This research aims to analyze the effect of a five-stage strategy elaborated within the Erasmus+ project FOrSE (Framework for Organizing Studies Entrepreneurially) realized by three EU universities The strategy was integrated into a study course of Pedagogy to enhance entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviors of first-year international Master students who did not have any opportunity for face-to-face studies because of the quarantine The key focus of the strategy is to promote students' ability to analyze the problems facing them during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify and/or realize new opportunities in the face of the worries and uncertainty The qualitative content analysis of the Master students' reflections and the analysis of the challenges faced, and new opportunities identified and/or realized showed that they tried to adjust their inner world to the events which take place in the outer world for gaining selfconfidence and achieving harmony Copyright © 2021 by the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics


Flash RIA is getting more and more popular among Web application programs due to its fast response,interactivity,user-friendly and user experience design. This article is trying to establish a non-paper C/S online test system which is based on the combination of Flash user interface components and XML.


Studiy the hot-dip aluminum and the effects of RE additive on high temperature oxidation resistance of hot dip aluminum coating by adding small amounts of RE to liquid aluminum.As a result,small amounts of RE can improve the quality of aluminum coating,and the effect of RE on the oxidation resistance of the coating is complicated.


Discloses a technique for competitive television channel spectrum portion thereof. In some examples, when the backoff value is used to determine whether the contention channel is transmitted competitive number of idle contender, and the backoff value is determined based on the number of competition. In some examples, competitive contender channel monitoring, and if it is detected that there are channels from competition higher priority contender exit compete, from the competition.


This research effort focused on the disparity of attention given to the two sets of rights both of which are very useful to humanity, namely: The Civil and Political Rights; and the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Both are under the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights (UNDHR), which were later transformed into legally binding instruments, which are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ICESCR). Member States of the UN agree that both sets of rights are universal, indivisible, complimentary, inter-dependent and inter- related. However, experience shows that in practice, member states, including those that have ratified the instruments give preference to the ICCPR over and above the ICESCR in their different jurisdictions. This has occasioned dislocations and fragmentation in constitutional and institutional developments across the world. Adopting the doctrinal, analytical, expository and comparative methods and using the Nigerian State as subject, this research effort looked into and evaluated all these, encountering in the process various and varied constitutional, statutory and periodic reports. The researcher was, thus able to recommend measures that would bridge the gap, and bring the jurisdictional disparities into holistic alignment.


The therapeutic armamentarium available for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has changed significantly over the past 30 years, transforming the therapeutic landscape and prognosis for a substantial proportion of patients with RA. Combination therapies represent an important therapeutic paradigm for management of rheumatoid arthritis. The rationale for combination therapies is clear and demonstrated to bring treatment benefit to patients achieving lower disease activity scores and reduced radiologic progression according to 'treat-to-target' principles. A rigorous evidence-based debate is required involving not only parameters related to disease activity scores and radiologic progression, but related to the cost-effectiveness analysis of using many of these newer agents compared to older csDMARDs. This chapter addresses the evidence related to the utilization of combination strategies for the management of RA as compared to monotherapy.


The subject. The article is devoted to different measures of constitutional legal enforce-ment in the constitutional law of Brazil, their analyzing, depending on main goal of coer-cion.
The purpose of the paper is to extend constitutional knowledge about measures of consti-tutional legal enforcement and to demonstrate generic character of constitutional legal enforcement theory for different countries.
The methodology of the study includes general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, de-scription) and legal methods.
The main results and scope of their application. The author describes different measures of constitutional legal enforcement in the constitutional law of Brazil. Constitutions of foreign countries contain various measures of constitutional coercion as the main way to resolve constitutional conflicts.
Among the measures of constitutional and legal coercion enshrined in the Brazilian Con-stitution are: holding the President accountable for abuse of power; temporary termina-tion of the powers of the President of the Republic during the process of bringing him to justice; prohibition of the President and Vice-President of the Republic to leave the terri-tory of the country for a certain period without the approval of the Parliament; recognition by the National Congress of the positions of the President and Vice-President as vacant if they fail to exercise their constitutional powers within 10 days of taking office;holding new elections when the positions of the President and Vice-President are declared vacant if they fail to exercise their constitutional powers within 10 days from the date of taking office.
Conclusions. Depending on the constitutional system, the history of the state, measures of constitutional coercion may be different in content, but it remains possible to classify such measures depending on the main purpose of their application. The system of measures of constitutional legal enforcement, including measures of prevention, suppres-sion, restoration, responsibility and security is applicable not only for the Russian constitu-tional law, but also for constitutional law of foreign countries, in particular, Brazil.


Direct estimates between linear or nonlinear Kolmogorov widths and entropy numbers are presented. These estimates are derived using the recently introduced Lipschitz widths. Applications for mterm approximation are obtained.


The recent progress realized in the ocean modelisation, associated with satellite altimetric observations, allows us to better characterize the oceanic mesoscale (scale that corresponds to very energetic ocean phenomena). A compared study of two very high-resolution model outputs in the North Atlantic ocean (POP and PAM) with data issue from the merging of two altimeters observations (T/P and ERS) has been made. At first, we focus on the analysis of the mean Eddy Kinetic Energy (EKE). We then describe the Sea Level Anomaly space and times scales and propagation velocities at a resolution never achieved before. Finally, a study of the seasonal and interannual variability of the EKE is carried out. This study is extended to the global ocean with the T/P-ERS data only. The short-coming global ocean model (POG) will help us to confirm our results.


Correct emittance value is one of the necessary inputs for accurate radiometric temperature measurement. Modern Infrared cameras and/or radiometric software programs typically have default emittance tables built-in allowing the operator to simply select the appropriate material and its corresponding emittance value. Unfortunately, many of these values, while perhaps accurately obtained in a laboratory setting, are typically not appropriate for use in a real-world field environment. There are many reasons for this which include: the deposition of dust, dirt and grease; the unknown thickness of oxide layers; the use of invisible (to the human eye) coatings, the unknown nature of the exact material or alloy; an incorrect value in the table itself due to wavelength or test method; and the effect of surface roughness, geometry, cavity radiation, spatial resolution, angle of view or temperature. In many situations incorrect selection of emittance value results in two miscalculations which can magnify the temperature measurement error significantly: calculation of surface reflectance value which in-turn calculates the amount of background signal to be subtracted from the radiance signal; and correction of the remaining signal attributable to radiant spectral exitance to that of the blackbody equivalent signal determined by the camera calibration. This paper will discuss these issues in depth, provide practical considerations for the field use of emittance, and present a simple method to determine measurement errors due to the unknown variance of emittance.


In accordance with the agreement between the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union, UPU submitted a report on its activities for 1950. At the end of 1950, it was reported, the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies had been applied to the UPU by eight governments: Austria, Denmark, India, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. Preparations for the thirteenth Universal Postal Congress, to be held in Brussels in 1952, had been started in the period under review. Member governments were reminded that, according to the regulations of the organization, settlement of transit charges was to be carried out, as a rule, through the general clearing account of UPU and not through separate direct settlement. It was noted, however, that 95 administrations had settled their account through the general clearing account in 1949, 28 more than in the previous year.


This study aims to examine and analyze the effect of celebrity endorser and the advertising messages on the effectiveness of advertising of the LUX soap products, then examine and analyze the effect of the effectiveness of advertising and superiority of products on buying interest of the LUX soap products.
This study sample was 100 student of undergraduate programs in University of Diponegoro. This study was performed using multiple linear regression analysis two stages with SPSS. The first regression to analyze the effect of celebrity endorser and the advertising messages on the effectiveness of advertising, while the second regression to analyze the effect of the effectiveness of advertising and superiority of products to buying interest of the LUX soap products.
The results showed that the celebrity endorser and the advertising messages has a positive and significant effect on the effectiveness of advertising of LUX soap products. A variables that have big effect on the effectiveness of advertising is the advertising messages. Then, the effectiveness of advertising and superiority of product has a positive and significant effect on buying interest of LUX soap products. A variable that has big effect on the buying interest is superiority of products


!is chapter aims to show what actions innovating companies can take to increase value when they make use of intermediated OI services in di#erent phases of their external knowledge searching and hence improve their chances of ultimately establishing a successful tech-transfer agreement with a solution provider. Over the past decade more than 25 articles have been written on intermediated services indicating their increasing importance for both academia and practitioners. Some of these publications have been descriptive in nature highlighting important trends in the intermediated OI service industry and describing its main characteristics (see Fosfuri & Gambardella, 2001; Enkel, Gassmann, & Chesbrough, 2009). Other studies have focused on the value innovating companies can potentially derive from using intermediated services and have identi$ed the factors (usually outside $rms' sphere of in%uence) that a#ect the potential value accruing to innovating companies when interacting with innomediaries/solution providers (Dushnitsky & Klueter, 2011) and the motivations behind solution providers' involvement in markets for solutions (Boudreau & Lakhani, 2009; Che & Gale, 2003). Despite this growing body of literature on intermediated services relatively OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, Mon Aug 04 2014, NEWGEN


The subject innovation may relate to a continuously variable transmission, the one of the planetary gear unit and the stay consists of a belt pulley type speed-change control, a two gear elements of the three gear elements of the planetary gear unit is selectively connected to the variable speed control, the input shaft for transmitting power to a pinion gear of the planetary gear unit is connected, and has a structure the output shaft is connected to any one of the gear elements of the two gear elements connected to the speed change control. And, the variable speed regulator is a pair of belt pulleys and connecting gear elements and structures connected to the support for varying the diameter of the belt pulley to the rotational axis of these belt pulleys connected to the two gear elements of the planetary gear unit. A continuously variable transmission of the subject innovation consisting of such a construction is discharged through the output shaft of the planetary gear unit by having passed to other elements of the back planetary gear unit after the power input to the planetary gear unit through the input shaft of the continuously-variable transmission as while passing through a variable speed regulator which will be powered by the stepless variable. The continuously variable transmission of the present design is a manual or power, as well as possible, the continuously-variable transmission as it possible to vary the amount of power discharged by the size and the output shaft of the power inputted through the input shaft according to the shift control state of the variable speed regulator via the belt pulley type speed-change adjusters which can be variable with the speed advantage it is easy. Therefore, the continuously variable transmission according to the present invention because it can be infinitely variable speed by a simple structure, easy to install and use, particularly such as bicycles and motorcycles, and which will be used by the installation as required for various power mechanism.


In this paper we characterize the independent dominating sets in some graphs resulting from graph operations such as the corona, lexicographic product, and Cartesian product of graphs. Upper bounds or exact values of the indepedent domination numbers of these graphs are also determined. Mathematics Subject Classification: 05C69


Studies have shown indication of an association between noise tolerance and non-restorative sleep. However, most of them had inadequate sample size and residual confounding which may obscure the association. Therefore, we aimed to assess the association between noise tolerance and non-restorative sleep. We recruited 202 Chinese adolescents and adults from a representative household survey. Their noise tolerance was assessed by an audiometric test and non-restorative sleep was assessed by self-report on a 0-10 scale. The mean age was 32 years. After adjusting confounding effects, people who can tolerate one more decibel would be associated with 0.1 unit increase (p=0.001) in feeling refreshed after sleep. Hence noise tolerance was associated with non-restorative sleep. Clinical consultations may involve the assessment of noise tolerance in people with sleep complaints.


A novel amperometric immunosensor based on L-cysteine/nanosized Prussian blue bilayer films ({NPB/L-cys}2) and gold nanoparticles (nano-Au) was fabricated for determination of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG). First, L-cys and NPB was self-assembled by layer-by-layer (LBL) technology to form {NPB/L-cys}2 bilayer films on the gold electrode. Subsequently, nano-Au layer was immobilized on the {NPB/L-cys}2 bilayer films by electrodepositing gold chloride tetrahydrate and then anti-HCG was assembly on the nano-Au layer. Finally hemoglobin (Hb) was employed to block sites against nonspecific binding. With the electrocatalytic ability of Hb and NPB for the reduction of H2O2, the current signal of the antigen-antibody reaction was amplified and the enhanced sensitivity was achieved. In this study, the assembly process and performance of the immunosensor were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and the morphology was researched by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The immunosensor performed a high sensitivity and a wide linear response to HCG in two ranges from 0.5 to 10 mIU/mL and from 10 to 200 mIU/mL with a relatively low detection limit of 0.2 mIU/mL at 3 times the background noise, as well as good stability and long-term life.


Multi-hop question answering (QA) is a challenging task in natural language processing (NLP), which requires multi-step reasoning over the sentences from several passages and finding out the answer as well as the scattered evidence sentences. The existing QA models that are based on Graph Neural Network (GNN) have exhibited good performance, however, the advantages of GNN have not been brought into full play. In this paper, we incorporate an effective multi-hop attention mechanism into GNN to aggregate richer information from high-order nodes of the graph. In addition, when multiple tasks are jointly optimized, the performance of all tasks is usually unable to improve together. To address this problem, we design a novel answer-evidence contrastive learning loss, which encourages models to learn better shared representation and distinguish the evidence sentences from other confusing ones through answer-evidence similarity. Our experiments on HotpotQA dataset demonstrate that the proposed method achieves comparable results to the state-of-the-art models and helps the baseline model gain significant performance improvement.


This paper is an initial assessment on the progress made on seed source management and seed collection in participation of local people. Twenty-two villages were visited and introduced in the concept of quality seed and the benefits this may have for local people. Seed sources were selected and established in collaboration with villagers, and an agreement signed between the stakeholders explaining their rights and responsibilities. Both foresters and villagers understood and are interested in the concept and are willing to implement its activities. However, for the model to work villagers need to be trained in appropriate seed collection and handling techniques and seed needs to be bought. Future work is needed on marketing to identify seed demand and build an efficient seed supply system. The model has been introduced at a higher government level but still needs more experiences from the field and promotion before it can be introduced and accepted at Government level.


The invention discloses a light-emitting diode (LED) backlight constant-current circuit which comprises a time sequence controlling unit and at least one constant-current circuit unit. The time sequence controlling unit comprises a first triode Q1 and a second triode Q2, an emitting electrode of the first triode Q1 is connected with the supply voltage input end through a resistor R1, and a base electrode of the first triode Q1 is connected to the supply voltage input end through a resistor R2 and is simultaneously connected to a collector electrode of the second triode Q2 through a resistor R3. A base electrode of the second triode Q2 is connected to the control end through a resistor R4, and an emitting electrode of the second triode Q2 is in ground connection. Every constant-current circuit unit comprises a third triode Q3 and a fourth triode Q4; a base electrode of the third triode Q3 is connected to a collector electrode of the first triode Q1 through a resistor R6, a collector electrode of the third triode Q3 is connected to a corresponding LED load and provides constant output current for the corresponding LED load, and an emitting electrode of the third triode Q3 is in ground connection through a resistor R7; a base electrode of the fourth triode Q4 is connected to an emitting electrode of the third triode Q3 through a resistor R8, a collector electrode of the fourth triode Q4 is connected to the collector electrode of the first triode Q1, and an emitting electrode of the fourth triode is in ground connection.


This longitudinal study investigated associations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms from prior trauma with coping with a subsequent stressor and with psychological symptoms. Seventy homeless mothers provided information about previous trauma history and posttraumatic stress symptoms at baseline; coping and psychological symptoms were assessed 15 months later. Results revealed moderately high levels of PTSD in this sample. PTSD symptomatology was related to increased avoidant coping, which mediated the relationship between previous trauma and subsequent psychological symptom severity. implications for future research and interventions to reduce the negative impact of trauma in homelesswomen are discussed.


Electroconvulsive therapy Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are indications for use of ECT, according to the FDA executive summary for the Neurological Devices Panel Meeting.1 In the US, ECT is predominantly used in the treatment of mood disorders, whereas in Asian countries, it is commonly used in the treatment of schizophrenia despite the relatively modest evidence for efficacy. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compare ECT with sham treatment for schizophrenia have yielded mixed results. Trials conducted before the 1980s consistently reported nonsignificant differences in efficacy between groups; however, later reports indicate that there may be significant benefits. This discrepancy may be due to the fact that the patient population in the older studies had a chronic, unremitting course and there was no concomitant use of antipsychotics.2 The combined use of antipsychotics with ECT has proved to be beneficial in antipsychotic nonresponders. One study showed that a combination of high-dosage bilateral ECT and flupenthixol in patients with schizophrenia speeds the clinical response and lessens the number of treatments and days to remission.3 Another RCT indicates that the adjuvant use of ECT with olanzapine was more effective than its use with sulpride or risperidone.4 A prospective open trial of adjuvant ECT with risperidone or olanzapine in patients with treatmentresistant schizophrenia (TRS) reported significant improvement in global assessment of functioning and clinical global impression.5 Conversely, ECT with concomitant haloperidol in patients with first-episode psychosis showed no difference in efficacy compared with sham treatment, but this may have been due to methodological limitations.6 An 8-week single-blind study of 39 patients with TRS showed a 50% response in the clozapine plus ECT group, versus 0% in the clozapine group.7 There are safety concerns in combining ECT with clozapine because the latter is a proconvulsant, but the researchers reported no safety issues—the only adverse effect was mild confusion that required postponement of the ECT. Patients with schizophrenia and prominent depression, positive symptoms, and recent-onset catatonia may be the best candidates for ECT. Suzuki and colleagues8 reported remarkable improvement in symptoms in patients with catatonia. However, relapse rates after completion of acute ECT were high, and combined use of continuation or maintenance ECT with neuroleptics was important to prevent relapse. ECT is safe and effective as an adjuvant for treatment of schizophrenia, and it should be considered in patients who do not respond to adequate trials of antipsychotics. It can improve positive, negative, affective, and vegetative symptoms as well as quality of life in patients with schizophrenia. There is adequate evidence for use of ECT in schizophrenia, although the mechanisms of antipsychotic effect of ECT are still unclear. Transcranial magneticstimulation Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a nonconvulsive brain stimulation technique that has gained popularity in the past 2 decades. There is ongoing exploration of the use of rTMS in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders as well as in stroke and movement disorders. rTMS has the potential to alter the excitability of the underlying cortex with persisting after effects. The reports of beneficial effects of rTMS in the treatment of schizophrenia symptoms, such as auditory hallucinations and catatonia, have led to additional studies.9,10 Low-frequency stimulation (less than 5 Hz) was found to diminish excitability of the underlying cortex, and the changes resembled long-term depression; high-frequency stimulation (10 Hz) excited the underlying cortex


The large surface mining mainly distributed in northwestern parts in China,and most of them summed up Inner Mongolia region,The lithology is mainly composed of soft rock,Based on the soft rock stope,dump composite slope formed,and soft rock slope would be deformation under the external dump external load,while the outer dump also sedimentation,after superposition of two stress field made the complex slope stress field changed,which was not conducive to stability,and formed complex landslide disasters.The analysis is based on the strength reduction theory,applied the FLAC3D for dump slope deformation numerical simulation,and revealed dump slope deformation mechanism.According to the numerical simulation results,acquired the most dangerous dump slope slip surface and much more potentially sliding face.which provided scientific basis for dump slope instability of prediction and prevention.


Histopathological image examination is the gold-standard tool of cancer diagnosis. However, it is subjective to only rely on doctor qualitative analysis of pathological image. What's more, it is easy to miss pathological information. The texture of pathological images is complex and highly heterogeneous, so it is difficult to extract the deep features of histopathological images. In this paper, a deep learning-based cancer survival analysis algorithm is proposed to process the histopathological image data, which can effectively extract the histopathological image features and improve the accuracy of the model. The average C-Index of the proposed method is 0.7233, which is improved by 28.0% and 19.9% compared with two state-of-the-art methods.


The present study was done to examine the relationship between perception of meaning in life and psychological well being among females diagnosed with breast cancer. 100 female breast cancer patients (married = 50; unmarried =50) in a hospital set-up, were administered standardized measures of meaning in life and well-being. Independent sample t tests were conducted to test mean differences in meaning and well-being between married and unmarried patients. Results revealed that unmarried women participants scored significantly higher on both the measures than the patients who were married. On the whole, life meaning was found to be significantly and positively correlated with meaning in life for the total sample.


Fetal alcohol syndrome is a permanent birth defect syndrome caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. The prevalence is seen more in U.S, Athlanta, Alaska, and North Dakota. It causes the alcohol related alcohol related birth defects. Overall, the available literature points to a prevalence rate of FAS of 0.5 to 2 babes per 1000 birth in U.S during 1980's and 1990's. There were 63 children less than ten years age with FAS under pediatric care in 1993. The above observation strongly predetermines the prevention efforts for fetal alcohol syndrome Prevention include the selective, indicated preventions and universal preventions diagnosis done for without confirmed maternal exposure Partial FAS with confirmed maternal alcohol exposure. A daily dose of disulfiram can be given daily by orally and involvement in Special Education and Social Services most kids with FASD do with a combination of Stimulant + Selective Serotonin Receptive Inhibitor (SSRI).


The results of an investigation of meta-cognitively stimulative aspects of mother-child interaction will be presented and a reconceptualization of meta-cognition focusing on its experiential basis offered. The investigation was an observational study of first grade children and their mothers. Their interaction was organized around game- like and homework-like tasks in the Zone of Proximal Development. Meta- cognitively more developed children proved to have mothers who included a language of thinking in mediating the tasks and were highly sensitive to the child's meta-cognitive experiences (confusion, excitement, etc.). Three general issues regarding the nature of meta-cognitive processes will be discussed in the light of these results, and relying on the theory of Vygotsky: their contextuality, their distributed nature and their culture-specificity.


DNA helicases have emerged as a prominent class of nucleic acid-metabolizing enzymes that play important roles in genome maintenance and cellular homeostasis [...].


Objective To analyze the discovery approach and economic burden of six kinds of common cancers patients in Beijing and to provide policy advice to cancer control. Methods The questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain discovery approach,treatment costs and other related information of cancer patients in four hospitals in Beijing. Results 49.9% of the respondents were local patients from Beijing;80.2% of the patients were firstly found until diagnosed due to discomfort symptoms; for average hospitalization medical costs in Beijing,colon cancer was the highest($50885.1/time),meanwhile,for average non-medical costs,esophagus cancer was the highest($6596.5/time). Overall incidence of catastrophic health expenditure in cancer patient families was 60.1%. Conclusion The most reported discovery approach of cancer was seeing doctor when the patient felt unwell. Economic burden for cancer patient is high, meanwhile the compensation level of basic health insurance for the patient is still limited now. The risk assessment of cancer for high-risk population should be integrated into primary public health service. The reimbursement policy should be adjusted to improve the compensation level of basic health insurance for the cancer patients.


Measurements of the noise temperature and transconductance of a GaAs field-effect transistor at temperatures of 300K and 17K are reported as a function of drain current. These results are compared with theory and the contributions of various noise mechanisms to the total noise temperature are presented.


Abstract Highly sensitive trace gas measurements in planetary atmospheres can yield information about a planet's atmosphere and surface. One prominent example is methane in the Martian atmosphere, which could originate biogenically and provides answers to one of the most intriguing questions in planetary science: "Does life currently exist on Mars?" Recently, in situ measurements by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) have resulted in an upper limit of 1300 parts per trillion by volume (pptv), whereas previous measurements using terrestrial telescopes and an instrument orbiting Mars reported significantly higher values of 10,000 pptv or more. These results are not necessarily contradictory, due to the possibility of spatial and temporal variability of the trace gas concentration. Thus, more measurements will be required to gain clarity. The concept of a miniaturized Mars methane monitor, a high spectral resolution, midinfrared spectrometer observing the sun through the Mars atmosphere from either the Mars surface, a Mars balloon or plane, or a Mars orbiting satellite is presented. The instrument would measure atmospheric methane and water vapor volume mixing ratios with equal or higher precision than the tunable laser spectrometer on MSL. The spectrometer concept uses the spatial heterodyne spectroscopy technique, which has previously been used for ground- and space-based observations of the Earth's atmosphere.


A sandwich structure type RF-MEMS variable capacitor is proposed, that consists of a movable middle plate, and fixed top and bottom plates having different areas. Simulation results show that the proposed capacitor can operate at a control voltage of less than 3.2V; it achieves a tuning range of 4.8:1 (capacitance: 630-130fF) in the range of 0 to 3.2V and at a frequency of 7.5GHz.


This article presents the design of a lamp that is able to represent and collect users' emotional states through a multimodal interaction based on tangible gestures on the users' side, and colors and facial expressions on the lamp side. In particular, the lamp benefits of anthropomorphic form and behavior in order to make the interaction more natural. Two application scenarios are presented, as well as the implementation details of one of these scenarios.


Fed up with busy signals and waiting on hold for the IRS or your accountant? For quick answers about your return, log on to the Internet.


The present paper involves the analytical quality by design (AQbD)-based development of a simple, rapid, accurate and precise stability-indicating method for the estimation of valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide. Optimized mobile phase (v/v/v) was water (containing 0.25 ml/L triethylamine), methanol and acetonitrile (50:38:37, pH adjusted to 3.0±0.1). Chromatographic separation was achieved on Hypersil®-Gold C18 (150 x 4.6 mm, 5 μm, Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA), column at 25 ± 2 °C. The method was validated as per the "International Conference on Harmonisation" (ICH) guidelines. Chromatographic run time was 10.0 minutes. The linearity range for valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide were 1.25-64.00 μg/ml and 0.195-10.00 μg/ml respectively. The limits of detection (LOD) for valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide were 0.253 and 0.0226 μg/ml while the limits of quantitations (LOQ) were 0.767 and 0.068 μg/ml respectively, using 10μl sample. Stability studies indicate that the degradation of valsartan was higher during oxidative stress than other stress conditions. keywords: Valsartan, hydrochlorothiazide, Central Composite Design, Design of experiments (DoE), Analytical Quality by Design (AQbD), Response surface methodology (RSM), HPLC.


Simple Summary In animal medicine, laboratory test profiles containing selected blood or urine parameters are used to diagnose diseases of a given organ. The normal values of the serum and urine biochemical parameters are well-known in horses, but they have not been studied well in donkeys. This means that their results are often compared with horses' reference values. The interest in donkeys continues to grow, as well as increasing attention being paid to kidney damage in animals. The objective of the study was to determine the values of the selected serum and urine parameters to assess the renal function in healthy donkeys. The effects of age, sex and freezing of the material were then assessed. Sixty-five healthy adult donkeys participated in the study. The results showed different reference values for the kidney parameters such as urea, total protein, albumin, urine protein/creatinine ratio and fractional electrolyte excretion in donkeys compared to those reported for horses. The donkeys' gender had an effect on the creatinine and urea, while age had an effect on the albumin, total protein and electrolytes. Freezing of the material also influenced most of the parameters. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the selected renal biomarkers in donkeys. Abstract The reference values of the serum and urine biochemical parameters have not been well-studied in donkeys. This study aimed to assess the normal values of the selected renal biomarkers, such as: serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), albumin, total protein (TP), electrolytes and symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA), urine protein concentration (UPC), urine protein/creatinine ratio (UPCR), the urine gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGTP)-to-creatinine ratio, serum creatinine-to-urine creatinine ratio (sCr/uCr), serum BUN-to-serum creatinine ratio (sBUN/sCr) and UPC-to-TP ratio, as well as the fractional electrolyte excretion of sodium (FENa) and potassium (FEK) in donkeys. The effects of age, gender and deep freezing of the serum material were investigated. Sixty-five healthy adult donkeys were involved in this study. The results showed higher BUN and TP values and lower albumin, UPCR, FENa and FEK levels in donkeys when compared to the reference values in horses. A significant gender relationship for creatinine and BUN was found. Age influenced the values of albumin, TP, potassium and chlorine. Potassium, sodium and SDMA did not show significant concentration changes after freezing. The study results demonstrated that horse reference range values for some parameters cannot be applied to donkey samples. Only a few of the serum parameters were not affected by freezing, and this should be taken into account when storing biological materials.


Total neutron yields from eleven elements were obtained as a function of maximum beam energy of the University of California Hospital 70-Mev Synchrotron. The maximum beam energy was varied from 13.5 to 70 Mev. The neutrons were detected at 90° to the beam axis with a BF3 proportional counter in a long counter geometry. The beam was monitored by the positron activity of cu62 produced by the reaction, cu63 {1(, n) cu62 • Excitation functions for total neutron production were calculated from the total yields by the photon dif~erence method. The excitation functions show the same resonance-like behavior in the neighborhood of 20 Mev that has been observed in (tr, n) reactions. However, while the (~, n) cross sections tend to drop to zero above the peak~ the total neutron cross section curves have a flat tail to_65 Mev.


At least one fifth of pituitary adenomas exhibit plurihormonality when using immunohistochemistry for anterior pituitary hormones. However, the correlation with clinical features is weak, without an agreement upon pathological predictors of tumor behavior. The aim was to determine the immunoreactivity for anterior pituitary hormones and alpha subunit in 276 consecutive pituitary adenomas patients, aged 22-79 years (44.3 ± 8), 154 F/ 122 M: 83 acromegalics (ACM), 173 nonfunctioning adenomas (NFA) and 20 prolactinomas (PRM) submitted to surgery via transfrontal (81) or transsphenoidal (195) along 10 years (1995-2005). In addition, clinical data, hormonal secretion and tumour size were evaluated before pituitary surgery. Local ethical committee approved the study design. The immunoreactivity performed by the avidin-biotin-complex method was evaluated for beta FSH, LH, TSH, alpha subunit, PRL and GH, using a semiquantitative scale of stained cells: strong (>20%), positive (10-20%), weak (5-10%) and negative ( 10% of stained cells) was between 1-2 cm in 6 ACM, 21 NFA and 2 PRM, while positive bigger tumors (2-4 cm) were in 7 ACM, 24 NFA and 2 PRM. Giant, over 4 cm tumors were positive in 3 ACM, 8 NFA and no PRM. A similar trend of the tumor size distribution was observed in the monohormonal or null cell adenomas. In conclusion, tumor size and gonadotrophin plurihormonality are independent factors in the management of pituitary adenomas.


This paper presents a review of publications dedicated to the complex clinical management of patients older than 75 years of age who have had fractures of the proximal femur and presented signs of osteoporosis. Descriptive and analytical methods were used in the research. The work with the publications was performed by entering the relevant MeSH terms and subheadings in the search systems of databases. The study found that most researchers think that this problem still needs to be studied in the context of the search for effective clinical management strategies, including the surgical treatment as early as possible and the prescription of medications which infl uence bone remodeling mechanisms.


Catherine's status was changing during the evening change of shift in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). After a bradycardic episode and subsequent endotracheal intubation, this 13-month-old's status began to deteriorate. Admitted with the diagnosis of inoperable pilocytic astrocytoma in the cervicomedullary region of the spinal cord, her primary nurse noted a change in her level of consciousness with a nonpurposeful fluttering of her eyelids. As the evening progressed, her physical findings became more troublesome and revealed an unstable blood pressure, flaccid extremities, a dramatic decrease in urine output, hematuria, and a temperature of 40.6°C rectally. Computerized tomography of the abdomen revealed a bowel perforation. Catherine was scheduled for emergent surgery. Catherine's father, very engaged in her care, consented to the surgery, which was postponed until she received several blood transfusions in an attempt to correct abnormal lab values. Ultimately, the surgery was canceled due to her unstable condition. Her death seemed imminent, yet palliative care was not presented as an option and futility of continued treatment never addressed. Catherine's end-of-life care appeared to be neglected.


Rated current of BT25.07 roof disconnecting switch of type HXD1B locomotive rises to 700 A,this paper analyses the temperature rise and stability of dynamics and caloric of BT25.07 roof disconnecting switch,and calculates correlative parameter.


Research and development of a high power Relativistic Klystron Amplifier performed in 1991 at the Naval Research Laboratory is described in this paper.


We consider a multiple-access multiple-input- multiple-output (MIMO) system with minimum mean square error successive interference cancelation (MMSE-SIC) receiver. Spatial multiplexing is employed with some of the users having target-rate requirements while other users are working with best-effort data rates. We show that the best-effort users can achieve higher rates when the data streams of any user are not restricted to be decoded in a consecutive order and when time-sharing between different decoding orders is allowed. Two scenarios are considered. In the first scenario, we assume that the power transmitted from each antenna is fixed, and hence the optimization is done over rate and decoding order only. In the second scenario, the optimization is done jointly over rate, power, and decoding order. We show that in both scenarios the problem can be formulated as a convex optimization problem, and hence efficient algorithms can be used to obtain the globally optimal solution. We also show that in some cases it is possible to reduce the power required to obtain the optimal solution, and we show that the power minimization problem is convex. We also propose an efficient algorithm to obtain a sufficient set of decoding orders (corner points) and time-sharing factors, to obtain the optimal solution.


To study the effects of anesthesia on respiratory function of the neonate, the authors investigated the effect of breathing 100% oxygen and of breathing oxygen plus 0.75 MAC halothane on functional residual capacity, lung and airway resistance, expired minute volume, work of breathing, lung compliance, and blood gases and pH in nine 5–8-day-old, 4.6–7.7-kg lambs. Breathing 100% oxygen increased PaO2 but had no effect on PaCO2, minute ventilation, or lung mechanics. Three-fourths MAC halothane depressed minute ventilation 34% ± 13% (P < 0.05) and increased PaCO2 50% ± 5% (P < 0.05). Lung and airway resistance increased 59% ± 26% (P < 0.05); work of breathing decreased (P < 0.05); and lung compliance was unchanged. Functional residual capacity was reduced 32% ± 6% (P < 0.05), which may be due to loss of diaphragm and intercostal muscle function and to an inability to take deep breaths. The authors conclude that 0.75 MAC halothane significantly impairs the pulmonary function of lambs who breathe spontaneously. Similar changes in human infants could account for the hypoxemia and hypercarbia that often are seen during anesthesia.


Background Adult invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) occurs mainly in the elderly and patients with co-morbidities. Little is known about the clinical characteristics, serotypes and genotypes causing IPD in healthy adults. Methods We studied 745 culture-proven cases of IPD in adult patients aged 18–64 years (1996–2010). Patients were included in two groups: 1.) adults with co-morbidities, and 2.) healthy adults, who had no prior or coincident diagnosis of a chronic or immunosuppressive underlying disease. Microbiological studies included pneumococcal serotyping and genotyping. Results Of 745 IPD episodes, 525 (70%) occurred in patients with co-morbidities and 220 (30%) in healthy adults. The healthy adults with IPD were often smokers (56%) or alcohol abusers (18%). As compared to patients with co-morbidities, the healthy adults had (P<0.05): younger age (43.5+/−13.1 vs. 48.7+/−11.3 years); higher proportions of women (45% vs. 24%), pneumonia with empyema (15% vs. 7%) and infection with non-PCV7 serotypes including serotypes 1 (25% vs. 5%), 7F (13% vs. 4%), and 5 (7% vs. 2%); and lower mortality (5% vs. 20%). Empyema was more frequently caused by serotype 1. No death occurred among 79 patients with serotype 1 IPD. There was an emergence of virulent clonal-types Sweden1-ST306 and Netherlands7F-ST191. The vaccine serotype coverage with the PCV13 was higher in healthy adults than in patients with co-morbidities: 82% and 56%, respectively, P<0.001. Conclusion In this clinical study, one-third of adults with IPD had no underlying chronic or immunosuppressive diseases (healthy adults). They were often smokers and alcohol abusers, and frequently presents with pneumonia and empyema caused by virulent clones of non-PCV7 serotypes such as the Sweden1-ST306. Thus, implementing tobacco and alcohol abuse-cessation measures and a proper pneumococcal vaccination, such as PCV13 policy, in active smokers and alcohol abusers may diminish the burden of IPD in adults.


Objective To investigate the effect of Xueshuantong and butylphthalide on serum inflammatory factors and prognosis of patients with cerebral infarction. Methods One hundred and eighty patients with acute cerebral infarction were randomly divided into three groups,control group,Xueshuantong group and butylphthalide group,with 60 patients in each group. The patients in control group received conventional therapy,however,the patients in Butylphthalide group,on the basis of control group,were given Butylphthalide 100ml intravenously,twice a day,and the patients in Xueshuantong group were given 0. 9% NaCl 250ml intravenously,once a day,with a treatment course of 7 days for three groups. The serum levels of IL-2and CGRP were detected before and after treatment,and carotid plaque thickness and size,intima-media thickness were detected by ultrasonic testing before treatment and 90 days after follow-up. The NIHSS,Barthel and MRS scoring were performed for all the patients after 90-day follow-up. Results There were significant differences in the levels of IL-2 and CGRP before and after treatment in the three groups( P 0. 05),however,the levels of IL-2 and CGRP in Xueshuantong group were significantly highest than those in the other two groups( P 0. 05). After 7-day treatment,plaque size and thickness in Xueshuantong group and Butylphthalide group were significantly decreased,as compared with those before treatment( P 0. 05),but there were no significant differences in the plaque size and thickness between Xueshuantong group and Butylphthalide group( P 0. 05). The CA-IMT in Xueshuantong group and Butylphthalide group was significantly decreased after treatment,moreover,which in Butylphthalide group was significantly higher than that in Xueshuantong group( P 0.05). After 90-day follow up,NIHSS scores in Butylphthalide group were significantly lower than those in the other two groups( P 0. 05). After 90-day follow up Barthel scores in Butylphthalide group and Xueshuantong group were significantly higher than those in control group( P 0. 05),but there were no significant difference between Butylphthalide group and Xueshuantong group( P 0. 05). There were significant differences in MRS scores among the three groups after 90-day follow up( P 0.05). Conclusion Butylphthalide and Xueshuantong are effective in treating acute cerebral infarction. Butylphthalide has obvious effect in inhibiting inflammation and improving prognosis of neurological function,while Xueshuantong has obvious effect in improving carotid intima-media thickness.


Purpose: To obtain better insight into the process of dye extravasation in the human choroid during sodium fluorescein angiography of the ocular fundus. Methods: Sodium fluorescein angiography using a scanning laser ophthalmoscope was performed on the right eye of five healthy volunteers. The dose of sodium fluorescein was chosen to avoid quenching in the ocular vessels. The time‐intensity curve of background fluorescence was measured and its shape compared with that of the time‐intensity curve of a retinal artery, representing an intravascular compartment. Significant dye extravasation is expected to cause a marked change in shape of the time‐intensity curve of background fluorescence as compared with the intravascular time‐intensity curve due to long washout of dye from the interstitial space of the choroid. Results: In all five subjects, the time‐intensity curve of background fluorescence and the retinal artery proved to be quite similar in shape until several seconds after peak intensity of the first bolus passage. Conclusion: Background fluorescence originates mainly from intravascular compartments during the early phase of the sodium fluorescein angiogram. RETINA 17:540‐546. 1997


Pile load test data are presented for driven cast in-situ 'wet' piles (concrete cast in-situ pile formed in a driven steel tube which is withdrawn leaving behind a sacrificial shoe) installed for an industrial facility in Auckland, New Zealand. Six vertical (3 failure arid 3 proof load) load tests were performed on the end-bearing piles which were 460 and 500mm in diameter and 16 to 19m long. The piles were driven through Tauranga Group alluvium and founded in weathered Tamaki sandstone and weathered Waitemata Group sandstones. The difficulty of using pile driving formulae to monitor installation of piles is commented on.


Introduction  Neonatal severe hyperparathyroidism (NSHPT) is induced by inactivating mutations of human calcium‐sensing receptor (CaSR). Only three heterozygous de novo inactivating mutations of CaSR causing NSHPT have been described. We report the case of a now 11‐year‐old boy with NSHPT and we characterize a novel inactivating mutation along with the results of some functional analyses.


A detailed geophysical survey was carried out at the Njaba River gully erosion site at AwoOmamma, southeastern Nigeria using the electrical resistivity vertical and azimuthal sounding techniques as well as the self potential method. The objective of the study was to evaluate the subsurface structure at the gully site and adjacent areas and to offer geological/ geophysical explanation on the cause of the sudden landslide that occurred at the site recently. Results of the study revealed that the azimuths of the major axes of the anisotropy diagrams correlate significantly with the strikes of the geological formations with the coefficient of anisotropy varying from 1.30 to 1.70, indicating that structural in-homogeneities exist. The evidence spontaneous potential data indicated that the strike of the gully which is oriented in the NW-SE direction is characterized by low SP values ranging from -50 to -100mV; and low electrical resistivity values both flanked by a zone of higher SP and resistivity values. Similarly, it was also revealed that the maximum electrical anisotropic effect was detected in the NW-SE direction and this coincided with the regional trend of the study area. Consistent NW-SE orientation of maximum axis of electrical anisotropy and the attitude of the gully eliminated the wide range of other possible causes and suggest that the gully is structurally controlled and may be running along the geologic contact between the Benin and the Ogwashi/Asaba Formations.


We perform an analysis of the quark angular momentum in a light-cone representation by taking into account the effect due to the Melosh-Wigner rotation and find that there is a relativistic correction factor connecting the quark orbital angular momentum with the quark model spin distribution: L-q(x) = [M-L(x)]Delta q(QM)(x). The quark orbital angular momentum L-q(x) and the quark helicity distribution L-q(x) are connected to the quark model spin distribution Delta q(QM)(x) by a relation 1/2 Delta q(x) + L-q(x) = 1/2 Delta q(QM)(x), which means that one can decompose the quark model spin contribution Delta q(QM)(x) by a quark helicity term Delta q(x) plus an orbital angular momentum term L-q(x). There is also a new relation connecting the quark orbital angular momentum with the measurable quark helicity distribution and transversity distribution (delta q(x)): Delta q(x) + L-q(x) = delta q(x), from which we may have new sum rules connecting the quark orbital angular momentum with the nucleon axial and tensor charges. [S0556-2821(98)04821-8]


ABSTRACT The hysteresis characteristic can significantly decrease the control accuracy of magnetic shape memory alloy actuator. To describe the hysteresis between input signal and the output signal of the magnetic shape memory alloy actuator, a modelling method based on the modified Krasnosel'skii–Pokrovskii kernel is developed in this paper. The density parameters of the adopted hysteresis model are identified by the recursive least square method. The simulation results reveal that the proposed method has a good performance in describing the hysteresis modelling of magnetic shape memory alloy actuator and the modelling accuracy can be further improved by adjusting the number of Krasnosel'skii–Pokrovskii kernel. The result showed that the adopted modelling method can accurately describe the hysteresis characteristic of the magnetic shape memory alloy actuator, and the maximum modelling error can be reduced to 0.0022 mm when the number of discretization lines is selected as L = 15.


The effects of substrate misorientation on the interface quality of Ga0.47In0.53As/Al0.48In0.52As quantum well structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy lattice matched on InP substrates have been investigated. Transmission electron microscopy and low‐temperature (15 K) cathodoluminescence spectra have been used to characterize the GaInAs/AlInAs layers and analyze the effects of nucleation and growth kinetics on the heterojunction interface quality. The quantum well luminescence line shape correlates with the presence of compositional fluctuations in the AlInAs layers and thickness variations of the quantum wells for structures deposited on misoriented substrates. Rapid thermal annealing of these samples improves the quantum well luminescence characteristics.


Concerted efforts of scientists to enhance food productivity and nutrition are important to mitigate hunger and malnutrition. At the same time, it is essential that crops be microbiologically safe. This chapter addresses various microbiological issues associated with several types of agricultural crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains. One common attribute of such crops is that they are primarily grown in open fields, where sources of microbial contamination may be difficult to control. Hence, the microbiological profile of a crop will vary by the plant type, the region in which it is grown, and the management and processing practices applied to it. To systematically address this topic, this chapter first provides a short description of the food groups discussed. After reviewing some of the major microbial groups associated with each crop group, the chapter addresses (i) quality and safety repercussions associated with microbial contamination of these food groups; (ii) sources of contamination; (iii) detection of contamination; (iv) interventions available to reduce microbial contamination, including physical, chemical, biological, and hurdle treatments; and (v) quantitative microbial risk assessment. Over the past decade, considerable research has been directed toward understanding and mitigating spoilage and pathogen risks associated with these crops, which should lead to extended shelf lives and reduced risk of illnesses associated with these plant-based foods.


Abstract Several methods have been employed to determine the rotational viscosity γφ in the smectic C* phase associated with the molecular motion around the cone about the layer normal. We have measured this parameter using four different techniques and show that the values are in good agreement with each other. We have also studied the effect of chain length on γφ in the C* phase and γφ the viscosity associated with tilt angle fluctuations, in the A phase. The results suggest that the activation energy associated with these motions is basically controlled by the rigid core and not by the chain length of the molecule.


Poverty is a nation's problem that is urgent and requires handling steps and a systematic, integrated and comprehensive approach involving all components of society. Poverty must be alleviated in various ways and strategies so that people's lives will become more prosperous. From the analysis, it can be concluded that the poverty reduction strategies implemented by the Metro City Regional Government are long-term, targeted, poverty reduction and social welfare development strategies, and focus on the education, health, micro and macro economic policies. Reducing the expenditure burden of the poor through social assistance and improving basic services, increasing the ability and opinions of the poor. Conduct a review to identify policy areas that impede the economic sector of the poor and encourage socio-economic institutions by providing incentives to serve the interests of the poor more effectively.   Keywords: strategy, poverty


Preparation of two charges in accordance with the composition and calculation methods,combined with heat supply center in Langfang Development Zone,the fifth heating station is calculated based on actual data and measurement of thermal heat fee charges.


Remnant longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) showing scars caused by the turpentine industry are scattered throughout remaining stands of old-growth longleaf in North Carolina. This thesis uses radial growth and morphological characteristics to examine the long-term effects of turpentining on the growth of longleaf pine trees in North Carolina. In addition, this thesis examines the potential role these culturally modified trees have in increasing our understanding and appreciation for the longleaf savanna landscape. The objectives of this thesis are to: 1) discuss the historical and cultural significance of turpentined longleaf pine trees in North Carolina; 2) examine the long-term effects of turpentining on living longleaf pine trees in North Carolina; and, 3) to examine the effects of climate on the radial growth of turpentined trees over time.


Abstract Systemic toxicity caused by repeated exposure to both polar and nonpolar leachables of di(2-ethylhexyl)-1,2-cyclohexane plasticized polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was evaluated with dual routes of parenteral administration method on rats in the study. Experimental group and control group were designed by researchers. Tail intravenous injection with 0.9% sodium chloride injection extracts and intraperitoneal injection with corn oil extracts were conducted to the experimental rats while tail intravenous injection with 0.9% sodium chloride Injection and intraperitoneal injection with corn oil were conducted to the control rats. After 14 days, blood specimens were collected for clinical pathology (hematology and clinical chemistry) analysis. Selected organs were weighed and a histopathological examination was conducted. As a result, compared with the control animals, there were no toxicity-related changes on the parameters above. The results show that the rats do not show obvious systemic toxicity reaction caused by repeated exposure with dual routes of parenteral administration method on rats after administration with both polar and nonpolar exacts of di(2-ethylhexyl)-1,2-cyclohexane plasticized PVC simultaneously up for 14 days.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of SNS addiction tendency, depression, and communication skill among university students. Subjects were 200 associate nursing students in Korea. The data were collected using a self-reporting questionnaire from October 11 to November 24, 2016. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, LSD test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis using the SPSS/WIN 23.0 program. The levels of SNS addiction tendency were dependent on age (t=2.47, p=.044), connection SNS time (F=10.20, p<.001), and place of SNS use (t=2.54, p=.012). SNS addiction tendency was significantly correlated with depression. Higher SNS addiction was associated with higher rates of depression. SNS addiction tendency was not significantly correlated with communication skill in nursing students. Influential factors that affect SNS addiction tendency were depression (ß=.265, p<.001) and SNS usage time (ß=.265, p<.001), which explains about 15.5% of the variance. The results of this study indicate that nursing interventions are necessary to improve SNS addiction tendency, and early screening of nursing students is needed to develop health promotion programs for the vulnerable.


With the development of nanotechnology and its wide application in biomedical field, nanomedicine has entered an unprecedented prosperous era. Owing to the unique physical and chemical properties, organic, inorganic and hybrid nanoparticle-based nanomaterials have a wide range of applications in disease diagnosis, treatment, biological imaging and other aspects. The development of nanomedicine has entered a new stage as well. Nanomedicine has developed from nanoparticle-based nanocarriers to multifunctional nanotheranostics with improved bioactivities through surface modification, structural design, and the development of biomimetic materials using endogenous nanovesicles. The new generation of innovative nano-drugs provides a new opportunity for the diagnosis and treatment of major diseases such as cancer.


There is growing evidence that antiepileptic drugs used in children that are meant to control seizures can actually cause seizure exacerbate instead. To minimize this problem, clinicians should be familiar with the epilepsy syndromes and the appropriate choice of antiepileptic drugs, avoid certain antiepileptic drugs which consistently aggravate specifi c seizure types and maintain a high index of suspicion of those at high risk as seizure exacerbation can present in diverse forms.


The relevance of the studied problem is caused by the variety of reasons. First of all, the ethnos is the most reliable group, that ensures the safety and the support in the life, secondly—the ethnic community strengthens the feeling of the intra group unity, thirdly, the ethnos provides the continuity of transfer and preservation of the values of the community; fourthly, the ethnic identity is more accurately realized if the person lives in the multiethnic environment. The purpose of the article consists in the clarification of the role of bilingualism in the formation of the ethnic identity of Russians and Tatars, since its impact on the consciousness of their ethnic identity and orientation on the national-cultural values remains debatable. The available empirical information is rather fragmentary and casual. The leading method of the research is the comparative approach to the study of the influence of the bilingualism on the formations of the ethnic identity of Russians and Tatars. The main result of the research is the evidence of such fact that the understanding of the identity is defined by the place of the residence (the city, the village), by the occupation (the intellectual, the worker), and by the social environment (the mono or bilingual environment). The materials of the article can be used in educational institutions when drawing up the curricula, taking into account the regional and Federal component of the humanitarian disciplines.


International law's treatment of aliens gives them certain process rights but few substantive rights. While modern international law is cognizant of the status of persons rather than just that of states, it nevertheless is far more concerned to preserve the authority of sovereigns than to curtail it. The law therefore vacillates between the sovereignty of states and the sovereignty of the law as its primary value.


This study extends earlier work concerned with the classification of individuals. The method used, called Association Analysis, has received widespread attention since its first use by Williams and Lambert.1 Ordinarily, in Association Analysis, use has been made of the statistic Chi-square (or of the Phi coefficient) to measure the associations among attributes. This report discusses the use of two different statistics (Cramér's Statistic ϕ' and the multiple correlation coefficient) for the purpose of classification according to a hierarchical subdivision process like that previously used. Although the procedure is strictly one of classification, not necessarily for purposes of prediction, the attributes by which an individual is classified are those often found associated with parole outcomes and used in the Uniform Parole Reports.2 To explore the use of this technique in parole prediction, a pooling procedure was applied to the subgroups obtained, resulting in groups of paroled prisoners, each with significantly different parole out comes.


Electrostatic properties of formulation component materials and blends play an important role in dry powder inhalation (DPI) products. Valid measurement of charge distribution will therefore lead to better control of powder behavior in DPI manufacturing processes. Ultrafine powders are known to have bipolar charge, have nonspherical shapes, and tend to be highly cohesive. Real-time noninvasive techniques need to be developed to obtain a precise and accurate measurement of electrically charged powders, as they aerosolize from a DPI product. How this measure relates to materials behavior throughout the various steps of a manufacturing process, e.g., from drug micronization and blending with lactose to filling dose units, also needs to be addressed. A novel noninvasive technique, which employs the phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) system for simultaneous measurement of size and charge of pharmaceutical powders, is currently being considered. Previous research demonstrated the advantages of this technique in measuring the bipolar charge distribution on a population of liquid aerosols. These findings led to significant improvements in understanding the performance of inhaler formulations, manufacturing processes, and development of new devices for inhaled drug delivery. This paper presents an investigation of electrostatic properties of lactose materials (typically used as a DPI excipient) using the PDA system. PDA calibration was checked using dry polystyrene microspheres, followed by an investigation of different grades of lactose. The PDA technique was used to track the motion of charged particles in the presence of an electric field. The magnitude, as well as the polarity of the particle charge, can be obtained by solving the equation of particle motion combined with the simultaneous measurement of its size and velocity. Results show the capability of the technique to allow real-time charge distribution and size measurement in the control of dry powder attributes that are critical to a better understanding of the manufacturing design space.


This article attempts to explain the decision to use force against Iraq using a noncompensatory theory of decision making. Rather than choosing an alternative that maximizes utility on the basis of a holistic comparison process as suggested by the expected utility model, or selecting an alternative that "satisfices" a certain criterion as predicted by the cybernetic model, the noncompensatory theory suggests that decisions on the use of force are often made based on the rejection of undesirable alternatives on the basis of one, or at most a few, criteria.


We show that empirical risk minimization procedures (ERM) and penalized empirical risk minimization procedures (PERM) satisfy oracle inequalities in a general framework. We underline a fundamental dierence between the general exact oracle inequalities obtained in [7, 2, 1] and the non-exact oracle inequalities that we proved. In the matrix completion setup where one observe n i.i.d. output/input couples (Yi;Xi) n=1 where Yi 2 R and Xi 2 R m T (and usually the dimension of the input variable is much larger than the number of observations: mT >> n), we apply these results to show that PERM procedures using the nuclear norm as a penalty function (cf. [3, 8]) satisfy oracle inequalities with a residual term that decreases like 1=n for every Lq-loss functions (q 2). These results require only assumptions on the tail behaviour of the input and output variables. In particular, an RIP (cf. [4]) type of assumption or an incoherency condition (cf. [3]) are not needed to obtain fast residual terms in these setups. (This is a joint work with Shahar Mendelson, [6]). We also apply these general methods to obtain exact oracle inequalities for a PERM procedure based on a penalty function using a mixture of several norms pen(A) = 1kAk S1 + 2kAk 22 + 3kAk 1


Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) is widely used due to its various biological activities to treat diseases as an analgesic, anti-diabetic, anti-ulcer and anti-inflammatory agent. To ameliorate the adverse effects of water stress on this medicinal plant, foliar application of glycine betaine (GB) and L-arginine (LA) was used. For this purpose, water stress was applied at three levels (100%, 70% , and 40% field capacity (FC)), and foliar application was used at five levels (control, 50 mM GB, 100 mM GB, 1.5 mM LA, and 3 mM LA) as factorial based on completely randomized  design. We measured phenol and flavonoid content, DPPH radical scavenging activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity, and essential oil (EO) content and yield. Total phenol content in the interaction of 40% FC and GB 100 mM was higher than the other treatments. The highest and lowest total flavonoid content and DPPH radical scavenging activity were observed in the interaction of 40% FC and 100% FC, respectively. These variables at GB 100 mM were greater than the others. The highest SOD and PAL activity was found in the interaction of 40% FC and LA 3 mM/GB 100 mM. The content and yield of EO in the interaction of 70% FC and 100 mM GB were greater than other treatments. In sum, 70% of water stress did not significantly change the biochemical properties of C. officinalis, but 40% FC dramatically influenced the quality of the plant. GB 100 mM could stimulate the plant to activate its antioxidant systems under water stress and obtain the highest EO.


The public sector on the African continent is viewed by critics as dysfunctional, inefficient and ineffective in meeting and addressing societal demand in a turbulent socio-economic environment. The proponents of neo-economic liberalism are of the view that the introduction and application of private sector management principles to the public sector will address service delivery deficiencies. The study focuses on the challenges to implement private sector management principles in the public sector. The objective of the study was not to argue for or against the neo-economic liberalism but rather to come to an understanding of the challenges that hinders the introduction of private sector management principles generally and particular performance management system to the public sector. The locus of the study was local government in the Western Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa. A comparative case study approach was used to draw inferences and answer the research question. The findings indicated that implementation challenges do exist but juxtaposed this with successful implementation. The study concludes with a proposed model for implementing private sector management principles to the public sector.

 Key words: Private sector management principles, new public management, neo-economics, performance management, local government.


A new compact picosecond light source is presented. It consists of a master oscillator, an ultra fast pulse picker element and integrated high-frequency electronics arranged on a micro bench with a footprint of 5 cm × 4 cm. The master oscillator is a laser consisting of 200 µm long saturable absorber, 1500 µm long gain, 8000 µm long cavity, 200 µm long DBR and 100 µm long monitor sections. Pulses with a width of 10 ps and a peak power of 0.5 W are generated by hybrid mode locking. Despite the 1 cm long cavity, the repetition rate is still 4.3 GHz. The semiconductor pulse picking element is based on a ridge waveguide acting as an optical gate and a tapered gain section for pulse amplification. The light source emits pulses with with a peak power of more than 30 W pulse peak power and allows a free choice of the repetition rate in the range between 1 kHz and 100 MHz.


(60 to over 90 kt), killing eight people, and producing one of the largest tree blowdowns ever observed in the Adirondack Mountains (Cannon et al. 1998; McCarthy 1996; Bosart et al. 1998). On 5 May 1996, a convective system moved rapidly across the lower Ohio Valley, producing wind gusts up to 41 m s -1 and widespread wind damage over much of eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and northern Kentucky (Spoden et al. 1998). On the night of 16 May and early on the morning of 17 May 1996, a convective system raced across South Dakota, producing straight-line winds in excess of 50 m s-1 (100 kt), toppling nearly 600 power poles and producing widespread damage to buildings (Rasch and van Ess 1998). Long-lived, convectively produced windstorms, such as those mentioned above, pose a significant hazard to life and property over much of the United States during the spring and summer months. These events have been given a generic name of derecho (Johns and Hirt 1987), a term that originated in the late 1800s to refer to convective systems producing wide and l ng swaths of straight-line wind damage (Hinrichs 1888). More detailed studies of these events, however, have shown that a vast majority are associated with a particular type of organized convective system, which is more popularily referred to as a bow echo (so named due to its characteristic bow shape on radar displays). First named and described in detail by Fujita (1978), bow echoes now represent Bow Echoes: A Tribute to T. T. Fujita


The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a seat tube for a bicycle and a seat tube manufactured according to this method. This method for manufacturing a seat tube consists essentially of a cylindrical tube (1) equipped with a saddle support (11) formed integrally on the tube, is to provide a conical shape at one end free of said cylindrical tube (1) so as to form one end of conical shape, bending said tapered end of said cylindrical tube (1) so as to form an angled end to shape said bent end of said cylindrical tube (1) so forming said seat support (11), and drilling a hole (14) in said saddle support (11). particularly applicable to tubes stool simple and robust manufacturing bicycles.


You can tell it is the season of goodwill - the hospital soaps go into overdrive, with the inevitable disasters waiting to fill the wards with chaos.


Evaluating users' satisfaction of e-Government services has been addressed by numerous studies. These mainly looked at e-Government users as citizens who are nationals and comply with the local culture of the governments providing these services. However, the GCC region has a particular culture stemming from the social structure and working environment. The expatriate population from different backgrounds form a significant portion of e-Government users. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore users' satisfaction towards the electronic services provided by governments in the GCC region represented by the State of Qatar. In order to examine the suitability of the e-Government service portal, a cross-sectional survey targeting the users of three common e-Government services in Qatar evaluated users' satisfaction based on the four dimensions of the COBRA framework Osman et al. 2014: Cost, opportunity, benefit and risk. SEM analysis demonstrated a good model fit and supported the hypotheses related to the effect of risk and benefit on users' satisfaction.


The object of this paper is to investigate some classes of infinite matrices, i.e., (l∞(p,s),vσ) and (l∞(p,s),vσ ∞), where vσis the space of all bounded sequences all of whose σ- means are equal, vσ ∞is the space of σ-bounded sequence and the space l∞(p,s) have been defined and studied by T. Jalal and Z. U. Ahmad [5].


Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects 1 in 200 people in Western countries with the two main forms being Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Clinically, IBD is characterized by chronic diarrhoea, bloody bowel movements, abdominal pain, weight loss, fatigue, fever, and extraintestinal manifestations such as arthralgia or skin affections. In rare cases, pericarditis or myocardial involvement is found. Genome-wide association studies have identified more than 250 genetic susceptibility factors. Additionally, so-far unidentified environmental factors play an important role in IBD pathophysiology. They may directly act on the intestinal mucosa or mediate their effects via the intestinal microbiota which is altered in its diversity. In patients with IBD, a 'leaky' intestinal barrier and impaired intestinal defence leads to increased bacterial invasion into the epithelial mucus layer and to bacterial translocation into the bloodstream. Bacterial wall products such as lipopolysaccharides are found in higher concentrations in IBD patients.


This article deals with modelling of a Traveling Wave Ultrasonic Motor with the aim of its command in force feedback application. A study of the non linear behavior leads to a new modelling of motor USR30, represented using causal ordering graphs. This simplified modelling gives results close to those observed during experimental runs.


The Vertebral Artery Each vertebral artery enters the foramen magnum in front of the roots of the hypoglossal nerve, inclines forwards and medially to the anterior aspect of the medulla oblongata and unites with its fellow at the lower border of the pons to form the basilar artery. The posterior inferior cerebellar and the anterior spinal arteries are its principal branches and it sometimes gives off the posterior spinal artery. A few small branches are supplied directly to the medulla oblongata. These are in line below with similar branches of the anterior spinal artery and above with the paramedian branches of the basilar artery. In some cases of apparently typical thrombosis of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery, post-mortem examination has demonstrated occlusion of the entire vertebral artery (e.g., Diggle and Stcpford, 1935). In some of these the thrombus has extended from the posterior inferior cerebellar artery just before death but in others there is no doubt that it was the primary condition. In these it is usual to find that the basilar artery has commenced early in the region of the inferior olive and supplies the median area of the medulla oblongata normally irrigated by the vertebral and ,anterior spinal arteries. The usual result of vertebral artery thrombosis is simply a combination of those features which result from occlusion of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery and of the medullary portion of the anterior spinal artery with all their variations (q.v.). Several eponyrns have been attached to the syndrome of the vertebral artery. The common picture is sometimes known as the BabinskiNageotte syndrome. The syndrome of CestanChenais is similar but weakness of the tongue and involvement of the descending root of the fifth nerve and of the spinothalamic tract are absent. (See also Cabot, I937; Pines and Gilensky, 1930.)


This paper describes a computer system developed by the Production Management Center of the Catholic University of Chile (GEPUC) and companies involved in collaborative projects. The general objective of the system is to provide a support tool that could integrate the overall GEPUC improvement initiative. The current version of the system "Plan Control" used the LPS as the core of the development, providing integration capabilities with other tools used in the implementation effort. One specific objective of "Plan Control" is to facilitate better management of the information of the LPS to allow a learning and transparency stage to take place in the companies, to generate a continuous improvement mechanism. A second specific objective is to provide support for the implementation of the LPS concepts across all the parties in the construction project, to obtain a better understanding of the concepts and to facilitate their adoption. This paper shows as a collaborative work between GEPUC and companies, during the creation of the prototype Plan Control, breaks up with the cultural barrier of adoption of this type of support tools. The first impacts generated by the application of the prototype system are commented, and the components of the definitive system, currently under development, are presented.


HIV-1 infection is associated with increased systemic oxidative stress; within HIV-1infected cells, this promotes propagation of the virus by boosting activation of NFkappaB, a key transcription factor for the LTR. The ability of Tat and gp120 to activate NADPH oxidase in various cell lines suggests that this enzyme complex may be the chief source of this oxidative stress. Moreover, there is reason to suspect that activated NADPH oxidase is a key mediator of the increased apoptosis that depletes the CD4+ lymphocyte population as AIDS progresses, and may also play a role in the induction of AIDS dementia. In HIV-1-infected patients treated with HAART, activation of NADPH oxidase in the vasculature and possibly adipocytes may be a mediator of the metabolic syndrome and increased cardiovascular risk associated with such therapy. These observations take on practical significance in light of recent evidence that phycocyanobilin (PCB) from spirulina can function as a nutraceutical inhibitor of NADPH oxidase. Furthermore, spirulina contains polysaccharides that can boost the ability of antigen-presenting cells to promote a Th1 immune response – characteristically impaired in AIDS. The observation that the prevalence of HIV-1 infection is anomalously low (for sub-Sahara Africa) among populations near Lake Chad which regularly consume spirulina, should further encourage studies to evaluate the therapeutic and preventive potential of spirulina or PCB with respect to HIV-1 infection. Low-cost strategies for HIV-1 control involving spirulina, melatonin, selenium, salicylate, and silymarin can be envisioned, and might be of particular utility in impoverished Third World populations. Oxidant Stress Promotes Propagation of HIV-1 For reasons that require further clarification, HIV-1 infection is typically associated with increased systemic oxidant stress. Within cells that are HIV-1 infected, such stress would be expected to promote transcription of the the HIV-1 genome, inasmuch as oxidants induce and up-regulate activation of NF-kappaB transcription factors; NFkappaB –preferably the p50-p65 heterodimer – binds to kappaB response elements in the LTR promoter, and plays an obligate role in the transcription of HIV-1 genes. These considerations suggest that the ability of HIV-1 to evoke oxidant stress is of selective advantage to the virus, and likely has been conserved during the virus' evolution. There is recent evidence that the impact of oxidants on NF-kappaB activity can be mediated by protein kinase D (PKD); following two serine phosphorylations mediated by PKC-delta and a tyrosine phosphorylation mediated by c-Abl, PKD associates with and phosphorylates IkappaB kinase-beta; the latter then phosphorylates IkappaB, routing it


In this paper, we define property () and show that Property () implies property (). The converse does not hold. Moreover, we prove that property () implies the Banach-Saks property.


A prototype raceway was constructed to study system design parameters and hydraulic characterization of a mixed-cell raceway-type pond system. The raceway model consists of three square unit cell with each side length of 1. 74 m. The basic design concept of a mixed-cell raceway-type pond system was to operate the raceway as a series of square tanks,each having a center drain for continuous removal of settable solids and sludge. The pond was split into three 1. 74 m × 1. 74 m × 1. 50 m square units. The water inlet pipe was set along the vertical wall,so that a swirling flow in each unit cell was formed. The flow velocity in 3 kinds of water depth of the unit cell( 0. 1 m above the bottom,intermediate water depth,0. 1m beneath the water surface) were measured and the swirling effect of the solid particles were also investigated. Results showed that when circulation was increased from 1 Q / h to 1. 5 Q / h,the mean rotational velocity of pond water increased from 11. 3 cm / s to 15. 6 cm / s,and the removal rate of solid particles increased from 44. 5 % to87. 7 %. The ratio of rotational velocity in the pond by water velocity from the inlet also increased 6. 3 % to8. 6 %. In conclusion,at 1. 5 Q / h circulation flow rate,the formed rotational flow can effectively while the deposited solids to the central discharge outlet,which can provide the technical reference for the design of the mixed-cell raceway-type pond system.


Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that target the human epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) are targeted therapies used in the clinic for treating non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harbouring activating mutations in the EGFR protein. As a targeted therapy, EGFR TKIs offer several benefits over broad-spectrum general chemotherapy, mainly through increased efficacy and a reduction in adverse side effects. However, acquired drug resistance to EGFR TKIs is a pervasive issue, leading to the development of several generations of these drugs in an attempt to overcome it. Unfortunately, due to a variety of distinct mechanisms, acquired resistance inevitably manifests itself after treatment with each new generation of inhibitors. The aim of this project was therefore to characterise HCC827 and HCC4006 NSCLC cell lines that had each been drug-adapted to erlotinib, gefitinib or afatinib by examining their morphology, growth and response to a drug panel comprised of 5 anti-cancer drugs with varying mechanisms of action - paclitaxel, osimertinib, trametinib, cabozantinib and dichloroacetate. The characterisation process highlighted the strong heterogeneity associated with acquired drug resistance - despite being derived from the same tissue and NSCLC subtype (adenocarcinoma) as well as harbouring very similar EGFR-activating mutations, the morphology, growth and drug response rates between HCC827 and HCC4006 cells adapted to the same EGFR TKI showed a high degree of variability, with cross-resistance arising in at least one resistant sub-line for each drug. The most effective drug at overcoming acquired resistance was cabozantinib, with 3 out of 6 resistant sub-lines showing significantly decreased IC50 when treated with the drug compared to the parental cells.


This paper explores a controversial topic of the Native Speaker Approach (NSA). It questions the theoretical basis of the adequacy of NSA, and identifies a number of other important factors that together play a part in developing students lanuage competence in pratical language communication. It is argued that, although NSTs enjoy the privilege of language proficiency, NNSTs, on the other hand, tend to be more efficient in terms of their cross-culture awareness and professional teaching expertise.


Surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization (SALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) has become an attractive complementary approach to matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) MS. SALDI provides a great potential for the detection of small molecules due to the absence of applied matrix. In this work, a functionalized porous TiO2 film immobilized with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs-FPTDF) was prepared to enhance SALDI MS performance. The porous TiO2 films were prepared by the facile sol-gel method and chemically functionalized for dense loading of gold nanoparticles. The prepared AuNPs-FPTDF showed superior performance in the detection and imaging of small molecules in dual-polarity modes, with high detection sensitivity in low pmol range, good repeatability and low background noise compared to common organic MALDI matrixes. Its usage efficiently enhanced SALDI MS detection of various small molecules, such as amino acids and neurotransmitters, fatty acids, saccharides, alkaloids, and flavonoids, as compared with α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA), 9-aminoacridine (9-AA), and the three precursor substrates of AuNPs-FPTDF. In addition, the blood glucose level in rats was successfully determined from a linearity concentration range of 0.5-9 mM, as well as other biomarkers in rat serum with SALDI MS. More importantly, the spatial distribution of metabolites from the intact flowers of the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus was explored by using the AuNPs-FPTDF as an imprint SALDI MS substrate in dual-polarity modes. These results demonstrate wide applications and superior performances of the AuNPs-FPTDF as a multifunctional SALDI surface with enhanced detection sensitivity and imaging capabilities.


The present work was to study the role of ladle glaze as apotential supplier of inclusions to the steel melt during theladle refining process. In this study, the total number ofinclusions at the be ...


Fatty acid deoxygenation is a method for producing renewable hydrocarbon fuels such as green diesel, jet biofuel and biogasoline. In the present commercial method, deoxygenation is directly applied to vegetable oils through liquid phase hydrotreatment. This method is expensive because it consumes a large amount of hydrogen and requires severe operating conditions. The objective of this study was the production of a diesel-like hydrocarbon fuel that can be considered as drop-in replacement for petroleum-based diesel fuels, by catalytic thermal decarboxylation of Mg-Zn basic soap. In particular, this study investigated the decarboxylation of Mg-Zn basic soap at low temperature and pressure, without external supply of hydrogen. The Mg-Zn basic soap (9/1 mole ratio of Mg/Zn) was derived from palm stearin and decarboxylated at 350 °C and atmospheric pressure for 5 hours. The basic soap effectively decarboxylated, yielding a diesel-like hydrocarbon fuel with a liquid product yield of 62%-weight. The resulting hydrocarbon product is a complex mixture consisting of normal paraffins in the range of carbon chain length C 8 –C 19 , iso-paraffins and various olefin products.


Objective: The effect of pingyangmycin(PYM) in treatment of venous-venular malformation(mixed hemangioma) of the children was evaluated. Methods: Three hundred and twenty-five(132 male patients,193 female patients) patients with venous-venular malformation in the facial-neck and limbs and body regions of the children between January 1998 and January 2005 were reviewed.Patients ages were between one month and 12 years.Among others ages of 175 patiets were ≤ 6 month(53.85%).Pingyangmycin was injected into the cavity or in the circumference of the venous-venular malformations,and the injected was repeated every 7-10 days.This process may be repeated 3-5 times. Results: Three hundred and twenty-five patients were followed up for 6 months-7 years.The cured was 162 cases((49.85%)),basically cured was 124 cases(38.15%),getting improvement was 10.46%.Cure and basically cure rate were 88.00%.The total efficiency was 98.46%. Conclusion: This method was a safe,simple and effective therapy for the venous-venular malformation in the facial-neck and body-limbs regions of the children.


In the human body, control systems maintain many physiological variables within narrow limits. To make medical students familiar with common properties of these physiological control systems, a simulation program is developed which demonstrates the functioning of control systems. Step by step, the student builds a block diagram of a basic control system. The input (load) and transfer function of subsystems can be varied, the responses of various subsystems are displayed. The program enables simulation of an open and closed loop system. It includes a proportional, integrating and differentiating control system. The simulation is written in VisualBasic, it runs in a Windows environment.


The issue of optimal scale in medical practice has received a great deal of attention in the literature.' Researchers have used a variety of methods to determine the relative efficiency of solo versus group practices of various sizes. The empirical results have unfortunately not been consistent. They have run the gamut of weakly favoring solo practice2 to asserting that groups of over 30 physicians are most efficient.3 The purpose of this paper is to point out some of the measurement problems that have plagued these studies (and are likely to hinder similar studies in the future) and to estimate relative efficiency by a method which does not encounter these problems-survivor analysis. The a priori case for economies of scale in medical practice is based upon technical indivisibilities. Larger practices can make use of the services of paramedical personnel to perform many of the simpler


History would tell us categorically that women in the past were relegated to the background. However, the 21st century has changed the lives of women in the workplace arena where they were elevated on an enviable pedestal in leadership, management, education and skills training.  This paper focused on describing the workplace challenges, opportunities and insights of women executives in Kidapawan City. Using phenomenological research design, multiple frameworks in data collection (friendly conversations, reflection analysis, and on-line interview) data analysis through story-telling writing helped me drew several themes which established the data's trustworthiness regarding credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. With better portrayal on their professional development, the 15 women executives welcome the opportunities traveling the paths, climbing the traditional ladders, and running down their companies, there is one constant at them: they cultivated their success. They have enjoyed opportunities brought about by professional credibility, great sense of responsibility, and most importantly, financial independence. They have faced the challenges in leadership, human behavior, and high expectations, however, family and work-life balance remain the biggest issue that has affected them emotionally. It was through prayers and family support that these women drew strength from. Hence, even if they were judged by society as weak, they continue to inspire the world.


The introduction of sulpho groups into molecule of mono- and diphthalocyanines of hafnium and zirconium gave rise to the formation of water soluble compounds. This allows us to extend the field of their applications. The dyes of this class have been found to be efficient photosensitizers for PDT of cancer.