There are few methodologies that have done more to advance our understanding of insulin action in humans and animals than the hyperinsulinemiceuglycemic clamp (henceforth referred to as the insulin clamp or clamp). The clamp was first developed for use in humans by DeFronzo, Tobin, and Andres at Johns Hopkins in 1979 (1). This technique was transferred to the rat in 1983 (2,3) and the mouse in the early 1990s (4,5). The insulin clamp is often combined with isotopic methods so that the investigator cannot only determine a total wholebody insulin action but also how specific tissues and metabolic pathways are affected. The adaptation of the insulin clamp for use in the mouse has been critical to the characterization of the still growing number of mouse models with modifications to the genes involved in the regulation of glucose and energy homeostasis. Despite the importance of this tool, a significant deficiency has evolved in the process of translating the clamp from humans to mice. The first articles reporting insulin clamps in the mouse conscientiously presented methods and results (4,5). However, since these first studies in the mouse, the care and conventions of the human clamp literature that immediately followed its development have largely been traded for no, minimal, or inaccurate description of methods and inadequate presentation of results. The reader is provided with too little information to independently interpret the results of an article. Instead, the reader is solely dependent on the conclusion to which he or she is directed by the authors. The perception that standards in the human and rat literature have lowered in recent years was brought to our attention during the preparation of this article. Here, we focus on the mouse literature. Of course, sound reporting of clamp methods and results applies to all species. The purpose of this article is to see how the careful presentations of the initial human insulin clamp studies might be better translated to the mouse insulin clamp literature. We will outline the problem and cite specific examples where failure to present clamps in a complete and accurate manner has had a negative impact. We will convey our view as to what investigators using the insulin clamp should include in published reports and what reviewers should require of them so that the reader can independently interpret the experiment. Vagaries. The insulin clamp is challenging and subject to variations that are specific to the laboratory in which they are conducted. Despite these challenges and nuances, the clamp has been the object of very little scrutiny when applied to the mouse. Ayala et al. (6) first reported this deficit in 2006. Our sense is that some improvements have occurred with regards to the description of insulin clamps since this first statement of the problem. Nevertheless, many problems remain. Let us provide some examples. In 2004 and 2005, nearly half (44%) of studies in mice failed to report a sampling site (6). In the 2 years following the publication of Ayala et al. (6), this number has dropped to 30%. Although this is an improvement, failure to indicate a sampling site in nearly one-third of published studies remains a deficiency in the field. One area where little has changed in the mouse clamp literature is the reporting of insulin doses and insulin levels. Prior to 2006, 48% of studies in mice mention a priming dose of insulin but fail to indicate the actual dose. For reasons described in detail later, this is not a trivial point. Furthermore, in almost all of these studies, absolute insulin levels (fasting and clamp) were not reported. It is impossible for a reader to know that hyperinsulinemia has been achieved and insulin levels are comparable between groups if insulin levels are not reported. Since 2006, the percentage of published reports that fail to indicate the priming dose of insulin and insulin levels was still 40%. Finally, to date 90% of reports where insulin clamps were performed in mice do not show a time course of glucose levels and glucose infusion rates. Without this information, one cannot know whether a steady-state clamp has been achieved. Nearly all clamp experiments in humans present these three parameters: sampling site, insulin dosing/levels, or time course of glucose and glucose infusion. It is therefore unclear to us why standards for the mouse clamp literature should be any different. The previous paragraph describes some fundamental omissions in the mouse clamp literature. Without the presentation of fundamental clamp components such as time course of glucose and glucose infusion it is impossible to know whether a clamp has been performed. This is not to say that from time to time certain vital information may be inadvertently left on the cutting room floor. A minimalist approach to the description of procedure and presentation of results is almost convention. A curious tangential observation is that whereas insulin clamps in the mouse are often poorly described or not described at all, glucose tolerance tests and insulin tolerance tests are described reasonably well. Methodology is usually adequately presented, and time courses are shown. The results from well-conducted glucose tolerance tests and insulin tolerance tests are more interpretable than an insulin clamp that does not report clamp insulin concentrations. In the same vein, there are articles that provide little to no information on the clamp but will describe a routine published buffer system or assay with great detail. The question thus remains, why has the insulin clamp been lost in translation to the mouse? An example illustrating the vagaries that are pervasive in the mouse clamp literature is evident in the ambiguous From the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee. Corresponding author: David H. Wasserman, email@example.com. Received 11 April 2009 and accepted 10 June 2009. DOI: 10.2337/db09-0537 © 2009 by the American Diabetes Association. Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by -nc-nd/3.0/ for details. PERSPECTIVES IN DIABETES


The article presents a method of synthesis and analysis of the brushless motor with claw-poles. The motor is designed for the pilger mill drive used in seamless pipes production. The peculiarity of the drive is that electric machines of this class at high power have not yet been used. In this regard, a very thorough analysis of the designed motor is required to remove technical risks in the manufacture of a mock-up and a prototype. The article suggests using Ansys Electronics Desktop analysis software, which implements the finite element method. The peculiarity of using this program is the need to use large computer resources. At the same time, the calculation time of the main characteristics is often not acceptable for practical calculations and is several hours. The authors propose a simplification of the computational model without significantly reducing the accuracy of the calculation. The brushless motor with claw-poles is replaced by a brushless motor with tangential magnets. The stator designs and the magnetic fluxes of the motors are the same. The effectiveness of such a replacement is shown in the real project. Calculation time with acceptable quality is reduced to a few minutes. This approach is recommended for the creation of design systems of other types of brushless machines


A general method to establish the equations of linear circuits,table matrix method,is applied in the power electric circuits with switching components.It establishes unified equations of such circuits by describing the switching components in the circuits as ideal switches in the circuits,then solved by the backward Euler method.Generally,the coefficient matrix of the table matrix in the circuits is a sparse matrix,the technology of sparse matrix should be used in the computer simulation.Finally,an example about the simulation of Buck circuit is given to show the feasibility and validity of this method in the practice.


A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Public Administration in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Master of Public Administration (MPA) Degree of Mzumbe University


The hazards associated with transporting precast concrete building components are considered. The processes of loading and unloading are examined and procedures specified. These cover lifting, tying down, positioning of the vehicle, documentation and liason with yard and site personnel. A checklist of items for the driver to carry out is provided. A number of specific hazards are noted.


Fouling of heat exchanger and corrosion occurs in many industrial sectors which causes considerable economic losses and increases public health risks. Therefore, it is important to develop devices to monitor the formation/removal of fouling and the corrosion occurrence. Such devices permit to revisit the fouling/cleaning process and the corrosion sequences in order to minimize associated impacts and losses. In this work, a coda wave interferometry (CWI) based-sensor is used to monitor the fouling and corrosion status of surfaces. This paper aimed to give an overview of the experimental results obtained in order to assess the potential of this technique for various types of applications (wax cleaning, biofilm formation detection, fouling/cleaning monitoring for dairy derivatives-unpreceded results and corrosion formation). Overall, our work provided evidence that CWI method is applicable


In this article the author applies the language of category theory in order to formalize the core methodological principles that structure the methodology of thought elaborated by the modern Russian psychiatrist and philosopher A. Kurpatov. According to the author, such formalization could be useful both from the standpoint of the unification of ways of thinking about brain functioning and reasoning in particular, and from the standpoint of the search for a uniform language of scientific thought in general.


The methods of field survey and experiment analysis was applied to detect the influence of plant diversity and productivity to soil resources changing under grazing disturbance on an alpine meadow.The purpose of this study to provide the process of degrading mechanisms in alpine meadow.The experiment plots were located in the Haibei alpine meadow ecosystem research station.The results showed that the obvious change of rhizomes in the Kobresia pygmaea meadow community,soil contents which cultivate rhizomes,and the proportion of the rhizome to the soil,the change of plant community structure and function,the change of soil physics and chemistry characteristics under grazing disturbance.With the grazing intensity increasing,especially the proportion of the rhizome to the soil at 0-10 cm soil layer were enhanced;The most rhizomes were died because of soil resources supply ability decreasing,soil organic matters which return in soil were decreased,sustainable utilization vegetation,converse succession(or degenerate succession) occurred in grassland,reflection by species number reducing,plant diversity decreasing,energy distribution turn around below-ground biomass;the alteration of soil properties(for example soil bulk density,soil moisture) resulted in change of vegetation composition and plant diversity.The soil environment and nutrients were influenced by grazing to change the grassland community biomasses(above,below-ground biomass);moderation disturbance to the soil surface and moderation destruction to original plant provide a small habitat for new plant species,new plant species intrude plant community,to increase plant richness.However,when strong disturbance occurred in grassland community,the dominance status of the main plant species in grassland community was substituted by another plant species.


In recent years, technology firms have been facing a highly competitive environment on a global scale. The firms are accelerating to establish R&D sites abroad in order to access global knowledge resources. In this context, global R&D projects have become more complex and R&D bridge managers (BMs), who facilitate global research collaboration, play a pivotal role here. This study aims to investigate the difficulties that BMs are facing and to explore the roles of BMs in global R&D projects. We interviewed nine BMs who have facilitated global R&D projects and propose a model depicting four common and critical difficulties present in facilitating research collaboration between teams in the home country and foreign R&D teams. The unique contribution of this paper focuses on the individual managerial level, while most previous studies on global R&D mainly focused on an organizational level.


The master two‐dimensional gel database of human keratinocytes currently lists 2980 cellular proteins (2098 isoelectric focusing, IEF; and 882 nonequilibrium pH gradient electrophoresis, NEPHGE) many of which correspond to posttranslational modifications. About 20% of all recorded proteins have been identified (protein name, organelle components, etc.) and they are listed in alphabetical order together with their Mr, pI, cellular localization and credit to the investigator(s) that aided in the identification. Also, we have listed 145 microsequenced proteins that are recorded in this database. As an aid in localizing the polypeptides we have included blow‐ups of the master images (IEF, NEPHGE) displaying all the protein numbers. In the long run, the master keratinocyte database is expected to link protein and DNA sequencing and mapping information (Human Genome Program) and to provide an integrated picture of the expression levels and properties of the thousands of proteins that orchestrate various keratinocyte functions both in health and disease.


Objective: Cesarean section is the commonest surgery in gynecology and it is one method of pregnancy termination. An overview of cesarean section status in world shows that its rate is very high. Report's of cesarean section status in Iran representative that its rate is very high too. Therefore this study performed to survey cesarean section rate and it's indications in Amiralmomenin hospital in Ahvaz city. Methods: This survey is a descriptive-cross sectional retrospective study. The data's from all of patients that undergo cesarean section in 2009 - 2010 years registered in questionnaire arranged before. Then the data's analyzed with descriptive indexes and spss-16 program. Findings: Results of survey show that the number of all parturition was 9753 case that %51/6 of those was natural delivery and %48.4 of those was performed by cesarean section. In this study %59.27 of women had a history of previous cesarean section. Majority of cesarean section indications arranged by rate were previous cesarean section (%59.27), thick meconiumstain (%11.5), non cephalic presentation (%6/26), dystocia (%5.47), CPD (%3.8) and fetal distress (%2.64). Conclusion:


Immune responses to autoantigens are quite common and autoimmunity is considered to be a natural part of the immune system. Autoantibodies are an inherent property of the antibody repertoire of many healthy individuals and are therefore referred to as natural autoantibodies. Natural autoantibodies have been proposed to be involved in the clearance of degradation products that are formed during cell metabolism. Autoantibodies may also be associated with disease state but do not necessarily play a role in pathogenesis of such diseases. The presence of autoantibodies may for example be secondary to the production of tissue damage, or independent pathogenic factors may directly induce both the disease and the presence of autoantibodies (1 ). Patients with systemic autoimmune disease produce a variety of autoantibodies directed against cellular proteins and nucleic acids. Autoimmune sera contain antinuclear antibodies (ANA) recognizing native or denaturated DNA, histones and small ribonucleoprotein particles (snRNA). Moreover, they contain anti-cytoplasmic


The aim of this thesis is to present the method of isomonodromic deformations to treat linear perturbations of matter fields propagating in a five dimensional Kerr-AdS black hole. Yet, the method applies to different space-times, as well as other physical systems. The Klein-Gordon equation leads to radial and angular second order ordinary differential equations with four regular singular points. The associated Fuchsian system can be deformed while preserving its monodromy data, where the isomonodromic equations reduce to the Painleve VI (PVI) equation, with a consistent definition of the PVI tau-function. By means of the tau-function we can reformulate the eigenvalue problem of the radial (angular) Heun equation into an initial value problem of the corresponding tau-function. An asymptotic expansion for the separation constant is computed in terms of the angular PVI tau-function for slowly rotating or near-equally rotating black hole, while the quasi-normal modes frequencies are found in the small radius limit. Scalar quasinormal-modes for the s-wave case and even orbital quantum number turn out to be stable for small black holes. Instead, modes with odd orbital quantum number do exhibit a regime of superradiance in the this limit. Furthermore, we consider vector perturbations in this background, where the separability of the Maxwell equations comes at the expense of the introduction of a new parameter mu, which can be associated to the apparent singularity of the isomonodromy method by a Mobius transformation. Finally, a numerical analysis is performed for QNMs in the ultraspinning limit.


The invention discloses a novel network login system which comprises a user login system module, a user use system module and a user managing system module, wherein the user login system module comprises a face scanning system module and a fingerprint scanning system module; the user use system module comprises a news notification module, a web forum communication module and a comprehensive searching module; the user managing system module comprises a browsing record maintaining module and a browsing record clearing module; the news notification module comprises a window popup system module and a browsing system module. The novel network login system can be used for uniformly managing visitors logging in the system and supplying corresponding news according to the browsing habit of each visitor; the operation is simple; the use is convenient.


Based on the complex network theory and the Barabasi-Albert model(B-A model),the characteristics of the composite traffic network in the main urban area of Nanjing city,Jiangsu province,China,were analyzed statistically and hierarchially,i.e.taking the road system classification into consideration.The simulation results demonstrate that the urban composite traffic network consists of both the random network and the scale-free network.Therefore,it is possible to realize the advantage complementarity of the stability and the accessibility of the random network and the efficiency and the growability of the scale-free network.The power distribution of γ= 3 in the B-A model obtained by adjusting the grade of node-edge in the arterial road conforms to the basic characteristic of the scale-free network.Specially,the composite growth and preferential attachment process of the urban traffic network in Nanjing occurs both from bottom to top and from top to bottom in the network.


The incidence of melanoma of the ano‐rectum is discussed and the authors introduce 17 cases from the records of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. The anatomy of the ano‐rectum is described and some features which lead to difficulties are discussed. Of particular interest are the intermingling of squamous and columnar epithelium in the area and the problems of definition of the anal boundaries. Reasons are given for regarding only 2 of the 17 cases as truly rectal. Clinical details confirm the poor prognosis of this condition; the mean survival of the patients was 15 months. Pathologically, the most common finding was of separated tumors of the squamous and columnar mucosae, often with intervening satellite lesions of the mucosa or submucosa. Seven tumors showed junction change at the squamous mucous membrane. Theories of the histogenesis of melanoma in general are discussed and applied to the material under review. The authors conclude that it is probable that most melanomas of the ano‐rectum are primary in the anus with involvement of the rectum by direct or metastatic extension.


While some deny the fact or intensity of climate change, science affirms that reality. However in the United States, lobbyists and inertia hinder legal responses to this phenomenon in Congress and the Supreme Court tends to limit the effect of public agency action through manipulation of the law of takings and the irregular review of federal agency action, practical responses to climate change in the United States are more often found at the state level, for states traditionally govern the law of property and land use on the everyday level and provide for multiple laboratories to approach climate change solutions. Common law and state statutory law regarding property may be static or dynamic. The Supreme Court has intimated that too quick a change in property law may result in a "taking," but, over time, most state legislatures and courts have evolved the law of property to be responsive to multiple social goals. The tension here will be between those who view property law as essentially static or dynamic. As the effects of climate change increase, property doctrines involving change of the interface between land and water (including those of accretion, reliction and avulsion) will also change. Moreover, the responsibilities of property owners to avoid nuisance activities and bear costs of necessary infrastructure as an incidence of ownership, will also necessarily change. Similarly, land use must also respond to climate change in terms of natural resources (the types and impacts of farm and forest uses, preservation of wetlands, natural areas and other specific resources), the allocation and use of water, coastal lands protection and efficiency of urban land uses all lend themselves to state direction and local government implementation of climate change goals and strategies. Issues to be addressed in the United States include the flexibility of property and planning law to science and social need, the responsiveness of takings law and judicial review of administrative action, and the inclusion of climate change considerations in land use and infrastructure decisions (which involve the type of energy facilities chosen, public liability and the use of insurance to allow restoration of structures destroyed by natural disasters, and the need for compact, energy-efficient cities). We conclude that three major principles must be considered and applied by states: sequestration, mitigation and adaptation. Sequestration raises the public consciousness of the accumulation of CO2 that must be accommodated, while mitigation and adaptation emphasize to the public a balance to be achieved with every public action. State and local government action is much more likely in the short and medium term to achieve an adequate response to climate change than that of the federal government.


Abstract Purpose To determine which items regarding prosthesis use were considered most important by adults with major unilateral upper limb absence (ULA) and to develop a patient-reported outcome measure to assess the preferred usage features of upper limb prostheses: PUF-ULP. Materials and methods Based on a qualitative meta-synthesis combined with input from patients and clinicians a graphical diagram of 79 items related to prosthesis use was developed. Adults with ULA (N = 358; mean age = 55.4 ± 16.5 years; 52.0% male/40.8% female/7.3% unknown) selected their top-10 of most important items from this diagram. This study is registered in the Netherlands Trial Register: NL7682. Results Most selected items were "wearing comfort" (54.0% of cases), "grabbing, picking up, and holding" (34.3%), and "weight" (31.4%). All subpopulations (i.e. age, sex, origin of ULA, level of ULA, and prosthesis type), except multi-grip myoelectric hand prosthesis users (MHP), selected "wearing comfort" most. Nine items were included in the PUF-ULP: "wearing comfort," "functionality," "independence," "work, hobby, and household," "user-friendly," "life-like appearance," "phantom limb pain," "overuse complaints," and "reliability." Conclusions All prosthesis users, except MHP-users, considered wearing comfort most important, which might be of interest for future research and industry. The PUF-ULP can be used to reflect the match between users and their prostheses. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION All persons with upper limb absence, except multi-grip myoelectric hand prosthesis users, considered "wearing comfort" most important regarding prosthesis use, which highlights that prosthesis wearing comfort deserves more attention in future research to increase the value placed by the user on their upper limb prosthesis. Regarding prosthesis use, men considered "ease of control" more important compared to the overall population, while women considered "independence," "household," "life-like appearance," "overuse complaints," and "anonymity" more important. Persons with a mono- or multi-grip myoelectric upper limb prosthesis rated function-related items as more important compared to the overall population, while persons with a passive/cosmetic prosthesis rated comfort-related and appearance-related items as more important. The newly developed measurement tool, also called the PUF-ULP, provides a single score that represents the match between the user and their upper limb prosthesis.


This paper presents a novel hybrid approach to the estimation of biophysical parameters from remotely sensed data. This approach integrates theoretical analytical models and empirical models based on field reference samples to increase the reliability and the accuracy of the estimation. The estimation process is modeled by two terms: the first one expresses the relationship between the input features and the target biophysical variable according a theoretical model based on the physics of the considered problem; the second one corrects the deviation between theoretical model estimates and true target values according to an empirical data-driven model. The latter is derived by exploiting the available (typically few) field reference samples. In this way the robustness and generality of theoretical model based estimates, which stem from the rigorous theoretical foundation, is preserved, while the bias and imprecision (due to simplifications in the analytical formulations of the model with respect to the real estimation process) are reduced. Results achieved for the specific application of soil moisture estimation from microwave remotely sensed data with two different correction strategies are reported. These results show the effectiveness and the potentiality of the proposed integration approach.


The study was carried out in Basingstoke, a large town in North East Hampshire in the south of England. Set in the context of a literature review, it investigated views of school management and librarians on their library's role in removing barriers to achievement for ethnic minority pupils. The result is an insight into their attempts to promote inclusion and offer appropriate services for ethnic minority users. The study researched barriers to achievement for these users defined in school documents and recognised by management and the librarian. Views on the library's role in removing these barriers were explored through analysis of documents and by investigating the perceptions of librarians. Evidence of positive action was also noted. The findings indicated a lack of awareness and training among librarians. The role of the library in removing barriers for ethnic minority pupils was not clearly addressed. While some good practice appeared to exist, librarians mostly seemed inactive or to respond in a reactive and ad hoc way to the issues; there was limited evidence of librarians taking a proactive role. To improve library action aiming to address barriers for ethnic minority pupils, better communication and training seem indicated to develop confidence and skills of individual staff. Are there wider implications here for all involved in educational libraries?


HPLC METHODE VALIDATION FOR ASSAY OF
PHENOXYETHANOL AND ALKYL PARABEN IN
SUNSCREEN CREAM
I Komang Gede Suwija Negara
The combination of alkyl paraben (methyl paraben, ethyl
paraben, propyl paraben & butyl paraben) and phenoxyethanol has
been widely used as preservative in dermatological or cosmetics
products such as moisturizers, hand cream and sunscreen cream. The
objective of the present study was to validate the HPLC method for
analysis of phenoxyethanol, methyl paraben, ethyl paraben, propyl
paraben and butyl paraben in sunscreen cream. The analytes were
separated on a High Pure Silica Purospher Star RP-18 endcapped
column (125 x 4) mm and acetonitrile: methanol: water were used as
the mobile phase with gradient system at 1 mL/min flow rate. The
diode array detector was set at 258 nm and column temperature was
set at 30ᵒC. Using this method, the mixture of preservatives were
separate perfectly in 17 minutes, resulting resolution more than 1.5.
The method was validated in terms of specificity, linearity, accuracy,
precision, and robustness. Linearity regression graphic showed linear
response over the range of concentration used (between 40% and
160% for each substances). The average of recovery was in range
between 95% and 106%, and the precisions (RSD) were less than 2%
for all substances. This method was proved to be selective and robust
over the column temperature changing. The proposed method was
successfully applied for analysis of mixture preservatives in sunscreen
cream products.
Keywords: methyl paraben, ethyl paraben, propyl paraben, butyl
paraben, phenoxyethanol, HPLC, validation, sunscreen cream


The curriculum orientation,curriculum target and content,and the educational modes of Fermentation Process Course are elaborated from personnel training goal and the construction of curricula of food biotechnology specialty in high vocational-technical college.


Flood damages that occur worldwide remain largely uninsured losses despite the efforts of governmental programs that in many cases make insurance available at below fair market cost. The current study focuses on the financial experience of the United States' National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) from 1983 through 1993 to examine the hypothetical determinants of the flood insurance purchasing decision. The empirical analysis supports the hypotheses that income and price are influential factors in one's decision to purchase flood insurance. Flood insurance purchases at the state level are found to be highly correlated with the level of flood losses in the state during the prior year.


During November 1948 four sales of currency were made by the International Monetary Fund in response to requests for United States dollars by India, Norway, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. India purchased $8,060,000 for rupees. Exchanges of $500,000 each for Costa Rican colones and Nicaraguan cordobas were the Fund's initial transactions in those two Central American currencies. Norway sold 175,051.080 fine ounces of gold to the Fund in exchange for United States dollars at the official price of $35 per fine ounce. This gold was equivalent to $6,126,787.80, since the price paid by the Fund took into account certain expenses involved in the transaction. Thus, at the end of the month the Fund held $1,409,503,763.38 in gold.


Government trust is generally helpful for societies, especially in crisis situations, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, because governments rely on citizens to follow directives. Worldwide, with supporting evidence accumulating, a key directive has been to wear face masks. However, in Sweden, the government has questioned their usefulness. On other behavioral recommendations, such as handwashing, the government has taken a conventional path. We rely on this non-recommendation of face masks to examine the causal impact of government trust on behavior. Based on a large Swedish survey fielded during the pandemic, we find that higher government trust reduces the likelihood of wearing face masks. In contrast, higher trust increases the likelihood of handwashing. The findings qualify the conclusion about the beneficial consequences of trust.


There has been much debate about the origin of the Chakma tribe of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Muslim names of the Chakma chiefs of the 18th century have added to it. According to the Chakmas their ancestors were kshatriyas of north Indian origin, who invaded Arakan towards the end of the 14th century, settled there and intermarried with the local people. But there is no credible evidence to corroborate this story and all the modern writers on the subject consider it to be a myth. Hutchinson points out that the Indian kshatriya link was forged during Kalindi Rani's time in the 19th century when Hindu influence was at its highest in her court and the worship of Śiva and Kali crept into their ritual. The Chakmas are not the only Arakanese tribe to claim descent from the ancient warrior class of north India. The accepted idea amongst the Maghs is that their ancestors were kshatriya princes of Magadha. The Burmese are undoubtedly a Mongolian race; yet their traditions hark back to India and not to China. "Their chronicles read as if they were descended from Buddha's clansmen and lived in Upper India".


The productivity of rainfed chickpea was assessed by integrating the biophysical characteristics and socio-economic parameters from 864 farmers' fields located in 48 blocks of 16 district~ spread in 5 states and 9 agro-ecosubregions of India. Annual rainfall and ies coefficient of variation, soil resources and crop management under varying land holding size groups significantly influenced chickpea produceivity. In deep black soils of dry sub-humid and wet semi arid, small farmers recorded maximum yields with high benefitcost ratio while medium farmers had a high productivity with maximum benefitcost ratio in alluvial soils of dry semiarId and wet semiarid climates with a rainfall variation of 20 to 50 per cent. In contrast, large fanners attained a higher yield and high net returns in medium and deep black soils of semi arid climate. Kanpur and Faeehpur (AESR: 4.3), Banda (AESR:4.4), Akola, Buldhana and Jalgaon (AESR:6.3), Kurnool (AESR; 7.1), and Narsinghpur and Guna (AESR: 10.1) districts endowed with better land resources are highly suitable for growing chickpea. Additional key words: Rainfall, soils. socioeconomics. productivity assessment, productivity efficiency zones. G.R. Maruthi sankar et ai.


This research aimed to determine whether corporate social responsibility disclosures in LQ45 company listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in year 2011-2013 differ between firm with high and lower earnings management. Dependent variable used in this study is corporate social responsibility disclosure that measured using CSR Index (CSRI) based on GRI. Independent variable used in this study isearning management thatmeasured using proxy of discretoinary accruals in The Khotarietal, Model (2005). The population in this study consists of LQ45 listed firm in Indonesia Stock Exchange in year 2010, 2011, and 2012. Sampling method used is purposive sampling. The total sample are 98 firm data. Data collection techniques in this research uses secondary data, that is annual report of the last year 31 december of 2011-2013, while Data analysis technique in this research is using different test analysis of independent sample test method were processed with SPSS version 21 for Windows. The result of this research indicated that there was difference of corporate social responsibility disclosures between firms with high and lower earnings management. Keywords: corporate social, responsibility, disclosure, and management


Flood risk management is an important and difficult problem for the densely populated and rapidly urbanised city of Seoul, South Korea. This study characterises long-term trends and variability in the city's annual maximum daily precipitation (AMP) over multiple decades. Smoothing the time series reveals that recent decades have witnessed a steep upward trend in AMP. Continuous wavelet analysis shows that the AMP series has statistically significant power in the 32–60-year periodicity band between 1880 and 1960 (one full cycle is clearly visible in the smoothed series). This feature has an even wider scope in the annual total precipitation series, suggesting that a real oscillation exists. Four climate indices were investigated as possible explanatory variables for the AMP series using cross-wavelet analysis, but no significant coherence between the signals was found. Finally, mean AMP forecasts based on three interpretations of the past linear trend are provided for flood risk management.


We consider a parametrized relaxation of the widely adopted quadratic assignment problem (QAP) formulation for minimum distortion correspondence between deformable shapes. In order to control the accuracy/sparsity trade-off we introduce a weighting parameter on the combination of two existing relaxations, namely spectral and game-theoretic. This leads to the introduction of the elastic net penalty function into shape matching problems. In combination with an efficient algorithm to project onto the elastic net ball, we obtain an approach for deformable shape matching with controllable sparsity. Experiments on a standard benchmark confirm the effectiveness of the approach.


The gross national product (GNP), measured in 1972 constant dollars, grew 3.4% in 1983 to $1535.1 billion, while kilowatt-hour sales were up only 3.0% to 2309 billion. The 3.0% rise in sales reflects an increase of 68 kWh, one-third of which can be attributed to the warm summer and two-thirds to economic growth. Forecasters disagree over whether the trend to decouple electricity generation and GNP will continue or whether economic recovery will encourage more consumption. 1 figure.


The invention relates to a portable true triaxial apparatus, which solves the problem that the prior apparatus has the disadvantages of large volume, ponderosity, inconvenient transportation and assembly and single function. A vertical direction loading system is provided with four upright posts (1), the upper end of each vertical post is connected with an upper plate (4), while the lower end is connected with a lower plate (3); a vertical oil cylinder (4) is connected with the upper plate (2);a Y direction loading system is provided with two symmetrical X direction fixtures (5) which are connected with the two upright posts respectively; one fixture is connected with a first horizontal oil cylinder or a pressure sensor (6), and the other fixture is connected with a stress applying handwheel (7); two symmetrical Y direction pull rods (8) are connected with the two upright posts respectively; an X direction loading system is provided with a bottom plate (9) which is positioned on and connected with the lower plate (3); both ends of the bottom plate (9) are provided with an vertical plate (10) respectively, and the two vertical plates are parallel; two or four X direction horizontalposts (11) are connected with both ends of each vertical plate respectively; and one vertical plate is provided with a second horizontal oil cylinder (12), and the other vertical plate is connected with a first cylinder (13) through screw threads.


A protocol was developed for preparing magnetic gold nanoparticles via one-step modification with a paramagnetic cationic surfactant. These magnetic gold nanoparticles can bind to and manipulate a low strength magnetic field-based delivery of DNA and proteins powerfully and non-invasively.


The international conference ""Algebraic Geometry in East Asia, III"" was held at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study in Seoul, Korea in November 2008. The 21 invited lectures (including four lectures by Europeans and Americans) were presented at the conference. This volume consists of three survey articles and 10 research articles. The papers explore a wide variety of topics, including algebraic surfaces, Fano varieties, variety of general type, bundles, Cremona groups, Mordell-Weil groups, fundamental group scheme, and quantum rings. Published for the Mathematical Society of Japan by Kinokuniya, Tokyo, and distributed worldwide, except in Japan, by the AMS.


In recent years, the real-time video monitoring of helmet wearing based on deep learning has attracted extensive attention. However, due to the high computational complexity of deep learning model, it leads to serious consumption of computer memory and poor real-time detection. In this work, a method of combing MOG2 and YOLOv4 was developed to improve the detection efficiency of helmet wearing in video stream. MOG2 is helpful in removing the interference of static redundant frames and save computing resources. YOLOv4 was used to identify whether workers wear safety helmets. The experimental results have shown that the proposed method has good practicability in moving target detection.


We report broadband operation of an all-optical wavelength shifter, performing simultaneous drop and wavelength-conversion of a burst of OOK data selected by an optical gate. The device operates entirely in the photonic domain and is based on a single Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Mach-Zehnder Interferometer. The circuit is suitable for dynamic wavelength routing and add/drop operation in WDM systems and packet switched networks. Experimental characterization of device operation for different wavelength conversion values of the gated data demonstrates error-free operation at 10 Gb/s with moderate power penalty over the entire C-band.


Anaerobic Processes Jiayang Cheng This review is focusing on anaerobic processes for waste treatment. Citations related to anaerobic biofilm reactors and hazardous waste treatment may also be found in other sections of this volume. The areas covered in this review include anaerobic waste treatment, biofilm anaerobic processes, anaerobic treatment of hazardous wastes, anaerobic microbiology, and modeling.


such monitoring could not be better achieved by direct fetal ECG monitoring after rupture of the membranes. Their suggestion that low-risk cases do not need monitoring under such circumstances must also be questioned. While prostaglandin given vaginally is undoubtedly effective in achieving cervical softening, be it by the effect of circulating oestradiol or, as we are currently assessing in this unit, by an effect on collagenase activity in the cervix, the response to such treatment is widely regarded as very variable-as noted in this series, where a number of patients laboured after a single administration and some failed to respond to two such administrations of prostaglandin E2. Its blanket use in a fixed-dose regimen must be questionable under such circumstances and it must be only a matter of time before the hypertonus already reported recurs with more serious consequences. The transfer of a patient in labour starting after the administration of prostaglandin E2 vaginally on the antenatal ward may not be always as rapid and smooth as is necessary if monitoring is to be instituted sufficiently early in labour to avoid occasional fetal asphyxia. A routine induction policy must carry with it some risk and I would be concerned to see it generally applied without the recognition of this problem. C J HUTCHINS


There are a protection system and a method for power supply lines with a current measuring device for monitoring the current (i) in the protected power supply line (10) and a power switch (13-1, 13-2, 13-3), wherein the current measuring device (a sensor 15), in particular a fiber optic current sensor (FOCS) (for measuring a direct current component i (tr)) in the transmitted stream (i) and an analyzer (141, 16) (for checking the DC component i (tr)) and for generating a fault signal for the power switch (13-1, 13-2, 13-3) comprises.


Objective: To study the expression of a new tumor suppressor gene PTEN in carcinogenesis and development of osteosarcoma. Methods:Expression of PTEN was detected by using S P immunohistochemical method in 38 cases of paraffin embedded section of osteosarcoma and 20 cases of osteochondroma. Results:The positive rate of PTEN was 55.3 % in osteosarcoma and 90.0 % in osteochondroma. The difference was significant between osteosarcoma and osteochondroma(P0.01) .Conclusion:The PTEN may play an important role in the carcinogenesis and development of osteosarcoma.


Platforms are an increasingly salient topic in Science and Technology Studies, management, communication, and media studies. The term 'platform' itself has become a broad signifier employed across ...


Compounds of the Yb14MnSb11 structure type are the highest efficiency bulk p-type materials for high temperature thermoelectric applications, with reported figures of merit (ZTs) as high as ∼1.3 at 1275 K. Further optimization of ZT for this structure type is possible with the development of a simple synthetic route. However, this has been difficult to achieve because of the small amount of Mn required compared with Yb and Sb. A simple synthetic route for Yb14MnSb11 has been developed utilizing a combination of ball milling and annealing to produce phase-pure material followed by spark plasma sintering for consolidation. The materials have been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction before and after spark plasma sintering. The stoichiometric reaction of Yb, Sb, and MnSb provides phase-pure powder by X-ray diffraction. Upon cycling to temperatures greater than 1272 K, Yb14MnSb11 shows the presence of Yb11Sb10. Additional samples with 5% and 10% excess Mn were also investigated. Adding 5–10% excess Mn do...


General relativistic ray tracing is presented as a tool for gravitational physics. It is shown how standard three-dimensional ray tracing can be extended to allow for general relativistic visualization. This visualization technique provides images as seen by an observer under the influence of a gravitational field and allows to probe space-time by null geodesics. Moreover, a technique is proposed for visualizing the caustic surfaces generated by a gravitational lens. The suitability of general relativistic ray tracing is demonstrated by means of two examples, namely the visualization of the rigidly rotating disk of dust and the warp drive metric.


Positioning a patient accurately in treatment devices is crucial for radiological treatment, especially if accuracy vantages of particle beam treatment are exploited. To avoid sub-millimeter misalignments, X-ray images acquired from within the device are compared to a CT to compute respective alignment corrections. Unfortunately, deviations of the underlying geometry model for the imaging system degrade the achievable accuracy. We propose an automatic calibration routine, which bases on the geometry of a phantom and its automatic detection in digital radiographs acquired for various geometric device settings during the calibration. The results from the registration of the phantom's X-ray projections and its known geometry are used to update the model of the respective beamlines, which is used to compute the patient alignment correction. The geometric calibration of a beamline takes all nine relevant degrees of freedom into account, including detector translations in three directions, detector tilt by three axes and three possible translations for the X-ray tube. Introducing a stochastic model for the calibration we are able to predict the patient alignment deviations resulting from inaccuracies inherent to the phantom design and the calibration. Comparisons of the alignment results for a treatment device without calibrated imaging systems and a calibrated device show that an accurate calibration can enhance alignment accuracy.


This study aims to find a positive relationship between social support and resilience of bidikmisi students, to know the positive relationship between locus of control and resilience, and to know the positive relationship between social support and resilience with Locus of Control as moderator variable.This research uses quantitative method with multiple regression analysis technique, Connor & Davidson's scale of adaptation resiliency (CD-RISC), Levinson's scale of Locus of Control adaptation (MLCS), and Social Support scale adapted from Diana Kamilin's thesis. This research examines the relationship between variables X and Y with LOC as mediator. The subjects of this research are students of bidikmisi in UIN Malang as many as 80 subjects. The result of analysis shows that there is a positive relationship between social support and resilience with locus of control as moderator with significance value of 0.431 (p <0.05) which means not significant with 7% contribution. In addition, LOC is found as a moderator that has a positive correlation to variable X with Y. This explains that if one of M to Y / M*X is significant, the result is called pure moderator.


Background: Rapid population ageing is a worldwide trend, highlighting an urgent need to have a reliable prediction tool for estimating a general older adult mortality risk. Previous predictive models have limited by the cause mortality, clinical indexes, participants as young as 50 years old, and western countries. We aimed to develop and validate a all-cause mortality prediction model based on multidimensional risk factors in Chinese older adults.

Methods: In three prospective cohorts, we used the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) (mean age 88.08, n=37074) as the derivation cohort and the Healthy Ageing and Biomarkers Cohort Study (HABCS) (mean age 86.74, n=2552) and the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) (mean age 72.48, n=4794) as validation cohorts. 42 risk factors were filtered by Lasso regression. The predictive factors of final models were decided by both improved net reclassification improvement (NRI) and public health significance. Cox proportional hazards models were established the mortality risk prediction equations. Model fit was evaluated by discrimination C-statistic. We conducted the 10x10 cross-validation technique to evaluate the internal consistency of the discrimination and calibration performance. Calibration plots were shown the results by comparing the predicted probabilities with the observed probabilities. The prediction ability of the equation was illustrated by using Nomogram.

Findings: During 20-year follow-up, 28158 older adults (76%) died, leading to a total of 101429 person-years of observation in the CLHLS. The final model for all-cause mortality included age, sex, cognitive status, ADL status, current spouse status, past smoke status, frequency of doing housework, frequency of reading and watching TV, and frequency of doing garden work. The C statistic of derivation Cohort was 0.728 (96%CI, 0.724,0.732), and external validation were 0.761 (96%CI, 0.749,0.773) in HABCS and 0.713 (96%CI, 0.697,0.729) in CHARS.

Interpretation: This study provides an objective, validated, and acceptable predictive factors to predict mortality risk in Chinese older adults. Our finding suggest that these predictive factors could be useful for policy, epidemiological and clinical applications.

Funding Information: This work was supported by the fund of "San-ming" Project of Medicine in Shenzhen (NO.SZSM201812088) for data collection and analysis.

Declaration of Interests: None.

Ethics Approval Statement: The Protection of Human Subjects for the CLHLS, HACBS and CHARLS were approved by the biomedical ethics committee of Peking university. The written informed consent was provided by survey respondents before investigation.


Many animal viruses are enveloped, meaning that they acquire a lipid envelope from their host cell. Enveloped viruses can be divided into two classes. Influenza and most retroviruses, including HIV, simultaneously assemble while budding from the membrane. For others (e.g.
alphaviruses and hepadnaviruses) a nucleocapsid first assembles in the cytoplasm and then buds from the membrane. While many aspects of budding for some viruses have been investigated via structural studies or biochemical assays, the mechanisms by which these two classes of budding processes occur, and how they depend on parameters such as protein concentration or bilayer rigidity, are poorly understood. By revealing key features of assembly and membrane deformation processes that are not accessible to experiments, simulations can play a role in addressing this limitation.
This thesis consists on the development and analysis of models of simplified representations of capsid proteins and lipid membrane that retain the essential physics while enabling simulations on length and timescales relevant to capsid assembly and budding. Continuum elastic theory is also used for comparison with the simulations results to asses the validity of the models.
In the first part of this work we examine the budding of an already pre-assembled virus through a lipid bilayer using molecular dynamics simulations, free energy calculations, and an elastic theory, with the aim of determining the extent to which equilibrium elasticity theory can describe the factors that control the mechanism and efficiency of budding. The diiferent types of outcomes are also analyzed as a function of the relevant system parameters.
In the second part, we study the assembly of icosahedral capsids on a model membrane domain using elastic theory and molecular dynamics simulations to analyze the geometrical and dynamical properties of the system. With the exception of one recent equilibrium study, there have been no computational investigations of simultaneous assembly and budding. In the simulations presented here, assembly and budding are driven by capsomer-capsomer binding energy and capsomer-membrane adhesion energy. The requirements for capsomer assembly on a membrane compared to bulk assembly, the system features, and the different types of behaviors as a function of the strength of the adhesion energy and the domain line tension and size are investigated. The dynamics of the system are also analyzed by studying how the rate of capsomer arrival to the budding site affects the system behavior.


Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by skin barrier dysfunction, eczematous lesions, pruritus, and abnormal immune responses. In this study, we assessed the therapeutic effect of topical applied conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on a murine AD model that was developed by repetitive applications of 2, 4‐dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB). 2% or 5% CLA could markedly ameliorate AD‐like skin lesions, scratching behaviour and skin inflammation as evidenced by the reduced inflammatory blood cells, IgE and Th2‐related cytokine levels, and the infiltration of mast cells and inflammatory cells to the dermal tissues. Moreover, topical application with CLA modulated skin barrier repair including maintaining a balanced skin pH and increasing skin hydration, partially mediated by upregulating skin barrier‐related protein, filaggrin (FLG). In addition, topical CLA significantly dose‐dependently inhibited pro‐inflammatory cytokines including interleukin (IL)‐6, IL‐1β, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)‐α and pro‐inflammatory enzyme expressions of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) in inflamed mice skin. Its anti‐inflammatory effect was associated with the inhibition of DNFB‐stimulated IκBα and NF‐κB p65 phosphorylation in mouse skin. Taken together, our results suggest that locally applied CLA exerts potentially protective effects against AD lesional skin at least in part, due to regulation of skin barrier function and inflammatory response.


Summary. Single crystal X-ray studies of the dehydration of goethite to hematite at low temperatures show that satellite reflections occur close to the hematite diffraction spots. At higher temperature these satellites are replaced by diffuse intensity regions, which disappear on further heating. The satellites are situated on each side of hematite spots on reciprocal lattice lines parallel to the c*-axis of the hematite; their spacing corresponds to a periodicity in direct space of about 32 A. A similar phenomenon is observed on the dehydration of diaspore to corundum, with a spacing for the satellites of about 39/~. The mode of occurrence of the satellites, both in position and intensity, could correspond to a sinusoidal or square-wave structure amplitude modulation along the c-axis of the hematite and corundum crystallites, before dehydration is complete.


The current research study investigated factors associated with spiritual development among church-attending adolescents. Eighty five participants (12 – 19 years) attending church youth groups in the Albuquerque area were asked to complete a questionnaire measuring spiritual transformation, identity, and maturity as well as demographics, personality, religious social support, and personal devotional activities. The purpose of this research was to understand how religious social support (family, friends, church, mentorship) and personal devotional activities (prayer, worship, study of sacred texts) were related to a spiritual transformation experience, spiritual identity, and spiritual maturity. It was hypothesized that adolescents who reported having had a positive spiritual transformation and who demonstrated higher levels of spiritual identity and maturity would be more connected to religious support systems and would engage more in personal devotional activities. These hypotheses were supported, as were several others. In particular, those who reported stronger levels of spiritual identity were more actively engaged in prayer, worship, and Bible study and had more religious support from v friends, parents, church, and mentorship. Youth who had higher levels of spiritual identity also reported a desire both to be mentored by, and to mentor others. Active engagement in a greater religious community was related to having had a spiritual transformation experience. Age, relationship status, personality, personal identity, and religious coping were also associated with levels of spiritual identity and maturity. These findings may enable mental health professionals, religious leaders, and parents to better understand how to support adolescents with religious and spiritual interests in their journey of spiritual development.


The article discusses the experiences of Yugoslav Jewish women during the Second World War and the Holocaust. It presents little known texts (fictional, paraliterary and documentary works) written by Jewish women (Hilda Dajč, Elvira Kohn, Lea Abinun, Ženi Lebl, and Gina Camhy), one non-Jewish woman (Milojka Mezorana), and one Jewish man (Đorđe Lebović), during or after the Second World War. The main aim of the analysis is to draw attention to the specificity of Jewish women's narratives in the (post-)Yugoslav cultural space, the contextual framework in which they function, and the risk of their mis- or overinterpretation. The analysis presents also the spectrum of possible readings of texts created during or thematizing the Second World War which are either written by or refer to Jewish women—a group which remained unduly marginalized in the official memory of the Second World War and its aftermath.


Stimulated emission predictions and measurements for an H2+F2 laser are compared for H2 pressures from threshold to stoichiometric, a range of several orders of magnitude. Slowly flowing, helium‐diluted, 50 torr mixtures are initiated photolytically. Two dilution ratios and two output couplers are considered, and good agreement is found for time‐to‐threshold and pulse duration vs H2 pressure. Spiking, relaxation oscillations, and possibly mode beating, features not modeled, are observable in some pulses; however, predicted intensity vs time generally agrees in pulse shape with laser output. Observed and predicted peak intensities nearly match for low H2 pressure, and the predicted increase of peak intensity with low H2 is followed fairly well. For H2 in the vicinity of one‐tenth stoichiometric, the peak intensity data show an abrupt leveling off, while the calculations predict a continuing increase. This disagreement most probably cannot be attributed to uncertainties in the kinetic model. All rate modifi...


The purpose of this paper is to determine factors influencing customers' usage of electronic banking (e-banking) services.,A survey was conducted to collect information from bank customers regarding their perceptions about e-banking services and their demographics. Multiple regression analysis is used to test the hypothesised relationships.,E-banking usage is found to be high for female, more educated, younger, and middle income customers. Among the 11 perceptual variables studied, only six variables, namely: information, performance, self-interest, service quality, satisfaction, and experience are found to be significantly and positively associated with e-banking usage.,This study identifies factors which may be focussed on by bankers during the formulation of their operations and marketing strategies to provide the best e-banking experience to their customers, enabling bankers to augment bank profitability through the strategic use of technologies.,Past studies have seldom examined the combined influence of demographics and other factors on e-banking services usage in the context of developing countries. Most of the earlier studies have considered single service or examined the adoption as only a binary variable.


Objective To explore the utilization situation of anti-allergic drugs in our hospital,in order to provide scientific basis for clinical rationa,efficient and economical drug use.Methods The category,DDDs,amount money,number and ratio of anti-histamine drugs in March,May and July 2010 of our hospital were statistically analyzed.Results In our hospital,the 2nd and 3rd generation anti-histamine drugs were the leading anti-allergic drugs,which were safe,efficient and of small interaction with other drugs,and their dosage was reasonable,with good economy.Conclusion The 2nd and 3rd generation anti-histamine drugs will be the first choise in anti-allergic treatment in our hospital.


'Neuroreductionism' is the tendency to reduce complex mental phenomena to brain states, confusing correlation for physical causation. In this paper, we illustrate the dangers of this popular neuro-fallacy, by looking at an example drawn from the media: a story about 'hypoactive sexual desire disorder' in women. We discuss the role of folk dualism in perpetuating such a confusion, and draw some conclusions about the role of 'brain scans' in our understanding of romantic love.


The equation of state (EOS) of nuclear matter is investigated in a semi-classical mean-field (MF) approach. Starting from the phase-space NN-interaction of Myers and Swiatecki [Nucl. Phys. A 601 (1996) 141], the EOS of nuclear matter by the Thomas–Fermi approximation is derived. A self-consistent semi-classical approach is presented by employing the Landau Fermi-Liquid theory (LFT). In our statistical approach, the phase-space occupation number can be expressed in terms of an extended effective mass which is affected by both temperature and nucleonic density. Accordingly, an explicit expression of the nucleonic chemical potential inside the nucleonic occupation number can be obtained. Special attention is also devoted to the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry free energy at different temperatures. The results of this model are compared with other theoretical predictions.


In a recent FORUM article, Dunning et al. (1992) put forward a framework of landscape processes that stimulated considerable discussion amongst us. We are in general agreement with their ideas, but feel that a more explicit recognition of the importance of movement as a component of landscape structure would add clarity and utility to the framework. We wish to build on their foundation by presenting some additional ideas. Dunning et al. (1992) outline four ecological processes acting at the landscape scale: 1) landscape complementation; 2) landscape supplementation; 3) sources and sinks; and 4) neighbourhood effects. Each process depends upon the distribution of resources in the landscape. Resources are distributed in patches. Implicit in the definition of each process is that animals move among the resource patches. In the first two, animals move among resource patches to: 1) acquire a full complement of resources to meet their needs; and 2) supplement their existing resources with those in additional patches. In the third, movement from sources to sinks is required for the maintenance of sink populations. The fourth process, neighbourhood effects, implies that individuals move between patches, but focuses on the permeability of the boundaries between contiguous patches. Dunning et al. (1992) assume thaf the ability of an organism to complement or supplement its resource requirements depends only on the distance to those resource patches. In a related paper, Pulliam et al. (1992) state: "When both landscape physiognomy and composition are incorporated into a population model, the dispersal of organisms across the landscape can be followed...". However, an animal's ability to utilize a resource patch will also be dependent upon its ability to get there. This ability will be determined not only by the distance between patches (i.e. physiognomy), but also by the biophysical nature of the route(s) between two patches and the biology and behaviour of the organism (Henein and Merriam 1990). Some routes facilitate or allow unimpeded movement among patches; others impede to varying degrees the amount, or success, of movement. Because movement is so critical to animal population survival, we recognize a third measure of landscape structure (sensu Dunning et al. 1992) namely landscape 'connectivity' (Merriam 1984, Baudry and Merriam 1988, Merriam 1991). Landscape physiognomy and landscape composition measure the distribution of resource patches in a landscape (Dunning et al. 1992). Landscape connectivity is the degree to which the landscape facilitates or impedes movement among resource patches. Each of the components of landscape structure (landscape physiognomy, landscape composition and landscape connectivity) can be measured. Turner (1989) pre-


The arresting gear of mine hoist braking system was studied and analyzed by computerized simulation. A mathematic model was established for the relation between brake shoe of arresting gear and oil pressure. The displacement-time and oil pressure-time relation chart were simulated by the computerized simulation of the braking system to realize the performance of the braking system, such as whether the output of simulative system matches the actual output after parameter changes to optimize the braking system. The priority was on the working process of the simulated arresting gear. When same parameters were set in simulated system and actual system, the consistency between the output of simulated system and the actual output could be checked to provide better improvement and perfection to the braking system. The parameters, such as deviation, idle motion time, and the gap of brake-shoe could be found from the test curve, they are the important factors influencing the safety of the arresting gear and the important items of the performance test of the braking system.


Vertical handovers in Next Generation Networks enable a new experience of mobility, since application layer sessions are maintained while roaming across different access networks. For real-time media services like Voice-over-IP, a change in the underlying network technology is particulary challenging. Ongoing calls are not suspended during the handover, however, the handover may go along with an audible gap during the transition time due to lost or delayed packets and an adaptation in call parameters such as those of the employed speech codec. This, in turn, may translate in an unfamiliar speech quality perception. This contribution introduces an ergonomic technique that aims at seamlessly switching the speech codec in Voice-over-IP calls during vertical handovers, based on SIP/SDP session renegotiation, the establishment of a parallel media stream and RTP packet filtering. Evaluation results are presented, showing that the proposed approach does not cause any interruption of the audio stream in about 90% of the test cases, clearly outperforming simple re-negotiation of session parameters that does not take a seamless transition into account (interruptions in all test cases). PESQ speech quality estimates reveal a quality advantage of 5.4% on average for the considered scenario.


Every country had different instrument to confront with global challenges, especially global financial crisis, and others global problems. Because the crisis was transmitted primarily by trade and financial flows impact of crisis is different among the countries. From one side developed countries implemented different instrument to mitigate the effects, developing countries and transition countries are seriously affected with circumstances of financial effects. No one country funds the real instrument to protect and escape the causes in economic and financial sector. What swaps allowed many governments to do was to replace any instrument to other. But, what about gold reserves as one of instrument to confronted with financial crisis? Does the gold asset can improve and protect the financial turbulences in this and other derogation of financial market. Deeping financial analysis concludes that gold, with its lack of credit risk and liquid market, is one of the most attractive assets in diversification process.
Key words: foreign exchange reserves, global financial crisis, gold reserves,
JEL Classifications: F32, F41.


Excerpt As early as 1832 a report on "diaphragmatic convulsion" was described by Merat.1Since that time there have been a considerable number of cases of spasm of the diaphragm reported in the lite...


ABSTRACT In the late 1970's the advent of the intraocular lens and the move from intracapsular to extracapsular cataract extraction and then phacoemulsification caused a dramatic increase in the incidence of postoperative corneal endothelial decompensation, which could only be treated by corneal transplantation. The pioneering work of Endre Balazs and the subsequent licensing of the noninflammatory fraction of hyaluronan to Pharmacia led to the development of ophthalmic viscosurgery using Healon®. Since then numerous other ophthalmic viscosurgical devices have appeared, most of them fitting into a few classes of copies and modified copies of Healon® and Healon®GV, a newer, more viscous variant of Healon®. More recently, a new class of "viscoadaptive agents", exemplified by Healon®5, has appeared and begun to demonstrate novel applications and advantages. This paper reviews the development of ophthalmic viscosurgery specifically with respect to cataract surgical techniques, and the evolution, uses, classification, advantages and disadvantages of different ophthalmic viscosurgical devices.


There can be few topics in experimental philosophy that, during the lifetime of this Society, have contributed more to the growth of science than have techniques in spectroscopy. For the beginnings we must look back to Newton's discovery of the dispersive power of glass prisms, a discovery that placed the prism at the centre of experimental spectroscopy for over 150 years. Of course, the overlapping of the pinhole images of the Sun in the spectrum projected on to the wall of Newton's study prevented the resolution of solar absorption lines: these were first seen, I believe, by Wollaston in 1802, who used a slit instead of Newton's pinhole, and viewed the slit through the prism. But it was not until 1830 that a famous optician, Mr Simms, advanced spectroscopic technique by using lenses to form what we would now recognize as a line spectrum, projected on to a screen.


Composite materials have been widely applied in primary structures and complex structures in aircraft owing to their high specific strength and stiffness, resistance to corrosion, resistance to fatigue and flexible design. As a structural health monitoring (SHM) method, impact monitoring has been extensively used in detecting low-velocity impact damages in composite materials. The multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm is a directional scanning and searching method to unbiasedly estimate the signal features in terms of the orthogonal attributes between signal subspace and noise subspace. The MUSIC algorithm is gradually shifted into the field of SHM used for impact localization, in which time delay is an important parameter to calculate the steering vector. Therefore, the accuracy of the MUSIC algorithm depends on the accuracy of the time delay measurement. This paper analyzes different time delay acquisition methods, including the fixed threshold method, adaptive threshold method and single frequency signal extraction method. Based on the experiments of locating an impact on a stiffened composite structure, the reliability of all the methods is investigated and the single frequency signal extraction method provides better accuracy on the time delay measurement compared to the others.


One of the most important quantities characterizing a magnetic system and its microscopic interactions is the magnetic specific heat C M . In particular, for a paramagnetic system at temperatures much higher than the ordering temperature, the magnetic specific heat can often be expressed as a simple series expansion in 1/T

$$ C_M /R = C_2 /T^2 + C_3 /T^3 + ... $$

(1)

whose coefficients C 2, C 3, … can be related directly to traces of different powers of the interaction Hamiltonian describing the system (see, e.g., Ref. 1).


This study examines the coal post-mining impact on surface water at abandoned Okpara mine in Enugu State. Experimental research design was adopted to test the water quality. The water samples were collected and analysed to determine the level of pollution. Hhypotheses were tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the treatment means were separated using Duncan's multiple range test (DMRT). The result of the test of hypothesis one shows that there is no significant difference in the parameters of the water samples within months. For all the parameters, α-significant at P≤0.05 fall within .207 and .995. DMRT shows that with the exception of temperature, that there is significant difference in other parameters of the water samples collected at different stations. For the parameters, alpha (α) is significant at P≤0.05. The result also shows that with the exception of Lead (Pb), that there is significant difference (p≤0.05) in the heavy metals found in the water samples collected at different stations. The total viable count (TVC) of the bacteria Pseudomonas aurogenosa and Bacillus substilis were 9.0×10 3 cfu/ml and 1.2×10 4 cfu/ml for the month of July, while in the month of August it was 9.0×10 3 cfu/ml and 1.3×10 4 cfu/ml respectively. The study concludes that the abandoned coal mine sites contribute to the type of microorganisms found in the water and concentration of heavy metals present in the water samples as well as other physicochemical parameters/indicators of water quality. at USp, DP, USs and DSp 27.5 0 C, 30 0 C at points of USp, DP, USs, Dsp respectively. The mean values of TSS at USp, DP, USs and DSp were 121.65mg/l, 111.0mg/l, and 20.99mg/l respectively. The mean values of TS at USp, DP, USs and DSp were 103.7mg/l, 106.7mg/l, 111.55mg/l and 11.0mg/l respectively. Potential Hydrogen (pH) values of the water samples at respective points of USp, DP, USs and DSp are 5.95, 6.90, which are within WHO acceptable limit. Nitrate (NO 3 ) recorded 10.13 mg/l, 5.69 mg/l, 5.46 mg/l and 2.25 mg/l at USp, DP, USs and DSp respectively. The mean values of SO 4 were 430.0, 79.52, 79.82 and 64.90 at USp, DP, USs and DSp respectively. Recorded Cl 2 mean values were 279 mg/l, 94.6mg/l, 94.1mg/l and 45.1mg/l at USp, DP, USs and DSp respectively. The mean values of PO 4 at USp, DP, USs and DSp were 2.08mg/l, 0.80mg/l, 0.78mg/l and 0.47mg/l respectively. The mean values of AL at USp, DP, USs and DSp were 13.4mg/l, 10.09mg/l, 10.09mg/l, 10.12mg/l and 13.10mg/l respectively. Recorded AC mean values were 3.20mg/l, 1.95mg/l, 1.95mg/l and 2.93mg/l at USp, DP, USs and DSp respectively. Recorded SO , NO , PO and


The study aims to identify factors of international competitiveness and investigate the relationship between the factors and export performance in a Korean automotive part industry. Based on the literature review and interviews done with industry exports, we can identify four factors of international competitiveness of automotive part industry: price, quality, technology, and service competitiveness. We collected data through questionnaire survey on a sample of Korean automotive part firms. Finally structural equation model was used to test hypotheses about which and how factors of international competitiveness affect export performance in the Korean sample. The findings are in the following. First, quality and service competitivenesses were found to affect export performance of auto part firms positively. Contrary to our expectations, price competitiveness showed no significant direct relationship with export performance. Second, technology competitiveness was found not to affect export performance directly, but to affect price and quality competitiveness positively. This means technology affect export performance indirectly through enhanced quality competitiveness. Thus, we can conclude that quality and service competitiveness affect export performance directly, but that technology competitiveness affects export performance indirectly though its positive impact on quality.


The feasibility of using vibration energy harvesting (VEH) as an energy-efficient receiver for short-range acoustic data communication has been investigated recently. When data was encoded in acoustic signal within the energy harvesting frequency band and transmitted through a speaker, a VEH receiver was capable of decoding the data by processing the harvested energy signal. Although previous work created new opportunities for simultaneous energy harvesting and communication using the same hardware, the communication makes annoying sounds as the energy harvesting frequency band lies within the sensitive region of human auditory system. In this work, we present a novel modulation scheme to completely hide all communications within background music sound. The proposed modulation exploits sound masking theory to maximize signal to noise ratio of data communication without being audible to the music listener. We capitalize on the existence of repetitive sound patterns within popular music to realize synchronization between the transmitter and the receiver. We implement the proposed modulation within multiple hit songs and demonstrate its efficacy using a real VEH prototype made from off-the-shelf hardware. A user study involving 30 subjects confirms that the proposed modulation can completely hide VEH-based data communication from human perception while achieving up to 14 bps data rate, which is sufficient to transmit short codes or coupons of practical use.


Crossbred ewe lambs initially weighing approximately 90 lb (41 kg) were fed rations varying in roughage level prior to breeding to examine the influence of level of dietary energy upon subsequent reproductive performance when bred as lambs. In the two trials conducted over a 2-year period 200 spring-born Iambs were placed in four lots of 25 lambs each year and received rations containing 12% crude protein and ground mixed hay at 10, 30, 50 or 70% of the diet. Average initial weights were 100.6 + 14.8 and 83.8 + 11.2 lb (45.7 + 6.7 and 38.1 + 5.1 kg), respectively. Average daily gains during the first trial of 56 days were .46, .31, .24 and .09 lb (.20, .14, .11 and .04 kg), respectively, for diets containing 10, 30, 50 and 70% roughage. During the second trial of 99 days average daily gains were .42, .40, .24 and .04 lb (.19, .18, .11 and .02 kg), respectively. At the end of each feeding period five lambs from each t reatment were slaughtered and carcass measurements collected. Weight and fat parameters were found to decrease (P<.05) with increasing dietary roughage level. The remaining ewes were pooled, exposed to rams for 40 days, and checked for pregnancy using echo analysis during the first 50 days of pregnancy. Pregnancy detection was accurate 75% of the time. Reproductive performance did


Chemotherapy is one of the main oncological treatments, in which it has several side effects, including mucositis. Rutin belongs to the class of flavonoids and has clinically relevant functions, potentially beneficial in preventing diseases and antioxidant activity. Therefore, the objective of this study was to carry out scientific and technological monitoring of the pharmacological properties of rutin and its relationship as a possible therapeutic agent in the control of intestinal mucositis. Monitoring was carried out through the Science direct and Web of Science bases, and technological bases, the European Patent Institute and the National Intellectual Property Institute. The descriptors were: "Rutin, Rutin" and "ulcer, Rutin" and "biological activity", "Rutin and pharmacology" and "Rutin and cancer". The searches were carried out in October 2019, being considered publications from the last 10 years. It can be seen that there has been an increase in studies related to rutin in the last decade, highlighting several pharmacological activities of the compound.


For i.i.d. random variables {Y, Yn, n⩾ 1} with EY2=∞ and nonzero constants {an, n⩾1}, sufficient and, separately, necessary conditions are given for {an Yn, n⩾1} to obey a generalized central limit theorem ( ∑ j = 1 n   a j   Y j   −   A n ) B n → d   N ( 0 , 1 ) for suitable constants {An, n⩾1} and {Bn > 0, n⩾1}. The norming constants {Bn, n⩾1} are defined using the sequence { ∑ j = 1 n   a j 2 ,   n   ⩾ 1 } and the distribution of Y. Moreover, it is shown that if p{|Y|> y} is regularly varying with exponent-2, then the centering constants may be taken to be A n =   ∑ j = 1 n   a j   E Y ,   n ⩾ 1 . A famous result of Feller (1935), Khintchine (1935), and Lévy (1935) is obtained in the special case an ≡ 1.


In this article we extend the notion of g-evaluation, in particular g-expectation, of Peng [8, 9] to the case where the generator g is allowed to have a quadratic growth (in the variable "z"). We show that some important properties of the g-expectations, including a representation theorem between the generator and the corresponding g-expectation—and consequently the reverse comparison theorem of quadratic BSDEs as well as the Jensen inequality—remain true in the quadratic case. Our main results also include a Doob–Meyer type decomposition, the optional sampling theorem, and the upcrossing inequality. The results of this article are important in the further development of the general quadratic nonlinear expectations (cf. [5]).


An entirely new strategy is explored for directional transport delivery of antibiotics to bacteria utilizing a bacteria-activated nanoplatform. The nanoplatform can effectively prevent the premature leakage of the therapeutic payload, but release was triggered when the nanoplatforms adhere to bacteria, promising potential applications for the delivery of a wide-range of antimicrobials.


This paper presents the fundamentals of a novel technological approach called Controlled Furnace, which is commercialised by INERCO, an engineering company based at Seville (Spain), in collaboration with KWANT, a monitoring system supplier, based at Krakow (Poland), under the name ABACO (Advanced Boiler Automation for Combustion Optimisation). This technology has been developed for improving emissions, efficiency and operational safety in industrial boilers and furnaces, and is applicable to multiburner combustion units of different designs at power plants, refineries, petrochemical and chemical industry, or cement plants, for both conventional and/or renewable fuel co-firing operation. Controlled Furnace (ABACO) technology relies on the adequate closed-loop control of local combustion conditions, by means of advanced monitoring and optimised regulation of industrial combustion processes. The achievement of "Controlled Furnace" conditions is carried out through the evaluation of infurnace gas concentrations profiles provided by advanced monitoring technology. These "Controlled Furnace" conditions avoid not desired combustion imbalances, and, make possible the application, with maximum safety and profitability, of efficiency improvement and NOx controlling strategies based on air and fuel stratification, and excess air minimisation. Simultaneously, this advanced combustion control could also be applied in the maximisation of fossil fuels substitution ratios by biomass based fuels, assuring both efficient unit performance and safe boiler operation while controlling carbon-in-ash, slagging, fouling or corrosion problems. This novel technology, qualified as Best Available Technique for NOx control at the European IPPC Directive, has been applied to more than 40 large combustion units in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, operating under different co-firing combustion scenarios and burning solid, liquid and/or gaseous fuels. Its application to these units has lead to safe co-firing operation (above 30% substitution of main fossil fuel) with NOx emissions reductions from 15% to 60% and parallel improvements in heat rate and CO2 emissions ranging 0.5% 2.0%. Controlled Furnace technology is already installed, operating under commercial scenarios, in 15 pulverised coal power plants. Moreover, 7 additional units are currently operating in oil and gas power plants, and in refinery process furnaces. Other 12 installations in power generation, refining and petrochemical sectors are currently being implemented or studied. Controlled Furnace technology constitutes a recommendable measure for alternative fuel co-firing purposes and a cost-effective alternative or complement to other emission control or efficiency improvement technologies.


Thin-film stacks exhibiting a high spatial dispersion similar to the photonic crystal superprism effect can be employed to multiplex or demultiplex several wavelength channels using a single thin-film stack. The phase properties of these stacks are designed such that a small change in the wavelength results in a large change of the effective group propagation angle and therefore of the beam exit position for light beams of oblique incidence angle. Here we demonstrate that such a structure also exhibits a large change in the exit position for a fixed incident wavelength due to a small refractive index variation. We investigate theoretically the introduction of optically nonlinear polymer layers into multilayer thin-film structures for electro-optic switching of the refractive index. Polymers offer a number of advantages as nonlinear materials - they are simple to process, they show high, non-resonant nonlinear coefficients and they posses low refractive indices. A dispersive thin-film stack containing tunable polymer layers is therefore promising as a 1:N spatial beam switch with switching times in the nanosecond range. We developed and simulated different designs for dispersive thin-film stacks consisting of dielectric and polymer layers. The approaches range from Bragg stacks with two alternating materials, one of them the active polymer, over impedance matched Bragg stacks to coupled cavities that contain the active material. The achievable refractive index changes with guest-host polymer systems were evaluated and integrated into our calculations.


Abstract An increasingly multilingual working life expects university graduates to possess multilingual competences, but at the same time many European students study fewer languages than before. As they learn about field-specific linguistic practices and contemplate their future, university students negotiate their identities as language learners and future professionals. Supporting them in acquiring a multilingual identity would be beneficial as it is a strengthening factor in language learning. Since they study towards a profession, it is likely that students examine language learning from the viewpoint of a working life. From these premises, Finnish social science students were interviewed as a part of a course that supported their readiness to work in multilingual environments. The purpose was to investigate how they negotiated their multilingual and professional identities and how these negotiations intersect. The data was examined from a poststructural perspective, analysing identity negotiations by means of positioning theory. The results show that the students constructed their linguistic identities primarily in relation to English competences, often positioning themselves as "contentedly bilingual". The data also revealed an "aspiring multilingual" identity negotiation which, however, echoed societal ideologies on language learning rather than describing the students' internalised beliefs. Students' certainty of their future profession was often connected to a confidence in speaking English and a critical stance towards the need for multilingual competences. Multilingual identity negotiation was hence connected to prevailing discourses and professional aspirations. The study provides new perspectives on university students' multilingual and professional identities and suggests pedagogical solutions that can support their development in Higher Education language teaching.


# 1997 Blackwell Science Ltd 81 Haemophilia A and B are X-linked recessive bleeding disorders due to de®ciency of factor VIII (FVIII) of factor IX (FIX), respectively. The genes for these factors are located near the tip of the long arm of the X chromosome (Xq2.8). Many genetic defects have been identi®ed in haemophilic families including deletions, point mutations or mutations resulting in stop codons [1]. Prevalence of the haemophilia gene in the general population has increased recently [2] due to advances in treatment which have resulted in dramatic involvement of the general and reproductive ®tness among haemophiliacs. Therefore, it is expected that there will be an increase in the birth of obligate carriers and thus potential pregnant haemophilia carriers. Although female carriers have only one a€ected chromosome and the clotting factor level is expected to be around 50% of normal, a wide range of values has been reported [3, 4] as a result of random inactivation of one of the two X chromosomes, i.e. lyonization [5]. Rizza et al. [4] reported a range of 44±163 iu dL in normal women and 22±116 iu dL in carriers of haemophilia. A signi®cant number of haemophilia carriers may have very low factor levels [6] due to extreme lyonization, homozygosity for haemophilia gene [7], or less commonly coincidence of carriership and Turner's syndrome, other chromosomal abnormalities [8, 9] or co-inheritance of a variant von Willebrand factor allele (i.e. von Willebrand's disease Normandy). These women have the same risk of major bleeding as do a€ected males. Carriers of haemophilia view pregnancy with two concerns; the possibility of serious bleeding in themselves and the risk of bearing an a€ected male fetus. The aim of this review is to highlight these problems and suggest management guidelines to minimize complications and achieve optimal obstetric outcome.


A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REGISTERED NURSE TIME SPENT IN DIRECT CARE ACTIVITIES, NURSING SKILL MIX AND PATIENT PERCEPTIONS OF NURSE CARING By Jeanne L. Roode There is a need for nurse administrators to understand how the use o f nursing resources impacts the quality of patient care. A descriptive correlational research design was used to examine the relationship between R.N. time spent in direct care activities, nursing skill mix and patient perceptions o f nurse caring. A secondary analysis was conducted using data previously collected as part of a large-scale data set from a 529 bed community teaching hospital. The data consisted of 76,491 activity samples obtained through work sampling of 16 nursing units, 2 categories of unit skill mix measurements, and a Caring Behaviors Inventory completed by 313 patients. A significantly positive relationship was found between the percentage o f time R.N.s spent in direct care activities and patient perceptions of nurse caring (r=.6874, p<.01). A significantly positive relationship was also found between the percentage of R.N.s in the skill mix and patient perceptions o f nurse caring (r=.50, p<.05). Dedication This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my late sister, Mary L. Peterson, L.P.N. who inspired my career in nursing and taught me the true meaning of courage. Acknowledgments I am most appreciative of my thesis chairperson. Dr. Jean Nagelkerk who provided me with excellent guidance throughout this momentous endeavor. Her research expertise, editorial proficiency, high energy, and prompt reviews were invaluable to me. I am also grateful to Dr. Linda Urden who encouraged and supported my participation in the work sampling study and stimulated my interest in research. Her enthusiasm for nursing research was a source o f inspiration for me. I am also thankful to Dr. Donna Vanlwaarden for her time, interest, and participation as a committee member. I would also like to thank Dr. Cynthia Coviak for her assistance with data analysis and her contagious excitement for statistics. I am also grateful to the study hospital for sharing their data base with me. Dave Langin is to be commended for his talent in extracting the data needed for this study. I appreciate the tremendous effort involved in the collection of the large data base and acknowledge the numerous participants who made this study possible. Finally, I give thanks to my parents, sister, and friends who patiently supported my efforts and encouraged my persistence. Their love and belief in my abilities has made all the difference.


Background: Since the introduction of sentinel node (SN) mapping in breast cancer, extra-axillary lymph node sites of breast tumor drainage are discovered in about onequarter of cases, especially after intraparenchymal injection. In most such cases, an ipsilateral axillary SN is associated with an extra-axillary SN. Non visualization of ipsilateral axillary SN and extra-axillary SN drainage are often associated with an increased risk of axillary involvement. Case: We report a case of contralateral axillary SN drainage on lymphoscintigraphy in a breast cancer patient with a history of bilateral reduction mammoplasty and no ipsilateral axillary lymph node involvement. J. Surg. Oncol. 2004;86:167–169. 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


A few methods for the experimental determination of the reluctance synchronous machines parameters are detailed in this paper. Since this paper is not a reluctance synchronous machine (RSM) test handbook, all the tests will not be described, certain references being recommended for this purpose. In the first part of the paper there is presented an experimental stand for the reluctance synchronous machines parameters determination. The stand includes a data acquisition board KPCI 3102. In the second part, there are presented the experimental tests, performed with a flux barriers machine rated at 1,2 kW. There have been considered the determination of the stator resistance, the longitudinal synchronous inductance, the transversal synchronous inductance, the leakage inductances, the longitudinal and transversal magnetization inductances and the sub-transient reactances. It is called the attention to the modern method for obtaining the longitudinal and transversal synchronous inductances. The longitudinal and transversal synchronous inductances have been determined by means of a method consisting in a direct current decreasing through the stator winding, the rotor being at rest and positioned so that the longitudinal axis coincides with the axis of the phase A. Finally there are presented the conclusions emerging by experimental tests, conclusions which confirm the theory presented in the literature. It is emphasized that the reluctance synchronous motors parameters can be determined easy and quickly by means of the test stand we conceived and built.


Crack−free Al xGa1−xN epilayers with Al contents up to x=0.40 have been grown by LP−MOVPE on c−plane sapphire substrates, using low temperature AlN nucleation layers. A silane treatment during nitridation of the sapphire surface has been found to improve the crystalline quality of a 2 μm thick AlGaN epilayer with x=0.17, substantially reducing the XRD peak widths, and leading to the removal of an impurity or defect peak in the LT−PL spectrum. This treatment is responsible for an increase in the average grain size of the AlN nucleation layer, and leads to a greater compressive strain in the AlGaN layer.