-3 on both protein and RNA levels.

Results
The activity of human Tenon capsule fibroblast at 48 hours and 72 hours after treated with 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 g/L matrine was significantly inhibited when compared with the 0 g/L matrine group, and the inhibitory effect was dose-dependent and time-dependent (Fconcentration=1 019.51, P=0.00; Ftime=5 848.66, P=0.00; Finteraction=147.45, P=0.00). After treated with 0, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 g/L matrine, the early apoptosis rate of HTFs was (2.68±0.30)%, (5.08±0.47)%, (6.97±0.69)% and (10.30±1.20)%, the grey value of caspase-3 protein was 1.00±0.13, 1.90±0.19, 2.50±0.30 and 2.67±0.30, the relative expression of caspase-3 mRNA was 0.98±0.12, 2.01±0.34, 6.15±0.60 and 11.40±1.12, respectively, with significant differences among them (F=55.74, 66.01, 154.50; all at P<0.01), the early apoptosis rate of HTFs, the grey value of caspase-3 protein and the relative expression of caspase-3 mRNA were all increased significantly as the concentration of matrine increased, with significant differences between any two groups (all at P<0.05).

Conclusions
Matrine can inhibit the proliferation of HTFs and induce the apoptosis of HTFs in a time- and dose-depended manner.

Key words:
Matrine; Human Tenon capsule fibroblast; Proliferation; Apoptosis


This paper describes an effort to apply techniques of operations research to the evaluation of airport configuration from the standpoint of aircraft traffic potential.


In order to scrutinize what video games can bring more into individuals' life; a doctoral research had been undertaken on the teenage audience of The Sims, a game simulating life. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods drove to design what I called the journey of self-discovery of the gamer and development of the video-ludological socialization concept (Lorentz, 2013). Adopting an overall angle, this paper apprehends video games as the manifestation of the re-enchantment of the world. To begin with the recall of the rationalization process presented by Max Weber (2001/1905), whose explained the recoil of religious institutions in our societies at his time by saying that science had replaced religion for explaining life and the world, called the disenchantment. To a certain extend I claim here that video games are the perfect product of this rationalization movement (Caillois, 1967/1958). Paradoxically, video games allow their enthusiasts to live fantastic lives and dreamed situations. Individuals find eventually a way to believe again in the so-called impossible and therefore re-enchant their rationalized world.


Conditional Value-at-Risk (VaR) is currently used by the banking industry to measure market risk as it relates to equity risk, currency risk, interest rate risk, and commodity risk. This paper exam...


: Leaf image patterns are the primary characteristics of a plant under the respective category. Pattern image features can be mapped to the respective plant category when made input to a SVM or ANN classifier. Pattern image features in different domains including radial, color, texture, morphological, statistical and ratio domains are extracted out. Image pattern features normalization with respect to size and rotation is an important aspect when made input to classifier. Mean radius is used to normalize the image features with respect to size. Largest chord of the leaf image is approximated to its mid rib, and, rotation aspect is covered by orienting the leaf image with respect to the largest chord i.e. mid rib. Computation of features like radii, area, perimeter and standard deviations in different quadrants contributes fair resolution at close level. Support vector machine classifier categorizes the features set into respective plant's class to an equal degree of high accuracy. Attribution BY the proposed radial profile based features, the features are normalized with respect to size using mean radius, location using the centre of mass and orientation using the orthogonal transformation of coordinates. Using these normalization schemes, the feature set becomes unique for a given pattern and thereby increasing the accuracy in identifying the respective leaf pattern.


TRAITS. The sardine (Sardinella aurita) has a sub-cylindrical elongated body, flattened sideways and with a rounded belly (Fig. 1). The length of sardines is generally 12-15cm at maturity, but can reach up to 28cm in some instances, being one of the largest Sardinella species, and can weigh almost 230g. The large reflective scales that cover their bodies are silver in colour, deciduous (easily lost) and smooth. On the top of the head is a golden, faint mid-lateral line, and also on the gill cover is a black distinct spot. A typical clupeid mouth shape is visible in these fish, with a short but deep lower jaw. Sardines also possess deeply forked tails.


The adsorption of O2 on the TiN(001) stepped surface and the consequent formation of surface oxide have been characterized using first-principles calculations. The adsorption and dissociation of O2 on both the flat and the stepped surface are predicted to be spontaneous. Compared with the flat surface, however, the dissociation of O2 on the stepped surface is predicted to be more exothermic. A formation mechanism for TiO2 at the step is proposed that includes a nitrogen exit channel that enables further oxidation.


The paper analyzes the relationship between folk art modeling and modern design.Modern design works with national and modern features should be based on local culture and draw the essence of folk art.As the origin of traditional Chinese culture,folk art influences modern design in shape,meaning,charm and modeling methods and creative ideas.


Coal gangue is a kind of solid waste which is discharged from coal mining and coal washing. Dumped gangues do not only take a large land occupation but also pollute air and water. Treatment and utilizing of coal gangues has become the major issue for the coal industry to resolve. As major experimental material in this study, the coal gangue from Dawukou, Shizuishan, Ningxia province, China had been analyzed to have high-alumina content, and it could been used as alumina constituent for the preparation of sulphoaluminate cement. In this paper, alite-sulphoaluminate cements were prepared at 1330°C using coal gangue, limestone and gypsum as major main materials, fluorite and barite as minor materials. The result shows that major clinker minerals of the cement are sulphoaluminate, alite and belite, while major hydrate is ettringite, compressive strength of the cement is 48.9MPa after 7d. These experiments provide a new method of coal gangue comprehensive utilization.


On average, Latin American firms are small with respect to world patterns, both in terms of the quantity of assets they control and the amount of employment they generate. We examine data on firm size from developed and developing countries around the world to assess the influence of demand, supply and institutional factors on the size of the largest firms in each country. We find that, besides the size of the economy and the level of income per capita, the key determinants of the size of firms are trade openness, stock market capitalisation and physical infrastructure. Our simulations suggest that if the gaps with respect to the best Latin American performer were closed in each of these three areas, firm size in the countries of the region would - on average - reach world patterns. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005.


IntroductionAt higher educational institutions, much attention is paid to students' health and the provision of the conditions for a healthy lifestyle [3, 8]. Good health is important for future professional activity of the graduates as well as for dealing with the current educational load. Good health is also vital for future childbirth and parenting activities of female students.Currently, the problem of motivation for a healthy lifestyle among the students is quite a challenge [1, 4-7]. This is due to the negative changes in the physical condition of female students. According to the statistics of the Committee of the Russian Federation for 2014, more than 50% of students have poor health, 80% suffer from physical inactivity and about 40% have structural and functional disorders of the spine. This is caused by the lack of physical activity of students and the lack of effective fitness programs that would be suitable for female students with different levels of physical fitness. Today, fitness includes programs aimed at training the body as well as developing the mind, which contributes to the intellectual development of students [1, 5]. Recent studies indicate that the Pilates system is effective for the prevention of spine disorders [5]. Program "Pilates" alone can not be regarded as the only means of achieving harmony of mind and body. Nethertheless, in combination with proper nutrition, positive thinking and other types of physical activity, Pilates can achieve effective and sustainable results in the physical fitness of the students. The most important aspect of the "Pilates" program is to support the mobility and flexibility of the spine. The improved condition of the spine leads to better physical condition and overall health. Therefore, Pilates can be widely used for the prevention of spine disorders of the university students. Meanwhile, the practice of physical education at higher educational institutions shows that today there are no scientific approaches to using Pilates in the system of physical education at universities.So far, there are no educational technologies of using Pilates for the prevention of spine disorders of female students and there are no conditions for the implementation of such technologies.Methods and materialsIn the process of development of educational technologies with the of Pilates the main goal was to examine the students' health and to identify the structural disfunctions of the spine. For this purpose, the students of St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University were examined by the medical and academic staffas well as by the experts in the field of preventive physical education. The results of this study are shown in table 1.The analysis of the study concerning the health of the students who attend the classes of physical education enable us to make the conclusion that the number of healthy students has increased in 2015 by 3.0% in comparison with the same period of 2014. Meanwhile, the number of students with health problems remains too high. In 2014, the number of students with health problems was 64.3%, while the number of such students in 2015 is 61.3%. This insignificant decrease in the number of students with health problems is due to the measures taken by academic staffat the department of physical education and sport of St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University.The findings suggest that the problems with health of female students are mainly associated with obesity, osteochondrosis and scoliosis. From the survey, it became clear that most students had not done any sports before, which led to structural disfunctions of the spine. The analysis of scoliosis incidence among female students in 2014 and 2015 is shown in figure 1.Other diseases such as kyphosis, displacement of the vertebrae, etc were found in a small number of students. There were also several cases of postural disorder. In addition, the research has shown that a significant percentage of female students (5. …


Quantitative analysis of the kinematics of the active faults distributed around the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau is critical to understand current tectonic processes of the plateau. Chronological analysis, based on the comparison among regional climate and geomorphology, digital photogrammetry, offset landforms, and the tectonics were adopted in this study on the Xianshuihe fault in the eastern Tibetan plateau. Two or more offset‐age data were obtained for each segment of the Xianshuihe and the Yunongxi faults. The offset landforms, including river terrace, alluvial fan and glacial moraine, provide constraints for the late Quaternary slip rate of the Xianshuihe fault. The left‐lateral strike slip rate of the Xianshuihe fault decreases from 17 mm/a on the northwest segment to 9.3 mm/a on the southeast segment. Regarding the Xianshuihe fault zone and its adjacent blocks as a regional tectonic system, vector analysis was used to quantitatively analyze the longitudinal kinematical transformation and transversal slip partitioning on the fault zone in terms of the kinematical parameters of the main faults within the zone. The results show that there is a distributed vertical uplift at a rate of 6.1 mm/yr caused by shortening across the Gongga Mountains region. Based on these results, we established a model of the slip partitioning for the southeastern segment of the Xianshuihe fault zone.


We present a user interface (UI) based on augmented reality (AR) with head-mounted display (HMD) for improving situational awareness during critical operation and improve human efficiency on operations. The UI displays contextual information as well as accepts orders given from the headset to control unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for assisting the rescue team. We established experiments where people had been put in a stressful situation and are asked to resolve a complex mission using a headset and a computer. Comparing both technologies, our results show that augmented reality has the potential to be an important tool to help those involved in the emergency situation.


Apparatus producing method utilizing the ice container production ice container, the apparatus comprising a through hole at the bottom of the female mold, the male mold, female mold, the lifting of the through-hole and the shuttle is added ice chute female mold step box, the method comprising: in the shuttle projects from the bottom surface of the female die, the die was added ice; can be removed by using an excess of crushed ice on the surface of the female mold sliding ice equalizer; reciprocators member, when lowered, the male mold and a female mold molding a container of ice; rises again to lift the shuttle ice-molded container. Thereby to obtain a uniform thickness ice container.


Several classification solutions bout unmixing problem based on remote sensing image were summarized.The basic theory of various methods,application conditions,the advantages and disadvantages were explained.Finally the future of improving the accuracy of the classification was prospected.It could provide valuable reference for applications about classification of remote sensing images.


• Bacterial proteases are a type of virulence factor, which have been implicated in a range of medical conditions, including wound infections. • Clinical Signs of critical colonisation/infection may not be apparent in all chronic wounds. • Measuring CFU levels only in chronic wounds does not determine if bacteria are in a pathogenic state. • Testing wound fluid for bacterial protease activity may be a useful method for detecting the presence of pathogenic bacteria, at a clinically significant stage in the infection continuum. • On this basis, a new qualitative point of care test is under development to detect bacterial protease activity in chronic wounds, which may help identify the presence of pathogenic bacteria.


We use 2.5 to 14 years long position time series from >800 continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) stations to study vertical deformation rates in the Euro‐Mediterranean region. We estimate and remove common mode errors in position time series using a principal component analysis, obtaining a significant gain in the signal‐to‐noise ratio of the displacements data. Following the results of a maximum likelihood estimation analysis, which gives a mean spectral index ~ −0.7, we adopt a power law + white noise stochastic model in estimating the final vertical rates and find 95% of the velocities within ±2 mm/yr, with uncertainties from filtered time series ~40% smaller than from the unfiltered ones. We highlight the presence of statistically significant velocity gradients where the stations density is higher. We find undulations of the vertical velocity field at different spatial scales both in tectonically active regions, like eastern Alps, Apennines, and eastern Mediterranean, and in regions characterized by a low or negligible tectonic activity, like central Iberia and western Alps. A correlation between smooth vertical velocities and topographic features is apparent in many sectors of the study area. Glacial isostatic adjustment and weathering processes do not completely explain the measured rates, and a combination of active tectonics and deep‐seated geodynamic processes must be invoked. Excluding areas where localized processes are likely, or where subduction processes may be active, mantle dynamics is the most likely process, but regional mantle modeling is required for a better understanding.


The fragment of PLA2 gene was amplified from Lactobacillus casei by PCR. Using pET-28a( +) as vector,the recombinant plasmid pET-pla2 was constructed. Phospholipase A2 was successfully expressed in E. coli DE3. After optimazation,the maximum activity of PLA2 reached 2. 8 U/mL. Then,the protein was purified by Ni-chelating column,SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the molecular weight of the recombinant phospholipase A2 was 1. 7 ×104. Finally,the optimal activity determined at 37 ℃ and pH 8 was 110 U/mg.


Introduction Using modern technologies and giving variety of the economic activities in the rural regions, in addition to the effects of economic and physical aspects, always caused social changes. In some rural areas in Iran, economic activities at different levels, and with especial characters have been developed. The emerging new technologies and applying them at the spheres of rural economic activities is one of the most appearances of these characters. With the using of the combines in Iran's agricultural sphere, have been formed the special kind of occupations such as combinesignificant and related jobs, incidentally this characters is one of the indicators of transferring from traditional agriculture to commercial one, Although priorities using methods in mechanized production with regard to the technical condition, economic and social problems in every society will be determined. Generally in developed countries using mechanized methods to reduce costs but in less developed counties to increase production. The Fars Province, because of its suitable condition in the field of farming activities is an appropriate region for forming and developing this activity. Since appearing and developing of each economic activity human settlements either rural or urban have positive and negative indicators will exhibit in all scopes, especially in the social indicators of that society. So, the major point of this research is, considering the social effects related to this special kind of economic activity on the villages where it is dominant way of living. ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ   E-mail: email@example.com Tel: 61113039


Three groups of Hereford weaners (mean live weight + 8-e-m. 15924 kg) were purchased in April, shortly after weaning, to study the effect of supplementation with protein meals in post-weaning growth. The weaners (7 per group) were rotated among 5 paddocks each 21 days from mid-May to November (174 days) and were supplemented with any of a mineral block, 1.75 kg cottonseed meal/steer or 2.63 kg cottonseed meal/steer twice weekly. Cottonseed meal significantly (P<O*Ol) increased liveweight change in those steers supplemented, compared with those offered a mineral lick with an apparent efficiency use of 2.3 g supplement/g liveweight change. Those steers offered a mineral lick lost 10 g/day of live weight, compared with gains in steers given the meal.


The rapid growth of business process is affected by technology development at the time. Social media, which is a relatively new form of information technology development, have a potential to bring a revolution or huge changes at this time and for the future, a development which have to be noticed by the business owners so they can keep growing in this rapidly changing of business situation like today. Forums or discussion boards are the longest established form of online social media. They most commonly exist around specific topics and interest, for example cars or music. Discussion board or forum is one of the most favorable social media form by the internet users because it is the most used by some communities to gather and share in a certain interest or hobby. Modifikasi.com, or to be shortened as ModCom, is one of the biggest online discussion forum in Indonesia. It has a certain theme, which is an automotive world, and has a huge number of members. The purpose of doing this research is to analyzing effectiveness of the use of social media in online discussion forum Modifikasi.com by using the measurement of social media ROI, analyzing the position of the company at this time by using the Strategic Options for Social Media Measurement approach method, evaluating the effectiveness and the position of online discussion forum Modifikasi.com and creating marketing strategies. The research was conducted through desk research, interviews, and surveys. Respondents in this study are member of Modifikasi.com forum. Given this research, it is known the effectiveness of social media on Modifikasi.com in terms of brand awareness, brand engagement, and word of mouth, by comparing with competitors' efforts in social media, to determine the appropriate measures for the increase of the effectiveness and ROI of Modifikasi.com in the future. The purpose of the social media effort is to increase brand awareness, brand engagement, as well as word of mouth from brand Modifikasi.com


The demand for real-time multimedia services is increasing as multimedia service users grow and technology advances. The growth of traffic due to these user growth leads to network congestion. Network congestion makes queueing delay, and therefore QoS cannot be guaranteed due to packet loss caused by queueing delay. To solve these problems studies about algorithms which improve the multimedia service quality by using the characteristics which multimedia streams have. In this paper, PQM(Priority Queue Management) algorithm is proposed which removes the packet probabilistically according to the queue status of base station. The comparison with other existing scheduling algorithms shows the congestion in the network is reduced and multimedia service quality of the proposed algorithm is improved.


Objective To evaluate the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic liver rupture by serious traffic accidents.Method 45 cases with traumatic liver rupture were collected and the clinical materials of diagnosis,treatment and surgical styles were retrospectively analyzed.Result Through the treatments,39 cases(86.67%) were fully recovered.4 cases in which conservative treatment,41 cases were operated in different procedures according to the severity of the trauma,more than 10 modalities such as dedridement,suturing,repairment,packing and pressing hemostasis,resection of traumatic parecchyma,hepatic artery ligation,vessel ligation with suturing in section,abdominal drainage andbilliary drainage etc were used.Postoperative complications of liver trauma are primary and secondary bleeding,biliary fistula,biliary hemorrhage,intra-abdominal infection,stress ulcer bleeding,liver abscess,subphrenic abscess.Because of intraoperative and postoperative bleeding,multiple organ failure,complex injuries to serious infections and 6 died,the mortality was 13.33%.Conclusion The accurate diagnosis and assessment of injury,preoperative active anti-shock therapy,It is the key to reduce mortality by treatmenting patients with different surgical trauma according to severity of injury.


Standard design methodology used for monolithic ceramic components uses Weibull probabilistic criteria. Finite element analysis modelling is performed to determine component reliability. Other important design considerations include time dependent behavior, ceramic to metal interfaces, and ceramic to ceramic interfaces. Design methodologies for composite structures increase the complexity of the design and analysis process due to the anisotropy of the material. This allows tailoring of the material architecture to accommodate specific component requirements. INTRODUCTION The operating environment of a ceramic component in a gas turbine engine is quite severe, with components subjected to multidirectional stress states with thermomechanical loadings and exposure to temperatures up to 1371°C (2500°F) in an oxidizing environment. Additionally, these parts must withstand these conditions for a specified design lifetime requirement. Design methods and analytical tools are instrumental in developing viable ceramic component technology. Methodologies are being developed under two major programs at Allison Gas Turbine, which are the Advanced Turbine Technology Applications Project (ATTAP) 1 and Life Prediction Methodology for Ceramic Components2 contracts. A design methodology code for ceramic components available in the public domain is the Ceramic Analysis and Reliability Evaluation of Structures 3 (CARES) program developed at NASA Lewis Research Center. CARES, when coupled with a finite element stress analysis routine, calculates fast fracture probability of monolithic ceramic components. The goal of ATTAP is the development and application of ceramic components for an advanced gas turbine engine designed for passenger car application (Figure 1). The engine utilizes high-efficiency aerodynamic components and the high cycle temperature allowed by hot-section ceramic materials to improve thermal efficiency and enhance vehicle performance. These are key elements that are necessary to achieve the composite fuel economy goal of 20.5 km/L (48.3 mpg). ATTAP is a Department of Energy (DOE) project and is administered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Allison Gas Turbine Division of General Motors Corporation is the prime contractor with the NASA Lewis Research Center (Contract DEN3336). The Life Prediction Methodology for Ceramic Components Program is being sponsored by the United States DOE and is administered through Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc, which operates Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This program is a complementary effort to ATTAP at Allison. In addition, Allison is investigating methods to develop and demonstrate the materials, fabrication, and processing technologies required to produce ceramic-ceramic composite components in response to the Department of Defense's interest in high performance turbine technology. DESIGN METHODOLOGY Currently, Allison predominantly uses fast fracture analysis to predict the failure mode for monolithic ceramic components. The material strength is represented by the maximum normal stress failure theory combined with a two parameter (surface and volume) Weibu11 4 distribution. Modulus of rupture (MOR) bars are tested at ambient and elevated temperature in four point bending and subjected to fractographic analysis to determine the location and type of the strength-controlling flaws. Initially, these MOR bars are produced by the specific vendor of the material being analyzed in the design. Ultimately, however, additional test bars should be sectioned from the actual ceramic component, since ceramic properties can be very process and geometry dependent. Following this testing, strength distributions are defined for both surface and volume characteristics. Finite element modelling (FEM) is used to determine the axial, radial, tangential, and shear stress distriFigure 1. ATTAP AGT-5 test-bed engine. Presented at the International Gas Turbine and Aeroengine Congress and Exposition Orlando, FL June 3-6, 1991 Copyright © 1991 by ASME Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/conferences/asmep/82849/ on 07/06/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use 1275-A B 1250 C D 1225-B F 1200-G STRESSES 90 = A B 20 = C D 50=E F 20=G TEMPERATURES butions in the ceramic component. From these component stress values a maximum principal stress is calculated. The probability of survival (POS) for a ceramic component is obtained by integrating the resulting stress distribution over the ceramic component's surface and volume, and comparing it to the material strength characteristics. Probabilities of survival are determined for the surface (POS s) and volume (POSE,) of each individual element of the component, which are multiplied together to obtain the overall POS for the component. POS goals are established for each ceramic component based on the following formula:


Traditional spatial economic analysis is limited to the description of precise spaces. To say that an economic space is precise means: (1) that this space has, or else, has not given constituent characteristics and (2) that the agents located there prefer, or else, do not prefer one possible action to another. Proposition (1) implies that an economic space is perfectly delimited and that it can be clearly partitioned into homogeneous subspaces. Proposition (2) implies that economic agents undertake exact economic calculations and optimize, under rigid constraints of resource limitation, objective functions whose arguments are clearly defined. Thus, traditional spatial economic analysis is based on a binary logic: presence or absence of the space's characteristics, preference or non-preference of agents with respect to possible actions. This logic supposes the principle of the excluded middle. However, the real world is imprecise. The observed economic spaces (areas of influence, regions, attraction zones, market areas, etc.) have "more or less" the given characteristics; instead of having frontiers, they have ill-chiselled limits; they partially overlap one another and they do not allow themselves to be subdivided without ambiguity. Likewise, economic agents pursue vague objectives, sometimes incompatible or contradictory, and they appraise imperfectly the constraints which limit their resources. The analyst who admits that the lights and shades of expression "modify everything" and are, at the same time essential, intends to retain them in full. But he must go beyond the usual literary comments which are often juxtaposited to scientific analysis and whose purpose is to relativize the conclusions, in other words, to contest implicitly the results. He is bound to give a formalized expression of these nuances and gradations of the real world and he ought to reconcile the imprecision inherent in the latter with the precision of the mathematical model being used. 0.3. It is true that n-ary logics have been in use for some time now: POST (1921), LUKASIEWICZ (1937), MOISIL (1940). But, it is with the recent development of the theory of fuzzy subsets that the elaboration of a spatial economic study, perfectly rigorous and fully formalized, has become possible. This theory, presented for the first time by ZADEH (1965) is making great strides and penetrates every branch of mathematics. A few primers are now available. Since 1974, the Institut de Mathematiques Economiques of the University of Dijon, associated with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), devotes an important part of its researches to the theory of fuzzy subsets and its applications, especially its applications to spatial economic analysis. In the Institute, research has followed four directions : 0.4.1. : Firstly, it was absolutely necessary to rigorously formulate the axiomatic framework of the theory of fuzzy subsets, to clearly distinguish between the latter and probability calculus, to assemble the principal mathematical results to present the concepts and theorems which are useful to economics and more importantly to spatial economic analysis and to resolve a number of algorithmic problems. 0.4.2. : Next, many types of fuzzy economic spaces were studied: attraction zones for sale-points, areas of fuzzy spatial interactions, fuzzy regions, french fuzzy regions defined by a fuzzy numeric taxonomy, fuzzy regional dynamic systems, fuzzy interregional relations, fuzzy hierarchy of a system of central places and fuzzy urban spaces. 0.4.3. : Then, analyses of fuzzy spatial behaviours of the consumer and of the producer led to a reformulation of the theories of partial equilibria which prepares the way for that of the theory of general spatial equilibrium and of the optimum [ under study ] . 0.4.4. : Finally, various contributions have been made to general economics: fuzzy multicriterion analysis, fuzzy decision theory and fuzzy econometrics. 0.5. The aim of the present study is not to summarize the totality of these works. The time has come for the presentation, with all the rigour called for in this new and, for some people, unwonted field, of the scientific foundations of the theory of fuzzy economic spaces in the course of elaboration. This reconsideration of the foundations of the theory should answer two series of questions: 0.5.1. : On what axiomatic framework is the description of economic universes based? Has it at its disposal specific and novel mathematical instruments, sufficiently pertinent and sophisticated ? 0.5.2. : Can the description of fuzzy spatial behaviours of economic agents rely on a coherent and an appropriate type of economic calculation? On what theory of value is a fuzzy economic calculation based? 0.6. The above set of questions command the plan which will be followed: 1 - Fuzzy economic universes; 2 - Fuzzy spatial behaviours. 0.7. Remark: In order to avoid any ambiguity in the notation of mathematical terms, ordinary concepts (non-fuzzy) are underlined, whereas fuzzy concepts are not. For instance, A C E is read: A is a fuzzy subset of the ordinary reference set E. Furthermore: g(x) designates an ordinary function, whereas f(x) defines a fuzzy function. Likewise: [a1,a2 ] designates a non-fuzzy interval, whereas [t1 ,t2 ] represents a fuzzy interval. For lack of space, the results of numerous theorems are cited without demonstrations, but the complete references indicate in what books and articles these demonstrations can be found.


*Rami Zurayk, Faraj el Awar Christine Sayegh, Shady Hamadeh, and Abdel Ghani Chehab, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, P.O. Box: 11-236, Beirut, Lebanon. *Corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com ABSTRACT This paper reports on an attempt to delineate soil degradation areas in Aarsal, a dryland zone in Lebanon. The study area covers 360 km, including highlands and steppes. With limited data which included soil map, contours map, and land cover map, we have created soil degradation assessment maps based on three approaches: drainage density, drainage texture, and factorial scoring of the main soil degradation agents: slope, grazing, and land use. The three methods classified the project area predominantly in the low and very low soil degradation categories. There was little overlap between the three maps due to the use of different data sets, indicating different soil degradation mechanisms. A combined soil degradation assessment map, joining the data from the three assessments, was produced and successfully field checked. The approach adopted in this paper, which consists in combining different data sets, requires limited field measurements, and can provide reliable indicators of soil degradation risk. It appears, therefore, to be appropriate for regions of similar environmental and economic characteristics, especially that it may be adapted to include site-specific parameters.


This paper outlines the results from a mill exercise in optimising the topcoat formulation for paperboard. The aim was to investigate the cause of litho mottle during the offset printing. The latex binder level in the formulation was systematically decreased and then increased under steady conditions. The coated board samples varied systematically in roughness, surface porosity and gloss. A 3pph reduction of the latex content resulted in a decrease in the macroroughness and a subsequent increase in the sheet gloss. It also gave an increase in the surface porosity leading to faster water penetration and this resulted in reduced ink rejection in the offset litho print tests. The mottle in the litho area also decreased significantly. These benefits were obtained without any apparent drawbacks, with no loss in pick strength and no visible cracking at the fold. The technique developed in this on-machine mill trial was found to be very powerful. It allowed a realistic calculation of binder level with elapsed time using a simple phase-in and mixing model, which, in turn, allowed valuable data to he gathered as hinder level was changing. This technique can be used to gather significant amounts of data from a single trial, and it can be applied to a change in any single coating component. Following the trial, the technique was used to optimise: ○ coating optical brightener addition, and ○ further binder level optimisation trials with different coating mixes.


A "turn on" fluorescent probe based on denatured bovine serum albumin (BSA)–Pyronin Y complex (PYdBSA) has been prepared using a one pot approach. This probe can detect nanomolar concentrations of common contaminant ions (Hg2+, Cd2+, Cu2+, and Pb2+) found in wastewater. The probe shows the highest fluorescence response for Hg2+ (relative intensity set to 100%) and a very good response for Cd2+ (60%), Cu2+ (50%), and Pb2+ (20%). The probe is water-soluble and has photo excitation in the visible region (530 nm). More interestingly, the presence of the contaminant ions under consideration can be visually detected due to the distinct color formation upon addition of the analytes in micromolar (1 μM) concentrations. The limit of detection (LOD) with fluorometry is 9 nM for Hg2+ (<2 ppb; consistent with standards given by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). This probe signal is found to be intact even in the presence of other metal ions such as Zn2+, Co2+, Fe2+, Ag+, K+, Na+, Al3+, Ca2+, Fe3+, Ni2+, Sb3+...


The curative efficiency of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is considerably dampened by the graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) that leads to significant mortality and morbidity. Donor T cell subsets are recognized as the main cellular mediators and effectors of acute GVHD (aGVHD). T cell interactions with antigen-presenting cells (APC) of both host and donor origin are required to achieve the status of "alloreactive activated T cell" generating the cytotoxic attack against target organs. However, a preliminary awakening of APC by exogenous or endogenous alarm signals from distressed/injured cells is critical to recruit and drive an efficient T cell activation. Endogenous signals are known to be released after the conditioning regimen (1). They consist in "damage-associated molecular patterns" (DAMP) that are not discussed here. Exogenous signals are a group of widespread natural microbial patterns called "pathogen-associated molecular patterns" (PAMP) and are supposed to be translocated from the microbiota in case of body natural barrier weakness, especially gut mucosa. We will focus here on the role of a major component of the Gram-negative bacteria, the lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which is one of the most studied PAMP in immunology and in the aGVHD pathophysiology.


The convenient and rapid lifestyle has become the goal pursued by modern people.The design of intelligent clothes rack system based on SCM(Single Chip Microcomputer),sensors and electromotor,which can realize the intelligent control on taking back clothes on the rack,and provide further convenience for modern people.The design adds electromechanical control system to the original clothes rack,the intelligent control is realized by sensor detection and microcontroller integrated treatment.


A specialization scenario provides a programmer friendly mechanism communicating the information about specialization opportunities to partial evaluators. Unfortunately, the process of generating suitable scenarios remains an art only mastered by programmers with in-depth knowledge about partial evaluation. Existing works on generating scenarios either rely on a brute-force approach to generate all possible scenarios, or to introduce specific design patterns into the programming to facilitate extracting specialization scenarios. In this paper, we provide a lightweight approach to partial evaluation by enabling non-experts to declare two simple specialization concerns: request and assert. The request enables a programmer to declare specialization opportunities and an assert aims to prevent undesirable partial evaluation, such as infinite specialization, from occurring. We describe an algorithm that derives specialization scenarios by declaring the necessary binding-time values at program inputs, aiming at fulfilling any request and satisfy the assert meanwhile.


Four bacterial expression vectors were constructed, which carry the full-length, the N-end truncated, the C-end truncated soybean 24 kDa oleosin gene as well as the fused fragment with the genes encoding the heat-labile toxin B subunit and CS6 B subunit from E.coli. The growth of host cells was depressed when the full-length 24 kDa oleosin gene was expressed in E. coli either as the native fragment or as a tandem unit fused with bacterial genes, with a reduction to about one-third of the growth rate of control culture. Deletion of the DNA sequence encoding 152 amino acids near the C terminus of the 24 kDa oleosin could not overcome this toxicity. However, the toxicity can be overcomed by deletion of the sequence encoding the 74 amino acids of the N terminal region of the protein. When products induced by IPTG were detected by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting, only the 24 kDa oleosin gene fragment truncated 222 oligonucleotides at N terminus could express and accumulate the target protein in E.coli host BL21(DE3) or Rosseta(DE3).


The most emblematic animal traits are often attributed to sexual selection. While this pressure is an important force, elaborated traits that have been driven solely by natural selection are less enumerated. Here, we test an elaborate trait in moths—hindwing tails—that has been studied in an anti-predator context, but that remains unstudied for its role in mating. We gave female Actias luna (Saturniidae) moths a choice between two males of differing hindwing tail treatments. In our primary experiment, males with intact tails garnered more matings than males with tails removed. This difference appears to result from damage incurred by tail removal, however, as demonstrated with additional experiments. We created a tail/no-tail experimental set where we removed tails from both males, then reglued tails to one and applied glue only to the hindwings of the other. We found no significant difference in mating success between these males. To ensure that this result was not due to the glue itself, we offered females two intact males, with glue added to the wings of one. This set also had equal mating success. We therefore do not find evidence that tails play a role in sexual selection. These results, in combination with previous research on bat-moth battles using A. luna, indicate that the non-sexually dimorphic hindwing tail was likely driven by natural selection. We suggest that future research testing multiple selective forces is needed to reveal the prevalence of natural versus sexual selection as the primary force driving trait elaboration in diverse animal taxa.


Meta-heuristic algorithms are widely used to address optimization problems. However these methods give only suboptimal solutions in case of complex problems with constraints. This calls for modification in the algorithm in accordance with the problem to result in optimal solution with reasonable consistency. In this paper, Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Harmony Search Algorithm (HS) are discussed and compared. Improvements for HS and GA are suggested for Single and Multi stage expansion of Multi state Power System, which is an optimization problem with availability constraints. The modified HS employed for Single Stage expansion drastically improved the consistency and the time taken. Modification of GENITOR (a variant of GA) for Multi-Stage expansion resulted in achieving the solution in less number of iterations. This feature gives scope to the algorithm for application in real time complex problems with constraints. Also, the key feature of GENITOR is incorporated into HS for Multi-Stage expansion, in order to achieve the solution in lesser number of iterations. MatLab R2010a is used for the purpose of programming.


Over the past decade Federal and State pro grams to alleviate poverty have proliferated. Some aid has been in the form of grants, other aid has taken the form of loans. But regardless of type, enabling legislation sometimes has been very gen eral in specifying how the administrative agent is to decide who the recipient should be and how much he is to receive. The good intentions of legislators are often set forth as guide-lines in terms of greatest aid to the "lowest income levels" or "areas of high unemployment" leaving wide latitude to the decision of the executive agent. If aid for economic redevelopment is author ized to assist areas in the nation suffering from low incomes for example, determination of aid distribution from an economic (or legislative) point of view is not difficultAid should be dis tributed in inverse proportion to area income level.1 But in the real world factors other than


The present study sought to determine the possibility of identifying someone as either iron deficient or sufficient based solely on brain activity, and, if possible, how quickly (based on processing time on a cognitive task) this could be done.

 Both iron sufficient(IS) and iron deficient non-anemic (IDNA) females (mean age 21.1 y) learned two visual categorization tasks while concurrent EEG was acquired. Both tasks involved classifying gray-scale gabor patches on the basis of spatial frequency and orientation; one task used an easily-verbalized rule (rule-based, RB), the other required complex integration of the information (II). Moving windows (20 ms width) of EEG data from 100 electrodes were used to predict the participant's iron status using logistic regression; model form was determined using stepwise variable selection. The outcome variable was the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic for the classification. We set a criterion of AUC ≥ 0.80 for successful classification performance.

 For both tasks, successful classification was possible before 200 ms of processing on the basis of fewer than 12 electrodes. Classification in the RB task suggested some early right lateralization in the selection of electrodes, which became more central as processing proceeded. Classification in the II task did not suggest lateralization, although there was some change to more central electrodes as processing proceeded. At each 20 ms time window, for each of the selected set of electrodes, a measure of neural efficiency was calculated as the ratio of the hazard function of the reaction time distribution and the global field power of the selected set of electrodes. This ratio can be interpreted as the amount of work accomplished per unit of energy expended. In all cases, neural efficiency for the IS females exceeded that for the IDNA females, suggesting that the efficiency with which neural energy is expended in cognitive work differs as a function of iron status.

 Iron deficiency without anemia results in distinct patterns of brain activity early in processing that reflect reduced levels of neural efficiency, relative to females who are iron sufficient.

 OU Office of the Vice President for Research.


Abstract This paper examines the effect of role overload on marital interactions using a within-person, time series approach. It is proposed that role overload is indirectly related to marital interactions most strongly via anxiety but also via depression. Twenty-three couples completed daily reports of overload, depression and anxiety and weekly reports of their own and their spouse's marital behaviour over 4 months. After controlling for autocorrelation, role overload was found to affect directly both depression and anxiety, but its effect on anxiety was much stronger than that on depression. Anxiety predicted withdrawal from marital interactions, but not anger, and depression predicted anger, but not withdrawal. Also, spouses' perceptions of their partners' behaviour reflected the partners' self-reported behaviour, and spouses' perceptions predicted their own behaviour.


Allergic contact dermatitis caused by (meth)acrylates used in artificial nails is a relevant problem in both nail artists and consumers.


The rediscovery that the Sun and the solar wind can undergo important changes on historical time scales has brought into question the stability of the cyclic behavior of past time series of solar and solar-terrestrial origin. It was found by Vector Fourier analysis that the solar 11 year cycle is present in the series of 10Be, delta 180, in ice cores and of thermoluminescence (TL) in sea sediments during the last Millennia with a frequency modulation, related to the Sun behavior, as tested by comparison with the Sunspot number R sub z series. It was shown that the cyclogram of the series of yearly Aurorae from 1721 to 1979 linear-regression-corrected-for-R sub z is straight for the periodicity zeta=11,1y, which indicates that such periodicity is constant in time corresponding to the only line present in the 11y band. The maxima of this component appear at the same time together with the high speed solar wind streams taking place in coronal holes situated in high heliolatitudes. It is evidenced that the 11 year cycle has undergone frequency oscillations on a time scale of two centuries, although it is very difficult to determine the periodicities with high accuracy.


Abstract Despite the recent upsurge of interest in passengering, there are no accounts on how backseat passengering links to experimental film and 360 video or how it responds to the broader relationship between automobilities, the organization of car travel and on-screen storytelling. To fill this gap, I follow up on the profiling of the passenger as a distinctive subject and object of infrastructures of mobility to discuss the backseat passenger's experience, seen as both a socially engaged and embodied practice, in four stylistically distinct works, Larry Gottheim's Harmonica, Lluis Escartín's Mohave Cruising, Ken Jacobs' Berkeley to San Francisco, and ASMR Driving at night: Back seat view. While Harmonica, Mohave Cruising and Berkeley to San Francisco are selective, self-aware experiments, which play out in various forms, ASMR is an authorless 360 drive video that lacks much aesthetic value and continues the long-established culture of scenic road and auto-tourism, turning on-site visitors into virtual tourists. Although each work approaches passengering visualities differently through exhibiting forward, side, parallax and 3 D views, they all articulate a multi-sensorial experience of driving and offer a relatively novel take on the practices of automobility through shifting the perspective of the driver and frontseat passenger to the backseat view.


There are now high quality prospective studies that show that surgery results in better outcomes than continued conservative care for well-selected patients with certain lumbar degenerative conditions, such as disc herniation with predominant radiculopathy [1], spinal stenosis [2], and one- or two-level painful disc degeneration [3], that have failed to respond to conservative care. However, despite appropriate surgical intervention and careful patient selection, there are some patients who fail to improve sufficiently, and have failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS). These patients are initially treated by their surgeon, but often are referred to specialists in pain management for further care. It is essential that the pain specialist evaluate each new patient to determine the etiology of the pain, and not simply accept the …


The invention discloses a power test vehicle with self loading and unloading equipment. The power test vehicle comprises a power test vehicle body, a mounting platform, a self loading and unloading equipment upright post and a lifting arm; the mounting platform is arranged on the power test vehicle body, and the self loading and unloading equipment upright post is arranged on the mounting platform; the lifting arm is telescopically arranged at the upper end of the self loading and unloading equipment upright post; and the lifting arm can rotate around the self loading and unloading equipment upright post. According to the power test vehicle with the self loading and unloading equipment, the lifting arm can stretch and rotate horizontally and vertically around the self loading and unloading equipment upright post; when the lifting arm rotates in the horizontal direction, the lifting arm can transfer equipment or instruments required to be hoisted or unloaded; when the lifting arm rotates in the vertical direction, the equipment or the instruments required to be hoisted or unloaded can be hoisted or laid down from the ground/ power test vehicle body; and the power test vehicle is simple in structure, practical and convenient to operate.


Arguments are presented that the theoretical definition of an atom in a molecule or of a functional grouping of atoms that derive from experimental chemistry must be unique. Definitions based on the orbital model or, as recently proposed, in terms of domains defined by isovalued density envelopes fail for a number of reasons, among them being their failure to enable a quantum mechanical description of the atomic or group properties. Chemistry is concerned with the observation and measurement of properties. Definitions that do not predict the measurable, additive properties found for atoms in molecules fail to recover the essence of the atomic concept and can play no operational or predictive role in chemistry. Atoms exist in real space and their form determines their properties. There is but a single definition for an atom, free or bound, that meets this essential requirement.Key words: atoms in molecules, proper open systems.


C-, Ka- and Ka-band communications and broadcast satellites use so-called dual-gridded reflector antennas for linear polarisation to provide independent reflector surfaces and/or independent feeds for the two orthogonal polarisations. This paper describes initial work to extend this concept to circular polarisation. First we set up preliminary specifications and identify several antenna concepts based upon planar transmission sheet polarisers. Next we identify a number of polarisers of which the most promising is the meander-line, the L+C strip-grids and the parallel-plate polariser. Finally we review the conclusions of the analyses and preliminary designs of the sheet polarisers - on the antenna level as part of a reflector antenna system, on the polariser level, and on the sheet level inside the polariser.


The power to business operation is the embodiments of the reforming enterprise continue to business and a decisive power for the process of corporate restructuring.Compared with the power to business operation under normal enterprise,it has been limited.we should choose the DIP,and make specific content and detailed rules for the operation,strengthen the protection system of creditors to remove obstacles for he purpose of enterprise reorganization.


Introduction: The muscle force quantification is still of primary importance to understand musculoskeletal control, and is a current challenge combining closed-loop multibody dynamics and muscle physiology modeling. Indeed, at each instant t of a movement, the constraint (1) based on the principle of potential powers should be strictly followed to guarantee that the sum of muscle forces !!,! ! times the muscle tendon potential velocities !"! ! ,∀i = 1,..., n muscles, should be equal to the torque at the joint J actuated by these muscles times the joint potential angular velocity !"! ! [1]. Experimentally, this could be interpreted by a necessity of consistency between kinematic and electromyographic (EMG) data, ∀!. And because several muscles actuate a joint, the constraint 1 consists in an undeterminate problem, for which there is an infinity of !!,! ! solutions. !!,! ! ∙ !"! ! =   !! ! ∙ !"! !                                                                                (1) ! !!! In the literature, these forces are usually evaluated using two alternative method sets: I. EMG-driven methods [4], based on the maximal isometric muscle force !!"#,!, the muscle activation dynamics !! ! obtained from the EMG envelop, the muscle force-length !! !!,! and force-velocity !! !!,! relationships [4]: !!,! ! = !!"#,! ∙ !! !    ∙ !! !!,! ∙ !! !!,! .                  (2) These methods allow the quantification of muscle forces with good accuracy but are still impossible to use in clinical settings because !!"#,! is too variable to be identified in each subject. II. Optimization algorithms defining the muscle force distribution, such as Forster's cost function: min ! !!,!(!) !!"#,! − !! ! ! !!! ,!!"#,! ≥ !!,! ≥ 0                                                                                (3) where !! represents the muscle co-contraction, set to an arbitrary constant – especially equal to 0 in Crowninshield's method – which is therefore non-physiological. Based on both limited solutions, the objective of this study is to propose two novel solutions to the muscle overactuation problem. Methods: A new multiple closed-loop dynamic model of the upper limb (Figure 1A) was developed using ROBOTRAN [3] and tested in 15 adults performing cycles of elbow flexion/extension (FE) and pronation/supination (PS). Two methods for muscle force quantification were developed: Method 1: By replacing !!,! ! from constraint (1) by Equation (2), and by considering that !! ! is provided by the EMG data envelop, the undeterminate problem leads to a deterministic identification Guillaume Gaudet, Maxime Raison, Sofiane Achiche, Fabien Dal Maso, Grégory Musy and Mickael Begon 2 process of n unknown !!"#,! (e.g. : n = 7 in Figure 1A) using a large number of t equations, i.e. at each instant t (e.g. : t = 1000 for 10s of movement recorded at 100 Hz). Method 2 : !! was identified by a polynomial regression based on joint angle q and velocity !, so that the solution obtained by Equation (3) best fits the forces obtained by EMG in the 15 adults. Results: During elbow FE, Figure 1B compares the results from methods 1 and 2 with solutions from EMG-driven and Crowninshield's methods. Complementary results during FE and PS will be presented at the Conference. In method 2, the identified !! varies from 0.04 to 0.2 and is given by: !!(!, !) =     0.512 − 2.042   ∙ ! + 2.36 ∙ !! − 3.78 ∙ 10!! ∙ !   − 0.22 ∙ 10!! ∙ !! + 0.15 ∙ 10!! ∙ ! ∙ !                                  (4) A Tukey's post hoc test was performed to determine that no significant difference was observed between the results from three methods: EMG-driven, 1, and 2. A B Figure 1. A. Musculo-skeletal model including seven muscles acting in elbow FE and PS. B. Results of muscle antagonistic forces during FE using four methods. Discussion: As illustrated in Figure 1B, the post hoc test shows that the results from methods 1 and 2 are globally close to the EMG-driven solution. Relatively to the EMG-driven methods: method 1 has the advantage of identifying !!"#,! in experimental dynamic conditions and not from tables or in static conditions; method 2 has the advantage of predicting the muscle forces by identifying !! with no other information than kinematics, independently from EMG data. Both methods 1 and 2 enable to simplify the muscle overactuation problem from an undeterminate to a deterministic problem. At each instant t, at least one of the muscle forces obtained from Crowninshield's method tend to zero, as previously demonstrated by [2], as a result of Equation (3) when !!=0. Conclusion: Methods 1 and 2 are promising methods to solve the muscle force redundancy. Both methods could be further analyzed to improve the physiological interpretation, and extended to include more joints and pluri-articular muscles, involving more complex musculo-skeletal models during more complex movements. The incentive of this project is based on the actual need for dynamic muscle force modeling, to understand healthy and pathologic musculo-skeletal control.


Apparent fracture strength of fiber-reinforced composite laminates depends on the notch tip radius even if it is evaluated in terms of the local parameters such as the stress at notch tips or stress intensity factors. Although numbers of phenomenological explanations have been made, this phenomenon has not yet been physically clear enough even today. In order to elucidate its key mechanism, our interest is here focused on the interlaminar crack extension from notch tips in cross-ply laminates subjected to mode-I loading. We find a stochastically expected upper bound of interlaminar crack extension due to the probabilistic breakage process of fibers in load-bearing laminae inside the region covered with interlaminar cracks. This upper bound, i.e., the critical length of interlaminar crack extension, is inherent to the laminate and corresponds to its notched strength. The well-known variation in apparent fracture strength of notched composite laminates with respect to the notch tip radius is clearly explained as the scale effect of this constant critical length in the different displacement distributions ahead of notch tips with different radii.


Ceramic insulators will be used in the ITER Heating and Current Drive and Diagnostics (H&CD/D) systems as opto-electronic vacuum windows or as feed-throughs. Their performance as materials could come modified by the intake of deuterium-tritium which amounts might be enhanced by ionising radiation effects. Such vacuum windows have a primary safety role as tritium confinement barriers. Tritium transport analyses have major implications on the design and safety assessments of ITER RF H&CD systems. As it is shown, refined tritium transport releaserate models together with detailed parametric studies can precise such assessments. In addition such modeling serves as conceptual framework to quantify precise impact of underlying phenomena (ex. radiation-enhanced diffusion or potential effects of radiation damage on tritium transport through the Vacuum Window) and its final impact on main transport parameters of interest for VW design: permeation flux and D/T inventories. In the present work it has been shown how, for electric implantation of ionized D,T in the VW being the major source for isotopes intake, an hybrid recombination/radiation enhanced diffusion regime determine H-isotopes transport kinetics in the window. Precise values for permeation fluxes and inventories are provided from solution of mass transport equations. Near and medium term work planning is advanced.


Rendering hair is a challenging problem for real-time applications. Besides complex shading, the sheer amount of it poses a lot of problems, as a human scalp can have over 100,000 strands of hair, with animal fur often surpassing a million. For rendering, both strand-based and volume-based techniques have been used, but usually in isolation. In this work, we present a complete hair rendering solution based on a hybrid approach. The solution requires no pre-processing, making it a drop-in replacement, that combines the best of strand-based and volume-based rendering. Our approach uses this volume not only as a level-of-detail representation that is raymarched directly, but also to simulate global effects, like shadows and ambient occlusion in real-time.


This study examined the relationship between capital structure and dividend policy of listed conglomerate companies in Nigeria. An ex-post facto research design was used because secondary data were extracted from annual report and account of the companies for the period of eight years (2012 2019), robust GLS regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that debt to equity ratio has a negative and significant relationship with dividend payout ratio, debt to asset ratio has a negative and significant effect on dividend payout ratio of listed conglomerate companies in Nigeria. Firm size, and age have positive and significant relationship with dividend payout ratio. However, Return on assets (ROA) has a positive but non-significant relationship with dividend payout ratio. The study conclude that debt serve as a monitoring mechanism to the absentee owners, hence its influence on the capital structure of business organization cannot be underestimated because of tax advantages. It is therefore recommended that management should only accept debt covenant that will enable them to pay dividend to shareholders.


The alternative splicing of pre‐mRNAs is a critical mechanism in genomic complexity, disease, and development. Studies on the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End‐products (RAGE) indicate this gene undergoes a variety of splice events; however, no studies have analyzed the tissue distribution or compared evolutionary differences between species of RAGE isoforms. We recently reported on the analysis of RAGE splicing in lung by a novel method we termed the Rapid Identification, Characterization and Expression of Splice forms (RICE‐SPLICE). We applied this method to cDNA from multiple human and mouse tissue extracts for RAGE including lung, heart, brain, kidney, pancreas and placenta and compared the splice forms found between these two species. In humans, numerous splice variants were identified ranging from deletion of multiple exons (entire or in part) and intronic inclusions. These variants were predicted to change the structure and function of RAGE since they resulted in alterations in the ligand‐binding domain, extensive removal of the extracellular region, production of novel proteins, and the production of soluble forms lacking the transmembrane region. In contrast, in mice, fewer splice variants were identified, mainly resulting in forms lacking the transmembrane region. Comparison of splice variants between humans and mice revealed homologous regions in the RAGE gene which undergo splicing and similar splice forms. Further analysis of these forms revealed the biological significance of the conserved splice variants. In conclusion, we have identified differences in the tissue and cross‐species distribution of RAGE splice forms which further expands the biological repertoire of this receptor in health and disease.


Knowledge in the IoT is typically distributed and sparse. Combining information from multiple sources remains a challenge to researchers. In addition, due to the strict capabilities of sensing devices, they may go to sleep for extended durations and miss critical data. In this paper, we propose a system that is capable of retrospective sensing based on federated machine learning models. The system is implemented on a distributed edge computing architecture and is capable of fusing learned data from several sensors to produce accurate estimations of missed data. The proposed system is evaluated using computer simulations on real and synthetic datasets and shows high accuracy in predicting missed data.


On 25 June the European Commission gathered almost 800 people (in person and on-line) under the framework of the Climate Policy Forum2 – a high-level, interactive event with the aim of exploring EU / Israeli climate-focused priorities and collaboration opportunities. The event took place in the context of the global health pandemic and the European Green Deal, with a new momentum for climate action, climate diplomacy and climate investment. The highly innovative nature of the Forum generated significant global interest with almost 7,500 visits to the Forum's website and engagement from an international community including Israel, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Turkey, Greece, India, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France and Kazakhstan. Of the 38 speakers, 26 took part remotely, illustrating the fundamental role of digitalisation in connecting global actors.