This study was conducted to compare the effect of different brooding techniques on production performance of broilers. Eighty four numbers of day-old broiler chicks (Cobb 500) were purchased from a local hatchery and were randomly divided into 4 experimental units (with three replicates) of 21 chicks each. Brooding in treatment T1, T2, T3 & T4 were conducted by using Electric heating, Gas, Charcoal and Rice husk; respectively as fuel sources in four separate areas of same specifications. All the experimental birds were provided standard husbandry conditions like light, space, ventilation and relative humidity. The data regarding body weight, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, and mortality was recorded. At the end of experiment, two birds from each replicate were randomly picked up and slaughtered for determining dressing percentage and necropsy study. Result showed that there was no significant difference ( P >0.05) in case of initial body weight, average feed intake, mortality and dressing percentage among different treatment groups. Significantly poorest body weight gain and FCR was observed in rice husk brooding method ( P <0.05). Economic study showed that significantly higher performance was observed in electric and gas brooding system with high cost of brooding installation (Tk. 24.42 and 21.26; respectively) as compared to charcoal and rice husk brooding method (Tk. 17.56 and Tk.13.89; respectively) ( P <0.05). Based on the productive performance, brooding installation and economic analysis, it can be concluded that charcoal brooder may be a cost effective brooding method which can be applied in chicken farm especially in remote areas where no electricity access or power failure is common.


The aim of this paper was to investigate the ability of some 2D and 3D numerical models to simulate flood waves in the presence of an isolated building or building array in an inundated area. Firstly, the proposed 2D numerical model was based on the finite-volume method (FVM) to solve 2D shallow-water equations (2D-SWEs) on structured mesh. The flux-difference splitting method (FDS) was utilized to obtain an exact mass balance while the Roe scheme was invoked to approximate Riemann problems. Secondly, the 3D commercially available CFD software package was selected, which contained a Flow 3D model with two turbulent models: Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANs) with a renormalized group (RNG) and a large-eddy simulation (LES). The numerical results of an impact force on an obstruction due to a dam-break flow showed that a 3D solution was much better than a 2D one. By comparing the 3D numerical force results of an impact force acting on building arrays with the existence experimental data, the influence of velocity-induced force on a dynamic force was quantified by a function of the Froude number and the water depth of the incident wave. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of the initial water stage and dam-break width on the 3D-computed results of the peak value of force intensity.


Author(s): Rose, Kyle; Marx, Derek | Abstract: Welcome to Deal with it, the only game show in the world where Jesus tries to kill you. But that�s not all that will try to kill you in this mad, game-show world:you could be cut to ribbons by the chain-saw olives, blown to bits by the flying rockets, or merely fall into a never ending oblivion if you miss a jump.The goal: Get as much money as possible while still making it out alive.


In this paper a simple, selective, sensitive and reproducible stripping method based on adsorption of Se(IV) in the form of a 5-nitropiazoselenol complex at the surface of an in situ plated bismuth film electrode was introduced. All affecting parameters on adsorption, stripping and complex formation steps were evaluated and studied. Under optimum conditions the established calibration curve obeyed the linear regression equation in the range of 2 to 50 μg L−1 of Se(IV) concentrations. The estimated detection and quantification limits were 0.05 and 0.15 μg L−1 of Se(IV), respectively. In addition, the mean and RSD for determination of 5 μg L−1 of Se(IV) were calculated to be 4.91 and 2.8% (n = 5). The accuracy of the method was certified by comparison of the results obtained from the proposed method and those obtained from ICP-OES as the reference method.


We herein report a case of idiopathic portal hypertension (IPH) that developed during the treatment of pure red cell aplasia (PRCA). The patient was referred to our hospital due to severe anemia at the age of 45. The findings of the bone marrow aspiration were compatible with PRCA. She was therefore treated with cyclosporine. Her serum hemoglobin level had been preserved within 8.1〜12.2g (cid:2) d l after the cyclosporine therapy. During the course of treatment, laboratory examinations showed no abnormalities in the levels of AST, ALT or serum albumin. Ten years after the cyclosporine therapy, when she was 55 years old, she was admitted to our hospital due to abdominal fullness. Abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomography showed an atro-phic liver with massive ascites and splenomegaly, in addition to collateral veins. The histopathological findings of the liver showed that the architecture of the hepatic lobules was preserved, while the medium-sized portal veins were narrowed or occluded. Aberrant blood vessels were prominently seen. Based on these findings, a diagnosis of IPH accompanied by PRCA was made. An overlapping of IPH and PRCA is extremely rare. The present case is therefore interesting in terms of the etiology of IPH and PRCA, because autoimmune mecha-nisms are thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of both diseases.


Most evolutionary algorithms have multiple parameters and their values drastically affect the performance. Due to the often complicated interplay of the parameters, setting these values right for a particular problem is a challenging task. This task becomes even more complicated when the optimal parameter values change significantly during the run of the algorithm since then a dynamic parameter choice is necessary. In this work, we propose a lazy but effective solution, namely choosing all parameter values in each iteration randomly from a suitably scaled power-law distribution. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach via runtime analyses of the (1 + (λ, λ)) genetic algorithm with all three parameters chosen in this manner. We show that this algorithm on the one hand can imitate simple hill-climbers like the (1+1) EA, giving the same asymptotic runtime on some simple problems. On the other hand, this algorithm is also very efficient on jump functions, where the best static parameters are very different from those necessary to optimize simple problems. We prove a performance guarantee that is comparable to, and sometimes even better than, the best performance known for static parameters. We complement our theoretical results with a rigorous empirical study confirming what the asymptotic runtime results suggest.


Upconverted emission from erbium ions in fluoride materials (glass and disordered crystal of the system CaF2-YF3) are observed in a wide spectral range (from the visible to the near infrared) under infrared excitation at 1.54 μm. In both cases, the upconverted emission in the near infrared (∼1 μm) dominates the spectrum. Absolute UC efficiency defined as the ratio between the UC luminescence power and the absorbed pump power has been experimentally measured. The NIR (∼1 μm) luminescence energy yield for the glass and the disordered crystal varies from 2.4 to 11.5% for the glass and from 7.7 to 16% for the crystal for an infrared excitation power density ranging from 2 W/cm 2 to 100 W/cm 2 .T his is of a particular interest for their use as upconverter to improve the c-Si cells quantum efficiency since the energy of the excitation lies below the c-Si absorption edge (1.12 eV at 300 K) and is well located compared to the AM1.5G solar spectrum, outside of the absorption lines due to different atmospheric gases. Furthermore, the most efficient upconverted emission recorded in the investigated materials occurs at an energy just above the gap. A current generated in a bifacial c- Si solar cell is observed when the Er 3+ doped material (1.55 mA and 2.15 mA for the glass and the crystal respectively), placed at the rear face of the cell, is excited at 1.54 μm. The current dependence as a function of the sub-bandgap excitation power has been measured and modelled. Finally the EQE of the complete device is deduced from the measured short- circuit current and the incident photon flux on the cell. An increase of the cell quantum efficiency of 2.4% and 1.7% is obtained at 1.54 μm with adding the glass and the crystal respectively at the rear face of the c-Si cell. The results are compared to those already obtained with Er: NaYF4 known as the most efficient upconverter.


In this paper, a clustering based color image segmentation technique is proposed and the clustering technique is optimized by the cuckoo search method. The proposed approach consists of two phase segmentation processes. In the first phase, cluster centres are optimized by using the cuckoo search algorithm and in the second phase, empty and frequent clutters are removed and merged according to pre-defined rules. This cluster centre based clustering technique is then used to find the optimum centre within a cluster, while cuckoo search is applied to find the optimum cluster centre for each segment in the image. Comparison of the proposed method is performed with the genetic algorithm (GA), dynamic control particle swarm optimization (DCPSO) algorithm and firefly algorithm based color image segmentation methods over five benchmark color images. The parameters of the proposed method are tuned through empirical testing. Results demonstrated that the proposed method can be an effective tool for image segmentation.


This paper looks at how personal conventions are unintentionally carried from the real world into virtual environments. We look at a simple example where we investigate whether avatars will follow virtual paths, or will walk on the grass. By default, people use the paths in real world parks, but we have showed that this behaviour has carried over into virtual parks. We investigated this further, postulating that the more exposure an individual had to virtual worlds the more likely they were to break with this social convention and walk on the grass. We observed the movements of agents in a virtual park on two extended occasions, one in 2010 and the other in 2012. From this we were able to see that people, in general, were still keeping to the paths except when invited to move onto the grass. We also look at the likelihood of individuals using another mode of transport, flying. Finally, we conclude that while some patterns can be seen between the 'age' of the avatar and their movements on or off the path, more investigation must be done.


This paper proposes a novel adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) approach to address the optimal consensus control problem for discrete-time multiagent systems (MASs). Compared with the traditional optimal control algorithms for MASs, the proposed algorithm is designed on the basis of the event-triggered scheme which can save the communication and computation resources. First, the consensus tracking problem is transferred into the input-state stable (ISS) problem. Based on this, the event-triggered condition for each agent is designed and the event-triggered ADP is presented. Second, neural networks are introduced to simplify the application of the proposed algorithm. Third, the stability analysis of the MASs under the event-triggered conditions is provided and the estimate errors of the neural networks' weights are also proved to be ultimately uniformly bounded. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the event-triggered ADP consensus control method.


Traditional methods to measure power system harmonics employ either a power harmonic analyser or a software package such as Matlab. However, these usually have limited capability when used with an Internet connection and/or graphical interface. In this paper, a PC-based virtual instrument (VI) that can carry out remote measurement and monitoring using LabVIEW and a microprocessor (Intel 8051) for power system harmonics is proposed. The history of total harmonic distortion (THD) in the waveform signal can be also recorded and tracked in the database.


Iterative detection and decoding (IDD) employs a soft-in soft-out (SISO) detector and an SISO forward error correction (FEC) decoder in an iterative loop to improve the receiver performance in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications. This paper describes a 256-QAM 4 $\times $ 4 prototype IDD design made up of a minimum mean square error (MMSE) detector and a nonbinary low-density parity-check (NBLDPC) decoder with the symbol size of the NBLDPC code matched to the modulation to enhance performance. By directly translating between nonbinary symbols and constellation points, the detector–decoder interface is simplified. We present a Gb/s MMSE detector using a shortened tandem scheduling, a low-latency dual-lookup reciprocal unit, an optimized interleaved microarchitecture, and a Gb/s NBLDPC decoder with efficient internal skipping paths and memory allocation. The designs were demonstrated in a 0.7-mm2 1.38-Gb/s MMSE detector and a 1.7-mm2 1.02-Gb/s-NBLDPC decoder that are integrated in a 65-nm CMOS test chip. The chip is measured to achieve 19.2 pJ/b in detection and 20.1 pJ/b/iteration in decoding.


The technical feasibility of using oxygenated solvent mixtures as an environmental and ecological friendly alternative to aromatic hydrocarbon and terpene solvents for removal of organic deposits from surfaces has been demonstrated. Micro-heterogeneous solvents were prepared using mixtures of di-alkyl ethers and 2-alkyl alkanols. These micro-heterogeneous solvents exhibit unique properties and are effective in solubilizing and removing organic asphaltenic hydrocarbon deposits from surfaces. The main applications of micro-heterogeneous solvents are in organic deposits removal from wellbores and near wellbore regions, heavy oil recovery from oil sands and oily sludges, and heavy oil processing equipment cleaning.


Different adiabatic passage methods are applied as part of a state mapping scheme in multilevel trapped systems. The aim is to achieve full population transfer from the rotational states of a trapped molecular ion to its translational states. Our analysis is based on numerical simulations with the master equation. We discuss how the resolved sideband condition, and spontaneous emission have an adverse effect on the efficiency for stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. Use of adiabatic rapid passage techniques, with two-photon Raman transitions results in higher efficiencies that can exceed 97%.


Newcastle disease virus (NDV), a member of Paramyxoviridae family is known for its selective oncogenic effects in cancer cells. Even though NDV infections in cancer cells were shown to result in cell death through apoptosis, the actual mechanism of NDV-induced cell death process has not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the effects of infection of a local velogenic NDV strain, designated as AF2240, on gene and cell cycle regulation of cancer cells. Two different cancer cell lines; MCF-7 breast cancer cell line with wild type p53 status,and H1299, a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line with p53-null were used. At 1 MOI, NDV AF2240 infection resulted in cellular morphological changes as
early as 3 HPI in both MCF-7 as well as H1299 cells. At this time, viral proteins were also began to be detectable via immunoblotting. The infection caused massive cell death via apoptosis in MCF-7 cells by 12 HPI. The lack of p53 tumor suppressor protein in H1299 led to reduced apoptosis in H1299 cells. The cells however died through necrosis after 12 hours post infection (HPI). These findings showed that NDV can induce apoptosis in both p53-dependent and p53-independent manner, although the former is more efficient.
Despite the p53-dependency, EIF4A1, a member of the RNA helicase family is crucial in NDV-induced cell death. Overexpression of EIF4A1 led to increase in translation of viral proteins. The increase in NDV viral proteins caused cells to trigger cell cycle arrest via upregulation of p21Cip1 and p27Kip1. The present of high levels (more than 0.5 fold) of these cyclin dependent kinase inhibitors at early stages of infection caused ploidy increase in MCF-7. In H1299, growth arrest at G0/G1 phase was observed.
Another important protein that was found to be involved in NDV-induced cancer cell killing was MBP-1. Due to the difference in the p53 status in MCF-7 versus H1299,
the effects of MBP-1 regulation might be different. Since MBP-1 involves in both apoptotic as well as necrotic cell death pathways, the outcome of NDV infection in the cells were different. In MCF-7, NDV AF2240 infection caused massive apoptosis but not in H1299 cells.
This study started with preparation of pure virus and cell lines. Then the cells were either infected with NDV or mock-infected using saline and media. The cells were
then harvested at different post-infection period (3, 6, 9, and 12 hours) where unlysed cells were used in apoptosis analysis using TUNEL assay and Typan blue staining
method as well as in cell cycle analysis. Whereas, RNA and total lysate from lysed cells were subjected to GeneFishing, Real-time PCR and Western blotting.
Results obtained in this study showed that the outcome of NDV infection strongly depends on the genetic status of cell lines. This stresses the complexity of the pathways involve in NDV oncolytic properties. Nonetheless, our study has shed some light into further understanding of the effects of NDV on the gene and cell cycle regulation of MCF-7 and H1299 cells. Further studies however are needed in order to ensure the efficacy and efficiency of NDV as a potential anti-cancer agent for specific cancer types.


A multi-variable DMC system model of a typical fourdrinier papermaking machine is developed in SIMULINK to analyze the effect of variables in DMC arithmetic on control performances.The results show that when the DMC arithmetic is applied the control system is stable,robust,and has a good performance at anti-jamming.


Review(s) of: Pulmonary Pathology 1st Edition a Volume in the Series Foundations in Pathology, Edited by Dan S Zander and Carol F Farver, Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, 2008, Hard cover, 852 pages, ISBN 978-0-443-06741-9, AU$159.00.


In this paper, we describe improved alignment models for statistical machine translation. The statistical translation approach uses two types of information: a translation model and a language model. The language model used is a bigram or general m-gram model. The translation model is decomposed into a lexical and an alignment model. We describe two different approaches for statistical translation and present experimental results. The first approach is based on dependencies between single words, the second approach explicitly takes shallow phrase structures into account, using two different alignment levels: a phrase level alignment between phrases and a word level alignment between single words. We present results using the Verbmobil task (German-English, 6000word vocabulary) which is a limited-domain spoken-language task. The experimental tests were performed on both the text transcription and the speech recognizer output. 1 S t a t i s t i c a l M a c h i n e T r a n s l a t i o n The goal of machine translation is the translation of a text given in some source language into a target language. We are given a source string f / = fl...fj...fJ, which is to be translated into a target string e{ = el...ei...ex. Among all possible target strings, we will choose the string with the highest probability: = argmax {Pr(ezIlflJ)}


Hydatid cyst is not an uncommon disease primarily affecting the liver, lungs and other viscera. In case of disseminated disease, cysts may be found in uncommon locations like muscle and subcutaneous tissue. However, the presence of a hydatid cyst in subcutaneous tissue only, without being present in liver or lungs is an extremely rare entity. Here we report such a rare case of solitary primary subcutaneous hydatid cyst, misdiagnosed previously as a cold abscess until aspiration clinched the diagnosis. A 46 year old female patient presented with a gradually progressive swelling in the right supraclavicular region. Imaging studies favoured a cold abscess. Haematoxylin and Eosin stained aspirated fluid from the swelling showed the presence of scolices with hooklets. This finding conclusively proved the swelling to be a hydatid cyst. Serological tests were negative. No other organ involvement was found. The case was finally diagnosed to be an extremely rare case of primary solitary subcutaneous hydatid cyst in the supraclavicular region. The cyst was surgically removed. This case points to the fact that although hydatid cyst is a rare possibility, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of any cystic lesion. Without the correct diagnosis, proper therapy can be missed and might lead to recurrence of the disease.


As the superior community, the advantage of graduates in the job market is not obvious. One of the reasons is that universities do not pay attention to the graduate capability construction. Therefore, in order to push forward the development of graduate capability construction, we should emphasize the capability construction to build the graduate education systems and strengthen the capability training.


This paper presents memristor based filter implementation for a real time biomedical signal. The significance of this study is that the passive circuit element called memristor is completely linear in both experimental and simulation studies at high frequencies and becomes indistinguishable from normal resistance. The variation of the memristance value gives possibility to tune the cut-off frequency of the filter circuit. For this purpose, memristor based high-pass and low-pass filter circuits are constructed by simply replacing resistor with memristor emulator circuit in well-known R-C filter structures. The filter circuits are constituted on board and firstly sine wave is applied as input signal. Then, Electrocardiographic (ECG) signal is applied as input for M-C filter circuits. The results are obtained and analyzed in real-time. In the implementation stage of study, LabVIEW platform and DAQ card are used to obtain real-time data. The results show that memristor can be used quite easily to sort out biomedical signal processing applications and shows better performance.


Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999–2000 and 2001–2002 age, gender, ethnicity, poverty level, BMI, and food security status were examined as determinants of low fruit and vegetable intake in U.S. children ages 2–18 years (n=6,863). Significant differences in total mean daily fruit intake were found with regards to food security status and gender. Males in households determined food insecure without hunger had significantly lower mean fruit intakes (1.17 ¡Ó .093) than males in households fully food secure and marginally food secure (1.44 ¡Ó .066 and 1.54 ¡Ó .147, respectively) (p "T.024). Females living in households determined food insecure with hunger had significantly lower mean fruit intakes (.885 "b .126) than females living in households fully food secure, marginally food secure, and food insecure without hunger (1.39¡Ó. 064, 1.31¡Ó.127, 1.47 ¡Ó .128, respectively) (p "T .007). Total fruit consumption also differs significantly among ethnicities for school age children. Mexican American children have significantly higher mean daily fruit intakes (1.7 ¡Ó .08) than non‐Hispanic white and other Hispanic children (1.3 ¡Ó .09, 1.1 ¡Ó .21, respectively). Mean daily vegetable consumption differs for white potato and deep yellow vegetables among gender, age, and ethnicity, specifically non‐Hispanic black children. This study shows differences in total mean vegetable and fruit intakes among age categories and gender in conjunction with poverty status, ethnicity or food security status.


Paroxetine hydrochloride hemihydrate (PHH) is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor
useful for the treatment of diverse psychiatric problems. Existing marketed formulations with frequent
administration lead to gastrointestinal (GI) reactions and abrupt fluctuations in plasma level with poor
patient compliance. These prerequisites are sufficed by controlled release push-pull osmotic pump tablets
(PPOP).

Objective of the present study was to develop robust and reliable PPOP formulation via
Quality by design (QbD) approach to achieve desired release kinetics.

PPOP was formulated using wet granulation method followed by osmotic coating. QbD
strategy for defining the risk assessment of influential variables such as swelling polymers and
osmogen on in vitro release kinetics of designed PPOP.

Presence of Polyox in push and pull layer along with osmogen controlled the drug release
pattern from formulated PPOP system as depicted in 33 factorial design. These formulated optimized
PPOP systems demonstrated 2 hrs lag time with zero-order kinetics, a peculiar feature of PPOPs.

Scalable, stable PPOP tablets were fabricated by applying systematic QbD approach. The
developed PPOP systems with improved concentration-independent behavior helped to address the
challenges of existing marketed formulations. Risk mitigation and control strategy assured quality of
the system during scalability. Application of QbD strategy in establishing the PPOP formulation would
help in formulating drug candidates having gastric limitations and poor patient compliance. The present
study is the detailed account of QbD based PPOP formulation, therefore it can be of potential importance
from academics as well as industrial perspective.


Screening of 119 samples of clinically affected animals/birds and foods of animal origin revealed C. perfringens in 43 samples. Toxin typing of the isolated C. perfringens revealed 39 as toxin types A, while the remaining four were recognized as the new toxin type (type F). All the isolates irrespective of toxin type were haemolysin producing, while phospholipase C activity and DNase production were detected in 81.4 and 76.74 percent of the isolates, respectively. An identical plasmid of 23.1 kb size was detected in 16 isolates, of which 15 were belonged to type A and the rest to type F. The present observation on the recovery of haemolysin, phospholipase C and DNase producing isolates of C. perfringens type A, and particularly the type F from infected animals/birds as well as foods of animal origin could draw significant public health importance with a future study to correlate plasmid profiling with C. perfringens toxin types.


In this paper we address the issue of power quality in relation to the telecommunication power supply. After a general discussion of power quality and related global trends, we present a comprehensive list of line disturbances and investigate the effect of rectifier loads. Nonlinear loads, including rectifiers used in telecommunication power supplies, generate harmonic currents and, through the impedance of the line, lead to distortion of the line voltage. We review some of the existing or planned harmonic current and voltage regulations, including IEC 555-2, which concerns the equipment, and IEEE 519, which concerns the individual consumer. We point out the conceptual difference between those regulations, and emphasize the need for coordinated development of standards. Subsequently we give a brief overview of the methods used to achieve compliance with the harmonic regulations. At the end of the paper we list issues that need to be further investigated.


Electronic Health Records (EHR) is the medical records use to maintain by the hospitals electronically instead of paper. Generally Hospitals document, manage and update the status of patients admitted. As the patient's records are very sensitive, in order to provide a security a proper security method should be followed by the hospital authorities. At the same time, Chain of hospitals uses to share electronic health records with other hospitals. While sharing, there might be chances of record alteration and hackers attack. In our paper we propose an health care centric framework and suite of mechanisms for data access control of electronic health record stored in server. To achieve a secured data access control, Multi Authority Attribute based Encryption is used where it provides security for attributes (such as patients, doctor, research and scholar) of a EHRs and it allows patients and doctor to manage EHR and to share the records with other hospitals.


One of the main issues in global change is land use change. In the tropics it is usually associated with utilization of forest resources and the development of agricultural lands. Three different satellite images were used to compare their capabilities in identifying the vegetation types. Having different spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions the data obtained from NOAA, LANDSAT-MSS, and LANDSAT-TM, and SPOT images were used to show identifiable vegetation types. Identification of land use change was based on the digitized False Color Composite derived from LANDSAT-TM 1992 data, which was compared with BIOTROP's vegetation map developed from LANDSAT-MSS and SPOT in 1986. The forest conversions during a 6-year period were identified in terms of new vegetation types and their area. It was indicated that out of 1.2 Mha of primary forests in Jambi Province, Sumatra 69.5% remain unchanged, 8.4% converted into secondary forests, 5.0% into agricultural lands and 0.3% into grassland. However, the remaining percentage was uncertain due to high cloudiness which could not be encompassed by the existing satellite sensors, hence no data were available. From the global change point of view such conversions were evaluated in terms of carbon from each of new vegetation types. A more sensitive change was shown by lowland primary forest where expansion of agricultural lands is taking place. It was estimated that the region has released as much as


We consider the penetration of spherical dense cloud into a planar layer of gas that is in gravitational equilibrium in a constant field of gravity with acceleration W. We take into account the compressibility of the medium in contrast to the classical problem of a drop falling on the surface of an incompressible fluid. Our goal is to study the formation of cumulative jets in relation to the conditions on the borders of H ii regions. We determine those features of motion that would distinguish jet streams from inhomogeneities of a different origin. Our simulation has shown that cumulative jets may arise in the presence of an acceleration layer W. The gas in jet moves in the direction opposite to the initial velocity Vc. At the same time, there are both a cumulative jet and tails, teardrop-shaped condensations, caused, respectively, by gas inflow in the wake behind the cloud and the classical Rayleigh–Taylor instability. We assume the model, according to which the H ii RCW 82 region formed in an initially homogeneous cloud. In framework of this model, we estimated the characteristic time of a cumulative jet formation ts ≈ 0.15 Myr. This is less than the present age of the H ii RCW 82 region, which is about 0.4 Myr. From the obtained estimates, it follows that the conditions at the periphery of the H ii RCW 82 region are favourable for the manifestation of cumulative effects on scales of ∼1.4 × 1017 cm, which are significantly smaller than the layer thickness.


This paper concerns some special properties of the principal eigen- value of nonlinear elliptic systems with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We study the stability with respect to the exponents p and q; and the dependence on the domain variations.


A method based on the direct interaction of crystalline silver and iodine at a temperature higher than the AgI melting point as well as a suitable apparatus permitting the obtaining of a granular product have been developed. Spectral analysis of 9 elements shows impurities content lower than 0.05 ppm. Two crystalline modifications – cubic (about 20%) and hexagonal (about 80%) are detected by X-ray analysis.

[Russian Text Ignored].


Hierarchical gold (Au) structures with sharp edges garner a strong interest for nanoelectronics, nanoenergy harvesting devices, and nano‐biomedical applications due the exceptional strong electric field (hot spot) enhancement at their tips. Herein, a facile method to synthesize hierarchical Au needle clusters (HAuNCs) on highly active titanium oxide (TiO2) thin film is reported. Different from surfactant‐directed photochemical‐assisted synthesis methods, a photocatalytic deposition approach is demonstrated, which allows positioning and patterning of HAuNCs on TiO2 target without using any surfactant or stabilizer. This green synthesis approach enables to control the size and the geometry of deposited HAuNCs by simply altering the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 target, UV light intensity, and irradiation time.


OBJECTIVE To explore the related factors for nosocomial infections in the senile patients with chronic heart failure and put forward the nursing countermeasures so as to guide the clinical treatment and nursing.METHODS Totally 300cases of chronic heart failure patients who were treated from Jun 2011to May 2012were enrolled in the study and divided into the observation group and the control group with 150cases in each,then the control group was treated with the conventional nursing method,while the observation group was treated with nursing interventions on the basis of the conventional nursing,finally the incidence of nosocomial infections,average hospitalization duration,and satisfaction with nursing were compared between the two groups.RESULTS The average hospitalization duration of the observation group was(15.6±1.4)d,the control group(27.2±1.6),the difference between the two groups was significant(P0.05);the patients satisfaction with the nursing was(97.42±6.29)%in the observation group,the control group(80.32±5.42)%,the difference between the two groups was significant(P0.05).There were 10(6.67%)cases of patients with nosocomial infections in the control group,including 7cases with lower respiratory tract infections,2cases with urinary tract infections,and 1case with gastrointestinal tract infection,and there was no case with infections in the observation group.CONCLUSIONThe nursing interventions can contribute to the effective prevention of nosocomial infections,improving the patients satisfaction and shortening the hospitalization duration.


By means of advanced on-site PD analysis, information about the insulation condition of power cables can be obtained. In the case that at a cable non-accepted PD activity has been measured, it is of importance to locate the discharge site. This paper describes the fundamental problematic of PD pulse propagation and numeric analysis. Furthermore, the application of a practical solution for PD location techniques based on field measurements is discussed.


It may look as if the Americans and the French do not often agree in matters of culture, politics or civilization. Whenever American media wish to celebrate the dominance of American culture or the emergence of what they call a new global culture, the case of France and its weird cultural ways and wishes for exceptional treatment is used as a kind of foil. The Frenchif one can thus call the very small number of people who are opinion makers in Franceoften choose America as the anti-model or scapegoat of choice in the realm of culture. Yet behind the media battles and all the hoopla there is wide agreement: the man who was France's Culture minister for ten years, Jack Lang, and his long time opponentwho is also his friendMr. Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association of America agree: America's powerful so-called " cultural industries" dominate the whole world. This view seems to be shared by many observers in places as diverse as Japan, Germany and Algeria. One should, maybe, start not so much with the rhetorical question so common in the press: is America's mass culture the culture of the world but rather analyze the various forms this undeniable American domination takes in various countries and also consider the impact it has on the United States itself and on other countries. Contrary to appearances, the anxieties and worries of America's cultural opponents mostly have to do with survival and accommodation rather than with a genuine desire to rise against the cultural hegemon.


Undoubtly, higher education holds a merit to work as a catalyst for securing inclusive growth both within and without state. Accordingly, today, higher education is being given added significance in the world over to bring a phenomenal change in the quality of human resources. Unfortunately, over the last two decades or so, Higher Education is in deep crises from low quality input to poor process, curriculum, infrastructure etc. Dr Mehraj -Ud -Din Shah ISSN:-2249-894X Emerging TQM Culture in Business Education RR Dr Mehraj -Ud -Din Shah, Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce and Management Studies, Islamia College of Science and Commerce, Hawal, Srinagar, kashmir-190002, Vol.1,Issue.IV/Jan; 2012 ROR (2), principles ( Mehraj and Bhat, 2011). Organization of the Study In order to study the emerging dynamics in higher education, the study has been organized into the three parts: In the first part global emerging trends in higher education has been discussed in detail while, in the second part of the study attempt has been made to study how higher education is being drifted towards the dynamics of total quality management. Accordingly The third of part of the study is delineated to cover what tpe of culture is needed to enable higher education to reach at the absolute TQM. Part I Global Changes in Higher Education Higher education is witnessing continuous changes mainly after the deregulation of the world economy in general and Indian economy in particular (Mehraj, 2005). Many countries in the world over undertook swift measures to raise quality and relevance of higher education. However, their nature and intensity may vary from country to country depending upon their individual government policy needs. Some countries deregulated higher education altogether while other made partial changes. Higher education is no longer seen as an exclusively baby of the state only ( Mehraj and Bhat, 2011) . The General Agreement on Trade and Services ( GATS) has opened a gate to mass private and non state controlled education. Accordingly, large number of higher educational institutions are coming up with national and international brand. In fact there is a total paradigm shift in higher education. This shift is moving towards TQM culture. In Russia, higher education has been thrown open altogether. Universities have full freedom to frame their courses, curriculum and have complete control over their budgets. report the enterprise bears fees and other incidental expenses of students and cost of research. Universities after 1992 have attained full control over their infrastructure, land, building, equipment etc. and are free to choose the source of financing. The trend towards decentralization, diversification and partial student/employer supported education is being strengthened in other countries also. The situation is no way different in Balgaria, where university can employ its staff and have full choice to arrange its resources. While in Italy, the universities are free to engage staff and set examination and evaluation process. In Eastern Europe and in Central America, higher educational institutions face tuff situations. On one hand, Emerging TQM Culture in Business Education governments are withdrawing financial support and on the other hand are directed to improve their performance and quality. The educational institutions are fraught in crises management due to the freezing government funding, low industry financial support, decline in quality, rise in social demand, stiff government bureaucracy. And as a result, in these countries, trend is growing towards more cost benefit analysis. In most parts of the Europe including France, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Germany and Greece higher education is seriously viewed as a public good. It is now no more in the control of the government. The institutions manage themselves the budget, employ staff, design curricula and set benchmarks for them. In Chile, higher education after 1991 experienced many changes. The Dutch Model for Education was put to practice for evaluating higher education institutions and performance of institutions was linked with budgets. Staff is being put to regular assessment. France allowed partnership or participation of industries and municipalities in the university decision making process. In Italy, Universities were given control over appointment, teaching methods and autonomous national evaluation. Similar changes in education sector have taken place in other countries. The situation is somewhat similar in South Africa, where quality assurance is being practiced in many prominent institutions with a new focus on learning programmes, teachers and students, making an overwhelming use of information technology (Borman, 2005 Fourie, 2000). In America, many changes were introduced in higher education. After 1986 education quality assessment bodies and agencies were established to assess quality of education (Mergain et. al, 2000) quote Lind et. al, (2002). The American Assembly of Collegiate School of Business created new standards for accreditation that are mission based. In UK, the government in 1987 issued a White Paper representing a fundamental shift of emphasis in government thinking with respect to higher education. The White Paper disclosed that universities must accept a leadership role in providing highly skilled workforce to meet the needs of the economy besides the regular follow up of Robins Report suggestions (Robins Report, 1993). In Asian Countries (like Indian Asia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan Republic, Philippines, Panama, Nigeria, China) education sector is caught in a vicious circle of problems. There is low general qualification of teachers, low mastery level of teachers and low status of teaching. In Review Of Research


7554 Background: The primary purpose of this study was to gather data on the epidemiology of AIDS- and non-AIDS-defining malignomas in HIV-positive patients nation-wide in Germany. The secondary objective was to obtain information on their therapy and outcomes.

METHODS
Surveys were conducted targeting all HIV-specialty clinics and ambulatory care centres as well as all members of the national society of oncologists (BNHO). The surveys requested information on all AIDS- and non-AIDS-defining hematological neoplasms and solid tumors over 3 years (2000-2002) in HIV-positive patients, their tumor stage, their treatments and their clinical course. Further parameters were the CDC (Center for Disease Control)-stage of the HIV-infection and for 2002 the sex of the patient.

RESULTS
60 centres participated in the evaluation and provided 382 data sets. Two data sets were dismissed, where the diagnosis was not made within the defined time frame. Thus 380 data sets from 376 patients could be evaluated (4 patients had 2 malignomas). 180 (47.4%) were AIDS-defining as follows: 89 Kaposi Sarcomas, 82 aggressive B-cell lymphomas, 9 invasive cervix carcimomas. The B-cell lymphomas further included 19 Burkitt's lymphomas, 8 Castleman diseases, 12 primary cerebral lymphomas. Among the 200 cases (52.6%) of non-AIDS defining malignomas were 133 solid tumors including 40 anal carcinomas (= 20.0% of all non-AIDS defining malignancies) and 67 hemoblastoses including 22 Hodgkin lymphomas (= 11% of all non-AIDS defining malignancies).

CONCLUSIONS
Our observation showed an unexpected high incidence of non AIDS-defining malignomas over the 3-year time interval followed. Anal carcinomas and M. Hodgkin lymphomas in particular were markedly more prevalent in our HIV-positive cohort compared to published reports of the general population. A conservative estimate showed the incidence of Hodgkin lymphomas to be 6- to 17-times higher, and that of anal carcinomas to be 30- to 60-times elevated. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


A significant portion of the ANSI/IEEE-854 Standard for Radix-Independent Floating-Point Arithmetic is defined in PVS (Prototype Verification System). Since IEEE-854 is a generalization of the ANSI/IEEE-754 Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, the definition of IEEE-854 in PVS also formally defines much of IEEE-754. This collection of PVS theories provides a basis for machine checked verification of floating-point systems. This formal definition illustrates that formal specification techniques are sufficiently advanced that it is reasonable to consider their use in the development of future standards.


[12] Fibrinogen and inflammatory cytokines in spontaneous sputum of ... [13] Clinical Review of Mustard ... [14] Evaluation of microbial resistance to antibiotics in ... [15] Levels of cytokine in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid in ... [16] Intrinsic and extrinsic regulation of ... [17] Toll-like ... [18] Impact of air pollution on lung inflammation and ... [19] Differential gene expression profiling of mouse skin after sulfur mustard exposure: Extended time response and ... [20] Correlation between MMP9 and MMP9/ TIMPs complex ... [21] Dual role of Toll-like receptors in ... [22] Expression of toll-like receptor 2 and 4 is increased in ... [23] Bronchiolitis obliterans in ... [24] Analysis of relative gene expression data ... [25] Toll-like receptors and ... [26] An international collaborative pathologic study ... [27] Alloimmune lung injury induced by ... [28] The Role of Hyaluronan Degradation ... [29] Beta defensin-2 is reduced in central ... [30] Beta defensin-2 is reduced in central production from ... ΔΔCT median was used to measure the relative genes expression. Comparison of data was done using Mann-Whitney test by SPSS 21 software. Findings In case group, 12 patients (42.8%) were diagnosed with constructive bronchiolitis, 8 patients (28.6%) with respiratory bronchiolitis and 8 patients (28.6%) with other disease and in control group, 4 patients (44.4%) with constructive bronchiolitis, 1 patient (11.2%) with respiratory bronchiolitis and 4 patients (44.4%) were diagnosed with other diseases. Case group ΔΔCT median was 5.28±3.58cyc and that of control group was 5.81±3.29cyc that gad no significant difference (p>0.05). Conclusion As there is pathological similarity in lung tissues of both groups, it seems that TLR4 gene expression undergoes same changes.


The evolution of the wholesaling sector in the past few years has made possible that some traditional corporate functions of the supply chain were significantly influenced by its marketing strategies. The literature shows a deep relation between own brand strategies and the activities of supply management. It happens because the development of own brands makes the wholesaler a very careful buyer that aims at selecting and evaluating the suppliers in order to obtain the best performance of the own brand products. In this way, the main objective of this paper is to analyse the impact of the supply management in the own brand strategy in wholesalers, analysing the procedures and criteria used by wholesalers to select and evaluate own brand suppliers. From a multicase study with three wholesalers and two suppliers, all Brazilian companies, it is possible to demonstrate the main characteristics of the own brand suppliers' selection and evaluation process.


The costs and benefits of learning for a foraging organism are difficult to quantify, and depend sensitively on the environment. We construct a minimal mathematical model of learning in which a forager learns the quality of different food types through experience. In our model, learning depends on two parameters: rate of memory updating and rate of exploration. Our method returns optimal learning parameters for environments in which the value and variance of food types may change in any fashion. We analyze the effect of five components of environmental change on the optimal memory and exploration parameters. The fitness outcomes from learning foragers are compared to the outcomes from following fixed strategies, explicitly quantifying the fitness benefit (or cost) of learning as a function of environmental change. We find that variance in resource values negatively biases foragers' estimates for those values, potentially explaining experimental results showing that animals prefer less variable resources. Learning is beneficial only if memory and exploration are optimized. The benefit of learning is largely determined by the ratio between the overall expected value of taking one resource compared to the overall expected value of taking the other: As these two expectations diverge, the fitness benefit of learning decreases, and can even become negative. In many environments, sub-optimal learning performs as bad or even worse than following a fixed strategy. Significance Learning is commonly observed in foraging organisms. However, measuring the fitness benefits (and costs) of learning is difficult, and depends critically on the environment in which an organism lives. We build a minimal model of learning in the context of optimal foraging and optimal diet choice theory, with two learning parameters: α, corresponding to the duration of the forager's memory, and ϵ, corresponding to how much the forager explores the environment to learn more about it. We identify the optimal α, ϵ for different types of environmental change, and quantify the benefits and costs of learning. The benefit of learning is often surprisingly small, and in many environments, learning provides lower fitness than following a fixed strategy.


There are four ways of the endowment insurance system for land lost farmers,i.e.,the land lost farmers endowment insurances depends on that of the workers and staff members of the urban area;the "new farmer insurance" counts on the rural social security connections;the farmer insurance relies on the commercial insurance;the establishment of sole social security of land lost farmers and the basic living system.This multi-separation system has three limitations:the coverage of social security system and the insurants shortage;the standards of insurance are limited;the gap of the different localities of social security is quite difference.The way out for land lost farmers is to base on the system of rural and carry out the integration of the endowment insurance system in urban rural areas.


In this paper, the insulating void defect inside the insulating spacer of onsite 252kV GIS is analyzed by ultra-high frequency (UHF) partial discharge (PD) diagnosed method and industry CT apparatus. The defect position of onsite GIS is located by using the time difference of arrival (TDOA) method of UHF signal. The pulse current method and UHF method is combined together to investigate the variation of PD signal by using the experimental regression in GIS experimental platform. Industry CT apparatus is used in order to verify the detection accuracy of PD detection and location method. It is shown that, the PD level above 115kV applied voltage is about 200pC and −12dBm under pulse current method and UHF method, respectively. A void with 1.285cm length and 0.447cm width is investigated in interface between insulating material and metal insert in insulating spacer. The PD detection example proposed in this paper is helpful for the PD diagnosis and risk assessment in GIS insulation.


Objective To explore the influence of 2, 3,7,8-TCDD on mineralization capacity of osteoblast in vitro. Methods The rat calvarial osteoblasts were cultured and treated with 2, 3, 7, 8-TCDD (1×10-6 mol/L),then the mineralization capacity of the osteoblast was investigated by counting the formatted mineralized nodule. Results The mineralization capacity of osteoblast was inhibited in 2, 3, 7, 8-TCDD group. The bone nodule formation reduced in 2, 3, 7, 8-TCDD group compared with those of control (28.11±5.25 vs 37.63±4.33, P0.01). Conclusion 2, 3, 7, 8-TCDD may have direct adverse effects on mineralization capacity of osteoblasts.


The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of the sequence of the supply of ingredients (feeding strategy), based diet forage cactus (Nopalea cochenillifera Salm Dyck) on intake, digestibility of nutrients, pH and ammonia concentration in the rumen fluid. The ingredients were provided five sheep of nondescript breeding, averaging 38,5 kg, gifted with rumen cannule the following sequences: 1 – (TMR, total mixed ration) at 7:00 and 15:00 h; 2 – (C, concentrate) at 7:00 h, (SC, spineless cactus) at 8:00 h, (C) at 15:00 h and (TGH, tifton grass hay) at 16:00 h; 3 – (C) at 7:00 h, (TGH) at 8:00 h, (C) at 15:00 h and (SC) at 16:00 h; 4 – (SC) at 7:00 h, (C) at 8:00 h, (TGH) at 15:00 and (C) at 16:00 h and 5 – (TGH) at 7:00 h, (C) at 8:00 h, (SC) at 15:00 h and (C) at 16:00 h. Were distributed into a 5 × 5 Latin Square with five treatments, five animals and five periods. The nutrient intake were not influenced by sequences The digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter(OM), total digestible nutrients (TDN), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and total carbohydrates differ between treatments. The ruminal pH and ammonia nitrogen were influenced by the times in collections sequences TGH/ C/SC/ TGH and C/TGH/C/SC. All feeding strategies can be used to feed sheep, except for total mixed ration.


This study investigates the language employed by classroom teachers. The results reveal a strong tendency toward the use of sexist language by elementary and secondary teachers, and suggest that through intervention techniques the tendency to use sexist language can be substantially reduced.


This article reports on the activities, papers, speakers, and workshops of the Seventh International Conference on Case-Based Reasoning, held 13-16 August in Belfast, Northern Ireland.


Single crystals of Yb3+-doped NaGd WO4 2 with up to 20 mol % ytterbium content have been grown by the Czochralski technique in air or in N2+O2 atmosphere and cooled to room temperature at different rates 4–250 °C/h . Only the noncentrosymmetric tetragonal space group I4̄ accounts for all reflections observed in the single crystal x-ray diffraction analysis. The distortion of this symmetry with respect to the centrosymmetric tetragonal space group I41/a is much lower for crystals cooled at a fast rate. Na +, Gd3+, and Yb3+ ions share the two nonequivalent 2b and 2d sites of the I4̄ structure, but Yb3+ and Gd3+ ions are found preferentially in the 2b site. Optical spectroscopy at low 5 K temperature provides additional evidence of the existence of these two sites contributing to the line broadening. The comparison with the F7/2 n and F5/2 n Stark energy levels calculated using the crystallographic Yb-O bond distances allows to correlate the experimental optical bands with the 2b and 2d sites. As a novel uniaxial laser host for Yb3+, NaGd WO4 2 is characterized also with respect to its transparency, band-edge, refractive indices, and main optical phonons. Continuous-wave Yb3+-laser operation is studied at room temperature both under Ti:sapphire and diode laser pumping. A maximum slope efficiency of 77% with respect to the absorbed power is achieved for the polarization by Ti:sapphire laser pumping in a three-mirror cavity with Brewster geometry. The emission is tunable in the 1014–1079 nm spectral range with an intracavity Lyot filter. Passive mode locking of this laser produces 120 fs long pulses at 1037.5 nm with an average power of 360 mW at 97 MHz repetition rate. Using uncoated samples of Yb:NaGd WO4 2 at normal incidence in simple two-mirror cavities, output powers as high as 1.45 W and slope efficiencies as high as 51% are achieved with different diode laser pump sources.


The purpose of this paper is to identify general evaluation factors to be used to verify and validate LLW disposal site performance models in order to assess their site-specific applicability and to determine their accuracy and sensitivity. It is intended that the information contained in this paper be employed by model users involved with LLW site performance model verification and validation. It should not be construed as providing protocols, but rather as providing a framework for the preparation of specific protocols or procedures. A brief description of each evaluation factor is provided. The factors have been categorized according to recommended use during either the model verification or the model validation process. The general responsibilities of the developer and user are provided. In many cases it is difficult to separate the responsibilities of the developer and user, but the user is ultimately accountable for both verification and validation processes. 4 refs.


Independence forced Ukraine to face a set of statehood and nationhood challenges. State and institution building progressed quickly and effectively. In 1996 the country adopted a constitution and based its institution building on pre-existing ones. Having been a Soviet Republic, Ukraine's institutions were shaped well before 1991—if we exclude the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the diplomatic corps. The country also diligently quelled Crimean separatism by granting a high level of autonomy to the region, with Kiev retaining control of financial matters.


The hair cell orientation patterns and the number of innervating nerve cells was determined for the ear of the holostean fish Amia calva. Scanning electron microscopy was used to analyze the sensory cells of the three otolith organs: the saccule, the lagena, and the utricle. The utricular hair cell orientation pattern is similar to that found in most vertebrates, while the lagenar hair cell pattern is similar to that in ostariophysine fishes. The saccule has both horizontally and vertically oriented hair cells, although in the living animal many of the horizontally oriented cells are really oriented lateromedially. The transition region between cells oriented horizontally and vertically suggests that the horizontal cells are ontogenetically derived from vertically oriented cells. The lagenar macula has the largest sensory region, with over 216,000 cells in its main sensory part. The utricular macula contains over 56,400 cells in the main sensory region, and the saccular macula over 8,600 cells. The otic nerve divides into anterior and posterior rami, and ganglion cell counts totaled 2,021 in the anterior ramus and 1,619 in the posterior ramus. There are three populations of ganglion cells in each ramus, on the basis of differences in cell diameter. By a rough estimate, the ratio of sensory to ganglion cells is at least 90:1. By comparing SEM data from Amia, other nonteleosts, and various teleost species, we suggest that the ontogenetic derivations of the horizontal cells in the teleosts and nonteleosts are substantially different and apparently unrelated to each other and that the most primitive ray‐finned fishes had only vertically oriented sensory cells while the horizontally oriented cells subsequently evolved at least twice, once in Amia and other nonteleosts, and once in the ancestors of the teleosts.


We experienced a case of apocrine carcinoma of the breast that is relatively rare. A 42-year-old woman was seen at the faculty because of a right breast tumor. On palpation, there was a well-demarcated mass measuring 1 cm in diameter in AE area of the right breast. Aspiration cytology was carried out, because breast cancer was suspected by breast ultrasonography. Cytological findings of aspirates showed cellular atypism and intracellular eosinophilic granules. Apocrine metaplasia or apocrine carcinoma was pointed out. On preoperative biopsy, the histological structure looked like scirrhous or solid-tubular carcinoma. All cancer cells showed large cubic ones and strongly acidophilic stain and a part of cells showed "snouts projection" in the duct. Histopathological diagnosis was made with apocrine carcinoma. Modified radical mastectomy was performed. Postoperative classification was T1n0m0 in stage 1. She is now doing well without recurrence as of 26 months after the operation,


The paper deals with experiments on the culture of grey mullets Valamugil seheli, Liza vaigiensis and Liza macrolepis in monoculture and polyculture systems in seawater ponds and a pen erected in coastal waters at Mandapam.


The combination of two-dimensional(2D) guidance law can not lead to the large landing angle in 3D space.Based on the guidance principle of 2D suboptimal guidance law with large landing angle,a vector computations method is used to extend the 2D guidance law,thus obtaining the 3D suboptimal guidance law meet constraint conditions such as landing angle,miss distance and control energy,etc.A whole ballistic simulation of six degree-of-freedom is made using the proposed 3D guidance law.The results are compared with that of other two kinds of guidance modes in the case of large windage of original azimuth angle.If the proportional guidance law is used in both horizontal plane and vertical plane,the obtained trajectory can not meet constraints.If the 2D suboptimal guidance law is used in the vertical plane and the proportional navigation is used in the horizontal plane,the landing angle will obviously decrease because the combination mode can not affect the trajectory inclination angle in the ZY plane.But using the proposed 3D guidance law,the large landing angle can be realized in 3D space it can not only meet the guidance accuracy requirement but also the required overload can be decreased to meet the control requirement.Therefore,the hitting effect can be significantly increased.


Background: Citizenship, nationalism, human rights and democracy are four terms and concepts that are inextricably linked. In Kuwait, the status of citizen is based on nationality, gender and age, with women, children, naturalised citizens, expatriates and bidoon (stateless people) denied many freedoms, rights and services. Citizenship is defined by some, feeling and practice. In Kuwait, the denial or limitation of the first makes the latter two all but impossible. Purpose: In this paper, I discuss the tensions between citizenship, nationalism, human rights and democracy within the Kuwaiti context and then explore how these are mirrored in the tangling of terms within the Kuwaiti national curriculum. Particular attention is paid to the Constitution and Human Rights (CHR) module, which introduced a form of national democratic citizenship education to the secondary curriculum (grades 10, 11 and 12) for the first time in 2006 but was then rescinded to grade 12 only by the 2009–2010 academic year. Students' perceptions of the concepts and their learning will form an important part of the analysis. Methodology: The student voices come from student research workshops carried out as part of a case study of a Kuwaiti government school. These workshops were carried out in the spring terms of 2009 and 2010 with grades 10, 11 and 12 classes; a total of approximately 180 students were involved. In small groups, students were asked to reflect on posters on what they learned in school about citizenship, human rights and democracy. Their responses were translated, coded and categorised by theme. The grade 11 posters were selected for this paper, as they provide a contrast between the 2009 students, who took the CHR module, and the 2010 students, who did not. Quotes that were selected forinclusion in this paper were those that had themes echoed by several other students. Conclusions: The CHR module shifted the focus from education for national citizenship to education for democratic national citizenship, as reflected in the contrasting student responses in 2009 and 2010. However, the module also inadvertently brought to the surface the inconsistencies and tensions between several of the concepts it was meant to educate about. This caused students to develop criticality, and, alongside their learning on human rights and politics, wasa potentially strong trigger for change from below. Its swift withdrawal fromthe curriculum, however, shifted the focus of citizenship education back tonationalism and patriotism. It also rendered students less equipped to effect change – a result that the more sceptical may believe was intended.


Taking into account innovative clean coal technologies such as UCG-CCS (underground coal gasification with carbon capture and storage), in which coal deposits are developed using directional drilling technologies and subsequently converted into a synthesis gas of high calorific value, the coupled conceptual approach can provide a synergetic technology for coal utilization and mitigation of carbon emissions.


This paper proposes an evaluation system of automobile parts supplier in light of enterprise's real situation. Furthermore,it also establishes a model of AHP/Gray statistics combined with AHP and gray statistics methods and describes evaluation steps with examples.


Conflicts arise in any human undertaking, and new ventures are no exception. One of the most puzzling things about human conflict is that it can prompt people to act in ways that undermine their own long-term interests. In a new venture setting, for example, a business with very real promise can be derailed by failures of execution or losses of human capital that stem, ultimately, from poorly managed conflicts among people involved in the venture. In this commentary, I review some recent research that can help entrepreneurs and others to understand and respond more effectively to the conflicts that arise in new ventures.


Approximate stream processing has attracted much attention recently. Prior art mostly focuses on characteristics like frequency, cardinality, and quantile. Persistence, as a new characteristic, is ...


pressure signals computed via our Cartesian approach. The optimization example uses an inverse design approach to re-shape a low-boom Mach 1.6 aircraft traveling at 45,000 ft. A detailed parametric model is constructed in the RAGE modeler with approximately 180 parameters used as design variables. Optimization reduced the perceived ground noise level by 10 dB to a rating of 76.7 PLdB while maintaining the lift and drag performance of the aircraft. Our discussion shows that for functionals with certain common forms, the adjoint solution provides a detailed bookkeeping that can highlight specic regions of the aircraft that contribute to the cost function. In such cases, examination of the adjoint solution directly highlights critical portions of the model, encouraging designers to eciently select design variables.


s from the 1982 Symposium on Leisure Research. National Recreation and Park Association, 3101 Park Center Drive, Alexandria, Virginia 22302. 1982. 137p. This publication includes abstracts submitted by authors of original research papers presented at the 1982 Symposium on Leisure Research held in conjunction with the 1982 NRPA Congress for Recreation and Parks in Louisville, Kentucky, October 24-26, 1982. Included is


Bouveret's syndrome is defined as gastric outlet obstruction caused by duodenal impaction of a large gallstone which passes into the duodenal bulb through a cholecystogastric or cholecystoduodenal fistula Debate exists with regard to the treatment of choice. This relates to the need for definitive biliary tract surgery. There are advocates for both enterolithotomy alone to relieve obstruction with biliary tract surgery at a later date (two-stage procedure) as well as at the same sitting (one-stage procedure). The principal goal in management of gallstone ileus is quick effective relief of mechanical bowel obstruction, and enterolithotomy alone fulfils this in the shortest possible time. This approach avoids the need for exploration of the fistula and reduces the length and complexity of the procedure. Most fistulas can close spontaneously if left alone Relief of obstruction remains the mainstay of treatment and the better surgical option in our series is enterolithotomy alone. It is safe in both low and high risk patients and requires a shorter operating time as it is technically less demanding. In the longer term, the remnant fistula also does not appear to lead to further complications.


This paper presents new estimates of time spent in home production in the U.S. during the 20th Century. Regressions based on detailed tabulations from early time diary studies are used to construct estimates for housewives that are closer to being nationally representative for the first half of the 20th Century. These estimates are then linked to estimates from individual-level data from 1965 to the present. Time diary studies of other groups such as employed women, men, and children are also compiled and analyzed. The new estimates suggest that time spent in home production by prime-age women fell by around six hours from 1900 to 1965 and by another 12 hours from 1965 to 2005. Time spent by prime-age men rose by 13 hours from 1900 to 2005. Considering the entire population, including children and older individuals, per capita time spent in home production increased slightly over the century. The new estimates are used to assess leading theories about long-run trends in home production.


Low competence of Physics students due to some factors; the lack of teachers' concerns about students' basic knowledge, the teachers are not common to reveal the real problems happened in the students' environment, the learning material used have not based on the scientific approach, and the using of ICT has not been maximal yet. The aim of this research was to find out one solution of the problems above by using learning material based on scientific approach through ICT by applying PBL model which the purpose is to improve the students' Physics competence at grade X of SMA N 10 Padang. This was a Queasy Experiment research with Factorial Design 2 X 2. The population was the students of grade X MIA in SMA N 10 Padang which registered at the Academic Year of 2015/2016. Samples were taken by using Purposive Sampling. The instruments are observation formats for competence of attitudes, post-test for competence of knowledge, and assessment rubric for competence of skill. The data obtained were analyzed by using graphical analysis for the competence of attitudes, two directions of variant analysis for the competence of knowledge and skill. Based on the data analysis, it can be concluded that there are significant differences of using learning material based on scientific approach through ICT by applying PBL model towards the students' competence of attitudes, knowledge and skill at the significant degree of 95%.


This study reveals ion exchange kinetics in hydrated calcium-alumino layered double hydroxides of the alumino-ferrite monosubstituent (AFm) subgroup. By careful analysis of solution phase (ion) concentrations and the solid phases, the rate of exchange of NO3– for Cl– ions from the interlayer positions is studied across a range of temperature, solution compositions, and solution conditions (i.e., static and convectively mixed). Ion exchange kinetics conform to an exponential first-order reaction that follows an Arrhenius formalism. The activation energy of ion exchange is 38.2 ± 4.6 kJ/mol for exchange occurring in the thermodynamically preferred (i.e., NO3– for Cl– ion exchange) direction and it is 1.8 times greater for the inverse less-preferred pathway. For ion exchange occurring in the favored direction NO3-AFm converts to Cl-AFm; whereas in the disfavored (less-favored) direction, the compositional change occurs in two steps with the formation of a Cl–NO3–AFm solid solution as an intermediate step; be...


This article is about treatment of facades with composite external thermal insulation system. The aim of this article is to show the importance of conceptual and strategic reasoning while a proposal for such treatment is drawn. The text presents information acquired by a long-term research (contamination of ETICS by biological material, mostly algae), According to the text, the information is vastly influential to the conclusion.


Evaluate progress, the sense of evaluation in the academic context of distance education is an argumentative essay in which they seek to make a contextualization of what the scientific community - academic assessment is understood by and in turn show how the evaluation process should be aimed at training institutions so that these processes have meaning and significance. We performed a comparative study of the treatment (4) four representatives of the scientific community - academic evaluation give to understand it. Methodologically, uses a type of descriptive research documentary research, having as a population of four (30%) of the twelve (100%) most significant and representative authors of the scientific community - academic, using content analysis as a technique for collecting and using four categories of analysis such as design, focus, relevance and application of evaluation in the academic context. The paper proposes to make the evaluation as ballistic, saying in all the functions it performs, this means not stay only in relation to student learning, but to an insight into the culture of evaluation as a process to improve quality of life and quality of education in a comprehensive manner contributing to the formation of human


This thesis is entitled Register Realization in the DC Improv Stand-up Comedy. The number of data in this research were 2 videos of the stand-up comedy and the comedians perform in the stand-up comedy are Heather Renee and Terry Biddle. The writer uses purposive sampling method when collecting the data, then the data used in this research were obtained by downloading the videos from You Tube. The result of this research shows that the description of field of discourse in the stand-up comedy covers experiential domain of the discourse of the stand-up comedy is about Heather Renee's personal experience and black people or "Nigger". The short-term goal is that Heather Renee and Terry Biddle as the comedians wanted to amuse and entertain the listeners or the readers by telling Heather's personal experience and black people or "Nigger" with some jokes inside it. The long-term goal describes that Heather Renee as the comedian might want to do the better thing in her life in the future while Terry Biddle might want to see all people in America, black or white people could use the word "Nigger" easily and legally in the future. Tenor of discourse covers the agentive or social roles are the relationship between the comedians and the audiences. The status between the comedians and the audiences is unequal. Besides that, social distance in the stand-up comedy is maximal. The description of mode covers the role of language in this stand-up comedy is anciliary. Then, type of interaction is monologic while the medium of this data is spoken as well as the channel is phonic and graphic. Next, the rhetorical Mode of this stand-up comedy is narrative.


A task-based formulation of Scalable Universal Matrix Multiplication Algorithm (SUMMA), a popular algorithm for matrix multiplication (MM), is applied to the multiplication of hierarchy-free, rank-structured matrices that appear in the domain of quantum chemistry (QC). The novel features of our formulation are: (1) concurrent scheduling of multiple SUMMA iterations, and (2) fine-grained task-based composition. These features make it tolerant of the load imbalance due to the irregular matrix structure and eliminate all artifactual sources of global synchronization. Scalability of iterative computation of square-root inverse of block-rank-sparse QC matrices is demonstrated; for full-rank (dense) matrices the performance of our SUMMA formulation usually exceeds that of the state-of-the-art dense MM implementations (ScaLAPACK and Cyclops Tensor Framework).


Efficient long distance quantum communication with quantum repeaters is discussed. We show that quantum repeater protocols can be classified into three generations, each performs optimally in different parameter regimes. The application of cat codes as a single-mode encoding to one-way quantum repeaters is analyzed.


Abstract : Recent years have seen a large growth in research developed aimed at modeling the intricate social-cultural climate in which we operate. In particular, agent-based models have garnered considerable attention for their ability to simulate heterogeneous actors operating in complex environments. This paper introduces an agent-based insurgency model capable of simulating hundreds of thousands of agents with complex cognitions and behaviors. Unlike previous agent-based models of civil violence, this work includes the use of a hidden Markov process for simulating agent decision-making, the ability to actively or passively aid insurgency or counterinsurgency efforts, and the incorporation of environmental constraints on agent actions. To significantly improve performance and scale the simulation to hundreds of thousands of agents, the distributed processing capability of a graphics processing unit was utilized. With this model, we are able to show several emergent behaviors such as localized outbursts of insurgent activity, dynamics representative of punctuated equilibrium, and tipping points leading to major insurgent activities. In addition, data based on actual events in Ramadi, Iraq in between 2003 and 2008 was generated and correlated with simulation results to demonstrate how these models can portray realistic insurgent environments.


Aqueous cleaning is used extensively in the plating and finishing industry and will continue to serve as an environmentally friendly alternative to other cleaning methods. What can be done, however, to remove wax coatings that have been used for masking during plating and stripping operations? The United Airlines Plating Shop in San Francisco, CA, has been dealing with this issue for years. When a vapor degreaser began breaking down at regular intervals, and the backup degreaser was unable to handle the load, it became necessary to find an alternative. This edited presentation, which was the Garland winner from the 1999 Aerospace/Airline Plating and Metal Finishing Forum, examines alternative methods used for complete wax removal, and how United Airlines discovered the specific replacement that is currently being used.


There have always been cross border disputes involving complex financial market issues. These disputes run the gamut of financial/commercial transactions. They include the rights and obligations under various financial instruments, disputes among the buyers and sellers of businesses such as post-closing adjustments, valuation issues and earn out provisions, the relationships between investors in structured investment vehicles, disputes involving senior executives and their employers and general creditor rights. When the parties to the dispute come from different countries, there are many advantages to resolving the disputes through arbitration rather than litigating in a national court. Typically, those who favor international arbitration cite at least 11 ways in which arbitration is better than court litigation: time to resolution, jurisdiction, service of process, costs, discovery, expertise of the decision maker, home courting/cultural bias/juries, confidentiality, enforcement, finality, and maintaining relationships. Arbitrations are generally less contentious than court cases. Keywords: commercial transactions; cross border disputes; financial market issues; international arbitration; national court


Background: This was a hospital-based study on the prevalence of alcohol withdrawal syndrome amongst patients admitted in the medical, surgical and psychiatric wards of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria; between January 1999 and December 2003. The hospital was one of the specialized centers in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. The patients were admitted not necessarily for alcohol related symptoms. Methods: Alcohol abusers were identified through the use of a 4-item questionnaire CAGE; and the patients with alcohol withdrawal syndrome were identified based on the DSM IV Criteria. Results: Amongst the 2,405 patients admitted in the study period of ages 16-54 years, 403 (17%) met the criteria for alcohol abuse, out of which 31 (1%) had alcohol withdrawal syndrome. They were 25 males (81%) and 6 females (19%). For those who had alcohol withdrawal syndrome, the mean duration of alcohol intake was 22 years. The mean quantity of alcohol taken was 49 units per week. Sixteen percent of the patients with withdrawal symptoms manifested within 24 hours of admission, and another 23% up to 48 hours. Ten percent developed withdrawal seizures. In conclusion, high prevalence of alcohol abuse and alcohol withdrawal syndrome was seen among patients admitted to the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The patients were typically from polygamous family, single, had no formal education or dropped out from school, many with occupational difficulties and forensic history.


It is challenging to get reliable performance benchmarking results. Benchmarking matters because one of the defining characteristics of big data systems is the ability to process large datasets faster. "How large" and "how fast" drive technology choices, purchasing decisions, and cluster operations. Even with the best intentions, performance benchmarking is fraught with pitfalls-easy to get numbers, hard to tell if they are sound. This paper discusses five common pitfalls drawn from engineering and customer experiences at Cloudera, a leading big data vendor. These pitfalls are: "Comparing Apples to Oranges"-when too many parameters are modified and comparison is impossible, "Not Testing at Scale"-trying to test a big data system by extrapolating from an undersized test system, "Believing in Miracles"-failing to question suspicious results, "Using Unrealistic Benchmarks"-using workloads far removed from what will realistically be used by customers, and "Communicating Results Poorly"-neglecting to communicate sufficient information for customers to understand and reproduce the results. These pitfalls offers a behind-the-scenes look at internal engineering and review processes that produces rigorous benchmark results. Readers working on big data in both the industry and in academia can draw lessons from our experience.


Chiral anomalies are calculated using an effective-Lagrangian technique introduced for anomalies by Wess and Zumino and recently reformulated by Witten. Anomalous amplitudes for vector currents decaying into three pseudoscalars are tested by comparison with K/sub l/4 decay, eta and eta'..--> pi../sup +/..pi../sup -/..gamma.., and strong decays of vector mesons. The agreement with experiment for K/sub l/4 is an impressive verification of the anomaly in the vector current. For eta and eta' decay, the results are excellent, and for the strong decays, good. Since the electromagnetic and strong amplitudes have been extrapolated to higher momenta with a final-state-interaction approximation, it is not surprising that the agreement is less good here, where, indeed, further dynamical assumptions are needed. A number of new predictions are made for hadronic decays of rho', ..omega..', and phi'.


The simple analytical formula for description of the scattering of the laser radiation ultrashort pulse with the shape of the Meyer wavelet by atomic system is obtained. The dependence of the scattered pulse shape as a function of the system spectral width is discussed.


Recent African American film scholarship has called for an attention to the structures of black representation on screen. This work echoes the calls made in the 1990s by black feminist film and cultural scholars to resist the allure of reading for racial realism and to develop more appropriate critical tools and terms to acknowledge black artistic innovations. This essay takes up and reiterates that call, drawing attention to the problems of film interpretation that attend to a version of historical analysis without an understanding of form and medium. Foregrounding film as a terrain of struggle, the essay mobilizes an analysis of the 2014 film Selma to illuminate the multiple resonances of the concept representation. Focusing on the film's representation of women and girl characters, the essay argues that cinematic play with the terms and conditions of representation comment powerfully on the limitations of cinematic and historical discourses to speak about the black femme as a political subject. Analysis of Selma exposes the key problems of reception and criticism facing contemporary African American film. The film speaks to the failure of de jure representational regimes in post–civil rights movement America and offers up the cinematic terrain as an important twenty-first-century site of African American struggle.


This paper analyzes the behavior of Moroccan bank's liquidity during the period 2001 – 2012. The research aims to identify the determinants of Moroccan bank's liquidity. We first evaluate Moroccan banks' liquidity positions through different liquidity ratios to determine the effects of financial crisis on bank's liquidity. We then highlight the effect of banks' size on banks' liquidity. Finally, we identify determinants of Moroccan bank's liquidity using panel data regression. From results obtained, we can conclude that liquidity has decreased during the last decade. This decline has increased since 2007 with the financial crisis. We also conclude that banks' size is a determinant of banks' liquidity since liquidity is correlated with size of banks. Large banks are more liquid than small banks. Results show that in Morocco, liquidity is mainly determined by eleven 11 determinants: size of banks, share of own bank's capital of the bank's total assets, external funding to total liabilities, return on assets, foreign direct investment, monetary aggregate M3, foreign assets, growth rate of gross domestic product, public deficit, inflation ratio and the effects of financial crisis. Thus, liquidity of Moroccan banking industry is positively correlated with bank's size, share of own bank's capital of the bank's total assets, external funding to total liabilities, monetary aggregate M3, foreign assets, foreign direct investment and negatively correlated with return on assets, inflation rate, growth rate of gross domestic product, public deficit and financial crisis. However, bank's return on equity, equity to total assets and unemployment rate have no impact on Moroccan bank's liquidity.


Thermal insulating plasters are an important means to face the energy efficiency issues in building field, above all in renovation processes. New solutions, such as nanotechnology or aerogel based plasters, could make a significant contribution to this field, reaching higher level of thermal performance and reducing needed thickness. But, in order to be really suitable for the market, new plaster solutions have to answer to specific economical and technical needs. This research provides an overall analysis of thermal insulating plasters in European market, comparing existing products according to technical specifications and economical features. The main goal of this survey is to drive researches in thermal plasters fields towards innovative application, creating new plasters able to meets real market and end-users demands. ost analysis erformance analysis Technical cross assessment considers three main factors, defined according to European standards: volume mass powder, dry bulk density of hardened mortar and thermal conductivity. Benchmarking analysis compares prices per unit, in order to relate material quantity to the achieving of common Rx value. Cross assessments results allow to define thermal, technical and economical requirements that new thermal insulating plasters have to meet to be suitable for European volume market.


Considerable efforts have been made to determine spatial and temporal patterns and the driving factors for reference evapotranspiration (RET) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Yet, how temporal trends of RET vary with respect to elevation is less clear. By using long‐term daily meteorological records of 84 stations from 1971 to 2015, this study investigates the elevation dependence of RET trend over the TP. The results show that both increasing and decreasing trends of RET for the study period exist over the TP. The increasing and decreasing trends of RET have significant correlations with elevation, but the absolute changes become smaller in the higher elevation ranges at both the annual and seasonal scales. This is due to the elevation‐dependent changes of climate factors, including vapour pressure deficit, mean air temperature, solar radiation, and wind speed, which demonstrate different relationships with elevation. A multivariate linear regression method was used to determine the contributions of the climate factors to RET changes, which indicates that vapour pressure deficit and solar radiation were the primary contributing factors to the increasing trend of RET and wind speed mainly influenced the decreasing trend. This elevation dependence of RET change‐rate has important implications for water resources and ecosystems over the TP as well as other high‐elevation regions, where much of the globe's glacier and snow surfaces are stored.


OBJECTIVE To construct the plasmid of pET-TAT-nm23-H1,express the fusion protein of TAT-NDPK-A,and study the penetration of fusion protein into A549 cells.METHODS The fused gene sequences of TAT and nm23-H1 were obtained after PCR with the upstream primer including the DNA sequence of TAT,and then cloned into pET28(a) vector.Recombinant plasmid was sequenced and transformed to Escherichia coli BL21.TAT-NDPK-A was expressed after IPTG induction and purified by Ni2+-NTA affinity column.The antigenicity of fusion protein was analyzed by westen-blot.Fusion protein was added to cultured A549 cells and was observed by fluorescence immunochistochemistry.RESULTS TAT-nm23-H1 was cloned into pET28(a) vector correctly.The purificaton of TAT-NDPK-A protein was 97% after expression induced by IPTG and purification.TAT-NDPK-A protein was delivered into A549 cells by penetrating the cell membrane.CONCLUSION The fusion protein of TAT-NDPK-A is successfully expressed and purified.TAT sequences can deliver the fusion protein to penetrate the cell membrane and enter the cells.It lays solid foundation for the further research on gene function.


Small-group teaching and learning is traditionally central to UK Higher Education. This paper explores how disciplines differ in their use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support small-group activities. A framework for considering discipline differences and evidence from surveys and case studies conducted by the ASTER Project are presented. While many uses of ICT are common across the disciplines studied (drawn from the Humanities, Physical Sciences and Psychology), there are also some striking differences, in particular the infrequent use of ICT to facilitate discussion in the Physical Sciences compared to the pattern of use in the other disciplines studied. It is vital that such differences are considered when advising on the take-up of innovative teaching and learning methods.


Key technologies and implementation of intelligent home monitoring software are introduced in this dissertation.The paper focuses on how to use custom control in ASP.NET 2.0 and ActiveX to achieve specific function.


According to the characters of satellite networks,it's difficultly that IP technology is directly applied over the satellite networks.Some key technologies,for IP applied over the satellite networks are studied,and some solutions are addressed to apply IP over satellite.


A closed-form non-line-of-sight (NLOS) turbulenceinduced fluctuation model is derived for ultraviolet scattering communication (USC), which models the received irradiance fluctuation by Meijer G function. Based on this model, we investigate the error rates of the USC system in NLOS case using different modulation techniques. Closed-form error rate results are derived by integration of Meijer G function. Inspired by the decomposition of different turbulence parameters, we use a series expansion of hypergeometric function and obtain the error rate expressions by the sum of four infinite series. The numerical results show that our error rate results are accurate in NLOS case. We also study the relationship between the turbulence influence and NLOS transceiver configurations. The numerical results show that when two-LOS link formulates the same distance, the turbulence influence is the strongest for long ranges and the weakest for short ranges.


The grid-connected inverter with an LCL filter has good application prospects.In connection with its current control, the limitations of the conversional single current closed-loop control are analyzed,and by referring to the active damping control mechanism,apole placement-based current control strategy is proposed.Through proper feedback,the inner control is enabled to achieve pole placement and the outer grid current control to guarantee a high bandwidth with proportional and integral control.Then,a novel placement strategy is proposed,where two of the four poles are conjugate poles at fundamental frequency,and the remaining two are conjugate poles at resonance frequency.Consequently,damping of the resonance peak and high loop gain at the fundamental frequency are both obtained.The implementation including feedback choice and parameter design is dealt with and derived.Finally,the control performance is investigated and verified by experiment.


Is it possible to engage teenagers in a serious effort to identify the root causes of school violence and to develop strategies to deal with it? If so, will computer-aided group decision support tools add value to the process? Those are the questions we addressed with the 1998 Teen Think Tank on School Violence. While this was neither a formal nor a scientific treatment of the subject, the results of the initial experiment were overwhelmingly impressive. Using the GroupSystems Electronic Meeting System (EMS), sixteen teenagers grappled with the issue of school violence and generated more than 800 different ways to predict, prevent, avoid, protect, react, eliminate, or cope with youth violence. After brainstorming for ideas, they also used EMS to categorize, prioritize, and to reach consensus about their best ideas. Then they developed teen recommendations for students, parents, teachers, school administrators, and law enforcement officers. This was all accomplished in two EMS sessions; and none of the students had any prior knowledge or experience with EMS. This report presents a synopsis of their findings and a brief description of the EMS process.


American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL) is an
endemic disease caused by different species
of Leishmania
and distributed in all Brazilian states. However, there are neither established
criteria for definitive clinical cure, nor on the immune response participation in the
maintenance of the state of cu
re, in the reactivation of the lesions, and in the development of
the mucosal form. The parasite persistence after clinical cure, previously demonstrated, could
be related to these phenomena. This study aimed to identify
Leishmania
DNA and the
presence of
parasites through cultivation, direct examination and histopathology studies on
skin scars and healthy skin of patients with ACL treated and clinically cured. Fifty patients
with ACL and 30 with
s
porotrichosis (control group) underwent dermatologic assessm
ent,
EENT fiber optics evaluation, Montenegro skin test (MST), and leishmaniasis serology by
enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) and indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA). After informed
consent, fragments of scarred and healthy skin were obtained by punch 6 mm b
iopsy. The
median time
between the
healing
of the lesion and study entry
was 25
(ACL)
and 46 months
(control)
respectively.
The tissue samples, whose average weight was 7.1 mg, were further
divided into small samples submitted to: a) DNA extraction and gen
eric and subgeneric
amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with in agarose gel revelation of amplified
products, b) isolation of promastigotes in biphasic medium (NNN medium enriched with fetal
calf serum in Schneider media), c) investigation of
amastigotes forms by Giemsa
-
stained
direct examination, and d) histopathological studies. All patients were clinically cured, with
healed skin lesions and no mucosal lesions in activity. The MST was positive in 88% of
patients, ELISA serology in 44% and IF
AT in 26%. Two cutaneous scarring samples were
found positive for
Leishmania
, one by PCR and one in the "imprint"
, both ACL group
.
Additional samples of scarred and healthy skin were negative. The present results confirm
earlier findings that
Leishmania
ma
y persist in healed lesions.
The samples negative for
Leishmania in the healthy skin does not support the hypothesis of human beings as a source of
infection.
The low frequency of positivity found in the scarred tissues may be partially
explained by the pe
rformance of biopsies at the edge of the scarred region, where the healing
process begins during treatment, and the extremely small size of the skin fragments studied
and low parasite load


The data on the values of 6 meristic and 20 plastic characteristics as well as the main length-weight characteristics of the black-striped pipefish from three North Caucasian water bodies (lakes Sazal'nikskoe and Staraya Kuban, Chograi Reservoir) are given. Statistically significant differences were found in the average values of the most meristic and plastic characteristics of the populations. It has been found that the population from the Chograi Reservoir is characterized by the highest degree of morphological isolation. Possible ways of penetrating of the species into the studied water bodies are discussed.