The effectiveness of the restoration of lands disturbed by mining operations largely depends on the perfection of the legislation regulating this process. The purpose of the study is to identify evolutionary changes in the legal framework for reclamation and bottlenecks that require the improvement of legal acts. Research methods – scientific generalization, comparisons, analogy method, comparative and evolutionary analysis. Результаты. The relevance of reclamation in modern conditions has been substantiated, which is confirmed by the basic requirements of sustainable subsoil use and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The information concerning the legal support of reclamation is generalized and analyzed, the stages of this process are determined; setting back by a decade in the formation of legal support for reclamation in Russia of the Soviet period from foreign countries is identified. In Russia, the initial stage is attributed to the period of the 1950s– 1970s, when legislative documents were sporadic and did not practised on such a systematic basis. The period of the 1970s–1980s was defined as the main one, during which there was the approval of the "Basic provisions on the reclamation of lands disturbed during the development of mineral deposits and peat, conducting geological exploration, construction and other works" (1977), which have been successfully used for almost 20 years. At the same time, GOSTs and standards regulating reclamation began to operate. The following were subject to regulation: financing, accounting for the costs of reclamation work, compensation for any damage caused by the recipient, transfer of reclamation lands to land users, etc. Since the 1990s, there has been a certain decline in research focused on reclamation, although this period is characterized by the approval of quite important legislative acts, including the "Basic Provisions on Land Reclamation, removal, conservation and rational use of the fertile soil layer" (1995). Reclamation provisions are reflected in a number of federal laws and strategic documents. The highly anticipated government act defining the procedure for land reclamation and conservation was adopted in 2018. Deficiencies in the existing legislation regulating reclamation were identified, requiring amendments and additions to the latter. First of all, this concerns the Federal Law called "On Subsoil", as well as the regulation of the financing of reclamation. Conclusion. Improving the legal framework for reclamation work will undoubtedly help to increase the efficiency of this process.


Cancer stem cells belong to a small population of cells within the tumor with properties of self-renewal and differentiation into other cell types. In this study, the behavior of both portions, mesenchymal and epithelial, was evaluated. Six carcinosarcomas (CSs), 11 carcinomas within mixed tumors (CWMTs) grade I, 11 grade II, and 10 grade III were evaluated. In the epithelial portions of the CS and CWMTs was observed immunostaining for antibodies CD44, CD24, Oct-4 and ALDH-1. In the mesenchymal portions of the CS, in the epithelial portions of CMTs grades II and III no immunostaining for ALDH-1 was found. It was concluded that the tumor stem cells are expressed in equal proportions in the epithelial and mesenchymal portions of the CS. No immunostaining in the mesenchymal portions of well-differentiated CWMTs was seen.


This paper provides a historical context for thinking about Germany's recent embrace of sponsorship and private donations as a means of supporting education and the arts. The paper notes that the chief architect of a new national cultural policy, Michael Naumann, has justified a turn to public‐private collaborative arts funding with the argument that a market‐driven model of private responsibility for the arts stimulates greater citizen involvement in civic life and thus greater democracy. Yet Naumann has not reconciled this argument with Germany's own history, in particular the fact that Germany's Golden Age of private support of the arts coincided with the authoritarian German Empire (1871–1918). My analysis of this historical constellation, presented as a case study of one of Germany's most important museum directors, Wilhelm Bode (1845–1929), argues that private support of the arts formed part of a larger strategy designed to wrest control of arts institutions away from traditional elites. My essay seeks to show that the rise of more responsive public forums was intended to make the fruits of German imperialism and economic domination available to more Germans, particularly middle class Germans. On this basis, the essay suggests two things. First, German imperialist society was less hierarchical and more broadly participatory than is often assumed, complicating its ability to figure as a negative foil today. Second, the harnessing of market forces to German culture was expected to deepen popular appreciation for chauvinistic conceptions of German nationalism that today seem to conflict with what German democracy might ideally be. With these points in mind, I contend not that sponsorship and private donations are incapable of promoting greater public involvement in the arts. Rather, the private sector might yield more democratic outcomes when publicly funded democratic institutions retain a strong voice in the direction of culture.


Young's modulus and the mechanical damping factor have been determined between −180 and +280°C. (at a frequency of several kilocycles), in samples of isotactic polypropylene, isotactic polystyrene, and trans-1,4-polybutadiene, subjected to pile irradiation (γ-rays and neutrons) at γ-doses from 90 to 4000 Mrad. In isotactic polypropylene no important structural changes are produced by the irradiation, except for a partial destruction of crystallinity. The samples receiving high radiation doses exhibit a low temperature loss region, which is attributed to the formation of a certain number of branches. Isotactic polystyrene shows very slight modifications of the dynamic mechanical properties at room temperature. At low temperature an increase of intensity of the δ relaxation phenomenon (probably due to oscillations of phenyl rings) with increasing radiation dose is observed. Important structural modifications produced by the radiation, destruction of crystallinity accompanied by crosslinking, which transform the material into a crosslinked rubber, are observed in trans-1,4-polybutadiene. Unlike conventional (sulfur) vulcanization, crosslinking by radiation does not cause a marked shift of the glass transition point. A secondary low-temperature relaxation effect, not existing in the unirradiated material, appears in the mechanical loss curves of the irradiated samples; it is attributed to the formation of CH2sequences in the main chains through saturation of CC bonds. The mechanical spectrum of irradiated polybutadiene is very similar to those shown by crosslinked ethylene–butadiene copolymers.


Purpose: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with electroanatomical remodeling of the left atrium (LA) with asymmetrical LA dilatation being associated with advanced AF stage. Beyond substrate progression, additional anatomical LA changes have also been described after catheter ablation. We studied the pattern of LA symmetry and volume changes after AF radiofrequency catheter ablation.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 24 patients (mean age 62±7 years, 58% male, 71% paroxysmal AF) who were referred for circumferential pulmonary vein isolation and underwent a second procedure due to AF recurrence between 2007 and 2012 in our institution. We compared cardiac computed tomography (CT) data acquired prior to each ablation procedure. Reconstruction of the LA and the pulmonary veins (PV) was performed using specialized software (EnSite Verismo, SJM, MN). Left atrial volume (LAV) after exclusion of the atrial appendage (LAA) and the PVs was determined. The LA was then arbitrarily divided by a cutting plane between the anterior segment of the PV ostia and the atrial appendage and parallel to the posterior wall, to anterior- (LA-A) and posterior-LA (LA-P) segments. The LA-A/LAV ratio was defined as asymmetry index (ASI) and the LA-P/LA-A ratio as relative asymmetry index (ASI-r).

Results: The average time between the two CT scans was 28±15 months. LAV was significantly reduced from 156±77 ml to 143±78 ml (p=0.016). In 50% of the patients there was an LAV reduction of more than 10% (10-58 ml). LA-P was reduced from 59±24 ml to 46±20 ml (p=0.001) while LA-A remained unchanged (101±57 ml to 99±61 ml, p=0.809). This resulted in a significant change in LA symmetry demonstrated by the asymmetry indexes: ASI-r was reduced from 63±19% to 51±15% (p=0.004) and ASI increased from 62±7% to 66±7% (p=0.005). LAA volume did not change significantly (9±5 ml vs. 6±10 ml, p=0.207).

Conclusion: There is reverse anatomical LA remodeling despite recurring AF. While the mechanisms, i.e. reduction in AF burden or ablation-induced tissue retraction remain to be elucidated, this finding should be considered when using CT image integration of previous CT scans in patients undergoing repeat procedures.


Structural properties and bonding characteristics of Mg doped ZnO by co- precipitation methods were characterized by using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transforms Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The analysis of FTIR showed peaks at 466.77 cm−1 and 451.31 cm−1 which correspond to the stretching of the oxygen bond in the ZnO structure and leads to defect formation by the oxygen atom detachment. This defect occupied by the Mg atom and proved by the widening of peak oxygen. The data XRD showed increasing the average size of ZnO crystal from 27.74 nm to 38.17 nm with the addition of 10% wt of Mg. These phenomena indicated agglomeration of the partial displacement of O2- by Mg2+ in the MgZnO structure. This study showed simple methods to combine with Mg atom and ZnO to produce potential materials for catalytic applications.


Most authors seem to consider low-density urban sprawls with single-family housing to be less sustainable than a compact city, although some authors think the opposite. In this article we will analyze the debate between compact cities and dispersed cities, artificial surface growth in Spain and, above all, the number, evolution and distribution of singlefamily housing in Spain.


Professor Hao Xuejun thinks that trauma can result in spinal cord injury,which is associated with the sequelaes of paraplegia,quadriplegia,pain in paraplegia,urinary and fecal incontinence,and sensory disorders,and proposes an insight that "combined therapy of Du-meridian acupuncture and electroacupuncture for sequelae of spinal cord injury". Du-meridian acupuncture can improve local blood circulation of spinal cord,indirectly promote nerve cell regeneration;and the magnetic field produced by electro-acupuncture is associated with certain improvement of nutrition of nerve cells. The appropriate needling depth can be reached when a feeling of emptiness is obtained;a pair of electrical needle(intermittent wave,2 Hz)can be used,for which the intensity of current should be changed to make the needle shake,and patients have significant feeling. Several pairs of electro-acupuncture can be applied for patients with multiple spinal cord injury.


Security vendors and malware creators play a game of cat and mouse for more than two decades now. The latest area of computer science that every security vendor uses is machine learning. However, usage of machine learning algorithms comes with a price, especially if dealing with large amounts of data. While training such an algorithm does not have too many limitations, there are a lot of constraints regarding its practical usability (low number of false positives, good execution speed, memory footprint, etc.). This paper aims to shed some light on different optimization aspects related to machine learning models focusing on how having extra memory at hand can be used to improve the model's accuracy. We will also discuss two major implementation directions (cloud versus local) and point out advantages and disadvantages in every case.


This paper presents a novel nonlinear adaptive controller (NAC) for the co-ordinated control of generators and thyristor-controlled series compensators (TCSCs) in multimachine power systems. Discussions begin with power system de-coupling which is achieved by Lie differentiation. For each subsystem, the nonlinear adaptive control strategy is, at first, investigated based on the input/output feedback linearizing control. In this strategy, a fictitious state is defined to represent the combined effect of system nonlinearities, uncertainties and external disturbances and an extended-order sliding mode observer is employed to estimate the states and the fictitious state of the subsystem, which allows the NAC to be designed without requiring the knowledge of system nonlinearities and parameters. The NAC is then implemented locally, involving the external dynamics of the subsystem, which is estimated by the observer, for the co-ordinated control of generators and TCSCs in the multimachine power system. Simulation studies are undertaken based on a three-machine power system to evaluate the effectiveness of the NAC. The simulation results show that the locally installed NACs can coordinate each other to improve the power system stability.


Purpose. To assess the progression of atrial fibrillation in middle-aged people with hypertension in combination with comorbid extracardiac diseases.Materials and methods. In an observational cohort study, 308 patients aged 45–65 years with atrial fibrillation (paroxysmal and persistent forms) with hypertension in combination with extracardiac pathology were observed: diabetes mellitus (n = 40), thyrotoxicosis (n = 42), hypothyroidism (n = 59), abdominal obesity (n = 64) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n = 47). The control group consisted of 56 patients with hypertension + AF without concomitant extracardiac disease. The level of MMP-9 was determined using the Human MMP-9 (total) Immunoassay test-system (USA); NT-proBNP —  using the NTproBNP-IFA-Best reagent kit; galectin-3 —  with ELISA —  Bender MedSystems (Austria). Echocardiography was performed using an Acuson Aspen apparatus (USA), 24-hour ECG monitoring with Schiller Medilog Holter system. All statistical calculations were carried out in the program Rstudio 0.99.879 (RStudio, USA).Results. In patients with hypertension and atrial fibrillation, the combination of diabetes mellitus (p = 0.041) and abdominal obesity (p = 0.004) is the most prognostic factor for AF progression. In groups of patients with diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism and abdominal obesity, the most pronounced indicators of diastolic dysfunction of the left ventricle were: E/A, LVMI (men); the size of the left atrium and the end-diastolic size of the left ventricle are increased in all clinical groups. The prognostic value of biomarkers of fibrosis and remodeling of galectin-3 and MMP-9, and NT-proBNP in the progression of atrial fibrillation in patients with hypertension in combination with extracardial diseases is shown.Conclusion. There is no doubt that in case of hypertension, the decompensation of long-term hypertrophic myocardium is based on a violation of the balanced growth of its various structures and the formation of fibrosis and myocardial dystrophy, which was confirmed in the present study. The detected elevated levels of MMP-9, galectin-3 and NT-proBNP, as well as ultrasonic signs of myocardial remodeling, confirmed that they statistically significantly affect the progression of atrial fibrillation. In this regard, a personalized approach to a patient with atrial fibrillation in combination with comorbid pathology is required, especially in middle-aged people at the stage of comorbidity formation, under the conditions of received diagnostic information on the electrical function of the heart and assessment of the functional capabilities of CVS during its transition to various levels of functioning.


Graph neural architecture search has sparked much attention as Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have shown powerful reasoning capability in many relational tasks. However, the currently used graph search space overem-phasizes learning node features and neglects mining hierarchical relational information. Moreover, due to diverse mechanisms in the message passing, the graph search space is much larger than that of CNNs. This hinders the straightforward application of classical search strategies for exploring complicated graph search space. We propose Automatic Relation-aware Graph Network Proliferation (ARGNP) for efficiently searching GNNs with a relation-guided message passing mechanism. Specifically, we first devise a novel dual relation-aware graph search space that comprises both node and relation learning operations. These operations can extract hierarchical node/relational information and provide anisotropic guidance for message passing on a graph. Second, analogous to cell proliferation, we design a network proliferation search paradigm to progressively determine the GNN architectures by iteratively performing network division and differentiation. The experiments on six datasets for four graph learning tasks demonstrate that GNNs produced by our method are superior to the current state-of-the-art hand-crafted and search-based GNNs. Codes are available at https://github.com/phython96/ARGNP.


A recognition system for diagnosis of knee ligaments is described. Information about the knee is obtained by holo-interferometry. Fringe patterns on the reconstructed image are analyzed using image processing and pattern recognition techniques. Methods and algorithms for segmenting fringe area, extracting knee features, and classifying abnormal knees have been developed and tested. Twenty-five holo-interferograms have been inspected using the system. Automatic recognition of abnormal knees has been, realized. The degree of correct recognition is 84%. Only macro features of the original fringes are used in the analysis.<<ETX>>


"THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AFFAIRE" MASS MEDIA AND A TRANSFORMATION OF THE GERMAIN EMPIRE IN 1908 The study evaluated the consequences of the affair with Daily Telegraph for developing a relationship between the German population and the monarchy and observed a severe disruption of the regard of this institution.The author is convinced that in 1918 the consequences of discrediting the throne came into effect; the monarchy was replaced by a republic. The last German emperor is seen as clearly at fault for this situation. He would have been able to develop good relations between Great Britian and Germany but he was not able to rise to this occasion and thus failed because of his temperament. His personal interventions in foreign affairs and the British-German diplomacy were chaotic and unpredictable because of his struggle between his English and German "identities". The author also evaluated the current discussion about the "personal rule" and came to the conclusion that Wilhelm II honored the constitution of the empire and was not under any circumstances an absolute monarch. The public often incorrectly perceived his sudden ideas as official statements.


METHODS: The DNND I study, a prospective, randomized, patient and rater-blinded, observation group plus same-patient sham surgery-controlled trial with 5-year follow-up, evaluated the effect of nerve decompression on pain. The DNND II study consisted of 10 year follow ups on the same cohort. Narcotic requirements were calculated in Milligrams Morphine Equivalents per day (MME/day) through standardized conversions and podiatric foot exams recorded ulcerations.


Francois Arago studied maths at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris in order to be an artillery officer. His adventurous experiences with astronomy during what we would call a gap year in 1806-08 during the Napoleonic Wars inspired him into a scientific career in which he became the scientific director of the Paris Observatory and the Secretary of the Academie des Sciences. He introduced Foucault's pendulum, leading to crowds of Parisians gawping at the rotation of the Earth and arranged for the French nation to buy Daguerre's invention. He was briefly Head of State in 1848, a level attained by few other astronomers. I will outline his adventures and career as an exemplar of the inspiration of astronomy. Although his name sounds Spanish, François Arago (1786-1853) was a French astronomer. He was born in the region of Roussillon, in Estragel, in the Pyrenees, on the Spanish border. His father was a customs official. His native language was Catalan, hence his name. He discovered as a 1 See Paul Murdin, Full Meridian of Glory (New York: Copernicus Publishers, 2008); and Paul Murdin, Pursuit of Gazelles (Netherlands: Conserve Press, 2011), a fictional biography or historical novel of Arago's adventures as a young man. The most comprehensive recent biography of Arago is James Lequeux, François Arago: un savant généreux (Paris: EDP Sciences, 2009). Arago's account of his adventures in the Mediterranean is the major part of his book Histoire de ma Jeunesse. Both the French text and the text of an English translation by W. H. Smyth and others of this, the first chapter, History of my Youth, are in a collection called Biographies of Distinguished Men, and are available at several locations, including http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16775 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k92707n.image.f41 and http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccernew2?id=AraBiog.xml&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/p arsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1 or http://m.umnet.com/Download/.../Biographies-of-Distinguished-ScientificMen.pdf (accessed 1 November 2010).


The title compounds can be prepared via a one-pot method without any activation or modification of the starting materials and reagents.


for Merck on the Gardasil in Men trial. He is a member of the Merck advisory board for this product (human papillomavirus vaccine), chairman of the Merck Gardasil scientific advisory board, and a speaker in the Merck speakers' bureau. For decades, anogenital human papillo-mavirus (HPV) research largely focused on viral infection in women, with men only discussed in regard to diagnosis and treatment of penile condyloma. It was not until the past decade that investigators began to look in earnest at the natural history of HPV infection in men. Again, most research focused on genital infections, but increasing rates of anal cancer in men who have sex with men and in immunocom-promised individuals shed some light on anal HPV infection in these at-risk populations. Still, studies of anal infection in men who have sex with women (MSW) languished, with many researchers dismissing it as a clinically irrelevant or even potentially dangerous area of investigation , fearing iatrogenically induced viral inoculation during sampling from surrounding perianal skin. As a clinician and scientist who has spent a large part of his career investigating HPV-related diseases, I have heard these arguments countless times at conferences and in peer discussions. I have listened as too many young men with anal condyloma who were referred for treatment recounted stories of clinicians refusing to accept that " true " heterosexual men could develop anal warts. Thankfully, things might finally be changing. In this issue of the Journal, Nyitray et al [1] present results from the largest (to my knowledge) prospective, multicenter, international trial to look at the prevalence of and risk factors for anal HPV infection in MSW. More than 1300 men from Bra-zil, Mexico, and the United States were enrolled in the HPV in Men (HIM) study cohort. For this analysis, men who acknowledged recent sexual behavior with another man, those with 12 prior male sexual partners, those who refused intra-anal sampling for HPV with a swab, and those with inadequate samples were excluded , leaving 1900 evaluable participants. Samples were tested for 37 HPV types and were considered positive for on-cogenic HPV if any of 13 known onco-and 66) were present. What the authors of this very important article have shown is that anal canal HPV infection in MSW is not rare; HPV was detected in samples from 12% of participants , with 7% carrying an oncogenic type and 7% carrying a nononcogenic type …


Preferential flow reduces water residence times and allows rapid transport of pollutants such as organic contaminants. Conventional understanding of solute transport implies that preferential flow reduces the influence of soil matrix-solute interactions; however, this assumption lacks robust validation in the field. To better understand how physicochemical properties affect solute transport across a range of preferential flow conditions, we applied deuterium-labeled rainfall to field plots containing manure spiked with eight common antibiotics with a range of affinity for the soil. We then quantified preferential flow and solute transport using 48 soil pore water samplers spread along a hillslope. Based on >700 measurements, our data showed that solute transport to lysimeters was similar – regardless of antibiotic affinity for soil – when preferential flow represented less than 15% of the total water flow. When preferential flow exceeded 15%, however, concentrations were higher for compounds with relatively low affinity for soil. These results suggest that bypassing water flow can select for compounds that are more easily released from the soil matrix, thus providing fundamental insight into how flow heterogeneity affects pollutant mobility in soils. Moreover, because these data do not fully align with existing solute transport theory, they may be useful for building improved process-based transport models.


Ercole Pasquini, an elder contemporary of Monteverdi who died before 1620, is an important but shadowy figure, whose three motets, two madrigals, and over thirty keyboard pieces are all that survive of his music. He is considered a 'formative influence' on Girolamo Frescobaldi (p. xxxiii), his successor as organist of the Cappella Giulia in St Peter's, Rome (after the temporary, five-month appointment of Alessandro Costantini). The literature on the composer's keyboard music, stimulated by a pioneering edition by W. Richard Shindle, published in the 1960s (Ercole Pasquini, Collected Keyboard Works, ed. W. Richard Shindle [Corpus of early keyboard music, 12; N.p.: American Institute of Musi cology, 1966]), has drawn attention to how his techniques anticipate Frescobaldi's (cited partially on p. xxxiv, and by Anthony Newcomb, "Frescobaldi's Toccatas and their Stylistic Ancestry", Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association 111 [1984–1985]: 28–44). The keyboard pieces range from toccatas, those in contrapuntal genres such as canzonas and ricercares, to dances, some with divisions. Their principal sources can be consulted in facsimile in the series 17th Century Keyboard Music. Sources Central to the Keyboard Art of the Baroque (New York: Garland, 1987–1989); the relevant volumes edited with introductions by Alexander Silbiger), and have been studied extensively (see especially, Christine Jeanneret, L'œuvre en filigrane: une étude philologique des manuscrits de musique pour clavier à Rome au XVIIe siècle (Florence: Olschki, 2009), and Alexander Silbiger, Italian Manuscript Sources of 17th Century Keyboard Music (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI, 1980). The volume under consideration contains intonations, toccatas, and contrapuntal pieces, numbering twenty-five in all. They have been published in a large oblong format within a soft cover suited for placing on an organ desk, accompanied by a separate upright volume containing the prefatory material and textual commentary; the remaining pieces are to appear in a forthcoming volume in the complete works series. The sources of the keyboard pieces are numerous manuscripts dating from the early seventeenth to the early eighteenth centuries, although most are preserved in only one source. They present significant problems for modern editors. If taken more or less literally, their texts frequently oblige the performer to resolve ambiguities regarding rhythm and the alignment between the parts, and leave many doubts regarding accidentals (see David Schulenberg, "Some Problems of Text, Attribution, and Performance in Early Italian Baroque Keyboard Music", Journal of Seventeenth Century Music 4, no. 1 [1998], online at http://sscm-jscm.org/v4/no1 /schulenberg.html [accessed 24 March 2017]). Conceivably, Pasquini's notation was similar to that of Frescobaldi, who left one autograph manuscript whose notation is partially illegible (see Christine Jeanneret, "Places of Memory and Invention: The Compo sitional Process in Frescobaldi's Manuscripts", in Interpreting Historical Keyboard Music: Sources, Contexts and Performance, ed. Andrew Woolley and John Kitchen [Farnham: Ashgate, 2013], 65–81). Copyists may have shared the composer's apparent lack of concern for notational precision, had problems reading the autographs, or were unable to arrive at their own solutions. Two schools of thought exist on how to deal with these problems in a modern edition. One involves an attempt to modify the text in such a way that, while respecting the original notation, the editor intervenes to correct all its perplexing features, including rhythmic ambiguities (see editions of two Pasquini pieces, edited by David Schulenberg, published electronically at http:// faculty.wagner.edu/david-schulenberg/editions [accessed 24 March 2017]). The other limits inREVIEWS


Maria Sybilla Merian is best known for her Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname, published in 1705 in Dutch and Latin. Readers of Early Modern Women may have encountered her as one of the four women Natalie Zemon Davis treats in Women on the Margins. A recent exhibit at the Queen's Gallery of images in the Royal Collection drawn mostly from the Metamorphosis demonstrates Merian's stunning accomplishment both in natural history and in aesthetic terms, as well as offering insight into the courageous character that enabled her to undertake and complete such a project. Born in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1647, Merian was trained as a watercolorist by her stepfather, who excelled as a flower painter, and most of her early images take flowers as their subject. At eighteen, Merian married an apprentice of her stepfather, yet another watercolor painter. She had two daughters, and in 1679 published her first book on insects: The Wonderful Transformation of Caterpillars and their Particular Plant Nourishment. Although all the organisms depicted in this volume were native to Europe, it makes use of two features that went on to distinguish Merian's later work in the Metamorphosis: each page depicts the different stages in the insect's life cycle as well as the plant on which the insect typically or exclusively feeds. By 1685, Merian had separated from her husband and moved with her mother and two daughters to the northern Netherlands to join a community of Labadists who led a life of austerity, renouncing private possessions. It was probably while she was living there that Merian developed her interest in Suriname. The governor of that Dutch colony from 1683 to 1688 was the brother-in-law of


Photo-conductive lens antennas (PCAs) exploit the ultra-short photoconductivity phenomenon of specific semiconductors in order to generate pulsed radiation in the THz regime. State of the art PCAs suffer from high dispersion and low radiation efficiency over the large generated bandwidth due to the poor coupling between the antenna and the dielectric lens. In this work, a leaky lens PCA is proposed to overcome these issues. The presented structure, indeed, aims at a 1:15 bandwidth (0.1 THz – 1.5 THz). The design, assembly and manufacture of a LT-GaAs membrane-based leaky lens PCA are shown and discussed together with the measurement of the radiated power.


Global synchronization of coupled map lattices are investigated in this paper. A sufficient condition for global synchronization is derived. Unlike other approaches, the coupled lattices is not linearized in this paper. Instead, the sufficient condition for the synchronization is obtained here by introducing a reference state along with Lyapunov function method, and this condition is simply given in terms of the maximum absolute value of eigenvalues of the coupling matrices those are not equal to one. Moreover, we give how to construct the coupling matrix to guarantee global synchronization of coupled map lattices based on two comparing matrices, which is very convenient to use. A typical example of coupled map lattices with chaotic nodes is finally used to verify the theoretical results and the effectiveness of the proposed synchronization scheme.


'Surgeons have been too much satisfied with considering the effect only; but in studying diseases we ought not only to understand the effect, as inflammation, suppuration, etc., but also the cause of the effct; for without this knowledge our practice must be very confined, and often applied too late, as in many cases it will be necessary to prevent the effect.' WITH THESE WORDS John Hunter addressed his students during the course of his lectures on the Principles of Surgery25. As a theme they are particularly suitable to the subject of this lecture. In his much quoted paper on 'Observations on the inflammation of the internal coats of veins' read in 1784, Hunter recorded how he examined the arm of a man who died at St. George's Hospital24. He found 'veins in many places united by adhesive inflammation. The vein near the axilla had taken on suppuration, beyond which adhesion had not forrmed, and this had given free passage for the matter into the circulation, of which most probably the patient died.' Again in his lectures on the Principles of Surgery25, Hunter spoke of 'inflammation in veins sometimes proving fatal; whether from inflammation extending to the heart, or from the matter secreted in the vein passing in considerable quantity into the circulation', he could not say. For treatment he stated that 'if inflammation had just come on and not arrived at suppuration, a compress should be applied to produce adhesion of the sides of the vein whereby the inflammation be prevented from reaching the suppuration stage. If the suppuration is come on, let pressure be applied immediately above to produce adhesion there and so prevent the matter from passing to the heart.' From these observations I doubt whether Hunter would have been greatly surprised by the writings and description of thrombo-embolism by Virchow45. In 1864, Pitmans6 recorded the first case in this country of a patient dying from pulmonary embolism. His patient collapsed in a water closet and died a few minutes later. At post mortem the pulmonary artery was entirely filled with clot which extended from the valve to beyond the bifurcation. The right femoral vein contained thrombus from the mid-thigh extending into the distal ramifications. In 1934, about 150 years after Hunter, Homans2$ suggested vein interruption for the treatment of deep vein thrombosis and the prevention of emboli.


Negative responses recorded during moving in-loop TEM surveys, where only positive data are expected, are a regular occurrence in TEM surveys. They are however generally poorly understood and little reported. In most cases, such negatives are ascribed to induced polarisation (IP) effects, but we suggest that there is at least one other cause of negative TEM response, one which is associated with very resistive terranes containing little if any polarisable material. This paper presents some examples of this negative resistive response where there is little or no polarisable material present and where a source other than IP should be sought. A series of tests have been proposed to try and isolate the cause.


In the detritusphere, particulate organic matter offers new sites for microorganisms, whereas soluble substrates are transported into the adjacent soil. We investigated how mechanisms of solute transport affect microbial abundance and function in the detritusphere. In a first experiment, transport was restricted to diffusion, whereas in a second experiment it was dominated by convection. Two soil moisture contents were established in each experiment. When diffusion was the exclusive transport mechanism, the addition of maize litter induced distinct gradients in enzyme activities, soil organic C content and microbial biomass to a depth of 1.5–2.8 mm. Convection enlarged these gradients to 2.5–3.0 mm. The moisture regime modified the temporal pattern of diffusive C transport, microbial growth and enzyme release by inducing faster transport at large water contents. Convective transport seemed to be unaffected by soil moisture content. Using a convective‐diffusive transport model with first‐order decay, it was possible to simulate the observed activity profiles. The results indicate that the spatial dimension of the detritusphere is governed by the ratio between decay rate of available substrates and transport rate. Bacteria and fungi showed differing utilization strategies as revealed by coupling phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis with stable isotope techniques. Fungi assimilated C directly in the litter, whereas bacteria took up the substrates in the soil and therefore depended more on transport processes than fungi. Our results demonstrate the impact of physicochemical conditions on the abundance and function of microorganisms in the detritusphere. Furthermore, the combination of enzymatic measurements and mathematical transport modelling may offer a new way to measure substrate decay rates in soil.


Composite materials that have low weight and high strength properties are currently one of the promising materials for a vehicle's body. However, the effect of low velocity impact on composite may cause failure through matrix cracking, fibre breakage and delamination which may reduce the structure strength. Low velocity impact can be analysed either by experimentation or numerical simulation. Numerical simulation which is also known as finite element analysis can show the degradation of the composite structure properties after an impact loading condition without doing any experimentation. Thus, in this paper, LS-DYNA is the finite element analysis software that is used to simulate a low velocity impact on composite structures.


Currently, about 80% of all industrial chemical reactions are carried out with the help of catalysts or depend on catalytic processes. In this case, catalysts containing platinum group metals (hereinafter - PGM) occupy a special position, due to their high catalytic activity and selectivity. A significant part of the net global demand for PGM is for the production of catalysts, accounting for approximately 45% for platinum, 30% for palladium, 92% for rhodium, 35% for ruthenium, 15% for iridium. The most important condition for the economical use of catalysts containing precious metals is their efficient recycling, which will be discussed below.


Political behavior research has delivered less than the "behavioral revolution" seemed originally to promise. A survey of recent work suggests that the reason is not its epistemological premises (which are accepted here) or its methodology, but (1) its unsystematic, atheoretical character and limited range of research topics, and (2) the erroneous conception of human nature on which research rests. Compared with either the established principles of modern biobehavioral science or the conceptions of human problems of earlier political science, political behavior research remains "pre-behavioral." To progress beyond this stage, political scientists must recognize and apply the basic knowledge about human behavior provided by the biobehavioral sciences. Two brief examples of such application are given: how ethological knowledge can supply a needed theoretical perspective for identifying political behavior problems worth studying; and how neurophysiological knowledge, particularly psychophysiology and psychophysics, can correct mistaken conceptions of the relationship between political attitudes, political words, and political actions.


As XML becomes ubiquitous, there are a growing number of applications that utilize it. Most of such applications working with some kinds of XML storages, in particular with Native XML Databases, need to perform navigation over XML data retrieved from the database. The Application Programming Interface with efficient navigational facilities, that XML DBMS must provide these applications with, is still under discussion among XML DBMS developers. In this paper we present design and implementation of XML DBMS Application Programming Interface that provides efficient navigational facilities.


A new robust method for finding the parameters of Engen's six-port-to-four-port reduction algorithm for six-port reflectometer calibration has been developed. Like other previously published methods, it uses a minimum of five loads with an unknown but constant absolute value of the reflection coefficient and unknown but well-distributed phases. However, the quality of the parameter estimates is improved, especially in noisy environments, by efficiently eliminating cases in which these earlier methods may become ill-conditioned. The new method has been used successfully to calibrate a newly developed six-port reflectometer in GaAs MMIC technology working between 1.3 GHz and 3.0 GHz.


Examinations of probabilistic tractography have identified major tracts across the brain, but little has been done to compare them to wellestablished tracer studies. Therefore, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) probabilistic tractography of white matter (WM) was performed on a DTI template generated from 271 rhesus macaques. Injection sites from tracer experiments in literature were chosen as seed regions from which to begin tractography. Results demonstrated the probabilistic connectivity maps obtained on the DTI template were largely consistent with connectivity maps from the tracer studies.


In the title compound, C16H12Br2O6·C2H5OH, the two benzene rings are twisted by 80.64 (5)° and the carboxyl groups form dihedral angles of 72.48 (3) and 89.41 (2)° with the corresponding benzene rings. In the crystal structure, the biphenyl molecules are connected by intermolecular O—H⋯O and O—H⋯Br hydrogen bonds, resulting in a chain along the b axis.


In Ukraine, promoting the Ukrainian language has been an important part of nation-building after post-Soviet independence. However, different regions of the country question this connection between language, identity, and the nation-state. In western regions, speaking Ukrainian is believed to be essential to legitimizing one's Ukrainian ethnic identity. In practice, however, there are a variety of ideologies of language related to national identity. To date, little has been done to examine how young people in this region utilize competing discourses of identity at multiple spatial scales in defining their own notions of identity. Drawing upon ethnographic data, I examine how 13- to 15-year-olds interpret language use in relation to ethnic and national identity. Through this research, I aim to show how young people's everyday engagements with local, national, and global ideologies complicate notions of a coherent, territorially based nation.


In this paper, an adaptive neural network robust control approach is proposed for a class of SISO(single-input-single-output) nonlinear systems with completely unknown virtual control direction, unknown nonlinearities, unmodeled dynamics and dynamic disturbances. In the backstepping recursive design, neural network is employed to approximate the unknown parameters; a dynamic signal and nonlinear damping terms are introduced to counteract the unmodeled dynamics and dominate the nonlinear dynamic disturbances, respectively, and Nussbaum function is used to solve the unknown signs of virtual control gains. It is mathematically proved that the proposed adaptive neural robust control scheme can guarantee the uniform ultimate boundedness of the closed-loop system.


The pioneering work of Cram and coworkers in the area of chiral recognition via host-guest chemistry sparked much interest in the field since the first reports in the 1970s. In these investigations and others, the chiral discriminatory ability of the host were determined by measuring association constants, reaction rates, membrane transport rates, etc. A logical subsequent challenge in chiral recognition systems is designing receptors that can translate the enantioselectivity into a colorimetric response that is, in an ideal case, readily discernible by the naked eye. For maximum responsiveness, the wavelength of maximum absorption ( max) of a chiral chromophoric host would fall near the middle of the visible spectrum (~525 nm). Complexation with a chiral guest would then induce a chirality-dependent shift in max—that is, one enantiomer would induce a hypsochromic shift while the other would induce a bathochromic shift (Figure 1)—thus enabling the visual or spectrophotometric discrimination of enantiomers. Operationally simple colorimetric indicators of absolute configuration with a wide substrate scope would be extremely valuable. This is especially true if these indicators could be extended to provide quantitative information concerning the enantiomeric excess (ee) of reaction products. O O O


Methyl-grafted natural rubber (MG30) was treated with N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N'-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD) to enhance it anti-aging properties. The treated MG30 was used as polymer electrolyte by incorporating lithium trifluoromethane sulfonate (LiTF) through solution-cast technique. The impedance behavior of the sample has been carried out by analyzing the dielectric permittivity, dissipation factor, dielectric modulus and ionic conductivity as a function of temperature at different frequencies through impedance spectroscopy. Keywords: Methyl-grafted natural rubber, polymer electrolyte, N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N'-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine, ionic conductivity, dielectric.


Abstract Campbell and Selick have given a natural decomposition of the cohomology of an elementary abelian p-group over the Steenrod algebra. We study the corresponding stable wedge summands of the classifying space B(𝓩/p) n + using representation theory and explicit idempotents in the group ring 𝓕 p [GL n (𝓩/p)].


organizations in Canada and the United States. This is all very effectively woven together, while at times perhaps becoming almost too detailed. One interesting theme is the changing relationship between Slovaks and Czechs. The two historic nations were fused into a single united Czechoslovakia following the First World War, then during the Second World War Slovakia became an independent state (1939–45), but was reunited with the Czechs as a Communist state in 1945, finally gaining independence again in 1993 with the demise of Communism. All this political change has been reflected in Czech and Slovak organizations in Canada and the United States. Still, as already pointed out, the reader does not find any detail on the relationship between Czechs and Slovaks in Canadian (or for that matter American) rural prairie settlements. Another important relationship is that between Slovakia and Hungary. Stolarik mentions attempts at ''Magyarization'' during the AustroHungarian period and briefly mentions that the entire southern region, all the way from Bratislava to the Ukrainian frontier, was annexed by Hungary during 1938–45. A continuing problem in defining Slovakia as a resuscitated nation-state is that today this region remains largely ethnic Hungarian. How are all these people, who are citizens of Slovakia (thus Slovakians but not Slovaks) accommodated within what is essentially a nation-state? One would like to see at least some discussion of this issue in the book, as it could also pertain to the identification dilemma faced by ethnic Hungarians from Slovakia who have emigrated to North America. On the whole, then, this book represents a unique and novel way of ''telling history.'' The reader is left with a strengthened, albeit still partial, knowledge and understanding of the immigration process, along with what immigrants, refugees, and their descendants in North America actually experienced in redefining their identities, in this case as Slovaks, Czechoslovaks, Americans, and Canadians. alan anderson University of Saskatchewan


Six diagnostic tasks of two-choice discrimination skills were used to assess 32 hearing impaired/mentally handicapped clients residing in a state institution for the mentally handicapped. Two tasks measured sign discrimination skill, two measured visual discrimination, and two measured motor discrimination. The tasks were found to be hierarchically ordered in difficulty. Clients who passed the sign tasks passed all of the tasks, and clients who passed the visual tasks always passed the motor tasks. Assessment results were used to predict performance on two tasks that reduced the number of contrasting stimulus cues (color, size, shape, and pattern) of the objects to be discriminated and on a training task that resembled tasks used to teach receptive signs. Assessment results predicted performance on all tasks, suggesting that the discrimination assessment procedure may be useful in sign language programs for the hearing impaired/mentally handicapped.


This is a brand new luxurious 3 star hotel, featuring14 storeys and 93 gracefully appointed guestrooms and suites. The hotel boasts impressive leisure facilities, business services including a Spa that takes up one full floor of the hotel, as well as..


The aim of this paper is to present a detailed and thorough investigation of the dips in the magnitude of the impedance parameters for AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs. These dips should be attributed to the resonance between the extrinsic inductances and the intrinsic capacitances. As a consequence, the resonance frequencies associated to these dips can be analyzed to determine the intrinsic capacitances when the extrinsic inductances are known. To verify the validity of this straightforward approach, the extracted capacitances are compared with the results obtained with the conventional modelling method. The comparison is performed versus the gate-source voltage and the gate width.


The BAX™ system for screening Salmonella is one of the first commercial PCR‐based systems for the detection of food‐borne pathogens. It is able to give a confirmed result within 28 h. There was 98·6% and 95·8% agreement between the BAX™ system and conventional cultural analysis for the detection of Salmonella in artificially inoculated and uninoculated food samples, respectively. In both cases, the BAX™ system generated more positive detections than cultural analysis. The speed of assay, ease of use and high specificity and sensitivity of the BAX™ system for the detection of food‐borne Salmonella make it an attractive method for routine food microbiology laboratories.


In this thesis we examine the problem of Object Discovery, the autonomous acquisition of object models, using a combination of shape, appearance and motion. We propose a new technique for detecting rigidly moving objects and constructing models of their appearance and shape called the ODMAS (Object Discovery through Motion, Appearance and Shape) system. Our technique is a multi-stage approach. First, a stereo camera is used to find a sequence of images and shape maps of a given scene. Then the scene is oversegmented using normalized cuts based on a combination of shape and appearance. SIFT image features are matched between sequential pairs of images to identify groups of moving features and the three dimensional location of these moving features in the scene is identified using the shape map from the stereo camera. The moving features are then further individuated into objects by identifying groups where the motion of the features is rigid. These rigid feature groups are used to determine which regions in the segmentation of the scene correspond to objects, grouping together oversegmented regions as necessary. Additional features are extracted from these regions and combined with the rigidly moving image features to create snapshots of the object's appearance and shape. Finally, these snapshots are grouped together over time to produce models of the objects.


Abstract. Previous studies indicate that most rainfall-triggered shallow landslides are initiated by a spike in rainfall intensity, which does not usually occur at the beginning of a critical storm, within which the slide is triggered, but after several minutes (or hours) of the storm. The critical storm is also usually not positioned at the beginning of a rainfall season, but after several days of antecedent period. Rainfall triggers landslides via rapid increase in pore water pressure, commonly associated with the change in water content. Consequently, many hydrologic pressure wave models assume that rapid pore water pressure responses are as a result of rapid infiltration of rainwater. On the contrary, this paper argues that, based on the above timings of landslide occurrences and the knowledge that infiltration rate decays with the soil wetness, the rapid increase in pore water pressure that triggers shallow landslides is as a result of rapid introduction of additional energy into the tension saturated (or nearly saturated) zone by the intense rainfall at the ground surface, without infiltration. Antecedent and critical precipitations are significant in creating a tension saturated zone, necessary for rapid transmission of the introduced energy from the ground surface to the lower soil horizons during the critical storm. These arguments are supported by a newly proposed one-dimensional diffusion mathematical model, which, when solved for the appropriate boundary conditions, can yield pore water pressure at any time and depth of a tension-saturated soil profile, without infiltration. The newly proposed diffusion model is mathematically similar to Iverson's model (Iverson, 2000), except that the hydraulic diffusivity parameter in the latter is substituted with a newly proposed energy diffusivity coefficient in the former. A combination of the new diffusion model and the infinite slope model can predict the stability of a shallow slope as a result of transient pore water pressure.


Two CoFe 2 O 4 samples prepared at 600 and 1000°C have been subjected to galvanostatic cycling in lithium test cells. 57 Fe Mossbauer spectra have been analyzed to elucidate the possible causes of capacity fading during the first cycles. 57 Fe conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy has been applied to distinguish between bulk and surface iron locations. This technique revealed the presence of reduced iron atoms near the surface of the sample annealed at 1000°C. Their suitable accessibility to lithium may explain the better capacity retention observed for a large number of cycles.


"Latest styles...in a lesbian world! La Modena: Once she had been simply Emily Jones, a miner's daughter. Now a high-priced model, she dared to tag herself with the strange name of a town in Italy. Pam Elliott: Once she was content with the friendly attentions of another model, the red-haired Haze Merton. Now she wanted more - the furs and jewels that La Modena or Jorges de Chastelaine could afford to give her. Jorges de Chastelaine: Once he had been amused being merely a wealthy but conventional sportsman. Now he was enjoying being chased by two women...but did they want him or each other? A story of bisexual relationships in the cosmopolitan dress salons where old sins are restyled to please the fancy of the wealthy!" -Back cover


Laser spectroscopic techniques for detecting minute quantities of atmospheric pollutants have made rapid advances in the last few years.1-2 Molecular CO2 lasers play an important role in atmospheric pollution monitoring. This is because of its high power emission on multiple wavelengths in the 9 - 11 μm range, and which overlap with the absorption spectra of a large number of molecules of environmental concern, such as hydrocarbons (HC), O3, NH3, SO2, NO2, and others. In addition to using a CO2 laser for atmospheric pollution detection, one can use it inside a chemical plant to remotely detect leakage of unwanted toxic and hazardous gaseous compounds.2 In this article, we present some initial results of an investigation on a simple gas analyzer using a CO2 laser that can be used as a remote sensor for atmospheric pollution monitoring or for gas leak detection in chemical plants. A dual-beam CO2 laser analyzer is also under investigation and comparative results will be presented at the conference.


Millions of people across the world are at risk from arsenic-related diseases including cancer. Contamination of drinking water with arsenic is thought to be the foremost cause of human arsenic toxicity. Recently, high concentrations of arsenic have been reported in grains and vegetables, but little is known about chicken meat and eggs as a source of arsenic. Human arsenic exposure from poultry products and possible environmental contamination from poultry excreta cannot be ignored. This review gives an overview of arsenic contamination in chicken meat, eggs, and excreta. In available studies arsenic in chicken meat and eggs (0-100 μg/kg) is below the tolerable limits for humans. This may be of concern for human health when humans are exposed to multiple sources of arsenic. A high level of arsenic is reported in poultry excreta from chickens consuming arsenic in food or water. As the poultry industry grows, use of arsenic-rich poultry manure as fertilizer could contaminate the food chain.


A case Is described in which a woman who had rubella in early pregnancy and gave birth to a congenitally infected child exhibited an unusually prolonged rubella IgM antibody response (52 months).


When animals are inoculated with lymphohematopoietic cells of homologous origin which, for one reason or another, they are unable to reject, they may be stricken with an often fatal, wasting syndrome, usually referred to as runt, transplantation, or homologous disease (1-3). The essential features of this syndrome include loss of weight or retardation of growth, diarrhea, a diffuse dermatitis, hypertrophy of lymphoid organs followed by atrophy of these organs, atrophy of the thymus, and dyscrasia of the blood and bone marrow (4, 5). Although extensive analyses of this syndrome in rodents and chickens have shown that it is caused by an immunologic response on the part of the donor's immunologicaUy competent cells against alien transplantation antigens of the host (i.e., it is a graft-versus-host [GVI-I] reaction), its pathogenesis is still very incompletely understood. The possible ancillary role of microbial organisms of endogenous or exogenous origin in the immunologically debilitated hosts is still undecided. A necessary condition for the development of GVH disease is incompatibility between donor and host at the major histocompatibility locus for the species concerned (e.g., the H-2 locus in mice or the Ag-B locus in rats) (3), and its severity depends principally upon the number of small lymphocytes present in the cellular inoeulum, thymocytes being relatively innocuous (6). Although, initially, homologous disease was regarded as a laboratory artifact, its occasional occurrence in man is now recognized as a consequence of either (a) a natural maternal ~ fetal transplacental "transfusion" (7), (b) a therapeutic lymphocytecontaining cellular transfusion of fetuses or infants (8, 9), or (c) transplantation of bone marrow in the treatment of hematopoietic failure and leukemia (10). Thus, apart from any possible light they may shed upon the pathogenesis of homologous disease, studies on its prevention or arrest have clinical relevance. In mice, the course of runt or homologous disease can be altered by administration, just before or soon after injection of the initiating homologous cellular inoculum, of a variety of agents including: (a) suspensions of isologous lymphoid cells from normal adult donors; (b) lymphoid cells or antiserum from isologons donors specifically sensitized against tissues of the putative attacking cells; (¢) isoantiserum specifically directed against the antigens of the host under attack and raised in animals of the homologous strain providing the attacking cells; and (d) immunosuppressive agents (11-17).


We show how in the Levy-walk model for turbulent channel flow one can measure an effective viscosity in a two-dimensional lattice-gas implementation. We study the dependence of effective viscosity on the exponent characterizing the distribution of distances over which momentum is exchanged and on system size


Purpose – During the current financial and economic crisis, public sector efficiency is at the heart of debate. Since education investment can have a lag of 20 years and is faced with lower budgets, many countries invested less in education arguing that they had been so far inefficiently spent. However, academic literature is not unanimous in the type of accounting measures to be used to measure public education's efficiency. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to determine which efficiency measures are most widely used in academic literature, and what influences their design. In addition, we would like to find out if and how efficiency measures of public education changed over time, and which is the role of accounting in its contemporary understanding. Design/methodology/approach – We performed a comprehensive literature analysis of research papers published in public sector, management and accounting journals since 1990 to answer the following research questions: 1) how is efficiency of education defined in research literature, 2) how is efficiency of education measured in accounting system of education providers, and 3) how these measures changed over time. Findings - The analysis confirms that most efficiency measures are still oriented towards cost minimization. However, over time due to a growing diversity of accounting data, efficiency measures have become more sophisticated and multidimensional to encourage education providers not only towards cost minimization but also towards increasing of output quality. Furthermore, our survey indicates that the research focus has shifted from measuring efficiency towards the evaluation of implementation measures in terms of social responsibility by application of contemporary accounting methods. Research limitations/implications – The study reveals that simple efficiency indicators frequently used for allocation of public funds to education providers often leads to undesirable results in terms of lower quality output. However, the literature review is limited to research papers published in English, addressing mostly education providers in developed countries. To get a better understanding of efficiency measures in public education, there should also be analyses of studies conducted in other cultural environments and published in other languages.


i. Every legal action is brought for the purpose of obtaining some particular result, which is the relief sought by the plaintiff.75 The petition for (some) relief is an essential part of the plaintiff's action. The plaintiff when bringing his suit must do more than just tell the court what has happened in the past and has caused him to take the matter into court. He will be required to make suggestions as to how the court should act with a view to remedying the injury which the plaintiff has (allegedly) suffered. Ordinarily, these suggestions will take the form of a specific demand upon the court. The plaintiff will define his desire for a particular relief by suing for the recovery of damages, cancellation of a deed, decree of divorce, etc. No general statement can be made as to how specific the plaintiff's prayer for judicial relief must be. In that respect legal requirements vary according to time and place. Under formulary systems of civil procedure as we find them prevailing in early laws, the prayer for relief by the complainant is controlled by rigid rules.7 It must be precise, and it is immutable. Modern systems of procedural law take a more liberal attitude in the matter, and increasingly so in recent years. The plaintiff may have the privilege of asking for alternative relief (injunction or damages), or cumulative relief (injunction plus damages), as the case may be. He also enjoys considerable free* Second instalment of an article, the first of which appeared in Vol. X2, No. 2.


Results on rainfall characteristics in the european region are presented with particular attention to the variability and the statistical properties of the cumulative distribution of rainfall intensity across europe.


In recent years, the academic research of Educational Technology has developed rapidly in China, but there are still some deficiencies. Based on the literature review of excellent masters' and doctors' dissertations, the article analyzes the status of present studies on Education Technology by content and statistic analysis. The article first analyses the 182 dissertations on Education Technology as a whole, and then conducts a detailed study of the content of the papers. The academic research status on Educational Technology in China is listed as follows: 1) The number of the papers published in each year almost remains the same, while the applied research of Educational Technology becomes a hotspot. 2) The design and application of Educational Technology is the focus of the research. 3). The application of the management of Educational Technology gets increasing attention of the researchers. 4). The training of teachers' educational technology proficiency is still a hotspot of the applied research of Education Technology.


Cluster Hire is defined as a problem of hiring a group of ex- perts to maximize profits with the ability to complete multiple projects simultaneously under a budget. It assumes that we have a set of projects which require skills and experts who possess various skills. The process of hiring a group of experts to complete a set of projects under the given condi-tions is proven to be the NP-hard problem. Individuals ex- pect financial support (i.e.salary) which can be handled by a specific budget that we get, to work on the projects. In addi- tion to maximizing the total profit, we are interested in hiring productive experts who can work many projects concurrently with effective result. Therefore, this paper examines the problem of hiring a cluster of experts, so that the total salary does not exceed more than a given budget and maximizes the total benefit of the projects that a highly productive team can cover collectively. We propose two greedy algorithms to solve this problem with different strategies. We illustrate the effective- ness of our approach by experimenting with the synthetic data sets. The results from a study of the synthetic dataset were compared with Bruteforce and Random Algorithm. It sug-gested that both our proposed "Project greedy" and "Expert greedy" algorithms performed well regarding both accuracy and run-time.


Coencapsulation of hydrophilic L-ascorbic acid and hydrophobic α-tocopherol in ethosome vesicles was attempted and their properties were investigated in this study. The size of vesicles decreased with increasing concentration of L-ascorbic acid sol- ution encapsulated in ethosome. The vesicle size and encapsulation efficiency of ethosomes increased slightly when α -tocopherol was added into the HPC-forming liquid crystalline membrane of ethosome. However, the vesicle size increased highly and the encapsulation efficiency decreased abruptly at mixing ratios above 25 wt% due to the formation of an imperfect liquid crystalline structure within a vesicle membrane. It was observed that antioxidant activity was maintained for 5 weeks at 40 ℃ when L-ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol were coencapsulated in ethosome. The L-ascorbic acid in ethosome was stable compared to that in aqueous solution under UV radiation.


A new sequence-specific endonuclease from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis species PCC 6701 has been purified and characterized. This enzyme, SecI, is unique in recognizing the nucleotide sequence: 5' -CCNNGG-3' 3' -GGNNCC-5' and cleaves it at the position indicated by the symbol. Two other restriction endonucleases, SecII and SecIII, found in this organism are isoschizomers of MspI and MstII, respectively.


The modeling of three structures of the cushioning of a skidding system is developed. The vibratory stress loading, rational parameters of rigidity and dissipation are brought to light; estimations are given to cushioning structures.


This study examined the effect of dependency ratio and unemployment rate on the human development index in Aceh Province. This study used secondary data with the type of time series data during 2002-2020 obtained from the Central Bureau of Statistics. The data analysis method used was Vector Auto Regression (VAR). The results showed that the HDI did not have a negative and significant effect on themselves, ABK had no negative and significant effect on the HDI, and TPT had no negative and significant effect on the HDI.


Soil quality has been defined as the "continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living system, within ecosystem and land use boundaries, sustain biological productivity, promote the quality of air and water environments, and maintain plant, animal and human health" [...]


Although the wave of mass protests spreading through the Arabic-speaking countries may have begun to recede, it has left a wide-ranging impact on the region. Three authoritarian regimes have collapsed, and the rest are experiencing varying degrees of duress. This emerging political and strategic landscape has major implications for Israeli national security. Regional turmoil has effectively ruled out a maj or advance in ArabIsraeli diplomacy, enabled Ankara and Tehran to expand their influence, continued the decline of U.S. influence, and emboldened extremists. A ROUGH NEIGHBORHOOD Though economically and militarily strong for its size, Israel is a small state with modest resources, limited diplomatic clout, and few friends in its neighborhood. As such, it cannot hope to influence its environment in the Middle East. Unable to shape the world beyond its borders, Jerusalem must be prepared to meet all security threats that could potentially emerge from the surrounding Arab-Islamic world. It, therefore, fears political unrest, which brings a degree of uncertainty to the Middle East political and strategic landscape. Israelis are no strangers to the fact that political upheaval in the Middle East can have major strategic implications. In particular, domestic changes led to sweeping foreign policy reorientation in two important regional powers that were once Israel's allies. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran replaced a pro-Western monarchy friendly to Israel with a militant Shiite theocracy. In Turkey, once a major strategic ally of Israel, successive electoral victories by the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) since 2002 have moved this pivotal state into the anti-Israel camp. DANGEROUS OUTCOMES FOR ISRAEL Arabic-speaking countries lag well behind the rest of the international community in civil liberties, political rights, education, gender equality, and economic productivity.1 This deplorable state of affairs is the root cause of discontent and frustration fueling the recent wave of protests. Absent a liberal-democratic political culture, however, mass mobilization in pursuit of political change is unpredictable. Numerous outcomes are possible, few of which portend well for regional stability. The most feared outcome is an Islamist takeover. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has frequently warned of the danger that "Egypt will go in the direction of Iran."2 Radical Islamists are the most powerful and well-organized opposition force in most Arab states (due in part to the protection afforded by mosques) and the most likely beneficiaries of regime change whether it comes peacefully or violently. Revolutionary regimes everywhere tend to display warlike behavior in the immediate years after taking power;3 in the Middle East, they are almost certain to do so. The process of democratization can also have unpredictable effects if secular, liberal political forces are weak or divided. Lebanon's 2005 Cedar Revolution, led by pro-Western political forces, ended just four years later when the government was taken over by the Shiite Islamist group Hezbollah and its allies. The Muslim Brotherhood, whose commitment to democracy is dubious at best, is the most powerful opposition force in Egypt today. Even in the event that a freely elected government comes to power, the historical record shows that states undergoing a democratic transition are more war-prone than autocratic regimes.4 Political turmoil can lead to the collapse or severe weakening of the state. In a failed state, the government is unable to control security over all its territory and has difficulty meeting the basic needs of the population in terms of health, education, and other social services.5 The harbingers of such a scenario are in Libya and Yemen. As states lose their grip over their territory, and their borders become more porous, armed groups and terrorists have greater freedom of action. …


Abstract Let IΣ 1 be the fragment of elementary Peano Arithmetic inwhich induction is restricted to Σ 1 -formulas. More than three decadesago, Charles Parsons showed that the provably total functions of IΣ 1 areexactly the primitive recursive functions. In this paper, we observe thatParsons' result is a consequence of Herbrand's theorem concerning the∃∀∃-consequences of universal theories. We give a self-contained proofrequiring only basic knowledge of mathematical logic.1 Introduction Primitive recursive arithmetic, or Skolem arithmetic, was invented in 1923 bythe Norwegian mathematician Thoralf Skolem. It presents a way of develop-ing arithmetic in a quantifier-free calculus in which theorems are stated byfree-variable formulas (asserting, in effect, Π 1 -sentences of arithmetic). Thework of Skolem [Sko23] was given ample attention by David Hilbert and PaulBernays in [HB34], where they took up the task of formalizing it in a propo-sitional calculus of equations. A few year later, independently of each other,Haskell Curry [Cur41] and Reuben Goodstein [Goo45] carried the work ofSkolem a step further, showing how to develop primitive recursive arithmeticin a "logic-free" calculus based solely on equations.The interest of Hilbert and Bernays in primitive recursive arithmeticstemmed from their conviction that the arguments carried in it correspond tothe point of view of the "evident, finitistic theory of numbers" (anschaulichen,finiten Zahlentheorie, p. 286 of [HB34] – in italics in the original).


Recently Dick1reported the recovery of a patient with bacterial endocarditis to whom a massive dose of sodium sulfadiazine was administered. This is a report of 4 cases in which similar therapy was employed. Case 1.— A white woman aged 36 had been having fever daily for five weeks before her admission to the Hotel Dieu on Sept. 21, 1942, the highest temperature each day being from 101 to 103 F. One week before admission she had experienced sudden pain in the left infra-axillary region, aggravated by deep breathing. She gave no history of rheumatic fever or of preexisting heart disease. She was in good general condition. The blood pressure was 130 mm. of mercury systolic and 50 diastolic. The pulse approached a water hammer type. The heart was moderately enlarged. Blowing systolic and diastolic murmurs were audible over the base of the heart. The lungs were normal. The


The present study intends to screen 52 pigeonpea genotypes for bruchid infestation under controlled conditions using no-choice assay. The results revealed significant differences among the genotypes considering parameters like growth index (GI), egg numbers and adult emergence. The genotypes viz., ICP 89049, IPA 37 and Dholi dwarf DB had low average values for GI (0.45, 0.48 and 0.48 respectively), number of eggs after 20 days (14.5, 21.5 and 28), and adults emerged after 30 days of oviposition (9.0, 7.0 and 4.5, respectively) when compared to the genotypes Asha (higher GI: 1.10), and IPA 7–6 (having 98.0 eggs after 20 days of incubation). Concerning associations among different traits, the GI had significant positive correlations with number of eggs laid (0.484), and number of adults emerged at 15–30 days (0.638). The GI showed a negative relationship with proportion of seed coat (–0.162) and seed hardness (–0.197). The traits that are less preferred by the bruchids include hard seed with less seed diameter and high proportion of seed coat. The tolerant genotypes viz. ICP 89049, IPA 37 and Dholi dwarf DB identified here could be deployed in breeding programs for reducing post harvest losses in pigeonpea.


Background: In intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), leaf sequencing algorithm is used to control the multileaf collimator (MLC) to produce beam segments resulting in a beam intensity map for highly conformal dose coverage. Objectives: A novel leaf sequencing algorithm based on the Langer's integer programming method is proposed. Methods: Our algorithm selected the horizontal or orthogonal leaf direction of beam intensity maps as per Xia and Verhey's algorithm with a new constraint to optimize the MLC leaf travel distance (LTD). Results: Comparison among the leaf sequencing algorithms from Xia and Verhey, Langer et al. and ours, both Langer's and our algorithms have lower monitor units (8 and 10) compared to 15 of Xia's algorithm. For the number of segment and LTD, our new algorithm has the smallest number and distance (5 and 7 cm) compared to both the Xia's and Langer's algorithm (7 and 24 cm and 6 and 20 cm). This revealed that model modifications could yield better results according to three criteria namely, total number of monitor unit, number of segment and LTD. Conclusions: In conclusion of experimental comparison performed, our algorithm can generate photon beam in IMRT dose delivery with lower monitor unit, number of segment and LTD compared to the Xia's and Langer's algorithm.


The retarding phenomenon appeared in the paste filling of a lead-zinc mine and it was ameliorated after adding coagulants. To optimize the paste material ratio under addition of coagulants, we carried out a uniform design experiment. The effects of paste concentration and sand-cement ratio on bleeding rate, fluidity, backfill gradient and paste strength were investigated. The results show that the paste bleeding rate, fluidity and backfill gradient were mainly influenced by concentration, and they were negatively correlated with the concentration. The sand-cement radio had a small impact on fluidity but a major impact on paste concentration. The smaller the sandcement ratio was, the larger the intensity of paste was. Based on the ratio ranges corresponding to the four indices of bleeding rate, fluidity,backfill gradient, and paste strength, the recommended ratio is 75% to 76% and the sand-cement ratio is 7∶1 to 8∶1.


This article provides a brief assessment of ergonomic tube-station of public transport in Curitiba. The goal is to resolve potential problems projetuais existing as well as support in order to improve the site as work station. Identifies the activities performed on site and ranks your problems through interviews.


Aim: Enteric parasitic diseases pose a serious public health problem worldwide and yet are neglected. To refocus attention on these diseases, a cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence of enteric infections in patients referred to referral hospital in Kenya. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted from April to December 2015 and involved a randomly selected sample of 185 patients. Fecal specimens were collected and delivered to laboratory for analysis. Preliminary macroscopic assessment of specimens for segments, larvae, and adult stages was done. To confirm the presence of ova, trophozoites, cysts, and oocysts, direct wet smear, formol–ether concentration, and modified Ziehl–Neelsen techniques were used. Results: Overall prevalence of 46.5% of enteric parasitic diseases was confirmed. Highest and lowest prevalence was due to protozoans and helminthes, respectively. Protozoan parasite prevalence was Entamoeba histolytica (23.9%), Cryptosporidium parvum (13%), Entamoeba coli (6.5%), Giardia lamblia (6.5%), and Iodamoeba butschlii (6.5%). Helminth prevalence was Ascaris lumbricoides (1.6%), Hymenolepis nana, Trichuris trichiura, and Ancylostoma duodenale each (0.5%). There was no significant difference in prevalence in age groups and gender (P = 0.05). Females were at the highest risk of C. parvum infection. Polyparasitism was prevalent among protozoans than helminthes. Conclusion: High prevalence of protozoan infections was observed among referred patients in comparison to helminthiasis. Based on reported multiple infections, deworming programs targeting helminthiasis should be restructured to incorporate diagnosis and treatment of enteric protozoan infections to reduce prevalence of enteric parasitic infections.


The paper is focused on application of multi‐scale 2D method. Model approach consists of Cellular Automata (CA) model of microstructure development and the finite element code to solve thermo‐mechanical problem. Dynamic recrystallization phenomenon is taken into account in 2D CA model which takes advantage of explicit representation of microstructure, including individual grains and grain boundaries. Flow stress is the main material parameter in mechanical part of FE and is calculated on the basis of average dislocation density obtained from CA model. The results attained from the model were validated with the experimental data. In the present study, austenitic steel X3CrNi18‐10 was investigated. The examination of microstructure for the initial and final microstructures was carried out, using light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.


ABSTRACT In order to reveal the ignition characteristics and explosion propagation characteristics of coal dust, a kind of coal dust cloud is studied through the experiment and numerical simulation in confined space. The result indicated that the particle size of coal dust has a significant impact on the ignition characteristics of coal dust cloud. CFD theory is used to simulate the explosion propagation characteristics in the straight and bifurcated pipelines. It is found that the flame propagation simulation result is consistent with the experimental result. In the bifurcated pipeline, from the time of 0.2 s to 0.8 s after the explosion, the flame propagates through the bifurcated pipeline. It also revealed that the flame propagation intensity of coal dust explosion in the bifurcated pipeline is affected by the structure of the pipeline, which provides a reference for the study of the propagation characteristics of coal dust explosion.


For any positive integer n, we construct an n-repetitive generalized cluster complex (a simplicial complex) associated with a given finite root system by defining a compatibility degree on the n-repetitive set of the colored root system. This simplicial complex includes Fomin-Reading's generalized cluster complex as a special case when n=1. We also introduce the intermediate coverings (called generalized d-cluster categories) of d-cluster categories of hereditary algebras, and study the d-cluster tilting objects and their endomorphism algebras in those categories. In particular, we show that the endomorphism algebras of d-cluster tilting objects in the generalized d-cluster categories provide the (finite) coverings of the corresponding (usual) d-cluster tilted algebras. Moreover, we prove that the generalized d-cluster categories of hereditary algebras of finite representation type provide a category model for the n-repetitive generalized cluster complexes.


Hispanic New Mexicans claim a rich oral history that can be mined to foster reminiscing in a variety of settings. Reminiscing was found to be aided by providing varied stimuli and artifacts familiar to Hispanic elderly. Additionally it is speculated that other oral forms of reminiscing can be developed for use with Hispanic elderly.


EDITOR,—David L Sackett and colleagues' editorial on evidence based medicine is confused and inadequate.1 The authors argue, among other things, that "doctors practising evidence based medicine will identify and apply the most efficacious interventions to maximise the quality and quantity of life for individual patients." (Note the use of "apply" (does the patient have no choice?) and "efficacious" rather than effective.)

This individual medical ethic has to be traded off against the social ethic of the …


Political diaries can claim literary, political and intellectual significance, yet they have rarely been subject to serious or extended enquiry. In this article we offer the first comprehensive survey of the Australian political diary. We also analyse these writings in some depth, suggesting that, taken as a whole, the diaries reveal three Weberian "ideal types" of the politician: the "patrician", the "professional", and the "radical". These ideal types are used to shed a new light on the functioning and limitations of parliamentary democracy in Australia.


Sorption–desorption of the insecticide imidacloprid 1-[(6-chloro-3-pyridinyl)-methyl]-N-nitro-2-imidazolidinimine onto a lacustrine sandy clay loam Egyptian soil and its clay and humic acid (HA) fractions was investigated in 24-h batch equilibrium experiments. Imidacloprid (IMDA) sorption–desorption isotherms onto the three sorbents were found to belong to a non-linear L-type and were best described by the Freundlich model. The value of the IMDA adsorption distribution coefficient, Kdads, varied according to its initial concentration and was ranged 40–84 for HA, 14–58 for clay and 1.85–4.15 for bulk soil. Freundlich sorption coefficient, Kfads, values were 63.0, 39.7 and 4.0 for HA, clay and bulk soil, respectively. The normalized soil Koc value for imidacloprid sorption was ∼800 indicating its slight mobility in soils. Nonlinear sorption isotherms were indicated by 1/nads values <1 for all sorbents. Values of the hysteresis index (H) were <1, indicating the irreversibility of imidacloprid sorption process with all tested sorbents. Gibbs free energy (ΔG) values indicated a spontaneous and physicosorption process for IMDA and a more favorable sorption to HA than clay and soil. In conclusion, although the humic acid fraction showed the highest capacity and affinity for imidacloprid sorption, the clay fraction contributed to approximately 95% of soil-sorbed insecticide. Clay and humic acid fractions were found to be the major two factors controlling IMDA sorption in soils. The slight mobility of IMDA in soils and the hysteresis phenomenon associated with the irreversibility of its sorption onto, mainly, clay and organic matter of soils make its leachability unlikely to occur.


In humans, the gallbladder normally lies, at least partially, within the gallbladder fossa, a depression located on the visceral surface of the liver, between the right anatomical lobe of the liver and the quadrate liver lobe. During routine cadaveric dissections, we noted that livers from cadavers without gallbladders appeared to have less distinct gallbladder fossae than did livers where gallbladders were present.


Percutaneous coronary laser angioplasty with a multifiber catheter coupled to a pulsed holmium:YAG (2.1 micrometers ) laser was performed on seven lesions in six patients who were candidates for elective coronary angioplasty. Following passage of a guidewire across the lesion the laser catheter was advanced to the lesion. The laser was used in the free running mode with 250 microsecond(s) ec pulses and delivering 50 mJ to 400 mJ per pulse at 5 Hz. Two sizes of laser catheters were used 1.6 mm and 2.0 mm in diameter. The 1.6 mm diameter catheter delivered fluences ranging from 335 mJ/mm2 to 2,680 mJ/mm2 and the 2.0 mm multifiber catheter delivered fluences of 219 mJ/mm2 to 1,754 mJ/mm2. Successful recanalization was obtained in every case. The average stenosis reduction following laser angioplasty alone was from a baseline of 96.6 +/- 3.5% to 38.6 +/- 24.1% (p < 0.01). Six of the seven lesions required adjunctive therapy with other angioplasty devices for further reduction of the stenosis to 12.9 +/- 4.9%. There were no complications specifically related to the laser angioplasty procedure. Two patients, however, did have abrupt occlusion of the treated artery following adjunctive angioplasty treatment. In this small series of patients we are encouraged by the ability of this laser angioplasty system to successfully recanalize coronary artery stenoses in a safe and effective manner. Larger numbers of patients are required to confirm these results and further investigate the clinical utility of this device.


Patients with Charcot foot arthropathy are frequently morbidly obese, have regional osteopenia, and poor surgical hosts when correction of deformity is necessary. Tibiocalcaneal arthrodesis with a retrograde locked intramedullary nail has been shown to be an effective method of achieving a stable ankle arthrodesis. Periprosthetic fracture just proximal to ankle arthrodesis implants is a known associated morbidity. Use of a modified retrograde locked femoral nail that terminates in the proximal tibial methaphysis avoids the risk of periprosthetic fracture in this poor host population.


Regional access networks play an essential role in connecting both wireline and mobile users to the Internet. Today's access networks support 5G cellular phones, cloud services, hospital and financial services, and remote work essential to the modern economy. Yet long-standing economic and architectural constraints produce points of limited redundancy that leave these networks exposed to targeted physical attacks resulting in widespread outages. This risk was dramatically shown in December 2020, when a bomb destroyed part of AT&T's regional access network in Nashville, Tennessee disabling 911 emergency dispatch, air traffic control, hospital networks, and credit card processing, among other services. We combine new techniques for analyzing access-network infrastructure deployments with measurements of large-scale outages to demonstrate the feasibility and quantify potential impacts of targeted attacks. Our study yields insights into physical attack surfaces and resiliency limits of regional access networks. We analyze potential approaches to mitigate the risks we identify and discuss drawbacks identified by network operators. We hope that our empirical evaluation will inform risk assessments and operational practices, as well as motivate further analyses of this critical infrastructure.


In rural areas the new rural cooperative medical system in resolving poverty due to illness played a positive role.However,with the development of economy and society,the new rural cooperative medical system itself defects,such as exposed gradually circulation,small risk pool,difficulty in financing,etc.This article analyzes the new rural cooperative medical actuality and something that restrict the further development,the author thinks that the new rural cooperative medical system reform is necessary,which should be from rebuilding system philosophy;increasing financial investment;accelerating legislation work and other several paths.


Immigration and resettlement are processes which usually coincide with changes in the economic, social and cultural characteristics of the migrants. These changes may be drastic among involuntary migrants, in particular refugees and other groups displaced by force. This aricle deals with the process of displacement, movement and settlement of the Arab internal refugees in Israel and the patterns of their adjustment. The findings indicate that the Arab internal refugees are a dynamic group, posing potential and actual conflict as a result of their complex status, being 'the minority within the minority'.


Evaluation of adsorption parameters of Iraqi bentonite for lead ions (Pb 2+ ) was investigated in a temperature range (10 – 50 o C) and pH values range (2-10). The method was based on the calculation of Langmuir adsorption maximum (b), and the bonding energy term (KL). The parameters were the outcome of well – established linear relationships of Ce/Q versus Ce (Ce, equilibrium concentration and Q, amount of lead adsorbed). The Q values increased with temperature and pH increasing. Kinetics study was conducted by using Lagergreen equation and a first order equation was obtained at time ranging from 5 mints to equilibrium time, and the rate constant of adsorption was calculated. The study included the adsorption of lead ions attached to EDTA as a complex (Pb – EDTA) on bentonite. Keyword: Lead ion, Adsorption, Bentonite Introduction: The interaction of metal ions with soil body depends both on the physical and chemical nature of the adsorbing surface and properties of metals (1) . Several studies have been conducted to assess quantitatively and qualitatively the phenomena occurring at the interface aqueous – solid soil phase (2-8) . Bentonite is a clay which has the highest absorbent capacity than any of the mineral clays (9) . Its advantages over other minerals (especially with regards to its low density and high specific surface) which have been accepted for a long time, and they account for most of the current uses of bentonite (10, 11) . Thermodynamic data of adsorption, (standard free energy change, standard state enthalpies and the entropy changes) can be calculated using the surface partition coefficients (12) . In this paper the sorption behavior of Iraqi bentonite toward lead ion was investigated in a batch type procedure using (AAS) to determination of lead concentration in solutions. Experimantal: Test chemicals and analysis (Instrumentation) : Lead acetate stock solution (1000 mg/l Pb 2+ ) was prepared by dissolving lead acetate in deionized water. The solution was further diluted before use. The lead acetate used was of analytical grade. Synthetic samples were prepared to give lead concentration of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 200 and 500 mg/l by adding appropriate amounts of lead acetate stock solution to distilled water. The lead ions concentrations of the sample were determine by atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) before and after adsorption process. Batch sorption isotherms were determined in 250 ml round bottom flasks. Weighed amounts (0.5 gm) of Iraqi bentonite (75μm particle size) were introduced into five flasks, into which 50 ml of the lead ions solution of concentrations between 10 and 500 mg/l were already present. The table below shows the Iraqi bentonite composition which supplied by Geological scanning company. The flasks were shaken for 30 minute and samples were taken periodically for measurement of aqueous – phase lead concentration. Preliminary test confirmed that a 30 min. contact time was enough to reached steady – state lead concentration. Analysis of Iraqi bentonite Constituent Wt % SiO2 56.77 Al2O3 15.67 CaO 4.48 MgO 3.42 K2O 0.60 Na2O 1.11 Fe2O3 5.12 L.O.I 12.49 Total 99.66 Result and discussion: Sorption isotherms The Langmuir equation based on the Kinetic theory of gases is extensively used to describe gas adsorption on solids. The same equation often applies to the adsorption of liquids and ions from solution by solids although the same rigorous, theoretical basis is not as fully developed. As applied to liquids or ions, the following equation is used herein:


Resume.

The author describes 81 cases of operated perforated ulcers: 32 gastric and 49 duodenal ulcers. Mortality was 17.3%. In relation to the twenty-four hours the perforations were not evenly distributed, but showed 3 peaks: morning, afternoon and midnight. The perforations occurred in the majority of cases 2–3 hours after a meal.

Trauma is, in normal conditions, only of slight importance in the origin of perforation.

It was possible to demonstrate air in the peritoneum in 72 out of 81 cases, thus in 89% of cases. Out of 32 gastric ulcer cases the peritoneal air was demonstrable in 29 cases, and of 49 duodenal ulcers air was found in the peritoneum in 43 cases.


centerpiece of the volume. Filling the pages of Asian American Art, these works of art brilliantly illuminate over 100 years of Asian American history in all of its complexities and diversity. Even a volume as comprehensive as Asian American Art has its limits, however. The volume's editors acknowledge important gaps and omissions such as the predominance of artists of Chinese and Japanese ancestry in comparison to Filipino, Korean, and South Asian artists; the absence of any substantive discussion of artists in Hawai'i; and the emphasis on California artists in the biographies. In recognition of such limitations, the editors stress that Asian American Art is intended to be a starting point for "future discovery, appreciation, and dialogue as the field of Asian American art continues to expand and inspire" (xxii). At the same time, the encyclopedic breadth of materials available in the volume ensures that it will also be an essential reference point for studies of Asian American art and artists for years to come. Richard S. Kim University of California, Davis


Abstract Previous descriptions of the turbulent decay of an internal soliton have been based on an adiabatic assumption in which the soliton parameters continuously change in time in response to the dissipation. A complete leading order description of a decaying internal soliton including both horizontal and vertical dissipation is given. It is shown that the adiabatic ansatz fails to fully describe a decaying internal soliton under the influence of weak dissipation. Physically, the breakdown is the consequence of the fact that an adiabatically decaying internal soliton is unable to simultaneously satisfy averaged energy and mass balance relations. An extended region with vertical momentum flux develops behind the decaying soliton in order to compensate for the additional mass lost in the adiabatically decaying internal soliton. The leading order evolution of this extended region is described as is its connection to the stream function field associated with the internal soliton. The magnitude of the verti...