My shirt soaked with sweat and my hands shaking with fear, I painted the iodine solution in small, concentric circles over my target: the fourth lumbar interspace of Elie's tiny spine. See one, do one, teach onethat was the unforgiving credo of my medical school. But I had never seen an 18-month-old girl with acute lymphocytic leukemia; I had done only one lumbar puncture before, on a college football player; and the thought of ever having to teach anyone pediatric oncology made me ill. The horrible screams of terror and pain that had filled the hall during Elie's previous LP still echoed in my brain. Yet, there I stood behind her, gowned and gloved. This was the nightmare I had dreaded. My first pediatrics rotation was on the oncology ward. My little sister had died of cancer as a child, and I immediately began to have debilitating flashbacks of her final days in Children's Hospital. I doubted I could survive the month. My salvation came in the person of Dr. Patrick Simpson, chief pediatric resident. An irrepressibly cheerful Irishman, he was possessed of a beaming smile and easy laugh. Extraordinarily well read, he quoted poetry on rounds. Even the sickest children greeted him as if he were Santa Claus. Their parents cleaved to him as a man overboard clutches a life vest. I brought you a new friend, announced Dr. Simpson as he led me to the side of Elie's crib. She lay within, fragile, bald, an IV in her scalp. Opening her eyes, she looked up at me and, with growing wonder, slowly reached her hand through the rails toward my face. I leaned in close; she brushed her tiny finger back and forth over my lip in rapt fascination. That's my moustache, I told her. A smile illuminated her pale face. Tash! she giggled. Who's that? I asked, pointing to a small, stuffed bunny nestled beside her. Bun. Hello, Bun, I said. She lifted her toy up and touched it to my face. Tash, Bun. Despite this unexpected moment of connection, I was overcome with despair for this sick little girl and fought tears once outside her room. Intuitively empathetic, Dr. Simpson sensed my distress. You need a pint of the black stuff, mate, he declared after rounds. Baltimore was not known for its Irish pubs, but Dr. Simpson knew them all. Over a Guinness, I told him about my sister's illness, her final days, my grief, and my guilt. I can't stop thinking of the terror she must have felt, knowing she was dying, I confessed. In reply, Dr. Simpson took a long draught of his Guinness and then broke into verse: A simple child, That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death? William Wordsworth, We Are Seven. Children don't fear deaththey fear pain and abandonment. Even the wee ones can sense who can give them shelter. You can be that for Elie. And so it was, a few days later when the team came to give Elie her next dose of intrathecal chemotherapy, she cried out with plaintive urgency, Tash! Tash! Dr. Simpson looked at me. She wants you to do it. I can't. There's no way, I pleaded. She trusts you. You can do this better than anyone else. All eyes fell on me. I crouched down in front of Elie's face. Elie, we need to give you some medicine. Can Bun help me? Elie tentatively handed me her beloved baby rabbit. I bounced it down her spine in short hops. No no here! Bun says this is the right spot. Now you hold Bun while I wash your back. Prep finished, I took the spinal needle in hand. Elie's parents moved to restrain her, but Dr. Simpson waved them off. The room fell so silent that I was certain everyone could hear my heart pounding. Bacon? asked a small voice, piercing the stillness. I looked up in bewilderment. Bacon is her favorite food, Elie's father said. But she's not been allowed to have any. Elie, when I'm done, I'm going to get you a bunch of bacon. Bacon, Elie proclaimed, sealing our compact and granting me final consent. I pushed the needle forward: It glided through the rubbery interspace, a faint pop, and then came drops of crystal-clear fluid. Dr. Simpson handed me the syringe of medication, and before long I was dressing the injection site. I looked up and caught her parents staring at me in wonder and gratitudeemotions I fully shared, albeit for very different reasons. Returning from the hospital kitchen, I handed Elie her reward. Bacon! she exclaimed, bringing the strip to her mouth. She nibbled it slowly, savoring its taste, eyes half closed in pure bliss. Does Bun want some bacon, too? I asked. Bun no bacon! she laughed, delighting in my seeming ignorance of the most obvious fact in the world. Carrot! Every day we visited. I found a copy of Pat the Bunny in the hospital library and read it to her to her great delight. I bought a small plush carrot for Bun. We played the bacon game. Please, please can I have some bacon? I would beg. No! she would reply in mock defiance, then finally relent and share a piece with me. I repeated the LP two more times over the course of the month with nary a tear. On the last day of the rotation, I told Elie, I'm going to go help other children, but I'll be back to visit you soon. And I'll bring more bacon for Bun, too. She smiled at our private joke. No! Carrot! But I was very busy on my next rotation, and several weeks had passed when I heard my name paged overhead. It was Dr. Simpson. Elie has taken a sudden turn for the worse. It's a blast crisisthe chemo isn't working. She's been calling for you. Once at her bedside, I was shocked to see how much Elie had deteriorated. Her eyes were sunken, her skin was pasty and translucent, and her breath came in short gasps. Tash! she weakly greeted me and held out Bun to me. Hello, Elie. Hello, Bun. She made no move to take her stuffed animal back. Tash, Bun. It seemed that she wanted me to keep it. Bun is Elie's bunny, I protested, but she became ever more insistent. Tash, Bun! Her mother started to cry. I knew I had to leave soon before I did, too, so I relented. Okay, Elie, I'll take good care of Bun. I'll keep her warm and feed her carrots every day. Elie gave me a wan smile, reached out, and touched my moustache. Tash, bye-bye. When I found Dr. Simpson waiting for me by the elevator the next morning, I knew Elie was gone. I'm so sorry, he consoled me. Her family is asking to see you. I can't do that, I pleaded once again. Yes, you can, lad. I know you've seen this one. Now it's time for you to do this one. God bless you, doctor, her mother wept as she tightly embraced me. God bless you for taking care of my little girl. I felt so unworthy. I had caused her pain. I could not stop the cancer. I'm so sorry I couldn't do more for Elie, butI'm just a medical student. Gripping my shoulders, she gently pushed me back and held me at arm's length. No, she declared with a steely fierceness that only mothers know. You were her doctor. In the bottom drawer of my dresser lies an ornate cardboard letterbox. Within are the collected treasures of my life: a calico sachet filled with dried lavender, hand-sewn by my mother; a crystal prism secretly purloined from my grandmother's chandelier; a wind-up toy Bugatti, a coveted birthday gift from my father; a pressed boutonniere from my first prom; a tassel from my college graduation; a lock of my sister's auburn hair, folded in pale-blue tissue. These are talismans that possess the power to invoke the presence of people and places from my past. I visit them now and then. I open the box. One by one, I pick up the precious artifacts and hold them as the recollections wash over me: moments of joy, moments of passage, moments of loss. One by one, until, at last, just one remains: a small, stuffed rabbit; faded gray with age; one glass eye missingBun. I brush the worn fur across my cheek and return to that awful, beautiful moment of pathos when a dying little girl gifted me her most precious possession as a parting token of love. I hope that I have been worthy of her last bequest. I hope I have passed along her soul's lesson of courage and grace and trust. I hope they have bunnies and bacon in heaven. Audio. Michael A. LaCombe, MD, Annals Associate Editor, reads "Bun," by R.B. Weinberg.


A method was developed for obtaining spectra of high energy particles in an ellipsoidal well. The method can also be used for any type of deformation except the minute vanishing ones. (R. V.J.)


Hybrid perovskite and all‐inorganic perovskite have attracted much attention in recent years owing to their successful use in the photovoltaic field. Usually the perovskite is used in its bulk form, although recently, perovskites' nanocrystalline form has received increased attention. Recent developments in the evolving research field of nanomaterial‐based perovskite are reviewed. Both hybrid organic‐inorganic and all‐inorganic perovskite nanostructures are discussed, as well as approaches to tune the optical properties by controlling the size and shape of perovskite nanostructures. In addition, chemical modifications can change the perovskite nanostructures' band‐gap, similar to their bulk counterpart. Several applications, including light‐emitting diodes, lasers, and detectors, demonstrate the latent potential of perovskite nanostructures.


These notes are organized as follows. We first discuss finite dimensional vector spaces and additional structures that we can impose on them. We then introduce Hilbert spaces, which play a central role in this class, and talk about the subtleties that we have to deal with when working in infinite dimension. Finally, we talk about matrices and linear operators, in the context of linear mappings between vector spaces. We will see how matrices represent linear functions between finite dimensional vector spaces, and develop a parallel theory on linear operators between general Hilbert spaces.


Research purposes: CPⅢ vertical control network plays an important role in ensuring the vertical static regularity of the ballastless track of high-speed railway.It often needs repeated measurement in order to assure the reliability of the measurement results.However,the divergence tolerance of elevation and altitude difference between adjoining points of high-speed railway with CPⅢ is generally determined on the basis of large amount of statistic data,other than rigorous theoretic derivation.So the research on principle of rigorous estimation of divergence tolerance of elevation and altitude difference between adjoining points of high-speed railway with CPⅢ is significant to assuring establishment of CPⅢ vertical control network and reliability of the measured data for high-speed railway.Research conclusions:According to the principle of the square difference,the model for the divergence tolerance of elevation and altitude difference between adjoining points of high-speed railway with CPⅢ was derived.And with this model,the simulated calculation was done for the analogue CPⅢ vertical control network measured with German surveying method and China rectangle surveying method and its result was consistent with the specification of divergence tolerance of elevation and altitude difference between adjoining points of high-speed railway with CPⅢ stipulated in the current code for engineering survey of high-speed railway.The research result provides theoretical basis for the specification of divergence tolerance of elevation and altitude difference between adjoining points of high-speed railway with CPⅢ.


Recent development of three-dimensional (3D) seismic datasets enables geologists to visualize and analyze buried landand sea-scapes revealed by subsurface geophysical data in a manner resembling surface geomorphology. The seismic geomorphology is useful to interpret seismic patterns for geomorphology of a formation, which is similar to using satellite and aerial photos of the Earth's surface. A successful study of seismic geomorphology at the Gulf of Thailand situated within the Sunda shelf reveals the detailed information of paleoenvironment of the Pleistocene to Holocene time. Three sequence boundaries have been observed from the 3D seismic data. These sequence boundaries are related to a change in relative sea level during Pleistocene to Holocene time. The study area is dominated by delta, estuarine and present-day marine environments. The stacked point bar zone has formed in the study area that is potential a reservoir for shallow gas and/or biogenic gas. These results are expected to be a useful tool for petroleum exploration and development in the Gulf of Thailand and adjacent areas.


Phenomenological theory of first-order phase transitions density-wave theory of reconstructive transitions displacive reconstructive phase transitions ordering-type reconstructive phase transitions the crystal-quasicrystal reconstructive phase transition theory of group representations and structural phase transitions reconstructive phase transitions and the periodic classification of the elements.


In order to make a careful study of ferrofluids of single domain particles of magnetite at low temperatures it is essential to know whether the Verwey transition has taken place. We report the first clearcut evidence for its occurrence as exhibited by the magnetization of a sample cooled down from room temperature to 1K in the presence of an applied field of 8T. Removal of the field leads to a drop in the magnetization associated with a change in the direction of the easy axes in conjunction with the Verwey transition. Previous evidence, based upon the temperature dependence of Mössbauer spectra was quite weak.


Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF) and interleukin-1 β (IL-1) are secreted by activated monocytes and other immune cells. Since IL-1 has been shown to elevate rat plasma ACTH and both of these cytokines induce similar acute-phase responses, the present studies of TNF were undertaken to characterize the ACTH response to this immune cell product. Human rTNF, administered iv at doses (100-1000 ng) which failed to affect blood pressure, food consumption or prolactin levels, resulted in significant peak elevations of rat plasma ACTH within 20 min (mean ± SE 304+94 and 958 ± 128 pg/ml for 100 and 1000 ng, respectively, compared to 53 ± 16 pg/ml for vehicle). rTNF from two different sources produced similar elevations of ACTH as an equivalent amount of rIL-1. TNF failed to affect cultured anterior pituicytes, and it did not modify the response to CRF. When administered into the upper third cerebroventricle, TNF 20 ng failed to affect ACTH levels whereas IL-1 30 ng raised ACTH to 638 ± 79 pg/ml compared to 177 ± 24 pg...


Soft sensors have been widely used in biochemical process to estimate process variables that are difficult to measure online. In this paper, glutamate concentration is an important parameter of product quality for fermentation process, soft sensor was used to estimate glutamate concentration. In order to realizing real-time measurement of glutamate concentration, firstly analysing fermentation working principle and major factor, soft-sensor based on extreme learning machine was set up to predict glutamate concentration, then, the soft measurement model is compared to soft-sensor based on support vector machine, the learning capacity and generalization performance is also tested, the experimental results show that the application of extreme learning machine has a better ability to prediction glutamate concentration.


In order to study the interception law of forest canopy to precipitation,based on the theory of stored-full runoff in watershed,a new model of precipitation interception was developed from mechanism of forest canopy intercepting rainfall.The determining method of model parameters was produced by combining with observation data of two woodlands.The effectiveness of the model was also examined.The results showed that calculation values well fit observation values well.Therefore,the model revealed a general law and characteristics of forest canopy interception to rainfall.This model could be applied to forecast calculation of interception when model parameters are given.


Biopsy is still the 'gold standard' for obtaining a definitive diagnosis. Daniela Murgia with help on how to obtain from gastrointestinal, hepatic, renal, pancreatic and splenic samples.


Shock ignition as an alternative scheme of the laser fusion has the potential of achieving efficient implosion. However, hot electrons produced in result of ignitor‐corona interaction may penetrate deep into the fuel making the compression less effective. Transport and energy deposition of hot electron beam into the dense pre compressed of HiPER target by means of Monte Carlo approach are discussed considering the influence of real density and electron beam characteristics. The target parameters before igniting the hot spot have been extracted from a fluid code and used as the initial profile for Monte Carlo simulations. In comparison with simplified step like density profile, electrons penetrate slightly deeper in the case of real shaped density profile. In addition, deposition zone of a broad spectrum electron beam is wider while, monoenergetic electrons depose their energy locally resulting more maximum energy deposition value. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


A tunable internal antenna with an epsilon negative zeroth order resonator (ENG-ZOR) for digital video broadcasting-handheld service is proposed in this paper. The antenna consists of two helical radiators, an ENG ZOR with two inductors and a variable capacitor to adjust the resonant frequency. The resonant frequency of the designed antenna can be swept from 474-702 MHz by adjusting the capacitance of the variable capacitor by controlling the DC bias voltage. The proposed antenna has a very compact size of 40 mm times 5 mm times 5 mm.


Emigration is an often overlooked auxiliary method of population growth rate reduction that could be useful as a policy variable in low-income countries. Emigration is not a general or permanent solution to overpopulation, but for countries faced with high rates of population growth, it can offer some temporary relief from continual population pressure. In the long run, lowered birth rates will offer the only relief on a world scale. The situation of fertility above replacement and net out-migration may apply to many developing countries. When the argument is expressed in the form of an equation, it demonstrates that the target rate of population growth, if it is lower than the current rate, may be achieved entirely through a reduction in fertility, through out-migration, or through some combination of the 2 approaches involving more or less fertility reduction combined with more or less acceleration of out-migration. A theoretical stable model for a hypothetical country with a population of about 70 million provides an empirical illustration and shows how a diagram of fertility, mortality, and out-migration rates can be used in population policy discussions. It also demonstrates that all combinations of fertility reduction and emigration that lead eventually to a zero rate of population growth do not lead to corresponding stationary populations of identical size.


Part I The Challenge of nanotechnology.- The Radical Vision of Nanotechnology - An Introduction.- Our Nanotechnological Future: What Should we Worry About.- Part 2 Self-Assembly and Biomimetics in Cellulosics.- Why Cellulose.- Cell Wall Nanostructure.- Nanostructure Characterization and Properties.- Nanocrystalline Cellulose Extraction.- Optical Properties of Chiral Nematic (Cellulosic) Liquid Crystals.- Part 3 Development of Functional Bionanomaterials.- The Reinforcement Potential of Cellulose Nanofibrils.- Nano-Reinforced Cellulose Systems: Nanocomposites and Biopolymers.- Applications of Cellulose Nanomaterials.- Health, Safety and Economic Issues


A major research area in computer vision is content-based image retrieval. MPEG-7 sets up a list of descriptions of the structured image content. We examine the weakness and lack of retrieval approaches based on global characteristics in this study by incorporating the commonly used feature descriptors of MPEG-7. In the meantime, to satisfy user requirements for assessing spatial information similarities, an image retrieval approach based on texture region features for MPEG-7 is recommended. Retrieval tests show the validity and efficiency of our approach. This paper also defines our approach to color quantization, extraction, and matching processes of features and so on in depth.


Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the existence of a countably additive extension of a given finite measure in the case of any finite or disjoint countable perturbation of its -algebra. It provides a complete description of all countably additive extensions of finite measures in such cases. In particular, simple characterizations are obtained for the existence of some extremal countably additive extensions taking the outer or inner measure on members from the perturbation. In addition, one construction of a countably additive extension is presented in the case of any disjoint countable perturbation. Some parts of the calculus of non-measurable functions and sets needed in the proofs of the main results are developed. The main emphasis of the paper is on the method of proof, and our approach in general, towards the solution of the problem under consideration.


) - FISHOR: relatorio final. Arquivos do DOP. Serie Estudos 4/2002. 38 pp. Menezes, G. M. 2003. Demersal fish assemblage in the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde. PhD Thesis, Universidade dos Acores. 227pp. Moore, J. A., Vecchione, M., Hartel, K. E., Collette, B. B., Galbraith, J. K., Gibbons, R., Turnipseed, M., Southworth M. and Watkins, E. 2001. Biodiversity of bear seamount, New England seamount chain: results of exploratory trawling. Scientific Council Research Document. Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization. Dartmouth, N.S., 01/155. 8pp. Moore, J. A., Vecchione, M., Collette, B. B., Gibbons, R. 2002. The fauna of Bear Seamount (New England Seamount chain), and the presence of "natural invaders" species. ICES CM 2002/M:25. 12pp. OASIS, 2004. Oceanic seamounts: an integrated study. Scientific and Technical Report for the period 01.12.2002-30.11.2003. 68pp. Tracey, D. M., Bull, B., Clark, M. R. and Mackay, K. A. 2004. Fish species composition on seamounts and adjacent slope in New Zealand waters. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 38: 163-182.


T ROPICAL agriculture has long constituted an important field of investigation within economic geography, but the size and complexity of the subject has made difficult its consideration as a whole. There is a multitude of excellent detailed studies within the field, but there are few generalizations concerning it which can assist the student to conceptualize its broader problems. At the present time this absence of valid general concepts is reducing the effectiveness of efforts by the United States Government to im-


Reaching tasks with random targets and obstacles is a challenging task for robotic manipulators. In this study, we propose a novel model-free reinforcement learning approach based on proximal policy optimization (PPO) for training a deep policy to map the task space to the joint space of a 6-DoF manipulator. To facilitate the training process in a large workspace, we develop an efficient representation of environmental inputs and outputs. The calculation of the distance between obstacles and manipulator links is incorporated into the state representation using a geometry-based method. Additionally, to enhance the performance of the model in reaching tasks, we introduce the action ensembles method and design the policy to directly participate in value function updates in PPO. To overcome the challenges associated with training in real-robot environments, we develop a simulation environment in Gazebo to train the model as it produces a smaller Sim-to-Real gap compared to other simulators. However, training in Gazebo is time-intensive. To address this issue, we propose a Sim-to-Sim method to significantly reduce the training time. The trained model is then directly applied in a real-robot setup without fine-tuning. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, we perform several rounds of experiments in both simulated and real robots. We also compare the performance of the proposed approach with six baselines. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in performing reaching tasks with and without obstacles. our method outperformed the selected baselines by a large margin in different reaching task scenarios. A video of these experiments has been attached to the paper as supplementary material.


The purpose of this work is a mathematical modeling of the distribution of nutrients taking into account the dynamics of phytoplankton populations and the influence of salinity and temperature. The goals of this work: the development of the mathematical model of phytoplankton populations dynamics, taking into account the transport and transformation of biogenic substances; obtaining stationary modes for the case of a spatially uniform distribution of substances; restoration of salinity and temperature fields; modeling of nutrient distribution taking into account the obtained results. Stationary regimes were obtained under the assumption that the development of phytoplankton is limited by a single nutrient - phosphorus, nitrogen or silicon. The modified Laplace equation was used to improve the order of accuracy of recovery of salinity and temperature fields. The distribution of pollutant (nitrogen), affecting the development of harmful blue-green algae, has been obtained.The purpose of this work is a mathematical modeling of the distribution of nutrients taking into account the dynamics of phytoplankton populations and the influence of salinity and temperature. The goals of this work: the development of the mathematical model of phytoplankton populations dynamics, taking into account the transport and transformation of biogenic substances; obtaining stationary modes for the case of a spatially uniform distribution of substances; restoration of salinity and temperature fields; modeling of nutrient distribution taking into account the obtained results. Stationary regimes were obtained under the assumption that the development of phytoplankton is limited by a single nutrient - phosphorus, nitrogen or silicon. The modified Laplace equation was used to improve the order of accuracy of recovery of salinity and temperature fields. The distribution of pollutant (nitrogen), affecting the development of harmful blue-green algae, has been obtained.


We investigate the interplay of population dynamics and adaptive dynamics via the timing of reproduction, in the context of a caricatural discrete-time model. We Wnd that semelparity can cause co-existence of diVerent population-dynamical attractors and that resonance of lifespan relative to population-dynamical Xuctuations can have a profound eVect on invasibility and the resulting evolutionarily stable life-history. DiVerent local attractors of the resident population dynamics can have diVerent invasion properties. Successful invasion in one attractor can be followed by extinction of the former invader, ultimately leading the resident to the same attractor, but phase-shifted, or to another attractor. So a strategy can be 'invasible, yet invincible'. In addition, our analysis emphasizes that, for a Xuctuating population, one must carefully distinguish between polymorphisms and mixed strategies.


This paper addresses the problem of an on-line coordinated allocation of processor and I/O resources in large-scale shared heterogeneous cluster computing systems. Most research in job scheduling study has focused solely on the allocation of processors to jobs. However, since I/O is also a critical resource for many jobs, the allocation of processor and I/O resources must be coordinated to allow the system to operate most effectively. To this end, we present an efficient job scheduling policy and study its performance under various system and workload parameters. We also compared the performance of the proposed policy with static space time sharing policy. The results show that the proposed policy performs substantially better than the static space time sharing policy.


OBJECTIVE
To determine family physicians' practice of, knowledge about, and attitudes toward delivering preventive care during periodic health examinations (PHEs).

DESIGN
A stratified sample of 5013 members of the College of Family Physicians of Canada were randomly selected to receive a questionnaire by mail. Descriptive analysis was performed on a national data set of 1010 respondents.

SETTING
Canada.

PARTICIPANTS
A sample of family physicians from each Canadian province.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Physicians were asked questions about whether they addressed aspects of preventive care, such as tobacco smoking, nutrition, physical activity, alcohol intake, and sun exposure with patients during PHEs. The questions were designed to gauge attitudes and identify barriers to the provision of preventive care.

RESULTS
Most respondents (87% to 89%) indicated that they were comfortable counseling their patients about issues such as nutrition, physical activity, and alcohol consumption; however, many of these respondents did not refer their patients to specialists or provide them with additional resources to educate patients about the health risks of their conditions. While tobacco smoking risks and cessation were addressed by most family physicians (79%) during PHEs, other topics, such as sun exposure, were often overlooked.

CONCLUSION
The results of this survey indicate that while many family physicians follow the evidence-based guidelines for preventive care, current levels of preventive care in the primary care setting are below national standards. It is critical that Canadians receive optimal preventive care to improve the outlook of the chronic disease burden on the health care system.


The invention relates to a method for rebuilding a super-resolution human face image by position block nonlinear mapping. The method comprises the following steps of: segmenting the human face image for training and testing high resolution and low resolution into corresponding high-resolution position block images and low-resolution position block images which are provided with overlapped regionsfrom structural information and detail information of a roughly-aligned human face image; rebuilding super-resolution position block images corresponding to testing low-resolution position block images at each corresponding position by using a nonlinear mapping relation which is between the high-resolution position block images and the low-resolution position block images and learned from training data; and splicing the super-resolution position block images to obtain the final super-resolution human face image. According to experiments on a standard database, the method provided by the invention has a good visual effect and high objective estimation quality.


Nazi ideology, Arab nationalism, and a fundamentalist strain of Islam that advocates a politics of slaughter. Those three elements form the essential roots to the pathology of contemporary Islamist politics. The above quotes vividly capture aspects of that toxic chemistry.


The compatibility of poly (e-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) as well as the crystallization behavior and morphology of their blends have been studied. These two polymers with their melting temperature close to each other can be compatible within a given range of composition.In blends with minor PCL, it was found from small angle X-ray scattering experiment that not only a scattering peak from PCL lamellar stacks but also another peak located at an scattering angle lower than that from PCL lamellar stacks were observed. This peak should be corresponding to the scattering by a kind of sandwitch lamellar ones from alternative stacking of PCL and PEO lamellar systems. In addition, in blend with minor PEO, it is shown that PEO could not crystallize during the crystallization of PCL.


. Income inequality and population's migration are economic processes ongoing in every country, but their scales are different. Although both phenomena – income inequality and population's migration – earn sufficient scientific attention, scientific literature is still lacking comprehensive studies on interdependence between them. This research is aimed at the assessment of the impact of income inequality on population's migration. This article highlights how significant it is to assess the impact of income inequality on population's migration, and reviews the issues of income inequality and population's migration previously analysed in scientific studies. The research is based on the methodology developed for the EU Member States. The paper provides original perspective as the EU Member States are divided into six groups by their income inequality and net migration rates and the impact of income inequality on population's migration is researched in particular groups of the current EU Member States by applying the methods of correlation and regression analysis. The results of the research indicate that the impact of income inequality on population's migration differs within and between the EU Member State groups. Research results revealed that, income inequality has a more significant impact on population's immigration than on emigration in all EU Member State groups. Income inequality causes population's emigration only in the states with medium income inequality rates. The paper contributes to the scientific literature of regional development as the quantitative analysis of the interconnection between income inequality and population's migration is scarce.


Abstract This article is an exploration of the therapeutic milieu as a treatment modality for individuals affected by persistent mental illness. It presents a view of a shared ethnography as a therapeutic variable in an intensive day program—a therapeutic milieu.


The difference of secondary defect formation between high-energy B+ and Al+ implanted layers was investigated by transmission electron microscopy. At the same volume concentration of implanted ions, the density of secondary defects in the Al+ implanted layers is higher than that in the B+ implanted layers and the mean defect size in the B+ implanted layers is larger than that in the Al+ implanted layers. These secondary defects are formed by agglomeration of self-interstitials and the amount of interstitials stored in the defects roughly coincides with that of implanted ions. This correlation does not depend on the ion species. The activation energies of secondary defect formation are not significantly different for B+ and Al+ implanted layers. B+ and Al+ implanted layers have different agglomerations of interstitials, which cause the differences of defect size and density. The difference does not originate from the self-diffusion of interstitials in implanted layers but is probably due to the initial nuc...


In 1962, the North Rankin Nickel Mine Ltd. closed its operations in Rankin Inlet, a community on the west coast of Hudson Bay in the Northwest Territories. This community was established by the mining company and attracted a large Inuit population with its promise of wage employment. When this employment ceased, the Canadian government initiated an arts and crafts program to assist the Inuit. Included in this program was an experiment in pottery-making, which became known as the Rankin Inlet Ceramics Project. Begun in 1963, the project was guided by four arts and crafts officers, Claude Grenier (1963-1970), Bob Billyard (1970-1973), Michael Kusugak (1973-1975) and Ashok Shah, until its collapse in 1977. Funding for the project was initially provided by the Canadian government and later by the Government of the Northwest Territories. The federal government was very supportive of this initiative and was continually making recommendations to improve the project. The territorial government, however, was often indifferent to the project and eventually cut its funding. It is the aim of this thesis to document the project and to examine the role these patrons played in its development. Also, an attempt will be made to demonstrate how their recommendations affected the appearance of the work. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the current revival of ceramic art in Rankin Inlet. This new project will be considered in light of the original one and in the context of recent trends in Inuit art.


In the past as well as today, companies very often define themselves through the products they offer to the market. However, the product offerings have changed tremendously over the last 10-20 years: while in the past, most products were tangible, i.e., hardware-defined objects, nowadays companies are dealing, very often if not mostly, with non-tangible products such as software, services or advice. Therefore, we have to ask ourselves: have all these companies also adapted their organizational structure to the new environment? We will try to resolve this mystery in the following short paragraphs by using a well-known but nevertheless pertinent example from recent technological and economic history.


In this study, monthly NOAA/AVHRR-NDVI digital images from 1983 to 1992 with 8km spatial resolution, were used to build an index of land cover change amplitude (D), and to study the regional distribution rule of land cover change in China. It showed that land cover change amplitude in the northwest inland and Tibet Plateau were small, and amplitude of the most southeast region (southeast and southwest monsoon area) was bigger than other regions. From the southeast to the northwest, change amplitude showed a declining trend and it can be found obvious strap regularity. Based on these results, a regional division of land cover change was carried out, and there were nine first class regions, 15 second class regions, indicating further the regional difference of land cover change in China. Nine first class regions included: (1) lesser to larger amplitude area of mountain in the northwest; (2) lesser amplitude area of inland plateau and basin in the northwest, and the west of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; (3) lesser to larger amplitude area in the middle and east of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; (4) larger amplitude area on the southeast edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the west of the Yunnan-Gui Zhou Plateau; (5) middle to large amplitude area on coastal region in the southeast, and Hainan; (6) large amplitude area of mountain in Taiwan; (7) middle to large amplitude area of mountain and hill in the southern China; (8) middle to larger amplitude area of mountain in Northeast China, and of mountain and plain in North China; (9) lesser amplitude area in the middle of Inner Mongolia Plateau.


The college students, representing the young age population of community, for different reasons are prone to eat unhealthy foods and to have bad health habits during their college years which might affect their well-being and increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, and coronary heart disease; like fast food consumption, lower vegetable and fruit intake in face of less physical activities and a lot of computer & TV watching hours. This study aimed to assess eating habits and patterns, factors affecting food choices and anthropometric measurements. Descriptive cross-sectional study method was followed. 230 students were included in the study. The findings revealed that 50.9% of the study sample were at age group (< 20 years), nearly half 48.7% were at a preparatory year. Results show also that 44.3% of the study sample don't take breakfast regularly; the most reported causes were not enough time at home 49% and that they don't prefer cafeteria food 24.6% nor there is no for a break in the timetable 21.6%. The results show that 53.04% had a normal BMI and 24.35% were overweight. The BMI had a significant relation with the consumption and snacking patterns among students (p = .000). So, there is a greater need for constructing educational programs to be directed to enhance the nutritional status of the university adolescent students.


A 76-year-old woman with no cardiac history was admitted to our hospital for knee joint surgery. The ECG showed negative T wave in leads I, aVL, V3-V6. Transthoracic echocardiography showed diffuse mild hypokinesis and prominent trabeculations of the left side ventricle (Picture 1). Mild aortic regurgitation and mild left atrioventricular regurgitation were also observed. Contrast-enhanced three dimensional CT scan revealed congenitally corrected transposition of great arteries with marked trabeculae at the left side ventricle (Picture 2). Congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries with no symptom is rare in aged individuals (1, 2), and three-dimensional CT scan is useful in its diagnosis.


The piston slap phenomenon occurs when the piston collides with the internal wall of the cylinder. Impact force caused by piston slap is one of the major mechanical noise sources in reciprocating compressors. In response to public demand, strict regulations are being increasingly imposed on the a exterior noise level which may be generated by household electric appliances. In this paper, forces acting on piston were analytically calculated and the piston slap caused by the piston secondary motion was investigated by the finite element method.


Abstract We present a robust and highly efficient Shannon wavelet pricing method for plain-vanilla foreign exchange European options under the jump-extended Heston model with multi-factor CIR interest rate dynamics. Under a Monte Carlo and partial differential equation hybrid computational framework, the option price can be expressed as an expectation, conditional on the variance factor, of a convolution product that involves the densities of the time-integrated domestic and foreign multi-factor CIR interest rate processes. We propose an efficient treatment to this convolution product that effectively results in a significant dimension reduction, from two multi-factor interest rate processes to only a single-factor process. By means of a state-of-the-art Shannon wavelet inverse Fourier technique, the resulting convolution product is approximated analytically and the conditional expectation can be computed very efficiently. We develop sharp approximation error bounds for the option price and hedging parameters. Numerical experiments confirm the robustness and efficiency of the method.


At the classical level, the inverse differential operator for the quadratic term in the gauge field Lagrangian density fixed in the light front through the multiplier (nA)^2 yields the standard two term propagator with single unphysical pole of the type (kn)^-1. Upon canonical quantization on the light-front, there emerges a third term of the form (kn^(mu)n^(nu))(kn)^-2. This third term in the propagator has traditionally been dropped on the grounds that is exactly cancelled by the "instantaneous" term in the interaction Hamiltonian in the light-front. Our aim in this work is not to discuss which of the propagators is the correct one, but rather to present at the classical level, the gauge fixing conditions that can lead to the three-term propagator.


A kind of silicate-based passivation fluid with well controllable pH value was formulated and used for passivation of hot-dipped galvanizing coating.The morphology and composition of the hot-dipped galvanizing coating before and after passivation with the silicate based passivation fluid were analyzed with a scanning electron microscope and an energy dispersive spectrometer.The corrosion resistance of the hot-dipped galvanizing coating,silicate passivated specimen and chromate passivated specimen was comparatively evaluated based on neutral salt-spray tests and immersion tests in 5% NaCl as well as measurement of polarization curves.Moreover,the anticorrosion mechanism of the silicate passivation film was discussed.It was found that the silicate passivation film on hot-dipped galvanizing coating was able to significantly delay the anodic and cathodic process of the galvanizing coating subjected to corrosion,thereby retarding the corrosion reaction.In the meantime,the silicate passivation film was able to mechanically keep off the hot-dipped galvanizing coating and increase its corrosion potential,thereby significantly improving the corrosion resis tance of the hot-dipped galvanizing coating.In one word,the anticorrosion effectiveness of the silicate passivation film on hot dipped galvanizing coating was comparable to that of chromate passivation film.


Under different initial conditions,a control method based on passive control is proposed to achieve the adaptive synchronization of two hyperchaotic systems with uncertain parameters.The system parameters are estimated by introducing adaptive control,and an adaptive passive controller is designed to transfer the synchronization erroneous equation into a passive system.In terms of the passivity theory,the dynamic erroneous equation can be stable on the original point of the state space,namely,the two hyperchaotic systems can be completely synchronized.The simulation results have proven the simplicity and effectiveness of the designed controller.


The title compound, (C6H9N2)2[Cu(C6H2N2O4)2(H2O)2]·6H2O, consists of a mononuclear trans-[Cu(pzdc)2(H2O)2]2− dianion (pzdc is pyrazine-2,3-dicarboxylate) and two [ampyH]+ cations (ampy is 2-amino-4-methylpyridine) with six water molecules of solvation. The CuII atom is hexacoordinated by two pzdc groups and two water molecules. The coordinated water molecules are in trans-diaxial positions and the pzdc dianion acts as a bidentate ligand through an O atom of the carboxylate group and the N atom of the pyrazine ring. There are diverse hydrogen-bonding interactions, such as N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O contacts, which lead to the formation of a three-dimensional supramolecular architecture.


A multi-layered semiconductor device and method of manufacture are provided. In an embodiment a first semiconductor layer, a first insulator layer, a second semiconductor layer, a second insulator layer, and a third semiconductor layer are formed over a substrate. A first transistor comprises the first semiconductor layer, the first insulator layer, and the second semiconductor layer, and a second transistor comprises the second semiconductor layer, the second insulator layer, and the third semiconductor layer.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To stably supply a braking force for braking. SOLUTION: A vehicle braking force controller receives information concerning a downhill road, calculates a regeneratable energy value on the downhill road, determines an energy value recoverd on the downhill road according to the storage value of an energy storing means 15 and the information concerning the downhill road, so as to have the storage value of the energy storage means 15 a maximum at the end point of the downhill road, and controls the braking force of a motor 4 on the downhill road according to the recovered energy value. The controller also receives information concerning a place where deceleration is required, calculates a braking force necessary to decelerate the vehicle before it reaches the place where deceleration is required, and also calculates the regenerative braking force which can be recoverd into the charging means 15 from the motor 4 in the deceleration state of the vehicle based on the charge value of the charging means 15. When the vehicle is decelerated before it reaches the place where the deceleration is required, if the necessary braking force is not larger than the regenerative braking force, the necessary braking force is generated by the motor 4. If the necessary braking force exceeds the regenerative braking force, the regenerative braking force is generated by the motor 4, and the excessive braking force of the required braking force over the regenerative braking force is generated by an engine 2.


Octet-truss lattice structures can be used for lightweight structural applications due to their high strength-to-density ratio. In this research, octet-truss lattice specimens were fabricated by stereolithography additive manufacturing with a photopolymer resin. The mechanical properties of this structure have been examined in three orthogonal orientations under the compressive load. Detailed comparison and description were carried out on deformation mechanisms and failure modes in different lattice orientations. Finite element models using both beam elements and three-dimensional solid elements were used to simulate the compressive response of this structure. Both the load reaction and collapse modes obtained in simulations were compared with test results. Our results indicate that three-dimensional continuum element models are required to accurately capture the behaviour of real trusses, taking into account the effects of finite-sized beams and joints.


In this work, we emphasize the importance of using a correct Electron Energy Distribution Function (EEDF) to model chemical reactions in High-Density (HD) low-pressure silane-containing plasmas. We have modeled chemical reactions in Ar-SiH4-N2O- (N2-H2-O2) Inductively Coupled Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (ICPECVD) system, intended for deposition of silicon oxide and silicon nitride layers. For the modeling, we used the experimentally measured EEDF, deviating from the Maxwell-Boltzmann (MB) EEDF. We demonstrate that the use of an inappropriate (i.e. MB in our example) EEDF, only slightly deviating from the experimental (i.e. actual) distribution, could lead to significant discrepancies (1-2 orders of magnitude) between the calculated and actual radical densities.


1. The presence of lipoprotein lipase has been confirmed in acetone-ether extracts of human adipose tissue. 2. The properties of the enzyme appear to be similar to that in rat adipose tissue though it is less active on a weight basis. 3. The presence of a separate monoglyceride lipase has been demonstrated in human adipose tissue. 4. In eluates of human adipose tissue the activity of lipoprotein lipase is dependent on heparin, whereas that of the monoglyceride lipase does not require heparin. 5. No consistent effect of insulin in vitro on the enzyme in human adipose tissue has been demonstrated. Possible reasons for this are discussed.


In Thailand, approximately 4 per cent of the population are Thai Muslims. More than three-fifths of the Thai Muslims are concentrated in the southernmost provinces namely Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala, Satun and some adjacent districts to Songkhla province. This population sub-group is distinct from the Thai Buddhists, in both the general level of socio-economic development and particular cultural circumstances. To date, little detailed information has been avilable on their sociodemographic characteristics. This study attempts to assess patterns of nuptiality, fertility levels and differences, fertility control activities and socio-economic factors in Southern Thai Muslim society. Since most of the Thai Muslims are living in the South, it is expected that this study will provide a clear picture about fertility and nuptiality of this population sub-group in Thailand as a whole, and will assist government efforts in planning strategies for development of the region and its people. Two main sources of data used in this study were the unpublished 1970 Census data, and the Southern Thai Muslims Survey (STMS). The STMS was conducted during April-May 1976 and covered 2082 households in 20 urban blocks and 82 villages of the Southern Thai Muslim area. The findings from the study indicated that the Southern Thai Muslims married young and their marriage were often unstable. Because of the shortage of males in some marriageble ages, a 'marriage squeeze' was a serious problem, and the husband-wife age differential


Memorandum presenting an investigation in the 4- by 4-foot supersonic pressure tunnel at Mach numbers of 1.61 and 2.01 to determine the static longitudinal stability and control characteristics of a 1/16-scale model of the Douglas D-558-II research airplane. The results indicated a high degree of longitudinal stability that decreased slightly with increasing Mach number and lift coefficient.


We theoretically study the electronic transport of a nanowire partly irradiated under an external terahertz (THz) electromagnetic field. Although the electrons in the ballistic nanowires only suffer lateral collision with photons the reflection of electrons also takes place in this partly irradiated case. Using free-electron model and scattering matrix approach we showed that at resonance there exists a step decrement of 50 percent for the transmission probability as the amplitude of field increases to a certain volume. And the coherent structure of transmission for the system apparently appears when the field irradiate the middle part of nanowire only. This sensitive transmission property of the system may be used in the THz detection.


The main aim of the article is to assess an influence of the last global financial crisis on the level of fiscal burden in Central European countries compared to old member states of the EU. In the research the fiscal burden was treated as multidimensional phenomenon, which should be analyzed with application of multiple criteria analysis tools. In the research zero unitatization method was applied, which allowed to create synthetic measure of the fiscal burden in the EU countries in the years 2004-2015. The measure allowed to propose rankings of the countries and assess the changes of the level of the fiscal burden during and after the crisis. The research was based on the Eurostat data.


Background: ADIPS guidelines suggest an early oGTT in women at high risk for GDM(1). A previous study by Hawkins et al. demonstrated that women with an early diagnosis of GDM had an increased risk for LGA(2). Aims: To compare outcomes of women diagnosed before and after 20 weeks gestation in a large GDM cohort in South-Western Sydney. Methods: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from our GDM database (19932012). Selected women, diagnosed by ADIPS criteria(3), had delivery outcome data and had attended a post-partum oGTT with concomitant HbA1c collection. Post-partum glycaemic status was classified according to oGTT results, (not HbA1c), with IFG being FBGL>6.1mmol/L. Data were compared by t-test or Chi-squared test. Fisher-Freeman-Halton exact test was used to detect differences in ethnicity. Statistical significance was p<0.05. Results: There were 1879 women with available data, 244 diagnosed <20 weeks gestation (<20WkDx) and 1635 after 20 weeks (>20WkDx). There were no significant differences in ethnicity, but <20WkDx women were older, with higher gravida, parity, self-reported prepregnancy BMI and more risk factors for GDM. In the <20WkDx women there was significantly more insulin use, but no significant increase in early delivery (<37weeks) or caesarean delivery, with non-statistically significant differences in SGA and LGA. Of note was the significant increase in any abnormality of glucose tolerance on 6-8 weeks post-partum glucose tolerance test (oGTT), especially Type2DM (see Table mean+SD or percent).


At the present stage of development of the world economy, problems of capital migration in offshore zones began to manifest in relief, which adversely affects the state of the global financial system. These trends lead to the need to evaluate new directions of the anti-offshore regulation. It is proved that the transformation of the anti-offshore regulation by its nature, driving forces, vector orientation and mechanism of development at all stages of the world-economy progress clearly reflects the systemic transformations of global financial imbalances. It is found out that the evaluation of offshore jurisdictions comes out of the degree of transparency of their activities, as well as readiness to cooperate on the exchange of tax information within the framework of the OECD's special concept of mutual assistance in tax affairs. The role of international organizations in regulating anti-offshore activities has been identified, and the prospects for their influence have been evaluated. It is determined that the anti-offshore regulation is implemented, on the one hand, through shifting of emphasis from combating the fiscal benefits of offshore zones to limit activities with the «black» (tax-free) zones, and on the other hand – through the mechanisms of international economic policy implemented on the institutional platform of international currency together with the credit and financial organizations. The author describe preventive measures on tax evasion, which consist in the development of an inclusive structure of the OECD and G20, which will allow interested countries and jurisdictions to cooperate in the development of standards on issues related to tax evasion, as well as with supervision and control over the implementation of the entire package of actions. It is determined that the mechanism of de-offshoring should be directed not only towards the elimination of territories with preferential taxation, but also towards benefits from their use on the basis of the existing financial infrastructure of the world's leading offshore centers.


Bangkok, like other major cities of Asia, suffers from horrendous traffic conditions. With such difficult conditions for both construction and maintenance the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration decided that the time was right to introduce best practice techniques to the development of maintenance plans and the management of the maintenance process. Implementation was undertaken in two phases; firstly the implementaiton of a Pavement Management System followed by a Resource Management System developed specifically to meet the requirements of the BMA. The RMS is written in Thai Visual dBase. This paper describes the principles behind the pavement management system and the resource management system and how their use will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the maintenance effort. (A) For the covering abstract see ITRD E105786.


Abstract Background During COVID‐19 outbreak, oncological care has been reorganized. Patients with cancer have been reported to experience a more severe COVID‐19 syndrome; moreover, there are concerns of a potential interference between immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and SARS‐CoV‐2 pathogenesis. Materials and methods Between 6 and 16 May 2020, a 22‐item survey was sent to Italian physicians involved in administering ICIs. It aimed at exploring the perception about SARS‐CoV‐2‐related risks in cancer patients receiving ICIs, and the attitudes towards their management. Results The 104 respondents had a median age of 35.5 years, 58.7% were females and 71.2% worked in Northern Italy. 47.1% of respondents argued a synergism between ICIs and SARS‐CoV‐2 pathogenesis leading to worse outcomes, but 97.1% would not deny an ICI only for the risk of infection. During COVID‐19 outbreak, to reduce hospital visits, 55.8% and 30.8% opted for the highest labelled dose of each ICI and/or, among different ICIs for the same indication, for the one with the longer interval between cycles, respectively. 53.8% of respondents suggested testing for SARS‐CoV‐2 every cancer patient candidate to ICIs. 71.2% declared to manage patients with onset of dyspnoea and cough as infected by SARS‐CoV‐2 until otherwise proven; however, 96.2% did not reduce the use of steroids to manage immune‐related toxicities. The administration of ICIs in specific situations for different cancer types has not been drastically conditioned. Conclusions These results highlight the uncertainties around the perception of a potential interference between ICIs and COVID‐19, supporting the need of focused studies on this topic.


trator and legislator. State legislators and administrators are responsible jointly for the health, safety, and well-being of their citizens. State level bureaucracy is an important information source upon which the legislature depends when making decisions. Present costs and future projections of prison inmates, college students, food stamp recipients, and state unemployment generally come from the bureaucracy. After the elected representatives enact legislation and authorize expenditures, the bureaucracy must implement the decisions. The legislature has the power to appropriate funds and to define actions


In this paper, with listed companies of 2006-2008 Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Market in China A-share as samples for studying whether the organization of institutional investors, shareholders of listed companies positive control will actively governance impact on their business performance. The empirical results show that institutional investor governance mechanisms on firm performance of the management had highly significant positive effects and were consistent with effective monitoring hypothesis. This article further investigated the nature of the controlling shareholder value for institutional shareholder activism governance effects, the empirical analysis: restrained government control to play the role of institutional investors, as opposed to nongovernment controlled companies, government control of the company to further reduce the Institutional Shareholder Governance the positive value effect.


The author in this essay has one's eyes on the legal oneself suddenness and scientific understanding attitude,and rectifies the positioned wrong that the legal material base is taken as the legal feature in the circle of the jurisprudence at present in the hope of making a correct understanding on the origin of the legal existence in the study of jurisprudence.


DURING THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY cockfights were often held in conjunction with horse races; both diversions provided subjects for people interested in betting. Various forms of gambling and games of chance were popular amongst all classes of society; cockfighting, however, was a violent and ferocious focus for gambling, yet like many other blood sports, it was an integral part of the entertainment enjoyed by large numbers of people at this time. This paper is a study of cockfighting in the historic county of Yorkshire at the time when sporting events were beginning to be advertised and reported on in the newspapers, and in a new publication the first type of racing calendar.1 The reasons why cockmatches were arranged, the people involved, and the manner of organizing and conducting them will be examined. The places, dates, and days found to be most popular will be discussed, and the likely reasons for this choice will be shown. Any interdependence between cockfighting and other sporting or social events that took place at the same time will also be considered. Much data has been obtained from two local or regional newspapers, the York Courant and the Leeds Mercury, both of which carried notices advertising forthcoming cockfights in order to inform and attract potential spectators, and occasionally competitors. John Cheny's racing calendars provided information about the results for some cockmatches, and a few results appeared in the York Courant towards the end of the period studied. The newspapers printed considerable information about the venue, dates, contestants, and stakes for some cockmatches, whereas Cheny's information is occasionally sketchy, as though his informant only half-remembered the event.2 The papers of John Stanhope of Horsforth have thrown much light on the way that some owners bred their birds and carefully


AbstractA new methodology for estimating the depolarization ratio (DR) by dual-polarization radars with simultaneous transmission/reception of orthogonally polarized waves together with traditionally measured differential reflectivity ZDR, correlation coefficient ρhυ, and differential phase ΦDP in a single mode of operation is suggested. This depolarization ratio can serve as a proxy for circular depolarization ratio measured by radars with circular polarization. The suggested methodology implies the use of a high-power phase shifter to control the system differential phase on transmission and a special signal processing to eliminate the detrimental impact of differential phase on the estimate of DR. The feasibility of the suggested approach has been demonstrated by retrieving DR from the standard polarimetric variables and the raw in-phase I and quadrature Q components of radar signals and by implementing the scheme on a C-band radar with simultaneous transmission/reception of horizontally and vertically...


Cervical spondylotic myelopathy is the most common disease of the spinal cord after the age of 40. There have been many publications advocating various types of surgical treatment, and their results, on the basis of relatively small and selected series of patients with spondylotic myelopathy. Opinions about the preferable approach vary. There is not as yet full knowledge regarding the pathomechanism of the disease and the factors governing its natural course. However, it is clear that mechanical factors play an important role. This means that most surgical therapies have a mechanical basis. These surgical approaches are on the whole not difficult technically; the main problem is the best choice for each individual patient.


Background: Medical errors are those errors or mistakes committed by healthcare professionals due to errors of omission, errors in planning, and errors of execution of a planned healthcare action whether or not it is harmful to the patient. Medical error in hospitals increases morbidity and mortality and decreases patient satisfaction and hospital productivity. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of medical errors in Iranian hospitals. Methods: This study was conducted using systematic review and meta-analysis approaches. All articles written in English and Persian on the prevalence of medical errors in Iranian hospitals up to March 2019 were searched in Web of Science, PubMed, Elsevier, Scopus, Magiran, IranMedex and Scientific Information Database (SID) databases, and Google and Google Scholar search engines. In addition, reference lists of the retrieved papers were hand-searched. A total of 9 studies matching the inclusion criteria were identified, reviewed, and analyzed using comprehensive meta-analysis software. Results: The prevalence of medical errors was reported in 9 studies and prevalence rate ranged from 0.06% to 42%. Most studies used reporting forms completed by hospital employees for determining the prevalence of medical errors (67%). Only three studies collected data by reviewing patients' medical records. Accordingly, the overall prevalence of medical error in Iran's hospitals based on the nine published articles was 0.01% (95% Cl 0%-0.01%) during 2008 to 2017. The highest medical error was recorded in a hospital in Shiraz, 2.1% (95% Cl: 1.4%-2.7%) in 2012. A significant statistical correlation was observed between medical errors and sample size (P<0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence rate of medical error in Iran is low. It is strongly recommended to use more advanced and valid methods such as occurrence reporting, screening, and the global trigger tool for examining medical errors in Iranian hospitals. Proving adequate education and training to patients and employees, simplifying and standardizing hospital processes, enhancing hospital information systems, improving communication, promoting a safety culture, improving employees' welfare and satisfaction, and implementing quality management strategies are useful for reducing medical errors. Abstract


Background: Imaging of the wrist is challenging to both radiologists and orthopedic surgeons. This is primarily because of the complex anatomy/functionality of the wrist and also the fact that many frequent injuries are sustained to the hands. Ongoing developments in multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) technology with its "state of the art" postprocessing capabilities have revolution-nized this field. This article pictorially reviews the current clinical role of MDCT imaging of wrist in our practice. Objective: The aim of this work is to study the role of multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) with multi-planar reconstruction in the assessment of fracture patterns around the wrist joint. Patients and methods: Forty patients with fractures around the wrist (diagnosed both clinically and radiologically through plain radiography in the ER) were referred from the orthopedic surgery department for CT evaluation. The study was conducted in the Radiology department at Minia University Hospital during the period from May to December 2018. All patients were enrolled after meeting the inclusion criteria and after having individually written informed consent. The standard CT protocol performed for all patients was as follows: By using 16 slice MDCT machines. Imaging the wrist with the following parameters: 0.625-mm collimation, a pitch of 0.5625, 120 kVp, and 200 mA.512x 512 array field-of-view (FOV), and 1 pitch factor. No patient preparation was needed as no contrast media was indicated in the study. Removal of metallic objects was a routine procedure to avoid metallic artifacts. Results: most of the patients were below the age of 37 years, 67.5% of the studied patients were males and the left side is more affected than the right side. The most common cause of fractures around the wrist is falling on outstretched hand which was statistically superior to other mechanisms (75%). Radiography and CT detect all cases of distal radius fractures while in ulna fractures radiography sensitivity to fracture was 88.2%, in scaphoid fractures sensitivity was 50% while in capitate fracture radiography cannot detect fracture 0% sensitivity. So, CT has the upper hand in the detection of occult fractures. Conclusion: Wrist fractures and dislocations may be overlooked on conventional radiographs. CT with multiplanar and volumetric reformation can be a useful technique to demonstrate occult carpal bone fractures. Also, it can illustrate the complexity and extent of fractures as well as joint dislocations.


TOVS data retrieved from NOAA-16 satellite, by the World Data Center for Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere (WDC-RSAT), have been analyzed and compared with the one-way 3 nested domain integration of the Fifth-Generation NCAR/Penn State Mesoscale (PSU/NCAR) Modeling System (MM5). The analysis has been conducted throughout comparison with data collected by the automatic meteorological station (EMA) of the Institute of Meteorology (IM) and Lisbon radiosounding station (Portugal). The basic form of multi-scale data assimilation procedures (FDDA), based on Newtonian relaxation of analysis and observations nudging, have been used on mesoscale model MM5 for a precipitation event occurred over Portugal during summer season simulations. In order to figure-out the effectiveness of TOVS data in reducing the sounding data retrieval errors, particularly near surface levels, and to improve the precipitation forecast, the rainfall occurrence days, during October 2004 over Portugal, a particular event simulated using a weak constrained 4DVAR satellite retrieved data assimilation procedures have been selected. Several simulations mode have been conducted including observation data available, especially the asynoptic satellite data in the analysis and also without any assimilation at al. The mesoscale model forecasting has been processed employing both TOVS data from NOAA-16, as well as the EMA and upper air radio-sounding data in the analysis. The results show that vertical temperature profiles have small departures, compared with its humidity counterpart, with respect to both observations and model simulations. The results revealed that, although humidity data have suspicious quite large retrieval errors, they contribute to improve the precipitation events forecast over Portugal. International TOVS Study Conference-XIV Proceedings


This article has analyzed the request and the way of design and detection in construction energy conservation,based on the design standard for energy efficiency of residential buildings in hot summer and cold winter zone, has pointed out that we could realize the widespread examination on residential buildings energy conservation depending on the thermal engineering laboratory in college.


The study examined the discontinuance of Yam Minisett Technology (YMT) utilization by yam farmers in North-central Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 150 respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data collected. Findings showed that majority of the respondents were males (94.7%), married (75.3%), no formal education (60.0%), no secondary occupation (74.7%), mean age (42.5 ± 47) and household size (5.7 ± 1.8) and small farm size (48.0%). Discontinued package of the innovation include: sole cropping system (37.3%), seed treatment with minisett dust (30.7%), pre-sprouting (28.0%) and staking using pyramid or trellis (26.7%). Reasons for discontinued utilisation are poor input supply and accessibility (86.7%), poor farm financing (82.0%), poor extension services (visit and follow-up) (74.7%) and poor farm labour supply (68.0%). PPMC result shows significant relationship (r = -0.895, p = 0.000) between farmers socio-economic characteristics and YMT discontinuance, and T-test statistics at 0.01 level of significance indicated that the output of farmers who discontinued are significantly less (3.68) than farmers who continued to utilize YMT. It was thus concluded that discontinued utilisation of YMT could lead to significant decline in seed-yam production, farm size and income of farmers. Therefore continuous utilisation of YMT is recommended with appropriate input supply, provision of interest free farm credit, improve extension-farmers contact, and development of YMT to thrive under mixed cropping.


There is no doubt about the importance of mathematics in primary education, and its biggest problem is the cognitive uncertainty of teaching and learning in mathematics education. The purpose of this paper is to establish a cognitive model for solving uncertain problems in mathematics teaching -- "extension cognition" model. Based on the extension cognitive model, this paper discusses how to recognize mathematics teaching from mathematics teaching and how to learn mathematics learning from mathematics learning, thus embodiments the extension thought of metacognitive mathematics education. The experimental results show that children have differences in the "extension cognition" of mathematics learning, small differences in divergent cognition and related cognition, and large differences in implicative cognition and conjugated cognition. And this difference in "extension cognition" is determined by many factors, such as children's learning environment, learning thinking habits, parents' behavior thinking mode and so on. Therefore, the key to narrow the differences in primary mathematics education is to improve children's mathematical "extension cognition" ability.


As fine‐needle aspiration (FNA) has become a critical component of the investigation of palpable breast masses, false‐negative diagnoses have become a major concern, prompting reevaluation of the definition of specimen adequacy. Although cytopathologists agree that a number of parameters relate to the adequacy of an FNA specimen, there is no unanimity on the role of epithelial cell quantitation in the determination of an adequate FNA. To better understand the significance of epithelial cellularity, false‐negative FNA samples from palpable breast lesions were reviewed.


The invention provides a method for indirectly controlling a sintering end point, belonging to the technical field of sintering production process control. The method comprises the following steps that: regression fitting of a least square method on a waste gas temperature is completed; wherein the horizontal ordinate is the position of a detection point, while the vertical ordinate is the temperature of the detection point, and a quartic temperature curve is fit; the quartic temperature curve can truly reflect a trend of reaction temperature variations through tests; determination of an inflection point BRP of the temperature curve is to analyze the condition of slope variations of the temperature curve and determine the position of the inflection point BRP; the slope of the inflection point is between 0.35 and 0.45, which means that a tangent angle is between 19 and 24 degrees; and indirect control on the end point BTP can be realized based on acquisition of the inflection point BRP through direct control on the inflection point BRP. The method reduces lagging by 8 to 10 minutes, and stabilizes the production process. The method has the advantages that the slope judgment method of BRP can adapt to work condition more widely, and directly controls BRP so as to indirectly control BTP, thereby reducing hysteresis quality of sintering production, and improving the yield and quality of a sintering ore.


Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is an allergic fungal infection that induces immunoglobulin E (IgE) production and eosinophils proliferation and affect mostly asthmatic and cystic fibrosis patients. The mainstay treatment for ABPA is systemic steroid and antifungal treatment which have increasing rates of treatment failure and side effects. Because of their mechanism of action in suppressing IgE or eosinophils, biologic drugs were expected to play an important role in the treatment of ABPA, however, their use in this issue was off label and lack the evidence. In this comprehensive and comparative review, 59 full text articles (228 patients) were selected. The outcomes were analyzed and the percentages of posttreatment change for each variable in each study were collected then the overall median percentages were calculated for each variable for each biologic drug. Comparative discussion of these outcomes was done in terms of clinical and functional response, reduction of exacerbation events, reduction of IgE level and eosinophils count, prevention of complications and patient's ability to reduce steroid dose or discontinue it. The review shows that the use of biologic drugs for treatment of ABPA is associated with a significant clinical and functional improvement and reduction of exacerbation rates up to 90%. There is more reduction in post-treatment IgE level with mepolizumab and marked reduction in posttreatment eosinophils count with benralizumab. Mepolizumab has the better steroid-sparing effect. Changing from one biologic drug to another with different target in case of treatment failure is advisable. More stronger studies and randomized control trials are needed to figure out the use of biologic drugs for ABPA treatment.


The study was conducted to assess the functional status of CYP3A4 substrate (atorvastatin) in hepatotoxicity model treated with silymarin and rutin for a period of 14 days in rats. Hepatotoxicity was induced with acetaminophen (500 mg/Kg po once daily for 3 days) in adult male Wistar rats in 3 groups. Group 1: Normal control, Group 2, 3 and 4 were administered distilled water (5 ml/kg po once daily), silymarin (25 mg/Kg po once daily) and rutin (20 mg/Kg po once daily), respectively subsequently for 11 days from the last dose of acetaminophen. On the 15th day, a CYP3A4 substrate (atorvastatin @ 10 mg/kg po) was administered in all the groups and blood samples were collected at predetermined intervals. Pharmacokinetic interaction studies were conducted for evaluation of CYP3A4 activity using the specifi c substrate atorvastatin in all the groups. Mean plasma concentration (Cmax), half-life (t1/2β), area under the plasma concentration time curve (AUC) and mean residence time (MRT) of groups 2 and 4 were signifi cantly (p<0.05) increased and elimination rate constant (β) was signifi cantly (p<0.05) decreased in acetaminophen treated group as comparison to the normal control group. The kinetic profi le of silymarin-treated group 3 was comparable to group 1 for single dose study. All the pharmacokinetic parameters of atorvastatin revealed signifi cant correlations between hepatotoxic control and rutin treated group, while silymarin treated group showed signifi cant alterations in the kinetic profi le suggesting its hepatoprotective effect.


Taking commercial banks industry as background,depending on the model of competitive strategy efficiency and based on reviewing the relative literatures comprehensively,the authors mainly studied the four problems about the competence of defining the concept,producing route,the expanding boundary and evaluating ways.This paper defines anew the concept of competence as the expression to knowledge and puts forward the reviews that core competence originates from the self-organized route and the balance of competence system is non-overall balance from the rough equal of mutually-affecting energy and direction in the factors of competence.


The agency perspective of corporate governance emphasises the monitoring role of the board of directors. This study is concerned with analysing whether independent directors on the board and audit committee (recommendations of the ASX Corporate Governance Council, 2003) are associated with reduced levels of earnings management. The results support the hypotheses that a higher proportion of independent directors on the board and on the audit committee are associated with reduced levels of earnings management. The results are robust to alternative specifications of the model. This study adds to the very limited research into the relationship between corporate governance and earnings management in Australia. It also provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of some of the regulators' recommendations, which may be of value to regulators in preparing and amending corporate


and other employee even though it was not easy starting for me. Evaluation and control of vandalism impact in oil and gas field were my first trial, and I didn't know how to do my research and who to start my work (Power plant acting superintendent in NEEM field) Mr. Adam Mohmedani support me and offer all the required information related to power section, I had only a slight understanding of my research topic, the progress of experiments, and data analyzing. Dr. Zaunab Mahmoud answered all my questions and helped me to make great progress in my research. Finally, I understand my research topic well and I did my poster presentation.


Objective: To rescarch special perioperative feeding and nursings method for infants with cleft lip and palate . Methods: According to the infants' different conditions, breast feeding, bottle feeding and spoon feeding were tried separately for 36 infants with cleft lip and palate. Results: By keeping continuous growth, infants with cleft lip and palate successfully undewent the special feeding period before and after surgery.The increases in weight(height) were comparable to the percentiles of weight(height) by age for children aged 0~72 months in Singpore.Conclusion: According to infants' condition, choosing the feeding method suitable for the infant is the key to feeding success.


FIELD: molecular biology, immunology. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to hybrid monoclonal antibody interacting with human CD4-antigen and containing light and heavy human chains. These chains have regions determining complementarity CD4 and relating to murine OKT 4A-antibody. Antibody has binding constant with antigen 4•10 5 -10 12 m -1 and relates to isotype IgG. In carcass regions of light and heavy chains of hybrid antibody amino acids (from 2 to 13) are substituted additionally with amino acids of murine donor antibody. To obtain hybrid antibody the corresponding light and heavy chains are constructed followed by their incorporation in suitable expression vectors(s). Eucaryotic cells are transformed with vector(s) and hybrid antibodies are isolated from cultural fluid. EFFECT: improved method of preparing. 8 cl, 30 dwg , 3 tbl


Brings together 15 experts to explore answers to the questions posed by the practice of arms control. Representing the views of both early and late arms control theories, the authors offer opinions on topics such as alternative deterrence postures and regulation of peaceful competition.


The article analyses Luis Landero's first novel, Juegos de la edad tardia and in particular the ethic part of its ludique aspects. Using the critical instruments of literary semiotics and philosophy, it tries to show examples of the deconstruction and reconstruction of the postmodern subject through the rules of game.


We develop a simple model of opportunistic voting in a multi-party political environment with four parties, where voting is sincere. Political parties o¤er …scal policy platforms. Citizens are either employed or unemployed, have euclidean preferences and vote based on parties'ideology and the proposed policy platforms. Hence, citizens support the party that not only is ideologically closer to them but also o¤ers them a better policy platform. That is, citizens act as being held "hostages" by the parties. The biger the …scal policy o¤er the larger the incentive to vote for a party less ideologically similar. In equilibrium only the centrist parties o¤er tax cuts whereas the more extrimist parties choose to portray itself as pure ideologists. We then perform a comparative statics exercise. We show how macroeconomic variables such as debt, unemployment rate and social expenditures a¤ect the voting decision of the agents. In particular, we show that the degree of fractionalization of the vote share of the parliamentary parties moves in the same direction with debt and social expenditures and in the opposite one with unemployment. In the empirical section of the paper we collect date for 23 western OECD countries from the period 1960-2007 and we test the theoretical predictions of the model using a 2SLS …xed e¤ects estimator where the instruments are the lags of those three key variables. We …nd the results to be statistically signi…cant and qualitatively important in magnitude under almost all alternative model speci…cations. Keywords: expressive voting, fractionalization, debt, unemployment, social expenditures, instrumental variables The authors would like to thank the participants at the Warwick University Departmental Workshop for useful comments and suggestions. Konstantinos Matakos would also like to thank Prof. Bhaskar Dutta for invaluable support and supervision, Dr. Michael McMahon and Konstantinos Mavromatis for interesting suggestions and discussions. Konstantinos Matakos gratefully acknowledges …nancial support from thye "A.G. Leventis Foundation". All errors remain ours. Corresponding author: Konstantinos Matakos, The University of Warwick, Dept. of Economics, Social Studies S2.94, Coventry, CV4 7 AL, UK; e-mail address: firstname.lastname@example.com 1 Introduction-Related literature A brief overview of elections results in representative democracies around the world indicates a wide dispersion of parties'political power fractionalization. That is, in several countries just a small number of political parties (usually two) receive the lion's share of votes, while in other political environments a lot of parties receive a respectable vote share. Political science has always been interested in this phenomenon and has adopted various approaches to explain it. Duverger (1951), …rst noted that this divergence of electoral fractionalization among countries may be attributed to the particular political institutions that characterize the political environment of each state. This idea suggests that if, for example, a majoritarian electoral rule is applied, then we should expect a low electoral fractionalization; the two larger parties shall be receiving the vast majority of votes, and when a proportional electoral law is in place, electoral fractionalization should be high. Individual voters are "driven" to vote for the larger parties in the …rst case, as a vote for a small party in a majoritarian system is nothing else than a lost vote. In a sense, this accounts to citizens voting strategically, since voting for a minor party that has minimal chances of wining may alter the election result in their disfavor. In the second case though, voting for small parties is not so "strategical". Colomer (2005), Ergun (2007),


Results of researches the physical-chemical and thermal physical properties of heat-insulating slag-forming compounds are given. Their influence on quality of steel ingots is shown at semi-continuous molding.


Abstract:  Although research indicates that hightened glucocorticoid levels impair long‐term memory functions and may inhibit traumatic memory retrieval in humans, the impact of acutely elevated glucocorticoid levels on learning and attentional functions is still unclear. Furthermore, the effect of glucocorticoids on executive functions as well as the recovery from long‐term memory deficits is insufficiently studied. The present study examined memory functions in patients with acute exacerbation of neurological diseases (multiple sclerosis, acute optic neuritis), who were treated with a high dose of glucocorticoids. All patients demonstrated a reversible impairment of long‐term memory functions, whereas measures of short‐term memory, attentional functions, and alertness remained unaffected. These findings indicate a selective cognitive disturbance, providing further evidence that the memory deficits reflect a receptor‐mediated effect of glucocorticoids on hippocampal function thereby supporting a potential association of stress‐induced elevated cortisol levels and memory disturbances in trauma‐related psychiatric disorders (psychogenic amnesia, PTSD).


In this article, we studied BLSTM networks to
recognize on-line handwritten isolated symbols (including both
digits and mathematical symbols). BLSTM networks are suitable
for sequence classification tasks as they can access the contextual
information from two directions. We tested the performance of
the BLSTM model for two different problems using well known
datasets and compared our results to the state of the art on the
same datasets.


The objective of this study is to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of the homeopathic formulation of Bryonia alba in treatment of gouty arthritis different chemical induced gouty arthritis models in rats. Two different potencies of the drug (Bryonia alba-30X and Bryonia alba-Q) were evaluated in different models of gouty arthritis. In the MSU model, the symptomatic relief providing activity of the drug was tested where it shown effective reduction in the inflammation while comparing the inflammation induced with Indomethacin as a standard. In the second model potassium oxonate an uricase enzyme inhibitor was used to induce hyperuricemia and it was seen if the formulation could reduce the elevated uric acid in the serum. To assert the mechanism of action XDH and XOD assays were done to determine whether the drug inhibited these enzymes while comparing with allopurinol as a standard.


The Supreme Court of the United States has interpreted individual liberty as provided for in the Constitution to include certain intimate conduct, and upheld its protection from unwarranted government intrusions into private places, while observing that adults may choose to enter upon a personal relationship in the confines of their homes and their own private lives and still retain their dignity as free persons. The Supreme Court has further stated that the fact that the governing majority in a State has traditionally viewed a particular practice as immoral is not a sufficient reason for upholding a law prohibiting the practice. Nonetheless, prostitution remains a crime in most of the United States, with Nevada as the only state that allows some legal prostitution.This paper discusses the history of prostitution - specifically consensual adult female prostitution - in the United States and assesses the justifiability of the [continued] criminalization of prostitution in the United States. It analyzes whether the classification of prostitution as a crime is supported by any of the major theories of criminalization or legal punishment. The analysis is done in the specific context of the United States taking into account, inter alia, the history of prostitution in the United States and the place of morality in United States law. The analysis leads to the conclusion that neither the consequentialist nor the deontological and moralistic theories of criminalization and punishment support the continued criminalization of prostitution in the United States, and that there are therefore plausible arguments for decriminalization.There is a recognition, regardless of the conclusions on the justifiability of criminalization, that there are deep-seated convictions within sections of society that prostitution is immoral. While there are philosophical arguments both ways on whether prostitution is immoral, and whether morality should inform criminal law (debates that this paper gets into to some degree), the author ultimately take the position that these debates are not the most effective and efficient way to bridge the divide and resolve the problem. The solution, in the author's view, lies in striking a compromise. The author propose that it is possible to, on the one hand, respect the legitimate conviction held by a section of society that prostitution is morally wrong and still, on the other hand, attain general consensus on the need for reform to eradicate or at least reduce the negative effects of the blanket criminalization of prostitution.


In structural design of nuclear power plant facilities. Simple vortex flow models are presented which define the wind velocity component and differential pressure at any point in the cyclonic field. The parameters used to quantify these values have been developed from observed tornado data and may be used with the simple model to specify more completely the Design Basis Tornado. These wind and pressure effects can be combined to determine structural load on building surfaces. Using automated finite element structural design techniques which readily permit nonsymmetric loading it is possible to perform more rational tornado structural design. (12 references) (auth)


Nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for approximately 80%–85% of all lung cancer patients. Gossypin, a flavonoid contained in Hibiscus vitifolius, has been reported as a potential anticancer agent. However, the effect of gossypin on NSCLC has not been elucidated. Herein, we evaluated the anticancer effects and investigated the molecular mechanisms of gossypin in NSCLC cell line, A549. We treated A549 cells with gossypin at different concentrations and performed cell viability and colony formation assays. As a result, gossypin inhibited cell proliferation. phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) is known to be involved in cancer cell growth. Additionally, p-PI3K/p-Akt reduces p21 expression, resulting in cell cycle progression. Therefore, the effects of gossypin on the expression of PI3K, Akt, and p21 were investigated via Western blot analysis. Gossypin inhibited p-PI3K/p-Akt and induced p21 expression. Also, gossypin induced the sub-G1 phase, which exhibits DNA fragmentation, indicating apoptosis. To corroborate these results, apoptosis and the expression of caspase-3 and poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) were evaluated in gossypin-treated cells. Results showed that gossypin cleaved caspase-3 and PARP to induce apoptosis. Our study findings indicate a possible therapeutic effect of gossypin in NSCLC.


Web-enabling technologies represent the next generation of design environments to design and manufacture complex systems, such as them characterizing contract furniture. In the context of web applications to facilitate and support teamwork in collaborative product development, the paper presents a CAD-based infrastructure for the 3D visualization of co-designed solutions, the on-line customization of furniture items and the creation of a shared relational database of products, architectural scenes and knowledge-based rules guiding configuration. A double-level geometry is presented to manage 3D web representation and product structure. A use case is adopted to show main platform functionalities and possible advantages for the extensible contract furniture cluster.


This thesis added new insight to research knowledge about the role that season and ultraviolet radiation (UV) exposure during pregnancy has on children's temperament and behaviours, using a nation-wide longitudinal study. It was found that young children born in summer months are likely to have problematic behaviours. The thesis also found that summer-born children are likely to receive lowest levels of UV exposure during the gestational period. Finally, this work showed that low gestational UV exposure is associated with an increased risk of behavioural problems in children.


Finding optimal, or at least good, maintenance and repair policies is crucial in reliability engineering. Likewise, describing life phases of human mortality is important when determining social policy or insurance premiums. In these tasks, one searches for distributions to fit data and then makes inferences about the population(s). In the present paper, we focus on bathtub‐type distributions and provide a view of certain problems, methods and solutions, and a few challenges, that can be encountered in reliability engineering, survival analysis, demography and actuarial science.


In the present study of iconicity of languages,most scholars preferred to deal with the iconicity from the angle of morphology or syntactic structure of written language at the expense of proper attention to mono-morphemic words or phono-semantic iconicity and their iconicity examples discussed were hardly described with phonetic subtlety.In this paper,the weak link in the previous iconicity studies was analyzed and commented and the significance and feasibility of phonetic and semantic interpretation of iconicity of phono-semantic words on the basis of principles of quantity,proximity,sequential order,etc.were highlighted.