With the development of globalization,the internationalization and popularization of higher education bring about a new situation in cultural diversity to China's university. In accordance with the nature and social function of universities,this paper firstly pointed out the significance of multicultural education. And then,by the comparison of the two representative definitions and conceptualizations on multicultural education both domestic and abroad,the paper put forward a new idea of the multicultural education in China's University. With the above discussion,the paper elaborated the theory basis of the multicultural education in China's University and its enlightenment to foreign language teaching.


Abstract The importance of stability constant determination for the calculation of speciation diagrams is illustrated through several examples pertaining to the coordination chemistry in solution of trivalent lanthanides with chemically modified calixarene derivatives substituted either at the wide or the narrow rim by carboxylic acid, glycine or CMPO moieties. The influence of the analytical composition of the systems investigated is particularly analyzed.


Wavelength-matched vibrational excitations of ethylene (C2H4) molecules using a tunable carbon dioxide (CO2) laser were employed to significantly enhance the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of diamond in open air using a precursor gas mixture of C2H4, acetylene (C2H2), and oxygen (O2). The CH2-wag vibration mode (ν7) of the C2H4 molecules was selected to achieve the resonant excitation in the CVD process. Both laser wavelengths of 10.591 and 10.532 μm were applied to the CVD processes to compare the C2H4 excitations and diamond depositions. Compared with 10.591 μm produced by common CO2 lasers, the laser wavelength of 10.532 μm is much more effective to excite the C2H4 molecules through the CH2-wag mode. Under the laser irradiation with a power of 800 W and a wavelength of 10.532 μm, the grain size in the deposited diamond films was increased by 400% and the film thickness was increased by 300%. The quality of the diamond crystals was also significantly enhanced.


The IR scene simulation technique is an effective method to test the responsivity, the precision and the anti-interference capability of the IR detector during its research and development; thus the technique may reduce the cost and research time. Currently, the IR scene simulation technique based on MOS-Resistance arrays is one of the most popular IR scene simulation techniques. However, resistance arrays can only be heated, but not refrigerated. Moreover, other simulation techniques also have the problem of one-direction IR scene simulation. In this paper, the IR simulation mechanism is studied in detail. According to the analysis of the characteristic of the semiconductor device based on the Peltier effect , the bidirectional IR scene simulation technique based on semiconductor refrigeration device with the Peltier effect and the computer controlling technology is put forward. Moreover, a prototype machine is designed ,and the shortcoming of the IR scene simulation system based on MOS-Resistance arrays which can only be heated is avoided. Finally, the performance of the prototype machine is tested by experiments. The results show that the system can realize bidirectional IR scene simulation perfectly by the means of increasing and reducing the temperature.


proach to quantify IGF that relies on the (1) comparison and analysis of observed water balance data within the Budyko framework, (2) applying a suite of different conceptual hydrological models and (3) remote sensing based estimates of actual evaporation. Their analyses suggest that IGF varies annually, and at the scale of the headwaters, IGF can make up a relatively large proportion of the water balance. At the same time, as detailed in the comments below, I do have some substantial concerns. After these issues are resolved, I believe this paper will make a nice and impactful contribution to HESS.


The dates of the research car vied out by us confirm that, the emergence of the post tabor endometriosis in the majority of cases emerges on the 4 th 7 th twenty four hours move often it is observed in those women who gave birth who had complications during pregnancy (hystosis 4,8%, anemia 1,4%, sharpening of pyelonephritis 38,2%). After the emergent operative labarum endometriosis emerges in 54% of cases. On its frequency influences in 34% of cases lengthy waterless break (first group 16, 4%, second group 14, 3%, third group 2%), hypotonic bleeding (2, 7%; 5, 7%; 4%), abnormality of the separation and placenta's discharge (6, 3%; 5, 7%; 0%); hand examination of uterus's cavity (16,3%; 11, 4%; 8%) and hand separation of placenta (6,3%; 5,7%; 0%). Horioamnionitis is the high risk factor of the endometriosis's development of women who gave as (first group 29, 1%, second 28%). The first lab ours meet endometriosis in 58, 5% of cases repeatedly, giving birth in 41,5% and many times giving birth in 38,4% of cases. The objection influence of the integrated Therapy with the use of ozone lasers and tymphotropous therapy was displayed in decrease of fever, the change of temperature's curve kind, normalization of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of pulse, arterial, pressure, there was marked the acceleration of uterus's involution on 3 days, the leukocytes formula improved SSE decreased. The analysis of clinical condition of laboratory dates of instrumental research in dynamics allows to make a conclusion about substantial advantages of ozone laser and lymphotropous therapy's use in integrated treatment of women with postlabour endometriosis.


Introduction: The stomach can be the source of complaints for many patients attending for upper abdominal ultrasound. It is not routinely imaged as part of most upper abdominal ultrasound protocols, with sonographers and sonologists alike commonly muttering the line; "I can't see the stomach on ultrasound". However, this is incorrect, as the gastric antrum can almost always be visualised sonographically.


Enterprise systems need to evolve to be adapted with changes in their context. Model-driven reengineering frameworks have been developed in order to support post-delivery life cycle activities and software system maintenance (for instance, architecture-driven modernisation is an object management group initiative). However, existing proposals are general purpose and full support for an organisational reengineering framework is still needed. This paper presents a research effort aiming at designing and developing guidelines and tools for supporting model-driven organisational improvement. We propose to support model evolution by means of two artefacts: a pattern definition metamodel and an evolution metamodel. As a proof of concept, this paper applies the proposal to support business process evolution. We illustrate an instance of these metamodels by means of a laboratory-demo. We also discuss benefits and limitations of our proposal.


The graphite electrode chemically modified with a novel cyclophane (abbreviated as(bis edtapdn)H 4)by cyclic voltammetry was prepared.The cyclic voltammograms of the film electrode in PBS(pH=7.9) exhibited two pairs of redox waves,E p.a1 =0.425?V,E p.c1 =0.275?V,E p.a2 =0.775?V,E p.c2 =0.425?V. However,the peak potentials of these redox wavse shifted positively with pH decline,and the current increased in line with the square root of scan rates.The (bis edtapdn)H 4film electrode showed stable and quasi reversible electrochemical behavior in PBS (pH9)and a good catalytic ability to the 8 azaguanine.The catalytic current peak was increased much more and the peak potential was shifted negatively 150mV than the bare graphite electrode.


We have developed a technique that incorporates several innovative ideas to identify ice floes au tomatically. Our technique finds whole floes, not just partial edges or lead boundaries. Using stan dard image processing techniques, image pixels are classified as ice or water and edge pixels (those which define the border between ice and water) are identified. The ice floes are then eroded, using a computer to simulate melting the ice. The lo cations of those edge pixels which outline a given floe are propagated into the interior of the floe as it melts. This erosion-propagation (EP) al gorithm produces initial clusters of edge pixels which outline the floes. It also eliminates loose ice and pixels which were erroneously classified as ice. The EP algorithm is computationally effi cient and has the potential of being implemented on parallel processing machines. A new approach to cluster analysis, based upon principal curves and maximum likelihood estimation, is used for the final verification and representation of the floes.


Objective: The effects of chitosan and sodium hyaluronate on the proliferation of fibroblast cells were examined in vitro.Methods:The cultured fibroblast cells were treated with chitosan and sodium hyaluronate,cell proliferation was detected by MTT assay,the DNA content of the cells were measured by flow cytometry (FCM).Results:Chitosan (0.1mg/ml) showed a significant (P0.05) reduction in the proliferation of fibroblast cells relative to control and increased G 1 phase cell rate,while sodium Hyaluronate inhibited the proliferation of fibroblast cells at concentration of 1mg/ml.Conclusion:Both chitosan and sodium hyaluronate can reduce the proliferation of fibroblast cells,but the effect of chitosan is more significant.


Based on Duhamel integral formula,a new numerical integral method for power system transient stability calculation was presented. The non-linear differential equations,which used to describe the transient progress of the power system,can be divided into two parts: the linear parts and the non-linear parts. A kind of two order explicit one-step transient stability numerical integral method was goteen by selecting linear parts appropriately from the system matrix and with a linear integrable function to approximate the nonlinear part. The local truncation error of the method was approximately equal with the improved implicit Euler's method or the implicit trapezoidal integration method,but the calculation of volume was only half of improved Euler's method,less than one-third of the implicit trapezoidal integration method. The calculation results of the New England( 10 generators 39 buses) system and the IEEE145 bus system indicated that the proposed method can be applied to large-scale power system contingency selection.


COMMUNITY-ORIENTED PRIMARY CARE (COPC) is a concept pioneered in Israel that is receiving increasing attention in the United States. COPC is a development of enormous importance to this symposium because it demonstrates yet another area where the principles of epidemiology can be applied in biomedicine with important medical, scientific, and social results. The experiences discussed in this paper are limited to those of the United States and Israel, two economically advanced nations with highly developed systems of medical care and abundant technological resources. The principles of COPC discussed, therefore, are set in the context of the Western medical model, with physicians and hospitals playing a central role in the delivery of health services. The basic construct of COPC, however, is equally germane to less developed nations where physicians and hospitals are rare and the improvement of health status depends primarily on village health workers and basic public health interventions. Although the international applications of COPC will not be addressed here, this aspect is important to both Israel and the United States in their roles as leaders in providing technical assistance to the developing world. COPC, in short, has policy relevance at home and abroad for the United States and Israel. Although both nations have growing amounts of experience with the implementation of COPC, neither currently has an academic commitment to training primary care epidemiologists, the critical researchers and teachers who can help COPC realize its potential. After fully defining COPC I will discuss the concept of primary care epidemiology in an effort to stimulate further discussion.


We propose a smart technique for directly evaluating complex conductivity in a circularly polarized field with no polarimeter by time-domain reflection spectroscopy using a terahertz (THz) phase shifter and a polarized beam splitter. We performed THz time-domain spectroscopy on a doped InSb wafer under a magnetic field with a δ-phase shifter based on parallel metal waveguides. Despite the π/2 phase shifter with low accuracy, we obtained the conductivity spectrum shifted by cyclotron frequency while maintaining a Drude-like spectral shape. This technique paves the way for new magneto-optical spectroscopy methods.


Ca2+ signaling is well regarded as being vital to hypoxic induced pulmonary arterial (PA) vasoconstriction and chronic high altitude living can exacerbate this process. To test the hypothesis that chronic hypoxia will increase Ca2+ wave activity due to acute hypoxia in pulmonary arterial myocytes (PAM) of both fetal and adult sheep and better understand the Ca2+ signals, we exposed pregnant and non‐pregnant ewes to 3800m for >110 days to induce chronic hypoxia. We then performed confocal imaging of PAM in Fluo‐4 loaded intact arteries using an en face preparation. Images were recorded in an atmospheric chamber at ~37°C adjusted to either normoxic conditions, at ~300m, or acute hypoxic conditions, simulated by exposing PAs to ~4% O2 for 30 min. Ca2+ signal characteristics in regions of interest (ROIs) were examined with automated analysis procedures. Chronic hypoxia increased Ca2+ wave size in adults, rate of cytosolic Ca2+ removal in fetuses, and ROI recruitment in adults, albeit most ROIs occured in the same cell. Acute hypoxia decreased Ca2+ wave size in chronically hypoxic adults and decreased ROI recruitment in normoxic but not chronically hypoxic adults. It also reduced Ca2+ wave size in normoxic fetuses and obliterated Ca2+ signaling in chronically hypoxic fetuses. Maturation increased Ca2+ wave size as well as recruited more ROIs across the artery wall. These results indicate that chronic hypoxia modifies the influence of acute hypoxia on Ca2+ signaling in fetal and adult PAM in marked ways that may be important to pulmonary vascular dysfunction in those who live and are born at high altitude.


The background of this research, the low impact resulting from the activities of Industrial Work Practices (PRAKERIN) Students Programs Hospitality SMKN 6 Padang, This looks at the mistakes that occurred in the industry such as the student could not comply with the rules established in the hotel some hotels are return students back to school and there are also students who make a quiet Testament error made and supply activities preparation of students not prakerin according to what will be done in the industry, This type of research is qualitative descriptive method ata collection techniques are observation, interview and documentation. The data analysis technique that is data reduction, display data, conclusion and verification .The results of this study portray that (1) Planning a briefing given to the students is still less than the maximum. (2) The implementation of activities of Industrial Work Practices own good, but the implementation there are students who are lazy. (3) prakerin ratings given to tutor students are nice, but for the procedure of granting the student prakerin value assessment takes time to ask.Because to get that value students must complete the assigned activity journal from the beginning.


Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Abbreviations: STEMI: ST Evaluation Myocardial Infarction; PCI: Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention; 2D: Two Dimensional; STE: Speckle Tracking Echocardiography; CMR: Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; ceCMR: Contrast-Enhanced Cardiac Magnetic Resonance; LGE: Late Gadolinium Enhancement; ROC: Receiver Operator Characteristics; AUC: Area Under the Curve Introduction


As a result of the increased utilization of neurosurgical arthroscopic techniques, investigations into population and sex‐specific trends of anatomical considerations have become increasingly important. This study aimed to investigate and describe aspects of the neuroanatomical morphometry of lumbar spines in a cadaveric and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sample.


Er3+ doped CaxSr1-xF2 (x = 0, 0.5, 0.7, 1) single crystals were successfully grown by the temperature gradient technique (TGT) and their compositional dependence of various spectral properties has been systematically studied. The spectroscopic investigation showed that with the variation of x, there was a significant difference for the spectral parameters including stimulated emission cross section around 2.8 μm and the related fluorescent lifetimes. The lifetime gap between Er3+: 4I13/2 and Er3+: 4I13/2 was effectively narrowed for x = 0.5, which contributed to the high efficient mid-infrared (MIR) laser.


Currently, silvoarable agroforestry is receiving renewed interest in Europe, as a land use system that allows for combining the production of commodities with a range of non-commodity outputs, such as environmental protection. Despite the potential of this practice, it remains rarely implemented in Northwestern Europe. One of the obstacles in the adoption of silvoarable agroforestry systems is the lack of quantitative knowledge on the long term performance of different crops when they are competing for resources with trees. In the face of a wide range of possibilities, it remains difficult to obtain a clear overview of overall system functioning. In this thesis, we simplify this complexity by focusing our research questions on the resource of light, based on the assumption that in Belgian climatic conditions light is likely to be the predominant constraint for understorey crops in a silvoarable agroforestry system. With regard to this resource, we develop our research in order to gain insights into the growth mechanisms and final yield of shaded winter wheat and sugar beet crops. We address these questions using an artificial shade system, which has been developed to reproduce the effect of the heterogeneous spatio-temporal pattern of light observed under lateflushing trees in an agroforestry system, isolated from the competition effects for water and nutrients. The shade structures recreate two shade environments: continuous and periodic. The continuous shade treatment leads to shade throughout the entire day, while the periodic shade treatment induces an intermittent shade period, which varies during the day and according to structure orientation. Winter wheat responded to the late application of both shade treatments with a significant decrease in grain yield, which was partly compensated for by an increase in grain protein content. When shaded, sugar beet compensated through morphological adaptations of the aboveground part of the plant, and by a decrease in the final root dry matter and sugar yield. Overall, for both crops, the magnitude of the final yield repercussion varied with the level and period of shade application. Additionally, an arable plot bordered by a row of poplar trees was selected to evaluate the effect of real trees on the winter wheat. The reduction in the final grain yield follows a gradient, from underneath the trees to the centre of the field. Notwithstanding that interactions other than light competition may have occurred, the maximum yield reduction observed under the trees never reaches the level of decrease which is observed under the continuous shade treatment simulated by the artificial shade arrangement. This experimental approach with winter wheat was complemented by a modelling study, in which we evaluate the ability of the STICS crop model to simulate crops growing under dynamic shade. The results highlight the limits of the STICS model when it is used to simulate crop growth under contrasted shade conditions. Finally, we propose agroecology as a conceptual framework for developing sustainable and profitable agroforestry systems in Europe, and reflect on agricultural practices, food systems, and research methodologies.


The mechanisms in opioid addiction and dependence involve cellular adaptations at several possible steps in the balance between opioid and other neurotransmitter systems in the brain. Several lines of evidence indicated that the noradrenergic system at the locus coeruleus may play pivotal role in these adaptations. The uses of opioid antagonist, naltrexone, in the treatment of opioid dependence have been widely practiced for more than 2 decades. The rationale for its efficacy in preventing relapse is strongly supported by scientific evidence, but major limitations are due to low patient compliance. The roles of psychotherapeutic methods in improving patient compliance must be emphasized in the therapeutic program. Another therapeutic indication of naltrexone is for the treatment of alcohol dependence. This theory has based on rather new evidence on the interactions between alcohol and several neurotransmitter systems, including opioid and dopa1nine. Naltrexone reverses alcohol effects on opioid receptors, dopamine release, reinforcing mechanism, euphoria, craving, and finally reduces relapse and helps patients remain abstinent for longer period of time. The use of naltrexone, thus, could be an effective therapy for alcoholism, providing that psychosocial treatment programs are fully supported.


A two-channel GaAs/AlGaAs asymmetric Mach-Zehnder wavelength demultiplexer with reduced polarization dependence was demonstrated. The device was fabricated on a single heterostructure comprising a 1.45- mu m-thick layer of GaAs on a 6.0- mu m-thick Ga/sub 0.85/Al/sub 0.15/As buffer layer. The epitaxial layers were grown by MOCVD (metalorganic chemical vapor deposition) on an n/sup +/ GaAs substrate. The single-mode rib waveguides, 3 mu m wide and 0.29 mu m high, were fabricated using standard photolithographic techniques followed by chemical etch and removal of the resist mask. Extinction ratios of 24.1 dB for transverse electric (TE) and 22.5 dB for transverse magnetic (TM) polarized light were measured on a device with an anti-reflection coating on its input and output facets. The active length of the device is approximately 6.5 mm and total loss of 1.1 dB was obtained in a 16-mm-long chip.<<ETX>>


Objective:To establish a method for simultaneous determination of benzene series(benzene,tolune,xylene,ethylbenzene,styrene),n-hexane and cyclohexane in air of workplace by solvent desorption-capillary gas chromatography.Methods: The sample was collected with active carbon tube,desorbed by carbon disulfide,and separated with DB-1 capillary column and detected by FID.Results: The 7 organic chemicals could be determined simultaneously,with the relative standard deviations from 3.11% to 4.02%,and the linear ranges of method were from 0.14 to 0.33 μg/ml,the correlation coefficient was more than 0.999.The desorption efficiency were all above 95% except styrene was 80.2%.Conclusion: The method is simple,accurate and suitable for simultaneous determination of the 7 target chemicals in the air of workplace


Deflationism about truth is often said to be incompatible with truth-theoretic semantics. However, both of these labels are ambiguous, making the truth of the incompatibility claim dependent on interpretation. I provide one pair of natural interpretations, on which both views relate essentially to grounding and on which they are indeed incompatible. This result has some intrinsic interest as well as paving the way for further needed clarifications in the debate about the relationship between the views.


The development of the DAST I (drones for aerodynamic and structural testing) remotely piloted research vehicle is described. The DAST I is a highly modified BQM-34E/F Firebee II Supersonic Aerial Target incorporating a swept supercritical wing designed to flutter within the vehicle's flight envelope. The predicted flutter and rigid body characteristics are presented. A description of the analysis and design of an active flutter suppression control system (FSS) designed to increase the flutter boundary of the DAST wing (ARW-1) by a factor of 20% is given. The design and development of the digital remotely augmented primary flight control system and on-board analog backup control system is presented. An evaluation of the near real-time flight flutter testing methods is made by comparing results of five flutter testing techniques on simulated DAST I flutter data. The development of the DAST ARW-1 state variable model used to generate time histories of simulated accelerometer responses is presented. This model uses control surface commands and a Dryden model gust as inputs. The feasibility of the concept of extracting open loop flutter characteristics from closed loop FSS responses was examined. It was shown that open loop characteristics can be determined very well from closed loop subcritical responses.


Implementation of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) generates costs to both the public and private sectors. While many of the costs are complementary, some result in potential tradeoffs between various groups incurring these costs. Under the MMPA, if estimated bycatch of a species exceeds its Potential Biological Removal (PBR) level, a plan must be developed to reduce bycatch below PBR. Most of the costs associated with such a reduction are borne by private entities (e.g. fishermen). The determination of PBR includes a minimum population level (NMIN), which is a function of the best estimate of the population level (NBEST), and the coefficient of variation (CV) associated with NBEST. Publicly funded abundance surveys are used to derive the values for NBEST and its CV. Survey costs reflect the spatial and temporal scale of the survey and its frequency. Compared with a high cost survey, a lower cost survey can result in a lower value for NBEST with a larger CV, yielding a lower PBR value. Alternating high and low cost surveys may result in substantial changes in PBR estimates. This study compares the cost of a marginal gain in precision of NMIN from an abundance survey with the costs imposed on the fishery and government to reduce bycatch, using harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and the U.S. Atlantic coast sink gillnet fishery as an example.


This book presents papers on heavy ion fusion reactions. Topics covered include: the effects of successive critical distances in heavy ion fusion reactions, diabatic effects in heavy-ion fusion reactions, sequential fission after quasi-elastic scattering, and present status of peripheral collision models on incomplete fusion reactions.


Green gram (Vigna radiata) is an annual important pulse crop that mainly grown in tropical, subtropical and, temperate regions of Asia. Traditionally it is grown on commercial scale with synthetic fertilizer and on subsistent scale with organic manure. Amirthakaraisal is an organic liquid nutrient solution containing of N, P and K. The present study was conducted with the objective of investigating the effect of combination of Amirthakaraisal and Cow dung on the growth and yield of Vigna radiata. The experiment was conducted as a pot experiment with six treatments and ten replicates in a completely randomised design (CRD). Which was maintained in open field. The treatments are T1 -100% Amirthakaraisal, T2 - 75% Amirthakaraisal and 25% Cow dung, T3 - 50% Amirthakaraisal and 50% Cow dung, T4 - 25% Amirthakaraisal and 75% Cow dung, T5 - 100% Cow dung, T6 – control(zero treatments). Treatments were applied two week interval according to the pot area. Growth and yield parameters were measured and analysed statistically using ANOVA and means were compared with DMRT at 5% significance level.. The results proved that T3- 50% Amirthakaraisal and 50% Cow dung significantly (P < 0.05) increased the dry weight of shoot (27.27 %), , number of pods per plant (31.03 %), weight of 100 seeds (29.78 %), total yield (33.73 %) in comparison to plants without application of organic manure(T6). T3 given best results when comparing with T1, T2, T4, T5 and also T3 plants were expose their 50% flowering 30 days after planting compared with other treatments. Therefore, it could be concluded with the final yield of Vigna radiata that application of 50% Amirthakaraisal and 50% Cow dung to soil increased the growth and yield performance of Vigna radiata.


Genome searches for identifying susceptibility loci for the same complex disease often give inconclusive or inconsistent results. Genome Search Meta‐analysis (GSMA) is an established non‐parametric method to identify genetic regions that rank high on average in terms of linkage statistics (e.g., lod scores) across studies. Meta‐analysis typically aims not only to obtain average estimates, but also to quantify heterogeneity. However, heterogeneity testing between studies included in GSMA has not been developed yet. Heterogeneity may be produced by differences in study designs, study populations, and chance, and the extent of heterogeneity might influence the conclusions of a meta‐analysis. Here, we propose and explore metrics that indicate the extent of heterogeneity for specific loci in GSMA based on Monte Carlo permutation tests. We have also developed software that performs both the GSMA and the heterogeneity testing. To illustrate the concept, the proposed methodology was applied to published data from meta‐analyses of rheumatoid arthritis (4 scans) and schizophrenia (20 scans). In the first meta‐analysis, we identified 11 bins with statistically low heterogeneity and 8 with statistically high heterogeneity. The respective numbers were 9 and 6 for the schizophrenia meta‐analysis. For rheumatoid arthritis, bins 6.2 (the HLA region that is a well‐documented susceptibility locus for the disease) and 16.3 (16q12.2‐q23.1) had both high average ranks and low between‐study heterogeneity. For schizophrenia, this was seen for bin 3.2 (3p25.3‐p22.1) and heterogeneity was still significantly low after adjusting for its high average rank. Concordance was high between the proposed metrics and between weighted and unweighted analyses. Data from genome searches should be synthesized and interpreted considering both average ranks and heterogeneity between studies. Genet. Epidemiol. 28:123–137, 2005. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


In this paper,the developing process of atmospheric environment test was briefly introduced. From different technological points,the development status and trend of the seven aspects including test kinds, application,test technology,test sites,information technology,accelerated testing and standardization of natural environmental test were analyzed respectively at home and abroad.Finally,several suggestions were given.


Background: One of the most frequent negative emotional responses during hospitalization and treatment of children with cancer is anxiety. Psychological preparedness consists of any action whose main objective is to improve the patient's emotional condition resulting from his/her hospitalization. Psychological preparedness based on information consists on providing and elucidating knowledge related to medical, social and psychological aspects of the disease and hospitalization. The present study examines the influence of psychological preparedness based on information with the purpose of reducing anxiety of patients with cancer. Materials and Method: Thirty patients with cancer 8 to 17 years of age from the Instituto Nacional de Pediatria (National Institute of Pediatrics) were the subject of this investigation. An experimental design of a control pretest-postest group was used; the experimental group received psychological preparedness based on information. The degree of anxiety of the patients confronting different hospital stressful situation was measured with the "Hospital Fears Rating Scale", of Melamed and Siegel. Results: A decrease of anxiety was reported in the group who recieved preparedness. A p > 0.05 (sig. 0.023) was obtained. Conclusions: These results indicate that preparing the cancerous children psychologically using information, reduces anxiety during the initial phase of the illness.


This is the first report of a red chorda tympani nerve observed in association with Bell's palsy. A prospective study was designed to determine the frequency and significance of this sign in association with Bell's palsy. Twenty‐eight patients were evaluated within two days of onset of paralysis. The red chorda tympani sign was correlated with alterations in chorda tympani function in terms of taste and submandibular salivary flow as well as response of the extracranial facial nerve to the maximal stimulation test. The chorda tympani was red in 10 of 20 patients (50 percent) where the nerve could be seen through the tympanic membrane. This finding is discussed in terms of a viral‐inflammatory involvement of the chorda tympani as part of the pathogenesis of Bell's palsy. In addition, the red chorda tympani sign was clinically significant. It indicated a more severe involvement of the chorda tympani than in those patients where the nerve was normal. The patients with the finding had a greater incidence of loss of taste by history and testing. In addition, 4 of the 10 patients with a red chorda tympani on the side of the facial paralysis had a salivary flow of less than 25 percent as compared to only 1 of 10 patients with a normal chorda tympani on the ipsilateral side. The study suggested a worse prognosis for patients with a red chorda tympani, although the difference was not statistically significant. The most important clinical significance of the red chorda tympani was its exclusive association with Bell's palsy and, therefore, may be an important diagnostic sign.


An enhanced supersonic carbon source produces carbon atoms in their C(3Pj) electronic ground states via laser ablation of graphite at 266 nm. The 30 Hz (40±2) mJ output of a Nd‐YAG laser is focused onto a rotating graphite rod with a 1000 mm focal length UV‐grade fused silica plano‐convex lens to a spot of (0.5±0.05) mm diameter. Ablated carbon atoms are subsequently seeded into helium or neon carrier gas yielding intensities up to 1013 C atoms cm−3 in the interaction region of a universal crossed beam apparatus. The greatly enhanced number density and duty cycle shift the limit of feasible crossed beam experiments down to rate constants as low as 10−11–10−12 cm3 s−1. Carbon beam velocities between 3300 and 1100 m s−1, with speed ratios ranging from 2.8 to 7.2, are continuously tunable on‐line and in situ without changing carrier gases by varying the time delay between the laser pulse, the pulsed valve, and a chopper wheel located 40 mm after the laser ablation. Neither electronically excited carbon atoms...


Background Chronic shoulder pain is an increasing problem in the ageing population. For patients with inoperable problems, management of persistent pain is often inadequate with current non-operative measures. Suprascapular nerve (SSN) block and pulsed radiofrequency (RF) treatment of the SSN gives relief for up to 12 weeks. It is considered that continuous thermal radiofrequency treatment (CTRF) of the SSN may give longer pain relief. Methods Sixty-two patients with chronic shoulder pain were assessed for CTRF treatment of the SSN using a standard technique with a Neurotherm RF lesion generator under image intensification as a day case. Results The mean age of the patients was 74 years. The majority of patients had a significant rotator cuff lesion. Mean visual analogue scores scores fell significantly from 9.1 to 4.5 at 6 months following treatment (p = 0.0001) and 85% patients reported > 50% pain relief at 6 months. Half the patients reported an improvement in sleep and mobility. No serious adverse effects were reported. Conclusions CTRF to the SSN significantly reduced shoulder pain for up to 6 months without adverse effects and gave longer relief than pulsed RF or SSN block. It may be repeated with a similar effect being achieved. The limitations of the present study is the use of a medium-sized series with 6-month follow-up.


In this paper, a novel approach for five-axis toolpath planning taking tool swept volumes and machining performance into account has been introduced. The toolpath generation is based on cutting planes slicing a meshed surface to provide toolpath tracks on the surface. The cutting planes can be orthogonal to each other, and positions of these planes are computed consequently so that a next iteration considers regions machined at the previous iterations. The developed algorithm alternates between several candidate tracks to ensure that a track with the best performance, which may be formulated variously, is selected. Each candidate track is computed to result in a tool swept volume that completely removes stock material between the toolpath track and the boundary of the un-machined region. Several planning strategies can be applied in order to obtain a machined surface with scallop height not exceeding a given value.


Objective:To establish ultraviolet spectrophotometry for the determination of total flavones in Desmodium Sambuse.Method: Quercetin was used as reference material,and the samples were determined at 510 nm.Result: The linear range for quercetin was 0.020 8-0.104 0 g·L-1.(r=0.999 7),The recovery rate was 98.09%;RSD 1.34%(n=5).Conclusion: This method was easy to handle with accuracy and reproducibility and suitable for quantitative determination of flavonoid in Desmodium Sambuse.


SEATED IN COMFORT in the General's Mess—chatting about sports— these Americans could have been any of the thousands of visitors to the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, with no more in mind than whether the sunshine would hold for the track events. However, the Seoul area is home to some 41 000 US military personnel who live as close as anyone in the world to what could be called a "front line." The 38th parallel that marks the border with North Korea is relatively close to Seoul (but a drive of about an hour). Some of the conversational participants are US Army physicians who would be called upon to treat the wounded if that front line became a battle line. About a quarter of the 70 million South Koreans live in Seoul, an ancient city that was largely destroyed during the Korean conflict. However, about 60% of Seoul's


Pizzi MN, Roque A, Fernández-Hidalgo N, et al. Improving the diagnosis of infective endocarditis in prosthetic valves and intracardiac devices with 18F-FDG-PET/CTangiography: Initial results at an infective endocarditis referral center. Circulation 2015; 132:1113–26. Echocardiography is the primary imaging method used in the diagnosis of infective endocarditis (IE), whether of native valves, prosthetic valves, or intracardiac devices. Echocardiography, however, has limitations, particularly with recognition of periannular abnormalities, for which multislice computed tomography (CT) is more effective, especially with the use of contrast. Some reports have suggested that positron emission tomography (PET)/CT is an effective diagnostic tool. The relative value of each of these modalities, as well as of the use of standard clinical criteria, has remained uncertain, but Pizzi and colleagues have made a significant step forward in improving our understanding of the contributions of these methods, individually and in combination, to the diagnosis of IE. These investigators prospectively evaluated 92 patients with suspected prosthetic valve or cardiac device IE admitted to Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona. All patients underwent echocardiography (transesophageal in all but 4) that was repeated after 7 days in those with initially negative or equivocal results, and 76 patients also underwent computed tomographic angiography (CTA). The final diagnosis of IE was made by an expert panel after a minimum follow-up of 3 months. Admission blood cultures were positive in 66 (72%), but only 3 of 52 with a final diagnosis of definite endocarditis had negative microbiological results at the end of follow-up. Approximately one-fourth of identified pathogens were coagulase-negative staphylococci, mostly Staphylococcus epidermidis. Echocardiography was positive in 42, negative in 13, and doubtful in 17, whereas PET/CT was positive in 51, negative in 33, and doubtful in 7. The 2 procedures gave concordant results in 50 patients (54%; κ = 023 [95% confidence interval, .08–.37]). There were 2 (5.7%) false-positive PET/ CT results among patients judged to have definite IE, one in a patient with acute mitral mechanical valve thrombosis and the other in a patient with pericardial inflammation. Also among those with definite IE, there were 2 PET/CT false negatives (3.9%); both had small vegetations and had received >7 days of antibiotic therapy before the procedure. Eight PET/CT studies gave doubtful (equivocal) results. Among the 42 patients with discordant results of echocardiography and PET/CT, the latter detected IE in 18 patients with falsely negative or doubtful echocardiograms. Nineteen patients with definite IE but who had an initially negative or doubtful echocardiogram had a positive PET/ CT; repeat echocardiography after 7 days was positive in 8 of the 19 patients. The Duke criteria have proved useful in the diagnosis of endocarditis. Adding PET/CT results to these criteria applied at admission increased the diagnostic sensitivity from 52% to 90.7% while reducing specificity from 94.7% to 89.5%, mostly as the result of significantly reducing the number of possible IE cases. PET/CTA, performed in 76 patients, had an improved diagnostic performance relative to nonenhanced PET/CT, reducing the proportion of doubtful cases from 20% to 8% (P = .001). The use of Duke criteria on admission together with PET/CTA led to an accurate diagnosis (IE or not IE) on 66 (88%). The combination reclassified 8 of 17 (47%) cases that had been classified as possible IE using the Duke criteria together with nonenhanced CT. PET/CTA significantly increased the detection of abscesses/fluid collections and was able to better detect lesions such as pseudoaneurysms, fistulas, and thrombosis, involvements of coronary arteries that are not usually seen with noncontrast CT. The results were comparable whether the suspected infection involved prosthetic valves or intracardiac devices. Thus, the Duke criteria performed similarly in patients with prosthetic valves and those with intracardiac devices. This was also true for PET/CT, as well as the combination of Duke criteria with PET/CT. In addition, PET/CT identified alternative diagnoses in 19 of the 35 (54%) patients who did not prove to have endocarditis. These included 8 noninfectious conditions and 13 focal infections. Six unsuspected neoplastic lesions (3 colon, 2 lung, 1 prostate) were detected. PET/ CTdetectedperipheral emboli in 14 (15%) of patients with IE, including 10 that were clinically silent. It does appear that PET/CT and, especially, PET/CTA are "ready for prime time," as asserted in the title of an accompanying commentary that not only


Writing is the difficult skill to master that is why exercise regularly is needed. The objective of this study is to figure out the improvement on students to write descriptive through collaborative writing technique. This experimental research was carried out in SMP Negeri 8 Pematangsiantar in the academic year of 2019/2020. The research design of this study is classroom action research with quantitative approach. The population of this study is all students grade eight at junior high school, they are 296 students were divided into ten classes. And as a sample of this study consist of 25% from the population were VIII-4 as the experimental group and VIII-7 as the control group. Each group consists of 32 students. The experimental group was treated by using Collaborative Writing Technique, while the control group was treated by using Direct Instruction. The finding of this research are the score pre-test in control group are 1376 where the mean is 43 and in experimental group 1529 where the mean is 47.78. The mean score of different in control group is 23.21. and the t-test is 5.10. The standard deviation of the data in control group is 11.70 and the effect size in teaching writing descriptive text in control group is 1.98. It means that the students ability is low. The students' score post-test in control group are 2119 where the mean is 66.21 and in experimental group are 2409 where the mean is 75.28. The mean score of different in experimental group is 27.5 and t-test for experimental group is 5.27. The standard deviation of the data in experimental group is 13.29 and the effect size in experimental group is 2.35. It means that the students ability is high.The data analysis shows the following findings: (1) Collaborative Writing Technique is more effective than Direct Instruction in teaching writing; (2) students with high creativity have better writing ability than those having low creativity; (3) there is an interaction between teaching techniques and creativity in teaching writing.


Abstract : This project explored an agent-based strategy for configuration design. A bulk manufacturing process planning problem served as the focus, but the methods and algorithms are readily extendable to any serial configuration and parameter instantiation problem. The project focused on three goals: process instantiation, configuration optimization, and effective management of the agent process. To meet the first goal, a probabilistic approach was used to determine which agents to select to instantiate a configuration through parameter selection. To meet the second goal, the parameter optimization algorithm was modified to select and optimize sequences as well as parameters. The advantage of this approach is that it is open-ended; there is no preconceived assumption of what sequence might be valid or optimal. Configuration agents were developed and integrated with the parameter agents to effectively optimize both process selection and parameters, concurrently. To meet the third goal, two approaches were taken. First, a strategy for learning across problems using findings in cognitive science was applied to the author's agent-based method. Second, using organizational models, a collaborative approach was formalized and implemented, allowing the agents to interact and make group decisions as to how to best solve the configuration and parameter optimization problem. A listing of 10 publications supported by this grant is included.


Introduction Rhombohedral bismuth has a layer structure and the bondings between the three-fold co-ordinated Bi atoms are mainly covalent. Raman-scattering measurements of bismuth nanoparticles suggest a phase transition from semimetallic rhombohedral Bi nanocrystalline to semiconducting amorphouslike nanoparticles with decreasing size[1]. Amorphization is a key issue of the phase transition, but it has not been confirmed by methods of TEM and so on. In the present study we report results of x-ray diffraction (XRD) to confirm the existence of the amorphous phase in the Bi nanoparticles.


We modify the PRIM (Patient Rule Induction Method) algorithm for bump hunting used for finding modes in populations to obtain a converging region under normality, reducing the complexity of the algorithm to a single step. We prove several interesting results comparing forms of PRIM, including that the final region found by PRIM is more accurate on a rotation induced by the principal components. We illustrate the method via a variety of simulations.


Utilizing the sparsity of video images in the DCT domain,compressed sensing is applied to the coding and reconstruction of video images.A new method of coding and reconstructing high quality images in DCT domain is formulated.In this paper,image coding and decoding process to realize the CS reconstruction is given,and a practical application system is designed.The experimental results show that the image with sparsity,the image coding and decoding system integrated with CS theory and its methods can be used to obtain reconstructed images with high quality,and compared with DCT and IDCT,the method has some improvement in the term of PSNR for general images.


Hip dysplasia is one of the major conditions leading degenerative hip arthritis in early adulthood. Devolopmental insuffuciency of bony structures yields asymetric ball and socket formation, which usually associated with trophic changes and instability. Total hip joint replacement has successfull results in patients with hip dysplasia in adulthood. The major goal of the treatment is rebuilding of a new stable artificial joint with painless range of motion. There is a need of a meticulous preoperative planning assessing the anatomic severity of the pathology, which is consisted of involved bony and soft tissue components. Limb length discrepency, quality of bone stock, muscle atrophies, weakness and contractures should be evaluated before surgery. There are several classifications for assesment of acetabuar dysplasia. However, we are aware of a combined clasification or comprehensive allgorithym for assesment of all components of pathology in unisom. Current devolopments in the field of radiology like Three Dimensional (3d) Computerized Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) allowed assesment of all component of hip dysplasia preoperatively. Metaphyseal and acetabular bone stock and structure, anteversion degrees and soft tissues has to be taken in consideration. The aim of this chapter is to review the present classifications and reported experiences on hip dysplasia and discuss the value of missing parts. The preoperative planning process were also reviewed regarding the role of modern radiologic examination techniques on current surgical and clinical applications.


Summary form only given. This document describes the realization of a spoken information retrieval system and its application to word search into indexed multimedia databases. The multimedia database is build from a multiformat set of text, audio and video documents. The whole archive collection is indexed using preprocessing techniques to produce transcripts and indexing software tools to catalog them. The system uses a Java-based distributed client-server architecture. A Java applet is used to capture the audio signal for a spoken query, then it is transmitted to a server where an automatic speech recognition (ASR) software is applied to convert the signal into a transcripted hypothesis. Later, a query tool process the transcript sentence along with the indexed multimedia database and a set of pointers to documents are generated. Finally, a Web page with links to the resulting documents, where queried words appear, is presented to the user.


According to the prototype basin analysis,the geodynamics environment and plate tectonic setting combining with the basin evolution are applied to analyze the basin and mountain coupling systems.The basins and orogene in China continent could be divided into eight main basin and mountain coupling systems.The characteristics of these basin and mountain coupling systems are studied.The results show that the multi-stage and multicycle of tectonic movement in China continent result in the superimposed basin pattern which has many types of basin and mountain coupling systems with multi-stages.


Distribution device gives a relation amongst the unnecessary voltage transmission system and much less power consumers therefore I2R loss in a due organization is excessive due to low voltage and excessive current. Dispersal Concerns (DISCOs) consume a pecuniary incentive to reduce losses of their systems. Generally, this incentive remains the total change among actual and well-known losses. Hence, if actual losses are better than the usual ones, the DISCOs are economically penalized or if the alternative takes place, they attain a few profits. For that reason, loss minimization issue is a well-researched situation count and all preceding processes variety from each different by way of preference of tool for loss minimization and thereafter either in their trouble components techniques employed. Many strategies of loss minimization occur like feeder reconfiguration, capacitor placement, excessive voltage distribution system, conductor grading, dispensed Generator (DG) Allocation and so forth. This paper gives a biographical survey, general history of DG Allocation for loss minimization in distribution network based totally on over 43 published articles, just so new researchers can without difficulty discover literature in particular in this area.


Pistons are key parts of diesel engines.The reliability and the service life of pistons determine the locomotive's repair cycle and the enhancing level of diesel engine to a certain extent.We performed a series of analysis,calculations,tests and technique researches to improve our design,and developed the high reliability diesel engin piston for locomotives.


The implementation of CSR in the context of Islam is seen in Islamic Social Reporting or ISR. However, the reporting of Islamic Social Reporting (ISR) in practice and its disclosure is still voluntary. This is due to the absence of standard syariah standard that regulates the reporting of Islamic CSR. The standards for disclosure of sharia CSR issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institution (AAOIFI) can not be used as a standard of CSR disclosure because it does not mention all CSR related items that a company must disclose. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that affect the disclosure of Islamic Social Reporting (ISR) on companies listed in the Sharia Indonesia Sharia Index (ISSI) in 2013-2015. Factors used in this study, among others: the size of the company, profitability, and environmental performance. The research population is a company registered in Indonesia Sharia Sharia Index (ISSI) in 2013-2015, with sampling technique using purposive sampling. Analyzer uses multiple linear regression, which previously will be tested classical assumption which include: test of normality, multikolinearitas, heteroskedastisitas, and autokorelasi. The results showed that firm size influenced the disclosure of Islamic Social Reporting (ISR), while profitability and environmental performance had no effect.


The objectives of this paper were: to perform the physical-chemical characterization of a metalworking effluent and to carry out the integrated treatment (chemical precipitation and biotreatment), using effluent autochthonous microorganisms (FI and FV) and a reference (A. niger). The characterization indicated pH of 1.7; color, 1,495 mg Pt.L-1; chemical oxygen demand, 9,147 mgO2.L-1; oil and grease, 887 mg.L-1, and dissolved oxygen with 2.5 mgO2.L-1. With the chemical precipitation treatment, in pH = 7.5, the reduction of all the investigated metallic ions was obtained. The color was reduced 95% after the biotreatment using the FV microorganism. The chemical oxygen demand and oil and grease reductions were more significant when using FI, which reduced the same in 52 and 62%, respectively. These results indicated that the autochthonous microorganisms were more efficient in the effluent treatment than the reference organism A. niger.


In the twentieth century, the forest products industry evolved through three distinct focal orientations: a forestry orientation, a production orientation, and a marketing orientation. In each case, research and technology (R&T) was applied as a means of either solving the limitations associated with each orientation or shifting the industry orientation to the next focal point. In the beginning of the twenty-first century, R&T is required to facilitate a new shift for the wood products sector from a marketing orientation to a knowledge orientation. This requires an expansion of traditional research and technology to incorporate a market-based social sciences approach, along with the traditional physical and engineering sciences, as more than just an afterthought. In order to ensure future successes, innovative technological solutions must be applied to emerging market-based knowledge clusters such as connectivity, supply chain management, eBusiness, mass customization, and knowledge-based products. These ...


This article focuses on the ideology of international education as it developed during the twentieth century and analyses it into three elements: core beliefs about internationalism; the characteristics of a virtuous and worthy human being; and a set of pedagogical principles, based on enquiry, collaboration and debate. The idea, encapsulated by the International Baccalaureate (IB), of a universally available and applicable programme of international education is examined and the contrast drawn between the period in which the IB first emerged, when its target audience was mainly international schools for expatriate communities, and the current situation where the vast majority of IB programmes are taught in state and private "national" schools. The idea of a universal educational programme is seen as having its origins in the Enlightenment project whose key features are analysed. The principles of the Enlightenment have been under attack in recent decades as a result of developments in philosophy and the political changes which have moved us into a more multi-polar world. The implications of these developments for international education, and in particular for the idea of a universal education programme, are examined. The article concludes with thoughts about the future strategic agenda of the IB.


Wireless sensor network applications, similarly to other distributed systems, often require a scalable time synchronization service enabling data consistency and coordination. This paper describes the Flooding Time Synchronization Protocol (FTSP), especially tailored for applications requiring stringent precision on resource limited wireless platforms. The proposed time synchronization protocol uses low communication bandwidth and it is robust against node and link failures. The FTSP achieves its robustness by utilizing periodic flooding of synchronization messages, and implicit dynamic topology update. The unique high precision performance is reached by utilizing MAC-layer time-stamping and comprehensive error compensation including clock skew estimation. The sources of delays and uncertainties in message transmission are analyzed in detail and techniques are presented to mitigate their effects. The FTSP was implemented on the Berkeley Mica2 platform and evaluated in a 60-node, multi-hop setup. The average per-hop synchronization error was in the one microsecond range, which is markedly better than that of the existing RBS and TPSN algorithms.


Isoflavone synthase(IFS) not only had the catalytic activity of isoflavone,but also was the key enzyme in the pathway of the flavonoids metabolism.The progress and prospect in the plant isoflavone synthase and its gene was described in detail.


There are two major questions regarding Environmental Sound Classification (ESC). What is the best audio recognition framework, and what is the most robust audio feature? For investigating above problems, the Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) network was used to analyze the effect of single features such as Mel Scale Spectrogram (Mel), Log-Mel Scale Spectrogram (LM), and Mel frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) as well as multi-feature about Mel-MFCC, LM-MFCC, and Mel-LM-MFCC (T-M) in this paper. The experiment results show that in the ESC tasks, multi-features are better than the single features in the same dimensions, and LM-MFCC has the strongest robustness. Meanwhile, reverse sequence MFCC (R-MFCC) and forward and reverse mixed sequence MFCC (FR-MFCC) were also proposed to study the effects of sequence changes on audio. The experiment results show that the sequence transformation of audio features has less influence on the recognition tasks. Furthermore, to investigate the ESC task further we introduced the attention weight similar model (AWS) in to the multi-feature. The AWS model allows different audio feature attention weights of the same sound to learn from each other. It makes the GRU-AWS model focus on the frame-level features more effectively. The experiment results show that the GRU-AWS gets excellent performance with a recognition rate of 94.3%, and it outperforms other state-of-the-art methods.


While the academic literature has paid much attention to public relations evaluation over
past decade (Baskin, Aronoff & Lattimore, 1997; Cutlip, Center & Broom, 2006; Dozier
Repper, 1992; Walker, 1994; Watson, 2001), many studies have suggested practitioner use
evaluation methods remains limited (Gregory,2001; Macnamara, 2002; Pieczka, 2000; Pohl
& Vandeventer, 2001; Walker, 1994; Watson, 1997). Although practitioners use both formal
and informal methods to evaluate their effectiveness (Walker, 1994; Watson, 2001),
unclear how their reporting of public relations success measures up to actual achievement
organisational outcomes. This study of approximately 70 practitioners builds on four major Australian studies evaluation use (Macnamara, 2002; Walker,1994; Watson & Simmons, 2004; Xavier, Patel & Johnston, 2004) to identify the evaluation patterns of public relations practitioners including the major focus of their evaluation efforts, the use of evaluation to demonstrate organisational outcomes and the barriers further evaluation. Utilising the trends identified by the four studies, a set of initiatives
proposed to encourage practitioners to extend their evaluation activities and thereby support their claims to enhanced performance.


This thesis discusses two noticeable phenomena in Jane Austen's adaptations: the female gaze contributing to the rise of women's status and the ambiguous position of male masculinity through visual representations. Laura Mulvey's discourse of gaze criticizes that the male gaze objectifies women as glamorous images, and Kaja Silverman's camera gaze challenges the meanings of gaze from a technical aspect. The visual power is well functioned by the display of Davies's female gaze, which transforms the heroine's gaze into an active position, and Wright's technical gaze which intensifies the characters' features through intercuts and long shots. In addition, Silverman's concept of the male masochist asserts the crisis of male masculinity. Silverman's assertion of deviant masculinity mentions that men's rejection of privilege leads to them becoming feminized and suffering. Lastly, the conclusion discusses one of the modern day sequels to the Austen novels, Lost in Austen, which offers a modern Jane Austen fan a dynamic role to intervene in the story and to interact with the characters across generations, cultures, and spaces.


Abstract The internal friction of cold-worked polycrystalline copper has been measured in the temperature range 20° to 300°K, and a study made of the maximum in the curve of internal friction versus temperature first observed by Bordoni. The measurements indicate how the internal friction varies as a function of the amount of cold work, and also the effect of impurities in the metal and of neutron irradiation. The results are discussed with particular reference to recent theoretical treatments by Seeger.


Family is the basic social cell,so a harmonious family is the basis for building a harmonious society.Current social transformation brings a series of challenges to families and the construction of the harmonious family.This paper analyzes the situation that construction of a harmonious family is faced,points out the principles to abide by and the misunderstanding to avoid,and puts forward the strategic solutions to promote its construction.


The micellar properties of benzyldimethyldodecylammonium bromide has been studied by conductivity method in the binary mixtures (10% v/v) of acetonitrile, dimethyl sulfoxide, tetrahydrofuran,1,4-dioxane, methanol and ethylene glycol at different temperatures ranging from 300 to 319 K. The thermodynamics of micellization i.e, Gibbs free energy (ΔG° m ), enthalpy (ΔH° m ), and entropy (ΔS° m ) have also been determined. The increase of critical micelle concentration with solvent mixtures has been discussed on the basis of water structure, solvent properties and hydrophobic interaction.


In the late Sixties, Nam June Paik, one of the creators of videoart, expressed his concern that "it is about time we make the distinction between video art and video taped art." Looking at TV and video dance of the Seventies and early Eighties one feels compelled to agree with Paik, realizing that a distinction must finally be made between video dance and video taped dance. Even when given the opportunity to create a work for video, rather than adapt a proscenium piece, choreographers frequently continue composing dances from a theatrical point of view which are then more or less successfully captured by the media. In other words, instead of creating videodance — a blending of structural and perceptual elements intrinsic to dance and the media — makers unintentionally slip into the genre of video translations of existing works or of videodocumentation. It appears that this state of affairs is chiefly due to two factors. Dancers and choreographers, on the one hand, do not always seek opportunities for hands-on experiences in a television studio or even with portable video equipment (other than shooting a record tape in place of a dance score). Such a practice does not allow for an understanding of the nature of the medium and excludes a creative integration of its expressive potentials. The number of media artists, on the other hand, who are familiar with the nature of dance is small. Independent artists, such as Charles Atlas, Doris Chase, and Jeff Bush or TV directors Fred Barzyk and Rick Hauser, are a minority, and individual dance/performance/media artists, such as Birgit Cullberg, Amy Greenfield, and Elaine Summers are still exceptions.


ABSTRACT Recently, Di Crescenzo and Longobardi (2006) have studied "length-biased" shift-dependent information measure and its dynamic versions. On the other hand, Renyi's entropy plays a vital role in the literature of information theory that is a generalization of Shannon's entropy. In this article, the concepts of weighted Renyi's entropy, weighted residual Renyi's entropy, and weighted past Renyi's entropy are introduced and their properties are discussed.


Anemia is one of main health problem in the world. The prevalence is very
high in reproductive age women, especially during pregnancy.
The design of the study was descriptive analytic with cross-sectional
approach. The population was pregnant woman trimester of 1 and 2. The 39
sample respondents were chosen by simple random sampling. The independent
variables in this study were technological factor, family's support,cultural values
and lifeways, economical factor, and knowledge. The dependent variable was
anemia in pregnant women. The data were collected by using questionnaire and
analyzed by using chi square test with a degree of significance α < 0.05
The results showed a correlation between tecnological factor (p = 0.045),
family's support (p = 0.047), and knowledge (p = 0.006) with anaemia in pregnant
women. The cultural value and lifeways (p = 0.092) and economical factor (p =
0.253) does not affect the pregnant women.
Some factors in transcultural nursing have a correlation with anaemia in
pregnant women. Further research was suggested to using qualitative methods or
observation and decrease anemia in pregnancy with an effective health education.


Geotextiles, engineering fabrics, can be properly used only if there is an understanding of the surroundings in which the material is to be placed. This first installment presents information on the soils and ballast environment in which geotextiles are applied, defining common soils and stress conditions that require frequent addition or replacement of ballast to retain track geometry. Also examined are the resilient responses and permanent deformation within the subgrade and ballast. The subsequent article lists the contributions and limitations of fabrics in track-structure applications.


Mobile bed scaling (for scales smaller than 1:1) does not allow for ideal similarity between all nondimensional parameters. This leads to an exaggerated presence of one process over another or the development of scale effects. The complexity of the surf zone makes it especially difficult to separate and quantify the effect of sediment scaling on each individual process. As a result, the impact of sediment scaling on the holistic morphodynamic process is poorly understood. Profiles were obtained at TU Delft (scale 1:10) following the testing regime used during the SANDS project. This set made use of density and diameter scaled sediment (?s = 1200 kg/m3 and d50 = 0.52 mm); scaled according to the bed load model of Henriquez, Reniers et al. (2008). The set used for analysis here includes the Hannover (prototype scale 1:1) and Deltares (Froude scale 1:6) profiles obtained during SANDS. The present work looks to extend what is currently known about the impact of sediment scaling on nearshore transport processes. Three main objectives are identified: 1) Showing profile development and inferred transport rates, compare nondimensional parameters across the nearshore and surf zone; 2) Identify how spatial variance of dominate hydrodynamic and sediment transport regimes across the surf zone are influenced by the subsequent scaling; 3) Explain morphological differences due to scaling by observing the small scale transport process. Analysis of the profiles showed a marked degree of geometrical similarity between all three facilities. More specifically, the development of a bar-trough system and subsequent offshore migration. The transport rates were, however, divergent. Compared to Hannover, the transport rates at Deltares were low where conversely TU Delft was high. Using ideal scaling theories as a basis, the cross shore distribution of the nondimensional parameters at TU Delft suggested that both sediment mobility and near bed suspension were similar with prototype. However, due to a large fall velocity, the Dean number was underestimated. From the use of Froude scaling at Deltares, the nondimensional parameters suggested that neither near bed nor suspended load transport regimes were reproduced correctly. This can mostly be attributed to the rippled bed state and reduced Shields value. A simple depth and time averaged model was also used to decompose the sediment concentrations. These concentrations were used to check consistency of the nondimensional parameter agreement with the manifestation of the physical process. Inconsistent with the nondimensional results, TU Delft showed that near bed sediment mobility and suspension was high. It is believed this led to the exaggerated sediment fluxes. Concentrations at Deltares suggest the rippled bed introduced a thinned boundary layer which caused decreased sediment mobility and the decreased sediment fluxes.


In high‐mobility materials with large uniaxial anisotropy (K>2πMs2) the magnetostatic wall‐energy model as applied to an infinite lamina apparently provides quantitative explanation of most observed domain structures. However, the presence of boundaries and nucleation energy barriers usually prevent the spontaneous development of the equilibrium (lowest energy)1 structures. To understand this, we argue that the confluence of any two domains (or a domain and an edge boundary), or the reverse process of separation, always involves an intermediate state of higher energy. Consequently, for example, the periodic stripe array should not be expected to spontaneously divide into a lattice of bubbles when the latter is a lower energy structure. Similarly, the repulsive interaction with the boundaries prevents the equilibrium field dependence of the lattice nearest‐neighbor distance. Our observations on an epitaxial Ga–YIG film2 are shown to be entirely consistent with these qualitative considerations, while the ob...


Members of the 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase (OGDD) enzyme family play an important role in gliomas as they regulate epigenetic modifications and response to hypoxia. The OGDDs require 2-OG and O2 as substrates, and ferrous iron and ascorbate as cofactors. Both hypoxia and aberrant DNA methylation are prognostic indicators for gliomas. The ten-eleven translocase (TET) DNA demethylases are OGDDs that convert 5-methyl cytosine (5mC) to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), with 5hmC levels related to better prognosis. Despite this, there is limited data on the OGDD enzymes and their substrates/cofactors in glioma tissues. Our previous study showed an association between ascorbate content and markers of the hypoxic response in glioblastoma tissue. Here we determine whether there is an association between ascorbate and DNA methylation in glioma. In addition, we assess whether methylation of the methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (DNA repair enzyme MGMT) promoter is associated with ascorbate content.

 Frozen clinical glioma samples from 37 patients (n=11 WHO grade I-III, n=26 glioblastoma) were obtained from the Cancer Society Tissue Bank (Ethics approval H19/163). Isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) mutation status was determined by sequencing. Samples were processed on dry ice in liquid nitrogen and analysed for ascorbate (high-performance liquid chromatography), global DNA methylation (mass spectrometry) and MGMT promoter analyses (methylation specific PCR).

 Many grade I-III tumours were IDH1 R132H mutant (6/11), and most glioblastomas were not (2/26). Glioblastoma had significantly lower ascorbate content than grade I-III tumours (p=0.026). Glioblastoma also had lower global 5hmC levels (p=0.0013). IDH1 R132H tumours tended to have a lower ascorbate content (p=0.09). Ascorbate and 5hmC levels were directly correlated (Spearman r= 0.466, p=0.004). However, cytosine and 5mC showed no association with grade or ascorbate. MGMT promoter methylation status was not associated with global methylation or ascorbate content (p=0.97, p=0.96, respectively).

 Our data suggests that ascorbate supports TET activity in clinical glioma. It also appears that site-specific (promoter) methylation was not affected by ascorbate availability. These findings may have clinical implications, as higher 5hmC levels are associated with improved outcome, whilst continued MGMT suppression suggests chemotherapy responsiveness. However, evidence that raising tumour ascorbate leads to increased 5hmC levels, or an associated improvement in survival, requires intervention trials.


Objective: Liposomes are the controlled-release dosage form that improves the therapeutic efficacy of the drugs, prolongs the duration of action, reduces dosage frequency, and improves patient compliance.
Methods: The thin-film hydration method was used to prepare Paclitaxel liposomes. In this process, cholesterol and sodium deoxycholate were used for the formulation, while chloroform and methanol were used as diluents. Percentage (%) drug release study was carried out in phosphate buffer at pH 7.4 in USP apparatus II (Paddle type)Model no VDA-8D, Veego, Mumbai, India.
Results: Paclitaxel liposomes of various batches showed a percentage yield ranging from 38 to 84%. It was observed that (Encapsulation efficiency)EE% of Batches B1 to B10 were 0,62.33,59.51,50.21,44.30,82.25,88.95,72.34,77.37 and 70.63 percentage, respectively. Data fitting to the Peppas, Higuchi, 1st-order, and zero-order models was used to examine the optimized liposome (B7) release kinetic mechanism. Data comparison was done using the correlation coefficient (R2). Zero-order had an observed correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9988, which was greater than that for other models. Therefore, it was clear that the medication was released from the formulation after the zero-order release.
Conclusion: The prepared liposomes were subjected to various evaluation parameters like SEM, zeta potential, particle size analysis, drug release study, etc. Data showed that an increased concentration of cholesterol increases the drug release from liposomes. Microscopic images of the B7 batch revealed that liposomes are spherical and have regular surfaces. Formulation B7 shows good results and can be considered an optimized batch that has been selected for further cell line studies. The statistical analysis was used to support the improved formulation.


Offshore wind farm modelling has been an area of rapidly increasing interest over the last two decades, with numerous analytical as well as computational-based approaches developed, in an attempt to produce designs that improve wind farm efficiency in power production. This work presents a Machine Learning (ML) framework for the rapid modelling of wind farm flow fields, using a Deep Neural Network (DNN) neural network architecture, trained here on approximate turbine wake fields, calculated on the state-of-the-art wind farm modelling software FLORIS. The constructed neural model is capable of accurately reproducing single wake deficits at hub-level for a 5MW wind turbine under yaw and a wide range of inlet hub speed and turbulence intensity conditions, at least an order of magnitude faster than the analytical wake-based solution method, yielding results with 1.5% mean absolute error. A superposition algorithm is also developed to construct flow fields over the whole wind farm domain by superimposing individual wakes. A promising advantage of the present approach is that its performance and accuracy are expected to increase even further when trained on high-fidelity CFD or real-world data through transfer learning, while its computational cost remains low.


An effluent quality study was conducted at Tobacco Processors Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd to ascertain the level of legal compliance for the effluent in terms of meeting the City of Harare and Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) regulatory limits. In the course of this system evaluation, a total of 11 effluent streams were identified through a site survey, and after a critical review of the company's historical records on effluent quality, six sources were found to be significant. From each significant effluent stream, six weekly samples were collected and analyzed for pH, Total dissolved solids (TDS), Total suspended solids (TSS) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). Compared to the other locations, the Boiler and Coalbunkers effluent streams were found to be the major wastewater streams of concern with regards to pH. They averaged 10.52 and 2.59 respectively and therefore fail to meet both legal limits for the City of Harare and ZINWA. It was also found out that the discharge of Humidifier effluent into the storm water drain is in violation of the Water Act and the new Environmental Management Act, which strongly prohibit the discharge of trade effluent into storm water systems. The study recommended the development of a relatively inexpensive and effective means of pH correction in the Boiler and Coal Bunker effluents through mixing the two streams and further dilution with groundwater.


The purpose of this study is to understand how the internal control system applied by PT PLN (Persero) Distribution of East Java Malang Area may play a role in preventing the occurrence of fraud action in the procurement. During the process, procurement in PT PLN (Persero) Distribution of East Java Malang Area is prone against the occurrence of various acts of fraud. Therefore, we need an internal control system over the procurement in PT PLN (Persero) Distribution of East Java Malang Area in order to prevent the occurrence of various acts of fraud itself. The study is conducted using the qualitative method with a descriptive research. The result of this study showed that overall, the internal control system applied is quite effective, as shown by the implementation of PLN Bersih program, which is able to make PLN (Persero) Distribution of East Java Malang Area become better and "cleaner" than before. Meanwhile, in the procurement process, the internal control are also have quite effective role in order to preventing any kind of fraud acts. It is realized by the implementation of e-procurement program or eProc, the role of the procurement analysts, directors of job, and job inspectors, quality inspections, and implementation of Owner Estimate (OE) method. Keywords : Fraud,  internal control system, procurement,  PT PLN (Persero) Distribution of East Java Malang Area


I focus on a synthetic research on elucidation of genesis of social intelligence – physical interaction between body and environment, social interaction between agents and role of evolution and so on –, with aiming to understand intelligence of humans and robots. For such an approach, we have set interdisciplinal discussions with wide viewpoint for various research field such as cognitive science, developmental psycology, brain science, evolutionary biology and robotics. In this approach, two interactions should be considered; physical interaction between agents and environments and social interaction between agents. However there is no integrated system with dynamics, perception, and social communication simulations. In this paper, I propose such a simulation environment called SIGVerse and potential to develop Human Robot Interaction systems that bridges real environment/users and cyber space based on the SIGVerse. As examples of the HRI systems based on SIGVerse, I introduce three applications.


Saving cost and raising healthy seedlings were the purpose of this research.Spraying chemical regulator in nursery bed and pot experiment,application effects of triacontanol and chlormequat were studied in tobacco seedlings.The results showed that both the agronomic characters and physiological indices of the seedlings met the standards of healthy tobacco seedlings.The comprehensive characters of tobacco seedlings were the best while the seedlings were raised with 25% triacontanol and 75% chlormequat.The frequency of leaf-cutting was two-time less by chemical regulation seedling.It saved pesticide application by 30% and increase more than 93.6 yuan/ha.The study provided the basis for simplified and labor saving seedling production of tobacco.


The uncalcined strontium slag and calcined strontium slag at 800℃ and 1200℃ were used as the targets of tests,the factors which influenced the activity of strontium slag were studied through the measurement of electric resistance changes of strontium slag pastes mixing with or without cement activator in acidic and alkaline media. The results showed that the early (4h) activity of strontium slag was affected by the acidity and alkalinity of media; and the activity of strontium slag could be improved through calcination,and the activity of calcined strontium slag at 800℃ was the best one. The activity of strontium slag could be stimulated by adding cement,and there was good compatibility between these two materials.


High Dynamic Range (HDR) images are widely used in automotive, aerospace, AI, and other fields but are limited by the maximum dynamic range of a single data acquisition using CMOS image sensors. High dynamic range images are usually synthesized through multiple exposure techniques and image processing techniques. One of the most challenging task in multiframe Low Dynamic Range (LDR) images fusion for HDR is to eliminate ghosting artifacts caused by motion. In traditional algorithms, optical flow is generally used to align dynamic scenes before image fusion, which can achieve good results in cases of small-scale motion scenes but causes obvious ghosting artifacts when motion magnitude is large. Recently, attention mechanisms have been introduced during the alignment stage to enhance the network's ability to remove ghosts. However, significant ghosting artifacts still occur in some scenarios with large-scale motion or oversaturated areas. We proposea novel Distilled Feature TransformerBlock (DFTB) structure to distill and re-extract information from deep image features obtained after U-Net downsampling, achieving ghost removal at the semantic level for HDR fusion. We introduce a Feature Distillation Transformer Block (FDTB), based on the Swin-Transformer and RFDB structure. FDTB uses multiple distillation connections to learn more discriminative feature representations. For the multiexposure moving scene image fusion HDR ghost removal task, in the previous method, the use of deep learning to remove the ghost effect in the composite image has been perfect, and it is almost difficult to observe the ghost residue of moving objects in the composite HDR image. The method in this paper focuses more on how to save the details of LDR image more completely after removing the ghost to synthesize high-quality HDR image. After using the proposed FDTB, the edge texture details of the synthesized HDR image are saved more perfectly, which shows that FDTB has a better effect in saving the details of image fusion. Futhermore, we propose a new depth framework based on DFTB for fusing and removing ghosts from deep image features, called TransU-Fusion. First of all, we use the encoder in U-Net to extract image features of different exposures and map them to different dimensional feature spaces. By utilizing the symmetry of the U-Net structure, we can ultimately output these feature images as original size HDR images. Then, we further fuse high-dimensional space features using Dilated Residual Dense Block (DRDB) to expand the receptive field, which is beneficial for repairing over-saturated regions. We use the transformer in DFTB to perform low-pass filtering on low-dimensional space features and interact with global information to remove ghosts. Finally, the processed features are merged and output as an HDR image without ghosting artifacts through the decoder. After testing on datasets and comparing with benchmark and state-of-the-art models, the results demonstrate our model's excellent information fusion ability and stronger ghost removal capability.


Objective: To investigate the long-term clinical outcomes of porcelain laminate veneers after 1-8 years follow-up and explore the contributing risk factors for failures. Methods: A total of 310 feldspathic porcelain laminate veneers on anterior teeth or premolars in 49 patients were included in the present study. All the subjects underwent a detailed clinical examination utilizing the modified criteria, which included restoration integrity, abrasion, color satisfaction, marginal discoloration, marginal adaptation, secondary caries, postoperative sensitivity, and gingival index. The survival rate of the prostheses was statistically analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the contributing risk factors for clinical failures. Results: The 1-8 year survival rate of porcelain laminate veneers was 90.65%. Parafunctional habits, improper use, poor oral hygiene, immature permanent teeth, severe staining, subgingival margins, premature contacts in protrusive occlusion were the risk factors for clinical failures. Conclusions: The long-term clinical outcomes of porcelain laminate veneers are satisfying. The risk factors for clinical failures should be overcome in the future.


For controlling fluid flow through the cartridge to a method and system for fluid sample assay, the assay for detecting target analytes. In one aspect, the cassette comprising a microfluidic device having a microfluidic channel network, and one or more reservoirs or microfluidic plurality of actuatable valve, said actuation valve for controlling fluid flow from the reservoir through the aisle. In certain embodiments, the valve comprises a deformable diaphragm which is movable between a closed configuration and an open configuration, a closed configuration, the diaphragm seal microfluidic device to prevent fluid flow in the open configuration , the diaphragm moves away from the microfluidic device to allow fluid flow through the microfluidic channel. Other embodiments use frangible membrane or a valve may be user removable membrane.


It is important to understand how dropout, a popular regularization method, aids in achieving a good generalization solution during neural network training. In this work, we present a theoretical derivation of an implicit regularization of dropout, which is validated by a series of experiments. Additionally, we numerically study two implications of the implicit regularization, which intuitively rationalizes why dropout helps generalization. Firstly, we find that input weights of hidden neurons tend to condense on isolated orientations trained with dropout. Condensation is a feature in the non-linear learning process, which makes the network less complex. Secondly, we experimentally find that the training with dropout leads to the neural network with a flatter minimum compared with standard gradient descent training, and the implicit regularization is the key to finding flat solutions. Although our theory mainly focuses on dropout used in the last hidden layer, our experiments apply to general dropout in training neural networks. This work points out a distinct characteristic of dropout compared with stochastic gradient descent and serves as an important basis for fully understanding dropout.


Objective: To study the demographic characters and diagnostic tools of acute leukemia among adults in Benghazi/ Libya. Patients and Method: A retrospective cross sectional analysis of 54 cases of AML and ALL was conducted at hematology department at Benghazi medical center (BMC) from January 2013 to December 2014. Demographic data, Complete Blood Picture (CBC), Peripheral Blood Film (PBF), Bone Marrow Aspiration (BMA), immunophenotyping as well as cytogenetic if applicable were evaluated. Result: Forty-two (77.8%) were diagnosed as AML and twelve (22.2%) as ALL. The median age for diagnosis of AML was 43 years. with male to female ratio 1.3:1 while for ALL the median age was 20 years, and male to female ratio was 2:1. Anemia was noted in (90.5%) and (100%) for AML and ALL, respectively. Thrombocytopenia was detected in (83%) for both types. Almost half of AML patients (47%) and (41%) of ALL cases presented with leukocytosis. Blasts were detected in more than two third (74%) of PBF of AML and (75%) in ALL patients. CD13 and CD33 and cyMPO were the most common positive myeloid presenting antigens. However, in ALL B-lymphoid markers CD10 and CD19 were the major positive antigens. Conclusion: AML was most common than ALL in adults, AML was common in middle age while ALL in young age group. Hematology departments require urgent improvement of diagnostic services in Libya in order to ensure good clinical management.


PurposeThere is a need for project management practitioners to adapt and thrive in today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) project-based workplaces. In this paper, the linkage between work readiness and career resilience is developed, presenting both concepts as critical for effective strategic responses and adaptation to the changing labor market in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe resource-based view (RBV) and integrated dynamic capabilities (IDCs) are the theoretical lenses that are used to link the concepts of work readiness and career resilience across the individual and organizational levels.FindingsA framework and model are proposed to establish a holistic understanding of catalysts for addressing the VUCA context that organizations face. The proposed conceptual linkage adds a chronological dimension to the formation of the interrelated dynamic capabilities during the early career phase of project management practitioners.Practical implicationsThe contribution to the project management literature includes a theoretically driven conceptual framework that links two complementary concepts to address the career challenges faced by project managers. Work readiness is positioned as an enabler of career resilience and together they constitute vital attributes which foster talent retention in the current VUCA work environment.Originality/valueWork readiness and career resilience are underexplored topics in the project management literature, both individually and in conjunction. Specifically, there is a research gap in view of linking these two concepts to present them as a catalyst for project management talent sustainability, and the proposed framework is an initial step in addressing these gaps.


The empirical study of large real world networks in the last 20 years showed that a variety of real-world graphs are power-law. There are evidence that optimization problems seem easier in these graphs; however, for a given graph, classifying it as power-law is a problem in itself. In this work, we propose using machine learning algorithms (KNN, SVM, Gradient Boosting and Random Forests) for this task. We suggest a graph representation based on [Canning et al. 2018], but using a much simplified set of structural properties of the graph. We compare the proposed representation with the one generated by the graph2vec framework. The experiments attained high accuracy, indicating that a reduced set of structural graph properties is enough for the presented problem.


Introduction The reality of youths has been examined in various disciplines such as anthropology and sociology. The anthropology of youths deals with an investigation of youth cultural practices, including initiation ceremonies, sexual practices, courtship, marital customs, and intergenerational relations, while the sociology of youths considers youth cultures and practices with a focus on western societies (Bucholtz, 2002). However, studies on development planning in Africa largely ignore the question of youth, despite the importance of their magnitude and influence on cultural change in African societies. Africa has experienced a bulge in the youth population, which constitute over 70 percent of the African population (DeJaeghere & Baxter, 2014). Life expectancy in the majority of African countries is 55 years (Ramirez, 2005). However, the bulge in the youth population is regarded as a time bomb due to high rates of unemployment and poverty. Yet, the youths are influential in the propagation of culture. They are key producers and users of the popular music and major consumers of the information and communication technologies (ICT). The volumes of music produced by African youths are innumerable. The proliferation of music has also encouraged many African youths to appropriate various aspects of the ICT such as computing, broadcasting, and telecommunication. In his analysis of the African popular music, Emielu (2011) noted that popular music occupies a dominant position in the musical landscape of contemporary Africa. Yet research on the popular music is still in its infancy in most parts of Africa. This may be due in part to the absence of theoretical frameworks that stimulate the popular music discourses from the African perspective. It is noteworthy that certain cultural beliefs and values of a people could enhance or hamper their economic development, as Confucian values promoted development in South East Asia, the traditional values of African society can also promote development, but the adoption of neoliberal policies has undermined the importance of African traditional values. Little or no attention has been paid to the cultural factor in Africa's economic development. Cultural values in Africa have been mostly perceived negatively in economic matters both by African economists, policymakers, consultants of the international institutions and Western donors. (Ntibagirirwa, 2009, p. 297) As Berry (2011) observed, youths deserve the chance to express and act out their own agency in navigating the constraints and opportunities in society. This will enable their transition from childhood to a fulfilling and productive adult life. Therefore, this article examines the contribution of youths to cultural development in Africa from the perspectives beyond the familiar narratives of youths as a social problem, and aside from the introduction and conclusion, it is organised to engage methodology, theoretical framework, cultural development in Africa, and youth agency in Africa. Methods The exercise is based on content analysis of secondary data and the theoretical framework of Structuration, Afrikology, and the Diffusion of Innovation. An integration of basic ideas in these theories with an application of youth attitudes to the popular music and ICT produced a suitable model for an analysis of the impact of youth culture on development in Africa. The secondary data were derived from the relevant literature on youth culture and development with a focus on the implications of youth participation in the popular music, and the use of ICT for cultural development in Africa. The analysis of several cases of production and use of the popular music by African youths is included here is for illustrations of the influence of youth agency on cultural development in Africa as this article reflects various realities based on several observations of situations in different regions of Africa. …


Petalostelma is a taxonomically neglected genus of Apocynaceae with only seven species of climbing plants and voluble subshrubs with the smallest flowers of Metastelmatinae (c. 6 mm in diam.), mainly characterized by rotate corolla and fleshy gynostegial corona, with or without an annular corolline corona. During the revision of the genus, we recognized three new species of Petalostelma, two of which had specimens misidentified as P. sarcostemma, a species originally known only from Argentina. Here, we describe and illustrate these new species – P. andinum, P. auriculatum and P. longipedunculatum – and compare them with the other species of Petalostelma that also have flowers without corolline corona. The three new species occur in the Andean dry forests of Bolivia, but P. andinum also occurs in Argentina and P. longipedunculatum in the Brazilian Cerrado. Additionally, the occurrence of P. sarcostemma is confirmed for Bolivia and reported for the first time in Brazil here.


Purified total genomic DNA labeled with photobiotin was used as a probe for the identification and differentiation of strains of Echinococcus granulosus and to distinguish between the morphologically identical eggs of 2 taeniid species. Such biotinylated probes are easily prepared and can be utilized effectively for rapid screening and identification of taeniid isolates by dot and Southern blotting. The use of total genomic DNA probes in high stringency hybridizations obviates the need for cloned sequences and has great potential for field use.