IN RECENT YEARS, tax cuts have fallen sharply as an issue of concern to voters. Poll after poll puts cutting taxes well down the list of priorities. This is puzzling because taxes as a share of gross domestic product or personal income are at all-time highs and have risen very sharply during the Clinton administration. Taxes have risen much more sharply than during the 1970s, when the increases led to a tax revolt epitomized by Proposition 13 in California and the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 largely on a promise to cut tax rates across the board. Political conservatives lament the decline of tax reduction as a political issue, but as yet have offered no coherent explanation for why this should be the case. Many have merely fallen to repeating their calls for tax cuts in the apparent hope that repetition alone will make people more receptive. That is always a possibility. But on the theory that advocacy is most effective when advocates know not only what they want but also what others want, a better approach might be to take a hard look at why the case for tax cuts is failing. Tax and poll data IT IS NOTORIOUSLY DIFFICULT to draw definitive conclusions from polling data, because questions are asked at different times by different organizations in slightly different ways. Nevertheless, although the particular numbers vary from place to place and time to time, as far as taxes are concerned the general trend is unmistakable. People simply do not rate tax reduction as a primary goal today. Consider the following data from September 1999 polls: Fox News/Opinion Dynamics. Registered voters were asked what are the two most important issues for the federal government to address. First was education (30 percent), second was Social Security (23 percent), third was health care (18 percent), with taxes coming up fourth (15 percent). Harris. Americans (not just registered voters) were asked the same question. First on their list of concerns was education (17 percent), second was crime (16 percent), and taxes (15 percent) were third. CBS News. Americans were asked to select the single most important issue they would like presidential candidates to address. First was education (27 percent). Health care, Social Security/Medicare and taxes were tied for second at 22 percent each. This suggests that while a significant percentage of Americans view taxes as the most important issue, the vast majority of Americans put other issues higher on the list of their concerns. This attitude is in sharp contrast with prevailing views in the tax revolt era, when people seemingly wanted their taxes cut regardless of the consequences. Following is a New York Times reporter's summary of a national poll in the wake of Proposition 13 in 1978: Fifty-one percent of those interviewed in the Times poll said they would vote for a measure like Proposition 13, which cut property taxes and placed a limit on future increases in California. A majority said they would prefer a smaller government and fewer services if it meant a lower tax rate, but many voters do not believe they really have to make a sacrifice. Time and again, they said that costs could be cut by "trimming fat" and that taxes could be reduced without reducing services. Clearly, nothing like this sentiment exists today. Indeed, even self- identified Republicans believe that increasing spending for education and Medicare is a better use for the budget surplus than cutting taxes for businesses and individuals, according to a 1999 Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. The irony is that taxes are higher and rising faster today than they were at the time of Proposition 13. As Figure 1 illustrates, in the 26 quarters leading up to Proposition 13, federal taxes as a share of GDP were unchanged. They were 19.1 percent in the first quarter of 1972 and 19.1 percent in the second quarter of 1978. Over this entire period, taxes peaked at 20. …


In the next two decades, the world will face two major - and opposing - demographic challenges: rapid population growth and rapid population aging. In an increasingly economically interdependent world, policymakers will simultaneously face a strain on resources caused by population growth and a shortage of labor spurred by the graying of the population.

This paper, based on new data created by the authors, will help inform decision making by forecasting population trends in Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, regions that epitomize this demographic phenomenon's two disparate poles.

While sub-Saharan Africa will grow faster than any other part of the world in the next century, resulting in a population explosion that will boost the workforce, Eastern Europe will shrink the most quickly. The silver lining in Europe's graying workforce may be that population decline could be compensated to some degree by increases in human capital. One of population growth's most important ramifications is its inverse correlation with educational attainment. While the Eastern European population is expected to decline steadily, educational attainment among its working-age population will increase at the same time, which is likely to lead to higher per capita productivity.

Education is a key part of the picture in Africa, too. While high population growth will expand the labor force, it will not boost economic growth unless education is expanded commensurately. A scenario of rapid population increases without parallel growth in education would precipitate a serious humanitarian and development crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. Human-capital trends and demographic trends must be taken into account when we speculate on future migration patterns to and from these regions.


Vital signs monitoring for elderly in daily life environment is a promising concept that efficiently can provide medical services to people at home. However, make the system self-served and functio ...


In this paper, an enterpri se model for commercial space exploration missions is presented. This model has two key features multi -partisan and commercial. This model is based on four orthogonal industrial groups: experimental, instrumental, deployment and communication. On the basi s on this model, we represent multi -party aspects on two recently deployed lunar exploration missions: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Chandriyyan -1. Finally, we present some of future potentials of this enterprise model.


Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert (1741–1814) was a French botanist, physician, and politician who lived in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1775 and 1783, where he organized studies on medicine and natural sciences. During this time, he collected local plants, and in 1781–1782, published a two-volume compendium: Flora Litvanica inchoata. One hundred copies of the first volume and an unknown number of the second volume were issued. In 1925, Polish botanist Slawinski noted five libraries holding copies of Flora Litvanica. The current census shows at least 18 European libraries holding original copies of the book.


Accepted on 12 January 2014 _____________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT A new inorganic cation exchanger Cerium(IV) arsenovanadate (CeAsV) has been synthesized by coprecipitation method under different experimental conditions. Ion exchange material synthesized at pH 1.0 shows an ion exchange capacity 1.25 meq/g for Na + ions. Instrumental techniques like XRD, FT-IR, TGA, SEM, EDS and UV-Vis DRS were used to elaborate the structural aspects. Its thermal and chemical stabilities, pH titration curve, and distribution coefficients towards different metal ions were studied systematically. Distribution studies showed that the selectivity of the exchanger towards various metal ions was in the order Co 2+ > Pb 2+ > Mn 2+ >Cd 2+ > Bi 3+ > Cu 2+ > Zn 2+ > Mg 2+ > Hg 2+ > Ni 2+ . The differential selectivity of metal ions on CeAsV has been utilised for some important binary separations such as Co 2+ Hg 2+ , Co 2+ -Ni 2+ , Co 2+ -Mg 2+ and Co 2+ -Zn 2+ . The analytical applications of new exchanger were explored by the recovery of Co 2+ , Pb 2+ and Mn 2+ metal ions from synthetic wastewater on the column of CeAsV. Effects of pH on uptake of these metal ions on CeAsV also studied to regulate the settings for column operations.


n 2007, hundreds of contactless payment trials are being conducted across Europe varying in focus and size. One of the most common first-time uses is in public transport; a well-known example is the Oyster (smart-)card for the London Transport system. This whitepaper shares research on contactless payment applications where masses of people have to be dealt with in short time periods. The potential for using contactless payment technology in situations where large numbers of people wish to make use of the same facility in a relatively short time-span is growing. The case is based on omitting cash handling which results in faster and more secure transactions.The developments of new contactless devices, and the inclusion of NFC technology in new mobile devices, result in a technology push that anticipates large growth potential for contactless transactions. Last but not least, improvements in security concepts and the emergence of third parties offering services around contactless transactions will all lead to the expected growth


This paper presented a status monitoring system designed to improve fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) engineering work by enabling technicians in central offices to observe, in real time, the usage state of FTTH services for each line in detail when they perform operations such as changing cable routes. This will reduce service interruptions. For FTTH access services, optical network units (ONUs) are installed in customer premises and optical line terminals (OLTs) are installed in the central office. The monitoring system is connected to the fiber section between ONUs and an OLT, and it receives the upstream optical signal from the ONU. This optical signal is converted to 1-bit signal to be processed by computer. Every ONU is equipped with wireless transmitter and PIC microcontroller to send signal to wireless receiver (multipoint to point). The display program is created to monitor the condition of FTTH lines.


The detection of the Lyman edge in the BL Lac object PKS 0735+178 at the absorption red shift determined by optical measurements leads to a lower limit for the column density of atomic hydrogen, N(H I) not less than 4(17)/sq cm. The Lyman-alpha absorption line appears to have been detected, but only an approximate upper limit can be obtained from the data, of the order of 2(19)/sq cm. This amount of atomic hydrogen is less than that for a line of sight through the disk of a normal spiral galaxy. It is suggested that the absorbing material exists either in the halo of a galaxy or in the tenuous, extended, gaseous disk of a galaxy.


Artificial and natural tracer tests combined with high accurate electronic distancemeter measurements are conducted on a small landslide with a well known slip surface geometry. Outflow yields and chemical contents are monitored for all the experiment duration and they analyzed to estimate the slip surface hydraulic parameters. The main result is that the slip surface acts as a drain for groundwater flows that evacuates interstitial pressures in the slope and brings the sliding mass to be more stable one. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper studies the global asymptotic stabilization problem for a class of switched high-order planar systems under arbitrary switchings via output feedback. By using the adding a power integrator technique, choosing a common Lyapunov function and designing an implementable observer, an output feedback controller is constructed to ensure that the closed-loop system is globally asymptotically stable and the output can be regulated to the origin. The numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design scheme.


Reviews the major influences in the boyhood of Robert Owen (1771-1858), the prominent social reformer. Provides evidence of the significant roles of education, class, religion, language and environment, all of which influenced his subsequent development and ideas.


Lactobacilli are gram-positive bacteria that are growing in importance for the healthcare industry and genetically engineering them as living therapeutics is highly sought after. However, progress in this field is hindered since most strains are difficult to genetically manipulate, partly due since their complex and thick cell walls limit our capability to transform them with exogenous DNA. To overcome this, large amounts of DNA (>1 μg) are normally required to successfully transform these bacteria. An intermediate host, like E. coli, is often used to amplify recombinant DNA to such amounts although this approach poses unwanted drawbacks such as increase in plasmid size, different methylation patterns and limitation of introducing only genes compatible with the intermediate host. In this work, we have developed a direct cloning method based on Gibson assembly and PCR to amplify the DNA to sufficient quantities for successful transformation in L. plantarum WCFS1. This advantage of this method is demonstrated in terms of shorter experimental duration and the possibility to introduce a gene incompatible with E. coli into L. plantarum WCFS1.


Both sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy are endoscopic procedures used for the primary prevention of colon cancer. It was previously assumed that colonoscopy would offer a screening advantage over sigmoidoscopy because it allows the rectum and entire colon to be visualized rather than the rectum and distal colon only. Yet, the results of several observational studies and clinical trials suggest that colonoscopy may be less effective at preventing cancer in the proximal colon than in the distal colon.


For small island developing states (SIDS), tourism is often seen as a passport to development and wellbeing. The happiness phenomenon among residents of tourism destinations is usually linked to the concept of quality of life (QoL).The happiness literature suggests that there is a positive correlation between happiness and income of residents in SIDS, but there is not a clear directionality. In this correlation a large impact of non-income factors linked to wellbeing, such as own feelings and attitudes, belonging feeling to a community, identification with cultural and natural heritage, or a fair government that fulfills residents´ needs.Thus, the goal of this research is to uncover the Caribbean model of happiness according to the relationship between tourism and wellbeing in a SIDS.To test this hypothetical-conceptual model of this work, a questionnaire was administered to obtain suitable data for measuring the quality of life based on a total of five constructs and 27 indicators among residents directly involved in the tourism activity. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) was the technique used to test this hypothetical conceptual model.This work bring empirical evidence to the happiness literature deepening in the model of wellbeing Dominican Republic characterized by three maxims: 1) the Dominican model of individual happiness is not based on material goods but emotions, and thus, greed is considered a poverty condition among rich people; 2) having more is having more to share with and 3) the public sector continues to be the object of mistrust among Dominican population, without covering their expectations in terms of justice administration or reliability on political leaders, despite perceiving the political environment as stable.


A method for detecting a manipulation of a portable device (SP), comprising the following steps: a) determining, by means of a sensor, the orientation of the vertical direction (Z0) in a secured repository to said portable device a plurality of successive instants; b) calculating, for each said point in time, the angle (α) formed by the orientation of said vertical direction in said repository and a reference orientation (Zref); and c) detecting a manipulation when said angle exceeds a first threshold (s1). Means (DDM) for detecting a manipulation of a portable device comprising: - a sensor (AM) for measuring the orientation of a vertical direction in a secured repository to said portable device; and - a processor (PR) connected to said sensor, said processor being configured or programmed to implement such a method. Mobile phone comprising such a device.


In order to improve the anisotropy field distribution of Co-Cr recording media, the effect of Ta addition was investigated. It was found that by adding Ta the initial Co-Cr layer with poor crystal orientation is eliminated, and crystal orientation and crystallinity are drastically improved. It was also confirmed that the anisotropy field distribution of the Co-Cr-Ta layer is narrowed to one-third that of the Co-Cr layer. To clarify the effect of Ta addition on recording characteristics, Co-Cr-Ta/Nb-permalloy double-layer media were prepared and their recording characteristics were measured. The Co-Cr-Ta media showed a sharp magnetization distribution and higher reproduced voltage at high densities than did the Co-Cr media.


Despite a high volatility and the recent fall in price, more and more merchants and consumers adopt Bitcoin. The virtual currency might be standing at its critical point to reach the early majority of adopters. This paper examines whether an application called ChangeTip has the potential to catalyze the breakthrough of Bitcoin. We assume a strong linkage between the diffusion of ChangeTip and Bitcoin so that we can directly deduce the impact of this application on Bitcoin. Results from a conducted online survey of 210 potential early adopters indicate that the diffusion of ChangeTip has the potential to advance the diffusion of Bitcoin to mainstream markets. We found that performance expectancy is the key driver for the intention to recommend ChangeTip. Also, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions are important factors for recommending ChangeTip. Concerning the intention to use ChangeTip in the future, performance expectancy and social influence are the main drivers. Furthermore, facilitating conditions are important for using ChangeTip. In addition, an analysis of the non-user of Bitcoin and ChangeTip was conducted. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.


The paper focuses on the role and the place of regions in the process of transition from the current neo-liberal anti-utopia in Russia to a new, not yet clearly manifested utopia. Utopia is regarded as a social and cultural phenomenon with strong regional specificities. It is shown that the current state of Russia's socio-cultural system, understood as a dystopia, is a serious obstacle to the modernization and industrialization of the country. The paper discusses possible features of a new utopia, which is being institutionalized in modern Russia.


The paper is focused on the influence of coronavirus pandemic on the global poverty and the relief operations in humanitarian logistics during the crisis. The conclusions are made about a significant paradigm shift in the organizational ecosystem caused by the pandemic. In modern conditions the work of logistics personnel and cluster management specialists have undergone many changes. The mass media play an integral role in logistics forecasting and subsequent poverty reduction initiatives. It is recommended to encourage corporate communication at the lowest level to achieve development goals in the face of growing fear of migration and job loss. There have been studied the results of practical experiments carried out in distant villages of India. The economic aspects of poverty alleviation have been analyzed using human capital method through understanding of deep philosophical morals of poverty, innovation economics, coordination of humanitarian agencies for opening innovative channels amidst rising death tolls and other critical situations. The logical deductive venue is far reaching as circumscribed by the past experiences in humanitarian deliveries and relief measures, which has propounded the novel grounds of research gaps in integration. The problem of poverty alleviation has been seriously contested and debated objectively by mapping the economic state of industries, as well as logistic operations to develop strategies that are ready for use on the ground. The question is raised whether public funding and aid can be sufficient to obtain a balance in the ecosystem of the livelihoods of the poor. Recovery phases must be structured and planned ahead of time during any pandemic, and COVID-19 should be no exception


This study aims to conduct a comparative analysis on the impact of the 2007/2008global financial crisis on the Islamic and conventional banks in Malaysia. Three performance indicators, namely profitability, liquidity and credit risk of the banking institutions are being considered. The study covers a five-year period from 2006 to 2010, and divides the sample period into before, during, and after the financial crisis. In methodology, the study adopts the ratio analysis on a sample of six Islamic banks and nine conventional banks. The study documents two main findings: (i) there was no major difference in profitability and credit risk among the two types of the banking institutions due to the financial crisis; and (ii) the Islamic banks were holding more of the liquid assets than their conventional counterparts, thus are less exposed to the liquidity risks due to the financial crisis. The study provides a number of practical implications to the banking sector, particularly on the issue of balancing the profitability-liquidity conflict in the banking institutions.


We present a method for learning neural representations of flow maps from time-varying vector field data. The flow map is pervasive within the area of flow visualization, as it is foundational to numerous visualization techniques, e.g. integral curve computation for pathlines or streaklines, as well as computing separation/attraction structures within the flow field. Yet bottlenecks in flow map computation, namely the numerical integration of vector fields, can easily inhibit their use within interactive visualization settings. In response, in our work we seek neural representations of flow maps that are efficient to evaluate, while remaining scalable to optimize, both in computation cost and data requirements. A key aspect of our approach is that we can frame the process of representation learning not in optimizing for samples of the flow map, but rather, a self-consistency criterion on flow map derivatives that eliminates the need for flow map samples, and thus numerical integration, altogether. Central to realizing this is a novel neural network design for flow maps, coupled with an optimization scheme, wherein our representation only requires the time-varying vector field for learning, encoded as instantaneous velocity. We show the benefits of our method over prior works in terms of accuracy and efficiency across a range of 2D and 3D time-varying vector fields, while showing how our neural representation of flow maps can benefit unsteady flow visualization techniques such as streaklines, and the finite-time Lyapunov exponent.


We consider a wave equation with non-linear random forcing of the form .If the initial conditions are of sufficient regularity the solution ueis shown to be Holder continuous of exponent. kfor some 0<k< 1/2.The small stochastic perturbation relates to random effects which are often ignored. As the intensity of the stochastic perturbation tends to zero the distribution of ue decays exponentially outside of any neighborhood of the solution of the unperturbed equation Large deviations principle for ein terms of Freidlin-Wentzel estimates is obtained in the Holder's norm of exponent κ, for some k∊[0,1/2)


Previous research has assumed that drinking motives (reasons for drinking) remain fairly stable over time (traits). The current study examines how drinking motives of college students may vary over time (states). Weekly measures were completed by 125 undergraduates at Old Dominion University, which examined how average levels of anxiety interacted with anxiety coping motives to influence drinking. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling, it was found that anxiety coping motives were less predictive for participants with elevated average anxiety levels, as opposed to participants with normal to low anxiety levels. Implications and possible explanations are discussed. D rinking motives, or self-reported reasons for drinking, are often examined as proximal precursors to alcohol consumption. Typically, these motives are treated as stable individual differences, in that they are assumed to vary from person to person (high between-persons variability), yet remain stable within each person over time (low within-persons variability). Research has suggested, however, that drinking motives do not appear to remain stable within-persons, especially with regard to motives related to coping with anxiety, or the self-reported negative mood state characterized by apprehension regarding the future (Grant, Stewart, O'Connor, Blackwell, & Conrod, 2007). Cox and Klinger (1988) examined the idea of motivation as the central pathway toward the decision to drink, by attempting to map the motivational influences that eventually lead to the decision. Their model begins with "historical factors" (i.e., personality characteristics, social/ environmental influences, and biological predisposition to alcohol's effects), from which the decision proceeds to "current factors" (i.e., current emotional state along with situational variables)(p. 171). According to Cox and Klinger, the final decision to drink is filtered through the "expected effects" from the alcohol, which the researchers divide into "direct, chemical effects" and "indirect, instrumental effects" (p. 171). The net result of Cox and Klinger's model is that the decision to consume alcohol can be characterized by the motivation to either (a) directly alter one's internal emotional state via its pharmacology, or (b) to influence externally generated rewards, such as social acceptance. Cooper (1994) suggested that these characterizations could be organized within a matrix which reflects their valence (i.e., positive or negative, or whether the individual hopes to gain something positive, versus avoid something negative), and their source (i.e., internal or external, or whether the individual is drinking in response to internal, versus external cues). 1 Wetzell et al.: Hierarchical Linear Modeling of Drinking Published by ODU Digital Commons, 2010 As illustrated in Table 1, this organization results in four distinct motivations for drinking, which Cooper called enhancement (i.e., drinking to enhance the current emotional state), social (i.e., drinking to positively affect social interaction), coping (i.e., drinking to avoid a negative emotional state) and conformity (drinking to avoid negative social outcomes). From these dimensions, a four factor scale of drinking motives was developed and subsequent testing revealed that this model better accounted for alcohol consumption patterns than previous models, with the enhancement and coping motives being the strongest predictors of alcohol use, heavy drinking and problem drinking. The model was further supported by the fact that each of the motives revealed a unique set of drinking patterns and outcomes that were consistent with expectation. For example, social motives were significantly related to consumption of alcohol at parties or with friends, but were not related to problem drinking; while coping motives were correlated with solitary consumption in patterns consistent with problem drinking. In an effort to further examine the coping dimension of drinking motives, it was later proposed that it be subdivided into coping-depression and coping-anxiety (Grant et al., 2007). In the first half of their study, Grant et al. expanded Cooper's scale to include items representative of the two constructs, and found this new five-factor scale to exceed the previous scale in predicting patterns of consumption. They were further able to demonstrate that the two new dimensions were distinct from each other, in that each predicted different patterns of drinking and outcomes. However, inconsistent with Cooper's findings, the researchers found that neither of the coping motives were related to frequency of drinking, and only coping-depression was mildly (and inconsistently) related to number of drinks per occasion. Next, Grant et al. conducted a longitudinal analysis in which they found that high coping-depression motives prospectively predicted increased numbers of drinks, while high coping-anxiety motives were found to prospectively predict decreased numbers of drinks. Interestingly, however, high coping-anxiety motives prospectively predicted more alcohol-related problems (when frequency of drinking at time-point 2 was controlled for). Though this seems to contradict logic (high coping-anxiety predicts less drinking but more problems from drinking), it is consistent with other studies (Dawson, Grant, Stinson, & Chou, 2005; Morris, Stewart, & Ham, 2005), and may be a clue to the existence of within-persons motivational variation, which isn't typically analyzed because it is assumed to be stable. 2 OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal, Vol. 1 [2010], Art. 3 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/ourj/vol1/iss1/3 DOI: 10.25778/tc5k-rz71 Therefore, the purpose of the current research was to investigate the possibility that coping-anxiety drinking motives may vary within-persons over time, allowing for differential consumption patterns in response to anxiety. Drinking motives are defined as the self-reported reasons for drinking. Anxiety is defined as the self-reported negative affective state characterized by apprehension regarding the future. Weekly measures were completed by 125 undergraduate students at Old Dominion University which sought to ascertain how average anxiety levels interacted with anxiety coping motives to influence drinking. It was believed that the relationship between anxiety and drinking would change over time in response to variation in anxiety coping motives.


The purpose of this study was to determine the three parametric logistic IRT methods in dichotomous and ordinal test items due to differential item functioning using statistical DIF detection methods of SIBTEST, GMH, and  LDFA. The study adopted instrumentation research design. The sample consisted of an intact class of 457 Part 3 undergraduate students who registered for EDU 304 (Tests and Measurement). Two research instruments were used to collect data. Data collected were analysed using three statistical DIF detection methods. The result  showed that there was a significant difference in the three parameters logistic models in dichotomous and ordinal test items due to differential item functioning. Hence, there existed a high degree of correspondence among the three parameter models in identifying psychometric properties of dichotomous and ordinal test items. Thus, the three parameters logistic models should be used in test development processes to enhance validity of tests. Keywords :Item response theory (IRT), item parameters, dichotomous test, ordinal test, and differential item functioning (DIF)


Aim According to the sensitivity of Yersinia pestis to new type of antibiotic,to find more sensitive and less poisonous drug.Methods K B method was used according to American's NCCLS statute.Results β Lactamspenicillins is most sensitive to Y.pestis in four type selecteal drug.The second isQuinolone and Aminoglycosides.The last is Macrolides.Y.pestis is sensitive to 27 antibiotic of 30.Their order is CeftizoximeAmpicillin/SulbatamAmpicillinCeftazidimeCefiximeCephalothinnCefotaximeAztreonamCeftriaxoneCefoxitinAmoxicillin/Clavulanic acidCefazolinCefepimeCefoperazoneNorfloxacinOfloxacinNalidixic acidCefuroximeSpectinomycinEnoxacinCiprofloxacinFleroxacinLomefloxacinStreptomycinImipenemPipemidic acidAzithromycin;Erythromycin is intermediate,Acctylspiramycin and Jozamycin are drug tolerance.It is no distingush difference in sentitivity according to t test to poisonous powerful and poisonous weak.Coclusions Out body drug sensitivity test show,that Y.pestis is most sensititive to Ceftizoxime;Norfloxacin is better to other same drug in Quinolone.


The causes of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), the causes of death among patients on dialysis, and the actuarial patient and 'true' patient survival rates have been analysed in several groups of patients who were dialysed and/or received transplants at Johannesburg Hospital over a 17-year period (April 1966-March 1983).


The speech act of thanking is one of the fairly neglected areas of research in the Iranian context. The present study seeks to investigate the ways in which this social act is expressed by young male and female EFL learners. To collect the data for this study sixty participants (30 males, 30females) were selected randomly from among the population of BA and MA students of Najafabad university and students learning English in a language institutes located in Najafabad. The major focus of this study was the role that gender and individuals' level of proficiency might play in the application of thanking strategies. Students were asked to complete a discourse completion test (DCT). They were supposed to read thirteen natural situations, and react to them via expressing gratitude. In order to analyze the utterances of thanking, Cheng's coding scheme was employed. Students' responses were further classified according to the gender and level of proficiency. The results revealed that the females were more cautious in selecting strategies of gratitude. Individuals' level of proficiency was also found to play an important role in the process of strategy selection.


We establish the sharpness of embedding theorems for Bessel-potential spaces modelled upon Lorentz-Karamata spaces and we prove the non-compactness of such embeddings. Target spaces in our embeddings are generalized Holder spaces. As consequences of our results, we get continuous envelopes of Bessel-potential spaces modelled upon Lorentz-Karamata spaces


are sub-jected to the following crosses to tester stocks in order to determine completely the distribution of flanking markers present on their respective ry+ chromosomes. Class A exceptionals are mated individually to kar*l26d/Zn(3LR)DcxF flies. The absence of Sb,D+ flies among the progeny indicates the presence of the 126 flanking marker on the ry+Sb exceptional chromosome. The presence of Sb,D+ progeny, indicating the absence of 126 on this chromosome, permits determination of the presence or absence of the kar marker by examination of the eye color phenotype of the Sb,D+ offspring In either case, three Sb,D male progeny are mated individually to cu kar ry2"cu kar ry23 females in order to confirm the presence of ry+ on the Sb bearing chromosome as well as to classify the chromosome with respect to the cu and kar markers. Class B exceptionals are mated individually to cu kar ryes 126 Sb/Zn(3LR), cu kar UbxA flies. The presence of ry+Sb progeny confirms the presence of ry+ on a Sb+ bearing chromosome, indicates the absence of the 126 marker on that chromosome, and permits determination of cu and kar markers from the phenotype of these flies. The absence of ry+Sb progeny indicates the presence of 126 on the ry+ chromosome. In such cases, examination of the Ubx* progeny permits determination of the cu and kar markers, and matings of the UbxA progeny to cu kar ry"S/cu kar ryes permit confirmation of the diagnosis with respect to cu, kar, and ry. All mutants and chromosomes discussed in this section are described elsewhere (LINDSLEY and GRELL 1968) with the exception of 126d. Produced in this laboratory from X-ray treatment of a kar2ryf chromosome, 126d is a short deletion of part of salivary chromosome section 87E (LEFEVRE 1970), lethal with 126, and deficient for another gene complex presently under study in this laboratory. Half-tetrad experiment: Construction, maintenance, selective system mating and detachment of exceptional half-tetrads as well as their genetic analysis follow the procedures described in prior reports (CHOVNICK et al. 1970; BALLANTYNE and CHOVNICK 1971.


This dissertation investigates and analyses imrovement to a PCA approach for imagebased rendering in C++ based on paper [2]. This technique allows to visualize volume data with lower GPU requirement and lower computing complicity than direct volume rendering. First, eigenspaces were calculated with a volume data set, pre-rendered using a standard ray-caster, from a spherically distributed range of camera positions. The parallel programming with CUDA was used to speed up the reconstruction process. Then, PCA function in OpenCV is used to calculate eigenspaces and reconstruct results. Artefacts in the result of paper [2] were smoothed by MedianBlur with small computing costs. Results quality, memory cost and frame rate were tested and evaluated under di↵erent conditions. The result with di↵erent resolution of images, cells dimension, number of eigenvectors were given for real-world application.


The present work aims to investigate the effect of strain reversal during high pressure torsion on the evolution of microstructure, texture and hardness properties of two different materials with different dynamic recovery behavior, namely, high purity Aluminum (>99%, designated as 2N-Al) and Aluminum-Magnesium (Al-2.5%Mg) alloy. For this purpose, 2N-Al and Al-2.5%Mg were subjected to monotonically (CW) and strain reversal (CW-CCW) deformation by High Pressure Torsion (HPT). The samples were subjected to a series of rotations in monotonically and strain reversal deformation with same equivalent strains of 1, 4, 12, 24 and 60 under an applied load of 6 GPa and with 1 rpm under quasi-constrained conditions.


Dissolution of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) in aqueous solution was investigated using three on‐line apparatuses: the concentration of Li2CO3 was measured by electrical conductivity equipment; CLD (Chord Length Distribution) was monitored by FBRM (Focused Beam Reflectance Measurement); crystal image was observed by PVM (Particle Video Microscope). Results show dissolution rate goes up with a decrease of particle size, and with an increase in temperature; stirring speed causes little impact on dissolution; ultrasound facilitates dissolution obviously. The CLD evolution and crystal images of Li2CO3 powders in stirred fluid were observed detailedly by FBRM and PVM during dissolution. Experimental data were fitted to Avrami model, through which the activation energy was found to be 34.35 kJ/mol. PBE (Population Balance Equation) and moment transform were introduced to calculate dissolution kinetics, obtaining correlation equations of particle size decreasing rate as a function of temperature and undersaturation. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


The article discusses the origins, formation, and development of the scientific school of chemical physics and nanotechnology in Kazakhstan. The authors describe the achievements of a scientific school that is on par with the best of its kind locally and globally, adding new competitive results of practical relevance to the economic development of the country. The article also highlights the special role of the outstanding scientist Zulkhair Aimukhametovich Mansurov in the development of the methodological foundations of the scientific school, the targeted training of the scientific personnel in the priority areas of the development of Kazakhstani chemical physics, and the creation of nanoscale materials for multifunctional purposes. Also, the main principles of the philosophy of Mansurov's scientific school are presented.


The present study aimed to explore the reality of the obstacles facing the vocational education (VE) teachers in public primary schools in Jordan from the perspective of those teachers. The researcher selected a sample consisting from 100 vocational education teachers. Those teachers were selected from the public primary schools in Jordan. The researcher developed a two part questionnaire. The first part collects demographic data from the respondents (i.e. gender and years of experience). The second part sheds a light on the obstacles facing the vocational education teachers. The examined obstacles include the obstacles related to (infrastructure, tools & equipment, and the apparatus of occupational safety and health). It was found that the severity of the obstacles facing the vocational education teachers in public primary schools in Jordan is low from the perspective of those teachers. It was found that there isn't any statistically significant difference between the respondents' attitudes in this regard which can be attributed to (gender or years of experience). Several recommendations are proposed. For instance, the researcher recommends exerting effort by the Jordanian Ministry of Education to increase the level of occupational security and safety inside the workshops that are designated for the vocational education course. That can be done through providing these workshops with the necessary equipment that can raise the level of occupational security and safety. Keywords: obstacles, vocational education DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-8-11 Publication date: March 31 st 2020


27 Purpose: To explore whether compensatory responses to acute energy deficits induced by 28 exercise or diet differ by sex. Methods: In experiment one, twelve healthy women completed 29 three 9 h trials (control, exercise-induced (Ex-Def) and food restriction induced energy deficit 30 (Food-Def)) with identical energy deficits being imposed in the Ex-Def (90 min run, ~70% of 31 VO 2 max) and Food-Def trials. In experiment two, 10 men and 10 women completed two 7 h 32 trials (control and exercise). Sixty min of running (~70% of VO 2 max) was performed at the 33 beginning of the exercise trial. Participants rested throughout the remainder of the exercise 34 trial and during the control trial. Appetite ratings, plasma concentrations of gut hormones and 35 ad libitum energy intake were assessed during main trials. Results: In experiment one, an 36 energy deficit of ~3500 kJ induced via food restriction increased appetite and food intake. 37 These changes corresponded with heightened concentrations of plasma acylated ghrelin and 38 lower peptide YY 3-36 . None of these compensatory responses were apparent when an 39 equivalent energy deficit was induced by exercise. In experiment two, appetite ratings and 40 plasma acylated ghrelin concentrations were lower in exercise than control but energy intake 41 did not differ between trials. The appetite, acylated ghrelin and energy intake response to 42 exercise did not differ between men and women. Conclusions: Women exhibit compensatory 43 appetite, gut hormone and food intake responses to acute energy restriction but not in 44 response to an acute bout of exercise. Additionally, men and women appear to exhibit similar 45 acylated ghrelin and PYY 3-36 responses to exercise-induced energy deficits. These findings 46 advance understanding regarding the interaction between exercise and energy homeostasis in 47 women.


These two volumes share a communality in being products of an essentially Londonbased 'demographic establishment'. This is not meant in any pejorative sense, but it does help explain a bias that seemingly underlies both works that the metropolitan experience may be taken as typical of England and Wales, that Scotland deserves some mention now and again, and that Northern Ireland may be forgotten about altogether. It is all well and good focusing on temporal trends in the aggregate, but this should not be at the expense of spatial patterns, which, at a single point in time, may exhibit greater heterogeneity than do aggregate trends through time. To the extent that the UK is treated as an 'isotropic' surface in which spatial variation is not only unimportant but does not apparently occur, geographers will be disappointed in these otherwise informative books.


Introduction A project to develop and test methods for the determination of bromide species in fresh and potable waters, initiated and funded by the Department of the Environment, was undertaken at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist. A literature search revealed three methods that had a sensitivity which could meet the requirements of the Department of the Environment. The method described by Fishman and Skougstad 1] is based on the catalytic effect of the bromide ion on the oxidation of iodine to iodate by permanganate. The excess iodine is extracted with carbon tetrachloride and measured spectrophotometrically. This method claims a detection limit of 1/.tg per litre. Tamarchenko [2] described a method based on the oxidation of bromide to bromate which is reduced by excess bromide to bromine in acid solution. The bromine decolourises methyl orange which is measured spectrophotometrically. This method claims a detection limit of 20 /ag of bromide per litre. Archimbaud and Bertrand [3] utilised a Technicon AutoAnalyzer system based on the synthesis of tetrabromosulphonphthalein purple at pH 4.6 from phenosulphonphthalein and bromide previously oxidised to bromine by chloramine T. This method claims a detection limit of 20 /ag of bromide per litre. Of the three methods, the one developed by Fishman and Skougstad was selected for further investigation as it was the most sensitive and was not subject to interferences from many other ions at concentrations found in natural waters.


The design and development of an innovative Tesla style turbo expander for two-phase fluids is proposed, as a substitute for the lamination valve of a traditional Heat Pump cycle. Thereby enhancing the overall performance of the Heat Pump, by recovering mechanical work to offset the compressor requirements. The major challenge in such configurations is the reliable operation of the expander, when phase change occurs across it, from a purely liquid flow to a mainly vapour flow by volume with a dense cloud of liquid droplets.
 To investigate the phase change, a modelling approach is adopted which is routinely applied to modelling fuel-flashing in direct injection diesel engines, where the phase change deviates strongly from equilibrium. The Homogeneous Relaxation Model (HRM) is employed, which utilizes an Eulerian approach.
 The proposed computational model is firstly validated against experimental results available in the literature. A sensitivity analysis of the phase change model relaxation parameter is performed. It was found that a value 10 times lower than the published value gave closer agreement to the measured results. It is believed that this result is due to the roughened walls of the experiment, which would produce more nucleation sites for vapour bubble formation. This suggests that this model maybe is sensitive to the geometry of the turbine.
 Following this validation, the detailed flow profile in the proposed Tesla turbo-expander is investigated. Two different expander designs are considered in this project, one working with water [4,20] and the other with butane (R600). This study focuses particularly on the butane expander design. The expander performance is evaluated for rotational speeds up to 32'000 RPM.
 Results on the turbo-expander under investigation, showed that the presence of a dense cloud of liquid droplets produces a significant pressure drop across the turbine rotor, which increases with RPM, postponing the phase change. High volume-fraction of liquid was predicted to penetrate deeper inside the rotor above 16'000 RPM for the butane expander. The resulting lower liquid flow velocity relative to the rotor disk speed at the inlet of the rotor is predicted to significantly degrade the performance of the turbine at high rotational speeds. Decreasing the nozzle throat area improves the situation, by initiating the phase change further upstream and increasing the RPM operational range by 50%. Angling the nozzle radially inward by 10° was found to not have a great impact on the performance of the turbine. It was determined from this study that it is critical to predict correctly where the phase change starts, in order to accurately predict the performance of the turbine. Important is to remove as much liquid as possible from the flow, before it enters the rotor, to minimize the impact of the phase change on the turbine performance.


In 1989, Koblitz [3] first proposed the Jacobian of a conventional (imaginary) hyperelliptic curve for use in public-key cryptographic protocols. Hyperelliptic curves are in a sense generalizations of elliptic curves. The Jacobian is a finite abelian group which, like elliptic curve groups, has unique representatives of group elements and efficient arithmetic (divisor addition and reduction). Although the arithmetic appears more complicated than that of elliptic curves [4, 8, 1], there are some indications that it can in some cases be more efficient. Several years later, a key exchange protocol was presented for the real model of a hyperelliptic curve [6]. Its underlying key space was the set of reduced principal ideals in the ring of regular functions of the curve, together with its group-like infrastructure. Although the main operation of divisor addition and reduction is comparable in efficiency to that of the imaginary model [7], the protocol [6] was significantly slower and more complicated than its imaginary cousin [3], while offering no additional security; the same was true for subsequent modifications presented in [5]. Despite the apparent short-comings of the real model, recent work [2] shows that it may admit protocols that are comparable in efficiency to those based on the imaginary model. The main idea is that, in addition to the divisor addition operation, the real model has a second operation called a baby step that is significantly more efficient. By exploiting this operation, cryptographic protocols can be devised that are more efficient than those based on the imaginary model provided that the divisor addition operation is not significantly more expensive in the real model than in the imaginary model. In order to examine the efficiency of these new protocols completely, it is necessary to devise explicit formulas for divisor arithmetic in the real model of cryptographically-relevant low genus curves. The scope of this project is to survey the state-of-the-art in explicit formulas for low-genus imaginary hyperelliptic curves [1, 4, 8] and investigate the generalization of these formulas to the real model. The goal is to provide explicit formulations of the protocols in [2], thereby enabling a direct comparison with the corresponding protocols based on the imaginary model.


The use of ammate (ammonium sulfamate) as a tree-killing agent has become widespread during recent years; it is well established as an effective and economical silvicide. The purpose of this report is to supplement present knowledge and also to present a case study on the use of ammate in practical application.


The development of keyword spotting (KWS) systems that are accurate in noisy conditions remains a challenge. Towards this goal, in this paper we propose a novel training strategy relying on multi-condition training for noise-robust KWS. By this strategy, we think of the state-of-the-art KWS models as the composition of a keyword embedding extractor and a linear classifier that are successively trained. To train the keyword embedding extractor, we also propose a new (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C_{N,2}+1$</tex-math></inline-formula>)-pair loss function extending the concept behind related loss functions like triplet and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$</tex-math></inline-formula>-pair losses to reach larger inter-class and smaller intra-class variation. Experimental results on a noisy version of the Google Speech Commands Dataset show that our proposal achieves around 12% KWS accuracy relative improvement with respect to standard end-to-end multi-condition training when speech is distorted by unseen noises. This performance improvement is achieved without increasing the computational complexity of the KWS model.


There are viewed the problems formalization validation of schematic plans stations based on context-free attribute grammar. Proposed a formalization of the representation of the branch format of technical documentation on the schematic plans for stations with attribute grammars. Considered the inference rule words and sentences to describe the interdependence of routing tables of switches and signals, which provide an exception error on the basis of syntactic and semantic analysis of schematic plans for stations


We re-examine the commonly used density functional theory plus Hubbard \textit{U} (DFT$+U$) method for the case of non-collinear magnets. While many studies neglect to explicitly include the exchange correction parameter \textit{J}, or consider its exact value to be unimportant, here we show that in the case of non-collinear magnetism calculations the \textit{J} parameter can strongly affect the magnetic ground state. We illustrate the strong \textit{J}-dependence of magnetic canting and magnetocrystalline anisotropy by calculating trends in the magnetic lithium orthophosphate family LiMPO$_4$ (M = Fe and Ni) and difluorite family MF$_2$ (M = Mn, Fe, Co and Ni). Our results can be readily understood by expanding the usual DFT$+U$ equations within the spinor scheme, in which the \textit{J} parameter acts directly on the off-diagonal components which determine the spin canting.


This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science
and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic founding of
UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-
006684), and the Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-
FEDER-027462). Manuela D. Machado gratefully acknowledges the
post-doctoral grant from FCT (SFRH/BPD/72816/2010).


We show that the identification (ID) capacity of the two-receivers broadcast channel is the set of rate pairs satisfying that, for some distribution on the input, each receiver's ID rate does not exceed the mutual information between the input and the output that it observes. The capacity's interior is achieved by codes with deterministic encoders. Our results hold under the average error criterion, which requires that each receiver reliably identify its message if the other receiver's message is uniformly distributed. Key in the proof is a new ID code for the single-user channel.


Based on the mitochondrial 16S ribosomal DNA partial sequences (473 bp) of 9 species of Pamphagidae (Acridoidea, Orthoptera) from China and of 4 species of Pamphagidae and 2 species of Pyrgomorphidae and Acrididae (as outgroups) retrieved from GenBank, we constructed the molecular phylogeny using the Neighbor Joining (NJ) and Minimum Evolution ( ME) methods based on the nucleotide Kimura 2-parameter model. The results of our study shown that: 1) the ranges of the 16S rDNA nucleotide divergence between two species of a genus were 0.21%, among genera of a subfamily were 0.42-3.38%, and among subfamilies of Pamphagidae were 1.90-8.88%, respectively. The phylogenetic tree shows that: 1) all Pamphagidae taxa form a monophyletic clade, and are well separated from the outgroup; 2) the African taxa Porthetinae (Lobosceliana brevicornis) and Akicerinae (Batrachotetrix sp.) are distinctly separated from the Chinese taxa Prionotropisinae; 3) Haplotropis bruneriana and Glauia terrea of Pamphaginae are nested in the middle of the tree, but their phylogenetic status is uncertain in this study; 4) 8 genera of Asiotmethis, Beybienkia, Mongolotmethis, Sinotmethis, Rhinotmethis, Filchnerella, Eotmethis and Pseudotmethis from China are all grouped into the subfamily Prionotropisinae, but their phylogenetic relationships are not clearly resolved.


Digital reminder systems typically use time and place as triggers to remind people to perform activities. In this paper, we investigate how digital reminder systems could better support the process of remembering in a wider range of situations. We report findings from a survey and one-week diary study, which reveal that people want to remember to perform a broad spectrum of activities in the future, many of which cannot be supported by simple time- and location-based reminders. In addition to these examples of prospective memory, or 'remembering intentions' [53], we also find that people want support in 'retrieving' [53] information and details, especially those encountered through social interactions or intended for use in conversations with others. Drawing on our analysis of what people want to remember and how they try to support this, we draw implications for the design of intelligent reminder systems such as digital assistants (e.g. Microsoft's Cortana) and smart speaker systems (e.g. Amazon Echo), and highlight the possibilities afforded by drawing on conversation and giving material form to digital reminders.


In the past three to five years, those of us working in Interlibrary Loan have seen an increase in the number of local "home‐grown" electronic ILL systems. Typically, these systems were designed in response to patron desires, but sometimes the electronic requesting systems were created to help Interlibrary Loan staff. After all, it is much easier to read a printed request than a handwritten request.


In two-proton pickup from 14C, the calculated cross-section ratio for the first two 0+ states of 12Be depends on the configuration mixing in these two states and on the amount of core excitation in the ground state (g.s.) of 14C. Using the 12Be wave functions that are reasonably well known, I have calculated this ratio as a function of the core excitation in 14C(g.s.). A measurement of this ratio should allow an independent determination of the 14C mixing—previously estimated to be about 12%. Disciplines Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Physics Comments Fortune, H. T. (2012). Core Excitation in 14C and Two-proton Pickup. Physical Review C, 86(6), 067303. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevC.86.067303 © 2012 American Physical Society This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/physics_papers/267 PHYSICAL REVIEW C 86, 067303 (2012) Core excitation in 14C and two-proton pickup


Objective To study apoptotic effect of SDT with hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether(HMME)on C6 glioma cells in vitro and relation with protein expression of Bcl-2/Bax.Methods Time of ultrasound irradiation was optimized by MTT.Apoptotic rates were detected by flow cytometry,and protein expression of Bcl-2,Bax were measured by Western blot after SDT treatment.Results Treatment of C6 glioma cells with SDT resulted in the occurrence of apoptosis.In the apoptosis,expression of Bax was significantly increased,and expression of Bcl-2 was also significantly decreased after SDT treatment.Conclusion Ultrasound with HMME could induce apoptosisi in C6 glioma cells in vitro,and the apoptosis meidiatied by SDT was associated with and regulated by protein Bcl-2/Bax.


A method of measuring frequency dependent electrical parameters by an energy meter in an electrical system that provides a varying line frequency having electrical energy, comprising the steps of: - Measurement of the line frequency, (109) selecting a reference waveform having a positive zero crossing, (113) synchronizing two ideal waves with the reference wave, wherein each of the two Ideal Waveforms having a nominal frequency, - receiving an input signal wave and (161) determining a strength of a signal of nominal frequency within said input signal waveform, wherein said two ideal waves depend on the frequency and about 90 degrees out of phase each other, one ideal waveform representing an in-phase component and the other ideal waveform is a quadrature component.


The obturator hernia is rare and its diagnosis is frequently missed. It is a rare cause of intestinal obstruction. Patients present with few clinical signs to identify the cause, apart from symptoms of intestinal obstruction. Therefore, obturator hernias are often diagnosed at laparotomy with a high motality rate. CASE REPORT: We recently encountered this lesion in a 75 year old woman presented with a history of right iliac fossa pain, bilious vomiting, abdominal distension. Non-specific findings on examination and blood tests made the diagnosis difficult, however, a CT scan of her abdomen revealed the site of the obstruction and the patient was taken to theatre for emergency surgery. She underwent a midline laparotomy and resection and anastomosis of small bowel and repair of the strangulated right obturator hernia. She presented a tachyrdia six days after surgery. The patient died of peritonitis postoperative (anastomotic dehiscence). The high mortality rate associated with this type of abdominal hernias requires a high index of suspicion to facilitate rapid diagnosis and prompt surgical intervention if the survival rate is to be improved.


This paper gives a universal definition of $\mathbb{F}_q [t]$ in $\mathbb{F}_q (t)$ using 89 quantifiers, more direct than those that exist in the current literature. The language $\mathcal{L}_{\mbox{rings}, t}$ we consider here is the language of rings $\{0, 1, +, -, \cdot\}$ with an additional constant symbol $t$. We then modify this definition marginally to universally define $\mathbb{F}_q [t]$ in $\mathbb{F}_q (t)$ without parameters, using 90 quantifiers. We assume throughout that the characteristic of $\mathbb{F}_q$ is odd.


Future DOD, NASA, and SDI space systems will be larger than any spacecraft flown before. The economics of placing these large space systems (LSS) into orbit dictates that they be as low in mass as possible. The combination of very large size and relatively low mass produces systems which possess little structural rigidity. This flexibility causes severe technical problems when combined with the precise shape and pointing requirements associated with many future LSS missions. Development of new control technologies which can solve these problems and enable future LSS missions is under way, but a test bed is needed for demonstration and evaluation of the emerging control hardware (sensors and actuators) and methodologies. In particular, the need exists for a facility which enables both large angle slewing and subsequent pointing/shape control of a variety of flexible bodies. The Air Force Astronautics Laboratory (AFAL) has conceived the Advanced Space Structures Technology Research Experiments (ASTREX) facility to fill this need. An overview of the ASTREX facility is given.


John Rowan has been a counsellor and psychotherapist in the field of humanistic psychology since the late 1960s. He has been Chair of AHP(B), co-founded AHPP in 1980, and has been instrumental in the men's movement. He has published many books on humanistic therapy,—"Ordinary Ecstasy", "The Reality Game", "Healing the Male Psyche", "Subpersonalities" and "The Transpersonal in Counselling and Psychotherapy" amongst them—giving him a leading voice on the subject in the UK.


ABSTRACT Driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol and drugs is a serious health and social issue and a leading cause of death and disability. We present the findings of a scoping review of the literature that examined behaviors and risk factors associated with DUI as well as currently available preventative interventions. To truly impact DUI behaviors, prevention and intervention strategies must educate on both social perceptions and associated risks, consider the root cause behind excessive or hazardous use leading to DUI, and address the general mental health of our society at large as they turn to substances as means of coping.


We report ab initio calculations of the structural, elastic and optical properties of the compound LaB6 as a function of pressure. The computation is based on the density functional theory in combination with the generalized gradient approximation functional. The calculated lattice constants and elastic moduli are compared with the theoretical results and a good agreement is found. LaB6 can retain its mechanical stability in the pressure range of 0-20GPa. Besides, the frequency-dependent dielectric function, absorption coefficient and loss function of LaB6 are also obtained. The calculated static dielectric function is 8.8 at 0GPa and 5GPa. The computed results should be testified by experiments.


Without norms for trust and duty, it is likely that many control systems would fail. Yet the makeup of compliance norms is not well-understood. To that end, I model a setting where agents obtain utility from compliance (duty), anticipatory disutility from violation (regret), and utility from the principal's willingness to be vulnerable to an agent's choices (trust). While the strength of the optimal controls decreases with the agent's regard for trust, their strength increases with the agent's regard for duty, suggesting potential insights from a norm's decomposition. It may be economically justified in this setting for a principal to retain agents who cycle between compliance and violation, moderated by a 'band of hysteresis' – situations where some agents violate controls and others obey them – depending on previous compliance. Depending on the interplay between duty and trust, agents with weaker (stronger) compliance records may be subject to less (more) stringent controls. Long-run analyses isolate conditions where an optimal system may be vulnerable to repeated control violations in the short run, but would generally prevent violations in the long run. Lastly, adding monetary incentives to the model suggests that the principal may choose to rely more on trust than when they are absent, and that monetary incentives may be ineffective for certain compliance histories.


Cloud computing technology has matured, so cloud computing produces a wide range of cloud service. Cloud storage services are one of cloud services where cloud service provider can provide storage space to customers. Because cloud storage services bring a lot of convenience, many enterprises and users store the data to the cloud storage. However, the user will outsource data to the cloud storage service, but the user is difficult to manage remote data in the cloud. Therefore, how users verify data integrity is a major challenge. In recent years, public audit is used to verify data integrity by which the user allows other to verify the user's data. Because the feature of cloud service allows users to communicate with each other on the cloud platform, the cloud storage service allows the data owner to share their data to other users. Therefore, public auditing extends to the share data, so the original operation becomes not the same including signature, public audits, dynamic data and user revocation which generates on the situation of shared data. In the paper, we define the requirements of public auditing with shared data and explain four representative approaches which include analysis function, security, and performance requirements. Finally, we provide some topics for future research.


The viability problem is an important field of study in control theory; the corresponding research has profound significance in both theory and practice. In this paper, we consider the viability for both an affine nonlinear hybrid system and a hybrid differential inclusion on a region with subdifferentiable boundary. Based on the nonsmooth analysis theory, we obtain a method to verify the viability condition at a point, when the boundary function of the region is subdifferentiable and its subdifferential is convex hull of many finite points.


Despite the fact that its data were collected more than 50 years ago, the Survey of English Dialects (SED) (Orton et al. 1962-71) remains the most recent nationwide study of English dialects. More recently, the English Dialects app (Leemann et al. 2016) was launched to gather new countrywide dialect data similar to the SED. Since its launch in January 2016, the English Dialects app has been highly successful: so far it has been downloaded more than 70'000 times, and more than 30'000 people from 4'000 locations around the UK have provided information on their pronunciation and use of certain words and colloquialisms. Moreover, users could also record themselves reading a story, which allows a more detailed linguistic analysis.
This very broad corpus, in both geographic and social terms, is suitable for the study of dialect diffusion. Here, using data gathered in the app, I analyse the spread of non-rhoticity into the South West of England, focussing on the area between Swindon and Bristol in the M4 corridor. A subcorpus of more than 900 speakers with various socio-economic backgrounds was used in order to examine what variables (gender, age, mobility, education) influence the adoption of this feature. In addition, two geographical classifications were added, which will both shed light on how dialect diffusion is sensitive to the social characteristics of the different places studied. The analysis of 52 recordings further shows which linguistic environments are most likely to be affected by dialect diffusion and which ones are most likely to retain the traditional variant.
Generally, the findings suggest that there is a strong interplay between educational factors, the urban status of a location and the acquisition of non-rhoticity. This pattern, I will argue, is a result of the predominant internal migration pathway away from the city into the green and pleasant countryside.


In recent years, data centers have needed to process large amounts of data because of various growing Internet services. In a data center, it is important to provide high performance and to reduce energy costs. Consequently, optical network technology is a solution for a data center network. In particular, optical circuit switching is considered as a realistic architecture. Helios, which is a data center network architecture with optical circuit switching, considers only rack-to-rack paths. Helios has a problem in that packet losses occur if many connections are sent to one host. In this paper, we propose two path establishment methods that occupy or share one wavelength link with optical circuit switching in a data center network. We also evaluate performance through simulation. As a result, we show that the proposed path establishment method sharing a wavelength link has approximately a 74% higher throughput than Helios.


We consider three prominent tournament formats-contests, binary elimination tournaments, and round-robin tournaments-in the case when players are heterogeneous in their abilities but the heterogeneity is, in a well-defined sense, weak. Using linear approximation, we characterize equilibrium strategies and payoffs in the three tournament games and compare them to the benchmark symmetric case of identical players. We describe small deviations from the symmetric equilibria by elasticities of a player's equilibrium effort with respect to her own ability and the abilities of her rivals. Our results only require general symmetry and smoothness assumptions but not specific functional forms for the probabilities of winning in tournaments. We show that, in equilibrium: (i) a player's effort and payoff depend on her rivals' abilities in a model-independent way, either through the average ability of the field (for static games), or through the properly discounted average ability of the field (for dynamic elimination tournaments); (ii) players respond stronger to changes in their own relative abilities than to changes in their rivals' relative abilities; (iii) aggregate effort (dissipated rent) does not change compared to the benchmark case; (iv) it is not possible to manipulate aggregate effort through seeding in binary elimination tournaments, although optimal seeding schemes for other purposes can be identified; and (v) balanced seeding and a uniform distribution of relative abilities cancel out the dependence of a player's effort on her rivals' abilities in binary elimination tournaments. Copyright © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc..


This application claims an invention which was disclosed in Provisional Application Number 60/108,100, filed November 12, 1998, entitled "Desktop Projector". The benefit under 35 USC §119(e) of the United States provisional application is hereby claimed.. 5 This application is also a continuation-in-part of Serial No. 09/323,651, filed June 1, 1999, which is also a PCT International Application No. PCT/US99/26784, filed November 30, 2000. The above priority applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference.


Van Ockenburg and colleagues (1) assessed the correlation between adverse life events and physiological status in a large population-based cohort, as psychosocial stress might correlate with adverse health outcomes. Although diverse methodological aspects were clinically considered (for instance, psychiatric conditions such as depressive symptoms, or diverse pharmacological treatments), their conclusions reflected no association with the stress-responsiveness conditions studied. Nevertheless, it raised the issue of early programming in modern physiology and its translational relevance to psychiatry. Current literature in developmental biology suggests that environmental factors acting early in life have consequences which become manifest as an altered disease risk in adulthood. This early programming research has mainly focused in the pathways that predict medical illnesses later in life such


Summary BIA, a Bone Inducing Agent extracted from a cultured human osteosarcoma cell line (Saos–2), is highly osteoinductive in the skeletal muscle of athymic mice and promotes early osseous union of stabilized femoral non-unions in rats. To evaluate its effect in dogs, ten milligrams of BIA mixed with an equal amount of pure bovine collagen type I was compared with 20 mg of bovine collagen alone, a gelatin capsule alone, and fresh autogenous cancellous graft, after orthotopic and heterotopic implantation in Beagles. For osteoinductive bioassays, each implant was placed in the latissimus dorsi muscle of five Beagles for six weeks. Bone formation was evaluated by thoracic radiographs every two weeks and by high detail radiographs and histology six weeks after implantation. To evaluate the effects of BIA after orthotopic implantation, four cortical defects were created in each left femur of four Beagles. One defect on each femur was randomly filled with BIA plus collagen, collagen alone, a gelatin capsule alone, or autogenous cancellous graft. Radiographic evaluation of the femurs was performed every two weeks for eight weeks. Healing of the defects was assessed with high detail radiographs, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, histology and histomorphometry eight weeks after implantation. Ten mg of BIA did not induce bone formation six weeks after heterotopic implantation and did not promote bone healing after orthotopic implantation in the dogs. The discrepancy between these results and those obtained in rodents may be related to immunogenic factors or to the dose of BIA used in this study. BIA, a Bone Inducing Agent extracted from a cultured osteosarcoma cell line is highly osteoinductive in rodents. BIA was evaluated and compared with autogenous cancellous bone graft and bovine collagen after orthotopic and heterotopic implantation in Beagles. Each implant was placed in the latissimus dorsi muscle of five Beagles and in femoral cortical defects of four Beagles. Bone formation was evaluated by radiography, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, histology and histo-morphometry. BIA did not induce bone formation after heterotopic implantation and did not promote bone healing after orthotopic implantation in dogs.


This paper uses the increase in labour market flexibility in the United Kingdom in recent years to see how well the predictions of a couple of recently developed labour market models can account for data. The two models examined are an 'equilibrium business cycle' model of the labour market and a 'search' model. The models do well in predicting the fall in the level and persistence of the unemployment rate and average hours since about 1985 as well as the step increase in consumption and output that seems to have occured. Conversely, unemployment incidence has fallen and the volatilities of output, consumption, employment and unemployment have all increased in the most recent cycle contrary to the predictions of the models.


Past research has shown that when speakers refer to the same referent multiple times, they tend to standardize their descriptions by establishing linguistic precedents. In three experiments, we show that listeners reduce uncertainty in comprehension by taking advantage of these precedents. We tracked listeners' eye movements in a referential communication task and found that listeners identified referents more quickly when specific precedents existed than when there were none. Furthermore, we found that listeners expected speakers to adhere to precedents even in contexts where it would lead to referential overspecification. Finally, we provide evidence that the benefits of linguistic precedents are independent of mutual knowledge—listeners were not more likely to benefit from precedents when they were mutually known than when they were not. We conclude that listeners use precedents simply because they are available, not because they are mutually known.


Summary Land use changes represent one of the most important components of global environmental change. In most European countries, the transformed economies and social conditions of previous decades have had consequences in terms of agriculture intensifi cation, industrialization and migration of people from the rural areas. As a consequence, areas of marginal agriculture were abandoned leading to secondary successions. This research studied the effects of the natural recovery of abandoned lands on carbon pools using a chronosequence approach of mixed ash ( Fraxinus excelsior L.) and sycamore ( Acer pseudoplatanus L.) stands in the Eastern Italian Prealps. A series of fi ve formerly cultivated sites spanning a range of 40 – 75 years since agricultural abandonment and a meadow were selected. The dominant sink for the atmospheric CO 2 within these secondary forests seems to be live wood while the soil played a much smaller role. The ecosystem carbon stock increased at a mean rate of 1.18 Mg C ha − 1 y − 1 during the chronosequence. However, a difference in the carbon accumulation in the different pools was detected.


Frequency-dependent acoustic center correction values are required to obtain accurate microphone calibrations in the free-field by the reciprocity technique. These values were determined for IEC type LS2aP microphones at normal incidence by utilizing the theoretical inverse relationship between the sound pressure amplitude at the acoustic center of a receiver and the distance between acoustic centers of source and receiver. A dynamic signal analyzer was used to measure the gain factor between the amplified output voltage of the receiver and the source input voltage at 500-Hz intervals in the extended frequency range 2–50 kHz. This procedure allowed all the data for a microphone pair to be gathered within several hours for microphone diaphragm separations from 101–311 mm at 10-mm intervals. At each frequency, the reciprocal of this gain factor as a function of microphone diaphragm separation was fit to a straight line after correction for atmospheric effects, including attenuation of sound caused by atmosp...


An azido-125iodo-ansamycin (1) in the geldanamycin family was prepared in two steps in one reacton vessel from 17-amino-22-(4′-aminophenacyl)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (3). The title compound was suitable for photoaffinity labeling proteins that interacted with ansamycins. A alternative synthesis is reported for preparation of unlabeled title compound in order to afford practical amounts of (1) for conventional biochemical studies.


Objectives:  Osteopenia/osteoporosis is a major component of morbidity even in young patients with β‐thalassaemia major. Dual energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the reference method for determining bone mineral density (BMD). Quantitative ultrasound sonography (QUS) for bone measurement is a relatively new, inexpensive and radiation‐free method that could serve as an alternative to DXA. Our aim was to assess bone status in thalassaemic patients both with QUS and DXA and, consequently, to investigate the degree of correlation between the two methods.


This paper summarizes the existing theories of the behaviour of particles in an electric field with special reference to the electrostatic precipitation of flue dust in power stations burning pulverized coal. The theoretical relation between particle size and precipitation efficiency is not borne out in practice and an endeavour is made to resolve the discrepancy by considering the molecular and electric forces acting on particles after they have been deposited on the collecting electrodes.


A few years ago, Fairchild Semiconductor introduced the BGA as the power package of the future. The BGA package offers superior parasitic resistance and inductance compared to all of the traditional power packages like DPAK, D2PAK, etc. The SO8 package has been the package of choice for the notebook computing market for a very long time. Most design engineers feel comfortable designing SO8 MOSFETs in their notebook applications because it has a good track record and most importantly there is a very large number of sources for devices packaged in SO8 packaging.


PURPOSE: A multi-direction switch is provided to prevent the possibility of the central switch being turned ON simultaneously by the manual operation for actuating the peripheral switch, and hence has excellent usability. CONSTITUTION: A printed wiring board(31) has formed on the top surface thereof a central stationary contact and four peripheral stationary contacts. A keytop(40) is substantially disc-shaped. A housing(10) of a square flat configuration has an opening to receive the keytop(40). A pusher(50) molded of a synthetic resin material is attached to the underside of the keytop(40). The pusher(50) is composed of a base coaxial with the central movable contact(32) and four arms(42) extending from the base at equiangular intervals of 90 deg. On the bottom surface of each arm(52) at its extremity there is also provided a peripheral press protrusion 5PP corresponding to one of the peripheral movable contact. On the underside of the central plate portion(71) there is provided a fulcrum portion.


The gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is a leading cause of lower respiratory infections worldwide and is also responsible fordiseases such as otitis media, sinusitis, meningitis, endocarditis and sepsis. The progression to this pathogenic lifestyle is preceded by colonization of the nasopharynx.In order to successfully colonize the human upper respiratory tract (URT), pneumococcus must adapt to the unpredictable and hostile conditions of the human host. To achieve this, bacterial cells must adeptly reconfigure their cellular programs to ensure their survival while continuing to evade the host immune responses. This work is aimed at understanding the different molecular mechanismsof pneumococcal adaptation to the host environment and the stresses it encounters therein. In this thesis, I focus on two distinct mechanisms that enable pneumococcalpropagation and survival in diverse conditions. First, I describe a novel intercellular communication peptide called BriC that promotes biofilm development and stimulates colonization in a murine model. BriC signaling results in enrichment of unsaturated lipids in the cell membrane via enhancing FabT-mediated regulation of fatty acid biosynthesis genes. My work reveals the existence of acomplex molecular network that regulates briC expression in the cells. BriC helps in integration of various regulatory inputs as briC levels are induced by the activationof competence and fatty acid biosynthesis pathways. The tightly controlled architecture of briC regulation highlights its importance in the ever-changing environment of the human host. Second, I explore pneumococcal stress responsepathway and show that a cell wall branching enzyme MurM modulates intracellular stress and prevents the activation of stringent response pathway. Through its ability to deacylate mischarged tRNAs, MurM can calibrate stress response withconsequences to host-pathogen interactions. This work expands our understanding of the bacterial cell wall: cell wall modification that impart structural rigidity to the cell are interlinked to the cell's ability to signal intracellularly and mount responses to environmental stresses.


The purpose of this paper is to present intermodal transport as  a part of the companies' supply chain in which rail transport is not a necessity but a value added element. The European Commission stated in its current "White Paper" as follows: "Railway is sometimes seen, particularly as far as freight transport is concerned, as an unattractive means of transport. However, certain examples of some Member States have shown that railway can offer high quality transport services". In fact, rail freight transport has undergone a large transformation in recent years. A growing number of shippers and forwarders have discovered rail transport as an economically viable and environmentally friendly alternative to road transport for the movement of cargoes.


In classical arithmetic a natural measure for the complexity of relations is provided by the number of quantifier alternations in an equivalent prenex normal form. However, the proof of the Prenex Normal Form Theorem uses the following intuitionistically invalid rules for permuting quantifiers with propositional constants. Each one of these schemas, when added to Intuitionistic (Heyting's) Arithmetic IA, generates full Classical (Peano's) Arithmetic. Schema (3) is of little interest here, since one can obtain a formula intuitionistically equivalent to A ∨ ∀xBx, which is prenex if A and B are: For the two conjuncts on the r.h.s. (1) may be successively applied, since y = 0 is decidable. We shall readily verify that there is no way of similarly going around (1) or (2). This fact calls for counting implication (though not conjunction or disjunction) in measuring in IA the complexity of arithmetic relations. The natural implicational measure for our purpose is the depth of negative nestings of implication, defined as follows. I(F): = 0 if F is atomic; I(F ∧ G) = I(F ∨ G): = max[I(F), I(G)]; I(∀xF) = I(∃xF): = I(F); I(F → G):= max[I(F) + 1, I(G)].


This article presents a planar rat‐race hybrid coupler incorporating a novel technique, which is served by a microstrip electromagnetic band‐gap element (MEBE) on microstrip itself for harmonic suppression and size reduction. The MEBE structure can be easily implemented and utilized in PCB process with no additional/rigorous process and no lumped elements and free ground suspend. Based on the measured results, insertion losses of less than 3.5 dB, return loss of 20 dB, isolation of 25 dB, 25 dB suppression for the 2nd harmonic, and 19 dB suppression for the 3rd harmonic are obtained. In addition, without sacrificing the performance, compact rat‐race coupler with 35.38% area relative to conventional design has been successfully realized. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 1539–1542, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24383


A comparison of an existing Single Point Urban Interchange with a Compressed Diamond Interchange showed that the former provided generally better geometric characteristics concerning capacity and reduced delay times. Although the initial costs of construction for the Single Point Urban Interchange are substantially higher than for the Compressed Diamond, the benefits to the users (i.e., reduced operating costs) can be traded off to the extent that the Single Point is a viable alternative economically.


By using the square relation of the MOSFET saturated current to the overdrive voltage,a novel voltage difference square circuit is presented.Then,a second degree compensation term is produced to corrected the curve of the conventional CMOS bandgap reference,so that a small temperature coefficient() is achieved.Based on a standard 0.5 μm CMOS process,over the-40℃ to 120℃ temperature range,the method reduces the of a conventional reference from 21.4×10-6/℃ to 4.5×10-6/℃.The power supply can be as low as 1.8 V and the total consumed current is 12 μA.The reference can be easily set from 0 V to 1.2 V.This method can be widely used in any CMOS process and BiCMOS process.


Potential mechanisms of abnormal food intake, such as dysregulation of meal‐related appetite hormones, including acyl ghrelin (AG) and des‐acyl ghrelin (DAG), were investigated among men and women with obesity, with and without binge eating (BE).


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the polymorphism of the TPH gene T3792A locus in Han ethnic group of north China and its application value in forensic science.

METHODS
The polymorphism of T3792A locus of the TPH gene was analyzed by the ASPCR of blood samples from 173 unrelated individuals of north Chinese Han population.

RESULTS
The distribution of the T3792A locus polymorphism of the TPH gene in Han ethnic group of north China followed the Hardy-Weinberg law, with the allele A and T gene frequency of 0.486 and 0.514, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The TPH gene T3792A locus shows a very good genetic polymorphism, and may be applied to individual identification and paternity testing.


Solar syngas production from H2O and CO2 is experimentally investigated using a two-step thermochemical cycle based on cerium oxide redox reactions. A solar cavity-receiver containing porous ceria felt is directly exposed to concentrated thermal radiation at a mean solar concentration ratio of 2865 suns. In the first endothermic step at 1800 K, ceria is thermally reduced to an oxygen deficient state. In the second exothermic step at 1100 K, syngas is produced by re-oxidizing ceria with a gas mixture of H2O and CO2. The syngas composition is experimentally determined as a function of the molar co-feeding ratio H2O:CO2 in the range of 0.8 to 7.7, yielding syngas with H2:CO molar ratios from 0.25 to 2.34. Ten consecutive H2O/CO2-splitting cycles performed over an 8 hour solar experimental run are presented.


This article looks at the assimilation of Aristotle's account of 'coming-to-be' into conception theories found in Islamic medieval medical and astrological texts. It analyzes the way the four causes work on the level of the universe and that of the womb, and examines the reconciliation of ideas on planetary influence with the Galenic and Aristotelian theories of conception. The Arabic astrological theories that explain the re-ceptiveness of human beings to astral influences provide the conceptual link between the macrocosmic and microcosmic processes. Conception becomes an individualization of the coming-to-be of species, and the stars act as agents of actuality in both processes. Key words: Conception, generation, semen, astral influences, causality, embryo


Multiphase copolymers of styrene (S) and ethylene oxide (EO) are amphiphilic, because of the hydrophobic and amorphous polystyrene (PS) segments and the hydrophilic and crystalline polyoxyethylene (PEO). They have many uses including polymeric surfactants, electrostatic charge reducers, compatibilizer in polymer


Previously unidentified specimens from Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela are recognized as a new species of Panicum. This species is described and illustrated exomorphologically and anatomically and is compared with the putative most closely related species in subgenus Panicum. Panicum aquarum has a peculiar inflorescence pattern, with prophyllar branching occurring in several parts of the inflorescence. Prophyllar branching has not been cited up to the present in the genus Panicum and is an uncommon feature of the Poaceae.


To investigate the influence of MHD instability just before the thermal quench (TQ) on the electron temperature Te profile just after the TQ, we analyzed disruption discharges induced by neon massive gas-puff. The Te profile just after the TQ in low safety factor at the plasma surface qsurf discharges was became more peaked profile than those in high qsurf discharges. The ratio of peaking factors of current density j and Te profiles, νTe/νj, just after the TQ, which represents the plasma current diffusivity into core plasma, in low qsurf discharges is higher than in high qsurf discharges.


Immune checkpoint blockers are a major part of the modern therapeutic arsenal in many locally advanced and metastatic cancers. Two clinical response trends have emerged: in a minority of patients, they induce a longlasting antitumoral response, but for most patients, they only provide shortlived benefits. Identifying responders prior to the treatment and modulating the tumor microenvironment in nonresponders are areas of active research. The immune tumoral microenvironment, especially T lymphocyte diversity and the abundance of their clonotypes, modifies the response to various immunotherapy agents, including immune checkpoint blockers.1 In patients with basal cell carcinoma (BCC), initial studies have failed to show sustained clinical benefits with immune checkpoint blocker therapy.2 In contrast, cemiplimab, a PD-1 inhibitor, was recently approved by FDA for metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).3 A recent study by Yost et al performed singlecell RNAsequencing and T cell receptorsequencing of BCC tumors from 11 patients before and after pembrolizumab treatment to determine the change of T lymphocytes clonotypes among tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs).4 The authors have identified that pembrolizumab treatment primarily affected CD8+ T cells rather than CD4+ T cells. Compared with pretreatment BCC tumors, several subpopulations of CD8+ T lymphocytes were more abundant in posttreatment BCC tumors. Among these, chronically exhausted CD8+ T cells displayed the greatest clonal expansion following pembrolizumab therapy. Exhausted CD8+ T cells are a recently described subset of CD8+ T cells. They express markers of chronic activation, T cell dysfunction, and tumor reactivity.5 After pembrolizumab therapy, 84% of the exhausted CD8+ T cell clonotypes were novel. Namely, they were not detected in pretreatment BCC tumors. Moreover, 35.5% of novel exhausted CD8+ T clonotypes could be detected in peripheral blood posttreatment. Notably, 11.8% of novel exhausted CD8+ T cell clones could be detected in peripheral blood pretreatment, despite their complete absence in pretreatment BCC tumors, suggesting that peripheral T cells may contribute to the response to immune checkpoint blockers. In the end, the authors performed the same experiments in 4 patients with SCC before and after antiPD-1 treatment. Similar results of posttreatment clonal replacement of CD8+ T cells, especially exhausted CD8+ T cells, were observed. The study by Yost et al has several clinical implications for malignancies currently treated with antiPD-1 agents, including cutaneous SCC. First, the pretreatment TILs undergo clonal replacement by a distinct set of novel tumorspecific T cell clonotypes. This is most striking in the tumorspecific exhausted CD8+ T cell subpopulation. Hence, characterizing the pretreatment TIL landscape may have limited clinical value. Second, a proportion of novel exhausted CD8+ T cell clonotypes forming the expanded posttreatment TIL repertoire are present circulating in the peripheral blood. Therefore, tumorspecific T cell response to immune checkpoint blockers may be monitored in peripheral blood. Finally, the reason for better response to immune checkpoint blockers in immuneinfiltrated tumors compared to immunedesert tumors is probably due to their ability to constantly recruit new T cell clones. However, the source of the novel T cell clones and their influence on clinical response remain unknown.


Equine endoparasites are organisms that use horses as their hosts. Equine parasites that occur frequently are pinworms (Oxyuris equi), small strongyle (Cyathostominae), large strongyle (Strongylus ...


This paper presents a robust compensator of harmonics and reactive power for electric power systems, which consists essentially of an electronic source and a robust controller. This compensator permits us to eliminate harmonics to an acceptable level and to compensate reactive power. The control system for this compensator is robust for uncertainties in power system parameters and characteristics of the power electronic source used as the compensator. It is also adaptive to variation of the frequency of the power network.<<ETX>>


I explore consequences of publishing inconvenient information about the performance of public institutions. To understand how citizens would respond to such information, I conducted a survey experiment in which respondents were informed about sentencing disparity in the Czech Republic caused by different practices of imposing sentences among judges, i.e. information that likely questions the competence of the criminal justice system to deliver on its responsibility. The results suggest that such information does not lead to distrust and avoidance of the formal judicial system. Instead, the treated respondents became more likely to sign a petition that invites politicians to address the underlying issue, and respondents found fairness of the judicial system as a more important policy issue. I found sizeable heterogeneity in the treatment effect. The increase in the willingness to sign a petition was driven by mothers, who are arguably more sensitive to the particular treatment information in the presented case of a failure to pay alimony.


Several types of scintillation microprobes have recently been developed to directly measure positron activity from radiotracers in live animals. These probes consist of either a small LSO crystal or plastic scintillator coupled to an optical fiber which is read out with a photomultiplier tube operated in a single photon counting mode. Each type of probe has certain advantages and disadvantages in its ability to detect positrons and reject background gamma rays due to their different relative conversion probabilities and light output of each scintillator. In this paper, a comparison has been made of the relative detection efficiency of these two types of probes for positrons and gamma rays, and in their ability to localize positron decays using pulse height discrimination. Results are also given on the use of the microprobe on live laboratory animals.