Background: Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) is a well-known complication of the advanced phase of Myeloproliferative Diseases (MPD) such as Polycythemia Vera (PV), Essential Thrombocytopenia (ET) and Myelofibrosis (MF). Although initially attributed to increased pulmonary vascular resistance (group 1 PH of the WHO classification), this entity was classified in 2009 in group 5 PH (unknown mechanism and miscellaneous PH). Our aim was to describe the prevalence and possible causes of PH in a series of patients with MF. Methods: We studied a series of patients with Primary MF or Secondary MF to other MPD with cardiac ultrasound, right heart catheterization and scintigraphy after intraarterial infusion of Tc99-labeled albumin macroaggregates. Results: We studied 11 consecutive patients with MF (7 male, mean age 58 years, 4 with MF post-PV, 4 post-TE and 3 Primary MF) during the period 2009-2014. All of them had mutations of JAK-2 gene, fibrosis in bone marrow biopsy and visceromegaly (all with intermediate-2 or higher IPSS). Median NTproBNP levels were 4597 pg/ml (range 175-5700). Echocardiogram showed high systolic pulmonary pressure in most cases, with a mean of 54 ± 17 mmHg (range 35-80). Right heart catheterization showed high cardiac output (HCO) in all patients (table 1). After ruling out other causes of HCO, a scintigraphy was performed after administration of Tc99-labeled albumin macroaggregates in descending thoracic aorta. In every case, a percentage of the labeled macroaggregates (6.1 ± 2.0% of the radioactivity) were plugged in the pulmonary capillary bed, what is diagnostic of the presence of microfistulas in infradiaphragmatic territory. In two of these patients, scintigraphies were performed at diagnosis and after been treated with the anti-JAK drug Ruxolitinib (Novartis Pharma). A favourable impact of this drug was obtained in the two cases, probably due to a reduction of spleen volume. Conclusion: Most patients with MF show pulmonary hypertension associated with high cardiac output caused by microfistulas, without significant increase in pulmonary resistance. This finding has important clinical implications, because pulmonary vasodilators (once recommended) should be contraindicated, since they could cause worsening of the clinical picture. Ruxolitinib could resolve PH in MF and a prospective study in this sense could be indicated. Disclosures Ojeda:Alexion Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Fores:Alexion Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau.


vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Theoretical Basis of Study 3 Psychophysics 3 Psychological: Consumer Point ofView 4 Hyper-Graeco Latin Squares 5 Chapter 3: Literature Review 6 Simultaneous vs. Successive ColorMatching 6 Chapter 4: Hypothesis 10 Chapter 5: Methodology 1


Based on all published records, together with the original data for the southern African bird atlas, the current Birds in Reserves Project and our records on field trips, 257 bird species have been reliably recorded from MZNP. We have assessed the current status of all species, in relation to the recent expansion of the park and other changes which may be a consequence of management practices. No birds of national conservation concern are breeding residents in the park, and some species are periodic or irregular visitors. Nevertheless, the park is important for the conservation of representatives of the Karoo avifauna, and the diversity of birdlife present should be highlighted to attract visitors with a special interest in birding.


Researchers have become increasingly interested in exploring leaders' behaviours that promote followers' proactive behaviours, but the literature is limited to leadership styles and generally does not consider leader displays of emotion. In this study, the impact of leader expressions of gratitude on followers' proactive behaviours was examined from a self-evaluative perspective. Data from a field study (N = 184) and an experimental vignette study (N = 150) in China supported our hypotheses that leader gratitude expressions were positively related to followers' proactive behaviours. Role breadth self-efficacy and perceived social worth mediated the relationship between leader gratitude expressions and followers' proactive behaviours. This mediating effect was strengthened for followers with high relational identification. These results contribute to a nuanced understanding of gratitude by shedding light on the phenomenon of leader gratitude expressions and their positive outcomes. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.


The role of traditional leaders has been viewed as an anomaly in the postapartheid democratic political dispensation. Their presence cannot be denied. A large percentage of particularly rural communities accept their existence and their authority within the context of tribal traditional government and justice. Initiatives have been launched to integrate their existence and continued influence into the current political system. A point of departure has been their description in chapter 12 of the South African Constitution (Act 108 of 1996). Various political and community leaders have expressed their support for the system of traditional leaders as a binding factor in preserving the traditions of the various indigenous peoples of South Africa.


Background: Due to the high prevalence of domestic violence among women and more physical and psychological vulnerability during pregnancy, and thus, vulnerability to the growing fetus, there is an urgent need for accurate identification of these individuals. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between domestic violence and maternal-fetal attachment. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 300 women with a gestational age of 20 to 40 weeks were selected randomly and categorically out of pregnant women covered by these centers. The data collection tool was a demographic questionnaire, a domestic violence questionnaire, and maternal-fetal attachment questionnaire. Results: The mean age of the women was 28.32 ± 5.96 years; the mean number of years after the marriage was 7.01 ± 4.22 years, and the mean age of the spouse was 31.37 ± 5.93. The mean number of pregnancies was 1.9 ± 1.67. Further, 65.7% of the women experienced mild violence, 19.3% were under moderate violence, and 15.1% under severe violence. The linear regression of the relationship between the total score of violence and the overall score of the attachment of the mothers was significant, while controlling some of their demographic characteristics (Pvalue < 0.001). Conclusions: The exact knowledge of the effects of domestic violence on maternal-fetal attachment can empower and inform health center staff effectively to diagnose and manage violence against pregnant women. In this way, they can focus more on maternal and fetal emotional support and encouraging the pregnant women to adopt the right care.


Effects of UO_2~(2+)on growth and activity of thiobacillus ferrooxidans(T,f)at the condations of 30℃and pH 2.0 were studied.The experimental results show that UO_2~(2+)affects obviously growth and activity of T.f.This meant that lag phase and logarithmic phase of T.f were longer and Fe~(2+) oxidation rate decreased in Leathen culture medium which UO_2(2+)concentration is 0.4~1.2 g/L and T.f could tolerate higher concentration of UO_2~(2+)after long perid of adaptation by repeated subculturing in the Leathen culture medium.


Images from a NASA Mars orbiter's telescopic camera reveal details of regions on Mars that serve as the setting for the new Hollywood movie, "The Martian."


I shared the ANSI group concern about so called "conformant arrays", because this feature, while something like it I would agree was essential to making the language practical, was in fact the first extension created for the language. Conformant arrays had all the earmarks of a short term fix. They addressed only one issue, and did it with fairly irregular syntax compared to the rest of the language. Their declaration was not only an exception to the rule that parameter types are declared with type names, but also the array type declaration used was also irregular.


A system for generating a compact update package between an old version of content and a new version of content. The system includes a conversion element generator for generating a conversion element associated with the old version and new version. A modified version generator for generating a modified version including applying the conversion element to the old versions. An update package generator for generating the compact update package. The compact update package includes the conversion element and a modified delta based on the modified version and the new version.


A single-eye irradiation of 10 Gy (0.8 Gy. min-1) induces impairments of the electrical responses of the rabbit retina in dark adaptation. These are associated with reversible alteration of the photoreceptors and the preganglionic neurons and a disturbance of all the mechanisms of adaptation. Possible relationships between these functional alterations and the effects of irradiation are discussed.


Cooperative spectrum sensing can improve sensing capability of the system. But in a system which owns channels of different protection levels, it will bring bad effects to detection performance when using a single sensing algorithm and data fusing rule in different channels of this system. Therefore this paper proposes a cooperative sensing algorithm, which is based on policy database to select different measures for various channels by diverse protection levels. The performance of this algorithm is simulated in the model of Okumura. The result shows that the proposed algorithm of policy database has better detection performance when compared with the method of one single sensing algorithm and fusing rule.


In their feature article, 'Moral uncertainty and the farming of human-pig chimeras,' Koplin and Wilkinson argue that there is a tension between (1) thinking that creating pig-human chimaeras with partly humanised brains as a source of organs for transplantation as morally problematic because of the uncertainty of their moral status and (2) thinking that the raising normal pigs for food is not morally problematic because of the certainty concerning their moral status.1 Koplin and Wilkson claim that the reasons that we are uncertain about the moral status of human-pig chimaeras with partly humanised brains also apply to normal pigs. Our moral uncertainty derives from (1) philosophical uncertainty concerning the characteristics that convey moral status and (2) epistemological uncertainty concerning the extent to which pigs with partly humanised brains or normal pigs possess such characteristics. If we think it is morally problematic to create pigs with humanised brains for organ transplantation, we should also think it is morally problematic to raise normal pigs for food, given our uncertainty about the moral status of both kinds of animals. Their view implies that it would be inconsistent to have moral qualms about creating pigs with humanised brains for organ transplantation but to no such misgivings about raising pigs for food.

While I find Koplin and Wilkson's arguments …


Data collection is a very important step and part in the research of energy visualization and analysis. How to make a general, reliable and convenient data collection system is a meaningful and necessary job. In this paper, we introduce a new kind of energy data collection system which is using WiFi module and current transformer. The whole hardware system can be divided into four parts. The first part is an electricity sensor unit which is the core part of the whole system. The second and the third part are combined and working together which consist of a microcontroller and a WiFi network module. The fourth part is a small data convertor. These four parts work together in the whole process. The main software design work is focus on the microcontroller. The whole software design work can be divided into three parts which are parameter setting, main working loop and Modbus functions. Here we write all the programs in C. In the outcome of the test, we can see that the data collection system can work properly and transmit the data to the remote IP address wirelessly through the Internet router. With this kind of design, the data collection system can finish the work no matter what kind of the electricity meter is.


INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL REVIEW In 1908 B. Aschner 1 first observed that pressure on the eyeball caused slowing of the pulse and decrease in the depth of respirations. He found that it would arouse stuporous, anesthetized and unconscious patients, and enable them to respond to questions. He also showed that in narcosis the oculocardiac reflex lasts longer than the corneal or pupillary reflexes. Grossmann and Miloslavich 2 in 1912 made similar observations, and Fabre and Petzetakis, 3 working six years later than Aschner, confirmed the observation that the oculocardiac reflex persists even under deep ether or chloroform anesthesia, and can be elicited after the corneal reflex has gone. It was demonstrated by Aschner that the afferent impulse of the reflex passes through the trigeminal nerve to its nucleus in the midbrain, and that the efferent passes by way of the pneumogastric nerve. By cutting the third, fourth, sixth, seventh or


The basic characteristics of a new style modified polyester(PHT) containing the third alcohols monomer were tested by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer,polycrystalline powder X-ray diffraction,differential scanning calorimetry.The effect of types of disperse dyes,temperature and time on dyeing of PHT were studied.The results showed that the hydroxyl content of PHT was higher than that of PET,but the crystallinity and the glass transition temperature of the new modified polyester were lower than that of PET.The low-medium temperature disperse dyes were suitable for dyeing PHT;dyeing at 120 ℃ was preferred and keeping for 50 minutes,leading to good color fastness of the dyed PHT.


xylanase is one of the enzymes with great prospects as hemicellulose hydrolyzing enzyme. Global annual market demand for this enzyme reach US $ 200 million. This enzyme catalyzes the xylan (hemicellulose) reactions breaking into xilooligosakarida and xylose. Xylanase can be applied to various industrial sectors such as bread, sugar xylose, biofuels, especially in bleaching paper (bleaching) pulp. Xylanase Isable to replace conventional chemical bleaching using chlorine that is not friendly for the environment. Currently xylanase production is extracted from the thermophilic bacteria for enzyme stability at high temperatures that are suitable for industrial applications. Thermophilic bacteria can be isolated from a hot spring, one of the which is a source of Sapan Sungai Aro Hot Spring, located in the district South Solok. The aim of this study was to select and identification of thermophilic bacteria can produce xylanase.This roomates is a descriptive study, which was Carried out in the Laboratory of Microbiology, Mathematic and Science Faculty of Padang State University, and Laboratory of Bacteriology, BasoVeterinary Research Center. The research procedure consisted of the preparation and sterilization of materials and tools, medium manufacturing, regeneration, selection and identification. Selection is performed by using a semiquantitative screening plate that contains xylan substrate. Identification is based on microscopic and biochemical characteristics until the genus level.Selection results Showed 12 out of 16 isolates had xilanolitik activity, with the highest activity is SSA2 with xilanolitik index of 0.74. The top five index producehigestxilanolitik isolates that are SSA2, SSA3 and SSA4 identified as Bacillus sp. 1., and SSAS6 and SSA7 is Bacillus sp. 2.


In Doing Good and Ridding Evil in Ming China: The Political Career of Wang Yangming, George L. Israel offers a detailed study of this influential Neo-Confucian philosopher's official career and military campaigns.


Dual fault-tolerant technique,a key technique to improve reliability of computer system,is widely applied in the design and development of embedded system.Based on various methods in common use and combined with correlative techniques of programmable devices,a scheme of the dual fault-tolerant system based on FPGA is presented.The arbitrator mechanism is important for the real implementation because it supervises the switches between the host and the backup machine.In the process of implementation,not only FPGA's inner resources were fully made use of,but also the circuit mistakes caused by signals' burrs were avoided using FPGA's inner clock signal to make the asynchronous signals synchronized.The simulational result shows good performance.


The X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) system of the Pohang accelerator laboratory (PAL) makes short electron beams with very low quantities of electric charge. It is difficult to measure bunch charge with very low-charge pulses and ultra-short pulses using an ordinary integrating current transformer (ICT). When there is a klystron modulator or a pulse power supply generating electromagnetic noise and ground noise in the surrounding area, it becomes especially difficult to measure the quantity of electric charge. In this paper we report on charge measurements performed at PAL-XFEL using a Turbo-ICT from Bergoz Instrumentation, which was developed to overcome various kinds of noise occurring in the surrounding areas.


Indoor localization with high accuracy and efficiency has attracted much attention. Due to visible light communication (VLC), the LED lights in buildings, once modulated, hold great potential to be ubiquitous indoor localization infrastructure. However, this entails retrofitting the lighting system and is hence costly in wide adoption. To alleviate this problem, we propose to exploit modulated LEDs and existing unmodulated lights as landmarks. On this basis, we present a novel inertial-aided visible light positioning (VLP) system for lightweight indoor localization on resource-constrained platforms, such as service robots and mobile devices. With blob detection, tracking, and VLC decoding on rolling-shutter camera images, a visual front end extracts two types of blob features, i.e., mapped landmarks (MLs) and opportunistic features (OFs). These are tightly fused with inertial measurements in a stochastic cloning sliding-window extended Kalman filter (EKF) for localization. We evaluate the system by extensive experiments. The results show that it can provide lightweight, accurate, and robust global pose estimates in real time. Compared with our previous ML-only inertial-aided VLP solution, the proposed system has superior performance in terms of positional accuracy and robustness under challenging light configurations, such as sparse ML/OF distribution. Note to Practitioners—This article is motivated by the problem that many existing visible light positioning (VLP) systems require high-cost environmental modifications, i.e., replacing a large portion of original lights with modulated LEDs as beacons. To reduce costs in wide adoption, we seek to use fewer modulated LEDs if possible. Accordingly, we present a novel inertial-aided VLP system that uses both modulated LEDs and unmodulated lights as landmarks. Like in other VLP systems, the successfully decoded LEDs provide absolute pose measurements for global localization. Unmodulated lights and the LEDs with decoding failures provide relative motion constraints, allowing the reduction of pose drift during the outage of modulated LEDs. Due to the tightly coupled sensor fusion by filtering, the system can provide efficient and accurate localization when modulated LEDs are sparse. The system is lightweight to run on resource-constrained platforms. For practical deployment of our system at scale, creating LED maps accurately and efficiently remains a problem. It is desired to develop automated LED mapping solutions in future work.


This paper presents the Croatian version of the Multilingual Assessment tool for Narratives (MAIN), outlines its development and describes the research that has used it to assess narrative skills in monolingual and bilingual speakers. The Croatian version of MAIN has so far been used in three research projects and results have been presented in five peer-reviewed articles (published or in press) covering a total of 175 children in the age range from 5;0 to 9;0 (20 with developmental language disorder) and 60 adults, age range from 22 to 76. The accumulated results indicate that MAIN can differentiate narrative skills of speakers in distinct age groups and can distinguish children with language disorders form children with typical language development.


In the company of television the role of Public Relations very important because having activity that deals with internal and external, activity Public Relations also related to image company. In the media activity Public Relations can practiced in the sales and marketing, in the divisions of the sales and marketing there are a account executive usually associated directly with client. An Account Executive in a world of media is key person having responsibilities of client to the internal company. To know what the work of a Account Executive in a television company, writer conduct an apprentice in Kompas TV. The purpose of this internship activities is to see the application of activity Public Relations in the sales and marketing Kompas TV undertaken by an Account Executive and analyzes way a working relationship a Account Executive to client with a base activity Public Relations. The result of an internship is indicated that an Account Executive activities in Kompas TV based on the concept and the theory of Public Relations in a relationship with client. An Account Executive and team has to had qualified high that is consistent with what is required by a Account Executive, which is: the selling skill, negotiation skill, the ability of the presentation and managerial good and apply concepts Public Relations that is suitable for internal and external company.


We review the legal and practical complexities in doing prisoner population data reallocation and discuss differences in the practices in different states and jurisdictions. We emphasize that there are two key complications. (1) how to handle prison populations that do not have an in-state past address, and (2) potential legal differences between how prison populations are to be treated for state legislative (or local) redistricting as opposed to congressional redistricting. We propose a best practices rule.


understanding about them is to be found only in a limited circle of musicians, instrument makers and musicologists — mainly those who tune or research instruments with fixed pitches (keyboard instruments, harps or lutes). The theory and history of temperament and intonation are well covered in thousands of publications. Most musicians, however, tend to avoid this reading, since presentations of the matter are often quite dry and mathematical. Hands-on advice is rare and does not regularly appear in music education. But the practice and theory of intonation should be a central subject in the curriculum of all music courses, for this would eventually improve performances greatly. Any book whose author achieves wider awareness of the topic, as Ross Duffin aims to do, is very welcome, and Duffin largely succeeds in his goal. The title, however, is somewhat misleading, as it implies that the book deals only with temperament, when in fact it also covers the historical development of intonation of freely intonating musicians. Actually, this is the main point of his book, as stated on p.151. It would have helped if this had been reflected in the title, even if the wording were somewhat less catchy. Duffin explains the basics of intonation and temperament in physics (using the harmonic series), just intervals, just intonation and the small but audible discrep ancies (commas) that require on any instrument with all notes tuned in fixed pitches a choice between a tuning based on a selection of just intervals or a tempered tone system based on just intervals and/or tempered intervals. The presentation of the basic principles is lucid, as one would hope to find in an easily accessible introduction to the field. Instruments with flexible intonation and the voice, however, are as a matter of principle free from restrictions of temperament. Over the centuries there has been much discussion of how their intonation is or should be related to the fixed-pitch instruments that accompany them. Duffin refers to printed teaching manuals for singers and instrumentalists of the 18th and 19th centuries from all over Europe, as well as to other historical reports. His presentation of evidence from the 19th century is especially noteworthy, as it is not generally known that well into the 19th century older principles of pure intonation were widely taught and applied. Duffin's hypothesis is that since the 18th century the gradual introduction of equal temperament (12 equal steps per octave, henceforth 12-ET) undermined the knowledge and abilities of professional musicians about the principles of intonation, which led finally to the (un)musical result that good intonation has by and large Ibo Ortgies


In order to support the roadway suffering great horizontal stress effectively,the shape of self-stabilized structure around roadway was analyzed in considering the horizontal tectonic stress and supposing that the rock mass is fractured around roadway,obtaining the equation for the modified natural arch.On the basis of this,the formula of the cracked range and broken-rock pressure was induced,providing a theoretical basis for calculating the reinforcing range and supporting intensity.Based on in-situ measured values in the Xinzhuang mine of the Shenhuo Group,the bolt supporting was designed according to the research result,which have been proved to be successful.The YZT-Ⅱterrane bore detector was used to observe the fragmentation around the roadway,showing that the observation is in good accordance with the calculated result.


We are glad to share with you a good news that Annals of Translational Medicine is endorsed by the Ming-Yi Medical Charity Foundation of Guangdong Province (Figure 1) from February 1, 2015.


The cultivation of students' innovative ability is under the new situation the occupation school should have the function of education,innovation ability is a comprehensive engineering.This article from the classroom teaching evaluation system of second class and three aspects of interpretation,in order to find the effective method and way.


This study examined the potential mental health benefits for caregivers who own pets. The participants were recruited though Inland Caregiver Resource Center. Relationships among levels of loneliness, depression, anxiety, stress, and pet attachment were examined through the use of independent t-tests, and correlation analyses. Qualitative measures were also used to determine themes associated with pet ownership. The quantitative results of this study were mixed, and suggest that there are no significant differenc.es in the five variables that were measured among caregivers who owned pets and those who did not. The qualitative data indicates that caregivers view pet ownership as beneficial to their mental health.


As for estimating the cost and planning the process of the rock sawing plants, it is significant to predict the production rate of ornamental stones sawing. To promote the efficiency in planning these rock sawing projects, scholars have been trying to find a high-accuracy method of production rate estimation. Moreover, targeting at the 28 granite and carbonates stone in the nature, this study examined the connection between two various brittleness indexes in statistics, including the ratio of compressive strength to tensile strength (B1) and places below the line of compressive strength and the line of tensile strength (B2) in rocks and production rate had been studied. Through the results of cross plots analysis, it was indicated that there existed a strong connection between production rate and the brittleness B1 and B2. Finally, in this thesis, through adding B1 factor, it has improved the estimation model for production rate which Mikaeil et al. (2013) have established. What's more, by virtue of brittleness about B1 and B2, this production rate estimation model has been established successfully for natural stone sawing. Actually, the way of estimating the production rate of 28 rock samples is to utilize the two kinds of models described before. Through the result, it is showed that the production rate estimated by the improved model corresponds to the value of production rate of rock testing. Meanwhile, the precision has been greatly improved with comparison to the model of estimating the production rate designed by Mikaeil et al. (2013). Thus, on the basis of the new model, a dependable prediction for ornamental stones production is put forward in this paper. And it is required to do a further study involving different rock types since limited rock types were used in this study.


Funds were obtained to establish a new national heavy-ion facility to be located at Oak Ridge. The principal component of this facility is a 25-MW tandem designed specifically for good heavy-ion acceleration, which will provide high quality beams of medium weight ions for nuclear research by itself. The tandem beams will also be injected into ORIC for additional energy gain, so that usable beams for nuclear physics research can be extended to about A = 160. A notable feature of the tandem is that it will be of the ''folded'' type, in which both the negative and positive accelerating tubes are contained in the same column. The accelerator system, the experimental lay-out, and the time schedule for the project are discussed. (auth)


We present the results of a search for diffractive dijets produced in {ital p}{ital {anti p}} collisions at {radical}s = 1.8 TeV from data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab using a Roman pot trigger. The dijet events exhibit additional diffractive characteristics such as rapidity gaps and boosted center-of-mass systems.


The conventional potato bulk storage facilities are climate controlled. The climate control is based on rules of thumb. Due to seasonality, continuous changes in climate and varieties, and quality evaluations once a year, the optimisation of the storage of potatoes proceeds slowly. The potential of improving the storage process is accelerated by the developed spatially distributed storage model, as found in my PhD thesis. The mathematical model describes temperature, moisture, carbon dioxide and reducing sugar levels of air and potatoes during storage. The model was successfully calibrated and validated on experimental data from industrial bulk storage facilities. From model simulations it was seen that a combination of under and overpressure can limit gradients within the bulk instead of the conventional applied overpressure. It was also shown that faster cooling leads to a decrease in weight loss but an increase in sugar content.


The method presented here makes it possible to calculate the depth of permafrost, frost heave and by that also the water content increase in road constructions. The change of temperature in the road structure is connected to road surface temperature and to a store of heat under the road. This store, which is the stratified heat from the summer period, is described as a surface with constant temperature beneath the maximum depth of the permafrost, or as a flow of heat from the subsoil up to the freezing zone. The frost heave properties of the soil are described by frost heave parameters and the heave is a non-linear function of the net heat flow in the freezing zone and the total pressure. The calculation program is in BASIC and PASCAL. In this report calculations of frost depth are compared with measurements in the field. (TRRL)


The objective of the program was to determine the requirements and feasibility of a centralized facility to consolidate low-level radioactive wastes for a sponsor who had a large number of small generators scattered throughout the country. This facility was to be designed to reduce the volume of low-level waste requiring disposal and would ensure that the final waste form and package would meet transportation and burial site requirements. While a case study was used to develop the low-level waste consolidation program described, the general principles used to develop the program could be applied to any group of low-volume generators in the same geographical area or waste compact region, for example, universities, hospitals, or research facilities. Two conclusions were made. The first is that a consolidation facility is well within the design capabilities of current available technology. All the volume reduction equipment has been tested and operated by various research institutions and private industry. Secondly, using the volume reduction techniques described in this report, a consolidation facility is economically feasible given a large enough quantity of waste. Finally, although for the case studied it was shown that a low-level waste consolidation facility of the type described would have minimal environmental impactmore » due to the nature of the materials and processing techniques, the environmental impacts would have to be assessed for other applications.« less


The invention discloses thieno miazines derivatives and a preparation method and application thereof. The thieno miazines derivatives are compounds of which the structures are shown in the general formula I or pharmaceutically acceptable salts, esters or prodrugs of the compounds. The invention further provides the preparation method of the compounds as well as application of composition of one or more of the compounds to preparation of medicines for treating and preventing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.


Sparse aperture masking technique is based on principle of optical interference, it has high spatial resolution and is especially suitable for star diameter detection. It transforms telescope into a Fizeau interferometer by a simple action of placing an aperture mask over the pupil plane. In this paper, we explain its principle, simulate whole process on computer and develop our data processing method. Finally, we design a simple optical system in laboratory for experimental verification, in which stellar source is reproduced by a pinhole illuminated by a laser, choosing four sub-aperture mask on pupil plane, by measurement of interferogram visibility, we successfully acquire star diameter.


We investigated the effects of deposition rate on the electrical characteristics and optical characteristics of organic light-emitting diodes(OLEDs) in the ITO(indium-tin-oxide)/N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methyphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine(TPD)/tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3)/Al device. We measured current density, luminous flux and luminance characteristics of devices by varying deposition rates of TPD and Alq3. It has been found that optimal deposition rate of TPD and Alq3 was 1.5 A˚/s. AFM measurement shows that surface roughness of the deposited film was the lowest when the deposition rate was 1.5 A˚/s.


This study provides basic information that is needed to build marketing strategies related to consumer brand-switching, through the investigation of consumer motivations for brand-switching, as determined by the types of fashion products. The study was implemented by a descriptive survey method using a questionnaire. The survey was conducted during the period of May 11 th through July 5 th 2008. A total of 184 completed responses were analyzed. All respondents were from the Seoul area and between the ages of 20 and 31. Factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficients, one-way ANOVA and Duncan test were employed for the analysis of data. Significant differences were found in brand-switching motives according to the types of fashion products. For clothing, shift behavior occurred more often in conjunction with the attributes of the products itself, such as design, color, price, size, and fiber content. In general, clothes more than shoes, were likely subject to brand-switching most often on the basis of situational factors. On the other hand, for shoes, more brand-switching activities occurred because of non-product attributes, such as discounts, coupons, desire for a change, and wearing of friends. In light of the results, there is a need to differentiate brand related marketing strategies with respect to clothing and shoes. For clothing, efforts focusing on the improvement of the product attributes will be more effective in minimizing brand-switching. There is also a need to improve instructions for increasing the product understanding of salespersons as well as the ability to give advice in accordance with personal consumer characteristics. With regard to shoes, greater efforts should be given to promotional activities, and the desire of consumers for a change in order to prevent brand-switching of customers.


One of the important issues that persist in the economic literature is the relationship between foreign trade, foreign direct investment and economic growth in host countries. This issue has become renewed interest in recent years mainly for countries suffering from unemployment problems and lack of technological progress. This paper analyzed this issue for Nepal using time series data over the period of 1995-2020.The ARDL bound test approach to co-integration has been used to analyze long-run and short-run relationship between variables. The study found that there is a co-integration between foreign trade, FDI and economic growth. The study also found that there is a strong positive interaction between foreign trade and FDI in progressing economic growth both in the short-run and long-run. The results show that the foreign trade and FDI can play a significant role to accelerate the economic growth of Nepal.


Abstract : One of the effective means for upgrading fodder-producing areas is to irrigate them with waste water. The experience of farms in Moscow, Leningrad, Kaliningradskaya, Volgogradskaya, and other oblasts in the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, Latvian SSR and others indicates that meadows and pastures irrigated with sewage water grow 7,000-10,000 fodder units per hectare. Research and studies of the used field irrigation systems indicate not only the high effectiveness of the use of waste water in the irrigation of fodder crop land but, the high water retention effect, since each hectare uses up to 6,000-7,000 cubic meters of waste water per year. Computations indicate that factual possibilities for the development of waste water irrigation of fodder crops exist in many parts of our country, totaling an area of 2.6 million hectares, with an annual use of about 13 cubic kilometers of waste water.


Method for 3D image representation with reducing the number of frames based on characteristics of human eyes is proposed together with representation of 3D depth by changing the pixel transparency. Through experiments, it is found that the proposed method allows reduction of the number of frames by the factor of 1/6. Also, it can represent the 3D depth through visual perceptions. Thus, real time volume rendering can be done with the proposed method.


Promoting student access to the general education curriculum remains a focus of the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This article examines educational practices that promote such access for students with mild mental retardation, overviews issues pertaining to the implementation of supplementary aids and services to achieve this outcome, introduces a planning process to assist individual educational program teams to better plan for access, and examines extant research pertaining to the degree to which students with mild mental retardation have such access.


In this paper, we proposed a motion picture processor for using low-cost color super twisted nematic liquid crystal display(CSTN-LCD). The proposed processor apply a new driving scheme using SFP(Subgroup Frame Pattern), so we extends gray scale and eliminates flicker phenomenon. In addition, we apply the BFI (Black Field Insertion) to the design compensated for response time of a LC (Liquid Crystal). We use an edge enhancement and interpolation method to improve image quality of motion picture. The hardware architecture of proposed processor has been implemented and verified on a prototype FPGA board. The proposed method can be used in the display devices such as PDA(Personal Digital Assistants), mobile phone, and PMP(Portable Multimedia Player).


The storage stability of α-tocopherol in a dehydrated model food system containing methyl linoleate was evaluated. The degradation rate of α-tocopherol was best described by zero order kinetics with rates significantly greater than 0 (p≤0.002), correlation coefficients (|R|)≤0.88 and standard deviations from 4–13% of the reported rate constants. The zero order rate constants were dependent on the initial α-tocopherol concentrationn, indicating that the concentration of α-tocopherol and unknown reactant(s) does affect the storage stability of α-tocopherol. The storage parameters of water activity, storage container oxygen content, and storage temperature affected the rate of α-tocopherol loss indicating that these parameters must be controlled to maximize α-tocopherol storage stability.


In this article, an Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based high-performance wireless vibration analyzer that performs high sample rate tri-axes (horizontal, vertical, and axial) vibration monitoring and analysis, is presented. The custom designed compact size wireless analyzer can be mounted on difficult to access as well as rotating parts of the machinery so as to perform vibration based condition monitoring. Based on the measured performance and power consumption, the analyzer not only achieves the performance goals for high-sample rate (i.e. at 50 kHz) tri-axes vibration data processing but, also achieves operational lifetime of more than three years for duty-cycle durations of more than 4 hours.


Although Support Vector Machines (SVMs) have been proved to be very powerful classifiers, they still have some problems which make difficult their application to speech recognition, and most of the tries to do it are combined HMM-SVM solutions. In this paper we show a pure SVM-based continuous speech recognizer, using the SVM to make decisions at frame-level, and a Token Passing algorithm to obtain the chain of recognized words. We consider a connected digit recognition task with both, digits themselves and number of digits, unknown. The experimental results show that, although not yet practical due to computational cost, such a system can get better recognition rates than traditional HMM-based systems (96.96% vs. 96.47%). To overcome computational problems, some techniques as the Mega-GSVCs can be used in the future.


Artists broke the rules of perspective representation in early modern painting to maintain the "presence" of depicted sitters. This maintained presence was rendered in portraits-within-pictures where the oblique virtual image was turned frontally as a way of satisfying the portrait convention while destroying the separation of sitter and likeness. The writer examines the phenomenon of the virtual image by considering the function of pictures of St. Luke, and self- and family portraits of the Renaissance; the issue of presence in the Renaissance and strategies of realism in portraits-within-pictures with "present" as well as "absent" sitters; and the eventual rationalization of perspective in these portraits, when distortion was no longer regarded as permissible.


The purpose of this research is to determine and describe metacognition knowledge, metacognition awareness and studentlearning outcomes in modern physics subject matter of particle properties from waves, odd semester of 2019/2020 schoolyear. Determination of the sample using the Simple Random Sampling technique. Data collection was carried out usingwritten tests in the form of a description to measure metacognition knowledge and awareness questionnaires using theMetacognition Awareness Inventory (MAI). Learning that is carried out with stages of representation, analogy, givingexamples and reflection can improve student learning outcomes with an average n-gain of 0.63. The t-test results showedthat there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores (sig. = 0,000). Correlation test shows apositive relationship with r = 0.40 between declarative metacognitive knowledge and learning outcomes. The correlationbetween procedural metacognitive knowledge and learning outcomes is 0.44. While the relationship between conditionalmetacognitive knowledge and learning outcomes is 0.37. The relationship between MAI with learning outcomes of 0, 34.Lecturers can use learning with the stages of presentation, analogy, examples of solutions and reflection in an effort toimprove learning outcomes and pay attention to students' knowledge and awareness of metacognition.


Medical information systems (MIS) - in a broad sense, it is a form of organization in medicine, uniting in the process of activities of physicians, mathematicians, technicians with a complex of technical means and providing the collection, storage, processing, analysis and delivery of medical information of various profiles in the process of solving problems, and in the narrow sense - a complex of mathematical and technical means to ensure the collection, storage, processing and issuance of medical information in solving problems of clinical medicine or health. The general commands for planning and implementing a medical information system are very large and rich. There are necessary requirements for personnel, capital, and the organization itself. Strict requirements for high reliability and user utility for a real-time system significantly increase hardware and software requirements. The scale of the information system requires careful time planning and modular implementation.


Ordinarily, stress-strain relation of Lagrange's representation is written in terms of Lagrange's representation of stress σ i j and the Love measure e i j L . From the above relation, we can derive Reiner's equation in terms of Euler's representation of stress T λµ and the Green measure e λµ β . In this paper, it is shown the σ' i j and e i j defined by \begin{aligned} \sigma'^{ij}{=}Dx_{,i}^{*\lambda}x_{,j}^{*\mu}T^{\lambda\mu},\quad e_{ij}{=}\frac{1}{2}(\delta_{ij}-g^{ij}) \end{aligned} can play the role of σ i j and e L i j and starting from stress-strain relation of σ' i j and e i j we arrive at Reiner's equation in terms of T λµ and the Almansi measure e A λµ . Various relations relating to four measures above mentioned and to their first variations are also shown, as well as various relations among different strain invariants.


In the title compound, C11H10N2O2, the benzene ring is almost perpendicular to the heterocycle; the dihedral angle is 91.2 (2)°. A chain structure is formed via an intermolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond.


In this article, following Bizare and Amriteimoori and B. Parsad and R. Sahni, we modify Ishikawa, Agarwal et al., Noor, SP iterative schemes and compare the rate of convergence of Ishikawa, Agarwal et al., Noor, SP and new modified Ishikawa, Agarwal et al., Noor, SP iterative schemes not only for particular fixed value of α_n, β_n, γ_n but also for varying the value of α_n, β_n, γ_n. With the help of two numerical examples, we compare the converging step.


First reported geochemical characteristics of mantle xneoliths (spinel peridotites) from Sunheul-ri, Jeju Island, provide important clues for understanding the lithosphere composition, equilibrium temperature, and the period of entrainment and transport of the xenoliths in the host magma. Core and rim of mineral phases in the xenoliths are constant chemical compositions as Fo89-90 of olivines. The ranges of equilibrium temperature, obtained by two pyroxenes geothermometer, are about 951~1035℃ for Sunheul-ri spinel peridotite xenoliths and are similar to the range of equilibrium temperatures for the xenoliths from other sites in Jeju island. The period of entrainment and transport of the xenoliths in the host magma of Sunheul-ri mantle xenoliths is about 42 days.


Combined with specialty construction,the paper researched on the talent training mode of building environment and facilities engineering specialty,elaborated the practice of the talent training mode of building environment and facilities engineering including training plan and course system of special major,the training of engineering practice and innovation ability,the cooperation and complementary of the specialty education based on industry experts and professional technical education in schools,etc.Based on training model for the talents of building environment and facilities engineering of characteristic specialty in this paper,the positive effect of the practice is obtained.


A Cultural History of Sport in the Modern Age covers the period 1920 to today. Over this time, world-wide participation in sport has been shaped by economic developments, communication and transportation innovations, declining racism, diplomacy, political ideologies, feminization, democratization, as well as increasing professionalization and commercialization. Sport has now become both a global cultural force and one of the deepest ways in which individual nations express their myths, beliefs, values, traditions, and realities. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Sport presents the first comprehensive history from classical antiquity to today, covering all forms and aspects of sport and its ever-changing social, cultural, political, and economic context and impact. The themes covered in each volume are the purpose of sport; sporting time and sporting space; products, training, and technology; rules and order; conflict and accommodation; inclusion, exclusion, and segregation; minds, bodies, and identities; representation.


The centralized accounting system is an important content of financial management system reform of our country,and it is also an innovative accounting way.After the centralized accounting in Bijie prefecture,there are accounts inconsistent with reality,inproper management,low service efficiency,loss of property and so on for fixed property management in many units.Therfore,we should take the corresponding measures to normalize the fixed property management,safeguard its safety and completeness for increasing its service efficiency.


Objective To study how to prevent the injury of the vertebral artery during anterior decompression of the cervical spine. Methods 10 adult cadavers were used for dissection and measurements. The longus colli muscle (LCM) and the vertebral artery (VA) were examined. The distance between VA and Luschka joint was measured from C3 to C7 level. On this basis, anterior decompression of the cervical spine was performed on 11 cases. One of them suffered VA injury during operation, but after LCM muscle flap was used, the bleeding was controlled. Results Our measurement showed that the lateral border of the LCM was just at the midpoint of Luschka joint and the medial border of the transverse foramen. The level distances between VA and Luschka joint were as follows: C3 (0.91±0.39) mm; C4(1.02±0.41)mm; C5(1.37±0.39)mm; C6(1.54±0.51)mm; C7(1.63±0.74)mm. The VA injury patient had no symptom of vertebral artery insufficiency. Conclusions Decompression should not reach the Luschka joint. The lateral LCM flap can be used to control the bleeding resulted from VA injury.


Including games into athletics course offers a new option in sports teaching that features flexibility,fun,health benefits as well as knowledge and technique acquirement.It can help schools improve athletics teaching,meet students' needs for fun and fit body while also supervising on teachers' study.In game designing,teachers should pay attention to make it fun,original,educational,physical,safe and targeted.


The present study examined differences in externalizing problems between three subgroups of individuals based on their levels of psychopathic personality traits and anxiety: those with elevated lev ...


The article is devoted to the formation of the pupils' environmentally expedient behavior in the interaction between school and family; the problem of methodological support for environmental education of the primary school pupils is being solved. The aim of the article is to substantiate the author's programme "Ecoworld" on the formation of the environmentally expedient behavior of the primary school pupils in the interaction between school and family. In order to achieve the aim of the publication, a set of special diagnostic methods was used, through which separate components of the investigated quality were measured successively: polling students to identify knowledge about environmental behavior and interactions in nature, environmentally expedient behavioral motives, environmental activities. The methodological support for the environmental education of the primary school pupils is developed: the programme-methodological complex "Ecoworld" ("Ekosvit"), which covers the program of the ecological circle "Ecoworld" ("Ekosvit") and methodological guidelines for the organization of its work; methodological guidelines for work with parents regarding the formation of the environmentally expedient behavior of the primary school pupils. It has been proved that activation of interaction between parents and the teacher, diversification of forms and methods of work with parents and pupils, and involvement of parents in the direct participation in the educational process for the formation of environmentally expedient behavior of the primary school pupils showed a qualitatively new level of organization of the environmental education of schoolchildren.


Basin‐forming impacts expose material from deep within the interior of the Moon. Given the number of lunar basins, one would expect to find samples of the lunar mantle among those returned by the Apollo or Luna missions or within the lunar meteorite collection. However, only a few candidate mantle samples have been identified. Some remotely detected locations have been postulated to contain mantle‐derived material, but none are mineralogically consistent upon study with multiple techniques. To locate potential remnants of the lunar mantle, we searched for early‐crystallizing minerals using data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) and the Diviner Lunar Radiometer (Diviner). While the lunar crust is largely composed of plagioclase, the mantle should contain almost none. M3 spectra were used to identify massifs bearing mafic minerals and Diviner was used to constrain the relative abundance of plagioclase. Of the sites analyzed, only Mons Wolff was found to potentially contain mantle material.


The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the way Arab territory was divided immediately after the First World War had a profound effect on the contemporary history of the Middle East. This article looks back at the agreements signed after the War, resulting in the creation of British and French protectorates from territories ruled by the Ottomans. The arbitrary nature of these borders can explain aspects of current conflicts in the region. It also reminds us that the original colonial policies in the region were also pursued as 'humanitarian interventions'. Last but not least, it should help explain the obsession of the peoples of the region with conspiracy theories and the role of foreign powers.


Effective Strategies to Assess the Impact of e-Learning A i UN ITED i ENG INEER ING FOUNDATIONiCONFERENCE Davos,iSwitzerlandi11-16iAugusti2002 http://www.coe.gatech.edu/eTEE TEE 2002 e-Technologies in Engineering Education Learning Outcomes Providing Future Possibilities Proceedings of the 2002 eTEE Conference 11-16 August 2002 Davos, Switzerland 158 e-Technologies in Engineering Education Learning Outcomes Providing Future Possibilities II. The Assessment Process As I work with people who are developing assessment plans, I see two common mistakes: 1) making the process too complicated; and 2) skipping some of the essential steps in developing an effective process. Because of this, my colleague Ron Miller and I developed a matrix that provides faculty with the structure they need to develop an effective assessment plan but also with the flexibility to be adapted for a variety of settings and purposes, including e-learning [6]. The matrix has been used successfully for course and program assessment at several institutions; it can also easily be used for educational project evaluation or individual course assessment. Our goal in developing the matrix was to help demystify assessment for faculty and assuage some of their fears about assessment. I first present a brief overview on developing an assessment plan and then introduce details of the matrix. A. Developing an Assessment Plan The following steps have been found valuable in developing an effective assessment plan: • Identify course or program objectives consistent with institutional goals and the needs of internal and external stakeholders including accrediting agencies. • Develop course or program outcomes and performance criteria for each objective. • Decide what course and program curricular and cocurricular activities will address each outcome. • Determine the best methods for assessing and evaluating each outcome and decide when assessment data will be collected. • Report results to stakeholders and use feedback to improve the program and the assessment process itself. Each of these steps will be discussed more fully in the next section. B. The Assessment Matrix A relatively easy way to begin developing a course or program evaluation plan is to use the assessment matrix, summarized in Table 1, which Ron Miller and I adapted and expanded from a similar matrix included in the National Science Foundation's User Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation [7]. We are also indebted to the outcomes assessment guidelines developed by Gloria Rogers and Jean Sando and published in Stepping Ahead: An Assessment Plan Development Guide [8]. Table 1. Assessment Matrix. ___________________________________________________


I examine the role of humanitarianism and compassion in an emergent ethical configuration that makes illness a primary means by which undocumented immigrants obtain legal residency ("papers") in France. I argue that the sacred place of biological integrity in this ethical discourse leads immigrants to trade in biological integrity for political recognition. I demonstrate first how humanitarianism has been transformed into a form


The purpose of this quasi experiment research was to compare pain, fear and anxiety between primiparous women who received the health education program and relative assistant, and who did not receive the program. The sample was 30 primigravidarum women with 36 - 40 weeks of gestational age, divided into experimental and control groups. Each group consisted of 15 participants by simple random sampling. The health education program consisted of VDO and leaflet. The research instruments included general questionnaire, and visual analog scales for pain, fear and anxiety. The data were analyzed by t - test. The results revealed that pain, fear, and anxiety between experimental and control groups at the first measurement in labor room were not statistically different at .05 level. But pain, fear and anxiety measured at 2 hours after the first measured in the experimental group were statistically significant lower than the control group at .001 level.


We have isolated mutants responsible for a super‐secretion phenotype in Kluyveromyces lactis using the gene coding for a Bacillus amyloliquefaciens α‐amylase as a marker for secretion. These mutations defined two groups, dominant and recessive. The recessive mutant strain, which secreted the heterologous protein in five‐fold excess compared to the wild‐type strain, was used for the cloning of genes, restraining the super‐secreting phenotype. In screening for genes affecting super‐secreting phenotype, we found that multiple copies of 10 different independently isolated DNA sequences suppressed the super‐secreting phenotype. The first among the genes characterized, named KlSEL1 ('secretion lowering') showed homology to Saccharomyces cerevisiae ORF YML013w. The KlSEL1 gene is predicted to encode a polypeptide of 620 amino acid residues containing a putative transmembrane domain and UBX domain, characteristic for the ubiquitin‐regulatory proteins. We demonstrated that the disruption of the SEL1 orthologues in K. lactis and S. cerevisiae conferred the super‐secreting phenotype. SEL1 isolated from S. cerevisiae suppressed the super‐secretion phenotype in K. lactis klsel1 strain, likewise homologous KlSEL1. No other phenotypic features for strains lacking the SEL1 gene were noticed except for the S. cerevisiae mutant growth being notably slower than in a wt strain. No growth changes were observed in the K. lactis klsel1 mutant. The set of genes (suppressors of over‐secreting phenotype) could be attractive for further analysis of gene functions, super‐secreting mechanisms and construction of new strains. This collection could be useful for the expedient construction of reduced yeast genomes, optimized for heterologous protein secretion. The KlSEL1 gene has been assigned EMBL Accession No. AJ488285. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The present invention, lower alkyl carboxylic acids such as acetic acid, for example, to provide a masking composition comprising acetic acid, an. Further, (a) providing a lower alkyl carboxylic acids (e.g., acetic acid), and / or warming agents (e.g., vanillin or vanillin butyl ether), and / or cooling agent (e.g., menthol or isopulegol). .BACKGROUND


The Goetheviertel is the poorest district of Germany's poorest city, the postindustrial harbour city of Bremerhaven. However, for many local inhabitants it is also the city's most beautiful district with its 19th century architecture and central location, and any visitor of Bremerhaven would agree: this district is ripe for gentrification. Gentrification has been anticipated for the district at least since the 1980s when the city declared the Goetheviertel to be an investment area. Investors from all over the world bought property in the district, but, as many inhabitants underline today, they never really invested into the maintenance of their houses. The results are postindustrial ruins of a special kind: ruins of pre-gentrification. These ruins are former apartment houses whose ongoing decay materialises not just the general postindustrial decline of Bremerhaven, but results from the continued failure of the realization of gentrification. They are ruins of failed anticipation. As many of the people living in the district, these houses might still await a better future, but, statically speaking, time has run out for them. Their deterioration has deemed them scrap ('Schrott'-) houses that are legally uninhabitable. They epitomize the standstill in urban renovation that dominates both district and city. However, this absence also produces spaces for those that are usually excluded from a gentrified future. The scrap houses' material qualities therefore maintain the current district inhabitants' local futures by delaying the gentrification everybody continues to foresee. This article maps their temporal agency in order to scrutinize social sciences approaches to the production of time. Whilst discussing recent contributions to the anthropological literature on time and infrastructure, I present these houses with their specific material properties as active partners in the co-production of time in this particular district, and its potential futures.


The E⃗×B⃗/B2 drift arising from an externally applied electric field could be used in the divertor scrape-off zone of a tokamak or other toroidal device, either assisting or replacing a conventional magnetic field divertor. In an experiment in the Wisconsin Levitated Toroidal Octupole, operating with a relatively large toroidal magnetic field (q = 0.7), a radial electric field was applied in the scrape-off zone of a poloidal magnetic divertor. This reduced the plasma flux reaching the wall of the toroid by up to a factor of five beyond the effect of the magnetic divertor, in good agreement with a simple theoretical model. Plasma density and density scale-length were also reduced in the scrape-off zone, in qualitative agreement with the model, and with no detrimental effects on confinement of the central plasma.


Recent environmental monitoring studies have highlighted a need to confirm cleaning procedures are performing to suitable levels for highly sensitive STR kits such as PowerPlex 21. To ensure that DNA contamination minimisation procedures are adequate, we have investigated the efficacy of sodium hypochlorite and a commercial, non-corrosive alternative, Virkon, at a range of concentrations for their DNA decontamination ability. Cleaning solutions were trialled across a range of body fluids and surface types, to cover the variety of potential contamination circumstances encountered within typical forensic laboratories. Given all factors tested, it was concluded that a 1% solution of sodium hypochlorite, sprayed on the surface and left for 5 min before drying and wiping with 70% ethanol, was able to remove DNA, saliva, blood, semen and skin cells from both smooth and pitted surfaces. However, safety testing revealed that the combination of hypochlorite and ethanol produced levels of gaseous chlorine at or above the recommended exposure limits. Subsequently, a cleaning protocol of 1% hypochlorite followed by distilled water was tested for efficacy, and subsequently introduced throughout the laboratory.


Testing large digital systems is difficult. Throughout the literature on 11 design for testability, 11 the existence of diagnostic software is assumed. However, developing such software is a significant task. A hardware test fixture was developed to assist in the development of diagnostic software for a Stromberg-Carlson Corporation switching system. Two circuit boards were designed, constructed, and debugged.


Translated texts provide evidence of linguistic processing and meaning representation, since domains of meaning and reference are constructed during translation. Rather than simply assess the translation from the perspective of the original, also, from the perspective of the translation, we should understand the original. In poetic discourse, figurative effects play a central role in world creation in poems. They are often produced through anaphoric reference by means of pronominal and nominal expressions. The article shows how complex anaphoric figures are prompted by language use in the process of translating a poem, and how they can be accounted for under the cognitive linguistic theory of conceptual blending, in which reference has a specific dimension of structure.


Many scholars have conducted research into ways to improve EFL learners' writing proficiency by seeking to address several problems related to achieving this goal (Darani, 2014; Lu, 2013; Thomas, Thomas, & Moltow, 2015; Wang, 2013). However, the issues of learner identity in written communication and the role of the language EFL writers use as their linguistic resources to convey their meaning through writing are rarely addressed. Gender-based studies suggest male and female identity may influence linguistic behaviour (Hyland & Tse, 2004; Tse & Hyland, 2008). Therefore, this present article draws insights from Hyland's (2005) metadiscourse model to demonstrate how meaningful metadiscourse markers support male and female writers to accomplish written tasks. The approach highlights the importance of language as both an interactive and interactional device to communicate with readers. This article is an account of a small-scale qualitative oriented study undertaken to examine writing as a social activity among Thai learners. Through interview and linguistic analysis, this study particularly aims to reveal Thai learners' linguistic behaviours while writing letters to the editor and news reports. A linguistic analysis was conducted of thirty-two written texts from sixteen tertiary level learners enrolled in the English for Journalism course. The main finding to emerge from this study is that although male and female Thai writers select metadiscourse markers to communicate with their readers in letters to the editor and news reports, knowledge of metadiscourse and their linguistic resources should be more explicitly taught in the classroom as a way to argue with the readers. In addition, educators should be aware of the metadiscourse items learners of different gender use in their writing for specific purposes in higher-education pedagogy.


The article discusses such aspects of life history use as: What is a life history? What kinds of problems and what kinds of people are best suited for the use of the life history? What motivates people to write life histories? Does the collection procedure affect the contents? Does life history material speak for itself? How does one analyze life history material? Some guiding principles for the analysis of such material is suggested.


The aim of this paper is to present an evolutionary process based on genetic algorithms and evolution strategies for learning the Fuzzy Logic Controller Knowledge Base from examples. The performance of the method proposed is shown by measuring the accuracy of the Fuzzy Logic Controllers designed in the modeling of two three-dimensional control surfaces derived from two mathematical functions presenting diierent characteristics. The results obtained by a method based on the Wang and Mendel's Knowledge Base generation process are also shown, allowing to compare both processes.


In this paper, we are interested in the mathematical analysis of a geological stratigraphic model, taking into account a limited weathering condition. Firstly, we present the physical model and the mathematical formulation, which lead to an original conservation law. Then, the definition of a solution and some mathematical tools in order to resolve the problem are given. At last, we treat the 1 − D case and we present some open problems.


This paper separates technological from human capabilities with regard to the operating of advanced heating systems. Our study shows that attitudes towards using such systems are equally influenced by a system's ease of use and its related thermal comfort as perceived by the user. However, the user does not perceive either of these influences directly; they are both mediated through the latent construct "perceived usefulness". Our results reveal that in order to maximize the technology acceptance of advanced heating systems, the focus of interventions needs to be a twofold one. It is not only perceived thermal comfort – in its technological capacity of a delivered energy service – which is relevant; an easy-to-use system is equally important. The underlying psychological theory of this paper is that of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Using an adapted version of the technology acceptance model (TAM) – the energy TAM (eTAM) – we draw on questionnaire data from a field experiment conducted in Germany. The statistical inference is based on a partial least squares patch modeling (PLS-PM) approach.


We provide a synopsis to the family Polypodiaceae in Bolivia, comprising 23 genera and 209 species, which renders this the most species-rich fern family in the country. Two large subfamilies are recognized, Polypodioideae, with 113 species in eight genera, and Grammitidoideae, with 95 species in 14 genera; a third subfamily, Platycerioideae, mostly paleotropical, is represented by one native species in the genus Platycerium. Two new combinations are made: Microgramma nana (Liebm.) T.E.Almeida and Pleopeltis burchellii (Baker) Hickey & Sprunt ex A.R.Sm.


Objective Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), the catalytic subunit of telomerase, plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of telomeres and cell proliferation. To date, little was known about the expression of hTERT in acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL) with CD34 +. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between up-regulation of hTERT mRNA and CD_ 34 + expression in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and its clinical implication.Methods Immunophenotype analysis was performed on bone marrow aspirates from 44 patients diagnosed as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by the French, American and British (FAB) criteria using a comprehensive panel of monoclonal antibodies to lymphoid and myeloid associated antigens. And expression of hTERT mRNA was detected in K562 cell line, 42 ALL and 11 healthy subjects by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).Results Expression of CD34 antigen was found in 22 out of 42 ALL children (52.38 %). Myeloid antigens was positive in 9 out of 22 CD34 +ALL children (40.91 %), 2 out of 20 CD34 -ALL children (10 %)[ χ 2=5.177 P (exact) =0.035]. hTERT gene was expressed in K562 cell line (4/4), acute lymphoblastic leukemia children (31/42), and healthy subject (2/11). Furthermore, there were statistically significant differences in expression levels of hTERT gene between ALL patients with CD34 antigen expression and those without ( t=3.599 P =0.001).Conclusions The up-regulation of hTERT was detected in acute lymphoblastic leukemia with myeloid antigen expression. hTERT gene expression probably plays a role in the progression of childhood ALL.


Brainstem auditory evoked response in the diagnosis of inner ear injury in the horse. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 178,282-286 MARSHALL, E. (1985) Brain stem auditory-evoked response in the non-anaesthetised horse and pony.American Journal ofVeterinary Research 461,1445-1450 MAYHEW, I. G. (1989) Head tilt, circling, nystagmus and other signs of vestibular abnormalities. In Large Animal Neurology: a Handbook for Veterinary Clinicians. Ed I. G. Mayhew. Philadelphia, Lea and Febiger. pp 185-186 MILLS, H. L. & KERSTING, E. J. (1966) Accidental electrocution of farm animals. Journal ofthe American Veterinary Medical Association 148, 647-654 NOVALES, M., HERNANDEZ, E. & LUCENA, R. (1998) Electrocution in the horse. Veterinary Record 142, 68 OGREN, F. P. & EDMUNDS, A. L. (1995) Neuro-otologic findings in the lightning-injured patient. Seminars in Neurology 15, 256-262 POULSEN, P. & KNUDSTRUP, P. (1986) Lightning causing inner ear damage and intracranial haematoma. Journal ofLaryngology and Otology 100, 1067-1070 RAMSEY, F. K. & HOWARD, J. R. (1986) Lightning strike and electrocution. In Current Veterinary Therapy: Food Animal Practice 2. Ed J. R. Howard. Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders. pp 458-459 STEISS, J. E., COX, N. R. & HATHCOCK, J. T. (1994) Brain stem auditory evoked response abnormalities in 14 dogs with confirmed central nervous system lesions. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 8,293-298 THEODORE, J. & ROBIN, E. D. (1975) Pathogenesis of neurogenic pulmonary oedema. The Lancet 749-751 WILLIAMS, M. A. (2000) Lightning strike in horses. Compendium on Continuing Education for the Practicing Veterinarian 22, 860-866 WRIGHT, J. W. & SILK, K. L. (1974) Acoustic and vestibular defects in lightning survivors. The Laryngoscope 84, 1378-1386 YOUNGS, R., DECK, J., KWOK, P. & HAWKE, M. (1988) Severe sensorineural hearing loss caused by lightning. Archives of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery 114, 11841187


Mudstone can store formation water when acting as a caprock, which is a part of water sources in early oil exploitation. To improve crude oil quality, it is necessary to understand readsorption beh...


This paper addresses the problem of the stability analysis and control synthesis for continuous-time TakagiSugeno (TS) fuzzy systems. By employing the descriptor system approach and the parallel distributed compensation control scheme, sufficient stability conditions of fuzzy systems are derived based on a novel fuzzy Lyapunov function. Unlike conventional approach using a fuzzy blending of multiple quadratic Lyapunov functions, the bound of the time-derivatives of membership functions is not required in the proposed methods. In addition, the proposed methods overcome the difficulty using the fuzzy Lyapunov functions usually lead to solver the bilinear matrix inequalities. New sufficient conditions for TS fuzzy models allow a straightforward formulation in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which can be easily solved by convex optimization techniques. Finally, a numerical example is given to the effectiveness of proposed methods.


Sustaining students� motivation during teaching and learning process, unquestionably, is considered as the most challenging task. Therefore, the teachers have to be mindful and creative in designing an activity as it is the core of the lesson. However, in practice, some teachers are sometimes found to aimlessly use an activity as they run out of idea. Thus, this study is conducted to serve as a reference for the teachers in designing a specific activity that helps the students stay motivated. A descriptive qualitative was employed as the research design to gain deeper analysis on types of activity that encourage the students to learn English. The data were collected through interview which involved 5 professional English teachers as participants. The result revealed that the design of the activity should be appealing and correspond to the students� interest, age, level of proficiency, school policy, materials and media availability. Thus, it is suggested that the teachers should be brave to try out new activity and attend some teachers� training, such as CELTA or DELTA, to improve their teaching skills.


In this paper, a new grinding technique, the ultra-low infeed grinding, in which infeed rate of wheel head is controlled at the beginning of spark-out state, is proposed in order to improve significantly the surface roughness of workpiece. Main conclusions obtained are as follows (1) The ultra-low infeed grinding can be superior to the thermal deformation rate control grinding. (2) In the ultra-low infeed grinding under this experimental conditions, the surface roughness of workpiece can be improved by 35 % at the point of 5 s spark-out state and the spark-out grinding time can be reduced by 72% comparing with the conventional grinding. (3) It is experimentally made clear that the optimum of ultra-low infeed rate and of infeed time exist from a viewpoint of the surface roughness improvement process.


A detailed description of choline deficiency in rabbits was given by Hove, Copeland and Salmon ( '54) and it was shown by Hove and Copeland ( '54) that prolonged deficiency resulted eventually in creatinuria, diminished creatinine excretion, and some hyaline degeneration of striated muscle. Dietary supplements of choline prevented and cured this state of muscular dystrophy as well as other aspects of the deficiency. It is of interest to determine the effectiveness of betaine as a replacement for choline in the diet of rabbits, since the activity of this substance is known to vary with the species of animal under test. For the guinea pig betaine has little or no activity (Reid, '55), while, for lipotropic activity in rats, betaine is completely effective when included in the diet at three times the level of the choline requirement (Young,


The antimicrobial properties of nine essential oils (EOs) from Souss-Massa, Morocco, were assessed and compared. The studied plants were: Mentha piperita, Mentha pulegium, Mentha spicata, Pelargonium graveolens, Rosmarinus officinalis, Thymus leptobotrys, Thymus pallidus, Thymus satureioides and Citrus limon. EOs were extracted by steam distillation and their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined versus ten bacteria strains (Enterobacter cloacae, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella Typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus equinus and Streptococcus pyogenes), two yeasts (Candida albicans and Candida glabrata) and two fungi (Aspergillus niger and Penicillium funiculosum). Thymus leptobotrys, P. graveolens and T. satureioides showed interesting antimicrobial properties (MIC = [0.7–5.9 μg/mL]). Mentha piperita, T. pallidus and M. spicata gave intermediary results (MIC= [5.7–23.2 μg/mL]) while the remaining EOs displayed poor results (MIC= [23.2–85.5 μg/mL]). EOs that contained primarily, in this order, phenolic terpenes, terpenic alcohols and terpenic aldehydes displayed better antimicrobial properties.


In the synthesis of imidazolinone herbicides, 2-Amino-2,3-dimethylbutyramide (ADBA) is an important intermedium. In this study, the recombinant production of nitrile hydratase (NHase) in Escherichia coli for ADBA synthesis was explored. A local library containing recombinant NHases from various sources was screened using a colorimetric method. NHase from Pseudonocardia thermophila JCM3095 was selected, fused with a His-tag and one-step purified. The enzymatic properties of recombinant NHase were studied and indicated robust thermal stability and inhibition of cyanide ions due to substrate degradation. After systematic optimization of fermentation conditions, the OD600 (optical density at 600 nm), enzyme activity and specific activity of recombinant strain E. coli BL21(DE3)/pET-28a+NHase reached 19.4, 3.72 U/mL and 1.04 U/mg protein at 42 h, representing 5.86-, 26.6- and 4-fold increases, respectively. These results offered an efficient recombinant whole-cell biocatalyst for ADBA synthesis.


Zaki and Ochsner underscore the importance of combining two different viewpoints in social cognition: a currently popular, process-oriented approach that is concerned with how we come to understand others' mental states. The main insights from this mind perception research come from the ideas of theory of mind and understanding by simulation. Another, rather older approach focused on what enables human agents to understand others' mental states better. The latter approach is motivated by the assumption that there must be some survival value in higher accuracy and reliability of our internal mental models of others' intentions and beliefs. Accuracy research has been thwarted, Zaki and Ochsner argue, by a lack of principled theoretical approach leading to research programs plagued by a plethora of scattered and often difficult-to-replicate cross-correlations between multiple arbitrary dependent variables. Both approaches are admittedly concerned with social interaction. However, both also address social interaction as yet another cognitive faculty serving the isolated agent. For example, in a game of poker, the accuracy approach may seek to understand who is better at calling bluffs. The process approach, on the other hand, may ask what happens in the poker player's brain that enables him to call the bluff and raise the stakes as opposed to fold. But whether these findings will be essentially different from the work of a psychophysicist who investigates the object recognition that happens when the player reads his cards is far from decided (Frith & Frith, 2010). Social interaction also allows agents to share information and make decisions together. This function is directly relevant to the accuracy and the process of social perception but is qualitatively different from what helps our poker player win the game. Every social agent is continuously sampling information and making judgments and inferences about her or his surrounding environment. These inferences are always corrupted by (extrinsic environmental as well as intrinsic neural) noise and therefore have limited reliability (Green & Swets, 1966). By interacting with other social agents who have obtained their own samples of information, individuals can benefit from the increased reliability of joint decisions (Nitzan & Paroush, 1985). Information sharing through interaction can lead to emergent forms of collective wisdom that could serve all members of a group. Indeed, such collective wisdom that arises from efficient near-optimal democratic decisionmaking strategies are amply observed in social animals such as bees and deer (Conradt & Roper, 2005, 2007; Seeley & Visscher, 2004a, 2004b) and has been the topic of much interest in humans (Surowiecki, 2004). The research on collective wisdom asks what constitutes efficient social interaction. We are often told that "two heads are better than one." But what are the minimum necessary or sufficient conditions for two heads together to excel better than one in isolation? Are there any limiting conditions to group benefit accrued by interaction? Are there any conditions where interaction is counterproductive and not advisable? These questions rephrase the Zaki and Ochsner's idea of "accuracy of social perception" in the context of collective decision making. The brain is a highly efficient information integration device that adeptly integrates information from


On the example of the process of machining the statin of an electric motor, the possibility of determining the error from elastic deformations of a technological system by the finite element method is shown. To check the adequacy of the model, a comparative analysis of the calculation results with experimental data was carried out. The results showed that the amount of deviation from roundness obtained as a result of the simulation turned out to be 16% less (0.134 mm) than actually obtained during processing (0.16 mm). Simulation data confirm that the error from elastic deformations of the technological system has a maximum value. The remaining components of the error account for about 16% of the deviation.


The utility model discloses clothes for wheel-chair users. The clothes are characterized in that an upper garment body and sleeves are connected through zippers, the upper garment body is a vest with a two-way zipper and a fully-open fly, the sleeves are circular sleeves, armholes are square, outer sides of elbows are in detachable rivel structures, and inner sides of the elbows are provided with parting lines. A trouser body and trouser legs are connected through zippers, the trouser body is shorts, side-seam zippers are arranged at side seams of two sides, a hip inserting piece is arranged at a back hip position, a long zipper is arranged at a fly to the hip inserting piece, front knee positions of the trouser legs are independent inserting pieces, and popliteal spaces are provided with parting lines. The clothes for the wheel-chair users are multipurpose, thermal-insulating, windproof and convenient for the users to put on, take off and go to the bathroom, the design of joint positions enables the clothes to move more widely, constriction feelings are reduced, and more comfort can realized when the clothes are put on. The clothes for the wheel-chair users can adopt materials with good moisture absorption and ventilation performances and are controllable in tightness and improved in comfortableness and practicability.


The utility model discloses a series-parallel type mixing power assembly for automobiles, which comprises a starting generating motor, an engine, a power mixing device, a motor, a main clutch, a gear box, an accumulator and a motor controller, wherein the starting generating motor is connected with the engine. The starting generating motor is connected with the accumulator and can attain energy from the accumulator when used for starting the engine, so the starting generating motor can start the engine with high rotation speed and can charge the accumulator. The motor is connected with the accumulator via the motor controller, wherein the motor can also be used as a generator, and the motor can recover the energy so as to charge the accumulator when the engine singularly woks, retarding braking or down-slope sliding. The power mixing device is a unidirectional clutch, the engine is connected with the motor via the unidirectional clutch and then the engine is connected with the gear box for outputting power via the main clutch. The utility model has the advantage of simple and safe use, and the utility model accomplishes automatic instant clutch of the engine and the motor, increase the fuel economy of the automobiles and accomplishes ultra-low emission.


The 2700 m long Zuckerberg sewer tunnel was excavated in the strata of the Upper Muschelkalk (Triassic) by a full-face TBM with a diameter of 3.4 m. It has an overburden of between 25 and 80 m. Extensive geological, hydro-geological, geophysical and petrological investigations were carried out ahead of tunneling. The results of these investigations suggested that conventional NATM as well as TBM excavation seem to be possible in principle. Accordingly, both methods were specified in the tender documents. Due to the submission results the contract was finally awarded based on the TBM excavation method. In line with the geologic forecast, tunnel driving was almost entirely without any problems. Unexpected difficulties, however, were experienced at some locations in which fossil sinkholes were met by the tunnel. Geologically, these structures are mainly related to subrosion of the evaporates of the Middle Muschelkalk epoch a couple of decameters below the tunnel. The disturbed zones required a ground support which was not specified in the tender documents. For maintaining safe working conditions and for securing on-going TBM operations, the relevant tunnel sections had to be supported by bolted steel liner-plates. In a particularly heavily disturbed section the upper of the tunnel face had to be pre-consolidated by steel bars, System IBO, ahead of excavation. Due to the unexpected geological difficulties additional investigations by drilling and geophysics were carried out from both the surface and from within the tunnel. Neither the seismic profiling nor two additional boreholes did directly reveal any further geological difficulties. In subsequent tunneling, however, the ground which was additionally investigated continued to be sporadically problematic with the need for liner-plates to be installed as ground support. The Zuckerberg sewer tunnel has demonstrated that an exact delineation of the tunneling ground still is 1Anschrift des Verfassers: Prof. Dr. E. Rogowski, Regierungspräsidium Freiburg, Abt. Landesamt für Geologie, Rohstoffe und Bergbau, Urbanstraße 53, D-70182 Stuttgart, e-mail: email@example.com (c) 2012 www.schweizerbart.com DOI:10.1127/jmogv/88/2006/67


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to extract the location attributes, which are the most important for market value of real estate in countries with well-developed markets. Design/methodology/ ...


An engineering model to estimate and incorporate quadratic damping of the piston-mode moonpool responses in the proximity of the piston mode period is proposed. The model provides a physical-based equivalent linearized damping coefficient. The method is not limited to forced motion, but applicable to freely floating moonpool vessels. Further, it is not limited to moonopools, but can be generalized to gap resonance problems, such as side-by-side operations. The soundness of the proposed physical-based method is demonstrated using the panel code WAMIT with a linear damping term in the free-surface boundary condition inside the moonpool using two existing moonpool experiments as case studies; (1) a two-dimensional rectangular box with a moonpool subject to forced heave, and (2) a freely floating offshore vessel in incident waves. The WAMIT computations using the proposed method reconstructs the experimentally obtained piston-mode and vessel responses well. We suggest that the proposed method can be used with fair degree of confidence in an early design or operational analysis phase, in the (often) case that the quadratic damping is not known from either experiments or CFD. To our knowledge, this is the first general, physical-based piston-mode damping model that does not require any tuning from experiments.


The extent and pattern of digestion of oat hay (Avena sativa L.) and vetch hay (Vicia sativa L.) monosaccharides by rumen contents was studied in vitro. The ratios of matrix polysaccharides to lignin were 1.25:1 and 3.82:1 in the vetch and oat hays, respectively. Glucose, xylose and uronic acids were the main sugars in both plants, comprising about 90% of the total monosaccharides. Glucose, xylose and arabinose were mainly confined to the cell walls (CW), whereas galactose and uronic acids were found in high proportions in the soluble fraction. Vetch had a particularly high uronic acid content (14.4 g 100 g−1 DM), of which 71% was pectic material. The ratios of CW-glucose to CW-xylose were 2.23:1 and 3.74:1 in the oat CW and vetch CW, respectively. Based on monosaccharide analyses of the CW material, it is suggested that the degree of branching of the matrix polysaccharides is about twice as high in vetch as in oat hay. Total glucose and xylose were more digestible in oat than in vetch hay, whereas most of the minor sugars and the total uronic acids were more digestible in the vetch. Irrespective of species, CW glucose was more digestible than CW xylose. The digestibilities of CW glucose, CW xylose and CW uronic acid were: 61.0, 55.3, 51.5, 34.3 and 62.7, 42.6 for the oat hay and vetch hay, respectively. Following the pattern of digestion, CW arabinose and CW glucose were digested faster than CW xylose and CW uronic acid, irrespective of plant species. The extent of digestion at 12 h of incubation of these sugars was higher in vetch than in oat hay. It is suggeted that the concentration ratio of rapidly to slowly degradable CW sugars, in a given plant, is a major determinant of the rate of CW digestion by rumen microorganisms.


The invention relates to a multilayer plastic film (1, 1 ', 1' ') for coating by molding components. The film comprises at least a first layer (2, 2 ', 2' ') of a first plastic material and a second layer (4, 4', 4 '') of a second plastic material. Furthermore, the first plastic material has a higher temperature resistance than the second plastic material, said second plastic material is thermoplastic.


Dermoscopy is a physical examination technique that combines the use of illumination and magnification, provided by a handheld device, to scrutinize skin lesions. Its use increases the diagnostic accuracy for the trained operator, providing more information for making better decisions for the management of skin cancer. The "International Dermoscopy Course for Plastic Surgeons" aims to train plastic surgery trainees and consultants in the use of this technique. This 1-day, lecture-based course is held 4 times a year in the city of Oxford, United Kingdom, at a cost of £250 (US $340). This article intends to provide a review of this course.


We address calibration and self-calibration of tomographic PIV experiments within a pinhole model of cameras. A complete and explicit pinhole model of a camera equipped with a 2-tilt angles Scheimpflug adapter is presented. It is then used in a calibration procedure based on a freely moving calibration plate. While the resulting calibrations are accurate enough for Tomo-PIV, we confirm, through a simple experiment, that they are not stable in time, and illustrate how the pinhole framework can be used to provide a quantitative evaluation of geometrical drifts in the setup. We propose an original self-calibration method based on global optimization of the extrinsic parameters of the pinhole model. These methods are successfully applied to the tomographic PIV of an air jet experiment. An unexpected by-product of our work is to show that volume self-calibration induces a change in the world frame coordinates. Provided the calibration drift is small, as generally observed in PIV, the bias on the estimated velocity field is negligible but the absolute location cannot be accurately recovered using standard calibration data.


A global coalition of nations vowed to stop the illegal trade in wildlife on 13 February. For the first time wildlife crime was classed as a serious crime. This is welcome news but one key issue was overlooked: cutting demand for products like rhino horn. The declaration emerged from the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade. Classing wildlife crime as serious is key, says John Robinson of the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York.


Objective: To investigate the incidence and management of hypertension induced by sorafenib in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, and to evaluate the relationship between hypertension and the response to sorafenib. Methods: The incidence of blood pressure in 30 patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma treated with sorafenib was calculated and the severity of hypertension was classified as grade 1 to grade 5. The corresponding antihypertensive therapy was conducted and the change of blood pressure after treatment was observed. The predictive value of hypertension for the response to sorafenib was evaluated by using univariate analysis. Results: The median time from the initiation of sorafenib treatment to the occurrence of sorafenib-induced hypertension in 30 patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma was 15 d (range: 6-58 d). The incidence of sorafenib-induced hypertension was 30.0% (9/30). In these 9 patients, most (88.9%) of them were classified as grade 1 to grade 2 of hypertension. The hypertension was controlled well after corresponding antihypertensive treatment. No serious cardiac events or hypertensive crisis were observed. The dose of sorafenib was not reduced or the sorafenib treatment was not interrupted due to the uncontrolled hypertension. Univariate analysis revealed that sorafenib-induced hypertension was not a significant predictor for the response to sorafenib (χ2=0.635,P=0.637).Conclusion: The incidence of sorafenib-induced hypertension during the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma is high, but the severity of this hypertension is mostly mild or moderate, and the response to antihypertensive treatment is satisfying. The sorafenib-induced hypertension is not a predictor for the response to sorafenib. DOI:10.3781/j.issn.1000-7431.2012.05.013