ABSTRACT The amylase-binding protein A (AbpA) of Streptococcus gordonii was found to be undetectable in supernatants of mid-log-phase cultures containing >1% glucose but abundant in supernatants of cultures made with brain heart infusion (BHI), which contains 0.2% glucose. A 10-fold decrease in the level ofabpA mRNA in S. gordonii cells cultured in BHI was noted after the addition of glucose to 1%. Analysis of theabpA sequence revealed a potential catabolite responsive element CRE 153 bp downstream of the putative translational start site. A catabolite control protein A gene (ccpA) homolog fromS. gordonii, designated regG, was cloned. AregG mutant strain demonstrated moderately less repression of abpA transcription in the presence of 1% glucose. Diauxic growth with glucose and lactose was not affected in the RegG mutant compared to the wild-type parental strain. These results suggest that while RegG plays a role in abpA expression, other mechanisms of catabolite repression are present.


Abstract In this paper is addressed the problem of controlling a (possible open-loop unstable) CSTR with flow and temperature measurements, with emphasis on the attainment of control robustness, linearity, decentralization, and model independency features. The combination of constructive and MPC ideas yields: (i) an unconstrained controller that is optimal with respect to a meaningful objective function, does not need to the on-line solution of a two-point boundary value problem (TPBVP), and yields the same behavior than the one of a conventional nonlinear MPC, and (ii) a constructive MPC that handles constraints and is simpler and less model dependent than its nonlinear MPC counterpart. The proposed approach is tested with a representative example through simulations.


Former British colony Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) developed the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya as a model for the region. Its academic staff in the Social Sciences had their intellectual roots in the British or US traditions of scholarship due to their postgraduate training and research in these countries. Up to the early 1970s, there was a thriving academic atmosphere along with knowledge production and dissemination activities but this started to deteriorate with the socio-economic and political changes, changes in the language of instruction and the composition of the student body. A brain drain contributed to the creation of a different practitioner community of Anthropologists and Sociologists in the universities whose focus was more inward looking. Its links to Western traditions of scholarship also became weaker. Being a participant in this process from early 1970s up to the mid 1980s, the author uses his reflections and experiences to recount the changing nature of Anthropology and Sociology practice, theoretical emphasis, players involved, and the role of two research centres established outside the university system. The paper looks at the views of three Sri Lankan Anthropologists and Sociologists who have expressed concerns about the changing nature of teaching practices and constructed reality in Sri Lankan universities. The author connects these with the ongoing debate about Northern vs. Southern theory and prospects of alternative knowledge production articulated by Raewyn Connell.


Three patients who experienced temporary visual loss after retrobulbar anesthesia with 2% lidocaine (Xylocaine) are described. Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) consistently increased in latency and decreased in amplitude. Abnormal VEPs such as these recorded for humans after retrobulbar anesthesia are, to our knowledge, reported here for the first time.


Characteristics of a fill-and-draw (biological batch) reactor of a previously reported landfill leachate biotreatment study are examined. The operation of the reactor and the monitoring of the leachate are described. The settling characteristics of the mixed-liqour were evaluated during the study. Results and analysis of the study are presented.


Strengthening our country enterprise socieal responsibility construction is the necessary requests to carry out science developmental view and have the effect to the international enterprise society responsibility movement.Presentlyour country enterprise society responsibility construction also has problem.Thereforethe government should strengthen the propagandathe perfect legal laws and regu- lations,and increase the surveillance dynamics and the attention displays profession associations'func- tion.The enterprise should enforce its society responsibility ideaand achieve"the aims of statt Foremost of Humanity is our foundation"and"Customers Foremost",and sets up the person and nature coordina- tion development ecology civilized view.


This work approaches femicide violence as a social process rooted in the patriarchy and the savage capitalism that belittle, make invisible, and attack women. We identified 32  LA VIOLENCIA FEMINICIDA: ABORDAJE DESDE UNA GEOGRAFíA FEMINISTA the connection between the legal system and social contest. From critical feminist geography to the possibility of change and commitment to transform unjust conditions, it poses gendered space as an overly complicated social production. Here we accurately see how the feminist movement, made up of activists, groups, and families of women victims of violence, including the feminist academy and diverse feminist strands present in the political sphere, has promoted changes at the legal level. Nevertheless, these transformations have unleashed resistance in conservative groups. An empirical study based on justice procurement and Justice administration was developed during the National Censuses of 2018. Based on these data, national maps were prepared by state entities that allow accounting for resistance to classifying crimes against women as femicides. We contribute to the theoretical framework based on the methodological triad constitutive of space. We refer to creating spaces free of violence, the complexity that it entails, and the resistance that must be overcome through the feminist movement and the transformation of legal frameworks.


Three new species, two new varieties of Alternaria are reposed. They are Alternariatrachelospermi T. Y. Zhang, X. F. Lin et W. Q. Chen, A. tenuissima (Nees ex Fr.) Wiltshire var.trachelospermicola T. Y. Zhang, X. E Lin et W. Q. Chen, A. tenuissima (Nees ex Fr.) Wiltshirevar. catharanthi T. Y. Zhang et X. F. Lin and A. catharanthicola T. Y. Zhang on plants ofApocynaceae, and A. caricae T. Y. Zhang, W. Q. Chen et X. E Lin on Caricaceae. Latin diagnosesand Illustrations of the new taxa are provided. The type specimens of the new taxa are deposited inMycological Herbarium of Northwestern Agricultural University (HMUABO) and Herbarium ofShandong Agricultural University: Plant Pathology (HSALJP), respectively.


For pt. I, see abstr. A12157 of 1974. Excitation energies, mean lifetimes, gamma ray branching ratios, angular distributions and linear polarizations have been measured for levels in 37Ar above 3.8 MeV excitation energy. The states were populated using the 34S( alpha , n gamma )37Ar reaction at beam energies between 10.5 MeV and 16.0 MeV. Gamma-gamma coincidence measurements at beam energies of 11.5 MeV and 16.0 MeV were used to determine the decay scheme. The results of an intermediate coupling vibrational model calculation for the negative parity states are presented.


Abstract 2041 INTRODUCTION: Hereditary Spherocytosis (HS) is characterized by weakened vertical linkages between the membrane skeleton and the red blood cells (RBC) lipid bilayer, leading to the release of microparticles (MPs). SDS-PAGE and ektacytometry are the two reference tests to establish the diagnosis. However, SDS-PAGE lacks sensitivity to very mild or asymptomatic HS carriers, and a high reticulocyte count might mask a reduction in ankyrin-1 in SDS-PAGE whereas an ankyrin-1 defect represents 40–65% of HS in the USA and Europe. Ektacytometry is only available in specialised laboratories. Consequently, diagnosis of HS is currently based on a combination of clinical and family histories, physical examination and laboratory data, especially RBC indices and sometimes a hypertonic cryohaemolysis test and eosin-5-maleimide binding in flow cytometry (EMA). Besides the release of MPs due to destabilisation of the lipid bilayer, one previous study showed that in HS, but not in AIHA, the surface area loss is already present at the circulating reticulocyte stage. AIMS: The aim of this study is to use the release of MPs at the reticulocyte stage to develop an algorithm on 2 haematological analysers: XE-2100 and XE-5000 (Sysmex) as simple, fast, accurate, sensitive, and specific diagnostic laboratory test for HS. METHODS: HgB, MCV, MCHC, Reticulocytes (Ret), Immature Reticulocytes Fraction (IRF), Hypochromic RBC (Hypo-He), Microcytic RBC (MicroR) and indices were determined using XE-2100 (n= 15) and XE-5000 (n= 30). %HYPO−H e and %HYPER−H e are specific to the XE−5000 (Figure 1). We first studied the efficiency of discordance between Ret and IRF on the XE-2100 and XE-5000, the MicroR/Hypo-He ratio on XE-5000 and the combination of those 2 rules forming an algorithm, to screen 45 confirmed HS (22 women, 23 men, mean age 13.1, from 1 day to 76 years old). They were classified as severe (n= 6, Hg 12g/dl). We then studied the efficiency of the algorithm to differentiate HS from other haemolytic disorders (n=108), microcytic RBC disorders (n=93), healthy subjects (n=61) and a routine database (n=1230). RESULTS: HS is characterized by a high reticulocyte count (Ret) without an equally elevated Immature Reticulocytes Fraction (IRF) (Figure 1). The algorithm includes a precondition to screen all cases of HS, and a second rule taking into account the degree of anaemia. All 45 HS have reticulocytes > 80 G/l and a Ret (G/l)/IRF (%) ratio higher than 7.7. The second rule is different according to HgB level. All trait and mild cases of HS have a Ret/IRF ratio greater than 19. The efficiency of the algorithm to screen trait and mild HS is very interesting, as the diagnosis of trait and mild HS is currently difficult even by SDS-PAGE. The severity of the disease shown by HgB level is due to the intensity of release of MPs, which is reflected at best by MicroR. Thus, for moderate and severe cases, MicroR and MicroR/Hypo-He were combined. The optimal cut-offs for MicroR and MicroR/Hypo-He in cases of HgB between 8 and 12 g/dl, were 3.5% and 2.5 respectively and if HgB was lower than 8 g/dl, were 3.5% and 2.0 respectively. Interestingly, the algorithm was also valid for the 4 neonates and the 4 cases of ABO incompatibility patients. We also showed that this algorithm is much more performant than single parameters (Ret/IRF index) or the existing rules (reticulocytosis, % microcytes, combination of increased Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration (MCHC) with increased red distribution width (RDW), combination of increased RDW with hyperdense cells (Hyperchromic cells), combination of increased MCHC with increased hyperdense cells). The Area Under the Curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, predictive positive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were respectively 0.997, 100%, 99.3%, 75% and 100% for the HS algorithm. Finally, preliminary data on a small group of patients indicate that HS induced the release of significantly more RBC MPs than healthy subjects, paroxysmal nocturn hemoglobinuria and heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a simple and inexpensive algorithm that could be used as an excellent screening device for the diagnosis of HS. This rapid algorithm also works on mild HS, ABO incompatibilities, neonates and overcomes the lack of sensitivity of SDS-PAGE in ankyrin deficiencies. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


In this work, a surface image‐based 3D grain‐based model (GBM) reconstruction method based on the digital image processing (DIP) technique, periodic random packing and the simulated annealing algorithm is proposed. Taking a surface digital image of Beishan granite as an example, a K‐means clustering algorithm is employed to extract the mineral compositions, the distribution of which is quantified by the two‐point probability function (TPPF). Given the 3D volume fraction of each mineral composition, their corresponding 3D two‐point probability functions can be evaluated from their 2D forms by the linear interpolation method. The 3D GBM reconstruction is generated by a simulated annealing algorithm, with the Monte Carlo algorithm extending the calculation of the two‐point probability function as the target function to the random particle model. To improve the computational efficiency, the periodic boundary condition is applied to both the random particle generator and the evaluation of the two‐point probability function, allowing large‐scale GBM to be generated for the Distinct Lattice Spring Model (DLSM). The elastic response and advantages of the random particle model for the DLSM are investigated. Finally, the DLSM is further enriched with a tension‐cutoff Mohr‐Coulomb failure criterion, and the GBM reconstruction method is successfully tested for reproducing the mechanical behaviours of granite and interpreting the failure mechanism at the mesoscale under different loading conditions.


The article is devoted to the issue of a scholarly understanding of the condition of the French ballet theater at the beginning of the 20th century. It examines the interaction of the respective constituent parts of musical-choreographic performances. The author considers the established evaluation of the French ballet theater as a phenomenon generated from a state of cultural crisis as an unfair one. The processes of regeneration of the genre are shown as having begun long before the arrival of Sergei Diaghilev's ballet troupe, with which it had been customary to connect the reform of ballet. In the author's opinion, the spiritual search of the "Belle Epoque", having permeated into the art of the ballet, formed new conceptions of the "dance of the future" in the consciousness of the audiences. The cliches and conditional characters, characteristic for the Romantic ballet, gave way to a new type of beauty. Special notice is given to the dancers Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan. Upon an organic interaction of all the composite parts of a ballet performance, the predominating role is acquired by music. Keywords: French ballet, early 20th century ballet, reform of ballet, Belle Epoque, Saisons russes in Paris, Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan


An efficient and precise analytical method for the simultaneous determination of five cyclic siloxanes namely hexamethylcyclo-trisiloxane (D3), octamethylcyclo-tetrasiloxane (D4), decamethylcyclo-pentasiloxane (D5), dodecamethylcyclo-hexasiloxane (D6), dodecamethylcyclo-hexasilane (D6_silane) and the surrogate tetrakis(trimethylsiloxy)-silane (M4Q) in wastewater and sludge matrix was developed and fully validated. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used for the separation. Isolation of the target analytes was performed by liquid-liquidextraction (LLE) and agitation for liquid and solid samples, respectively. Extraction procedures resulted in good repeatability and reproducibility with relative standard deviations (RSDs) less than 10% for all the tested compounds for both types of samples. Recoveries varied from 68% (D4) to 108% (D6_silane) and from 67% (D3) to 110% (D6_siloxane) for wastewater (RSDs  13 %) and sludge (RSDs <11 %), respectively. D3 was the only compound for which low recoveries (<40 %) were obtained in the liquid phase. The achieved Limits of Detection (LODs) were adequate and low enough for environmental monitoring of the tested compounds in wastewater and sludge samples. Regarding abiotic degradation of the tested siloxanes, results indicated that all compounds undergo hydrolysis at different extend at temperatures of 4, 20, 35 and 55 C. Among the five compounds, D3 found to be the most sensitive at all tested temperatures. Its removal ranged between 70% (4C) and 90% (55 C) after 15 h. The loss of other target compounds due to hydrolysis decreased with increase of their molecular weight. For the temperature of 20 C, removal ranged from 70% (D4) to 40% (D6 silane) up to the end of the experiment (12 d). For all target compounds, the increase of temperature enhanced significantly hydrolysis, indicating that this mechanism could have a major role on their fate during sludge anaerobic digestion at mesophilic or thermophilic conditions.


A novel bridgeless power factor correction (PFC) converter, pseudo-boost PFC converter, is studied in this paper. Pseudo-boost PFC converter consists of one bidirectional switch, two fast recovery diodes and a resonant branch, without diode rectifier bridge as in conventional boost PFC converter. In addition, zero-current turned-off of fast recovery diodes can be achieved. Operation modes of the converter are analyzed and time averaging equivalent circuit (TAEC) approach is applied to the analysis of this converter. It is found that the voltage transfer ratio of the pseudo-boost PFC converter is similar to that of conventional boost converter, with no relation to the resonant parameters and switching frequency. Furthermore, parameter of circuit design is considered. Experimental results are provided to verify the theoretical analysis results.


Offering a broad and complete introduction to the 19th-century ceramic art called majolica, this revised and enlarged edition includes a new chapter, 27 added colour photographs of recently discovered pieces and 18 fresh colour illustrations (replacing the older black-and-whites, an updated bibliography and list of museums with majolica collections.


Certain decompositions of homogeneous continua are shown to be cell-like. In particular, the aposyndetic decomposition described by F. B. Jones of a homogeneous, decomposable continuum is cell-like, and we prove that any homogeneous decomposable continuum admits a continuous decomposition into mutually homeomorphic, indecomposable, homogeneous, cell-like terminal continua so that the quotient space is an aposyndetic homogeneous continuum. D. C. Wilson [8] has shown that a monotone, completely regular map f: X -p Z of the n-dimensional continuum X onto the nondegenerate continuum Y has the property that Hn(f-1(z)) = 0, for all z in Z. In particular, if n 1, then the point inverses of f are acyclic continua. More recently, Mason and Wilson [5] have shown that if n = 1, then the point inverses of f are tree-like continua, that is, f is a cell-like map. Since the projection maps of a product space onto the factors are completely regular maps, one cannot, in general, extend the Mason-Wilson result to higher dimensions. The impetus for the Mason-Wilson result, however, was the author's applications [6, 7] of completely regular maps to certain monotone decompositions of homogeneous continua. In this paper, we show that the completely regular, monotone maps arising as quotient maps of these decompositions are cell-like maps. In particular, Jones' aposyndetic decomposition of a homogeneous, decomposable continuum is a decomposition of that continuum into cell-like sets. A continuum X is cell-like if each mapping of X into a compact ANR is inessential. If the map f is inessential, we write f 0 O. A continuum is cell-like if and only if it has trivial shape. A map is cell-like if each of its point inverses is cell-like. The following theorem is classical. WIRECUTTING THEOREM. Let A and B be closed subsets of the compact space M. If no connected subset of M intersects both A and B, then there exist disjoint closed subsets M1 and M2 of M such that A c M1, B c M2, and M = M1 U M2. A subcontinuum Z of the continuum X is said to be terminal if each subcontinuum Y of X such that Y n Z # 0 satisfies either Y c Z or Z c Y. The proof of the next theorem is similar to that of [2, Theorem 2]. Received by the editors September 11, 1981. 1980 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 54F20, 54F50.


Multiple system atrophy, a sporadic neurodegenerative disease, is characterized by the presence of high numbers of glial cytoplasmic inclusions mainly formed by α‐synuclein protein, which is encoded by the SNCA gene. To date, however, few studies have investigated the plasma α‐synuclein levels in patients with multiple system atrophy. We studied plasma α‐synuclein concentrations by using an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay in 74 patients with multiple system atrophy and 90 healthy controls. The plasma α‐synuclein levels were significantly elevated in patients who had multiple system atrophy compared with the control group (P = 0.000). In a subgroup of 48 patients who had probable multiple system atrophy, there was a weakly negative correlation between plasma α‐synuclein levels and subscores on Unified Multiple System Atrophy Rating Scale item VI (rs = −0.307; P = 0.034). Plasma α‐synuclein levels were elevated in patients with multiple system atrophy, and these levels may be decreased with the development of disease. © 2013 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.


In order to enhance the utilization ratio of preserved-eggs production feed liquid with bland material law,reduces the cost of production and the environmental pollution,the method of recycling the re-steam material during processing preserved-egg with soaking material law through supplying many kinds of supplementary materials to bland feed liquid.The result indicated that the used feed liquid of processing preserved-eggs can be recycled.Thus reduced the cost,enhanced the profit of product.The method is simple and easy,suits to operation in factories and workshop,which provided the new way for recycling the re-steams material generating during processing preserved-egg as the resources.


Background: Globally 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people, aged 15–29 years. 90% of the world's fatalities on the roads occur in low- and middle-income countries. Aims and objectives: to know the socio- demographic profile and knowledge, attitude and practice among medical students in S.N. Medical College Bagalkot. Methods: A cross sectional study. Study was conducted from March-June 2016. Data collected from 90 undergraduate medical students after obtaining informed consent. It was semi- structured questionnaire. Results: Good knowledge was seen among 74 (82.2%) of the participants. Majority had good attitude 80 (88.9%) about RTA. But the good practice is seen only among 53 (58.9%) and 37 (41.1%) have poor practice among participants. Gender is statistically significant with knowledge (p value-0.015). Conclusions: The knowledge didn't translate into practice. Hence laws should be made stringent.


Abstract Kinetics of crosslinking and network changes in unfilled and filled natural rubber vulcanizates with a dithiodimorpholine based accelerator system have been studied at 150° and 180°C. Results show that addition of HAF black enhances the polysulfidic crosslinks as well as the total crosslinks. This has been explained with the help of Coran's model wherein HAK black increases the rate constants. It is likely that the filler surface prevents desulfuration and undesirable side reactions involving the crosslink precursors. Increase of curing temperature by 30°C lowers the total crosslink density and increases the sulfur inefficiency.


Breeding improvement of triticale requires the search for genetic sources for hybridization. Our research aims at identifying high-yielding genotypes of winter triticale and determining the influence of structural elements on this indicator to optimizing selection during the breeding process. In 2014–2018, fifty variety samples of triticale were studied in the North Caucasus Federal Agricultural Research Centre. Soil – ordinary chernozem, medium loamy, medium-thick, low-humus. Black fallow preceded all × Triticosecale Wittmack samples. The experiment was laid having only one replication. The area of the plot was 1 m2. Triticale variety 'Valentin 90' served as a standard. We identified 25 medium-yielding and 25 high-yielding varieties. Grain yield in the first group was lower than in the second one and amounted to 784 ± 191 g/m2 and 1024 ± 202 g/m2, respectively. High-yielding samples exceeded the average-yielding ones in the number of spikelets (32.0 ± 2.17 and 31.2 ± 2.18 pieces), grains per ear (69.1 ± 13.0 and 64.5 ± 10.6 pieces) and weight of grain per ear (3.26 ± 0.61 and 3.00 ± 0.61 g). The yield and weight of grain per ear vary significantly (Cv > 20 %). Ear size, number of grains in the ear and spikelet, 1000 grain weight and triticale ear density do not vary much (Cv > 10 %). The most stable trait is the number of spikelets per ear (Cv < 10 %). A weak positive correlation was observed between the yield and number of grains per spikelet (r = 0.18 ± 0.06), yield and ear (r = 0.22 ± 0.06), as well as yield and weight of grain per ear (r = 0.29 ± 0.06). In the group of high-yielding variety samples, there was a reliable weak negative correlation between the yield and number of spikelets per ear (r = −0.32 ± 0.08), between the yield and ear density (r = −0.24 ± 0.09). Grain yield of more than 1.000 g/m2 had the following variety samples – 'Ugo', 'RAH 121/04', 'Kitaro', 'Tewo', 'Ratne', 'Slavetne', 'Adas', 'Dar Belorussii', 'Dinamo', 'Dinaro', 'Liniya 71', 'Lamberto', 'PRAG 203/1', 'Nemchinovsky 1' and 'Valentin 90' (standard).


Brominated flame retardants is a group of compounds present in numerous types of materials in our surroundings. Although their purpose is to slow the progression of a fire, many has been shown to b ...


Background  The role of palliative surgical resection in patients presenting with locally advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) is unclear. Resection is often limited to symptomatic management of bleeding, obstruction, perforation or for relief of pain, in patients with an adequate performance status and an expected life span of over several weeks. An exploratory analysis to evaluate the influence of a palliative surgical resection on survival outcome in patients with advanced CRC is reported.


H.E.S.S. and MAGIC experiments have demonstrated the high level of maturity of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) dedicated to very-high-energy gamma ray astronomy domain. The astroparticle physics community is preparing the next generation of instruments, with sensitivity improved by an order of magnitude in the 10 GeV to 100 TeV range. To reach this goal, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will consist in an array of 50–100 dishes of various sizes and various spacing, each equipped with a camera, made of few thousands fast photo-detectors and its associated front-end electronics. The total number of electronics channels will be larger than 100,000 to be compared to the total of 6,000 channels of the 5-telecopes H.E.S.S. / H.E.S.S.-II array. To decrease the overall CTA cost, a consequent effort should be done to lower the cost of the electronics while keeping performance at least as good as the one demonstrated on the current experiments and simplifying its maintenance. This will be allowed by mass production, use of standardized modules and integration of front-end functions in ASICs. The 3-year NECTAr program started in 2009 addresses these two topics. Its final aim is to develop and test a demonstrator module of a generic CTA camera. The paper is mainly focused on one of the main components of this module, the NECTAr ASIC which samples the photo-detector signal in a circular analog memory at several GSPS and digitizes it over 12 bits after having received an external trigger.


The sections in this article are:

1
Introduction: Regulatory and Metabolic Obesities

2
Characteristics of Adipose Tissue of Obese Mice

3
Metabolism of Glucose

4
Metabolism of Pyruvate and Acetate

5
Effect of Age

6
Effect of Diet

7
Uptake of Glucose by Insulin-Stimulated Adipose Tissue

8
Metabolism of Specifically Labeled Glucose in Insulin-Stimulated Adipose Tissue

9
Fat Mobilization

10
Lipase Activity

11
Glycerokinase Activity

12
Conclusion


ABSTRACT Science is an ethical community whose practitioners aim to discover information about the natural world and to explain discernible patterns that might be detected. Those who pursue science generally embrace certain epistemic values that help establish the moral boundaries of the community, while the twin pillars of rationality and empiricism serve as the foundations upon which scientists establish their truth claims. Yet however robust the assertions might appear, they nevertheless are the by-products of an exclusively human endeavor directly impacted by those sociological forces that apply throughout the social universe, including the scientist's social location and the importance of enhancing one's reputation. The current paper identifies key sociological factors that help shape scientific bias and the nature of the justifications used to defend truth claims. A case study of one community committed to a sociological paradigm demonstrates the utility of the explanatory framework advanced. A more self-conscious awareness of the forces at play that create such biases can help mitigate their deleterious impacts that subvert the quest for explanatory knowledge and valid truth claims about observable phenomena.


The COVID-19 pandemic has made a huge impact on Malaysia since the first Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented in March 2020. All sectors including the economic sector, tourism, services, sports, the religious sector and entertainment have been subjected to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), such as the wearing of face masks, hygienic care and physical distancing. Although compliance with the SOPs can still be questioned, it is undeniable that it has changed the society's way of living in Malaysia as the people are urged to adopt and adapt to the new norms in order to combat the spread of the virus. In fact, social change in times of COVID-19 can be considered as a new 'urf (custom) practiced by the whole Islamic world. The issue is that these new changes coming with the application of the various SOPs for virus prevention are claimed to be for the benefit of religion, health, economy and education. Through phenomenal methodologies/Using a phenomenological methodology, this study emphasizes two main objectives, that are, explaining social change due to COVID-19 in Malaysia and analysing the correlation between social change and the parameters of maqāsid al-sharī'ah (the higher purposes of Shari'ah) in each new practice. In conclusion, it should be emphasized that the current social change must correspond with maqasid al-shari'ah especially in dealing with the matters of the religion.


This paper dissertates about utilization of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) parameters Navigation Accuracy Category for Position (NACp) and Navigation Integrity Category (NIC) for possible identification of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) jamming. GNSS jamming poses a high-security risk not only for aviation. ADS-B transmitted from most of the aircraft brings a possibility to use the ADS-B to identify the presence of GNSS jamming. Therefore, aircraft are used as detectors to identify jamming presence with wide area coverage. A method for GNSS jamming detection using the correlation of NACp and NIC ADS-B parameters is presented in this article. The results of applying this method on multiple real datasets are shown and discussed.


During surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), maintaining adequate cerebral blood flow (CBF) is paramount to prevent adverse neurological outcome; tissue damage can occur if CBF reduction is sufficient to impair energy metabolism. Ten adult patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery with CPB received perfusion and metabolic neuromonitoring using a novel optical system combining diffuse correlation spectroscopy and broadband near-infrared spectroscopy. CPB onset resulted in large increases in CBF and significant drops in mean arterial pressure and metabolism. No changes were observed transitioning off CPB. Real-time assessment of cerebral perfusion and metabolism could alert clinicians to relevant hemodynamic events before brain injury occurs.


Appendiceal neuroendocrine neoplasms (ANENs) are uncommon in children and adolescents and are incidentally diagnosed in 0.3% of appendicectomy specimens. Pediatric ANENs rarely metastasize and have excellent prognosis. We report two cases of ANENs in adolescents who presented clinically and radiologically with features of acute appendicitis for which they underwent appendicectomy. On gross examination, £ 2 cm lesion was identified in both the appendix. Microscopic and immunohistochemical analysis clinched the diagnosis of ANENs. Patients were followed up for 18 months and were disease free. This report emphasizes that a possibility of ANEN should be kept as a differential diagnosis even in the pediatric population presenting with acute appendicitis. A routine histopathological examination of all appendicectomy specimens is therefore crucial, as early diagnosis is associated with excellent prognosis.


Following the outbursts of violence in previous elections in Nigeria, fears have been expressed that the 2015 general elections would be marred by a more electoral violence that may even announce the obituary of the Nigerian state. The situation is not helped by the spate of violence that has already rocked the nation at the current stage of electioneering where all forms of violent expressions have been recorded. The argument is that if the campaigns stage could be as violent as it is that there is much likelihood of more deadly mayhem at the elections proper. This paper therefore, explores the implication of electoral violence for the 2015 elections; arguing that violent-prone elections could be a dangerous platform for the disintegration of the country, especially now that insurgence is taking an excruciating toll in the country. It concludes that Nigeria would be doing itself enough good by doing all it could to avoid violence at the polls because the current capacity of the country cannot carry a fullfledged war. It also proffers solution.


In this paper we investigate the use of GPUs as digital beamformers. We specify a parallel implementation of a beamformer in time and frequency domain and measure its performance. We also give examples of the processing limits of NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GPU with respect to application parameters: number of sensors, sampling frequency, bandwidth, and number of simultaneous beams. The results are compared to those of algorithms similarly implemented on a Intel Xeon CPU. We find that the GPU is able to process a larger amount of information than the CPU, and that it can be used as a digital beamformer for arrays with a large number of elements sampled at high rates. Exact results are given for the abovementioned application parameters.


We develop and test a multistate Gaussian model for the distribution of electrostatic solvation energies of a solute in liquid water. The multistate Gaussian model depends on the discovery of simple indicators of structural substates that individually display Gaussian fluctuations of electrostatic interactions. The probability distribution of electrostatic interactions is then modeled as a superposition of Gaussian distributions of electrostatic interactions of the substates. We find that the number of hydrogen bonds to the solute is a suitable substate indicator that eliminates the chief failures of single Gaussian models for the distribution of electrostatic interactions and of quadratic models of the electrostatic contribution to the excess chemical potential. These results should improve calculations of ionic chemical processes in water, i.e., acid−base chemistry, in particular those involving organic acids such as proteins and nucleic acids. The multistate Gaussian approach provides a specific and ef...


Thrombophilia is an important medical problem that carries a great morbidity and mortality especially in young patients and great laboratory workup is usually needed to detect the underlying etiology. Several factors have been claimed to be responsible for thrombosis, some of them are common and others are not, the acquired causes represent the majority while hereditary causes are the minority. The case is an example for acute thrombosis in hepatic veins and chronic thrombosis in portal vein in a young adult that was addict for tramadol for last three years with excellent response to anticoagulation as regards hepatic vein thrombosis.


This paper discusses Roma's diversified approach to literacy anddemonstrates that, contrary to widely-held views, the Roma have a deepunderstanding of alphabetic literacy. It consists of three parts: firstit gives an overview of the problematic situation of Roma and Sintieducation in Europe, underlining the close link between an official lowliteracy rate among the Roma and the assimilative features of Westernschool education. In a second part it portrays the highly diversifiedwriting practices of the Roma - both alphabetic and non-alphabetic. Thepaper argues that these practices are closely connected to theirspecific socio-economic system and typical of a culture that reliesmostly on oral modes of communication. In a final part it analyses therecent rise of a written literature among the Roma, identifying its mainthemes and functions, as well as the textual strategies used by Romanipoets to express and negotiate their cultural identity through thewritten medium.


STANDARDS ARE AT THE HEART of current educational debates and, if we examine the contexts in which the term is used, we find that the concept is essentially quantitative. Standards are spoken of as high or low and institutions and individuals are ranked according to the level of achievement. Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the term, there is no simple measuring instrument we can take to a child or a school and read off the appropriate value. Neither is there any natural unit of measurement as there is with some physical quantities. Indeed, the more closely we analyse the concept, the more elusive it seems to be. We find ourselves in the position of St Augustine who is reported to have said of time 'What is time? If no one asks I know, but if I have to say what it is to one who asks, I know not'. Much the same could be said of standards. The situation we have described is not uncommon in the social sciences; indeed it could be argued that it is the norm. Many of the key variables which occur in the discourse of the social sciences have the characteristic that they cannot be directly observed. Conservatism, alienation, attitude to abortion are further examples of things which are spoken of as if they were real quantities, yet they are not open to direct observation. The abilities and skills with which educational measurement is concerned are of just this kind. In the language of statistics they are latent variables because they are thought of as underlying, and influencing, the world of observation but are not, themselves, directly accessible to observation. Before we. can begin to provide a conceptual framework for


Mainstream educational theory and practice tend to favour what Freire, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, has called 'banking education', in which students are seen as depositories of knowledge. But seeing pedagogy as a matter of simply communicating knowledge misses the epistemological complexities of our relationship with the world. By means of a reading of the Dao De Jing and the Zhuangzi, in this paper I intend to explore how the communication of not-knowing may be of central value in teaching and learning. Arguing that our lives are characterised by an 'epistemological chaos' in which the distinctions between knowing and not-knowing can never be firmly established, I suggest that the Daoist texts may allow teachers and students to rethink the purpose of education as a matter of yang sheng, or 'nourishing life, by means of developing skill in dealing with the epistemological chaos in which we are immersed. [China Media Research. 2014; 10(4): 10-19]


Rumen fungus Piromyces sp. AO 12 was grown with 14C-oleic acid to yield radiolabelled zoospores. By incubating the labelled zoospores with mixed rumen protozoa, predatory activity of protozoa on fungal zoospores was estimated. The radioactive carbon was incorporated into total fungal cells at an efficiency of 9.5%, 9.8% of which was distributed in the zoospores. A labelled single zoospore was calculated to record 0.080cpm. When the labelled zoospores were incubated with mixed protozoal suspension (1:30 in cell number ratio), significant radioactivity was transferred to the protozoal cells after 1-3 hour, but little with 0 hour incubation. This demonstrates that fungal zoospores are associated with protozoal cells, or possibly ingested by protozoa. A frequency of this association was calculated to be a single zoospore/52 cells of protozoa/hour. Anim. Sci. Technol. (Jpn.) 69(10): 929-932, 1998


OBJECTIVES
This research project created and evaluated a knowledge-exchange intervention designed to facilitate an increase in organizational readiness for implementing coordinated stroke care in four primarily rural provincial healthcare systems.

INTERVENTION
Knowledge brokers were linked to networks within, across and outside the provinces to support, inform and disseminate best practice recommendations for coordinated stroke care within the provincial healthcare systems.

FINDINGS
The intervention increased awareness and dissemination of recommendations, which stimulated the implementation of coordinated stroke care. Similar knowledge-exchange interventions might work in other healthcare jurisdictions with similar demographics, to promote evidence-informed improvements in healthcare.


We show how to design long period fiber gratings (of two structures) modeled as the multi-port lattice using the simulated annealing and steepest descent methods for the equalization of the erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA). We have obtained design parameters of piecewise-uniform long period fiber gratings which fit the inverted erbium gain spectrum of a commercially available EDFA over the entire 1525 nm - 1570 nm range. We analyzed the sensitivity of designed structures by Monte-Carlo simulations.


This paper sets out to show Teachers of English to young learners need to support their learners' general cognitive development and learning along with language learning the use of stories has a very important role in teaching English to young learners (TEYL) the use of stories and books can provide scaffolding for our young language learners in order to allow for acquisition of the target language in a meaningful and cognitively supportive way the use of stories and books can be used to encourage our young learners to create more stories and books in the target language young language learners can develop a focused and detailed understanding of language through interaction with stories and books.


Ultrashort laser pulses at high repetition rates can be used to induce stable bonds between transparent materials. Using optimized processing parameters, we achieved a breaking strength up to 95% of the pristine bulk material.


The current study undertakes an empirical investigation aiming to find out how ecological, economic and environmental factors, such as energy consumption, GDP growth rate, and ecological footprint per person, influence CO2 emission in the CPEC region. The study relies on the panel data series for Pakistan and China over the period of 1980-2030, because the year 2030 is the most probable time of the CPEC project completion. The forecasted values of the respective factors with possible influence of CPEC projects assisted the authors in gaining a clearer picture of their interrelationship. According to regression results, energy consumption and production have been significant positive determinants of CO2 emission, while energy intensity has had a considerable negative impact on this emission. Among economic factors, the dynamics of GDP, GPI, per capita income, HDI, unemployment rate, and GINI coefficient are found to have made a positive impact on CO2 emission; as to GDP growth, the regression unexpectedly showed its insignificant negative impact. Among ecological factors, the expenditures on environmental protection appear to be negative determinants of CO2 emission, while environmental footprint and costs of elimination of natural disasters positively impact the CO2 emission. The mediation analysis showed that the population growth would be the key factor of influence on CO2 emission. It is therefore recommended that, being a developing economy, Pakistan should reconsider its strategies towards CPEC projects, especially those involving coal energy production which may accelerate the CO2 emission in the country and lead to additional costs in terms of natural hazards and climate change.


By using ThT fluorescence, X‐ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy (AFM), it has been shown that human stefins A and B (subfamily A of cystatins) form amyloid fibrils. Both protein fibrils show the 4.7 Å and 10 Å reflections characteristic for cross β‐structure. Similar height of ∼3 nm and longitudinal repeat of 25–27 nm were observed by AFM for both protein fibrils. Fibrils with a double height of 5.6 nm were only observed with stefin A. The fibril's width for stefin A fibrils, as observed by transmission electron microsopy (TEM), was in the same range as previously reported for stefin B (Žerovnik et al., Biochem Biophys Acta 2002;1594:1–5). The conditions needed to undergo fibrillation differ, though. The amyloid fibrils start to form at pH 5 for stefin B, whereas in stefin A, preheated sample has to be acidified to pH < 2.5. In both cases, adding TFE, seeding, and alignment in a strong magnetic field accelerate the fibril growth. Visual analysis of the three‐dimensional structures of monomers and domain‐swapped dimers suggests that major differences in stability of both homologues stem from arrangement of specific salt bridges, which fix α‐helix (and the α‐loop) to β‐sheet in stefin A monomeric and dimeric forms. Proteins 2004;55:000–000. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


A preliminaly study for development of an inactivated vaccine for Chuzan virus was performed. The best propagation of the virus was observed in BHK21 cell cultures. The culture fluid after treatment with formalin had good immunogenicity in cattle and guinea pigs. Immunized calves did not develop leukopenia and viremia, which were observed in a control calf, after challenge inoculation.


Research background: Taylor rule is a widely adopted approach to follow monetary policy and investigate various mechanisms related to or triggered by monetary policy. To date, no in-depth examination of scale, determinants and spillovers of state-level monetary policy stress, stemming from the Federal Reserve Board?s (Fed?s) policy has been performed.
Purpose of the article: This paper aims to investigate the nature of monetary policy stress on US States delivered by the single monetary policy by using a quarterly dataset spanning the years between 1989 and 2017.
Methods: We apply a wide array of time series and panel regressions, such as unit root tests, co-integration tests, co-integrating FMOLS and DOLS regressions, and Spatial Panel SAR and SEM models.
Findings & value added: When average stress imposed on states is calculated, it is observed that the level of stress is moderate, but the distribution across states is asymmetric. The cross-state determinants behind the average stress show that states with a higher percentage of working-age and highly educated population, as well as those with higher population density and more  export-oriented are negatively stressed (i.e. they experience excessively low interest rates), whereas higher unemployment rate contributes to a positive stress (too high interest rates). To the best of our knowledge, the contribution of this paper lies in estimating monetary policy stress at the state level and unveiling some of the determinants of this stress. Moreover, the paper makes the first attempt to empirically test spatial spillovers of the stress, which are indeed found significant and negative.


A new catalyst, platinum nanostructure electrodeposited on tantalum substrate (Pt/Ta), was prepared. The morphology and surface analysis of Pt/Ta electrodes were investigated using SEM and EDX, respectively. Electrochemical characteristics of ethanol oxidation on Pt/Ta electrodes were investigated via cyclic voltammetric in acidic solutions. The results were compared to those at a smooth platinum electrode. It was found that the electro-catalytic oxidation of ethanol on the Pt/Ta electrode increases the rate of ethanol electro-oxidation several times larger than a smooth platinum electrode and confirmed the better electro-catalytic activity and stability of Pt/Ta electrodes.


The ground ring Κ is assumed to be a field of characteristic 0. The goal of this paper is to compute the centre of the Sklyanin Poisson algebra ([1], [2], English p. 13) by starting out from the fact that this algebra is a homotopy deformation of the canonical Poisson algebra on the symmetric algebra of the one-dimensional trivial extension of the Lie algebra so(3,A"). The main concepts and facts are given in detail in [3].


The title compound is prepared from the elements (Ta containers, 900 °C, 12 h; annealing at 600 °C for 4 d).


The studies presented in this book give the reader an insight into the situation and problems of different areas in Croatian society and their political approaches to the implementation of reform programs in preparing the country for EU membership. The book concentrates on economy, legislation, and civil society issues.


It has been a long-disputed question in economics whether industrial policy is effective or not.This paper makes an analysis to the question of industrial policy effectivity from the angle of capabilities theory.It thinks that the capability-oriented industrial policy can be effective to the industrial development,The industrial policy should emphasize competitiveness,encourages the enterprise's self-determined R D and capability-building.


This paper examines the relation between bank entry restrictions into insurance operations and life insurers' operating efficiency for a sample of 21 European countries over 1995-2003. Controlling for insurance market penetration, insurance risk retention, legal environment, and the economic development of the hosting country, we document that insurers operate more efficiently in markets with lower bank entry restrictions. Our results suggest that financial deregulation has positive spill-over effect, supporting the deregulation efforts in the global financial markets.


Using panel data models, this study investigates the possible differences in the investment determinants of young SMEs and old SMEs. The empirical evidence allows us to conclude that: i) cash flow, age, growth opportunities, and economic growth are of greater importance for stimulating the investment in young SMEs than in old SMEs; ii) sales are of greater importance in stimulating the investment in old SMEs, compared to the case of young SMEs; and iii) debt and interest rate are of greater importance in decelerating the investment in young SMEs, compared to the case of old SMEs. The persistence of investment over time is greater in young SMEs than in old SMEs. In addition, investment has a positive stronger effect for survival in young SMEs than in


The laser-rf double-resonance technique has been used to obtain 1-ppm measurements of the largest hyperfine intervals in the ground (5d6s/sup 2/ /sup 2/D/sub 3/2/) and first excited (5d6s/sup 2/ /sup 2/D/sub 5/2/) atomic levels of 0.09% abundant /sup 138/La with a beam of unenriched lanthanum. The hfs ratios A/sup 138//A/sup 139/ and B/sup 138//B/sup 139/ are thereby obtained. The former shows a 0.36% hyperfine anomaly with respect to the NMR ratio of the nuclear g factors. The uncertainty in the new value B/sup 138//B/sup 139/=+2.27 +- 0.04 arises from uncertainties in interpreting the hyperfine-anomaly effects observed. The /sup 138,139/La isotope shift is evaluated for both of the lines studied.


In 2007 the analysis of dielectron spectra from our 2004 C+C run at 1 GeV/ u has been finalized. Above the π mass, the measured pair yield is ∼7 times larger than the contribution expected from hadron decays after freezeout. The found invariant-mass and transverse-momentum distributions are fully consistent with the ones measured by the former DLS experiment [1]. The beam-energy dependence of the excess shows a scaling similar to the one of pion production, indicating the important role played by radiation from low-lying baryonic resonances and soft NN collisions. The relevant elementary dielectron productio n processes were studied separately in dedicated p + p and d + p runs done at a beam energy just below the η meson production threshold ( Ekin = 1.25 GeV/u ). It is expected that the direct comparison of the pair spectra from d+p and p+p reactions will allow to constrain the ∆ → Nee and N − N bremsstrahlung contributions which dominate the intermediate-mass region ( 0.15 < Mee < 0.50 GeV/c ) of the pair spectrum at this bombarding energy. In particular, thep− n bremsstrahlung process can be studied using p + n→ pspece eX reactions selected by tagging of the forward-going proton spectator pspec in the HADES Forward Wall. Preliminary results from our 2007 d + p run indicate indeed a different shape of the pair yield measured in p + n reactions above the π Dalitz peak, as compared to p + p reactions.. High-statistics spectroscopy of the vector-meson region was started with investigations of Ar+KCl collisions at 1.75 GeV/u in 2005. A dielectron invariant-mass distribution with ∼ 10 signal pairs, showing for the first time a clear ω signal at SIS energies, is presented. The large statistics c ollected in this experiment also allows to study various rare hadronic probes, like the K, K and theφ → KK. The ω meson has furthermore been produced and identified in a dedicated experiment in 2007, using p + p reactions at 3.5 GeV. This measurement provides an important reference for our in-medium studies of vector mesons in HI collisions, as well as inp + A reactions (to be studied in a run scheduled for 2008). The HADES detector upgrade programme enters its final stage. A full-size prototype of a new high-granularity Time-Of-Flight wall based on RPC technology, including the full chain of analog and digital electronics, has been successfully tested in dedicated in-beam experiments. The data acquisition upgrade aiming at a substantial increase of the HADES data taking speed has also been progressing very well. Based on the successfull development of a multipurpose Time Read-out Board (TRB), several new components have been developped and tested. Detailed progress reports on these technical activities are given in separate contributions to the present annual report.


Fertile eggs from controlled flocks were injected with 10 µc l -cystine-S 35 (specific activity 5.71 µc/µmole) and incubated under standard conditions of humidity, circulation, and temperature. Beginning with the 5th day, embryos were hydrolyzed (6 N HCl, 6 hr, 15 lb) and chromatographed using ascending strip chromatography. Cystine and methionine were determined colorimetrically following elution; radioactive assay was done on the eluates; and the specific activity of both cystine and methionine was determined. The specific activity of cystine at 5 days was .0092 and increased generally until the 20th day (.0692). The specific activity of methionine at 9 days was .0104, at 16 days was .0490, and at 20 days was .0132. The per cent of the dose recovered as cystine at 20 days was 22.21 and that recovered as methionine was 2.03. The data for specific activity indicate that the fractional composition of embryonic protein relative to cystine and methionine is not constant and that there is considerable sulfur transfer between cystine and methionine.


The effects of rearing temperature and photoperiod on aspects of the biology of 2 migratory butterflies, Vanessa kershawi and Junonia villida were investigated. Cool (20°C) temperatures and a short photophase (10 h) accelerated development in both species, producing small adults with low body weights. Warm (30°C) temperatures and a short photophase also resulted in undersized adults in J. villida. In V. kershawi warm temperatures and a long photophase (15 h) had this effect. Warm and cool temperature resulted in normal adult size and weight at either photoperiod in J. villida. In V. kershawi warm, short or cool, long days produced larger and heavier adults. Development of V. kershawi under short photophases appeared to deviate the sex ratio in favour of females. Exposure to cool, short days (V. kershawi, J. villida) or warm, long days (V. kershawi) during development seemingly produced migration-adapted adults.


The present study was aimed to investigate the single dose effects of a herbomineral amino acid extract (HMAA) of Spinacia oleracea on alloxan induced diabetic nephropathy rats. In the present study, the animals were divided into 6 groups Group 1 – Normal saline as vehicle –control, Group 2 – Untreated diabetic rats (Alloxan induced), Group 3 – Animals treated with Metformin (0.5 mg/kg) – standard drug, Group 4 – Animals treated with Extract alone, Group 5 – Animals treated with Herbal + Mineral, Group 6 – Animals treated with Herbal + Mineral + Amino Acid. Based on the oxidative stress hypothesis of alloxan action, the role of herbal extract on free radicals in the pathology of diabetes mellitus has been studied in diabetic nephropathy rats. The present study demonstrated that herbal extract in the presence of an aminoacid (L-Arginine, 0.1 mM) and mineral (Zn+, in the form of Zinc Sulphate, 0.5 mM) could be a potent antioxidant and further, the data suggested that the mechanism underlying such protection is mediated via restoration of diabetic nephropathy leading to normalization of the diabetic rats.


The art of systematic financial trading evolved with an array of approaches, ranging from simple strategies to complex algorithms, all relying primarily on aspects of time-series analysis (e.g., Murphy, 1999; De Prado, 2018; Tsay, 2005). After visiting the trading floor of a leading financial institution, we noticed that traders always execute their trade orders while observing images of financial time-series on their screens. In this work, we build upon image recognition's success (e.g., Krizhevsky et al., 2012; Szegedy et al., 2015; Zeiler and Fergus, 2014; Wang et al., 2017; Koch et al., 2015; LeCun et al., 2015) and examine the value of transforming the traditional time-series analysis to that of image classification. We create a large sample of financial time-series images encoded as candlestick (Box and Whisker) charts and label the samples following three algebraically-defined binary trade strategies (Murphy, 1999). Using the images, we train over a dozen machine-learning classification models and find that the algorithms efficiently recover the complicated, multiscale label-generating rules when the data is visually represented. We suggest that the transformation of continuous numeric time-series classification problem to a vision problem is useful for recovering signals typical of technical analysis.


In Nigeria, over 250 licensed industrial shrimp trawlers catch marine shrimps including Penaeus notialis, Parapenaeopsis atlantica, Penaeus monodon and P. kerathurus which are exported to earn foreign currency worth US $50 million annually. Demersal shrimp trawling generates a lot of undersize and juvenile fish bycatch and inadvertently capture the endangered sea turtles as incidental catch to shrimps. The reduction of incidental catch of sea turtles and juvenile fish from the catch in shrimp trawling is regarded as a priority issue in the global efforts to develop more responsible fisheries. The implementation of sustainable technologies in shrimp trawling started with the introduction of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs). This is in accordance with the Turtle Conservation Regulation of Fisheries Act of Nigeria (decree) No 71 of September, 1996 (a supplement of the sea fisheries Act (decree) No 71 of 1992. Nigeria was certified in 1998 among other 43 nations, to export all categories and species of shrimps to United States of America based on satisfactory compliance by the operators in the fishing industry. Recently, it was observed that the preserved sea turtles have grown bigger and their current effort is to modify the existing TED and provide a larger existing opening for the turtles to escape. The investigation and introduction of juvenile and thrash fish excluder devices (JTEDs) and other By-catch reduction devices (BRDs) has started. This should guarantee a substantial reduction in the amount of juveniles of commercial fish species (which constitute over 40 % of by catch) in order to guarantee increases in the production (harvest) of food –fish. The socioeconomic implications of reduction of the by-catch in trawl catches and consequently the by-catch trades that are conducted by small scale fishers in the remote villages will also be investigated. The development and introduction of a combination of turtle and juvenile and trash fish excluder devices should be a viable option in the foreseeable future. The lessons learned from the TED experience will be brought to bear and applied in the current JTED project in Nigeria. The introduction of the new technologies through participatory approach will involve all the stakeholders in the industry. The industrial fishermen are expected to play a key role in the design, construction and experimental fishing trials using commercial vessels as well as the trial selection of most suitable/appropriate JTED. Regulatory measures that will facilitate the adoption of the technologies should be up-dated or put in place through bottom-up approach, involving all the stakeholders. Management strategies for monitoring, control and surveillance should be strengthened. Interaction, collaboration and cooperation among member states in the sub-region, especially between Cameroon and Nigeria should be promoted and sustained.


The acronym sm has replaced sadomasochism for the sexual minorities concerned. The spread of these practices in modern life seems to correlate with the prevalence of biopolitics and the resulting figure of the homo sacer. A detailed study of masochistic performance, manoeuvring with the fear of paternal retaliation, does not however refute either Freud or Lacan, as a structuring of desire in relation to jouissance.


The articles in this issue comprise an impressively diverse range of contributions, engaging on the one hand with such contemporary concerns as the depiction of refugees and genocide and on the other with historical issues stretching back to Tudor England and even as far back as the Ancient Greeks. In addition to the articles, this issue contains the latest contribution to our occasional series of symposium articles in which a group of commentators gather together to offer responses to significant landmarks in humanities and arts scholarship around the subject of law. The first article in this issue is Hannah Baumeister's "Drawing on Genocide" which looks to Jean-Philippe Strassen's graphic novel Deogratias to provide a more nuanced appreciation of genocide than that which is provided by the abstract definitions advanced in law. The hope is for more effective postconflict reconciliation. In a similar spirit, the next article, "Dehumanized and demonized refugees, zombies and World War Z", by Penny Crofts and Anthea Vogl, looks to the 2013 blockbuster film World War Z (dir. Marc Forster) to provide insight into the anxieties that pervade social and political responses to the current and ongoing refugee crisis. The key hope, again, is for nuance to overcome stereotypical and definitional abstractions. The authors argue that in the cinematic context "the contemporary zombie, as a race-less catchall monster figure, mirrors the erasure of colonial histories, race and race relations in the casting of refugees as dehistoricized, invading and disorderly bodies". Moving to the pair of historically-situated articles, we have first a fascinating and deeply philological engagement with gestural practice in Ancient Greece. Thanos Zartaloudis's "Hieros AnthroposAn Inquiry Into The Practices Of Archaic Greek Supplication" aims, in the authors words, "to articulate a non-legalistic approach to the earliest evidence" of the practice of supplication. What is produced thereby is a new theory regarding "the sacredness of suppliants in archaic Greece before supplication became juridically regulated in Classical Greece by certain forms of law". In this article we learn something profound about the role of the whole body in the gestural practice of pleading, a practice that was performed not just through bending of the suppliant's knee but through reaching out across the threshold to touch the knee of the supplicated. The fourth and final article, brings us to the Tudor period in the jurisdiction of England and Wales. In "Marriage, Dispensation and Divorce during the years of Henry VIII's "Great Matter": A local case study", Gwilym Owen and Rebecca Probert look to a particularly rich Welsh case study to provoke an appreciation of the legal and cultural history that surrounded the subject of marital annulment around the time of Henry VIII's turbulent marriages.


Homology detection is critical to genomics. Identifying homologous sequence allows us to transfer information gathered in one organism to another quickly and with a high degree of confidence. Non-coding RNA (ncRNA) presents a challenge for homology detection, as the primary sequence is often poorly conserved and de novo structure prediction remains difficult. This chapter introduces methods developed by the Rfam database for identifying "families" of homologous ncRNAs from single "seed" sequences using manually curated alignments to build powerful statistical models known as covariance models (CMs). We provide a brief overview of the state of alignment and secondary structure prediction algorithms. This is followed by a step-by-step iterative protocol for identifying homologs, then constructing an alignment and corresponding CM. We also work through an example, building an alignment and CM for the bacterial small RNA MicA, discovering a previously unreported family of divergent MicA homologs in Xenorhabdus in the process. This chapter will provide readers with the background necessary to begin defining their own ncRNA families suitable for use in comparative, functional, and evolutionary studies of structured RNA elements.


Manar Y. Kashmola Bayda I. Khaleel College of Computer Sciences and Mathematics University of Mosul Received on: 29/06/2011 Accepted on: 02/11/2011 ABSTRACT Clustering or (cluster analysis ) has been widely used in data analysis and pattern recognition. There are several algorithms for clustering large data sets or streaming data sets, Their aims to organize a collection of data items into clusters. These such items are more similar to each other within cluster, and difference than they are in the other clusters. Three fuzzy clustering algorithms (Fuzzy C-Means, Possibilistic CMeans and Gustafson-Kessel algorithms) were applied using kdd cup 99 data set to classify this data set into 23 classes according to the subtype of attacks. The same data set were classified into 5 classes according to the type of attacks. In order to evaluate the performance of the system, we compute the classification rate, detection rate and false alarm rate on this data set. Finally, the results obtained from the experiments with classification rate 100% which has not been obtained in any previous work. Keyword: Network intrusion detection, Fuzzy C-Means(FCM), Possibilistic CMeans(PCM) and Gustafson-Kessel (GK) algorithms, kdd cup 99 data set. ةببضملا تايمزراوخلا ىلع دامتعلااب ةكبشلا لفطت فشكو ةدقنع  ةلومشك سنوي رانم .د.م.أ      ليلخ ميهاربا ءاديب  ع ةيلك ل  تايضايرلاو تابساحلا مو ، ملا ةعماج  و  لص  :ثحبلا ملاتسا خيرات 29/06/2011    :ثحبلا لوبق خيرات  02/11/2011  صخلملا  ةدقنعلا  قنعلا ليلحت( ةدع تايمزراوخ كانه .طامنلأا زييمتو تانايبلا ليلحت يف عساو لكشب مدختست )دو ،ديقانع يف تانايبلا عيماجم ميظنت اهفادهأ ،تانايبلا عيماجم نم ليس وأ ةريبكلا تانايبلا عيماجم ةدقنعل  رصانعو ةفلتخم نوكتو رخلآا ضعبلا اهضعب هبشت دحاولا دوقنعلا يف ةدوجوملا هذه تانايبلا  يف تانايبلا رصانع نع ثلاثلا ةببضملا ةدقنعلا تايمزراوخ قيبطت مت دقل .ىرخأ ديقانع FCM, PCM, GK  ـلا تانايب مادختساب KDD


This study assesses the perceived causes of mental illnesses and treatment seeking behaviors among patients who attended the holy water sprinkling religious practice in the holy site of Gebremenfes Kidus holy water around Axum town. The data were collected from 25 participants who were sprinkled by the holy water at the time. A case study method was employed in order to collect detail and in-depth information from the target participants of the study. The researcher used available sampling method and collected the data using semi-structured interview from the patients and their caregivers. The participants were with full of insight about their health problems. Most patients in the holy water attributed the mental illness to different social evil practices and traditional beliefs as well as to the punishing hands of the God as a result of disobeying to the religious principles and social taboos. The treatment seeking preference of most patients was spiritual practices like, holy water sprinkling, praying and other traditional healing techniques such as herbal medicines with no dose limit and no scientific proof for the effectiveness of the medicine. Generally, participants had negative attitude towards the effectiveness of the modern medicine or professional help to the illness. A research conducted in Uganda revealed the same result. In some Ugandan communities, help is mostly sought from traditional healers initially, whereas western form of care is usually considered as a last resort. The factors found to influence help seeking behavior within the community include: beliefs about the causes of mental illness and the people's lack of awareness about the scientific cause and treatment approaches to the illness [1].


An ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) method was established to determine ebeiedinone in mouse blood, and the pharmacokinetics of ebeiedinone after intravenous (0.5 mg/kg) and oral (2, 4, and 8 mg/kg) administration was studied. Twenty-four mice were randomly divided into 4 groups, 1 group was for intravenous administration (0.5 mg/kg), and other 3 groups were for oral administration (2, 4, and 8 mg/kg), with 6 rats in each group. Yubeinine was used as an internal standard. Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode was used to quantitatively analyzed ebeiedinone m/z 414.4 → 91.1 and the internal standard m/z 430.4 → 412.3 in the electrospray ionization (ESI) positive interface. In the concentration range of 1–2000 ng/mL, the ebeiedinone in the mouse blood was linear (r2 > 0.995), and the lower limit of quantification was 1.0 ng/mL. In the mouse blood, the intra-day precision coefficient of variation (CV) was less than 15%, and the inter-day precision CV was less than 15%. The accuracy ranged from 85.4% to 114.6%, and the average recovery was higher than 61.3%. The matrix effect was between 87.0% and 106.5%. These data met the pharmacokinetic study requirements of ebeiedinone. The UPLC–MS/MS method was sensitive, rapid, and selective and was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of ebeiedinone in mice. The absolute bioavailability of ebeiedinone was 30.6%.


INSTRUCTIONS Neutron beam is a useful probe for material characterization owing to its unique advantages such as deep penetration into materials, sensitivity to light elements and capability for measuring magnetic properties. However, compared with that of X-ray from synchrotron radiation or free electron laser, the brilliance and intensity of neutron beam is quite low, so there are a number of plans to construct neutron instruments by using focusing mirror to improve beam intensity and miniaturize spot size [1-3]. In this paper, we propose an ellipsoidal neutron focusing mirror by using a metal substrate made of electroless nickelphosphorus (NiP) alloy. Electroless NiP has the advantages of amorphous structure, machinability and relatively large critical angle for neutrons. Compared with mirror made of glass substrate, it is easy to be fabricated and the manufacturing time can be greatly saved. Besides, it has a good mechanical handling property credited to its ductile nature which shows possible for a large ellipsoidal mirror to be made with multiple segments of electroless NiP substrates for ease of machining and supermirror coating.


Many lawn care professionals and homeowners debate when is the best time to establish a yard in Iowa, and how much more work and inputs it will take if planted at the wrong time of year. Additionally, so many different turfgrass species are sold that a side-by-side comparison of seed mixtures and planting dates are needed. The objectives of this study were to compare turfgrass seed that is locally, commercially available and commonly used, and planting timings. This is the first of a two-year study.


Summary form only given. The hydrogen atom played an illustrious role in the development of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. Hydrogen spectroscopy relentlessly advanced the frontiers of metrology and ultraprecise measurements. Hydrogen also helped launch the search for Bose-Einstein condensation in an atomic gas. Today, these paths are converging to a new focus: the physics of ultracold hydrogen.


Measurements of the oxygen total neutron cross section from 3.5 to 4.4 Mev and the O/sup 16/(n, alpha )C/sup 13/ reaction cross section from 4.0 to 5.2 Mev are presented. In a study of the C/sup 13/( alpha ,n)O/sup 16/ reaction the following quantities were measured: the 0 yield from 0.8 to 3.5 Mev, 29 and 146 yields between 2.0 and 3.5 Mev, and 47 angular distributions in the range from 1.O to 3.5 Mev. Cross sections for the O/sup 16/(n, alpha )C/aup 13/( alpha ,n))/sup 16 /reactions are compared using the principle of detailed balancing. On the basis of the C/sup 13/( alpha ,n) angular distrfbutions spin assignments for 14 states of O/sup 17/between excitation energies 7 and 9 Mev are discussed, and in some cases relative parity assignments are made. Reduced widths of the states of O/sup 17/ were derived from.the results of the experiments on the C/sup 13/( alpha ,n) reaction and the oxygen total neutron cross section. (auth)


The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method of consistently producing high-quality diallylbisphenols with high yields from bisphenols. This method involves steps (1) through (3) below, and enables the consistent production of diallylbisphenols from bisphenols. (1) A step for reacting allyl halides and bisphenols or alkali metal salts thereof in a cellosolve solvent in the presence or absence of basic alkali metal salts, (2) a step for separating inorganic salt by-products from a reaction solution obtained in step (1), and (3) a step for heating and subjecting to a rearrangement reaction the reaction solution obtained in step (2).


The global warming has led to a widespread acceptance for electric vehicles. They are environment friendly in comparison to conventional and hybrid vehicles. This paper focuses on the speed control strategy of a three phase permanent magnet brushless DC (PMBLDC) motor employed in an electric two wheeler. The speed control of the motor is done using output voltage control of bidirectional boost-buck converter. The presented system is modeled, simulated and analysed using MATLAB/SIMULINK for different speed and load condition.


This paper firstly aims to analyze the relation between the aeschetic education and the political ideological education in the universities,and also research into the perfect affect of the aeschetic education,finally a lot of important and useful ideas about the politicai education reform policies delivered by the writer.


Although Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a controversial subject in Western societies, it is an internationally recognised term for operations that involve circumcision of young girls for cultural or other non-medical purposes in traditional societies such as the Kuria district, Nyanza province and Kenya. The key concern is that despite the existing awareness of its danger and several attempts to eradicate it, the practice still persists. This research has established that FGM not only interferes with the child's health, but hinders her formal educational progress as she does not return to school after undergoing the cultural rite since she considers herself a woman and opts for early marriage. This affects her future advancement negatively and leads to increasing poverty levels and desperation. It is important therefore, that factors hindering the girl child from accessing formal education are examined and solutions found towards eradicating them.


This study was undertaken to determine the identity of Philonema oncorhynchi from anadromous sockeye and Philonema agubernaculum from non-anadromous trout, and also to test the hypothesis that the worm in salmon is dependent on hormonal stimulus from the host for synchronization of reproduction. On the basis of differences found in l i f e cycles, cross infection and starch gel electrophoresis, P. oncorhynchi and P. agubernaculum are considered to be different species. The hypothesis was tested experimentally, using salmon pituitary extracts and synthetic s t i l b e s t r o l . Pituitary extracts accelerated the production of larvae in the uterus, of the worm and stilbestrol inhibited the gonadal development of the fish, but had no apparent effect on the worms. The hypothesis was further supported by the results of transplantation of adult but non-larvigerous worms from maturing sockeye into immature trout. Larval development failed to take place in recipient hosts. As -well, larvigerous worms were collected only from sexually mature fish, whether 3, 4 or 5 years old. Rapid development of the worm paralleled.the rapid gonadal.development of.-the fish during the last 6 months of the fish's l i f e . Sexually immature sockeye had only immature worms.


Plant diseases significantly threaten agricultural productivity, necessitating accurate identification and classification of plant lesions for improved crop quality. Citrus plants, belonging to the Rutaceae family, are highly susceptible to diseases such as citrus canker, black spot, and the devastating Huanglongbing (HLB) disease. HLB, caused by gram-negative proteobacteria strains, severely impacts citrus orchards globally, resulting in economic losses. Early detection and classification of HLB-infected plants are crucial for effective disease management. Traditional approaches rely on expert knowledge and time-consuming laboratory tests, hindering rapid detection. This study explores an alternative method using the BEMD algorithm for texture feature extraction and SVM classification to improve HLB diagnosis. The BEMD algorithm decomposes citrus leaf images into Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) and a residue component. Classification experiments were conducted using SVM on IMF 1, IMF 2, and residue features. The residue component provided the most outstanding level of classification accuracy, reaching 77% for two classes, 72% for three types, and 61% for four classes. In two categories, IMF 1 performed at a 72% accuracy rate, and in four other areas, it performed at a 51% accuracy rate, making it competitive. IMF 2 demonstrated lower accuracy, ranging from 43% for three classes to 57% for two categories. The findings highlight the significance of the image residue component, outperforming IMF features in HLB classification accuracy. The BEMD algorithm coupled with SVM classification presents a promising approach for accurate HLB diagnosis, surpassing the performance of previous studies using GLCM-SVM techniques.


During flutter analysis of a new aircraft a huge number of unsteady aerodynamic simulations is necessary in the parameter space consisting of Mach number, aeroelastic trim state, structural mode shape and frequency. For subsonic flow conditions fast potential methods like the Doublet Lattice Method can be applied. In the transonic regime unsteady flow perturbations depend on the mean flow state and CFD methods have to be employed. However, solving the nonlinear unsteady RANS equations for thousands of parameter combinations is not applicable. Hence, faster CFD methods are needed to reduce the computational costs. Assuming small time-harmonic perturbations, the RANS equations can be linearized around the steady mean solution. The latter are preferably solved in the frequency domain. This results in a large, sparse linear system for the perturbation of the fluid unknowns.
In this paper an efficient time-linearized solver (LFD-TAU) is presented with special focus on 2-d external flows with strong shock-induced separation. The results are compared to small-amplitude pulse response and single-frequency RANS simulations, demonstrating good agreement over a wide frequency range. Even under pre-buffet flow conditions, showing aerodynamic resonance peaks, the resonance frequency is captured well, while the amplitudes are overestimated.


Photocatalysis offers a practical solution to the ever increasing energy and environmental issues by using a semiconductor to harvest freely available sunlight. Photoactive organic semiconductor nanocrystals (OSNs) are promising photocatalysts due to their structure and function which are easily tunable by molecular design. Extensive studies have yielded significant progress on OSNs in terms of photoresponse, charge carrier mobility, as well as photoconversion efficiency. This review provides a comprehensive discussion of the emerging crystal and interface engineering strategies used in optimizing structure/property of OSNs. The basic mechanisms involved in organic photocatalysis are discussed, for a better understanding of its dependence on the molecular and supramolecular structures. Then, the intermolecular interactions in molecular packing and the kinetic and thermodynamic control over the crystal growth process are summarized, with the aim of tuning the optical and electrical properties. Band energy alignment, charge carrier dynamics, and charge transfer are discussed in different heterostructures. In each case, structure/property relationships and how to tune them are emphasized. Finally, challenges and opportunities for the practical use of the organic photocatalysts are discussed.


The first part of the paper assesses the impact of asymmetric shocks on inflation in two new members states of the euro zone: Slovenia and Slovakia. The second part of the paper studies the issue of the inflationary process in Romania in the context of losing autonomous monetary policy after euro adoption. Minimizing the cost of losing monetary autonomy presupposes the fulfilment of the sustainable nominal and real convergence criteria. The unsynchronization of the business cycle indicates a higher probability of asymmetric shocks and thus lead to differences in inflation to the euro area, differences that will persist due to the inertial component.


This study aims to explore the impact of firm specific factors on cash dividend payment decisions for a sample of 41 non financial firms listed in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) in Bangladesh during 2007-2011. This study tests a null hypothesis that none of the firm specific factors namely profitability, size, liquidity, growth, earnings volatility, and managerial ownership has significant effects on cash dividend payments using fixed-effect regression model under the assumption that intercepts vary for each firm and the slope coefficients are constant across firms. Checking multicollinearity, cross-sectional dependence, autocorrelation and controlling heteroskedasticity in the regression analysis it is found that profitability has statistically significant positive effects on cash dividend payments. This study has discovered a significant negative effect of earnings volatility and managerial ownership on dividend payments which were unfolded before this study. On the other hand, size, growth and liquidity were not found to be significant explanatory variables of dividend payments. Thus, profitability, earnings volatility and managerial ownership are functioning as the key determinants of cash dividend payments in Bangladesh.


The article provides an analysis of government measures to support the development of the digital economy in Russia in accordance with global trends in the development of digital technologies and taking into account the accumulated theoretical base in this matter. The negative effects of widespread digitalization are discussed the growth of structural and technological unemployment, the growth of income inequality between the workforce of different skill levels. The national project "Digital Economy" is considered, its prospects are analyzed from the point of view of the institutional and economic conditions prevailing in Russia. In addition, the possibility of using agent-based modeling and the concept of artificial in society as a tool of public administration and a driver for the development of the digital economy is analyzed.


We describe a new species of the genus Endecous Saussure (1878), recorded at the Dente de Cão and Urubu Rei caves, which are located in the Bodoquena municipality, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Species of Endecous are the most common of crickets in Brazilian hypogean environments. Endecous comprises 24 species described and is widely distributed throughout South America, occurring also in Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay. We also present a brief discussion about the presence of the genus in subterranean environments and a distribution map of Endecous troglobitic species through the regions of the Brazilian karst.


Within the framework of virtual organization CSLabGrid, high-throughput molecular screening has been performed for new antituberculosis compounds. Using the FlexX program installed on the Institute of Food Biotechnology and Genomics (IFBG) Cluster and models of four promising ligand binding sites on the surface of FtsZ protein from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, virtual screening has been done for the database containing 2886 compounds synthesized in the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the NAS of Ukraine. Based on the LE and ΔG scores, the docking scores of CCDC Gold, and the results of molecular dynamics, a group of Mycobacterial FtsZ inhibitors has been selected. In vitro validation have revealed 6 compounds with the highest inhibition of GTPase activity of FtsZ. Also, based on in vitro experiment, three of selected compounds demonstrste strong inhibition of FtsZ polymerization together with inhibition of its GTPase activity.


Objective To study the expression of adhesion molecule CD44 in non-small cell lung carcinoma and to determine the role of CD44 in tumor genosis and progress. Methods With flow cytometry, expression of CD44 and apoptotic cell peak were detected in 28 fresh specimens from NSCLC and adjacent normal pulmonary tissues. Results In NSCLC and normal pulmonary specimens, expressions of CD44 were 57.3±3.74% and 7.14±1.01%,apoptotic cell peaks were 57.3±3.74% and 7.14±1.01% ( P 0.01). A good correlation was observed between the expression of CD44 and apoptotic cell peak in NSCLC and normal pulmonary specimens(Rs=0.27, P 0.05 and Rs=0.55, P 0.01). Conclusion CD44 may play an important role in restraining the apoptosis regulating function of T cell, and thus tumors can escape from body's immunization mechanism. The disturbance of expression of CD44 may infuence apoptosis, and may lead to hyperproliferation and malignant change of cells, this may be one of the causes of lung carcinoma.


The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 1700�s, and spread to the rest of the world, beginning with the United States. The use of machinery and factories led to mass production, which in turn led to the development of numerous environmental hazards. The effects on the environment would only be seen clearly years later. While the Industrial Revolution was the cause of positive change for the industrial world, there is no question that it has wreaked havoc on the environment. The depletion of natural resources, the carbon emissions, pollution and human health problems that have resulted directly from the Industrial Revolution's accomplishments have only been disastrous for the world environment. These articles identifies the environmental consequences of industrial growth, and provide suggestions against environmental degradation, including the use of clean technologies and environmentally sound production techniques, with special reference to the developing world.


A reliable ultramicro modification of the Franco and Klein (1) determination for chloride, using 20 µl. of plasma, is described. A second procedure, requiring 0.2 ml. of plasma and substituting a titrating syringe for a buret, is suggested as a fast and adequate substitute in the absence of either extensive laboratory facilities or trained personnel. Data on reproducibility and recovery, and a comparison with another chloride procedure are presented. The limitations of the procedures are discussed.


This article presents the results of research on the choice of the dosage of dry sourdough in the technology of grain bread. It is established that the most rational dosages of dry sourdough from bioactivated wheat grain in the production of bread are 10 and 15 %, which allow you to get the best quality products, reduce the technological cycle of their preparation.


Composite materials offer a wide range of possibilities due 2) What is the optimal geometry for a given combination of to the ability to vary the microstructures of the matrix and reinforcement as well as their volume fractions and distribution. In traditional composites, the reinforcement has a simple geometry; spheres, fibers, or sheets. The possible combination of properties can be further expanded by introducing more complex reinforcement geometries such as helical fibers or corrugated sheets. This introduces a new variable, the architecture, which can be varied in order to optimize the final properties. For example, the pitch and diameter of a helical fiber could be adjusted to achieve a certain stiffness. Alternatively, the height and period of a corrugated sheet could be changed to optimize its energy absorption capabilities. Design solutions involving architectured materials have been discussed by a number of authors. In the present contribution, we are interested in the use of corrugated reinforcements for the purpose of controlling the work-hardening rate of metal matrix composites. The presence of the corrugation results in hardening contributions both from the changing geometry of the composite during loading as well as the inherent work hardening of the matrix and reinforcement materials. If these corrugation-reinforced materials are going to be used in practice a number of questions first need to be answered. The most important questions being:


Cardiogenic shock is the most common cause of death in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Around 10% of the patients with an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction develop cardiogenic shock. Mortality in cardiogenic shock has been reduced over the last few decades, but it still remains around 50%. Treatment of cardiogenic shock after acute myocardial infarction includes revascularization of the occluded coronary vessel and increasing blood pressure by pharmacological treatment with inotropes and vasopressors or additionally with mechanical circulatory support. The most commonly used mechanical support device still is the intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP). However, in the last decades several other mechanical support devices have been introduced, leading to more clinical experience and insights in the usage of these devices. Mechanical circulatory support has become a field of development and research on its own. This thesis focuses on the use of the mechanical support devices in cardiogenic shock after acute myocardial infarction. Part I describes lessons from observational clinical experience with the Impella device in various clinical settings. Part II describes the randomized comparison of Impella with IABP in cardiogenic pre-shock and severe cardiogenic shock. Part III describes the available data on the use of extracorporeal life support during refractory cardiac arrest and cardiogenic shock.


Influences of stress wave form and the superposition of vibratory stresses at maximum stress under low frequency varying load on cyclic SCC crack growth behavior have been investigated on a high-strength Al-alloy, and the loading condition dominating over cyclic SCC and the competition of cyclic-and dynamic SCC have been discussed. The threshold stress intensity factor for cyclic SCC Kmax=KFSCC is independent of hold time at maximum stress but increases with a decrease of varying load rate versus time K. At higher ΔKeff, however, da/dN accelerates with a decrease of ΔKeff, i.e., at longer rise time, and it is similar to that of conventional corrosion fatigue. On the other hand, the superposition of vibratory stresses promotes corrosion-products induced wedge effect, with Kop=Kmax. In this case, KFSCC is determined by the threshold stress intensity factor KDSCC for dynamic SCC that is corresponding to secondary loading condition.


Investigation of performance of the cardiovascular system of myocardial infarction patients showed that sympathicotony dominated in the right-handers' group, and vagotonia did in the left-handers' group. So the functional state of the cardiovascular system of myocardial infarction patients with different types of interhemispheric asymmetry is the result of activity of different parts of the autonomic nervous system. This fact is necessary to consider while developing methods for their physical rehabilitation.


Abstract— A new built‐in trimming scheme boosting the OLED driving current through analog programming of the driver p‐channel TFT is proposed. By using a selective programming operation, the current variation on the LTPS panel can be reduced to less than 1%. Another blanket‐boosting method is investigated for concurrent programming of the entire panel. This blanket‐boosting scheme has been successfully demonstrated on a 2.4‐in. AMOLED panel where the non‐uniformity improved from 8.1 to 4.9% under a worst‐case condition.


We study the classical problem of noisy constrained capacity in the case of the binary symmetric channel (BSC), namely, the capacity of a BSC whose inputs are sequences chosen from a constrained set. Motivated by a result of Ordentlich and Weissman in [28], we derive an asymptotic formula (when the noise parameter is small) for the entropy rate of a hidden Markov chain, observed when a Markov chain passes through a BSC. Using this result we establish an asymptotic formula for the capacity of a BSC with input process supported on an irreducible flnite type constraint, as the noise parameter tends to zero. 1. Introduction and Background. Let X;Y be discrete random variables with alphabet X;Y and joint probability mass function pX;Y (x;y) 4 P(X = x;Y = y), x 2 X;y 2 Y (for notational simplicity, we will write p(x;y) rather than pX;Y (x;y), similarly p(x);p(y) rather than pX(x);pY (y), respectively, when it is clear from the context). The entropy H(X) of the discrete random variable X, which measures the level of uncertainty of X, is deflned as (in this paper log is taken to mean the natural logarithm)


It it shown that the Bloch-Kato conjecture on the norm residue homomorphism $K^M(F)/l \to H^*(G_F,Z/l)$ follows from its (partially known) low-degree part under the assumption that the Milnor K-theory algebra $K^M(F)/l$ modulo $l$ is Koszul. This conclusion is a case of a general result on the cohomology of nilpotent (co-)algebras and Koszulity.


Fly ash is a pozzolanic material that is a by-product of coal-fired, electrical power-generation plants. Because of its pozzolanic properties, it can be used as a— Soil stabilizer. Liming material. Cement component. Depending on its calcium oxide (CaO) content , fly ash may be used as a stand-alone product or in combination with other poz-zolanic materials. Fly ash is divided into two classes, based on their CaO content. They are— Class F. Class C. Class F fly ash has a low CaO content (less than 10 percent) and is not suitable for use as a stand-alone product for engineering purposes. Class C fly ash is often referred to as " high lime " fly ash. Its CaO content must be a minimum of 12 percent and frequently exceeds 25 percent. Class F fly ash originates from hard coal (anthracite and bituminous coal), whereas Class C fly ash originates from brown coal (lignite and subbituminous coal). Fly ash occurs throughout the world. In many countries, both classes of fly ash can be found. The likelihood of finding a particular class of fly ash depends on the individual country. Hard coal is more frequently used in industrialized countries in the manufacture of steel. Therefore, in industrialized nations having both hard and brown coal reserves, the amount of brown coals used for power generation is likely to be greater; thus the percentage of Class C fly ash would be greater. The major coal-producing countries and the percentages of the hard and brown coal reserves are found in Table B-1.


Google has recently released the video compression format VP8 to the open source community. This new compression format competes against the existing H.264 video standard developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) in collaboration with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). This paper compares these two video coding standards in terms of video bit rate-distortion (quality) performance and the video network traffic variability with different long video sequences. We find that VP8 presently does not fulfill its promise to achieve twice the quality at half the bandwidth compared to H.264. The rate-distortion (RD) performance of VP8 is rather slightly below the RD performance of H.264. On the positive side, in contrast to H.264, VP8 has no license fees.