The present study aimed to examine spatial dependence and distribution of volume in three fragments of Subtropical forest, geographically separated and the different post-intervention ages, using a single geostatistical model or combined model. Data were collected from 56 sampling units of 250 m 2 systematically distributed in a grid of 40 x 40 m. Trees with DBH ≥ 10 cm were measured according to Prodan's methodology. Two types of analysis were applied to the data. The first one was an individual adjustment for comparison between their models and the second one consisted in the proposed combined approach adjustment. Both analysis used geostatistical models with adjustment function maximizing log-likelihood. Models were compared using Akaike criterion (AIC) and relational range parameter as an indication of spatial dependence degree. Results show that combined models had lower AIC values as well as greater spatial dependence degree on adjustments of individual areas models. This research indicates the use of combined log-likelihood geostatistical models to study fragmented forests for analysis and detection of spatial volume correlation structure.


Starting from the results of a national survey, a questionnaire on the values of Romanians was applied in April 2008 which was used for a comparative analysis of historical regions of Romania: Moldova, Bucharest, Dobrogea, Transilvania and Muntenia.


The most important events of 2009 in the world of libraries are noted. There are three main areas: technology, information and libraries themselves. The first area includes the development of integrated library management systems and the situation of the so-called discovery tools. In the information area, major developments in digitization of content are discussed, focusing on Google Books and Europeana and mentioning the impact of economic crisis on a library's ability to purchase information. Regarding libraries in general, 2009 highlights were Oclc internationalization and the new roles that libraries can assume in an environment that blurs their duties. Finally, challenges for libraries in 2010 are identified: to continue incorporating electronic information, keep adjusting to a changing environment, and find a way to create an alliance that would include files, libraries and museums.


Modern valence bond theory, in its spin-coupled (SC) form, is used to assess the utility of generalized population analysis, using correlated density matrices, for identifying patterns of three-center two-electron bonding in B2H6, B3H, and CH2Li2. The effect on the relevant three-center indices of including electron correlation, via the SC method, is assessed by means of comparison with analogous Hartree–Fock values. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2004


Abstract The study was carried out to investigate the influence of sous vide treatment (80 °C/15 min) and high pressure processing (700 MPa/10 min/20 °C) on nutritional characteristics of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. cv. Fradel) and maple pea (Pisum sativum var. arvense L. cv. Bruno) spreads after processing and 62-day storage at 5 ± 1 °C temperature, to evaluate overall acceptance of processed pulse spreads after 22-day storage and to analyse nutrient coverage of pulse spreads compared to reference intake for adolescents and adults. Pulse spreads were made of cooked pulse seeds to which salt, citric acid, oil, and seasoning was added. Pulse spreads were hermetically sealed under vacuum in PA/PE and PET/ALU/PA/PP pouches. Nutritional composition was determined according to standard methods; overall acceptance was determined using a 5-point hedonic scale. Nutrient coverage by one serving of pulse spreads for adolescents and adults was compared to nutrient recommendations given by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Latvia. The results suggest that processing technologies and packaging materials did not influence nutritional value of pulse spreads (p > 0.1). Hedonic evaluation by consumers (n = 90) showed that processing technologies did not influence the overall acceptance of cowpea and maple pea spreads (p > 0.1).


Lombard laws were issued between 643 and 755. They comprise in toto an invaluable normative source for the Lombard kingdom and society in the seventh and eighth centuries. Commentators have concentrated upon the witness that the laws comprise for the ability of Lombard kings to rule, control and influence society. This paper, however, will consider aspects of both movement and mobility through and across the kingdom using the prism provided by the law with regard to fugitives, runaway slaves and strangers. What does the law tell us about the conceptual parameters associated with those who composed and compiled Lombard law? How did the Lombard kingdom respond to movement and mobility? What do prescriptions which relate to frontiers reveal about the broader interconnectivity of the Mediterranean world? In addressing these issues, and in considering the broader connotations revealed, this paper will argue for a deeper mobility in the early medieval West.


The paper discusses the design and performance of low-frequency selective amplifiers using negative feedback through a parallel-T bridge network. Two basic forms of the circuit giving symmetrical selectivity are analysed, and a method of varying the selectivity while maintaining the magnitude and frequency of the peak amplification constant is indicated. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the problems which arise in the design of bridge amplifiers having high selectivity.


This study examines the concept of the self, using indigenous, cultural and psychological analysis. The self is viewed from four aspects: 1) concept of the self as an entity (the self in general, the self as an unique entity and the self when alone); 2) concept of the self in the context of family (the self when with one's father, mother, children and spouse); 3) the self within the context of close and working relationships (the self when with friends, teachers, work superior and work subordinate); and 4) the self in the context of the larger society (the self when with strangers and foreigners). A total of 1,465 respondents (623 elementary, middle, high and university students and their parents=842) completed an open-ended questionnaire developed by the present authors. The results reveal two overall patterns of results. First, the concept of self in Korea is influenced by one's role. Second, the concept of self is influenced by relationship and context, and there is an emphasis on the flexibility and adjustment of the self to relationship and context. Implications of the concept of the self in the context of relationships, roles, and contexts are discussed, along with the importance of indigenous, cultural, and psychological analysis.


This paper seeks to determine whether institutional changes implemented by federal governments have created incentives and influenced the decision of state governments to undertake fiscal adjustments. Furthermore, it examines how these changes contributed to the success or failure of said adjustments. After evaluating and confirming the independence of irrelevant alternatives, a Multinomial Logit model was used to estimate how these changes affected choices (using 'no adjustments' as the base outcome at all times). We found, as international literature has suggested, that changes to budget institutions do affect fiscal results, and we noted that impacts depend on the rigidity of the budget rule under analysis. In addition, in the case of Brazil, institutional changes noticeably created previously nonexistent incentives for state governments to make fiscal adjustments.


Stem cells are rich in proteins, carbohydrates, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA) and various other cellular components which are responsible for a diversity of functions. Mostly the building blocks of these intracellular entities play an active role in absorbing ultra-violet (UV) and visible light sources. Light-matter interactions in biomaterials are a complex situation and subsequent damage may not always amount only from wavelength dependent effects but may also be driven by a wealth of other optical parameters which may lead to a variety photochemical reactions. Previously, literature has reported efficient photo-transfection and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells via near infrared (NIR) femtosecond (fs) laser pulses with minimum compromise to their viability. Therefore, in this study the influence of using different fs laser wavelengths on optical stem cell transfection and differentiation is investigated. A potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) crystal was employed in frequency doubling a 1064 nm fs laser beam. The newly generated 532 nm fs pulsed beam was then utilized for the first time in transient photo-transfection of ES-E14TG2a mouse embryonic stem (mES) cells. Compared to using 1064 nm fs pulses which non-invasively introduce plasmid DNA and other macromolecules into mES cells, our results showed a significant decline in the photo-transfection efficiency following transfecting with a pulsed fs visible green beam.


Today, when the surrounding world flourishes with modern
technologies, we teachers of future teachers have to cope with
new and sophisticated teaching tools, such as the Internet or
data projectors. Even today, however, we may find inspiration
in old teaching methods used by our predecessors, who had to
manage with a piece of chalk and a blackboard. The personality
of Professor Jan Firbas will be taken as a lucid example.


Experimental studies of impulse responses in a trumpet bore have suggested a divide‐and‐conquer approach in which the contributions of the major elements (input end, uniform pipe, and output end) can be examined and understood separately. Multiple convolutions are then used to assemble these into the time‐domain response (Green's function) of the complete instrument. The resynthesis is most easily understood for simpler structures in which the input end can be modeled adequately by lumped elements. Spatially extended input ends are handled by a more complicated formalism involving transmission impulse responses, but the spirit of the calculation is the same. Fourier transforming this work allows us to untangle partially the contributions of the major elements to the input impedance function of the complete instrument. [Work supported by a CSULB Summer Res. Grant and Equipment Grants from Hewlett‐Packard. Special thanks are also due to Lowell J. Eliason for his long‐term support of the experimental work an...


Before the underground structures such as tunnels will be constructed, because of the sensitivity for the water included for the rock mass, electrical prospecting for geological surveys is often executed. However, the relationship between resistivity and the physical property of the rock mass has not quantitatively been clarified. Especially, in the jointed rock mass, it is important to grasp the influence of the joint for the resistivity.In this paper, 2 kinds of jointed rock mass model are made. One is the discontinuity model, which is made to change the open width of discontinuity by intervening the various number of filter paper for discontinuity. The other is the heated model, which is generated the micro opening crack inside of the rock by heating by the electricity muffle furnace. And then, using these models, the characteristics of resistivity for the jointed rock mass are examined.


Many attacks on iterated block ciphers rely on statistical considerations using plaintext/ciphertext pairs to distinguish some part of the cipher from a random permutation. We provide here a simple formula for estimating the amount of plaintext/ciphertext pairs which is needed for such distinguishers and which applies to a lot of different scenarios (linear cryptanalysis, differentiallinear cryptanalysis, differential/truncated differential/impossible differential cryptanalysis). The asymptotic data complexities of all these attacks are then derived. Moreover, we give an efficient algorithm for computing the data complexity accurately.


By analyzing the plant community data from a natural alpine meadow,effects of the similarity in species composition,statistical averaging,net covariance,and population variability on the relationships of species diversity with the variability of aboveground biomass in alpine meadow plant community were investigated.The results showed that the variability of aboveground biomass per plot decreased with increasing species richness and composition similarity,while there was no significant correlation between species diversity and composition similarity.It was statistical averaging but not net covariance the dominant factor determining the negative correlation between species diversity and variability in aboveground biomass.Population variability also devoted,but only a few,to the negative correlation.


The granitic rocks including migmatite, gneiss and palingenetic plutonics found in the axial core of the reprdsentative orogenic belts such as the Abean and Hidaka belts in Japan are now believed to have been originally geosynclinal deposits refbrmed by syn-orogenic igneous activities in a viride sense. From the authors' own observation 'in the course of mapping in the respective fields above mentioned in Japan, and based on laboratory works, the authors now stand to accept a theory of granitization in making up granitic crust through orogenic process. As a matter of fact, not only in cratonic, sub-cratonic or older orogenic belts in the continental mainland of Asia, but also even in such younger mobile belts as the Japanese islands, the foundation is chiefiy composed of granitic rocks of the Precambrian age. Thus, the ear!iest stage of the geologic time became a problem to be discussed in the present paper as to the formation of granitic crust, since the source area for geosynclinal deposits must have eventually existed even in such an ancient day, and the depositional sea should have been also present, so far as the origin of the oldest granitic rocks are concerned. Thus, the earliest ocean and continent prior to the geologic time came to be a problem. Based on the recent progress of the Precambrian geology, the ur-continent might be existed in the present Pacific, as will be stated later on, while the present continent may have been under the sea water, viz. the ur-ocean. This assumption seems to be well consistent with the well known model for the structure, and interior movement of the early stage of the earth, presented by F.A. VEN!NG MEiNEsz in 1964. Namely, one hemisphere was a continent, while the other side was an ocean, caused by a single cell convective movement of the interior of the earth, when the core was not yet differentiated from the mantle. This may be called as the lunar stage of the earth's history. The third stage is the geological age in which ur-ocean became continent composed of terrestrial crust step by step, while ur-continent became ocean, the ancestral basin of the present Pacific, The principal course of development of the 516 M. MiNATo and M. HuNAHAsHi crust since the Late Precambrian may be assumed to have been a refbrmation of the terrestrial crust caused by new orogenic movements, and also by oceanization in a wide sense. The ocean might be also repeatedly reformed by the appearance of rises, ridges and troughs in accordance with orogenies in the continent. The principal cause of these movements may have been and is still in the movement of the interior of the earth. The convective movement itself might be however complex more and more through ages by the growth of the core. Eventually, the observable features of the earth of the present day are merely momentarily recognized. These features, as a matter of fact, have been brought from a long complicated history of the past. The crust itself is the historical being as well as the core and the mantle of the earth. The mutual relationship is now well established as having been ever intimate between the crustal movement and the interior movement of the earth. From various sources of geological information, the authors now stand to accept the existence of horizontal movement of the crust and repeated reformation o' the crust in various ways in the geologic past, even though the details of the authors' view may not be entirely as similar as the hypotheses of the continental drifting and ocean fioor spreading. Foundation of the young orogenic beXts Certaln geologically young mobile belt like an island arc is actually a product of polycyclic orogenic movements ranging from the Variscan to multiple phases of the Alpine movements. The Japanese islands are one of such examples, where the Abean (I Variscan), Honshu (ti Indosinian), Hiroshima (i Yenshan) and Hidaka (# Himalayan) movements occurred in succession. The complex structure brought by these repeated orogenic movements above mentioned in the Japanese islands was finally reformed by the youngest orogenic movement in the Neogene and Quaternary time to bring forth the so-called island arc structure (M. MiNATo, M. GoRAi 8i M. HuNAHAsHi (editors), 196S). Now, the Paleozoic deposits in Japan are now believed to have been evidently deposited on the basement complex of the Precambrian. At least this may be the case for the Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu islands through various geologic evidences. Although the gneissic rocks supposed to have been originally belonging to the Precambrian complex in Japan do show rather young absolute age such as 420-320 × 106ys (K-Ar age) old. However, this may have been resulted from either repeated reactivation, progressive orretrogressive metamorphism and taphrogeny during the later orogenic movements. As a matter of fact, such imaginary Precambrian rocks are only locally cropping out in Japan, To be sure, these rocks have been brought to the surface by faulting, thrusting and igneous activity from the depth. It may be however eventually almost indisputable on the former wide development ORIGIN OF THE EARTH'S CRUST AND ITS EVOLUTION 517 of the Precambrian rocks in Japan as a basement complex, prior to the deposition of the Paleozoic formations. (M. MiNATo, 1966, 1968) Large island Borneo may be counted as another such example, and the large peninsula Kamchatka may be also belonging to a similar case like Japan in concern to the problem on basement complexes. In New Zealand, the Precambrian rocks are evidently developed in wide area being covered by the fossiliferous Cambrian formation. In the progress of geologic reconnaissance in future, existence of the basement complex of undoubted Precambrian age will be further proved in many islands belonging to island arcs. Such being the case, it is a quite dogmatic view to assume distinction on the foundation between the young mobile belts and the Caledonian, Variscan and older Alpine belts in the continent. Tlius, there may be originally no difference in foundation between cratonic, sub-cratonic and orogenic belts, since the foundation is chiefly composed of granitic rocks of Precambrian age, in both stable and mobile belts. ' There may be however perhaps young island arcs among the islands in the intra Pacific, whlch may apparently lack the granitic foundation, as a result of reformation of the terrestrial crust, as vLTill be stated later on. I "-i,M-"'"ti;5';-N -""" -"-" -x" ・V=:5.5 "--" """" -""" -mp"" ""-e vv vvv V=6.4 vv v V=8.1 zi "e"" ・V =,5.5 "--vv vv V=6.4 vv vv v


Abstract : New technology is changing the way we train people. The Director of Naval Training (N7) has stated that the Navy needs to incorporate more of this new technology into its training environments. To achieve this goal, the training community must meet several challenges. N7 asked CNA for help in structuring a cost-benefit analysis of training technology. It wanted CNA to develop a methodology for analyzing and evaluating the potential benefits that new technologies can bring to Navy training. N7 stated that the methodology should define quantitative measures for assessing the benefits, specify mathematical relationships and procedures for computing these measures, and identify the data to be collected.


One of the major challenges confronting contemporary Marxism is the need to develop an adequate theory of politics. In its absence many Marxist critics of advanced capitalism have stressed the economic and cultural dimensions of social existence and have, in effect, de-emphasized the political factors as more or less predetermined and relatively insignificant. One consequence of this weakness has been the categorization of the state as an instrument of the dominant eco-


Helium–neon ring laser gyroscopes have been observed to produce a stable and useful Sagnac beat signal while operating with multiple longitudinal modes through a mode-locking mechanism. The parameter space pertaining to stable operation with respect to gas pressure and intra-cavity power has been explored experimentally. Two regions of stability have been identified. The stability of large ring lasers operating with mode-locking has been characterized. Mode-locked operation presents no statistically significant difference in performance compared with single-mode operation. It is shown that the time required for establishing stable mode-coupled operation can be a practical disadvantage for the ultra-large ring lasers.


In mass spectrometric (MS) systems with electrospray ionization (ESI), the sample can be analyzed coupled to separation systems (such as liquid chromatography or capillary electrophoresis) or simply by direct infusion. The greatest benefit of the type of injection is the possibility of continuous use of small amounts of samples over a long period of time. This extended analysis time allows a complete study of fragmentation by mass spectrometry, which is critical for structure elucidation of new compounds, or when using an ion trap mass analyzer. The injector filled with the sample is placed at the ESI source inlet creating an electric field suitable for the continuous formation of a spray (solvent and sample) and consequently, the gradual and even release of the sample. For the formation of the spray, is necessary that the injector end is metalized. The formation of a bilayer of titanium and gold provided an excellent attachment of the film, resulting in a nanoinjector for ionization/spray formation in the system for MS. The nanoinjectors showed high repeatability and stability over 100 min by continuous sampling with 10 µL of sample.


The random choice method (RCM) was used to numerically solve shock propagation in a Laval nozzle and a Ludwieg tube. In quasi-random sampling procedure, van der Corput method was used. According to each specified incident shock Mach number and nozzle area ratio, the RCM analysis predicts five unique possible wave patterns. The starting process of the Ludwieg tube was also numerically analyzed by using the RCM.


The Cycladic islands of the Aegean Sea expose a high-pressure metamorphic belt as part of the Cycladic metamorphic zone stretching from Turkey through Cycladic islands to mainland Greece. Formation and subsequent exhumation of these mostly Eocene blueschistand eclogite-facies successions is considered to directly result from the Hellenic subduction zone still operating in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea represents therefore a test site for such processes. Based on detailed structural work on Sifnos and further observations on other Cycladic islands, a new model has been developed for exhumation of eclogites/blueschist belt, associated fluid transfer processes and resulting widespread ore mineralizations and of the geodynamic control of these processes.


Abstract BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a rapid conversion from in-person to video-visits for new patient consultations and follow-up visits. Now with available vaccines and declining case rates efforts are underway to return to in-person visits as they provide more revenue and are viewed as best for patients and clinicians. This abstract reviews these assumptions. METHODS Electronic medical records from seven full-time faculty neuro-oncologists at Johns Hopkins Hospitals were retrospectively reviewed from 4/1/20 to 3/31/21 to examine the use of video visits over time and their patient demographics. RESULTS From 4/1/20 to 3/31/21, 279 new patients were seen (57% video-visits) with a median age of 52 years for both video and in-person visits. Patients came from 15 states for video and 17 states for in-person visits. There were also 2247 follow-up visits (85% video-visits) with a median age of 47 yrs for video and 50 yrs for in-person visits. Patients came from 28 states for video and 14 for in-person visits. No show visits were more frequent for in-person visits. During early months of the pandemic, few patients were seen in the clinics. Thereafter, video-visits rose sharply comprising 93% of follow-up visits in June 2020 and 62% of new patient consultations in September 2020. These rates have remained high (in March 2021, 72% of all follow-up visits and 59% of new patient consultations). CONCLUSIONS Despite reductions in COVID-19 infection rates, our neuro-oncologists continue to favor video-visits for new patient consultations and follow-up visits. Video-visits save patients and caregivers travel time, parking costs, and time away from work. They also allow an acceptable history and neurological exam, participation by many family members, easy sharing of MRI scans and laboratory data, and discussions unencumbered by face masks and shields. These advantages to video-visits remain significant even as the pandemic recedes.


This book is the result of a workshop about localized agri-food systems held at biannual conference of the International Farming Systems Association in 2010. All articles depart from the reality ex ...


To address the needs of Medicaid beneficiaries who are elderly or disabled and desire greater control over their personal care, the federal government has encouraged states to offer consumer-directed options. One of the most innovative and flexible consumer-directed-care models is Cash and Counseling, recently tested in a demonstration program in Arkansas, Florida, and New Jersey. The program gives consumers a monthly allowance that they may use to hire workers and to purchase care-related services and goods. This report summarizes findings from five years of research on how each of the three demonstration states implemented its program, and on how the programs have affected consumers who participated, consumers' paid and unpaid caregivers, and costs to Medicaid. The findings from the randomized trial study design show that the program had overwhelmingly positive effects on consumers of all ages and their caregivers. However, in each state, total Medicaid expenditures were higher under the program than what they would have been in its absence, for different reasons. States interested in offering a Cash and Counseling program or similar consumer-directed options may benefit from the report's discussion of lessons learned about how to control costs.


The purpose of this paper was to investigate the degradation chemistry of a fluoropyridinyl drug candidate in capsule formulation and to optimize the formulation based on a proposed degradation mechanism. Small developmental batches of capsules were made by tituration of drug substance and excipients using a mortar and pestle, followed by manual encapsulation. Degradants were identified by LC-MS/MS and LC-photodiode array detector (PDA) and were monitored by LC-ultraviolet detector (UVD) during stability studies. It was found that the drug could undergo a nucleophilic substitution reaction in which hydroxyl groups replace the fluorine substituents on the pyridine rings. The initial degradation rate is independent of the drug concentration but dependent on the temperature, the pH of the microenvironment, and the excipient type. On the basis of these experimental results, a nucleophilic substitution reaction mechanism for the degradation was proposed and a successful capsule formulation was developed.


An experimental study of the strength and behavior of plain concrete subjected to repetitions of compressive stress of relatively high magnitude is described and evaluated. The characteristics of the loading and unloading stress-strain relationships of 46 short rectangular columns are studied. Expressions for these relationships are derived and used to estimate the response of plain concrete subjected to varying load histories. The expressions developed are functions of the ultimate stress and strain values of standard 6 × 12-in. control cylinders and the loading history. The results indicate that the response at a given point in the load history is dependent on the preceeding loading and that the number of cycles to failure can be reasonably estimated.


Phase change materials (PCMs) proved to be valuable and drew the attention of numerous scientists striving to establish novel techniques to minimize energy consumption and expand heat storage; yet a number of challenges hampered their research. This paper provides an overall overview on how to overcome those constraints by adapting nano-enhanced phase change materials, the motivation behind their investigation, their advantages, area of applications, and their impact on thermal management and storage equipment. Recent computational and experimental studies have revealed that nanoparticles are extremely useful in terms of improving the thermo-physical properties of PCMs, allowing nano-PCMs, mainly nano-paraffin, to have a major positive influence on thermal concepts at the economical, ecological, and effectiveness levels. In this context, nano-enhanced PCMs are now able to store and release large amounts of heat in short intervals of time, which is relevant to thermal storage systems and contributes to augmenting and boosting their efficiency. It also improves the thermal performance of cooling and heating systems in buildings and regulates the operating temperature of PV systems, electronic components, and batteries.


Recent years, some distributed generations such as energy storage systems or renewable energy sources have been introduced in distribution systems, and the voltage violation problem has been at stake by the reverse power flows from the load to the generator. In this paper, we consider NAS (natrium sulfur = sodium sulfur) battery systems to be utilized for not only energy storage but also power system control, and propose a new voltage control strategy in order to provide the proper sending voltage at distribution substations. First, the current flows at each distribution feeder are individually measured, and the sending voltage is calculated by using V-I characteristics, which indicate the relationship between the sending voltage and the current flows at each distribution feeder. Next, active and reactive power outputs of the NAS battery system are determined by solving an optimal power flow calculation in order to realize the predetermined sending voltage. Numerical examinations have been carried out using a 52-bus example system model to verify the validity of the proposed method, and successful results have been obtained.


Ischemic heart disease (IHD) often develops after decades of preceding subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. An early prediction of risk for IHD in a general population would be helpful for preventive decision-making. It is well known that biomarkers including troponine, natriuretic peptides and inflammatory biomarkers are useful prognostic predictors for IHD, their long-term predictive values in a general population for incident IHD have not been studied.

 The aim of the study was to investigate the predictive value of multi-modality biomarkers on the incident IHD in a random male sample from the general population followed from the age of 50 to 71 years.

 "The study of Men Born in 1943" is a longitudinal cohort study of men living in the city of Gothenburg in Sweden. All patients underwent a baseline examination in 1993, which included physical examination, questionnaires and blood samples. Because of multifactorial nature of atherosclerosis, a panel of biomarkers representing multiple mechanisms such as high-sensitivity troponine (hs-TNT), interleukin-6 (IL-6), cystatin C, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), urat, ferritin, and N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were analyzed from blood samples collected at 50 years of age. Incident IHD was defined as new-onset one of following (myocardial infarction, hospitalized unstable angina and intervention with either percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) during 1993–2014. The impact of biomarkers on incident IHD was studied using univariable, followed by stepwise and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models.

 Among the, 753 patients in the study, 105 patients (13,9%) developed IHD during 21 years of follow up with an event rate per 1000 person years 7.49 and a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 6.19 - 9.07. In Cox proportional hazards model for time to first occurrence of IHD, univariable analyses showed that multi-modality biomarker (CRP >1 mg/ml, NT-proBNP >100 pg/mL, troponin >10 ng/L, IL-6 >8 ng/L) provide most powerful prediction, followed by total cholesterol and fasting plasma glucose. In multivariable Cox proportional hazards model for time to first of IHD, above four-biomarker combination modality remains a most powerful predictor with risk increased by one additional biomarker [Hazard Ratio (95% CI): 1.69 (1.26 - 2.26), p=0.0004], followed by total cholesterol (mmol/L) with risk increased by one [Hazard Ratio (95% CI: 1.31 (1.09 - 1.56), p=0.0031], and fasting plasma glucose (mmol/L) with risk increased by one unit [Hazard Ratio (95% CI): 1.11 (1.01 - 1.22), p=0.038].

 A multi-modality biomarker strategy can be used to predict increased risk of developing IHD during the following two decades after 50 years, enabling us to identify individuals who might benefit from early intensive risk modification to prevent the development of IHD.


The aim of this paper is to propose a theory of derivations for quandles. Given a quandle A admitting an action by a quandle Q, derivations from Q to A are introduced as twisted analogues of quandle homomorphisms. It is shown that for each quandle Q there exists a unique Q-quandle AQ (the derived quandle of Q) such that derivations from Q to any Q-quandle A are in bijective correspondence with Q-quandle homomorphisms from AQ to A. Further, it is proved that the set of all derivations to an abelian Q-quandle A has the structure of an abelian quandle, and inherits many other properties from A. In the end, the ideas are extended to the setting of virtual quandles.


The article shows that changing the pressing in gas-saturated liquid as a result of the flow swirling makes the system unstable because of transfer to the field close to spinodal. The process of degassing at this time is the result of system's entering the field of instability and is manifested as a phase transfer of the first type.


Methods Seventy-nine men (median age 69, range 30 89 years), with lower urinary tract symptoms, were identified prospectively during a 28 month period. For each subject, 2 sequential pressure-flow studies were performed during the same session. Medium fill conventional cystometry was performed in the standing position. Pressure-flow data were recorded during both a voluntary and involuntary void for each subject. Pressureflow parameters were compared using the paired t-test and differences in classification (according to the ICS nomogram) were analysed using the Chi-squared test.


Introduction: Service evaluations need to evaluate the impact of integrated services on individual's. The social model of care takes into account quality of life issues and provides a more holistic account of the potential benefits of integrated care. The hard evidence to suggest that integrated care produces benefits to the service user, carer, family or professional is largely absent and cost benefit not available. Cost efficiencies of delivering care is measured by performance output but whether this can be translated into cost effectiveness when compared to traditional forms of service delivery is not evident. Aim: To develop an integrated care evaluation framework using performance outputs and personal and social outcomes to measure and evaluate the impact of delivering integrated care to older individuals and their households. Method: A realistic evaluation reviewed literature, policy and strategy and stakeholder experiences to understand the context, mechanisms and outcomes associated with delivering integrated care. Results: A service user evaluation framework was designed to understand the outcomes of integrated care over 3 domains. Micro: the individual user, carers and family, Meso: management of services, Macro: Impact on policy and strategy. Conclusion: The evaluation framework robustly and consistently evaluates services, while accounting for differences in approach, context and mechanisms.


In this paper it is proposed to interpret protein coding on a model allowing degeneracy in the central link of a triplet code: namely, that in addition to the "strong" links Au, Ua and Og, Gc, some "weak" pyrimidine-pyrimidine links like Uu, Co or Uc, Cu can also be functional.


This study discusses the flexural performance of rehabilitated composite sections, consisting originally of R/C beams and subsequently strengthened by, Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Polymers(FRPs) and adhesives. Experimentations were peformed with 8 specimens to compare the rehabilitated effect of the length of FRPs, 2plies of FRPs, and 3plies of FRPs. The results show that the increase of the FRP strengthening length is effective on the flexural capacity and strength. Also, R.C beams retrofitted with hybrid FRPs are more effective on the increase of flexural capacity, strength, stiffness, and ductility than with a single kind of FRPs.


A universal system for supplying components from a bowl feeder to an assembly line or directly into sub‐assemblies has been developed by Skinko Engineering


BACKGROUND
Protein can be used as an emulsifier to improve emulsion stability at the interface of water-in-oil emulsion. However, natural soybean protein isolate (SPI) does not meet the high demands as an emulsifier in the food industry. The effect of acylation modification by ethylenediaminetetraacetic dianhydride (0-300 g kg-1 ) on the physicochemical properties of SPI was studied.

RESULTS
The results of the FTIR spectra analyses showed that carboxyl groups were introduced into the SPI structure by the EDTAD treatment. The carboxyl concentration of SPI was increased by 30 % to 74.07 % with the increase of EDTAD addition from 50 to 300 g kg-1 . When 150 g kg-1 EDTAD was added, the surface Hydrophobicity, the emulsifying activity and the absolute value of the zeta potential were increased by 213 %, 120 % and 68% respectively, while the particle size decreased to 247 nm. The droplet size of emulsion decreased to 10μm when pH was 6. At the same concentration of SPI and pH, the absolute value of zeta potential of the emulsion was biggest. A comparison of the emulsions during storage showed the improvement of emulsion stability related to the increase in the zeta potential and the decrease in the average particle size. The experimental group showed no destabilization on the 21st day and no obvious aggregation phenomenon was observed.

CONCLUSION
The acylation modification by EDTAD changed the emulsifying properties of SPI and enhanced the stability of SPI emulsion. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Liver failure in neonates is a rare but often fatal disease. Trisomy 21 is not usually associated with significant infantile liver disease. If present, hepatic dysfunction in an infant with Trisomy 21 is likely to be attributed to transient myeloproliferative disorder with hepatic infiltration by hematopoietic elements and may be associated with secondary hemosiderosis. A less commonly recognized cause of liver failure in neonates with Trisomy 21 is neonatal hemochromatosis (NH); this association has been reported in nine cases of Trisomy 21 in literature. NH is a rare, severe liver disease of intra-uterine onset that is characterized by neonatal liver failure and hepatic and extrahepatic iron accumulation that spares the reticuloendothelial system. NH is the most frequently recognized cause of liver failure in neonates and the commonest indication for neonatal liver transplantation. Although porto-pulmonary hypertension (PPH) has been reported as a complication of liver failure in adults and older children, this has not been reported in neonates with liver failure of any etiology. This is probably due to the rarity of liver failure in newborns, delayed diagnosis and high mortality. The importance of recognizing PPH is that it is reversible with liver transplantation but at the same time increases the risk of post-operative mortality. Therefore, early diagnosis of PPH is critical so that early intervention can improve the chances of successful liver transplantation. We report for the first time the association of liver failure with porto-pulmonary hypertension secondary to NH in an infant with Trisomy 21. Background Neonatal hemochromatosis (NH) is the most frequently recognized cause of liver failure in neonates and the commonest indication for neonatal liver transplantation. Porto-pulmonary hypertension, a serious complication of liver failure in adults and children, has not previously been described in neonates. Trisomy 21 is not usually associated with significant infantile liver disease [1]. Hepatic dysfunction in an infant with Trisomy 21 is likely to be attributed to transient myeloproliferative disorder (TMD) with hepatic infiltration by hematopoietic elements and may be associated with secondary hemosiderosis [2]. A less commonly recognized cause of liver failure in neonates with Trisomy 21 is NH; this association has been reported in nine cases of Trisomy 21 in literature [3]. We report for the first time the association of porto-pulmonary hypertension with liver failure secondary to NH in an infant with Trisomy 21. Case Presentation BGB was delivered at 37 weeks (birth weight 3550 g) gestation by a 37 year old Caucasian woman with a past history of one term delivery, one ectopic pregnancy and one miscarriage. She declined prenatal serum triple screen testing. Cesarean section was performed for non-reactive non-stress test. Apgar scores were 7 and 8 at one and five minutes respectively. The infant was noted to have a vigorous cry, cyanosis, generalized edema, diffuse ecchymoses and petechiae, and physical features suggestive of Down syndrome; the latter diagnosis was subsequently confirmed on chromosomal analysis which showed Trisomy 21. Oxygen saturation in room air was 59% and improved with supplemental oxygen by hood. Initial white cell count was 20,700/cmm, hematocrit 38% and * Correspondence: email@example.com 1 Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Michigan, 3901 Beaubien St., Detroit, MI, 48201 USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Neil et al. Italian Journal of Pediatrics 2010, 36:38 http://www.ijponline.net/content/36/1/38 Page 2 of 5 platelet count 37,000/cmm. A chest radiograph revealed cardiomegaly. At one hour of age the infant was noted to have a loud holosystolic murmur over the precordium. Early persistent hypoglycemia despite treatment was documented. The infant was transferred to a level III NICU for evaluation for a heart defect and non-immune hydrops in an infant with probable trisomy 21. The placental pathology was later reported as hydropic placenta with villous dysmaturity, pigment laden macrophages, and microcalcifications with no evidence of villitis or leukemic infiltrates. At the referral hospital, an echocardiogram showed normal anatomy with evidence of pulmonary hypertension. Direct hyperbilirubinemia was observed on the first day of life (D1) (total bilirubin 10.4, direct bilirubin 3.6 mg/dl). Coagulation studies were abnormal. TMD was suspected; however, flow cytometry, peripheral smear and immunophenotyping were not supportive of the diagnosis. Abdominal ultrasound showed ascites, normal appearing liver, spleen and kidneys, and absence of portal hypertension. On D2, the infant developed hypotension that was treated with escalating doses of dopamine, dobutamine, and epinephrine drips and hydrocortisone. Her liver function progressively deteriorated, evident by worsening coagulation profile, increasing direct hyperbilirubinemia, hypoalbuminemia, hypoglycemia, and worsening edema. Laboratory test results included: normal serum transaminases, ammonia and lactate; serum albumin 1.1 g/dl; AFP 459.3 ng/ml; serum Fe 123 z-mcg/dl; TIBC 160 z-mcg/dl; Ferritin 525 ng/ml; Factor V activity 11%; Factor VII activity 3.2%; factor VIII activity 95%. Microbiologic and serologic work up ruled out TORCH, parvovirus, adenovirus and enterovirus infections. Urine reducing substances, quantitative plasma amino acids, and tests for organic acidemias, fatty oxidation defects and inborn errors of bile acid synthesis were normal. She was supported with blood, plasma, and albumin transfusions. On D3, she was placed on assisted ventilation for persistent hypoxemia. Inhaled nitric oxide was initiated on D7 for persistent pulmonary hypertension on echocardiogram (bidirectional shunting across foramen ovale and ductus arteriousus, tricuspid valve insufficiency, dilated right ventricle with markedly elevated right ventricular systolic pressure of 74 mm Hg; Figure 1) with only marginal improvement in oxygenation. A diagnosis of hepatic failure secondary to NH associated with porto-pulmonary hypertension was entertained. Magnetic resonance imaging of the abdomen was suggestive of NH (Figure 2). A lip biopsy on D8 confirmed hemosiderin deposition in salivary glandular epithelium (Figure 3a). Treatment with double volume exchange transfusion followed by administration of immunoglobulin (IVIG) and an antioxidant cocktail of selenium, prostaglandin E1, N-acetyl-cyteine, desferoxamine, and vitamin E was initiated on D7. However, her cardiorespiratory status continued to deteriorate and she expired on the 10th day of life. Permission for autopsy was obtained. Microscopically, the liver showed diffuse fibrosis, ductular and pseudoductular proliferation, fibrous obliteration of central veins, and hepatocellular and cholangiolar cholestasis. Foci of extramedullary hematopoiesis were identified. No leukemic infiltrates were identified. Hepatocellular and ductular deposition of iron was confirmed (Figure 3b). The pancreas showed diffuse fibrosis without megakaryocytes or leukemic infiltrates. Moderate iron deposition was demonstrated in the pancreas and myocardium but not in the spleen (Figure 3c-d). Microscopic examination of the lungs revealed interstitial fibrosis, focal type II pneumocyte hyperplasia, and few peripheral arterioles with thick walls. The radial alveolar count was less than three in many areas (expected 4-5). Discussion Liver failure in neonates is a rare but often fatal event. Causes include inborn errors of metabolism, perinatal infections, hypotension/shock, and hematological conditions like TMD, congenital leukemia and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis [4,5]. Whereas metabolic liver diseases typically present weeks to months after birth and infectious diseases weeks after birth, neonatal NH presents soon after birth. In NH, the onset of the liver disease is in utero, with end-stage liver disease already established even in the prematurely born infant [6,7]. It is the most frequently recognized cause of liver failure in neonates and the commonest indication for neonatal liver transplantation. In NH, severe fetal liver injury often leads to fetal loss as evidenced by the obstetric histories of women who Figure 1 Color M-mode of ductal flow on echocardiography. In systole (as indicated by the ECG marker) the flow is blue, i.e. from the pulmonary artery into the aorta; in diastole (as indicated by the ECG marker) the flow is red, i.e. from the aorta into the pulmonary artery. Neil et al. Italian Journal of Pediatrics 2010, 36:38 http://www.ijponline.net/content/36/1/38 Page 3 of 5 have had an infant diagnosed with NH [7,8]. Intrauterine growth restriction, oligohydramnios or polyhydramnios, fetal distress and placental edema may be present. Infants who are not stillborn exhibit liver and multiorgan failure within the first few days of life. Jaundice with significant elevations of both conjugated and nonconjugated bilirubin, hypoglycemia, marked coagulopathy, thrombocytopenia, anemia, hypoalbuminemia, edema, ascites, and oliguria are prominent features [6]. Typical biochemical findings include an extremely high serum ferritin level (usually > 800 ng/mL), and extremely high levels of AFP (usually > 200 ng/mL). An unusual characteristic given the degree of liver injury is low or absent serum transaminases. Hepatocellular synthetic insufficiency leads to hypoglycemia, coagulopathy (factors V and VII usually less than 10% of normal, low fibrinogen), hypoalbuminemia (usually less than 2 gm/dL) and decreased iron-binding capacity. Liver histology is characterized by intense fibrosis and cirrhosis without acute necrosis. However, none of these findings is diagnostic of NH. The diagnosis of NH is based on the clinical features of liver failure at birth with extrahepatic siderosis and sparing of the reticuloendothelial system in the absence of other cause


Abstract This two-stage study examined attitudes toward research of African-American graduate students. Stage 1 involved the development and score validation of the Attitudes Toward Research Design Survey (ATRDS). Stage 2 involved comparing ATRDS subscale scores between African-American students enrolled at an institution located in an urban setting and those enrolled in a rural setting. Comparisons were made with regard to research self-efficacy, perceived professional utility of research, and learning preferences. Stage 2 revealed that African-American graduate students enrolled at the urban institution reported moderately higher levels of research self-efficacy than did their rural counterparts. ********** In recent years, studies conducted on graduate students enrolled in research methodology/statistics classes have been the subject of doctoral dissertations (e.g., Faghihi, 1998), journal articles, and other publication outlets (e.g., Phillips & Russell, 1994). Research in this area has found that many students are extremely frightened about taking such courses (Wilson & Onwuegbuzie, in press). These students deem research courses to be the most difficult in their programs of study, often revealing that they would not have enrolled in these classes if they had not been required to do so (Wilson & Onwuegbuzie, in press). Moreover, research indicates that many students struggle in research methodology/statistics classes, culminating in underachievement and negative attitudes toward research (Onwuegbuzie, 1997), although these attitudes can be improved by same-race and same-sex mentoring (Hargrove & Frierson, 1994). However, with a very few exceptions (e.g., Hargrove & Frierson, 1994), studies in this area primarily have involved Caucasian-American students. In particular, little is known about the experiences of African-American students, despite the fact that the latter tend to attain lower levels of achievement in research courses than do their Caucasian-American counterparts (Onwuegbuzie, 1999). In studying African-American students enrolled in research methodology/statistics courses, variables that have a cultural context appear to offer promise. These constructs include learning preferences, research self-efficacy, and perceived utility of research methods. To date, these variables have not been considered simultaneously. Yet, studying these variables within the same framework has the potential to broaden our picture of the characteristics and experiences of African-American graduate students enrolled in research courses. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to compare African-American graduate students enrolled at an institution located in an urban setting and those enrolled in a rural setting with respect to research self-efficacy, perceived professional utility of research, and learning preferences. Method Participants The sample comprised 79 African-American graduate students attending either at an institution located in an urban setting (n = 45) or in a rural setting (n = 34). Participants from both settings were enrolled in a quantitative-based research methodology course. The majority of students was female (82.28%). Ages of the sample members ranged from 22 to 62 years (M = 29.41, SD = 7.33). Instruments and Procedures All participants were administered the Attitudes Toward Research Design (ATRD) survey. This instrument, developed specifically for the present investigation, contains four components. The first component elicits demographic information (e.g., gender). The other three components contain sixty-one 5-point Likert-format items (i.e., "1" = strongly agree; "5" = strongly disagree). These components measure research self-efficacy, perceived professional utility of research, and learning preferences. One component contains 25 items that measure research self-efficacy (alpha = .85; 95% confidence interval [CI] = . …


English ditransitive constructions have received their fair share of attention in linguistic literature. However, a curious omission in the otherwise exhaustive coverage of the phenomenon has been the apparent asymmetry in passivizability between dative ditransitives (constructions that correspond to to-datives) and benefactive ditransitives (constructions that correspond to for-datives). In other words, while dative ditransitives seem to passivize freely, benefactive ditransitives are much more constrained in their capacity to passivize. The present investigation attempts to provide a cogent explanation for this asymmetry by building on the widely-acknowledged assumption that passivizability is a function of transitivity. Specifically, the study adopts Rice"s (1987) notion of "transitive prototype" and argues that the passivizability of benefactive ditransitives is governed by an interplay between the semantics of the ditransitive construction and the various conceptual dimensions of transitivity.


As long ago as 1934 Feng Ch'eng-chun Ǥ*gg (1885-1945) called attention to the importance of Jesuit documents for the study of late Ming and early Ch'ing history. By Jesuit documents he meant letters, reports, relations and other writings by Jesuit missionaries in China of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.1 Up to then only very few scholars had had access to these documents, but since the thirties a number of important works based on them have begun to appear.2


nearly 50 per cent. of the wage-earners, it draws the conclusion "that to show the ups and downs of trade, it is a legitimate method to leave out of account 6o,ooo odd small establishments and confine attention to a comparatively few large enterprises." While such method may be proper enough for some purposes, in order to discover the average earnings, wages, or working time-which the report does not attempt to do-it hardly seems legitimate to exhibit the percentage of increase in the amount of wages paid in a few rapidly-growing establishments as indicating the general increase in business activity and improvement in trade conditions. On page II 70 the report presents a table showing the number of employees and total amount of wages paid from I890 to I899 in 66 of the larger establishments principally in the iron and steel industry. To bring out in a clearer form the striking improvement in I899 over previous years, the wages for each year are com1pared with the average of the period as a base line; I890 and I89I standing at 98, and I899 at 127, as against ioo, seemingly indicate an increase of nearly 30 per cent. But no account is taken of the amount of wages paid during the earlier years in the sinaller establishments that may have been absorbed by the larger ones or driven out of business. Thus we have a plausible demonstration of the truth of the statement in the preface that "the amount paid in wages in 1899 surpassed the prosperous year i892." Such statistics can have only a qualified value to economic students. It is to be regretted that such good opportunities as this bureau has for statistical research should be vitiated by slipshod methods, and that scientific work should be hampered by political considerations. H. L. BLISS.


Chips will be designed with billions of transistors and heterogeneous components integrated to provide full functionality of a current application for embedded system. These applications also require highly parallel and flexible communicating architecture through a regular interconnection network. The emerging solution that can fulfill this requirement is Network-on-Chips (NoCs). Designing an ideal NoC with high throughput, low latency, minimum using resources, minimum power consumption and small area size are very time consuming. Each application required different levels of QoS such as minimum level throughput delay and jitter. In this thesis, firstly, we proposed an evaluation of the impact of design parameters on performance of NoC. We evaluate the impact of NoC design parameters on the performances of an adaptive NoCs. The objective is to evaluate how big the impact of upgrading the value on performances. The result shows the accuracy of choosing and adjusting the network parameters can avoid performance degradation. It can be considered as the control mechanism in an adaptive NoC to avoid the degradation of QoS NoC. The use of deep sub-micron technology in embedded system and its variability process cause Single Event Upsets (SEU) and ''aging'' the circuit. SEU and aging of circuit is the major problem that cause the failure on transmitting the packet in a NoC. Implementing fault-tolerant routing techniques in NoC switching instead of adding virtual channel is the best solution to avoid the fault in NoC. Communication performance of a NoC is depends heavily on the routing algorithm. An adaptive routing algorithm such as fault-tolerant has been proposed for deadlock avoidance and load balancing. This thesis proposed a novel adaptive fault-tolerant routing algorithm for 2D mesh called Gradient and for 3D mesh called Diagonal. Both algorithms consider sequences of alternative paths for packets when the main path fails. The proposed algorithm tolerates faults in worst condition traffic in NoCs. The number of hops, the number of alternative paths, latency and throughput in faulty network are determined and compared with other 2D mesh routing algorithms. Finally, we implemented Gradient routing algorithm into FPGA. All these work were validated and characterized through simulation and implemented into FPGA. The results provide the comparison performance between proposed method with existing related method using some scenarios.


Political parties in Malta may be said to begin about a century ago in the 1880's. Committees, groups, factions and alignments that existed before this date. especially during the time of the Italian risorgimento. did not have the character of parties. But after the increased strategic importance of Malta following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the unification of Italy, at a time when great power rivalry in the Mediterranean and elsewhere became known as ·' the new imperialism", more defined rival groupings emerged to contest political elections as parties. These had a manifesto, a recognisable leadership and base of support. party organs in the form of newspapers. They made electoral battle in the name of the party: candidates contested elections no longer as individuals but as party candidates. Briefly, there were two parties : the so-called Reform Party and the so-called Partite Antiriformista (or Anti-Reform Party). The former was reformist in an anglophile direction, the latter conservative in a patriotic sense. The difference between the parties may be gleaned to some extent from the different type of leader or mentor each had. Sigismund Savona (18371908). the son of a box office attendant who had joined the Royal Malta Fencible Artille:y just after fi nishing school , hailed from Valletta. He became a private. soon enough a sergeant in the army and subsequently won a rare scholarship to the Royal


The issue of hypertext comprehension meets a genuine research interest of educational scientists as the students' learning, and reading, environments grow with the use of the internet and increasingly include not only printed texts but hypertexts also. Therefore, students need to learn how to make efficient and competent use of this new text format [1]. From the viewpoint of educational reading research it needs to be determined whether reading hypertexts involves the same comprehension processes as reading traditional print texts, or whether the hypertext format involves a different set of comprehension processes which need to be taken into account when teaching students to read this sort of material.


The effect of chuck temperature adjustment on critical dimension uniformity was studied for the shallow trench isolation etch process by introducing a temperature gradient in a multi-temperature-zone electrostatic chuck. It is shown that the initial radial critical dimension non-uniformity can be improved by a gradual temperature adjustment of the electrostatic chuck and results in the target specification values of uniformity, 3σ ≤ 1.5 nm, for a critical dimension of about 35 nm. Both temperature and RF sensor wafers were used to analyze the impact of an electrostatic chuck temperature gradient on process uniformity by utilizing their unique in situ spatial and temporal mapping capabilities. Thus, the across-wafer thermal sensitivity of the critical dimension was estimated for dense structures: a temperature change of 1 °C leads to a critical dimension change of ∼0.7 nm. The RF sensor wafer was also shown to have a clear response of RF current uniformity to the electrostatic chuck temperature gradient that suggests there could be other phenomena affecting critical dimension uniformity besides temperature itself. The pure temperature contribution to critical dimension change was found to be less than 0.3 nm/°C for the temperature range studied. Finally, a possible mechanism of critical dimension tuning is discussed and an assessment of each separate etch step's sensitivity to the electrostatic chuck temperature gradient is performed.


Every year more than 1 million biomedical papers are published on the database PubMed [1]. Those scientific papers contain information regarding medical and biomedical research, for instance about protein interactions and the usage of drugs for specific diseases. A main goal in natural language processing of biomedical text is to extract the most useful information and provide it for everyone in a useful format. This, for example, can be done by structuring the information and generating a graph out of it. Previous works used text-to-graph translation models for this task [2]. But those models had two major drawbacks. The first problem is that they are not scalable to large corpora. The information density of biomedical text can be much higher than in any other text and that caused issues in building the graph. The second major drawback is that the used framework is based on discriminative models. Those models do not produce output text rather than just output labels. This implies that the output-graph is limited by the given labels. One solution to those two problems is to use a generative model that produces output text in a natural language. Those models are scalable for large corpora with high information density and predict output strings for given input text [3]. [4] presented a Framework called Translation between Augmented Natural Languages (TANL) to solve many structured prediction tasks. This framework generates sentences for solving tasks like relation extraction, named entity recognition, event extraction and many more. They used a text-to-text transfer transformer (T5) model as basis for their framework to make it applicable and scalable for many tasks. They also used a natural language description with special annotations as output to keep the results as close to the natural English language as possible. The graph can be build by adapting the language description for the event extraction task and post process the output string from the model. The model has shown good performance on previous event extraction tasks. That's why this framework seems well suited for using it for information extraction on biomedical text [4].


The article describes the optimization of the technical support system of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the basis of the experience of carrying out the AOC. Maintenance of weapons and military equipment – is to check its staffing and fitness (working capacity), adjustment and regulation, troubleshooting and deficiencies. The maintenance system should be understood as a collection of interconnected means, executors, documentation necessary for maintaining and restoring the quality of weapons
and military equipment that belong to this system.


To the Editor:

Using the study of affinity-purified IgG phospholipid-dependent inhibitors on the time-course of factor Va generation and inactivation, Galli et al[1][1] demonstrated convincingly that anti–β2-glycoprotein I antibodies induce an acquired resistance to activated protein C (aPC),


Internet facilities in Dormitory Hall Telkom University use a 2.4Ghz wireless network. This facility is used by staff, employees, educators, and students. Therefore, bandwidth management is needed to maintain stability, distribute traffic evenly, and maintain connectivity. The method used is the Network Development Life Cycle (NDLC). The purpose of this study is to stabilize bandwidth usage in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) protocol, distribute upload and download speeds evenly, improve Quality of Service (QoS) through throughput, delay, jitter, and packet loss parameters. The results of this study provide quantitative output for each objective and QoS parameters that can be used as a reference for determining the distribution of bandwidth in accordance with the bandwidth capacity that is owned without disturbing QoS on wireless networks.


Through the introduction of algorithmic systems into police organizations, a new employee emerged: the data professional. Contrary to street-level officers, little is known of the discretionary power of these system-level bureaucrats. Our qualitative research into the Netherlands Police provides a first empirical and theoretical understanding. The study shows that data professionals exert discretion and are aware of public values, but their value-sensitivity often does not translate into responsible practices. Data professionals use a variety of arguments to dissociate themselves from, or downplay, their responsibilities. We conclude that this distancing hampers the connection between the discretion and responsibility of data professionals.


Cultural relic is the carrier of information, such as production, life, science and technology, art and so on. However, due to natural and man-made reasons, artifacts are often destroyed. Excavation site is the most common variety of cultural relics, the need for cultural relics repair. Because the artifacts are generally made on the rotating disk, so the object of this study is the rotating debris. The geometric characteristics of the rotating body are the rotation axis, the contour line, the radius of rotation and the angle of fit. Estimate the overall characteristics of the rotary body have important reference value for computer aided restoration of cultural relics. The efficiency and precision of the axis of rotation, contour is estimated by different methods are different, which will directly affect the follow-up work of this paper focuses on the stitching, from the axis of rotation estimation, contour calculation, rotation radius and central angle calculation is discussed.


Summary: Nursing is a young profession; however, we have not learned from our predecessors. We chose to evaluate current nursing practice with a look to our past as presented in the media. Both positive and negative changes in nursing practice were explored. History informs nursing's transformation if we listen. Content Outline: Transforming Nursing Practice with Lessons from Nursing History


As a preliminary step toward performing respiration compensated attenuation correction of respiratory-gated cardiac PET data, we acquired and automatically segmented respiratory-gated transmission data for a dog breathing on its own under gas anesthesia. Transmission data were acquired for 20 min on a CTI/Siemens ECAT EXACT HR (47-slice) scanner. Two respiratory gates were obtained using data from a pneumatic bellows placed around the dog's chest. For each respiratory gate, torso and lung surfaces were segmented automatically using a differential 3-D image edge detection algorithm. Three-dimensional visualizations showed that during inspiration the heart translated about 4 mm transversely and the diaphragm translated about 9 mm inferiorly. The observed respiratory motion of the canine heart and diaphragm suggests that respiration compensated attenuation correction may be necessary for accurate quantitation of high-resolution respiratory-gated human cardiac PET data. Our automated image segmentation results suggest that respiration compensated segmented attenuation correction may be possible using respiratory-gated transmission data obtained with as little as 3 min of acquisition time per gate.


Mathematics is a subject area that causes a lot of anxiety within many individuals and is oftentimes a subject that is avoided by many. Over time, the approach to teaching this material has been transitioning to include a more interactive and student-centered model. This research study focused on how elementary teachers are implementing Tribes Learning Communities in their classrooms and what outcomes they have observed for students who experience mathematics anxiety. This study was conducted using a qualitative research approach involving a literature review and semi-structured interviews with teachers working in the Greater Toronto Area who have been actively practicing the Tribes process within their classrooms. The findings suggest that Tribes creates a safe and inclusive environment, which helps decrease mathematics anxiety, as students feel comfortable taking risks while actively engaging in the learning process. Moreover, it was found that Tribes fosters an environment for growth mindsets to flourish. The implications of these findings suggest that more needs to be done to support current and new teachers in becoming better prepared to teach mathematics using the new collaborative model.


The influences of machining accuracy on the mechanical losses for motors are elaborated. Analysis is carried out from two aspects: theory and experiment. Author emphasized that in motor production the dimensional tolerance and form and position tolerance must be conscientiously controlled.


The tablet edited here is the only identified source for the compositions ṣēru šikinšu "the snake, its form," and BALAĜ šikinšu, which is a description of birds. In addition, the tablet contains a lexical passage concerning birds, which is one of the manuscripts of Mur-gud C, a commentary to the list of birds in Ur5-ra XVIII. A central concern is the reading and significance of BALAĜ šikinšu, for which a suggestion is put forward that the sign BALAĜ is substituted for MUŠEN "bird" as a hermeneutic device. In addition, an attempt is made to explain the juxtaposition of different texts on the same physical tablet, as a deliberate mechanism for the purpose of highlighting intertextual allusions.


Abstract : A wide range of research related to the deformation, solidification, and vapor processing of materials of importance to the Air Force was conducted under this Work Unit Directive. The primary theme of all of the research was to establish the physics of materials behavior during processing and to exploit this knowledge to improve existing processes and develop new processes. The important results are discussed in the following sections on intermetallic alloys, conventional alloys, advanced modeling tools, composite materials/thermal barrier coatings, and novel processes.


In the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the United States Congress passed the Banking Act of 1933.1 Four provisions of this act have become popularly known as the Glass-Steagall Act (also referred to herein as the "Act").2 These provisions attempt to separate commercial banking from investment banking because affiliations between these institutions were perceived as a main factor contributing to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. By this separation, Congress sought to restore public confidence in the commercial banking system. As such, the roots of the Glass-Steagall "Wall" are steeped in strong and broad public policy considerations.3 The Glass-Steagall Act does not, however, create an absolute barrier between commercial and investment banking. For example, the covered commercial banks are permitted (i) to buy and sell securities on the order of, and for the account of, their customers,4 (ii) to underwrite obligations of the United States


The orientation principle of higher vocational colleges' research generally have the misplaced competition principle,service area and industry principles,characteristics,principles.Higher vocational colleges research should adhere to servicing the teaching,adhere to the direction of applied research,and adhere to the initiative and openness.The values pointing of scientific research of higher vocational colleges are: focus on enhancing the social value of vocational education,enhance the overall competitiveness of scientific research,the pursuit of resource sharing,and something to do certain things.The cut-in point of Vocational college is combining the s research,industry and school.


Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH) is diagnosed in one in 4000-5000 newborn girls. This syndrome is characterized by the female phenotype, normal karyotype 46, XX, congenital absence of the vagina or its upper part, cervix and uterus. The etiology of MRKH syndrome is still unknown, probably due to its heterogeneity. The article highlights and summarizes the literature on the probable etiological factors of MRKH syndrome development, the possibility of the reproductive function realization of patients with Müllerian agenesis. A rare case of leiomyoma in patients with MRKH, possibilities and diffi culties of diagnosis are described in the article. It is shown that the presence of MRKH syndrome does not exclude the possibility of fi broids of diff erent localization.


This article focuses on the problem of choosing a prior for a probability measure characterizing the joint distribution of multiple subject-specific parameters within a Bayesian hierarchical model. A local partition process prior is proposed, which has large support and induces dependent, local clustering. Subjects can be clustered together for a subset of their parameters, and one learns about similarities between subjects increasingly as parameters are added. The local partition process prior is constructed through a locally-weighted mixture of global and local components, resulting in a generalization of joint and independent Dirichlet process priors. Some basic properties of the process are described, including simple two-parameter expressions for marginal and conditional clustering probabilities. A slice sampler is developed which bypasses the need to approximate the countably infinite random measure in performing posterior computation. The methods are illustrated using simulation examples, and an application to hormone trajectory data from an epidemiologic study.


As an important medicinal and edible plant, Chrysanthemum morifoliuin has complex chemical composition with extensive uses, and it has been widely used in food, tea, and pharmaceutical products. The active ingredients such as flavonoids, terpenes, and organic acids isolated from the plant possess a variety of pharmacological effects, for example, antitumor, reducing blood fat, antimicrobial, analgesic, immunomodulatory, and antifatigue activities. The paper focused on reviewing the domestic and international studies on chemical constituents and pharmacological effects of C. morifoliuin during the past two decades, so as to provide a reference for further research and development of the plant resources.


The invention discloses a waveguide horn array, a waveguide horn array method and an antenna system. The waveguide horn array comprises a rectangular metal plate and grooves; a plurality of holes with rectangular sections are machined in the rectangular metal plate in the length direction of the rectangular metal plate, a rectangular waveguide is formed on the lower segment of each hole, and a horn mouth is formed in the upper segment of each hole; the grooves of predetermined depth are formed in the upper surface of the rectangular metal plate, are located on the two sides of each hole and extend in the array direction of the holes. By utilizing the scheme, antennae can keep good performance in bandwidth, directionality and the like, and meanwhile the isolation of transmitting and receiving antennae of the system can be enhanced.


The invention relates to the field of biochemical engineering and in particular relates to a comprehensive treatment process for waste sodium citrate mother solution. The process mainly comprises the following steps: performing sulfuric acid acidation, centrifugal separation, cooling crystallization, centrifugal separation, citric acid solution recovery and other process treatment operations on the waste sodium citrate mother solution, thereby obtaining citric acid and sodium sulfate. According to the process, direct emission of the waste sodium citrate mother solution is avoided, the environmental protection pressure is alleviated, the citric acid and sodium sulfate are recovered, the wastes are changed into valuable materials, and the process has considerable economic benefits and environmental protection benefits.


In this paper, it is proved that the convex kernel of a compact ¿-dimensional starshaped set is the set of points that see all the (d — 2)-extreme points. Certain maximal convex subsets are classified as being intersectionally independent, and the number of these present in a starshaped set leads to an upper bound on the dimension of the convex kernel. Any starshaped set is related to a particular convex set, i.e., its convex kernel. With a review of the basic definitions given below, we see that this association suggests two general problems. First is the selection of a convex set and the analysis of whether it is the convex kernel of some starshaped set. The second is selection of a starshaped set and the analysis of its convex kernel; in particular the dimension characteristics or the construction of this related convex set. General results related to the first problem are given by Klee [l] and Post [2]. Particular conditions related to the dimension question posed in the second problem are given by Foland-Marr [3], Hare-Kenelly [4] and Larman [5]. Generalizations of these conditions are given by Toranzos [6]. In this paper both facets of the second problem are studied. The first section is directed toward the following consideration. It is known that the convex hull of a compact set is constructible by taking the convex hull of its extreme points. Realizing that the convex kernel is the intersection of the stars of all the points of the set, the question is posed whether the convex kernel is the intersection of the stars of the extreme points. An affirmative answer is given for ^-extreme points and a negative answer is presented for extreme points. The second section recalls that the convex kernel is the intersection of all the convex components and with this fact gives a result that relates convex components to the dimension problem.


The kidney possesses an impressive regeneration capacity and is the most performant among all tissues in the body. Yet ischaemic injury to the kidney produces acute tubular necrosis and apoptosis followed by tubular regeneration and recovery of renal function. Although mitotic cells are present in the tubules of postischaemic kidneys, the origins of the proliferating cells were considered until recently as the result of this regeneration capacity of the kidney, whereby the surviving remaining tubular cells start proliferating and migrating along the denuded basement membrane.


PURPOSECancer disproportionately affects people living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), partly because of delayed medical help-seeking behavior (HSB). Our mixed-methods systematic revie...


The exceptionally large charge‐carrier density in photoexcited plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) can be used for the making and breaking of high‐energy chemical bonds, which forms the basis of plasmonic photocatalysis. This review showcases the roadmap of important events and major bottlenecks in plasmonic photocatalysis, along with highlighting a few probable solutions for achieving the desired targets. The review starts with a discussion on various excitation and relaxation pathways, followed by the section on initial use of plasmons in enhancing the photocatalytic properties of semiconductor materials. Next, the sole use of plasmonic NPs in driving useful and industrially relevant chemical transformations is discussed. This is followed by a critical assessment of various challenges and opportunities in the area, along with a discussion on emerging experiments capable of overcoming these challenges. Decades of research have provided a clear understanding on charge generation and decay processes in plasmonic NPs. However, achieving an efficient separation and utilization of charge carriers is still a roadblock in realizing the full potential of plasmonic NPs in catalysis. In short, doing chemistry with plasmons is attractive; but it is high time to develop strategies that can quantitatively utilize the charge carriers for driving chemical transformations in a selective and efficient way.


lthough formal definitions of mathematical concepts have been introduced since the Secondary School (SMP) through high school, but after college students have also use
fundamental concepts, when asked to identify or solve both problems using the concept of shadow or not (Marhan, 2007). This inability of students in using the basic concepts
and definitions of the function of the image can be attributed to the learning of mathematics in junior high and high school The research aims to determine the quality of high school students' skills in memahamai function. To realize the focus and purpose of the study focused on:
(1) high school students Mengeplorasi understanding on the definition and function forms(2) Testing for high school students' skills in presenting function in the representation of different This kind of research is the research by using a qualitative approach to the type of
descriptive research. Object in this research is the class XI student of SMAN 1 Malang Science and SMA Lab School of Malang with the material functions. The collection of
data used to determine which activities: Survey by Questionnaire, observation and testing. questionnaire used to assess students 'attitudes and behaviors in mathematics
learning in the subject and the test functions that are used to measure students' learning achievement
The results showed that: (1) students have low ability in understanding the concept of function. (2) students are more dominant this type of visual learning to understand the concept of function.


The public health impact of the increase in the elderly population of the United States is examined. The demographic aspects of U.S. population aging are first described. The author then analyzes the elderly population with regard to health status number in nursing homes and number in households. (ANNOTATION)


Objective:To observe the change of lipoprotein(a) concentrations and its relationship to the coagu-lative variables in young patients with acute myocardial infarction. Methods: Ninty eight young subjects were divided into 3 groups: (1)acute myocardial infarction(AMI) group( n = 32);(2)CHD group(n =30); (3)normal control group(n =36). Their serum lipoprotein (a), d-dimer, Pig, t-PA and AT-Ⅲ were detected by ELISA. Results: (1) Compared to control group, there were significant increase of lipoprotein(a) in AMI and CHD group (230±60)mg/L and (190±20)mg/L v. s. (110±20)mg/L, P 0. 05), but there was not significant change in latter two groups. (2) D-dimer concentrations in AMI group were more significantly increased than those in CHD and control group(12±5) mg/L v. s. (4 ± 3) mg/L and (2±1) mg/L, P 0. 01); (3) Lp(a) concentrations in multi-vessel disease's patients were more significantly increased than those in single vessel disease's patients ( P 0. 01). Conclusion: The Lp(a) concentrations in the young patients with AMI are incresed, and are positively related to d-dimer concentrations and to the number of damaged corondry arteny.


Summary form only given. In this paper we report the outcome of our comprehensive investigations to study the dynamics of the beam trapping in both bulk crystals and optical planar waveguides made of quadratic nonlinear media in second-harmonic generation configurations. We address and discuss the suitable experimental conditions required to form spatial solitary waves in critical phase-matching and quasi-phase-matching settings.


The influence of a cadmium selenide (CdSe) layer on the thermochromic and photochromic properties of molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) thin films was studied. The films were deposited on glass substrates ...


The primary objective of the study is to analyze the effect of the horizontal definition in the ground motion selection, in which, how the target spectra of DBE and MCE resulted from the geometric mean method and NGA West-2 Sa RotD100, the maximum direction method is different from each other. The analysis of the seismic performance of the building is the secondary aim of the research. The linear design methods of equivalent lateral force analysis, response spectrum and seismic response history analysis are performed based on the Myanmar seismic design code to figure out and compare the building responses such as story displacement, story drift, story base shear, and story overturning moment. In this study, the irregular shaped RC building structural responses are also explored with equivalent lateral force analysis (EQLF), response spectrum analysis (RSA) and linear response history analysis (LRHA). The recent ground motion definition response shows great potential in improving the performance-based design of considered structures.


Today, nurses are crucial staff for healthcare sector. Hospitals are quite selective in the nurse selection. Therefore, the hospitals take into consideration several factors in the nurse selection and utilized different techniques. In this study, analytic hierarchy process which is one of the multi-criteria decision-making techniques was fulfilled. Since there are several criteria in the nurse selection, the nurse evaluation can go wrong. The criteria which affect the nurse selection aims to be weighted with this study. Thus, it can be no error in the selection of the required staff due to the correct weighting. The weighting of the criteria which affect the nurse selection is provided by analytic hierarchy process. The views of experts are taken when determining the criteria. According to analytic hierarchy process, the pairwise comparisons was made for the criteria used in the nurse selection. Consistency test were implemented to see whether the pairwise comparisons are consistent with or not.


AGE OF THE NIEWACHLOW GREYWACKES AND SHALES FROM WIDEŁKI NEAR BARDO (HOLY CROSS MTS)
 Summary
Upper Silurian rocks in Widelki near Bardo (southern Holy Cross Mts) have been investigated. The 8-10 m thick deposit sequence, composed of siltstones and mud. stones, named the Widelki shales, overlays the 50 m thick Niewachlow greywackes. The shales contain the material of volcanic origin indicating sedimentation continuity after the greywackes. The fauna of ostracods and graptolites indicates upper Ludlovian age of the Widelki shales. This age data suggests that the Niewachlow greywacke has originated during a very short time at the Lower Upper Ludlovian boundary. Shales terminate the Old-Paleozoic succession in the Klimontow anticlinorium area. The Niewachl6w greywackes and Widelki shales can not be identified as synorogenic deposits.


The problem for the producer is how to design the discount strategy to inspire the retailer to increase his single orders when customers' demand is uncertain.From the online point of view,Balance-Strategy is proposed in this paper.The strategy not guarantees only the acceptance of the discount for the retailer,but also the cost of the producer as small as possible.Examples are also presented in this paper which show that no matter how the demand changes using Balance-Strategy can guarantee the cost always close to the minimum cost which knows the demand beforehand.Moreover,we compare our model with the traditional ones by examples and show that the decisions made by the traditional models may not be the optimal ones from the competitive view.


The present investigation illustrates the application of mixed hydrotropy. There was significant synergistic effect on enhancement in solubility of a poorly water soluble drug by mixing two hydrotropic agents. The enhancement in solubility of nitazoxanide was more than 10 and 12 folds in 1M sodium benzoate solution (SB) and 1M sodium salicylate (SS) solution, respectively as compared to its solubility in distilled water. The enhancement in the solubility of nitazoxanide in a mixed hydrotropic solutions (SB-SS) containing 1M sodium benzoate and 1M sodium salicylate was more than 17 folds. Thus, a mixed hydrotropic solution of sodium benzoate and sodium salicylate was employed to carry out spectrophotometric analysis precluding use of organic solvents. The tablets containing nitazoxanide were analyzed successfully. Recovery studies and statistical data proved accuracy, reproducibility and the precision of the proposed method. The presence of hydrotropic agents did not interfere in the analysis.


Replay attacks and their associated risks in mobile tactical networks are analyzed and a cooperative joint detection scheme is evaluated. The scheme adopts a combination of duplicated frame detection and link likelihood verification to defend against both local and remote replays. A formal analytical framework is established employing realistic tactical radio models and network scenarios. The results obtained illustrate the network-wide risk of the attack and the effectiveness of the detection scheme.


In connection with his revision and major enlargement of C. D. Sherborn's 1940 "Where is the Collection" Ron Cleevely of the Department of Palaeontology, British Museum (Nat. Hist.), London S.W.7, seeks information on the following geological collectors and collections:- Referred to in footnote p. 20 by R. I. Murchison, 1834, Geology of .. Cheltenham : "I may observe that S. Bendall, the intelligent chemical assistant in Mr. Thompson's manufactory of salts, has begun to collect in so zealous a manner, that I have little doubt he will soon add many undescribed species to our lists. His collection is open to the public". He is probably the same man as...


In this paper, the application of the wavelet transform (WT) to climate time series analyses is introduced. A tutorial description of the basic concept of WT, compared with similar concepts used in music, is also provided. Using an analogy between WT representation of a time series and a music score, the authors illustrate the importance of local versus global information in the time–frequency localization of climate signals. Examples of WT applied to climate data analysis are demonstrated using analytic signals as well as real climate time series. Results of WT applied to two climate time series—that is, a proxy paleoclimate time series with a 2.5-Myr deep-sea sediment record of δ18 O and a 140-yr monthly record of Northern Hemisphere surface temperature—are presented. The former shows the presence of a 40-kyr and a 100-kyr oscillation and an abrupt transition in the oscillation regime at 0.7 Myr before the present, consistent with previous studies. The latter possesses a myriad of oscillatory modes from...


Can India reconcile the needs of ecology and equity against the demands of energy and economy? This is one of the major questions that confronts this developing nation undergoing major demographic, social, and economic changes. India's renewed emphasis on power generation, transmission, and distribution, and associated infrastructuredevelopment, plays a significant role in this growing economy. And yet, this carries both promises and problems for the country's ecology and society.


Energy systems are changing worldwide, and particularly in Europe, where energy policies promote a more sustainable energy production. Variable Renewable Energy sources (VRE) such as wind or solar are benefiting from these policies, but the long term implications need to be anticipated, through energy scenarios. Long term energy models are used, and VRE integration challenges are a hot topic in energy modelling. An assessment of long term energy models is necessary to understand how they represent the specific constraints of VRE on the rest of the power system. Therefore a new typology is proposed for comparing both long term energy models and power sector models. This comparison shows that, despite all the recent modelling efforts, no long term energy model represents in detail the power sector, with all the impacts of VRE. For example, there is no real representation of the electricity storage operation. Therefore we develop a new power sector module for POLES (Prospective Outlook on Long-term Energy Systems), one of the most technology-detailed long term energy models. We present the first results of this new detailed electricity module.


In 1944, Paramount Pictures featured a "Pin-Up Girl" as part of its Unusual Occupations film series.1 The short film begins not in an artist's studio—at the site of artistic production—but rather at a site of the images' consumption: in the drab interior of an army barracks. Accompanied by the spirited drums and horns of "I'm in the Army Now," a young man reclines on the lower level of a bunk bed, reading a newspaper whose contents cause him to frown and furrow his brow.2 Setting aside the newspaper and laying it across his darkolive woolen blanket, an uplifting thought seems to occur to him. He props himself up on his elbow and turns to look over his shoulder, good-naturedly shaking his head with a smile. The camera pans to follow the object of his gaze: a wooden board whose surface is covered with three rows of colorful cards, tacked up at jaunty angles. Each card features a lithe, scantily clad woman against a bright background. Despite differences in settings and costumes, each illustration emphasizes the model's long legs, enhanced by high heels, as the women pose in a variety of environments and predicaments. "The pinup girl is at the [battle] front, too!" the narrator informs us. The camera proceeds to zoom in to inspect the small pictures, panning across the cards and the protruding nails that hold them in place, however temporarily. "Who is the artist, and who is the model?" the narrator asks, interrupting himself to note, "The boys don't care, but we do!"


The functional explanation for increased plant leaf stomatal density (SD) with elevation remains a topic of much debate among plant eco-physiologists ([Friend and Woodward, 1990][1]; [Gale, 1972][2], [2004][3]; [Smith and Donahue, 1991][4]; [Terashima et al., 1995][5]; [Woodward and Bazzaz, 1988][6


Background: Obstructed labour accounts for 8% of maternal mortality in developing countries. Obstructed labour is the single most important cause of maternal death and is one of the three leading causes of perinatal mortality with the case fatality rate of 87-100%. Methods: The 50 patients with prolonged labour and maternal distress with signs and symptoms of maternal exhaustion, dehydration, keto-acidosis, Bandl's ring formed the study subjects. Results: Out of the 50 cases studied the still birth rate was 24% (12 cases). This was due to delay in the referring the cases from peripheral centers. Conclusions: Our peripheral hospital need appointment of qualified personnel and well trained staff, who can recognize any deviation from normal labour and recognize malpresentation and malposition at the earliest and refer such cases to higher centers.


A series of 1-alkylimidazole and 1-alkoxymethylimidazole has been converted to the ionic form. The resulting salicylates and lactates constitute a new category of ionic liquids. They are air and water stable. Some physical properties of these salts were measured, including melting point, boiling point, density and their solubility in some common organic solvents and in water. For 1-alkyl- and 1-alkoxymethylimidazolium lactates values of minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and of minimum biocidal concentration (MBC) were determined. Effects of lactate structure on microbiological activity were defined. In aqueous solution the obtained lactates reacted with ozone, unlike their commercially available analogs.