In this paper, we present an applying of a finite volume variational approach to the mesh smoothing using local weights. This approach is able to effectively remove undesirable noise and provides a very good performance. While conserving outstanding geometric features of a 3D mesh surface such as curved shape surface regions, sharp edges, and fine details. Extensive experimental results on various 3D models demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed iterative algorithm, which shows a satisfactory output results in only one single iteration.


Disclosed is a device for influencing the vibration transmission between two units, one of which is mounted a swinging (1) and the other soothing (2), with a directly or indirectly, with both units (1, 2) connected to the parallel circuit of at least one elastically deformable element (3) which is associated with a first power path (K1), and at least one force generator to which a first power path (K2) parallel-oriented second power path (K2) is associated with one end about a first rotational axis (D1) with the one unit is oriented orthogonally to the two power paths (K1, K2), rotatable directly or indirectly connected to the lever (4) which is at a distance r to the first rotational axis (D1) rotatable about a to the first rotational axis (D1) parallel oriented second rotational axis (D2) directly or indirectly connected to the other unit and provides a mass (9) occupied swinging mounted lever arm (42). The invention is characterized in that in a Hebelarmbereich (4H) along the lever (4) is between the second rotational axis (D2) and the ground (9) occupied, cantilever mounted lever arm (42), at least one, which at the the second rotational axis (D2) rotatably mounted mass (9) occupied lever arm (42) definable by inertia influencing actively controllable element (10) is provided.


The effects of the presence of shielding electrodes on the electric fields in electrofluid dynamic (EFD) generator channels are studied. For each case studied, the magnitude of the field distortion is found as the ratio of the maximum electric field to the undisturbed maximum field. The electric-field magnification is derived as a function of both the relative size and sharpness of the protruding electrode and the relative size of the charge cloud. A charge-density attenuation coefficient is defined as the inverse of the electric-field magnification.


This paper presents the results of a study comparing the impacts on helping relationships of locating front-line child protection service providers in central locations or in accessible school and neighbourhood service delivery sites. Creating easier access to front-line child protection service providers, fostering more positive community perceptions of child welfare services, improving client and service provider satisfaction with helping relationships and services, and increasing families' willingness to ask for help were core objectives at the accessible sites. Using a quasi-experimental outcome design, file reviews and qualitative interviews with service providers and parents, this study presents evidence that accessible sites had substantial success in achieving these objectives when compared with central service delivery locations.


We report the measurements of single-electron tunneling (SET) spectra for individual and coupled ultrasmall palladium nanoparticles using scanning tunneling microscopy. Extra fine structures, in addition to the Coulomb blockade and staircases in current–voltage curves, was observed for individual Pd particles of about 2 nm in diameter, which is attributed to the interplay of the SET effect and the effects of discrete energy levels due to significant quantum confinement effects in nanoparticles. The origination of the negative differential resistance effect in series-coupled Pd particles is also attributed to the discreteness of energy levels of both the coupled Pd particles.


The objective of this study was determine the effect of employment opportunity and human capital investment to the open unemployment in South Sumatera. This research was done by utilizing secondary data from BPS South Sumatera. The study used time series data for seven years old 2008-2014 and cross section data of eight regency of South Sumatera Province are Palembang, Prabumulih, Pagaralam, Lubuk Linggau, Ogan Komering Ilir, Muara Enim, Banyuasin, and Ogan Komerinr Ulu Timur. The method used was a method of Panel regresion. The result of study showed tha employment opportunity and human capital investment have a significant impact an negative on open unemployment in South Sumatera is -0,1291 for employment opportunity and -2,3 for human capital investment.


This study offers a large range of possibilities for Nordic co-operation within the field of data gathering in women entrepreneurship. It also points out the mutual and national shortages in official data gathering offering best practices for learning.


The invention provides a thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate, a manufacturing method and a display device, and relates to the display field. The number of times for picture composition technology can be decreased, and technological complexity and manufacturing cost are lowered. The manufacturing method includes that patterns comprising grid electrodes, gate insulating layer patterns with via holes, patterns comprising active layers, patterns comprising source leakage electrodes and patterns comprising first electrodes are manufactured on the substrate. Forming of the gate insulating layer patterns with the via holes and the patterns comprising the active layers are completed through the picture composition technology once. The patterns comprising the grid electrodes at least comprise the grid electrodes and grid electrode routes, the via holes of the gate insulating layer patterns are placed above the grid electrode routes, and the active layers are placed above the grid electrodes.


The object of this paper is to highlight the menace of piracy in publishing. It traces the evolution of copyright piracy and analysis the current stand of the Indian law in dealing with copyright issues in publishing and attempts to provide a road map for the law makers to curb this age old-menace.


Possibly the largest effort to recycle construction materials ever launched is underway at Denver's defunct Stapleton Airport. A Colorado firm is digging up 975 acres of runway and hoping to sell the resulting 6 million tons of concrete and asphalt as construction aggregate. Details on the tools and methods used to demolish the pavement.


The world has transformed into an information society that exceedingly depends on data. Since information frameworks create large measures of records each day, consistently, it appears the world is achieving the level of data overload. Big data is used to process the enormous volumes of data into revealing shrouded designs, complex relationships, and other helpful information. This work has done a comprehensive analysis of enormous information investigation in medicinal services. A brief insight into the importance of cognitive computing in healthcare has been presented. The extensive study concludes that the Cognitive computing has more impact on healthcare predictions than the big data analytics.


A system for precise angular laser beam deflection by using a plane mirror is presented. The mirror was fixed to two supports attached to its edges. This article details the theoretical basis of how this deflector works. The spring deflection of a flat circular metal plate under a uniform axial buckling was used and the mechanical stress was generated by a piezoelectric layer. The characteristics of the deformation of the plate versus the voltage control of the piezoelectric s were examined and the value of the change resolution possible to obtain was estimated. An experimental system is presented and an experiment performed to examine this system. As a result, a resolution of displacement of 10 -8 rad and a range of 10 -5 rad were obtained.


The reliable measurement of renal excretory function is of great importance in clinical practice and in research. The introduction of routine reporting of estimated glomerular filtration rate and a new definition of chronic kidney disease has renewed interest in methods of measuring renal function. Coupled with this is the fact that several countries are moving towards population screening for renal impairment to try to reduce the associated increased cardiovascular risk. Accurate measurement is methodologically difficult so surrogate measures such as serum creatinine levels and prediction formulas (based on factors such as the patient's age, sex, and serum creatinine level) are more commonly used in routine practice. We describe routine and more specialised methods of assessing renal function and discuss estimated glomerular filtration rate.

The kidney has several interlinked functions (box). These depend on glomerular filtration rate, the unit measure of kidney function. Glomerular filtration rate can be defined as the volume of plasma cleared of an ideal substance per unit of time (usually expressed as ml/min). The ideal substance is one that is freely filtered at the glomerulus and neither secreted nor reabsorbed by the renal tubules.

Creatinine is the closest to an ideal endogenous substance for measuring glomerular filtration rate.w1 Plasma creatinine is almost exclusively a product of the metabolism of creatine and phosphocreatine in skeletal muscle, although ingestion of meat may also contribute slightly.w2 w3 In patients with stable renal function, serum creatinine levels are usually constant, with variability daily of about only 8%.w4 w5 Creatinine is freely filtered at the glomerulus and is not reabsorbed, but up to 15% is actively secreted by the tubules.w6 In advanced renal failure, excretion of creatinine through the gastrointestinal tract increases.w7

Measuring the creatinine clearance using serum creatinine level and a timed urine collection gives an …


Replacement of the damaged bone remains actual and is far from being completely solved nowadays, despite its centuries-old history. The purpose of study was to investigate the anti-inflammatory and osteo-regenerative qualities of the paste based on Symphytum officinale tincture and calcium hydroxide in treatment on teeth with chronic granulating apical periodontitis in children and in an experiment on animals. Performed morphological and densitometric studies showed that remodeling of bone injury of the lower jaw in rats occurs almost equally in both experimental and control groups, and a paste based on Symphytum officinale tincture and calcium hydroxide also promotes bone regeneration at the defect site and stimulates osteosynthesis. Analysis of liver tissue, soft and hard tissues of the lower jaw in animals suggest that the proposed paste does not produce any toxic effect and provides significant anti-inflammatory properties. The gained result provide grounds to recommend the developed paste for therapeutic use in children as a temporary root canal sealing material in permanent teeth with granulating apical periodontitis.


Research Summary: The Los Angeles County Repeat Offender Prevention Program (ROPP) was designed to improve school performance and prevent reoffending among the enrolled juvenile offenders through a milieu of social services. It was a 3-year pilot project established as part of a statewide juvenile correctional program funded by the California State Legislature, which commenced in 1999 and ended in 2001. A true experimental design was employed, and a total of 327 first-time juvenile probationers were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. At the end of the project, 204 subjects (106 in the treatment group and 98 in the control group) had a successful program termination. The data show that subjects in the treatment group were more likely to have better school performance than those in the control group. In the first 6-month period after program enrollment, they were also less likely to have new criminal offenses than their counterparts in the control group; however, no significant effect was found in any additional 6-month periods. Both groups were not significantly different in their probation technical violations. Policy Implications: The study results suggest that intensive supervision and coordinated team efforts in providing probation services can markedly improve juvenile offenders' school-related performances and prevent new criminal offenses at the starting period. However, such an intervention model is unlikely to produce consistent and cost-effective justice system effects in the long run. Juveniles who fit the high-risk profiles do not necessarily become chronic offenders; future correctional interventions need to focus not only on individual level factors but also on the social context that gave rise to their problem behaviors in the first place. KEYWORDS: Juvenile justice; Language: en


The present pattern of human activity has challenged all the living forms on the earth. Development of science and technological knowledge and experiences of human beings have brought to the fore the conflict between biosphere of Man's inheritance and the techno-sphere of His creation. One of the modern conveniences without which daily life of man cannot be imagined is plastic bags. These cheap, light weighted bags function as a means of carrying food and other goods. The threat to environment and quality of life has been due to accumulation of plastic bags wastes. They are environmental unfriendly to its extreme level. The usage of plastic bags and further 'throw away culture' have resulted in finding their ways into the city drainage system, clogging the drains leading to sanitation problems, sewage problems which ultimately cause severe flash flood in the city. In this study an attempt will be made regarding the usage of plastic bags and environmental hazard with special reference to Guwahati. In this study descriptive method will be used and sample will be selected based on purposive sampling techniques.


The big problem that is still faced by national education until now is the issue of quality, effectiveness and efficiency of education. It has become a common understanding that the issue of educators is far more important than the problems of curriculum and other educational components. With the following important aspects educational institutions can play a role in improving the quality of their educators, including: (1) salaries and welfare standards that are appropriate for their lives, (2) qualification standards, (3) competency standards and efforts to improve them, (4) certification system for educators and educators and professional transfers that do not meet competency standards, (4) honest and transparent selection / recruitment, (5) career development standards, (6) preparation of prospective educators and education personnel in line with competency standards, and more emphasizing practice and with strong theory, (7) education and training system in professional training and education institutions and (8) empowering professional development organizations.


Considering insufficient data and difficulty of labeling in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, we propose a method for SAR ship instance segmentation based on cross-domain transfer learning. Compared with optical images, transfer learning in SAR images faces the difficulties of insufficient data to pre-train and lacking detail features. The proposed method, containing sample transfer module and knowledge transfer module, simulates images from optics to SAR and pre-train the ship detection part of the instance segmentation network with simulation images. In addition, we design a Res-Pyramid network to prevent the deep network from being unable to extract efficient features of SAR images. The method proposed combines the content of the optics and the style of the SAR and incorporates multiscale features in backbone, which improves performance in ship instance segmentation in SAR images. Experiments show that it has achieved 1.3 and 1.1 points higher Average Precision (AP) in detection and segmentation tasks on SAR dataset of HRSID when using cross-domain transfer learning, which has exceeded state-of-the-art methods.


Digital twins (DTs) are being used by an expanding number of sectors, altering them and opening up new possibilities. Digital twins enable previously unimaginable levels of autonomy over physical items and assist in the administration of complicated operations by integrating a variety of techniques. Agriculture has witnessed significant technology breakthroughs recently, although it is uncertain whether this sector is consciously trying to incorporate digital twins into its processes. Yet, in order to fully realise these advantages, the technology's possible negative technological and social-ecological repercussions should be examined and controlled. As a result, an interpretive evaluation is carried out, highlighting the development of contemporary examples towards the goals of sustainable farming. Furthermore, the design's environmentally and scientific risks are addressed, resulting in a high-level blueprint highlighting the major accomplishments required to encourage the transparent and stable growth of DTs in farming. As the upcoming phase of digitization concept, digital twin software can integrate farmers by continuously and authentic surveillance of the physical realm (field) and upgrading the condition of the virtual environment.


The close-typed frame structural scheme of testing device of hydraulic hammer was put forward,an analysis has been carried out on its structural composition and working principle and the main parametric calculation formula of this device was derived.On the basis of ADAMS environment and applying its secondary development technology,the parameterized model suitable for dynamics analysis and optimization design and its parameterized designing interface were established,thus the parameterized virtual prototype design of this device can be high efficiently accomplished in high quality.


Mass Spectral Evidence for △ 1 -Pyrazolines from the 1,3-Dipolar Addition of Diazomethane to 1-Hydroxy-2-Naphthoic Acid and Its Methyl Ester


ABSTRACT Social capital was the development "buzz word" of the 1990s. Numerous studies identified the importance of social capital for civic and democratic society (for a summary, see Wall, Ferrazi and Schryer 1998), inevitably decrying its gradual disappearance from North American society and its under-recognition in international development initiatives. In this paper, the author takes the discussion of diminishing social capital a step further, addressing the development implications of an absence of social capital. Preliminary fieldwork by the author among agricultural producers in Dmitrov Rayon, Russia, found no evidence of overt forms of social capital—no community organizations, formal co-operation or volunteer activity. Although further investigation of the case study site found seeds of community activity in urban areas and a social assistance structure embedded in the region's rural businesses, the apparent absence of social capital among study respondents raised questions about the universality and utility of current social capital theory. The author uses the profile of social capital in rural Dmitrov Rayon generated through her field research to discuss the influence of a command society on social capital formation. She raises issues related to the implications of limited, absent and unexpected forms of social capital for international development initiatives in general and for democratic development in particular.


The spectacle of terrorism forces the terrorism of spectacle upon us. Jean Baudrillard "In times of terror," Walter Benjamin writes in "The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire," "everyone is something of a conspirator" (40). Implicit in this statement is a tension between the prevailing understanding of the terror act as singular event effected in and upon the public sphere--terror as something that is done to you/us--and the less common notion that terror is a recurring and collective cultural production: terror as something that we enact upon ourselves. The terror act can arguably exist without victims; it cannot, however, exist without spectators. To that end, Benjamin suggests, our very awareness of the terror act bespeaks a sort of complicity. This nexus of pressures--the individual and the collective, the singular and the recurrent, the spectator and the spectacle--is omnipresent in Don DeLillo's Underworld, and is particularly exemplified by the juxtaposition of the (untelevised) Bobby Thomson home run and the (endlessly televised) terror act of the Texas Highway Killer. Although critics have commented on the role of violence and the terrorism in DeLillo's fiction, there has been comparatively little attention paid to the production and reification of spectacularized terror in Underworld. Glen Scott Allen has argued that terrorism, in DeLillo, "seems an integral component of the postmodern condition," noting that it "seems to have evolved beyond the need of human agency, to have seeped into the texture of contemporary life" (par. 2). Similarly, Margaret Scanlan asserts that terror "floats across the deceptively shiny surfaces of Don DeLillo's fiction, turning the reassuring rituals of even suburban life ... into desperate acts" (19). The ubiquity and banality of terror is a common motif (in both DeLillo and DeLillo criticism), and is typically counterposed with what Allen calls an "almost romantic return to the sovereign powers of the individual" (par. 2). Peter Baker, to that end, takes note of the "usual pairing [that] places terror in a conceptual binary with reason or enlightenment" (par. 20), and Jeremy Green writes that DeLillo's "image of a passive, victimized (collective) subject" only serves to "offer us the reassurance that the victim is someone else" (575). Common to each of these critiques is the assumption that the terror act is always at a sort of cultural and discursive distance, beyond "human agency," outside of "reason or enlightenment," brought about by and to "someone else." While this may be true, it is also somewhat limited. Acts of terror, needless to say, are emphatically different from (for example) acts of murder. The means and ends of murder are, of course, murder. The means and ends of terror, however, are considerably more nebulous: terrorism, simply, exists to terrify. In this sense, Green is right to emphasize the "victimized (collective) subject." As such, the acme of the terror act is its spectacularization, enabling its transition from localized tragedy to a collectivized spectacle of victimization. (1) The very idea of spectacularized terror, though, raises a number of significant questions, to wit: How is the terror act implicated in the televisual image and the televisual image in the terror act? In what way does the spectacularization of the terror act alter its social and emotional consequence? Does the public production of the terror act negate or promote a sense of community? Finally, what is the association between the spectacularized terror act and the experience of being-in-history? The act of terror functions like Benjamin's angel of history, signifying the past in the form of a singular catastrophe and propelling us unswervingly toward the future. And yet terror, DeLillo seams to suggest, is stripped of its very significance, its singularity, by its spectacularization and re-production as a televisual image; it is reconstructed as both farcical tragedy and tragic farce precisely because it becomes an act devoid of historical meaning. …


In this study, an ultra-high frequency (UHF), radio frequency identification (RFID) system has been performed for the purpose of inventory management, which is suitable for low cost and flexible use. With the system proposed, the security and permissions of the products in the inventory were effectively managed from a single operator point. For the UHF RFID system, two application points were created. One is the central point, which provides user permissions, and the other is the security point, which controls entrances and exits. Its aim is to analyze the data obtained from RFID tags from a single point. Communication between the operator and the long-distance UHF RFID reader is provided by the RS485 serial communication standard. An efficient data processing structure was used to increase stability and making data meaningful for the transformation data which was obtained from UHF RFID at the security point. A flexible graphical user interface (GUI) has been created for the UHF RFID inventory management system. The performance of the system customized for library inventory management has been successfully tested over real usage scenarios.


In the paper one of Anton Chekhov's works devoted to childhood, an 1887 short story At Home, falls under the scrutiny. Its action appears to be limited to a conversation between Bykovsky, the father who works as prosecutor for the circuit court, and Seryozha, the son who has been found smoking. Were it not for the main hero – the father – this short story would not have been placed as one of the exceptional pieces in Chekhov's writings. Bykovsky comprehends the reality properly and his course of action is crowned with success, meaning the son stops smoking. His way of thinking reveals a deep understanding of children's raising rules. Firstly, he is aware that a child has its own, separate world of thoughts and feelings. In this way, the father using his own words describes the phenomenon, which is now being investigated by the so-called Theory of Mind. Secondly, Bykovsky achieves success when he tells his son a fairy tale about the harmful effects of smoking. It apparently shows that he is conscious of the role of narration in the process of education, which is also an axiom in contemporary science. Therefore, it can be concluded that the short story At Home is a kind of an artistic "guide for parents".


Garcinia section Garcinia is one of 14 sections of the species-rich pantropical genus Garcinia (Guttiferae/Clusiaceae). In its most recent circumscription the section comprised 43 species, mostly of rain forest understorey trees, distributed from eastern India to Fiji, and in Madagascar (Jones, 1980: unpublished Phd. Thesis, University of Leicester). Its most famous member is the fruit tree, mangosteen (G. mangostana). Taxonomic revision of section Garcinia reduces the number of species from 43 to 16 with five varieties, with distribution from eastern India to Malesia. A total of nine species are excluded, 19 species are reduced to synonyms and five species are insufficiently known to be classified. Within sect. Garcinia, G. acuticosta, G. discoidea, G. exiguous, G. ochraceus and G. sangudsangud are newly described, G. diospyrifolia var. arborea, G. diospyrifolia var. minor and G. malaccensis var. pseudomangostana are new varieties, and G. cataractalis, previously unassigned to any section by Jones (1980) is newly included. Species limits are defined on the basis of combinations of characters such as shape of stamens and presence of pistillode, fruit type, and leaf characters such as shape, size, venation pattern and type of glandular lines. A total of 83 accessions representing 42 Garcinia species were sequenced for the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, while 50 accessions (30 spp.) and 24 accessions (16 spp.) were sequenced for the chloroplast non-coding regions trnS-G and trnD-T respectively. Of these, 30 accessions or ten spp. (ITS), 23 accessions or nine spp. (trnS-G) and 17 accessions or nine spp. (trnD-T) belong to sect. Garcinia. Parsimony and Bayesian analyses show that the ITS data are more phylogenetically informative and provide better resolution for sectional and species relationships compared to trnS-G and trnD-T. Most of the sections delimited by Jones (1980) proved to be monophyletic but sect. Garcinia is not. Garcinia maingayi, G. trianii and G. costata, assigned to sect. Garcinia by Jones, are in a separate clade that is strongly supported as sister to sect. Brindonia. These species have significantly different morphological characters from sect. Garcinia, and should be excluded from it. Characters that are important for sectional delimitation are inflorescences that are simple cymes, stamen bundles that are 4-angled or 4-lobed, and fruits with a smooth surface. Four major clades in sect. Garcinia are supported by the shape of the stamen bundles, the shape of the fruit and the stigma, and fruit wall characters. ITS trees are significantly incongruent with plastid trees because of the placement of G. rigida, which could reflect a hybrid origin. Another hybrid species, the cultivated mangosteen, could be the product of hybridisation events between varieties of G. malaccensis if mangosteen is proven to be an obligate agamosperm. However, if mangosteen is a facultative agamosperm, G. malaccensis is likely to be the female parent, but any other Garcinia species could be the putative paternal species. Phylogenetic trees of ITS show that most Garcinia species from east of Wallace's Line are nested within species from the west. This might reflect dispersal of species across this biogeographic division from west to east when the Sahul and Sunda shelves converged (c. 20 MY).This hypothesis is supported by the estimated divergence of accessions of G. rigida from the east of Wallace's Line, from their most recent common ancestor to the west of the line, not later than 21.58+/-2.90 MY. Acknowledgements My special thanks to my supervisors, Toby Pennington and Mark Newman, for their advice and support throughout the period of my study in RBGE and I would also like to thank to James Richardson, David Middleton and Kwiton Jong for their valuable advice and help in preparing this thesis. In RBGE, I am grateful to Martin Pullan for helping me with the PADME database, Michelle Hollingsworth and Alex Clark for all their assistance in the lab, David Harris, Adele Smith, and Helen Hoy for helping me to manage my herbarium specimens, Robert Mill, Mai-Lan Krantiz, Helene Citerne and Daniella Schill for the translation works, Mark Hughes for digital image and DIVA-GIS and many other people especially in the library for their direct and indirect help. I would also like to thanks to the curator of these herbaria; K, SING, UC, A, L, P, and SAR for the loan materials. Curator and staff of the following herbaria during my visit: K, BM, KEP, KINA, MARDI, SAR and SAN. During the course of my visit and fieldwork, I would personally thankful to LIPI and Bogor Botanic Gardens especially to Hendrian, Dadi Darnadi, Rismita Sari and Irawaty; Sarawak Forestry Corporation, especially to Nigel Lim, Runi Pungga, Lucy Chong, Bibian Diway, Andela Tipot and Sylvester Tan; Sabah Parks and Sabah Forestry Department especially to Jamili Nais, John Sugau and Bernard Valentine; and in Peninsular Malaysia, the Forestry Department and UPM especially to Prof. Hamami Hj Shaari, Pn. Salmah, Tabingon, Shamsul Khamis, Radhiah Zakaria and Nur Abdullah Psyquay; in MARDI especially to Salma Idris and Masron, and lastly to my good travel companion and tree climber, Jantan Mok (Unyit). In RBGE there are many friends that I would like to appreciate; Vanessa, Estelle, Bruce, Greg, Sophie, Gemma, Camila, Daniela, Cath, Vimi, Peter, Mai-Lan, Alan, Barbara, Jin, Will, Chris, Kate, Colin, Haja and to all Malaysian friends who have made me and family enjoy our stay in Edinburgh, may Allah bless us all. My personal grateful and special thank also to my family in Kota Tinggi and Sepang who gave their valuable support for most of the time, to 'emak & abah', I am grateful for your 'doa'. Last but not least, to my beloved wife Suri and my daughter Sarah, the backbone of my life and works, thank you for the support and understanding.


As one of the predominant means of legal entry into the European Union (EU), family reunification has moved to the centre of public and political debates on immigration. Many Member States' governments have put in place a net of highly selective policies in order to limit the number of foreigners entering as family migrants. This paper contrasts the underlying normative claim of a fundamental and universal right to family life against the existing evidence of unequal conditions and effects of family reunification policies for different groups and categories of third-country national migrants. Questioning the legitimacy of these differential policies, I build on Habermas' distinction between pragmatic, ethical and moral modes of justification to develop a framework that helps to distinguish the various logics and arguments underlying this increasingly complex system of differentiated rights. I argue that within European family reunification policy-making the three types of justification, while often used in combination, tend to serve different functions and to inflict distinctive shortcomings in terms of the legitimacy of the selection mechanisms they underpin.


Baiyangdian Lake is the largest freshwater lake in north China.Recently its ecological environment is deteriorated seriously because of the water pollution leading to the descent of its ecological carrying capacity.This paper has used analytic hierarchical process(AHP)and has studied ecological carrying capacity in Baiyangdian Lake according to the Baiyangdian Lake's ecosystem structure.


The invention discloses a full-dull nylon taffeta fabric which comprises the following components in parts by weight: 25-29 parts of full-dull nylon taffeta, 16-19 parts of cotton and hemp blended fabric, 2-13 parts of cire satine, 11-14 parts of wild silk and 10-15 parts of suedette. The full-dull nylon taffeta fabric is rich in raw material resources, good in elasticity and elastic recovery property, thick and solid in texture, clear in weaving grain and strong in wool type sense.


The institutional creation of the Bureau of Motion Pictures and Exhibits, a division of the Industrial Department of the International Committee of the YMCA, is examined to assess why the YMCA turned to film as a mode of public address in its social welfare programs. The archival history supports the claim that the "attraction effect" of film transformed it into a cultural technology for shaping the conduct of industrial workers. The essay concludes by arguing how film contributed to liberalism's modernization of pastoral power by coupling immigrant workers with the pedagogical voice of the YMCA secretary.


Chondroitin sulfate is a sulfated glycosaminoglycan that predominates in the ground substance of cartilage. Using monoclonal antichondroitin sulfate in 61 specimens of human otosclerotic lesions, we studied the distribution of this glucosaminoglycan in various stages of otosclerosis. Our findings show that chondroitin sulfate plays an important role in the development of otosclerosis. In addition, the distribution of chondroitin sulfate clearly delineates the stage of otosclerosis referred to as active into two distinct histologic stages. Dividing the active stage into "osteolytic" and "sponge‐chondroid" would be reasonable based on our findings.


Recognition that a condition of diaphyseal hyperostosis, preceded by softtissue swelling and associated with constitutional upset, existed distinct from bone syphilis, was first declared by West & Barlow [51] a t a meeting of the London Clinical Society in April, 1888. Following the nest description by Roske in 1930 [35], sporadic and isolated reports of unexplained, non-luetic "hyperplastic periostitis", were scattered through major European publications over the next fifteen years [lG, 23, 38, 30, 471. The syndrome acquired real definition and prognosis in 1945 from the independently recorded and well-documented series of Caffey from New York and Smyth from California, and it is fitting that the accepted eponymous description couples their names. From the outstanding radiological characteristic Caffey called the condition "infantile cortical hyperostosis". Since then an occasional familial incidence has been described [3, 27, 50, 511 and the course has been shown to be not invariably benign by the demonstration of a small associated mortality [17, 39, 32, 41, 501. Confusion with the bone manifestations of chronic Vitamin A intoxication was dispelled a t the beginning of the last decade (Caffey [lo]) and more recently the clinical and radiological resemblance to vaccinia osteomyelitis has been pointed out by Elliot [Z]. Today, it should be appreciated that this is an uncommon, but by no means rare, disorder of infancy, which may present itself in the province of almost any medical or dental specialty concerned with the management of infants. It demands watchful support over many months and occasionally claims life, yet it may be readily diagnosed by informed appraisal of the whole clinical picture. Of over ninety cases which have been reported from places throughout the world, two have arisen in Ireland, as did the illustrative case described below.


Primary loop resin waste is eluted by sulfuric acid in The Kansai Electic Company Mihama, Takahama and Ohi nuclear power station. Waste solution from this elution process is planned to be solidified by cement. This study bring out a range of chemical composition and crud concentration of waste solution from this elution process, and examine the properties of alumina cement solidification process and solidified material. Test for sulfate ion, borate, lithium, ammonium ion was carried out. Volume reduction ratio of over 0.5 was achieved for 5 to 25wt% of sulfate ion and <5,000ppm of borate. Lithium ion restrained the solidification delay by borate. Also, ammonium ion shows no significant effect. Based on this study, we concluded that the aluminum cement is applicable to all range of composition of waste solution from the resin elution process. This study is a part of committed work of The Kansai electric company.© 2010 ASME


The theories of economics and modern marketing management show that the analysis of macro-environment factor is the logical premise of the leading role.Based on the supply chain channel system,the construction of the higher vocational education alliance effectively helps the higher vocational colleges to play the leading role,which makes up for the malfunction of the market to some degree.


This paper discusses the shifting paradigms of what is considered enrichment of an individual. In the traditional agrarian society enrichment was around relationships and institutions of belonging, age, experience, wisdom and sagacity meant an enriched individual. In to-days industrialised society achievement, success, and wealth connotes enrichment. But together both the traditional and the industrial context, to-day the individual identity holds a vast canvas of life to locate oneself, has choices from multiplicities, can evolve a perspective for life and living and can design and define membership and roles in multiple institutions. The individual is truly enriched when she/he can give expression to the being in terms of relatedness and to the becoming in terms of achievement, aspirations and success. The paper then focuses on women as enriched individual as a center for growth. Women enrich themselves through redefining their social roles in the socio-cultural context, achievement and success in education context and performance and success in the organizational context. Essentially the movement toward a professional orientation anchored in wholesomeness and well-being will shape women where new processes can be initiated for themselves as well as others.


Simulation is an integral part in operation, planning and design of power systems. In order to investigate possible solutions to the challenges posed by the continuous changes in network requirements, research-grade simulation tools should be equipped with similar features as commercial and industrial software packages. This enables flexible modeling, testing and modification of methods in an environment close to realindustrial tools. Towards this end, this paper describes the introduction of dynamics simulation into the eASiMOV software framework, which comprises grid analysis, simulation, modeling, optimization, and visualization modules. Unlike mostof the education and research-grade simulation tools, the framework with the integrated dynamics simulation module is provided with a graphical user interface, an interactive network editor and a visualization module. These features make the integrated system comparable to commonly used and validated industrial simulation packages. The present paper focuses onthe implemented models and analysis features of the dynamic simulation module, which is a Matlab-based toolbox for the analysis of balanced transients in power system networks. The standard IEEE 9-bus test feeder is modeled in eASiMOV andused to test the performance of the dynamic simulation module. The corresponding simulation results for balanced network disturbances are validated against OpenModelica and DIgSILENT PowerFactory in terms of accuracy.


American social philosopher and psychoanalyst E. Fromm discourses on the moral choice theory from the psychological angle. He is,on one hand,against the conventional freedom of will;and on the other hand,disagrees with determinism. According to his theory,as long as people are aware of the unconscious forces behind behaviors,they can obtain the choosing ability so that the causal sequence in the process of development can be altered. He profoundly analyses the decisive factors and psychological process that influence moral choices,making a great contribution to the theoretical construction and development of moral choice theories. Meanwhile,his theory also gives important enlightenment to people's moral choice behaviors in reality.


Mysticism and spirituality have acquired broad, interdisciplinary meanings. In this essay I return to the early Christian origins of mysticism to understand the meaning of this experience as a dimension of Christian spirituality. After addressing definitions of spirituality in our pluralistic culture, I argue that mysticism should be an essential part of Christian spirituality.


The analysis of bubble chamber photographs increasingly calls for new techniques of data processing using digital computers. After scanning the film, the measurements taken are coded and run through several successive computing stages. However, the necessity of analyzing numerous pictures has led to the design and construction of automatic measuring devices. (tr-auth)


The present invention relates to a composition having a production process and cancer, pain, cancer preventive effect of the extract of the chilmok, chilpi, geonchil three kinds of medicinal plants that are derived from a lacquer raw material, Sumac, even though a variety of pharmacological effects, and allergic has received limited in their use due to side effects that cause, in the case of chilaek when the deadly side effects due to acute allergens, the more we need to develop a method derived from the enhanced functionality sumac extract and improve it. Removing components causing allergy of the sumac and pharmacological efficacy, the configuration of the raw material in order to obtain enhanced differentiated Sumac-derived extract, extracting process, the detoxified through alkaline treatment, with the weight ratio of the resulting focuses on the improvement of efficacy Composition 1 0.05 to 0.3: a mixture of 0.05 to 0.2 ratio and then pulverized, powdered, and the water-extracted, and filtered to obtain the extract, ethanol 95% of the remaining extract foil (v / v) water, and the resulting filtrate was extracted with ethanol of extract filtrate and mixed, and the fine filtered to remove the insoluble component with a 1 micron filter, followed by concentration of the obtained solution the concentration of the solid content, and such that 20 ~ 50% (w / v), alkaline water of pH 8.0 ~ 9.5 here and the reaction mixture the concentration of the solid content of 5 ~ 40% (w / v) so that it is 0.1 to 10 gave sigan then concentrated to treatment for removing the solvent and dried to cancer, pain, amye sumac extract as obtained by the powder It can provide effective help to people suffering from diseases caused therefrom, and may contribute to further public health. Chilpi, chilmok, geonchil, pain, Fu sustaining blood paroxetine, polyphenols, anti-cancer


This article describes how redesigned moisture separation systems and four-pass reheaters resolve maintenance problems and increase power plant capacity. Because of the many operating problems with the equipment since plant start-up, Northern States Power (NSP) initiated a two-phase moisture separator reheater (MSR) betterment program. In the first phase, the mesh demister pads were replaced with stainless steel, high-performance inertial separators. These are mechanically rigid, maintenance free, and, when provided with good flow distribution, are capable of virtually complete moisture separation. The reconstructed moisture-separation system has seven zones: shell entrance, distribution manifold, calming plenum, perforated distribution plates, chevron separator banks, inlet to the reheat plenum, and internal drain system.


This paper describes my effort to verify the speedup results of the Phoenix 2 framework. This framework is an implementation of MapReduce, which is a programming model for distributed computing without having the programmer to write parallel code. Reproducing the speedup results fails partly, due to performance issues in the Phoenix 2 implementation. In addition the achieved speedups for Phoenix are compared to those of Hadoop, another large MapReduce framework, which is very popular amongst large companies. Hadoop seems to scale better compared to Phoenix, but an explanation for these results might be the performance issues of Phoenix. In addition, the number of tests that is used for comparison is too low to draw a solid conclusion.


This project is supported by Grant ~~~~. ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education. During the past several years, the field of special education has been significantly affected by a number of events, including the enactment of P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. By admitting into the public school sector those children who


Along with information time approaching,the information resource pattern by only paper nature resources of university libraries has broken into two parts,paper nature resources and electronic resources.As a result of the difference type of the universities in our country,the information resources purchase funds also inevitably have the difference on each kind of resource.How to deal with the relationship between them is a question to be settled quickly in library field.Based on the statistical analysis of funds used in more than 50 universities library,the article made the preliminary discussion and the research.


A multi-functional intelligent car based on MC9S12XS128 was designed by using the embedded technology and image processing technology. Intelligent car can independently select road travel fork.After reaching the end of the road, display options, travel distance, travel time, travel speed can be showed on the display screen.The OV5116 CMOS camera system is used to detect road information. Comparators are used for image two values for road identification. The photoelectric encoder detects real-time speed.PID control algorithm is used to adjust the drive motor speed and steering angle. realize the closed loop control of the model vehicle speed and direction. The whole system has the simple circuit structure, low cost and high reliability. Through the experimental measurement, intelligent car meets the expected design in all indexes.


Little literature has dealt with infinite systems where an arbitrarily large number of resources is shared between larger systems with many stages due to the associated state explosion problem. Current most advanced controlled techniques for flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) cannot handle very large systems. We proposed earlier a method without reachability analysis to find the closed-form solutions of all reachable, forbidden, and live markings for the so-called kth-order system. This is the first reported closed-form solution of arbitrarily large systems. This paper further extends the closed-form solutions to the controller synthesis of infinite kth-order systems, which is a subclass of FMS. The place-invariant-based deadlock prevention controls are adopted to reduce the computational burden by considering only the minimal set of all first-met bad markings (FBMs). No live states are lost by considering also only the minimal set of all live markings. The above requires solving integer linear programming problems (ILPPs), which is NP-hard and quite time-consuming. By merging several monitors into a single one while not losing live states, this paper is able to achieve the same best results in the literature while avoiding the time-consuming reachability analysis and complete siphon computation which does not scale well with the size of the nets. Furthermore, closed-form solution of arbitrarily large systems can be derived, which has never been attained so far. Application to large Gadara resource allocation systems is also mentioned. Further work on handling a very large system with resources shared between more than two processes is reported. Moreover, the initial markings of the two terminal resource places are allowed to vary above one.


In this paper we provide a detailed account of the various realizations of the accentual phrase in our phonological model of French intonation (Jun & Fougeron 1995, 2000), and introduce a slight revision in tone-syllable association. In addition to the default and unmarked phrases, we examine the intonational contour of long polymorphemic words and utterances containing a sequence of several clitics. We discuss the status of additional H tones found in the marked phrases and the constraints on the distribution of these H tones.


A method for modifying a polypeptide domain T cell receptor comprising a structural loop region to introduce a novel binding site to antigen in said structural loop region, the structural loop is not a CDR loop and determining the binding an epitope of said antigen, wherein the polypeptide domain of the T cell receptor unmodified not significantly bind to said epitope of said antigen, comprising the steps of: - providing a nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide domain receptor T cells comprising at least one structural loop region. - modifying at least one nucleotide residue of at least one of said regions structural loop by random site-directed mutation, where exchange or introduce two or more residues of specific amino acid loops using randomly generated inserts into such structural loops, - transferring said modified in an expression system nucleic acid, - expressing said polypeptide domain receptor modified T cells, - contacting the polypeptide domain receptor expressed said T cell epitope, and - determining whether said polypeptide domain of the T cell receptor binds to said epitope.


The Lakkavalli range comprises an endangered habitat with several endemic species that can be found in many countries, mainly in the Lakkavalli range of the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary, but that are rapidly disappearing. For designing optimal conservation and management strategies for this ecosystem, appropriate characterization and classification of these wetlands is necessary based on the different types of habitats and their varying environmental conditions. This paper presents the current ecological status and threat to Lakkavalli range wetlands of Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary and summarizes some management and conservation issues based on the existing experience on a regional level. The study reveals that most of the water and Soil quality parameters are in the normal range. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical phenotype in a large population of Kennedy's disease (KD) patients.
BACKGROUND: KD is a neuromuscular disease caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the androgen receptor (AR) gene. AR is broadly expressed in the body, thus AR toxicity may involve organs other than the neuromuscular system.
METHODS: A clinical protocol focused on androgen-linked functions was administered to 72 Caucasian KD patients. It included: neurological exam, blood tests (glucose and lipid metabolism, hormonal status, bone metabolism), bone density test, and EKG. Urinary and sexual functions were also assessed by the means of functional scores and prostate echography.
RESULTS: Mean age at onset was 46 years and lower limb weakness was reported as presenting symptom in most cases. Patients presented a tendency to overweight with sugar levels consistent with diabetes mellitus or with impaired glucose tolerance in almost 50[percnt] of cases. Thirty-eight per cent of patients had borderline blood total cholesterol levels, while 15[percnt] had an overt hyperlipidemia. Hormonal assessment was unremarkable. Bone density test showed femoral osteopenia in 45[percnt] of patients regardless of their age. No significant heart rhythm disorders were recorded. One third (37[percnt]) of patients complained urinary symptoms, which scored moderate to severe according to the functional scales and were unrelated to prostate hypertrophy. Erectile dysfunction was reported in 46[percnt] of cases.
CONCLUSIONS: This study further widens the clinical spectrum of KD. Disclosure: Dr. Querin has nothing to disclose. Dr. Bertolin has nothing to disclose. Dr. Volpe has nothing to disclose. Dr. Zara has nothing to disclose. Dr. Da Re has nothing to disclose. Dr. Zoccarato has nothing to disclose. Dr. Caretta has nothing to disclose. Dr. Foresta has nothing to disclose. Dr. Marcato has nothing to disclose. Dr. Iafrate has nothing to disclose. Dr. Corrado has nothing to disclose. Dr. Silvano has nothing to disclose. Dr. Pegoraro has received personal compensation for activities with BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., and MEDA Pharmaceuticals Inc. as a scientific advisory board member and/or consultant. Dr. Pareyson has nothing to disclose. Dr. Pennuto has nothing to disclose. Dr. Soraru has nothing to disclose.


The back page of the June 2003 edition of Veld & Flora featured an article called 'Conservation Incentive Project in the Cape Lowlands gets going', which introduced the new partnership project between the Botanical Society and Cape Nature Conservation. Now, just more than a year later, there have been many developments... including a project name change.


We describe a multi-user system enabling instant messaging in Augmented Reality. A user can get in contact with another one without requiring his/her identification number and can easily localize the person initiating the contact. It is also possible to exchange various types of personal information in a private manner. This innovative type of social interaction can significantly increase consumer interest for AR experiences.


One major objective of autonomous systems navigating in dynamic environments is gathering information needed for self localization, decision making, and path planning. To account for this, such systems are usually equipped with multiple types of sensors. As these sensors often have a limited field of view and a fixed orientation, the task of active perception breaks down to the problem of calculating alignment sequences which maximize the information gain regarding expected measurements. Action sequences that rotate the system according to the calculated optimal patterns then have to be generated. In this paper we present an approach for calculating these sequences for an autonomous system equipped with multiple sensors. We use a particle filter for multi- sensor fusion and state estimation. The planning task is modeled as a Markov decision process (MDP), where the system decides in each step, what actions to perform next. The optimal control policy, which provides the best action depending on the current estimated state, maximizes the expected cumulative reward. The latter is computed from the expected information gain of all sensors over time using value iteration. The algorithm is applied to a manifold representation of the joint space of rotation and time. We show the performance of the approach in a spacecraft navigation scenario where the information gain is changing over time, caused by the dynamic environment and the continuous movement of the spacecraft


The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) insertion point of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is the 32nm half-pitch node, and significant worldwide effort is being focused toward this goal. Potential road blocks have been identified and are being addressed. Readiness of EUV photoresists is one of the risk areas. According to the ITRS (www.itrs.net), a production-worthy EUV resist at 32nm half-pitch has to have a photospeed of ∼5mJ∕cm2 and line edge roughness (3σ) of 1.4nm. Toward this goal, the joint INVENT activity (AMD, CNSE, IBM, Micron, and Qimonda) at Albany has evaluated a broad range of EUV photoresists on various EUV exposure tools worldwide, including EUV MET at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, EUV MET at SEMATECH Albany, and EUV interferometer at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland. This article will give a survey of the results, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of current materials.


Summary

The characteristics of pectinesterase (PE) have been examined in waste material (peel, cores and offcuts) obtained from Bramley seedling apples barn stored for 2, 4 and 12 weeks. A crude enzyme extract was prepared by suspending the dried and milled apple waste in 0.1 m NaCl at pH 8.5. The activity of PE under standard assay conditions of 0.5% apple pectin, 0.1 m NaCl, pH 8.5 and 30°C was low, between 4 and 8 units g−1 dry matter, but activities up to 60 units g−1 dry matter were obtained at higher temperatures. The optimum temperature was 60°C with the enzyme stable up to 40°C with 5 min heating. The mean activation energy for PE in the three samples was calculated at 39.2 kJ mol−1 K−1. The optimum pH was high at 10.0 probably due to the PE assay measuring the extraction/solubilization and stability of the enzyme in addition to its activity. Optimum activity was obtained in 0.15 m NaCl with optimum stability at 0.5 m.


The multi-pair bi-directional relay network under consideration consists of one base-station, multiple (say m) terminal nodes and one relay, all of which are half-duplex, in which, contrary to prior work, each node has a direct link with every other node. Each of the m terminal nodes exchanges messages with the base-station in a bi-directional fashion, leading to 2m total messages to be communicated with the (possible) help of the relay. The contributions in part I are: 1) the introduction of three new temporal protocols which fully exploit the twoway nature of the data and over-heard side-information through network coding and random binning, 2) derivations of achievable rate regions for the multi-pair two-way network, and 3) a numerical evaluation of the derived regions in Gaussian noise which illustrate the performance of the proposed protocols. Outer bounds and the impact of cooperation between terminals nodes in an identical setting are considered in part II of this work.


In this innovative practice full paper we present a methodology for organizing a hackathon as a learning instrument within the scope of an undergraduate course. Hackathons are short events (1 to 3 days), where participants motivated by a common challenge gather into groups to build a software or hardware prototype. Studies show that learning is one of the main motivators of hackathon participants. Researchers are also pointing out the importance of hackathons as an informal learning approach for college students. The acquisition of knowledge comes as a result of the practice itself and with participants learning from one another. This motivated us to bring that practice to the classroom, by offering an undergraduate course where students develop their semester project within a hackathon. In an attempt to systematize the steps, compress and optimize the time allocated for the ideation phase of hackathon projects, we propose a methodology for hackathons in an educational setting. The approach combines concepts from Challenge-based Learning and Design Thinking in a sequence of activities that streamlines the ideation process with regular deliveries in short time frames. This results in objective discussions and quick decision taking, fastly arriving at a project idea where students apply what they learned over the semester. We applied our approach in an Internet of Things undergraduate course within the scope of a semester project developed in an authentic 24-hour hackathon that took place in a maker space. This article details the methodology and presents a mixed methods study to analyze the students' perception on using this set of practices and techniques.


Graphic symbol is the materialized performance of national culture.Logo design expresses its emotions in the form of graphic symbol.In order to accurately express logo design's feelings,we should deeply dig the culture connotation that graphic symbols carry.


uncover who the audiences might have been. Using the five major apocryphal Acts plus the Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena, Davies posits that the Acts reflect social conditions of a slightly earlier period than that of their composition in the late second or early third century; they mark a transitional phase between the charismatic Christianity of the itinerant apostles and the patriarchal, institutional church. Davies's central theses pertain to women: that the Acts' audiences and authors were middle-class literate women whose version of Christianity emphasized sexual abstinence. The Acts stemmed from and appealed to a community "deeply alienated" from familial and societal norms. That others, for example, civil authorities and husbands, saw the apostles and their followers as social deviants is reflected in the accusations of sorcery made against them. Davies perceptively notes how the apocryphal Acts represent males as ethically dangerous, liable to temptation, and confused about their faith—the very tendencies most patristic writers ascribed to women. The author regrets that he belatedly discovered Gerd Theissen's work; indeed, from Theissen's foundations, Davies could have built a stronger argument. Some may find Davies's position, especially regarding the Acts' authorship, too conjectural. Despite dubious hypotheses, for example, that all sexually continent Christian women can be classified as "widows," this provocative work complements Rose Soder's standard monograph and is a good addition to the growing literature on the social world of early Christianity. Designed for nonspecialist readers, The Revolt of the Widows should be followed by more technical studies of women in the apocryphal tradition. Gilbert Dagron's illuminating introduction to his edition of the Vie et Miracles de Sainte Thecle (1978) stands as a model.


The utility model discloses a heat pipe and heat pump dual-mode air conditioner with an evaporative condenser. The heat pipe and heat pump dual-mode air conditioner is mainly composed of the evaporative condenser, an evaporator, a throttling valve, a compressor, a first solenoid valve, a second solenoid valve, an evaporator fan, a first one-way valve, a second one-way valve, an air guide pipe, a liquid guide pipe and a circuit control part. A heat pump mechanical refrigeration system and a heat pipe natural heat exchange system are formed by the components, and share the evaporator, the evaporative condenser and a part of pipeline. The evaporative condenser and the evaporator are both micro-channel heat exchangers. The heat pipe and heat pump dual-mode air conditioner can be used for heat dissipation of a communication base station and a machine room, and is simple in structure and relatively low in product manufacturing cost. A product is high in reliability when used, the refrigeration effect is good, and vigorous application and popularization are facilitated.


(1) The objectives of the study were to identify the various conflicts faced by adolescents and resolve them with multidimensional management strategies designed specifically for each case and (2) to explore the role of homoeopathy along with ancillary measures in conflict resolution for adolescents.

The details of the chief complaints, developmental characteristics and the problems faced by the adolescents were studied and analysed. The specific conflicts were identified and individual multidimensional management strategies were devised accordingly. Homoeopathic management along with ancillary measures such as psychological counselling of patient and family, diet and lifestyle modification guidance, meditation and relaxation techniques and career guidance was the basic modalities used to resolve conflicts.

Positive outcomes were achieved with suitable interventions made at the right time; this not only resolved the conflicts but also helped in preventing any adverse consequences or faulty development of the adolescents.

This study helps in appreciating the role of homoeopathy in the management of various physical, emotional, intellectual, psychosocial, sexual and behavioural conflicts faced by adolescents. The holistic approach used in the homoeopathic system of medicine along with ancillary measures can cause transformations at several levels, enabling individuals to lead a healthier and happier life as adolescents and adults.


With the methods of documentary review,questionnaire,teaching experiment and mathematical statistics,the quality risks of graduates' papers in 12 Physical Education departments and colleges of 6 provinces are researched and analyzed.The results show that graduates' papers have many quality problems of cheating,forging experiment and data,changing outside of others',selecting topics unreasonably and designing topics loosely.At last,measures on quality monitoring and risk prevention to the graduates' papers are put forward.


THE SUBANTARCTIC ZONE comprises a circumpolar band of ocean between the Antarctic and Subtropical convergences (fig. 1). Only four areas within the zone were occupied in the prehistoric period: Patagonia, Tasmania, Murihiku (the portion of the south island of New Zealand south of the Waitaki River), and the Chatham Islands. These areas-specifically, the southern and western shores of Patagonia south of 480 south latitude, northwestern Tasmania, the Foveaux Strait region of Murihiku, and the Chatham Islands-share a number of important characteristics: (a) limited terrestrial food resources, with edible species of fauna and flora dispersed and limited in size and quality and with no horticulture; (b) high levels of primary marine production (Koblentz-Mishke et al. 1970), with abundant marine food resources at separate trophic levels and therefore a diverse and stable potential economic base (Fitzhugh 1972); (c) similar sets of marine and littoral resources, including seals in perennial rookeries, marine


This study presents an improved extremum-seeking control (ESC) method, intended to optimise the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) in a photovoltaic (PV) generation system. More specifically, to overcome the problem associated with partial shading in PV systems that leads to multiple operating points, an adaptive loop based on the measured PV array power is added to the conventional ESC. This procedure creates a variable amplitude of the perturbation signal and is able to accurately reach and track the global maximum power point (GMPP). The perturbation signal amplitude changes only when a predetermined power variation value is exceeded. As a result, this MPPT algorithm provides an efficient extraction of solar energy, avoids large oscillations in output response, and ensures the proper operation and performance of the system. The ESC theory is described in detail and the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach are proved through simulation and experimental results. Furthermore, comparative tests show the proposed method's performance improvement, compared to the conventional ESC, evaluated in terms of convergence time, power oscillation in steady state, and accuracy to track the GMPP.


This article serves to the larger quest for increasing our capacities as designers, researchers, and scholars in understanding and developing human-computer interaction in computer-aided design. The central question is on how to ground the related research work in input technologies and interaction techniques for computer-aided design applications, which primarily focus on technology and implementation, within the actual territories of computer-aided design processes. To discuss that, the article first reviews a collection of research studies and projects that present input technologies and interaction techniques developed as alternative or complimentary to the mouse as used in computer-aided design applications. Based on the mode of interaction, these studies and projects are traced in four categories: hand-mediated systems that involve gesture- and touch-based techniques, multimodal systems that combine various ways of interaction including speech-based techniques, experimental systems such as brain-computer interaction and emotive-based techniques, and explorations in virtual reality- and augmented reality-based systems. The article then critically examines the limitations of these alternative systems related to the ways they have been envisioned, designed, and situated in studies as well as of the two existing research bases in human-computer interaction in which these studies could potentially be grounded and improved. The substance of examination is what is conceptualized as "frameworks of thought"—on variables and interrelations as elements of consideration within these efforts. Building upon the existing frameworks of thought, the final part discusses an alternative as a vehicle for incorporating layers of the material cultures of computer-aided design in designing, analyzing, and evaluating computer-aided design-geared input technologies and interaction techniques. The alternative framework offers the potential to help generate richer questions, considerations, and avenues of investigation.


It has been nearly 20 years since the last Humana Press book devoted to serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) receptors has appeared. Since then, the field of 5-HT receptors has undergone a revolution due to the discovery of many additional 5-HT receptors. Although 5-HT was chemically elucidated in 1948 by Page and colleagues (Rapport et al., 1948) and 5-HT receptors initially classified in 1957 (Gaddum and Picarelli, 1957), the complexity of 5-HT pharmacology was not fully appreciated until the late 1970s and early 1980s when many putative 5-HT receptors were identified by radioligand binding studies (e.g., 5-HT1A, 5-HT2, 5-HT1E and so on) (Leysen et al., 1979; Hamon et al., 1980; Peroutka et al., 1981; Leonhardt et al., 1989). The first 5-HT receptors were cloned in 1988 (Fargin et al., 1988; Julius et al., 1988) and the discovery of 14 distinct human 5-HT receptors since then ushered in the era of 5-HT receptor molecular biology (Kroeze et al., 2003). The cloning and sequencing of 5-HT receptors has also revealed the presence of post-transcriptionally modified mRNA species (RNA editing) (Burns et al., 1997) as well as naturally occurring mutations and their relations to various diseases (e.g., single nucleotide polymorphisms; SNPs) (Arranz et al., 1995). The identification of the amino acid sequences of 5-HT receptors has allowed us to predict how 5-HT and related agonists bind to and activate 5-HT receptors (Shapiro et al., 2000; Shapiro et al., 2002). The hope has been that this information will lead, eventually, to the development of novel, subtype-selective 5-HT receptor agonists and antagonists (Kroeze et al., 2002). The first several chapters of The Serotonin Receptors: From Molecular Pharmacology to Human Therapeutics are aimed at reviewing our knowledge of the molecular and structural biology of 5-HT receptors, followed by our current understanding of 5-HT receptor pharmacology. The elucidation of the sequences of 5HT receptors has also facilitated the development of highly selective tools for mapping the distribution of 5-HT receptors. These tools include selective 5-HT receptor antibodies and hybridization probes. The use of these biochemical probes has revealed an unexpected complexity in both the cellular and subcellular distribution of 5-HT receptors. The next few chapters describe the anatomical, cellular, and subcellular distribution of 5-HT receptors. Because of the plethora of receptors and receptor subtypes, however, it has been exceedingly difficult to identify the physiological role of various 5-HT receptors using pharmacological tools. A powerful approach


The purpose of this paper is to explain how new political ideologies were represented trough civic rituals after the 1810 Revolution in small and far-away places such as San Salvador de Jujuy. The case of Jujuy shows how the revolution brought about a conflict between new and old conceptes of "sovereignity" and "nation" as Spanish authority was replaced, as also happened in the other urban centers of the Rio de la Plata region. New rituals and symbols legitimized the new political order. This was especially important in the areas of conflict betwenn patriots and royalists such as Jujuy.


We uncover current-bias characteristics of superfluid-normal state junctions with weakly-interacting Bose gases. It is shown that in the presence of a chemical potential bias the characteristics can strongly be asymmetric for origin. The salient feature that is absent in the fermionic counterpart arises from a tunneling process associated with a condensate and a bosonic Andreev reflection process. It turns out that such processes are intrinsically nonlinear and therefore do not obey Ohm's law even at a low bias. In addition, the remaining processes are found to obey Ohm's law and become dominant for transport driven by a temperature bias.


We have measured the ability of a third party to intercept upstream messages in both passive splitter-based and waveguide-grating router-based broadcast passive optical networks. Bit-error-rate (BER) measurements at 150 Mb/s indicate that privacy is enhanced by at least 14 dB in the router-based network, and will improve further with router developments.


The Bspline function bases is used in the calculation of the exciton ground state energy based on the effective mass approximation (EMA) model. The difference of the dielectric constant between the inside and the outside of the dots is taken into account. Exciton energies as a function of the dots radii are calculated and compared with experimental and other theoretical data. The comparison shows:This method with Bsplines bases leads to good results of the excition energy which are in good agreement with experimental data in the all the regions than others.It is found that the different material surrounding of dots affects both potential energy and Coulomb interaction energy of the system,and the effective messes.The effective mass approximation model can very well describe the behaviors of the excitons confined in the dots.


The Wavelength Modulation Diode Laser Absorption Spectrometry technique (WM-DLAS) is a laser-based spectroscopic technique for sensitive detection of atoms and molecules that so far mostly has been ...


The primary means by which air traffic tower controllers obtain information is through direct out-thewindow viewing, although a considerable amount of time is spent looking at electronic displays and other information sources inside the tower cab. The Air Force Research Laboratory sponsored the development of a prototype Augmented Reality Binocular System (ARBS) that enhances tower controller performance, situation awareness, and safety. The ARBS is composed of a virtual binocular (VB) that displays real-time imagery from high resolution telephoto cameras and sensors mounted on pan/tilt units (PTUs). The selected PTU tracks to the movement of the VB, which has an inertial heading and elevation sensor. Relevant airfield situation text and graphic depictions that identify airfield features are overlaid on the imagery. In addition, the display is capable of labeling and tracking vehicles on which an Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) system has been installed. The ARBS provides air traffic controllers and airfield security forces with the capability to orient toward, observe, and conduct continuous airfield operations and surveillance/security missions from any number of viewing aspects in limited visibility conditions. In this paper, we describe the ARBS in detail, discuss the results of a Usability Test of the prototype ARBS, and discuss ideas for follow-on efforts to develop the ARBS to a fieldable level.


Given an undirected graph G(V,E) and a vertex subset U ⊆ V the U‐space is the vector space over GF(2) spanned by the paths with end‐points in U and the cycles in G(V,E). We extend Vismara's algorithm to the computation of the union of all minimum length bases of the U‐space. Although the size distribution of subgraphs is the same in all minimum length bases, the number of cycles and paths may differ. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 46(3), 119–123 2005


The international project emerging markets area is the physical boundary of the Contractor's existing market network or the initial market area. Because of "new", there are not only opportunities, but also challenges and risks, and then there are many new but significant research topics. This paper, in the perspective of the Contractor, under the guidance of PMBOK, combining with the experience of initial entrance into the Saudi oil and gas engineering market, discusses the requirements and significance of paying attention to the efficient selection of high-quality subcontractors when entering the unfamiliar and high-level international engineering market, and puts forward the specific countermeasures and measures, so as to provide reference for more Chinese enterprises to go out and enter the new market.


Starting from the appropriate 1-substituted pyrrol-2-yl- (1) or indol-2-ylcarboxylic acid (6), the hydrazonyl chlorides (3) or (8) have been synthesised respectively. Their base treatment promoted the in situ generation of the corresponding nitrilimines (4) or (9), whose intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition gave the title compounds in nearly quantitative yields.


As the fourth state of material,plasma differs from other material.In this paper the plasma permeability in non-relativistic case is studied.According to the relation between plasma permeability and dielectric constant derived by Silin,the permeabilities in connect with dispersion relation are numerically calculated.The results show that,the wave among plasma which doesn't satisfy the dispersion relation will decay quickly and the permeability of those waves which satisfy the dispersion relation is the function of frequency.And the plasma permeabilities are influenced by its temperature.


A colonoscopy in 2010 showed a small area of deep ulceration with partial stricturing at the hepatic flexure. Biopsies indicated focal active chronic colitis with granulomas consistent with Crohn disease; however, the pathologist suggested that Yersinia species and mycobacterial infection should be excluded. She was changed to mesalazine, and a colonoscopy in 2012 showed no significant change, with no symptoms (Box 1).


The Eurytoma maslovskii conduces the unexpected plum dropping. It stayed overwinter inside the pits of the dropped plums and able to oviposit on plum surface when the diameter of the plums are over 16 mm prior to endocarp hardening. To control this harmful pests is too much essential to plum orchard. Therefore, the plum seed crusher (PSC) was designed and developed according to the purpose of perishing the pests through destroying the dropped plums. The rocks and the weeds were removed from the plum orchard prior to the test. Manually operated plum seed crusher picked-up the dropped plums from the ground and crushed them. The performance of PSC was evaluated by applying 2.5 and 3.0 km/h travelling speeds, and controlling the gaps; 18, and 28 mm intervals between plum pick-up discs. The test result showed the plum pick-up rate was 98±2.0%, and 92±5.3% with the machine travelling speed of 3.0 km/h in laboratory. Further, it changed to 95±8.7%, and 93±5.8% when the travelling speed was used 2.5 km/h. In both cases of test plum pick-up discs were maintained 18 mm, and 28 mm gap intervals, respectively. Furthermore, in field conditions, pursuing to similar gap intervals, the plum pick-up rate was 94±4.0%, and 92±2.0% with the speed of 3.0 km/h albeit it showed 92±4.0%, and 90±3.5% when the speed was decreased to 2.5 km/h. The maximum plum pick-up rate was found at 18 mm disc intervals with 3.0 km/h travelling speeds. The crushing teeth were selected 8 mm in height by repeated test to destroy the plum seeds. The result showed 100% crushing efficiency was facilitated to entire tests at 280 RPM crushing speeds regardless of plum sizes and shapes. This machine is preferred for the farmers to control the damage of plums by preventing the propagation of the identified pests.


Summary form only given. TENCON delegates are invited to attend the following tutorial sessions, free of charge, which will be held at the USC Engineering Audio Visual Room, University of San Carlos - Talamban Campus on November 19, 2012. Tutorial 1: Recent Advances in Robotics and Emerging Opportunities. This tutorial reviews the recent exciting developments in robotics centering on humans and operating in unstructured environments. It covers emerging trends in manufacturing, autonomous mobile robots, social robotics, and security and service applications. Current state of the art techniques to realize fundamental capabilities of robotic systems are concisely explained and challenges for research discussed. Tutorial 2: The Next Generation MIMO-OFDM Systems. This tutorial describes the VLSI implementation of our proposed 4x4 MIMO-OFDM (2.6G bps with 160MHz BW) and SxS MIMO-OFDM (3.0G bps with SOMHz BW) systems. A low-latency and a full-pipelined architecture are employed for all processing blocks to provide the real-time operations on OFDM modulation and MIMO detection. The designed transceiver has been evaluated in the circuit size and power dissipation by using a 90-nm CMOS process. In an FPGA board, the proposed total system has been implemented. For the designed system, the circuit behavior on gate size and power consumption is verified. The communication performance is also evaluated.


Latvian dairy sector is characterized by low value added per employee and it can be considered as fragmented that results in weaker bargaining power and higher unproductive costs that do not add value to the products. But it is also considered that in concentrating product supply and also demand logistics plays an important role: helps to reduce unproductive costs and serves as an instrument to add product place and time value. Therefore the paper looks at the economic conditions of the Latvian dairy sector and the practice and economic benefits of the developed logistics systems and components. Milk collecting and marketing are basic and the most important activities of the Latvian dairy sector logistics systems. Dairy sector cooperative societies of Latvia have developed the strongest logistics systems that have improved the situation of dairy farmers in Latvia, with the largest gain being higher milk price. The logistics systems of the largest cooperatives also engage in the supply of production inputs.


This paper shows that urbanization is the results of spatial behaviors of urban actors(residents, enterprises and governments, revealing the relationship and mechanism between urban actors and urbanization. Based on these, the author defines the dominant position of enterprise in the present urbanization in China and shows how the enterprises' behaviors affect the urban development. At last, the paper points out the direction of studies in the future.


Objective To study the impacts of the Three Gorges dam and change of water level on the survival of the local rodents, and to provide scientific basis to control the outbreak of rodent-borne diseases.Methods Four villages located around the Three Gorges dam were selected in the study. The mouse populations by using Elton night trapping method was monitored. Metallic spring traps were set for two consecutive nights. The mouse density and identified the mouse species was calculated. The mouse species indoor and outdoor, as well as the mouse density indoor and outdoor were compared. The impacts of water level in the dam and cleaning work on local mouse density were also analyzed. Results A total of 678 mice were caught in this study, 517 were caught indoor and 161 outdoor. Indoor dominant species was flavipectus; accounting for 36.49%(189/517), while outdoor was apodemus, reaching 56.88% (91/161). For mouse species, there was a significant difference between indoor and outdoor(x2 = 678.00, P 〈 0.01 ). The average mouse density was 8.44%(678/8036) in trap nights. Indoor mouse density reached 14.44%(517/3581 ), which was significantly higher than that of outdoor(3.61%, 161/4455 ).For mouse density, there was a significant difference between indoor and outdoor(x2 = 301.04, P 〈 0.01 ). When the water level was up to 156 m, mouse density reached 10%(513/5132), which was higher than that of before (5.68%, 165/2904). There was a significant difference in mouse density before and after reserving water (x2 = 44.68, P 〈 0.01 ). With the change of water level, upstream mouse density formed a high platform from May 2007 to May 2008, followed by 12.25%(80/653), 13.16%(90/684), 12.95%(90/695), and decreased to 8.38%(28/334) after cleaning of the dam. Conclusions The Three Gorges dam and change of water level actually alter the survival environment of the local mouse, and affect local mouse density and mouse species. These may lead to local outbreak or epidemic of rodent-borne diseases.

Key words:
Muridae;  Data collection;  Environmental monitoring


The paper describes the post–mortem characterisation of spent class AC 70/5 refractory linings from steel ladles, focuses on the environmental impact of their dumping, and points to possibilities of reusing material that is less degraded by corrosion. The degradability of the spent refractories in water is an indicator of their degree of corrosion. Therefore the crushed refractory bricks were leached in water and a weakly acid medium (pH = 5.95 and 4.21, respectively). The pH value, conductivity, redox potential and concentration of ions were measured in the leachates. New AC 70/5 material generates a pH value of leachates of around 8.5, while the alkalinity of leachates from spent brick material increases with the increasing content of lime-corroding compounds (pH = 10 12). Alkaline environments inhibit the release of heavy metal ions. Under the thin strongly corroded surface the refractory material deteriorates only slightly. When bricks are crushed, a redistribution of components into grainy fractions occurs. C and MgO are concentrated in the fine fraction (under 1 mm) and Al2O3 in the coarse fractions (1 2.5 mm). In view of raw material prices it is desirable to proceed further with the recovery of grainy Al2O3.


The strong increase in demand for metallic raw materials, combined with rising metal prices and gradual exhaustion of land-based resources, have fueled great interest in mining of seafloor deposits resources. For the seafloor miner tracked vehicles are preferred compared to wheeled or legged vehicles due to their larger contact area with the ground providing better stability and larger traction forces. The mechanics of tracked vehicles is of continuing interest to organizations and agencies that specify design and operate tracked vehicles. Most works done are on the complete track vehicle system but in this work the research activity is aimed only at the track system with the basic aim of optimizing the track system design so that it can be manufactured by using minimum resources. In this paper equations and models were developed for the track system of a miner in both static and dynamics conditions. These equations and models could further be used for design optimization of the track system.


The concept of a country's competitiveness, in addition to numerous challenges, has risen in importance in recent years. Relying on the data obtained from the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum, the paper analyses competitiveness of the most competitive countries and the least competitive countries in the EU. Visualisation of data on competitiveness and GDP per capita of the analysed group of countries in 2013 enabled the identification of the most critical factors of competitiveness of the EU countries. Furthermore, based on the evaluated competitiveness trend line for the observed groups of countries in the period 2006-2013, it has been concluded that it is not realistic to expect significant convergence of the analysed groups of countries in respect of competitiveness in the near future.


Clinical and bacteriological features of 141 cases of septic abortion admitted to Tanta University Hospital (Egypt) are reviewed. The pathogenesis and management of septic abortion, septic shock, and acute renal failure are discussed, and the types of microorganisms identified in uterine and cervical cultures are tabulated. Itiis recommended that bacteriological examination should routinely be performed in all cases of septic abortion in order to identify the micoorganisms involved so that appropriate measures may be taken to prevent serious complications.


We report small-angle neutron scattering studies of the lacunar spinel GaV$_4$S$_8$, which reveal the long-wavelength magnetic states to be cycloidally modulated. This provides direct support for the formation of Neel-type skyrmions recently claimed to exist in this compound. In striking contrast with all other bulk skyrmion host materials, upon cooling the modulated magnetic states transform into a ferromagnetic state. These results indicate all of the modulated states in GaV$_4$S$_8$, including the skyrmion state, gain their stability from thermal fluctuations, while at lower temperature the ferromagnetic state emerges in accord with the strong easy-axis magnetic anisotropy. In the vicinity of the transition between the ferromagnetic and modulated states, both a phase coexistence and a soliton-like state are also evidenced by our study.


With the long history of the relationship between Indonesia and China, various sentiments may arise and influence the consumer purchasing decision. This study aims to determine the impact of animosity towards China, religiosity, and allocentrism of the Indonesians on the intention to purchase Chinese brands smartphones, mediated by consumer ethnocentrism and brand image. This study has 215 valid responses and was carried out using SPSS 25. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was performed using AMOS 22. The results show that consumer ethnocentrism is significantly influenced by animosity, religiosity, and allocentrism. Brand image can mediate between consumer ethnocentrism and purchase intention. This study gives a better understanding of Indonesian consumer ethnocentrism with animosity towards China, religiosity, and allocentrism, which will affect the Chinese brand image and Indonesians' intention to purchase the product.


The material studied comes from three of the several natural environments which still occur in Parana State. The samples were collected during the project PROFAUPAR, developed by Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Parana. The selected sites were: Antonina (in the coastal plain), Sao Jose dos Pinhais (in the coastal mountain range) and Telemaco Borba (in the second plateau). During one year of the project, 2,106 specimens of Braconidae were collected with light trap. These wasps represented 21 subfamilies and 1,966 specimens were identified in 85 genera. Hormiinae, Rogadinae, Microgastrinae, Alysiinae, Doryctinae and Meteorinae were the most frequent subfamilies. Indices of diversity and evenness were used to discuss richness and dominance of genera in each locality. Statistical analyses indicated that the asymptote of actual genera richness have been approached only to Antonina and Telemaco Borba.


An interval adjusting apparatus of a suction brush is provided to remove the stagnation of the fine impurities in the gap and to prevent the rotation of the interval adjusting knob from being restricted by arranging the grooves between the interval adjusting knob and the insertion groove. An interval adjusting apparatus of a suction brush is composed of: an interval adjusting knob(310) rotatably installed at an insertion groove formed at the suction brush and formed with a slope part(311) having different heights with the cleaned surface according to the rotary position; a support member contacted with the slope part of the interval adjusting knob so as to support the lifting of the suction brush; and a predetermined path formed between the inner peripheral surface of the insertion groove and the outer peripheral surface of the interval adjusting knob to pass through the fine impurities. The path contains plural grooves(314) formed at the outer peripheral surface of the interval adjusting knob.


Wide bandgap semiconductors are widely used in photonic technologies due to their advantageous features, such as large optical bandgap, low losses, and fast operational speeds. Silicon carbide is a prototypical wide bandgap semiconductor with high optical nonlinearities, large electron transport, and a high breakdown threshold. Integration of silicon carbide in nonlinear photonics requires a systematic analysis of the multiphoton contribution to the device functionality. Here, multiphoton photocurrent in a silicon carbide photodetector is investigated using phase-modulated femtosecond pulses. Multiphoton absorption is quantified using a 1030 nm phase-modulated pulsed laser. Our measurements show that although the bandgap is less than the energy of three photons, only four-photon absorption has a significant contribution to the photocurrent. We interpret the four-photon absorption as a direct transition from the valance to the conduction band at the {\Gamma} point. More importantly, silicon carbide withstands higher excitation intensities compared to other wide bandgap semiconductors making it an ideal system for high-power nonlinear applications.


Background: Chemotherapy-induced alopecia is a common, psychosocially distressing side effect of cancer treatment for which preventative therapies are lacking. Several animal models have been developed to study CIA, including adult murine models. In order to induce CIA in adult models, hair follicles must be synchronized into anagen. The present study seeks to investigate which method of anagen synchronization yields the most representative model of CIA; no study thus far has compared these methods. Methods: Biopsies were analyzed of adult rat skin treated with one of four methods of anagen synchronization: clipping, shaving, waxing, or plucking and an untreated control group. Twenty follicles were assessed at random from each animal in each group and the percentage of hair follicles in anagen V-VI was determined. Results: There were significant differences in the histological and gross profiles of clipping, shaving, waxing, and plucking. Clipping produced the most robust anagen, with 85% of hair follicles in anagen V-VI, while shaving was found to have 30% of follicles in anagen V-VI. Waxing, plucking, and control had no hair follicles in anagen V-VI. Furthermore, shaving, waxing, and plucking demonstrated noticeable gross skin trauma, with waxing resulting in the most severe. Conclusions: Clipping is the preferred method of anagen synchronization in the adult rat model for CIA, as it produces the most robust anagen and has no evidence of gross skin trauma, decreasing the likelihood of confounding results from traumatic hair removal. The next best method is shaving, followed by plucking, and ending with waxing.


Background: Moral distress in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses predicts burnout, the hospital ethical climate, and considering leaving the position. However, the direct effect of moral distress on considering leaving and the indirect effects mediated by burnout and the hospital ethical climate remain unexamined in these nurses. Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the direct effect of moral distress on considering leaving and the indirect effects mediated by burnout and the hospital ethical climate in NICU nurses. Methods: This is an observational, multicentre, self-report questionnaire study of NICU nurses currently providing direct newborn care on 6 Level 3–4 NICUs in New South Wales, Australia. Results: Of the estimated 585 eligible nurses, 136 (23%) participated in the study. Twenty-one percent of the nurses were considering leaving. After controlling for the other predictor variables, moral distress did not predict considering leaving (p = 0.651). Burnout (odds ratio [OR] 4.25, p < 0.001) and the hospital ethical climate (OR = 0.29, p = 0.020) were significant predictors of considering leaving. The direct effect of moral distress on considering leaving was not significant, but the indirect effects mediated by burnout (B = 0.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.147–0.611]) and the hospital ethical climate (B = 0.19, 95% CI [0.085–0.382]) were significant. Conclusions: The support of NICU nurses considering leaving should include preventing and resolving moral distress, managing burnout, and enriching the ethical climate of the hospital. This support may reduce psychological distress in NICU nurses and maintain or enhance the standard of care for sick newborns.