In a process of sheet drawing technology developing, the probability of workpiece buckling during deformation and the necessity of blank holder using to prevent corrugation, is estimated in accordance with the recommendations of the reference book. However, reference literature does not have clear recommendations, or it gives contradictory recommendations for blank holder use cases for some deformation conditions. In these cases, problem solving requires additional experimental research.
Possibility and efficiency establishing of computer simulation using DEFORM environment of axisymmetric drawing processes to forecast the buckling of a thin-sheet workpiece during deformation.
Technological processes of sheet drawing with a high probability of workpiece buckling were investigated by means of finite element computer simulation in DEFORM 3D.
Research has established that simulation of thin-sheet workpiece drawing process in DEFORM 3D, allows to visualize the process of corrugation, and predict workpiece buckling with high probability, provided that the deformation occurs relatively simple geometry of the workpiece and deforming tool. In more complex deformation conditions, the experiments results, and computer simulation may differ (simulations may not indicate corrugation). This somewhat complicates corrugation prediction, but the problem is solved by an extended analysis of the stress-strain state and workpiece behavior in the deformation zone. The emergence of areas in the workpiece with an unpredictable and uncontrolled contact loss of the workpiece material with the deforming tool, or appearance of areas with significant irregular velocity of workpiece points movement, clearly indicates problem areas with high probability of corrugation in the real sheet drawing process.
Obtained results allow to increase the efficiency of expecting places of corrugation appearance prediction by means of computer simulation of sheet drawing process in the DEFORM 3D environment.


ABSTRACT Indonesia has abundant oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFBs). However, high lignin content in OPEFBs may hinder their valorisation to bioenergy resources, as its degradation by microorganisms is rate-limiting. This paper aims to review OPEFB as feedstock in anaerobic digestion (AD) systems and sustainable strategies to enhance methane yield. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the availability of OPEFB, the prospective of AD technology, and compares various biological pre-treatment and co-digestion strategies for superior AD process. Improving the value-added benefits from OPEFBs and simultaneously making pre-treatment processes more sustainable is critical to wider application. Several scenarios were proposed by combining multi-stage pre-treatment of physical and mushroom cultivation pre-treatment prior to AD. This paper presents an original approach to establishing a commercially viable and sustainable AD of OPEFBs in Indonesia by integrating multi-product biorefinery and a circular economy. Further investigation is required to ensure cost-effective and eco-friendly configurations. Abbreviations: ABR: Anaerobic Baffled Reactor; AD: Anaerobic Digestion; AF: Anaerobic Filter; AFEX: Ammonia Fibre Expansion; AI: Artificial Intelligence; AnMBR: Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor; ANN: Artificial Neural Network; ASP: Activated Sludge Process; CMM: Cattle Manure and Maize Silage; COD: Chemical Oxygen Demand; CPO: Crude Palm Oil; CPW: Cocoa Pods Waste; CSTR: Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor; DH: Dry Husk; DM: Dry Matter; DMF: 2,5-dimethylfuran; EM: Effective Microorganisms; EGSB: Expanded Granular Sludge Bed; FBR: Fluidised Bed Reactors; FFB: Fresh Fruit Bunch; FTIR: Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy; GHG: Greenhouse Gasses; HRT: Hydraulic Retention Time; IC: Internal Circulation Reactor; IoT: Internet of Things; Lac: Laccase Enzyme; L-AD: Liquid-AD; LiP: Lignin Peroxidase; LRAD: Low-Rate AD; MARS: Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines; MCC: Microcrystalline Cellulose; MDF: Medium-Density Fibreboard; MEMR: Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Republic of Indonesia; ML: Machine Learning; MnP: Manganese Peroxidase; MPA: Marine Predators Algorithm; MSW: Municipal Solid Waste; OFMSW: Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste; OLR: Organic Loading Rates; OPEFBs: Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches; OPF: Oil Palm Fibre; OPKS: Oil Palm Kernel Shell; OPMF: Oil Palm Mesocarp Fibre; OPT: Oil Palm Trunk; P(3HB): Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate); PHA: Polyhydroxyalkanoate; PLTBg: Biogas Power Plants; POM: Palm Oil Mill; POME: Palm Oil Mill Effluent; SCG: Spent Coffee Grounds; SRF: Solid Refused Fuel; SRT: Solids Retention Time; SS-AD: Solid-State AD; TS: Total Solid; TSI: Torrefaction Severity Index; UASB: Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket; VFA: Volatile Fatty Acids; VP: Versatile Peroxide; VS: Volatile Solid; W2E: Waste-to-Energy.


ABSTRACT Shock-tube experiments were conducted to determine rate-coefficient data of the H-atom abstraction reactions H + HMDSO (hexamethyldisiloxane) → H2 + HMDSO−H and H + TMDSO (tetramethyldisiloxane) → H2 + TMDSO−H. The experiments comprised a temperature range of 1109–1240 K and pressures between 1.2 and 1.5 bar. In all experiments, C2H5I was used as a precursor for H atoms. H-atom concentrations were measured with atomic resonance absorption spectrometry (ARAS) and rate-coefficient data were obtained from pseudo-first-order analysis of temporal H-atom concentration profiles. Experimental total rate-coefficients were well represented by the following Arrhenius equations: k total,HMDSO(T) = 10−9.49±0.36 exp(−32.4 ± 8.1 kJmol−1/RT) cm3molecule−1s−1 for H + HMDSO and k total,TMDSO(T) = 10−8.00±0.36 exp(−53.3 ± 7.9 kJ mol−1/RT) cm3molecule−1s−1 for H + TMDSO. Multiple reaction channels were explored by computations at G4//B3lyp-D3BJ level of theory. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


This paper gives an overview of existing and planned electronic data exchange programs in the field of the public veterinary services. Especially the following systems are described: ANIMO, SHIFT, TSN, IDES, data-base on identification of bovine animals.


Superconductivity has again become a challenge following the discovery of unconventional superconductivity. Resistance-free currents have been observed in heavy-fermion materials, organic conductors and copper oxides. The discovery of superconductivity in a single crystal of $UGe_2$, $ZrZn_2$ and $URhGe$ revived the interest in the coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism. The experiments indicate that: i)The superconductivity is confined to the ferromagnetic phase. ii)The ferromagnetic order is stable within the superconducting phase (neutron scattering experiments). iii) The specific heat anomaly associated with the superconductivity in these materials appears to be absent. The specific heat depends on the temperature linearly at low temperature.
I present a review of the recent experimental results and the basic theoretical ideas concerning ferromagnetic superconductivity (FM-superconductivity) induced by the ferromagnetic spin fluctuations. A particular attention is paid to the magnon exchange mechanism of FM-superconductivity.


Co nanostructures in carbon films synthesised by dual electron beam evaporation were studied by TEM and XPS. Thin films with low Co-content (∼9 at.%) are mainly amorphous with the Co atoms dispersed in the C matrix forming an atomic scale nanocomposite. The films with intermediate Co-content (29?63 at.%) are composed of a Co nanoparticles embedded in the amorphous carbon-rich matrix. Thin films with high Co-content (79 at.%) consist of sandwiched Co2C and α-Co nanoparticles that are embedded in an amorphous Co-rich matrix. The microstructure development of the nanostructures as a function of the Co-content is presented.


India's economy is diverse, encompassing agriculture, handicrafts, textile, manufacturing and a multitude of services. Although two-thirds of the Indian workforce still earns their livelihood directly or indirectly through agriculture, services are a growing sector and play an increasingly important role of India's economy. The advent of the digital age, and the large number of young and educated populace fluent in English, is gradually transforming India as an important 'back office' destination for global outsourcing of customer services and technical support. India is a major exporter of highly-skilled workers in software and financial services, and software engineering. Other sectors like manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, nanotechnology, telecommunication, shipbuilding, aviation and tourism are showing strong potentials with higher growth rates. The economy of India, when measured in USD exchange-rate terms, is the twelfth largest in the world, with a GDP of US $1.25 trillion (2008). It is the third largest in terms of purchasing power parity. India is the second fastest growing major economy in the world, with a GDP growth rate of 9.4% for the fiscal year 2009–2010. However, India's huge population results in a per capita income of $4,542 at PPP and $1,089 at nominal. The World Bank classifies India as a low-income economy. Few employment opportunities and low levels of education and skill result in low cash incomes. This in turn affects the ability to purchase basic needs (such as medicines, education for children, etc). Women and children in particular are the hardest hit especially when access to safe and adequate sources of water are low, resulting in high vulnerability in terms of health. Women are also more affected by underemployment. The relevance of this is all too clear when one realises that 29 percent of India's population still lives below the poverty line, earning less than US$ 1 per day. The article describes the growth of rural India and predicts the economic prospects for India.


The bis(acetylacetonato)copper(II) (Cu(acac)/sub 2/) complex and its adducts with methanol and pyridine in frozen solution have been studied by using ENDOR and electron-nuclear-nuclear triple resonance (TRIPLE). The ENDOR spectra yield the values of the hyperfine tensors of the CH and CH/sub 3/ protons. Signs of the hyperfine components were determined with the aid of TRIPLE and computer simulations. Measurements of quadrupole splittings in /sup 2/H ENDOR spectra of Cu(acac-3-d)/sub 2/ oriented in a frozen liquid crystal allowed the assignment of the in-plane CH couplings to specific molecular axes and also provided information on the alignment of the molecule in the nematic phase. It is shown that TRIPLE can be used to reduce a powder ENDOR spectrum to a single-crystal-type spectrum that can give semiquantitative information on the relative orientation of hyperfine tensor axes. The proton hyperfine interactions in Cu(acac)/sub 2/ are similar to those in VO(acac)/sub 2/, notwithstanding the difference in round-state orbital of the unpaired electron. Adduct formation does not have much effect on the hyperfine components of the CH and CH/sub 3/ protons. The ENDOR data indicate that methanol and pyridine bind in a vacant axial position.


Cyrtonota santanderensis, species new to science, is described from province Santander in Colombia. It belongs to the group of species with elytra not metallic, mostly yellowish brown.


The accuracy and availability of data from a network of 915-MHz boundary layer wind profilers operated by the U.S. Air Force on the Eastern Range are assessed using an automated quality control (QC) algorithm developed by the authors. The accuracy and reliability of the automated algorithm is assessed using the results of an extensive manual examination of the same data used for the assessment of the instruments. The details of the automated algorithm and the manual screening process are provided. Data were collected over a 647-day period from five profilers configured to produce one profile every 15 min, resulting in about 200 000 measurements. The results indicate that the instruments provide reliable, accurate data except when maintenance problems or heavy precipitation are present. Precipitation affected as much as 25% of the measurements in the dataset. The automated QC algorithm proved extremely effective in identifying unacceptable data. Only 0.03% of the data passing automated QC were identified as bad by manual review. While some valid data were identified as bad, the automated algorithm appears to provide exceptional performance for use in automated operational assimilation of boundary profiler data for model initialization and data visualization.


Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and Helicobacter pylori are the most common causes of peptic ulcers; however, the synergistic effects of these 2 factors are controversial. Investigators in Singapore studied 217 patients diagnosed with gastric ulcers at endoscopy to determine the influence of each exposure on the risk of gastric ulcer …


ElectroCardioGram (ECG) signals are usually corrupted with various types of noise/artifacts such as baseline wander and muscle contraction artifacts which degrade the signal quality and might lead to misdiagnosis of the patient. The wavelet denoising technique is widely studied in the artifact removal literature which employs conventional Finite Impulse Response (FIR) wavelet filter banks for decomposing, thresholding and reconstructing the noisy signal to obtain high fidelity and clean ECG signal. However, the use of high order FIR wavelet filters increases the hardware complexity and cost of the system. This paper presents novel hybrid Infinite Impulse Response (IIR)/FIR Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) filter banks that can be employed in ambulatory health monitoring applications for denoising purposes. The proposed systems are evaluated and compared to the conventional FIR based DWT systems in terms of the computational complexity as well as the denoising performance. For this purpose, raw ECG data from MIT-BIH arrhythmia database are contaminated with synthetic noise and denoised with the aforementioned filter banks. The results from 100 Monte Carlo simulations demonstrated that the proposed filter banks provide better denoising performance with fewer arithmetic operations than those reported in the open literature.


We present a priori and a posteriori estimates for the error between the Galerkin and a discretized Galerkin method for the boundary integral equation for the single layer potential on the square plate. Using piecewise constant finite elements on a rectangular mesh we study the error coming from numerical integration. The crucial point of our analysis is the estimation of some error constants, and we demonstrate that this is necessary if our methods are to be used. After the determination of these constants we are in the position to prove invertibility and quasioptimal convergence results for our numerical scheme, if the chosen numerical integration formulas are sufficiently precise. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Generalized linear models are often assumed to fit propensity scores, which are used to compute inverse probability weighted (IPW) estimators. In general, when some of the covariates are continuous, the strict positivity assumptions is violated. This assumption is required to derive the asymptotic properties of IPW estimators. Besides, in practice, when the strict positivity does not hold IPW estimators are very unstable and have a large variability. In this work, we attempt to conciliate between the strict positivity condition and the generalized linear models usually assumed for propensity scores by incorporating an explicit lower bound for it.


The main goal of this work is to present a three-dimensional mechanical model for the numerical simulation of the deep-drawing process. The model takes into account the large elastoplastic strains and rotations that occur in the deep-drawing process. Hill's orthotropic yield criteria with isotropic and kinematics hardening describes the anisotropic plastic properties of the sheet. Coulomb's classical law models the frictional contact problem treated with an augmented Lagrangian approach. This method yields a mixed system where the ®nal unknowns of the problem are static (frictional contact forces) and kinematic (displacements) variables. To solve this problem use is made of a fully implicit algorithm of Newton±Raphson type. Three-dimensional isoparametric ®nite elements with a selective reduced integration are used for the spatial discretization of the deformed body. The geometry of the forming tools is modelled by BeÂzier surfaces. The numerical results of the deep-drawing of a square cup are presented to focus their good agreement with the results of experiment. # 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.


Objective By comparing differences of microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles in chronic pancreatitis (CP) pancreatic tissue and normal pancreatic tissue of rats,to study the regulation function and protein-coding of miRNA in the fibrosis of CP organization and the biological function of the target gene.Methods Sixteen SD rats were divided into experimental and control groups randomly.Dichlorobis-butyl ester was injected via the tail vein in experimental group,and normal saline was given in control group.Serum amylase and pathological changes of pancreatic tissues after 8 weeks were observed.The differentially expressed miRNA profiles between CP and normal pancreatic tissues were analyzed by microarrays.The target gene was predicted,and the biological function (gene ontology,pathway analysis) of the target gene was investigated.Results The results showed that there was significant difference in serum amylase and histological score,and the expression levels of miRNA between two groups.As compared with control group,49 miRNAs were up-regulated,and 37 miRNAs were down-regulated (fold change > 2.0,P < 0.05) in experimental group.The up-regulated miRNAs were significantly related to the fibrosis and apoptosis of pancreatic tissues.Twenty-four miRNAs had their target gene.GO analysis showed that target genes played an important role in biological regulatory function.Pathway analysis revealed the pathways in mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK),and carcinoma signaling pathways etc.significantly changed in the CP tissues as compared with normal pancreatic tissues (P < 0.05).Conclusion It was suggested miRNA expression profiles showed significant difference between CP and normal pancreatic tissues.MiRNA regulated MAPK,Hedgehog and carcinoma signaling pathways by regulating the expression of target genes,and played an important regulatory role in the fibrosis progress and canceration.

Key words:
Chronic pancreatitis ;  MicroRNA


In general, land information includes all information that is related to the land and its resources. Among the necessary considerations in the design and development of a land information system, t...


The number of images available online is growing steadily and current web search engines have indexed more than 10 billion images. Approaches to image retrieval are still often text-based and operate on image annotations and captions. Image annotations (i.e. image tags) are typically short, user-generated, and of varying quality, which increases the mismatch problem between query terms and image tags. For example, a user might enter the query "wedding dress" while all images are annotated with "bridal gown" or "wedding gown". This demonstration presents an image search system using reduction and expansion of image annotations to overcome vocabulary mismatch problems by enriching the sparse set of image tags.
 Our image search application accepts a written query as input and produces a ranked list of result images and annotations (i.e. image tags) as output. The system integrates methods to reduce and expand the image tag set, thus decreasing the effect of sparse image tags. It builds on different image collections such as the Wikipedia image collection (http://www.imageclef.org/wikidata) and the Microsoft Office.com ClipArt collection (http://office.microsoft.com/), but can be applied to social collections such as Flickr as well. Our demonstration system runs on PCs, tablets, and smartphones, making use of advanced user interface capabilities on mobile devices.


The case of the inhabitants of the French colonies in 19th century shows the importance but also the insufficiency of legal assimilation for economic and social integration. The evolution of the legal statute of colored men, free, freed and slaves, reveals the assimilationnist or segregationist intent of the different regimes. The principle of colonization (preservation of the colonies, or even colonial expansion) was widely accepted in 19th century. It was not called into question, neither for the revolutionary period - then, the colonial question was only raised regarding the choice of the regime to apply to the colonies - nor during the second Republic. Parliamentary debates only started to examine the question after 1880, due to the colonial expansion. A study of the various statutes applied to the colonies, shows a constant principle : politicians always chose to keep the capacity to govern the colonies and their inhabitants without applying common law - except in 1795, however it was then more a matter of preserving the surface of the colonies - but by applying specific legislation or decrees. The proposed justification was the particular condition of the colonies which required specific legal rules. The metropolitan standards were only applied there if the acts mentioned it expressly. Legal assimilation should theoretically lead all colonies to be considered as true French departments. This is central to the unity and the indivisibility of the republic, which implies common law and institutions similar to those of the mother country. Throughout the evolution of the measures relating to the colonies, two elements persist : first, assimilationnist decrees were not always taken in the name of the equality and application of common law ; second, they did not result in a real economic and social integration. Does this result from a more or less explicit will of the successive governments to control the colonized rather than integrating them? Legal assimilation depended in fact on the judgement of the legislators evaluating the degree of attachment of the colonized to the metropolitan values. However, how could the inhabitants of the colonies adhere to the metropolitan laws while they did not have the means to be integrated economically and socially? Admittedly, legal assimilation was not sufficient for this integration, but was an essential precondition.


Leakage was found in a few pieces of cylinder at initial production by two original foundry technologies.Solidification process of cylinder was simulated and the original casting technology was improved and optimized,at the same time the cause of oil leakage was found.Finally the quality of cylinder by using of improved technology is consistent and the oil leakage was eliminated.


Environmental and social accounting has the potential to contribute to a just and green community. This can be achieved by reforming accounting to consider how the art of interpretation puts us directly in touch with the natural world. Ideas from Donald Davidson, Richard Rorty, and Charles Taylor extend our understanding of accounting to create, nurture and report values to relevant publics. This is a theoretical journey that compares traditional accounting with recent developments in interpretivist political philosophy.


Due to the ease of use in payments, credit cards now have become one of the most preferred tools for on-site and online shopping payments. As demand for credit cards grows significantly, a wide variety of fraud approaches, such as identity fraud and phishing, emerge to steal money from credit card fraudsters. Fraud detection and prevention systems have become imperative due to the damage of both banks and their customers. The most widely used fraud detection systems now use artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. However, these techniques are not mature enough. In this study, a new approach for credit card fraud detection with artificial intelligence is proposed. Experimental results have shown that the proposed approach may be used to detect fraud in e-commerce systems. Keywords— Financial Security; Credit Card Fraud; Machine Learning.


It may seem obvious to researchers in adult perception that discrimination and knowledge are not the same thing. One can detect that two perceptual patterns differ without necessarily knowing why they differ. That is, in the absence of explicit understanding and awareness. Sometimes differences are not available to explicit scrutiny or, if they are, not fully appreciated. There are many examples of phenomena where individuals discriminate events that do not achieve explicit awareness. This seems fairly unremarkable for sensory events where stimulation does not evoke explicit awareness. As Weiskrantz (1988) points out, there are more bodily processes that we are unaware of than those to which we are able to provide a commentary. But, even when we can provide a commentary, it may be incomplete, misguided, or completely wrong. One of my favourite examples published in this journal is Peter Thompson's `̀ Thatcher Illusion'' (Thompson 1980). Here we have a case where two inverted faces appear similar and yet different. Close inspection allows us to detect that the individual features of the eyes and mouth are in a different orientation, but that discrimination cannot compare with the radically explicit perception that occurs when the configurational information is provided by turning the face into the correct upright orientation. However, this explicit awareness is lost when the faces are inverted, again providing a dramatic example of how configurational information plays a role in face perception. Face perception provides a number of examples of dissociation between implicit and explicit processing. We can distinguish mirror-image faces from normal asymmetrical faces without being aware of the basis for the discrimination. We can tell that someone looks different after a trip to the hairdressers without being aware of the haircut. The point is that detecting that there is a difference is not the same as being explicitly aware of what that difference is. So readers of Perception may be surprised to hear that discrimination is proving to be an extremely thorny issue in the world of infancy research, because telling that there is a difference and knowing what that difference is have become confused. Traditionally, discrimination measures have been the bedrock of perceptual-development studies. One of the earliest measures of infant discrimination, pioneered by Robert Fantz in the late 1950s and early 1960s, was the technique of preferential looking. By measuring the amount of time spent looking at different stimuli, Fantz (1961) demonstrated that, contrary to the wisdom of the day, not only were very young infants capable of seeing, but they also preferred to look at certain types of visual patterns in comparison to others. In later years, a refinement was made to the preferentiallooking technique by adding an initial habituation phase (Caron and Caron 1968). Preferences could be experimentally induced by habituating the infant to one stimulus until his or her interest dropped back to some predefined baseline, and then presenting a novel stimulus to invoke a recovery of interest. If this novel stimulus produced a significant increase in duration of looking, the experimenter could be reasonably sure that the infant could discriminate the first habituated stimulus from the second novel one. This enabled researchers to investigate infant discrimination of stimuli for which there may be no inherent preferences. Although there have been subsequent further refinements concerned with how the habituation criterion is defined, the habituation ^ recovery technique has remained relatively the same for the past 30 years and is used to investigate infant perception in every modality. Guest editorial Perception, 2001, volume 30, pages 1281 ^ 1284


Title Spatial modeling of Pacific saury (Cololabis saira) potential fishing zones in the western North Pacific using remotely sensed data [an abstract of dissertation and a summary of dissertation review] Author(s) Syah, Achmad Fachruddin Citation 北海道大学. 博士(水産科学) 甲第12408号 Issue Date 2016-09-26 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/63216 Rights(URL) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.1/jp/ Type theses (doctoral abstract and summary of review) Additional Information There are other files related to this item in HUSCAP. Check the above URL. File Information Achmad_Fachruddin_Syah_abstract.pdf (論文内容の要旨)


Objective: There is a paucity of objective, quantifiable indicators of mitochondrial disease available for clinical and scientific investigation. Methods: To this end, we explore intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) accumulation noninvasively by 7T magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) as a reporter of metabolic dysfunction in MELAS (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes). We reasoned that mitochondrial dysfunction may impair muscle fat metabolism, resulting in lipid deposition (as is sometimes observed in biopsies), and that MRS is well suited to quantify these lipids. Results: In 10 MELAS participants and relatives, IMCL abundance correlates with percent mitochondrial DNA mutation abundance and with disease severity. Conclusions: These results indicate that IMCL accumulation is a novel potential disease hallmark in MELAS.


Japan has a variety of 'guitars' (using a wide definition of the term) and other types of lute. There are instruments that are considered traditional, or old in the Japanese historio-cultural context, many of which actually have acknowledged roots from outside Japan; there are instruments with a form that was clearly transplanted as a result of the impact of western culture on Japan and the Japanisation of western music after around the middle of the nineteenth century; and there are new instruments that are the product of contemporary global flows and found in various spheres of Japanese society, culture, technology and media. Each of these helps to show the importance of guitars and other lutes in historical and present-day Japan, as well as offering the fields of ethnomusicology and organology topics for study that contribute to understanding local guitarscapes in a global context, as well as the impact these instruments have had on the lives of people connected to and associated with them. This article offers an analysis of two relatively new Japanese guitars, both of which emanate from Okinawa: the ichigo ichie (four strings) and the sanrere (three strings). This discussion is built around historical, ethnographic and critical approaches with the objective of showing both the breadth of the Japanese guitarscape, as well as providing two case studies through which to comprehend one sphere of the guitar phenomenon in Japan, and more specifically Okinawa as a peripheral region, as a global consumer and producer of the instrument.


The invention discloses an optical fiber geophone system based on distributed optical fiber acoustic sensing technology. The optical fiber geophone system comprises the components of a distributed optical fiber acoustic sensing demodulator (1) which is used for transmitting a light pulse and performing phase demodulation on reflected Rayleigh scattering light; a transmission optical cable (2) which is used for transmitting a light pulse and generating the Rayleigh scattering light; and an optical fiber geophone array (3) which comprises a plurality of optical fiber geophone units (30), wherein the optical fiber geophone units are fixed on the transmission optical cable according to a certain distance for detecting weak seismic wave signals. According to the optical fiber geophone system, large-scale sensing unit networking is realized through the distributed optical fiber acoustic sensing technology, and detection for the weak seismic wave signals is realized through sound pressure sensibilization. The optical fiber geophone system has advantages of simple structure, high networking capability, low cost, etc.


The 21st century has seen accelerating growth in digitized financial services in the Japanese financial industry, with Internet transactions being the most prominent. Driven by the explosive popularization of the Internet and the trend towards financial deregulation, this trend has helped reshape customer relations as customer contact shifts from traditional face-to-face contact to interactive contact using web-based systems where no human intervention is involved. This period has also seen the evolution of Internet-only financial institutions. Today, even advanced loan services such as housing loans from initial application to conclusion of contract can be processed entirely on the Internet with no need at all for the customer to show up at a brick-and-mortar office. Similarly, life insurance and other types of insurance can now be applied for and purchased from a smartphone. This digitization of financial transactions has led to the steady accumulation of massive amounts of financial and personal data. Today, the financial industry is actively seeking ways to leverage this data to deliver new and improved services. This, in turn, requires that data processing efficiency be improved in order to process all of this data quickly and accurately. This is a task ideal for AI. Already, AI is becoming indispensable for example, data-based customer analysis is now usually conducted by AI, whereas in the past such scrutiny was usually carried out face-to-face and depended largely on the representative's intuition and perceptions. Generally, it is becoming more and more common to submit any time-consuming analysis task to AI for high-speed analysis.


A nonlinear signal processing system for the simultaneous extraction of harmonic, reactive current and instantaneous symmetrical components is presented. The building block of the proposed system is an enhanced phase-locked which provides accurate and synchronised extraction of the desired signals. The behaviour of the system is demonstrated by means of simulation case studies. The algorithm adopted for the system is frequency-adaptive, immune to noise, and robust with respect to external disturbances and setting of the internal parameters. The proposed system can be used as the reference generator of FACTS and custom power controllers, e.g. an active power filter. Structural simplicity and robustness furnish the proposed system with ease of implementation and tuning on hardware/software platforms.


Escherichia coli riboflavin synthase crystallizes at 22 C in the presence of 7-10percent by volume diglyme, 20-50 mM MgCl2 and pH 7.0. In this medium diffraction quality crystals are routinely obtained within 5 h and they are stable for 10 weeks. The crystals are orthogonal in space group P212121 with unit cell dimensions of a=52.4 A , b = 62.1 A, c = 218.8 A. A 97percent complete data set was collected at 2.1 A resolution.


The Separation at Source Initiative (SSI) was launched and became effective in September 2015 under the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (Act 672). Malaysian households were required to participate by implementing waste separation at home, which fell under the classification of waste minimization and production goals. Many Malaysian households, on the other hand, are determined about not participating. A framework, the Theory of Planned Behavior, will be used to evaluate the impact of intrinsic motivation in influencing household waste separation behaviour in this research. The results of a questionnaire survey conducted among residential areas in Malaysia revealed that 402 valid questionnaires were returned. The data is analyzed with the aid of the Smart PLS software package. The findings show that attitudes toward waste behaviour, subjective standards, and perceived behaviour control are all statistically significant predictors of waste behaviour in the study. This study's conclusions are based on the findings and recommendations are offered in this paper to encourage waste separation among family members. In addition, this study makes a substantial contribution in this area to the body of information addressing the behaviour of families when it comes to trash separation, which is currently lacking. From a practical sense, it is vital for local governments in Malaysia and throughout the globe to encourage increased household participation in trash separation in order to protect the environment and minimise pollution. This is applicable both nationally and internationally.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to: first, explain why a new model of the provision of welfare services to citizens arises from the digital society; second explore some core elements of the competition between the new model of the provision of welfare services and the classic ideal model of the professionals' provision of welfare services; third, suggest why it is most likely that the two models of the provision of services are combined into a symbiotic co-evolution scenario; and fourth, examine why and how this symbiotic co-evolution scenario results in new participatory spaces for the main actors associated with the provision of welfare services.

Design/methodology/approach

The review of the literature examines how the new model for the provision of welfare services facilitated by big data challenges the traditional professional model for the provision of welfare services. The authors use the Danish case to illustrate a number of themes related to this looking at the hospital sector as an example.

Findings

The proposition is that a symbiotic co-evolution scenario will emerge. A mix of the classic ideal model and practice of the service professionals' provision of services and the digital society's model of the provision of services is the most likely scenario in the years to come. Furthermore, Data-driven management (DDM) as an integrated key element in a symbiotic co-evolution creates (opens up) participatory environments and spaces for the main actors and agents associated with the provision of welfare services to the citizens.

Research limitations/implications

DDM's impact on the provision of welfare services is still being realised and worked out, and more empirical research is needed before it is possible to point at the most likely scenario. However, according to the authors' analytical framework, the institutional logics perspective, as presented in Section 2, a symbiotic co-evolution is most likely such that DDM will constitute a new logic within the provision of welfare services on the basis of which citizens as end-users could be provided with welfare services, but it is not likely that the new logic of DDM can displace the classic service professionals' model of the provision of welfare services. Therefore, the new logic of DDM will be combined with and integrated into the existing logics within service provision, such as the Weberian bureaucracy, the Street-Level Bureaucracy, the New Public Governance and the Market. In spite of this, DDM can successfully be promoted by international management consulting firms, as a management concept which can remedy all the problems of the classic service professionals' model of the provision of welfare services to citizens.

Practical implications

As a consequence of this, new relationships among professionals, data analytics, (middle) managers and citizens will be created regarding the provision of welfare services. Considering the new participatory environments and spaces and the new relationships among the classic service professionals, the data analytics, the (middle) managers and the citizens as end-users, the provision of welfare services may become an arena for negotiation of a new future model of the provision of welfare services to citizens.

Originality/value

The digital society has emerged from and developed further via: digitising, online information in almost real time, algorithms, data-informed decision-making processes, DDM and, ultimately, big data. The authors expect to see further digitising, more sophisticated algorithms and more big data. The authors suggest that a new model of the provision of welfare services to citizens will emerge from the development of the digital society. The authors also suggest that this new model will compete with the classic model of the provision of welfare services.


Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of ultrasonography in differentiating benign and malignant breast masses.Methods From September 2009 to April 2012 in our hospital,50 patients with breast lumps by GE VIVID E9 color doppler ultrasound system,parts of the observed mass,shape,boundary capsule,internal echo,without rear attenuation,the side acoustic shadow,horizontal and bilateral axillary lymph node enlargement,and color doppler flow imaging(CDFI) observed within the tumor and the surrounding blood flow,application pulse doppler flow imag ing(PW) measured artery peak systolic(PSV),resistance index(RI).Results Pathologically confirmed benign masses of 40,which adenofibroma 19,20 breast hyperplasia,1 lipoma fat layer exploration and hyperechoic nodules,edge due to regular,non-enveloped,yet uniform internal echo;22 malignant tumors confirmed by pathology,included 11 invasive ductal carcinoma,intraductal papillary carcinoma in 6 a ductal carcinoma.Mucinous carcinoma 1 cases,car cinoma two cases.Compared with benign,malignant tumor PSV,RI values were higher than benign tumors(P 0.05),and two sets of flow grade there were also differences.Conclusion Color doppler ultrasound diagnosis of benign and malignant breast tumor has a certain value,combined with the two-dimensional sonographic features and clinical man ifestations to make a diagnosis,and will further enhance the rate of ultrasonic diagnosis of breast cancer.


There exists a notable research gap concerning the application of ice storage systems in shopping mall settings at the urban scale. The characteristics of large pedestrian flow, high energy consumption, and high peak loads in shopping malls make their advantages in energy conservation. This study researches sustainable cooling solutions by undertaking an economic analysis of the ice storage systems within shopping malls across 11 distinct cities, each system operating under varied electricity pricing frameworks. The methodology begins with creating baseline mall models using AutoBPS and refining them with OpenStudio. Before starting to adjust the model, measured data were used to verify the accuracy of the baseline model, the coefficient of variation of the root mean square error (CVRMSE) and normalized mean bias error (NMBE) metrics were calculated for the model energy consumption, with CVRMSE values of 8.6% and NMBE values of 1.57% for the electricity consumption, while the metrics for the gas consumption were 12.9% and 1.24%, respectively. The study extends its inquiry to encompass comprehensive economic evaluations based on the unique electricity pricing of each city. This rigorous assessment discerns the relationship between capacity, operational strategies, and economic performance. Particularly striking are the so-called peak-shaving and valley-filling effects verified in regions characterized by lower latitudes and substantial cooling loads. The interaction between ice storage capacity and operational schedules significantly influences both economic viability and cooling efficiency. Based on the temporal dynamics of time-of-use (TOU) power pricing, a finely calibrated operational schedule for the ice storage system is proposed. This operational strategy entails charging during periods of reduced electricity pricing to undertake cooling loads during peak electricity pricing intervals, culminating in substantial reductions in electricity charges of buildings. Moreover, the strategic reallocation of energy, characterized by a reduced chiller capacity and a corresponding elevation in ice storage system capacity, augments cooling efficiency and diminishes cooling-related electricity expenses. This study offers valuable insights for optimizing and deploying ice storage systems in diverse climatic regions, particularly for shopping malls. As a guiding reference, this paper provides stakeholders with a framework to reasonably apply and adjust ice storage systems, ushering in an era of energy-efficient and environmentally conscious cooling solutions tailored to shopping mall environments.


1. Introduction Part I. Perceiving Networks: 2. A network approach to leadership 3. An analysis of the internal market for reputation 4. Systematic biases in network perception 5. Effects of network accuracy on individuals' perceived power Part II. The Psychology of Network Differences: 6. Social structure and decision-making in an MBA cohort 7. The social networks of low and high self-monitors 8. Centrality in the emotion helping network: an interactionist approach Part III. Network Dynamics and Organizational Culture: 9. Network perceptions and turnover in three organizations 10. Organizational crises 11. The control of organizational diversity 12. Future directions.


Phishing detection is an area of identifying malicious activities designed by phishers to lure users providing sensitive information. Existing anti-phishing systems use blacklists based on specific parameters, characterize attacker's activities with artificial and computational approaches and educate users. The development and maintenance of these systems is hard and costly because of the polymorphic nature of phishing techniques. Phishing attacks are able to scam humans with insufficient knowledge, while countermeasures focus on specific characteristics to make decisions. Defining formal approaches for representing and reasoning knowledge in anti-phishing systems is therefore a concern. This work deals with this issue by proposing formalized description logic to build the knowledge base of phishing attacks. It additionally designs an ontology-oriented approach to add semantics on that knowledge. The ontology model has been proven consistent and satisfiable. Experimentations on case studies demonstrate the ability of the proposed model to represent knowledge attack scenarios. A comparison with state-of-the-art researches shows that the proposed formalism is more adequate to characterize phishing semantics. This work could successfully complement anti-phishing systems.


We apply a recently developed technique of calculating the minimum jet kinetic power to the major mass ejections of the black-hole binary GRS 1915+105 observed in radio wavelengths in 1994 and 1997. We derive for them the distance-dependent minimum power, and the corresponding mass flow rate and the total energy and mass content. We find that a fast increase of the jet power with the increasing distance combined with the jet power estimates based on the bolometric luminosity imply the source distance is <10 kpc. If the jet in GRS 1915 contains ions, their bulk motion dominates the jet power, which was either neglected or not properly taken into account earlier. We also reconsider the parameters of the binary, and derive the current best estimates of the distance-dependent black-hole mass and the inclination based on existing measurements combined with the kinematic constraints from the mass ejections. We also find the measurement of the donor radius of Steeghs et al. implies the distance to the system of <10 kpc, in agreement with the estimate from the jet power.


Using the Remler formalism for the creation of composed particles, we study charmonium production both in thermalized and thermalizing boxes, which contain charm and anticharm quarks. The thermalizing box studies include the lowering of the box temperature, the spatial diffusion of charm and anticharm quarks, which are initially confined in the central region, as well as the combination of both, what imitates heavy-ion collisions. Comparing numerical and analytical results we demonstrate that the rate of the original Remler formalism has to be supplemented by two rates to obtain, for $t\to \infty$, results, which are consistent with the statistical model predictions: i) a rate, which takes into account the temperature dependence of the Wigner density of the quarkonium during the expansion and, in the case that a heavy quark potential is not implemented in the Monte Carlo approach, ii) a rate which comes from the change of the relative distance between the heavy quark and antiquark. These results provide the basis for future applications of the Remler formalism to heavy-ion collisions.


A new experimental method has been devised by which it is possible to study the deactivation of I*(5 2P1/2) by radical atoms as well as by stable molecular species. A small, steady-state concentration of I atoms is generated in a discharge–flow system, and then a fraction of these atoms is directly excited using the output from a pulsed iodine-atom, photochemical laser. The subsequent decay of I*(5 2P1/2) is observed by monitoring the I2(B→X) emission, the B[3Π(0+u)] state of I2 being formed by recombination, I*+ I + M → I2(B)+ M. The following quenching rate constants (cm3 molecule–1 s–1) at room temperature have been determined: kH2=(1.03 ± 0.06)× 10–13, kBr2=(5.5 ± 0.1)× 10–11, kCl2⩽ 5 × 10–14, kH=(4 ± 2)× 10–14, kI⩽ 5 × 10–13, kBr=(5.1 ± 1.9)× 10–13 and kCl=(2 ± 1)× 10–11.


The objective of this article is to build up a general picture of information research on bio-defense in China, and to identify the major tasks for information research on bio-protection.Currently the general orientation and major tasks towards which efforts should be made in the field of information research on bio-defense comprise the following aspects: research on the organizational structure of bio-defense, research on the laws and regulations, research on the conventions and provisions of the protocols of inspection, and in-depth analysis of information research on bio-defense technology.


Like HIV, herpes virus infection (HVI) are accompanied by a high rate of placental dysfunction. 10 studied the placentas of women living with HIV and HVI and 10 – from women with physiological pregnancy. Most placentas from women with HIV and HVI of manifestations subcompensated placental dysfunction expressed in varying degrees of involution-nonspecific degenerative changes and acute circulatory disorders. The changes in the syncytiotrophoblast, decidual cells and stromal cells to form blood clots vasculopathy indicating damage to vascular endothelium, as confirmed by fixed immunohistochemical positive expression of SD31 and Willebrand factor.


Corn-based agriculture is the county seat in Chaoyang County,,and the implementation of mechanized planting and harvesting corn is imperative,but is constrained mechanical harvesting corn maize for mechanical production of the important factors.This situation does not change will affect the corn in the county's long-term development.This paper analyzes the corn harvest mechanization status in Chaoyang County,and that mechanized corn harvesting in the process of Chaoyang County,what are the problems,and finally made some changes.


What roles have human impacts and natural processes had in shaping the evolution of Mediterranean coastlines during the Holocene? Where, when and how did societies transform the coastal zone? At what scales and rhythms did these changes take place? What can ancient harbour sediments tell us about human‐environment interactions? During the past 20 years, geoarchaeological research in the Mediterranean has attempted to understand the interplay between culture and nature, and more particularly how environments and processes have played a role in Holocene human occupation of the coastal zone. This approach has drawn on the multidisciplinary study of sediments, as archives of information, to attempt to differentiate between anthropogenic and natural factors, the latter, we argue, having played an increasingly secondary role with time. Three important spatial scales of analysis have emerged, local, regional and Mediterranean, all of which are outlined here.


The invention is based on the object of specifying an improved measuring method and a corresponding measuring device with which the edge strength of disc-shaped elements made of brittle material can be measured. For this purpose, a long sample is pulled apart at the short edges, wherein the force introduction points are adjacent to the focus of the specimen base surface.


On November 28, SABIC introduced LNP™ KONDUIT™ 8TF36E compound, a new specialty material that should help address the stringent demands of burn-in test sockets (BiTS) used to stress-test double-data-rate (DDR) memory integrated circuits (ICs). As the number of pins and the testing temperature for DDR ICs increase and their dimensions shrink, materials used in BiTS components must deliver enhanced properties. SABIC's new compound reportedly provides very high flow to help enable complex, miniaturized BiTS designs, excellent dimensional stability and high temperature resistance to enhance BiTS functionality during testing, and high thermal conductivity to rapidly dissipate heat afterwards.


On the basis of analization of the origin of the method of Library and information science this paper gives some points of the forming rule of the method of library and information science, such as the method from practice, the method from theory and the transplanting method, etc.


The purpose of this study is to determine the instructional development procedures and the development of the teaching methodology of Islamic Education based on 6Cs. This study uses a qualitative method with a qualitative descriptive approach. The results of this study indicate that first, the results of the analysis of the procedures for developing Islamic Education (PAI) teaching materials have been adjusted to the procedures for developing initial materials starting from needs analysis, design, development, evaluation, and revision. Second, analysis of how the material development is adjusted to each indicator of 6Cs (critical thinking, creative thinking, integration, communication, compassion and computer logic). Before the development of teaching materials, a starting of starch was carried out, by adjusting the curriculum material and making lesson plans. Development of teaching materials containing materials, media and assignments/projects that support the development of 6Cs abilities.


The cardiac output in children is largely dependent on heart rate (HR), and bradycardia in pediatric patients can be alarming. Bradycardia has been reported to occur at various stages of anesthesia and surgery. Factors precipi-tating bradycardia are drugs (28%), airway-related events (16%), autonomic reflexes (14%), and regional anesthesia (9%). 1 Various drugs in an anesthetist's armamentarium are known to cause bradycardia. However, cisatracurium is considered a safe drug that does not cause histamine release or produce clinically important cardiovascular effects. 2 Here, we describe a rare incidence of sudden severe bradycardia within minutes of administration of an intubating dose of cisatracurium. A 6-year-old, 18-kg boy, American Society of Anesthesi-ologists (ASA) physical status class I, was scheduled for cra-niotomy and excision of a sellar-suprasellar mass (4.5 × 3.5 × 3.2 cm) under general anesthesia (GA). In the operating room, standard ASA monitoring was started. The preinduction vitals including HR, noninvasive blood pressure, and oxygen saturation were 127 beats/minute, 90/50 mm Hg, and 100%, respectively


The turbulent flow-field characteristics in a 180° curved duct with rectangular cross-section were investigated.The profiles of tangential velocity and pressure were measured by using five-hole probe and simulated by FLUENT 6.2.The results showed that centrifugal force was generated as the fluid rotated,which contributed to the change of tangential velocity and pressure.Tangential velocity increased and pressure decreased in the section between 0° and 60° when the fluid rotation began,while tangential velocity decreased and pressure increased in the section between 60° and 180° near the inner wall.On the contrary,the tangential velocity decreased and pressure increased in the section between 0° and 60°,but tangential velocity increased and pressure decreased in the section between 60° and 180° near the outer wall.This investigation indicated that turbulent flow-field characteristics in the 180° curved duct could be understood by combined experiment measurement and numerical simulation.


Since one of the major goals of the FRICGA Project was to identify activity and social areas within housepits, considerable attention was paid to distinguishing living floor deposits from overlying roof sediments in excavating housepits at Keatley Creek. Initially, we had assumed that roof and floor deposits might constitute homogenous but distinct types of deposits. However, as excavations extended out over larger areas of floors, it became evident that there were significant changes in the characteristics of deposits from one floor location to another. The roof deposits, while also exhibiting some variability, tended to be much more homo geneous. The purpose of this chapter is to document the nature of sediment variability across housepit floors, examine possible patterning in the variability and offer some explanations for observed patterning.


The NHS faces a major rise in its bill for medical negligence compensation as a result of new regulations laid before parliament that affect the way damages are worked out.

The lord chancellor, Lord Irvine, has reduced the "discount rate"—the rate that successful claimants in personal injury cases are deemed to earn by investing their compensation awards—from 3% to 2.5%. The result will be larger lump sums to cover loss of earnings …


Case Presentation: A 54-year-old man with history of dyslipidemia is evaluated in the outpatient setting for several months of intermittent atypical chest pain. He is not on any medical therapy. His resting heart rate in the office is 70 beats per minute. His outpatient cardiologist is wondering if coronary computed tomography angiography may be useful for further evaluation.

Because of the high prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and the lack of specific diagnostic clinical signs and symptoms, current guidelines recommend a Bayesian approach, using pretest probability scores for evaluating patients with stable chest pain of suspected cardiac origin.1–3

For individuals with an intermediate pretest probability of obstructive CAD, a noninvasive test is usually recommended. Current test options have become increasingly complex and range from anatomic evaluation via coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) to functional imaging tests to evaluate ischemia, including exercise treadmill testing with or without nuclear (positron emission tomography or single-photon emission computed tomography) or echocardiographic imaging. In patients who are unable to exercise, pharmacological testing with imaging can be performed. Test selection often varies according to local availability and expertise, and patient characteristics, as well. Although both coronary CTA and various functional testing strategies are considered appropriate for the initial evaluation of patients with intermediate pretest probability of obstructive CAD, selecting the most optimal testing strategy can be challenging. Table 1 lists various patient factors to consider when selecting optimal candidates for coronary CTA who are more likely to have diagnostic quality images, and a clinical benefit from the examination, as well.

View this table:

Table 1.
Patient Factors to Consider When Selecting Optimal Candidates for Coronary CTA

Multiple studies have established the high accuracy of coronary CTA to diagnose obstructive CAD in comparison with invasive coronary angiography (ICA).4 A recent meta-analysis demonstrated that coronary CTA has a …


The chiroptical properties (CD. and ORD.) of four stereoisomeric yohimbanes (1–4) and the corresponding 17-keto derivatives 5–8 have been studied. The aromatic and the ketonic Cotton effects have been considered in terms of the appropriate Sector and Octant Rules, respectively. Positively charged nitrogen makes an 'anti-octant' contribution to the ketonic Cotton effect.

The chiroptical properties, the NMR. spectra and dehydrogenation reactions with mercuric acetate together indicate the presence of a C/D-trans-quinolizidine system in all the compounds studied, except those of the pseudo series (3 and 7), in which a C/D-cis-quinolizidine system is present. An explanation of the unexpectedly slow dehydrogenation of the 3-epi-allo compounds 4 and 8 is suggested.

Conformational analysis of the results of equilibration experiments on pairs of 3-epimeric compounds (in both glacial acetic acid at 145° and in K-t-butylate at 211°) leads independently to conclusions which agree with those drawn from the physical methods. The great differences between the equilibrium positions of the free bases and the protonated forms are due to the presence in the latter cases of oriented ion pairs R3N+H…−O2CCH3.


In this study, we designed a data-driven model to predict chlorophyll-a using M5P model tree and extreme learning machine (ELM). The Juksan weir in the Youngsan River has high chlorophyll-a, which is the primary indicator of algal bloom every year. Short-term algal bloom prediction is important for environmental management and ecological assessment. Two models were developed and evaluated for short-term algal bloom prediction. M5P is a classification and regression-analysis-based method, and ELM is a feed-forward neural network with fast learning using the least square estimate for regression. The dataset used in this study includes water temperature, rainfall, solar radiation, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, N/P ratio, and chlorophyll-a, which were collected on a daily basis from January 2013 to December 2016. The M5P model showed that the prediction model after one day had the highest performance power and dropped off rapidly starting with predictions after three days. Comparing the performance power of the ELM model with the M5P model, it was found that the performance power of the 1-7 d chlorophyll-a prediction model was higher. Moreover, in a period of rapidly increasing algal blooms, the ELM model showed higher accuracy than the M5P model.


One of the oral complications in head and neck radiotherapy is xerostomia. The severity of xerostomia can be observed using objective examination (unstimulated salivary flow rate measurement) and subjective examination (assessment using xerostomia questionnaires). There are two questionnaires used in assessment of xerostomia in head and neck cancer radiotherapy namely Xerostomia Questionnaire (XQ) and Groningen Radiotherapy-Induced Xerostomia Questionnaire (GRIX). Objective: To know the correlation between unstimulated salivary flow rate and severity of xerostomia assessment using two questionnaires. Methods: 30 head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy at Radiotherapy Department of RSUP Dr. Sardjito Yogyakarta between January-April 2013 were involved in this study. The assessment of xerostomia used xerostomia questionnaires (XQ and GRIX). Unstimulated salivary flow rate was measured in ml/minutes. Data was analyzed using Spearman Rank Correlation. Results: There is a negative significant correlation between salivary flow rate and severity of xerostomia with correlation coefficient -0.452 (p<0.05) and -0.511 (p<0.05). Conclusions: There is a correlation between unstimulated salivary flow rate and severity of xerostomia assessment using XQ and GRIX for head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy at RSUP Dr. Sardjito Yogyakarta.


Caccamo A, Oddo S, Billings LM, et al. 2006. M1 receptors play a central role in modulating AD-like pathology in transgenic mice. Neuron 49: 671–682. Shin J, KimD, Bianchi R,Wong RK, Shin HS. 2005. Genetic dissection of theta rhythm heterogeneity in mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102: 18165–18170. Shin J, Lee SY, Kim SH, Kim YB, Cho SJ. 2008. Multitracer PET imaging of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease.Neuroimage 43: 236–244. Small SA, Duff K. 2008. Linking a beta and tau in late-onset Alzheimer's disease: a dual pathway hypothesis. Neuron 60: 534–542. Williams M. 2009. Progress in Alzheimer's disease drug discovery: an update. Curr Opin Investig Drugs 10: 23–34. JONGHAN SHIN Neuroscience Research Institute, Gachon University of Medicine and Science, Incheon, Republic of Korea Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA


Turbulent pulsating flow in a 100 mm diameter pipe has been studied experimentally at a Reynolds number of 14,500. The work covers four different flow conditions; steady, pulsating flow at oscillat ...


Abstract Photocopiers emit large quantities of nanoparticles (NPs); however, their toxicological properties have not been studied. Here we investigate for the first time early human responses following a day's exposure to NPs from photocopiers. Nine healthy subjects spent 6 h at a busy photocopy centre on 2–3 randomly selected days. Matched nasal lavage and urine samples were collected before and at different time points post-exposure. Nasal lavage samples were analysed for 14 cytokines, inflammatory cells and total protein. Urine samples were analysed for 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG). Exposure assessment was conducted using a suite of instruments. The mean total particle number on exposure days was >5 times higher than background, with size distributions in nanoscale range (peak 30–40 nm). Following exposure, 8-OH-dG and several pro-inflammatory cytokines were elevated 2–10 folds compared with pre-exposure levels and remained elevated for up to 36 h. We conclude that NPs from photocopiers induce upper airway inflammation and oxidative stress.


Summary 1. Dehydrated sweet potatoes when fed to dairy cows in a 75-day double change-over experiment were found to have 91.4 per cent the value of ground yellow corn when they replaced all of the corn. When they replaced only half of the corn, they were 94.8 per cent as valuable. 2. In a digestion trial using four mature dairy cows, the main constituent, nitrogen-free extract, was found to have a digestibility of 90.08 ± 0.43 per cent. On the basis of the digestion coefficients found in this experiment, the total digestible nutrient value was found to be 70.4 per cent on a 12 per cent-moisture basis. 3. Dehydrated sweet potatoes were found to excel corn in maintaining a high level of carotene and vitamin A in the blood plasma and milk. Therefore, they sometimes would have special values which would counteract their slightly lower milk-producing value.


In the present investigation, chitosan/polypyrrole composite (CS/PPy) was synthesized and used as an adsorbent for the first time to remove the Cr(VI) ions from aqueous solution. The CS/PPy composite was characterized using FTIR, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analyzer, and BET. Batch equilibrium experiments were carried out to optimize various parameters for the water treatment process. The optimized conditions revealed that adsorption of Cr(VI) ions onto the CS/PPy composite was highly pH dependent. The maximum Cr(VI) removal capacity of CS/PPy composite was 78.61 mg/g at 303 K. Equilibrium data fitted well with the Freundlich model. Thermodynamic parameters for the adsorption system were calculated and concluded that the nature of sorption was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. The kinetic study reveals that the sorption of Cr(VI) ions by the composite follows the pseudo-second-order and pore diffusion models. The Cr(VI) uptake of CS/PPy composite was mainly governed by electrostatic attraction-coupled reduction.


1. 1. The Permanent Electret was made of a certain mixture of wax and resin, keeping it in a strong electric field during its solidification. 2. 2. The nature of the electrical change of the dielec...


Research on the heavy metal content, Pb and Cr in water and sediment of Ao River in Sam SamVillage, Tabanan Regency have been carried out. Sample of water taken at 8 location per week during 4weeks, while sample of sediment only taken once at 8 location. Determination of metal content of Pb and Crconducted using destruction method with mixture of HNO3 dan HCl (3:1) and analysed with AbsorptionAtomic Spectrophotometer.The result showed that mean metal content of Pb and Cr in water of Ao river at the location aftertextile industry (location 5 until 8) from four times intake of samples have passed enabled boundarythreshold that is 0,03 mg/L for Pb and 0,05 mg/L for Cr. Mean Pb content in sediment at location 1, 2, 3, 4and 5 still under natural content while location 6, 7 and 8 over the natural boundary threshold. Meanwhile forthe Cr metal only at location 8 over the natural boundary threshold. The highest metal content of Pb and Cr insediment and water found at location 8 that is each of 0,496 mg/L and 0,213 mg/L for Pb and Cr in water and141,844 mg/Kg and 33,489 mg/Kg for Pb and Cr in sediment respectively.


Unravelling the history of deformed rocks is one of the more difficult geological skills, even when there is a good marker stratigraphy and only one or two phases of deformation. Deep in the ductile part of the crust, where layering is commonly disaggregated, and partially-molten material doesn't respond simply to stress, polyphase deformation can lead to structures of beautiful but terrifying complexity. 'Wild folds' and 'anarchy pudding' are more or less formal terms for the point at which most field geologists walk away, perhaps pausing to take a photograph. This book is based on the premise that people shouldn't give up after …


e20507 Background: In ALTER 0303, the common adverse reaction (AE) included hypertension (HTN) and hand foot syndrome (HFS). In this subgroup analysis, we aim to assess the relationship between common AEs and clinical benefit in anlotinib cohort. Methods: Eligible patients showed disease progression after second-line or further treatment were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to receive 12 mg/day of anlotinib or placebo. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). This subgroup analysis was based on anlotinib cohort. Results: Patients with HTN had significantly improved median OS, median progress-free survival (PFS), objective response (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) compared with patients without HFS in anlotinib cohort. Similarly, patients with HFS had better clinical outcomes in anlotinib cohort. Not surprisingly, patients occurred both HFS and HTN had more superior medium OS compared with only HFS, only HTN and neither HFS nor HTN. Conclusions: HTN or HFS is associated with better clinical outcomes in advanced NSCLC patients received anlotinib. Clinical trial information: NCT02388919. [Table: see text]


The dispersion analysis of shielded asymmetrical coplanar stripline (SACPS) and its broadband transition to microstrip at 6–50 GHz is presented. The SACPS has low dispersion and then can be highly conducive to broadband applications. The SACPS and microstrip line can propagate the quasi-TEM dominant mode, but have different characteristic impedance. Firstly, a broadband transition between the SACPS and the defected ground microstrip line which has the same characteristic impedance of the SACPS is designed. Then, a broadband transition between the defected ground microstrip and the microstrip line which has the characteristic impedance of 50 Ω is designed by using a tapered impedance matching section. Finally, two SACPS-microstrip transitions are combined by the back-to-back structure. The I/O ports are the 2.4 mm coaxial connectors which operate at DC-50 GHz. The simulation and measurement results agree well.


Changes in coating morphology of mullite, silica, and ceramic mullite fiber at two heating rates are described followed by a discussion of the changes in surface chemistry that occur during convective heating tests. Subsequently, the surface chemistry changes observed are compared to similar data obtained from radiantly heated coatings and the significance of the difference between the results is discussed. Finally, the changes in chemistry of the coatings in cross section before and after convectively heated cyclic testing are discussed and the significance of surface chemistry changes are described. Results indicate that the thermal conductivity of mullite surface insulation is higher than that of silica insulation, based on thermal response data. Acoustic excitation of cracked silica tiles does not lead to catastrophic failure such as spallation or tile loss. Cracks in mullite material after thermal exposure lead to fracturing of the coating and surface insulation material after acoustic excitation.


How should a social planner design a patent system to maximize social welfare? To answer this question, I construct an Ericson-Pakes style dynamic oligopoly model in which rms innovate along a quality ladder. Consumers prefer higher to lower qualities and the quality frontier is advanced through the collective R&D e orts of research rms. Firms make decisions about both R&D investment (which generates innovations) as well as litigation spending (the right to practice patented innovations and earn market pro ts is assigned through litigation outcomes). To my knowledge this is the rst paper which studies patent policy in a dynamic setting that includes endogenous market structure and patent litigation. The paper solves for Markov perfect equilibrium numerically, and then simulates the equilibrium to calculate expected welfare and then do policy analysis. The model incorporates three observations about patent policy. (1) Dynamics matter: patent protection can have proand anti-competitive e ects in a dynamic model, and policy recommendations change depending on a dynamic or static setting. (2) Private and social litigation costs are not second-order. These are sizable costs borne by research rms, and the role of patent policy in shaping the frequency and intensity of litigation should be modeled. (3) The policy mix matters. Patent "strength" is a complex aggregation of several di erent policy instruments. I focus on two of these instruments, patent duration and forward exclusion (a measure of the property rights that past innovators have over the innovations of future competitors). These instruments cannot be traded o "one-forone" and must be jointly optimized by the social planner. I provide some qualitative rules for how optimal patent policy should vary across di erent industries. Industries characterized by higher variable R&D costs should have lower patent duration and stronger forward exclusion. Holding the costs of innovation xed, forward exclusion should be constant and patent duration should be decreasing in the market size for new innovations. Industries with higher rates of exogenous patent destruction should have higher forward exclusion and relatively constant patent duration. ∗I would like to thank Jan De Loecker, Dilip Abreu, and Myrto Kalouptsidi for advising me on this paper. I would also like to acknowledge Otto Toivanen, Matthew Mitchell, Sharon Traiberman, Neel Sukhatme, Benjamin Brooks, Je rey Campbell, Volcker Nocke, Jakub Kastl, Robin Lee and all the participants of the Princeton Applied Microeconomics seminar for helpful discussions. I would also like to thank Gregory Crawford and the organizers of the Sixteenth CEPR/JIE School and Conference on Applied Industrial Organization.


The future society is one characteristic of knowledge and information.New technological revolution makes greater demand on human health.Because having to fit in with work and life of quick rhythm and high efficiency,people cannot adapt to the need of modern society without being physically strong and self-training consciousness.But the physical training ends up with the end of college life.The actual question of having a successful career while life coming to an end makes it necessary that physical education must meet the need of the effect of life-long benefit while improving physical quality of students.


We study the hopping-resolved contribution of the tight-binding parameters to the Van Hove singularities of H 3 S in the Im − 3 m cubic structure at 180 GPa close to the Fermi level. By means of a 7 × 7 tight-binding model, we study the sensitivity of the DOS close to the Fermi level to a change in the tight-binding parameters. We show that the most relevant parameter affecting the DOS at the Fermi level is the direct W sp σ hopping between the 3s and the 3p orbitals of S. In this way, we can understand some peculiar features of H 3 S and also give some suggestion for enhancing T c .


A new formal classification for the largest genus of Perlinae, Neoperla, is introduced to replace the artificial split of the genus into two informal groups. Globally, there are close to 300 named species, with the number rising all the time. The monophyletic clymene-group is assigned to Neoperla (Neoperla) with ~ 140 species in North America, Africa and parts of Asia; its seven main subgroups are briefly characterized. The polyphyletic Asian montivaga-group is replaced by two monophyletic subgenera, N. (Borneella), new subgenus (six species), and N. (Formosita) Klapálek, new status (~125 species). Five species groups in N. (Formosita) are recognized and diagnosed. For 85% of the species known by mid-2023 (DeWalt et al. 2023), their assignment to supra-specific taxa is summarized in a table, while a further 40 species cannot be placed at present.
 Some additions, remarks and corrections to the phylogenetically oriented synopsis of Perlinae by Sivec, Stark & Uchida (1988) are made. The new species N.(F.) fasciata is named. Eighty-eight figures, including numerous new original photographs, are presented.


Composite isodose curves for a combination of fields give the most complete information about dose distribution. The length of time consumed in constructing such curves for each plan to be considered in treatment of a patient is, however, prohibitive. Precalculated plans can be made up which can be tested in a minimum of time for applicability to a given patient by laying them over his contour tracing. These are simple to construct, and their accuracy is satisfactory. Residents using them soon acquire an understanding of the effect of field arrangement on dose distribution. They have been in use in the Department of Radiology of The Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit, Mich.) for a number of years and have been found practical. In the early days of x-ray therapy the chief problem in treatment planning was to arrange the fields in such a way that skin tolerance would not be exceeded in delivering a cancerocidal dose to the tumor. It was thus natural that a system of dosage calculation based on skin dose should be...


Hazards to Food Safety Factors Affecting Food-Borne Illness Food Safety Regulations Following the Flow of Food - Purchasing, Receiving and Storage Following the Flow of food - Preparing, Holding, Serving and Reheating HACCP Facility Plan Glossary Appendix Index.


In the modern knowledge and technology based economy and information backed-up competitive business world, quick and reliable availability of accounting information is a pre-condition for success of business. But most of businessmen give less attention towards accounting of their business transactions. They usually concentrate more on selling and buying of their products and this has been more in case of wholesale and retail business.


To deal with efficiency assessment in a two-stage production process, Despotis et al. (2016b) proposed an innovative composition approach to calculate the two-stage efficiencies, whose minimum is defined as overall efficiency of the network production process. The underlying proposed programming method in this approach is nonlinear and requires the application of a very time-consuming bi-section procedure to obtain the stage efficiencies. In this paper, we have, therefore, proposed a simple linear network DEA model to carry out the same stage efficiency assessment, which is computationally efficient, and is also readily applicable to any multi-stage production process. Additionally, unlike the Despotis et al.'s (2016b) method, our proposed alternative is extended to deal with dynamic efficiency assessment. Finally, we have considered both synthetic and real-life data to demonstrate the ready applicability of our proposed models for both static and dynamic efficiency assessments.


Abstract - During the Covid-19 pandemic, the food and beverage industry, especially coffee consumption, increased by 44% from 2008-2019. This is also supported by the increasing number of coffee shops with the coffee to go concept, namely coffee shops that are built with simple outlets and focus on serving take away. Fore Coffee is a coffee shop with the concept of coffee to go. During the Covid-19 pandemic, several outlets of Fore Coffee were closed. Facing this circumtance Fore Coffee focused on selling through online media, including applications. However, in 2020 data shows that the performance of the Fore Coffee app has decreased. This of course had an impact on the sales of Fore Coffee. Therefore, the aim of this research is to increase consumer desire to use the Fore Coffee application. Fourteen hypotheses will be tested in this study. The data will be analyzed by using a structural equation model (SEM). The samples analyzed were 145 samples. The results of this study indicate that time saving orientation and price saving orientation have a positive influence on post-usage usefulness and post-usage usefulness has an influence on attitude towards online food delivery services, and behavioral intention. Meanwhile, hedonic motivation and prior online purchase experience have no influence on behavioral intention. Managerial implications will be discussed in depth in this study.
Keywords:  Convenience; Post-Usage Usefulness; Attitude; Behavioral Intention


Abstract Proton, 19F and 31P NMR studies of a number of tetra-, tri- and di-fluorodiazadiphosphetidines have yielded information about the barriers to pseudorotation at the phosphorus atoms. The data are classified according to the process studied, and are discussed in terms of the feasible exchange mechanisms. The PFR2 group is substantially more rigid than the PF2R group.


Analytic properties and asymptotic behaviour of the Fourier-Laplace transformed Green's function for the linear initial-value problem of the barotropic disturbance in the complex frequency-plane are investigated. Singularities of this Green's function are classified into three types; poles whose positions are determined by the usual eigenvalue problems; a pole which comes from the singularity of the governing equation; a cut which corresponds to the continuous mode and is drawn between two branch points whose positions are decided by the maximum and the minimum value of the basic flow. Further it is shown that this Green's function asymptotically goes to zero in any direction of the complex frequency plane in reciprocal proportion to the absolute value of the complex frequency.


More recently, functional foods or food supplements which can protect humans from oxidative stress and several diseases have attracted worldwide interest. Among functional foods, fruits were given special attention, particularly wild edible fruits (neglected or underutilized fruits). There are various neglected and underutilized fruit tree species grown in Turkey solely. They could be exploited directly as foods, or used to obtain valuable natural compounds and derivatives. Rose hip (Rosa spp.) is one of them. The aim of the study is to determine some fruit characteristics of promising rose hip selections from Bolu province in the western part of Turkey. In the selection study, around 100 wild growing rose hip plants were investigated and among them 9 promising genotypes were selected based on rose hip selection criteria. The fruit mass, fruit flesh ratio, soluble solid content, titratable acidity, total dry matter and vitamin C content of these selected nine genotypes ranged from 1.40-2.77 g, 64.92-82.83%, 24.10-30.50%, 0.04-1.55%, 32.44-56.94% and 332.42-1603.52 mg/100 g respectively. Among the 9 promising genotypes, two genotypes had high, two genotypes had medium and five genotypes had low level of thorn.


Background Study: Vitreous humor is an inert, transparent, jelly like substance that fills the posterior four fifths
 of the cavity of the eyeball. It is the choice sample in post-mortem investigation and analysis.
Objective of study: To determine vitreous biochemical parameters suitable for postmortem interval (PMI)
 extrapolation.
Material and Methods: Vitreous humors were collected from the eyes of 50 dead bodies (28 males and 22
 females) at the Federal Medical Center Yenagoa morgue employing Coe method. The vitreous was extracted,
 centrifuged and the resultant supernatant used for the biochemical analysis. The supernatants were analyzed for
 glucose, total protein, albumin, globulin, sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, urea and creatinine using WHO
 approved methods.
Results: The data were statistically analyzed using SPSS. The results indicated that there was strong correlation
 (R-0.88) between vitreous potassium and PMI. Other parameter showed either weak or negligible correlation. The
 staged-three -hourly mean potassium showed a gradual increase using student t-test.
Conclusion: Death within 15 hours can be extrapolated from potassium concentrations.


Abstract Research into the impact of a politician's sociodemographic profile on vote choice in Westminster-style systems has been hindered by the relative sociodemographic homogeneity of party leaders. Past research has focused mainly on the evaluation of local candidates in the American context, but given that elections in plurality systems are far less candidate-oriented , the evaluation of local candidates tells us little about the prevalence of affinity or discrimination in other contexts. This article investigates the effect of political leaders' ethnicity on political behavior by looking at the case of Jagmeet Singh in Canada, the first federal party leader of color in the country's history. While the literature has shown that the gender of leaders in Canada can matter, little is known about the attitudes of Canadians toward party leaders of color specifically. We are interested in the evaluations of Singh and his party, as well as the shifts in voting intentions between elections in 2015 and 2019. We uncover affinity-based behaviors from individuals who identify as Sikh, as well as a negative reception of Singh's candidacy in Quebec.


The new generation of ns fiber lasers offer a range of highly flexible beam sources with a broad parameter range enabling end users unparalleled scope for process optimisation. The tailored beam quality options give a further dimension for process enhancement, while recent increases in peak powers and pulse energies have opened up new applications beyond the standard marking and micro-machining.The new generation of ns fiber lasers offer a range of highly flexible beam sources with a broad parameter range enabling end users unparalleled scope for process optimisation. The tailored beam quality options give a further dimension for process enhancement, while recent increases in peak powers and pulse energies have opened up new applications beyond the standard marking and micro-machining.


Cicer milkvetch (Astragalus cicer L.) is a winter hardy, non-bloating forage legume. In southern Alberta and Montana, cicer milkvetch retains its leaves longer and maintains forage quality later in the season than alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Consequently, it has the potential to provide nutritious forage in the fall, at a time when pasture productivity and quality is limited, particularly in northern areas. The objectives of this study were (i) to compare the yield and quality of monocultures of cicer milkvetch and alfalfa over the growing season and (ii) to evaluate the long-term productivity of cicer milkvetch under Parkland conditions. Studies were initiated in Melfort, Saskatchewan in 1986 and 1987, and subplots were harvested monthly during the growing season in the 2nd to 6th years. Cicer milkvetch peak yields were similar to or higher than alfalfa in 7 out of 10 harvest years. Forage yield of alfalfa was generally higher than that of cicer milkvetch in early season harvests, but cicer milkvetch h...


Membrane Oxygenation in Coronavirus induced Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Abstract Rationale: VV-ECMO is primarily employed in refractory hypoxemic respiratory failure, but limited data is available regarding its use in SARS-CoV-2 induced ARDS. Objectives: To evaluate the role of ECMO in SARS-CoV-2 positive patients. Methods: We present a case report of a young female with SARS-CoV-2 induced ARDS, who received ECMO. Main results: ECMO may be employed in younger, healthy patients with limited co-morbidities as in our patient. Conclusions: We present a successful ECMO application in a COVID -19 positive patient with severe ARDS


This paper presents a theorem prover for a highly intensional logic, namely a constructive version of property theory [25] (this language essentially provides a combination of constructive rst-order logic and the -calculus). The paper presents the basic theorem prover, which is a higher-order extension of Manthey and Bry's model generation theorem prover for rst-order logic [14]; considers issues relating to the compile-time optimisations that are often used with rst-order theorem provers; and shows how the resulting system can be used in a natural language understanding system.


(57) Abstract: The proposed pack houses a pill cage, and pills size and spacing to fit as the size and distribution opening of the integral that is determined apart in retainer (10) and a bottom element (1) having. Pack also has a bottom element (1) is designed to be mounted on, and rotatable top element having a pill ejector (11) (2). Pack of this kind is handled easily and safely, reliably operating, and since the drug contained in the pack to prevent damage to either the bottom or top element, the locking mark waveform (4) There are molded, the mark extends in a circle around the pack, and, it tongue of flexible attached to the other element opposite the waveform latching marks (3) are engaged.


We study the dynamics of exponential utility indifference value process C t ( B , α ) for a defaultable claim in an incomplete market. Other than most of papers dealing with defautable claim, we do not assume the hypothesis of invariance of martingale that is H hypothesis. We firstly transform the default sensitive assets S to be a local martingale through progressively enlargement of filtration and changes of measure. Then, we introduce a specific backward stochastic differential equation (BSDE) and prove the existence and uniqueness of the solution. Finally, we prove the exponential utility indifference value process C t ( B , α ) is the solution to the BSDE based on the fact that C t ( B , α ) is a supermartingale for investment strategies and a martingale for optimal strategy under the minimal entropy martingale measure.


In this volume of the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, Paajanen et al 1 report on their experience with 72 patients with intractable chronic abdominal pain who were considered for adhesiolysis. Sixty-one patients underwent surgery, and 85% of these patients had intraabdominal adhesions. Of interest, 8 patients had no previous abdominal surgery. The authors do not comment on the cause of adhesions in these patients. Most adhesions were between the abdominal wall and abdominal viscera. Thirty-three percent of patients were pain-free during a mean follow-up of 3.7 years, 46% were reported to have diminished pain, and 19% still had chronic abdominal pain, which limited their lifestyle. Forty-four percent of patients required further medical care for intractable abdominal pain. The authors conclude that laparoscopy is a valuable aid in the management of patients with chronic abdominal pain and a negative diagnostic workup. It has been well established that about 90% of patients following on abdominal surgery will later develop abdominal adhesions. The majority of patients presenting for evaluation of abdominal pain will have had a previous laparotomy. This means that most patients who are being evaluated for abdominal pain are likely to have adhesions. Does this mean that adhesions are the cause of their abdominal pain? Before embarking on the procedure of laparoscopy and adhesiolysis, it is prudent for the surgeon to carry out a very careful evaluation of the patient to exclude other causes for the abdominal pain. Narcoticseeking behavior should be identified. Diagnostic tests such as upper and lower endoscopy, abdominal x-rays, CT scans, and a careful clinical examination may reveal other causes for the abdominal pain. Jay A. Redan (personal communication, Laparoscopy and SLS report, Vol. 3[1]) states that patients should be categorized according to the presence or absence of previous abdominal or pelvic surgery. Furthermore, evidence for bowel obstruction should be sought. If bowel obstruction is identified, this makes the search for adhesions more legitimate. A further strategy would be to group patients into those with abdominal wall, interloop, or pelvic adhesions. When a clear cause of abdominal pain has been identified, such as partial small bowel obstruction, tumor, endometriosis, or other gynecologic cause, appropriate therapy should be carried out. It seems logical that abdominal wall adhesions might be more likely to cause pain due to tugging on the parietal peritoneum. Adhesiolysis should theoretically help in alleviating this pain. Interloop adhesions may cause partial or complete bowel obstruction. Regarding pelvic pain, it is of interest that 50% of patients who have had an open abdominal hysterectomy during their lifetime will require hospitalization for adhesion-related complications. This may be a reflection of the enthusiasm of gynecologists to embrace this diagnosis or the propensity for pelvic adhesions to be symptomatic. This initial analysis will leave a number of patients without a clear cause for their abdominal pain, and adhesions may be suspected as the cause. The decision to carry out an abdominal exploration should be carefully considered, as the study of Paajanen et al reveals that 2 patients had significant complications requiring conversion to open laparotomy. Furthermore, adhesiolysis will potentially produce two raw surfaces where only one was present before, compounding the risk of pain from subsequent adhesions. It therefore makes little sense to divide an innocent adhesion, which can then double the risk of future adhesion-related complications. Ideally, patients should undergo awake laparoscopy to identify whether an adhesion is indeed causing pain when tension is placed on the adhesion. This is very difficult to do because of intolerance to awake laparoscopy. Because of the difficulty of carrying out prospective, randomized trials with adhesiolysis, it is impossible to


Diabetes mellitus targets the peripheral nervous system in unique but disabling ways. Although several mechanisms may target peripheral neurons, they render a degenerative pattern of damage that begins in distal terminals. Moreover, sensory neurons are involved early, motor neurons later. By studying a variety of diabetic neuropathy models in rats, mice, and other species, an overall appreciation of its neurodegeneration emerges. Understanding how mechanisms of diabetes complications target peripheral neurons selectively may offer opportunities to intervene before irretrievable neuron loss develops.NEUROSCIENTIST 14(4):311–318, 2008. DOI: 10.1177/1073858408316175


We analyze the perturbations of quasi-solutions to a parameterized nonlinear programming problem, these being feasible solutions accompanied by a Lagrange multiplier vector such that the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker optimality conditions are satisfied. We show under a standard constraint qualification, not requiring uniqueness of the multipliers, that the quasi-solution mapping is differentiable in a generalized sense, and we present a formula for its derivative. The results are distinguished from previous ones in the subject, in that they do not entail having to impose conditions to ensure that dual as well as primal elements behave well with respect to sensitivity.


The utility model relates to an automatic calibration device for CCD performance parameters. The device comprises a control unit, a pulse laser, an integrating sphere, a mechanical shutter, a detected CCD detector and a master control computer which are successively connected. The control unit comprises a clock pulse generating circuit, a pulse width auto-adjusting circuit, an output pulse driving capability amplifying circuit, a power supply unit, a shutter control circuit and a CCD trigger signal output circuit, wherein the clock pulse generating circuit generates clock signals, the pulse width auto-adjusting circuit, the output pulse driving capability amplifying circuit and the power supply unit are connected successively, the shutter control circuit is connected with the pulse width auto-adjusting circuit and the mechanical shutter, and the CCD trigger signal output circuit is connected with the pulse width auto-adjusting circuit and the detected CCD detector. The power supply unit comprises a laser driving power supply and a power supply temperature collection system, and is connected with the pulse laser and the pulse width auto-adjusting circuit. The automatic calibration device for CCD performance parameters is high in reliability, high in precision, high in confidence and simple in operation.