A numerical method is proposed for calculation of the mixed-mode stress intensity factors at a crack tip in anisotropic functionally graded materials. The method is constructed by developing a pair of modified contour integrals, along with closed form expressions that relate these integrals and the SIFs. Neither a-priori information nor extra auxiliary solutions corresponding to the singular behavior is required for the calculation and so the proposed scheme is applicable for curve cracks of arbitrary shapes in generally anisotropic FGMs.


In recent years, China has achieved notable results with its poverty alleviation program, the focus of which is shifting toward the comprehensive promotion of rural revitalization. The role played by sustainable human resources in agriculture is becoming increasingly prominent. In this context, China's sustainable talent in agriculture is used as the research object, and a neural network analysis method is applied to construct a prediction model of sustainable agricultural talent to forecast its supply and demand. The prediction aims to provide a scientific basis for the strategic planning of talent development for rural revitalization. Based on the forecast results by region and province, we analyzed the level of coordinated development of talent supply and demand to provide a reference for the coordinated development of supply and demand of sustainable talent in agriculture in China. The results showed that a large sustainable agricultural talent demand gap exists in China. The overall talent supply and demand coupling coordination level is low; we found significant differences among different regions and provinces, characterized by decreasing order of the northeast, central, west, and east. According to the socio-economic development level, agricultural economic foundation, and other factors, we divided the provinces into six types for analysis. To promote the coordinated development of sustainable human agricultural resources, talent policy support at the national level is required to reduce the loss of human resources to other countries; at the regional level, the talent environment for rural revitalization should be optimized to increase the attraction of talent. At the provincial level, agricultural and forestry education resources should be created to increase the supply of sustainable agricultural talent.


Academics have been slow to respond to the need for experts in object‐oriented technology and have generally responded by treating the new technology as an addendum to conventional curricula, either through special advanced courses or as final topics in existing courses. A much more radical integration with the curriculum is needed to ensure that the fundamental notions of object‐oriented programming become ingrained in the thought processes of next generation students. This article describes how Carleton University made this radical change by switching to Smalltalk as the primary pedagogic language.


The aim of this paper is to determine the operational quality level of the insurance companies and other companies based on the selected financial and non-financial performance indicators, as well as to perform a comparative analysis of the selected performance indicators in terms of these business entities. Financial performance was analyzed based on the data provided by the Serbian Business Registers Agency database, while the analysis of the non-financial performance was based on the results of the survey conducted in 11 insurance companies and 36 other companies. The analysis of the achieved quality level in the mentioned companies and identification of differences between the insurance companies and the other companies, as well as identification of the independent variables that have the most significant effect on the differences between these two groups, were performed by implementing discriminant analysis, one-way ANOVA and the Mann-Whitney U test. The performed analyses have shown that the differences between the observed companies do not exist in respect of all non-financial performance indicators, or in respect of profitability. The average score of all non-financial performance indicators is 3.1218, and ranges from 2.77 to 3.6158, which points to the fact that companies in the Republic of Serbia are at the medium level of quality management system development. The difference between insurance companies and other companies exists at the level of efficiency ratio and liquidity ratio. An analysis of these financial performance indicators has also detected low levels of profitability of the observed business entities.


This paper describes the theoretical basis for a design methodology which enables control of the fundamental tradeoff between speed, dynamic range, and power consumption in switched current cells. The presented methods are applied to the design of a very high dynamic range current memory cell and simulation results are given.<<ETX>>


PRODUCT TREATMENT AS A.Process BULK GRAIN WITH HYDROGEN Phosphorus (PHOSPHINE). B.ON DONE IN KIND HYDROGEN PHOSPHORUS CONTAINING GAS IN CIRCULE CLOSED LOOP THROUGH THE BULK AND PRODUCTION AREA PHOSPHINE PULSE WITH THE FLOW AND THE DURATION AND PERIOD BETWEEN PULSES ARE SELECTED TO AVOID ACCUMULATION EXCESSIVE OR DANGEROUS GAS AND TO ENSURE THE CONTROL OF oPTIMUM CONDITIONS OF PESTS IN WHOLE SYSTEM AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. GAS IS IN GAPS PRODUCT IS CHANGED BY THE CIRCULATION OF 5 TO 15 TIMES IN THE PERIOD OF TIME NECESSARY FOR THE RELEASE OF 90 PHOSPHINE PHOSPHIDE AVAILABLE FROM METAL C.Application. THE PRODUCTS FUMIGATION IN BULK, SUCH AS GRAIN, WHEAT ETC.


of a paper which was communicated to the Physiological Section at the York meeting of the British Association. The leading facts of the "milk epidemic" have been noticed in these columns; and, stated shortly, they are as follows.] About the end of March of this year, a new form of fever made its appearance in Aberdeen. The feverbegan with the usual symptoms; there was a well marked rigor; then a sensation of coldness for some hours, accompanied with great depression; the pulse was rapid, and the temperature increased in some cases to Io5° Fahr. In the worst Nov. 4, 1882.] THE BRITISH MEDICAL t7OURNAL. 885 cases, there was delirium. One of the most characteristic symptoms was an affection of the deep cervical glands near the angle of the jaw ; the glands enlarged; there were a feeling of fulness about the throat, congestion of the tonsils, and pain along the course of the lymphatics of the side of the neck affected. In from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, the fever subsided, leaving the patient in a state of great exhaustion. In most cases, there was a relapse, which corresponded exactly with the first attack, with the difference that another set of glands and lymphatics were affected. After this relapse, there was again apparent recovery, and then a second relapse; in some cases, there were as many as six relapses, occurring regularly every second day. In nearly all the cases, recovery was slow, and, in some, abscesses formed near the angle of the jaw and in the region of the joints. In three cases, the disease proved fatal. When an inquiry was instituted, it was found that over three hundred individuals had suffered from this disease, and that all the sufferers had been using milk from the same dairy. A sample of milk secured for examination when the epidemic was at its height was found to contain numerous micrococci, spores of fungi and spores which resembled those of Bacillus an1,z;lacis-the organism which is associated with splenic fever. When cultivated, the spores germinated, first into exceedingly delicate bacilli, and then into spore-bearing filaments. On inoculating rats with the milk containing the spores, death followed in from eighteen to twenty-four hours. The tissues of the rats, especially in the region of the neck, were infiltrated with bacilli, which, on cultivation, developed into spore-bearing filaments. Inoculation proved both bacilli and spores to be as virulent as the original spores found in the milk. Confirmatory evidence of the relation of the bacillus to the disease, and of the disease to the bacillus, was obtained by the examination of pus from an abscess over the angle of the jaw of one of the sufferers. This pus contained spores and bacilli similar to those found in, or developed from, the milk. Rats inoculated with a minimal quantity of the pus suffered and died in the same way as the rats infected with the milk and the milk-cultivations. Further investigations proved that the organisms had been added to the milk along with water. The water used at the dairy previously to the epidemic passed through a large concrete cistern (provided with a rough loose wooden cover) placed in the corner of the large byre immediately over the heads of several cows. The spores reached the byre along with the steamed hay used for food, and from the byre they had easy access into the cistern; how they reached the tank in which the hay was steamed has not yet been discovered. Experiments after the methods employed by Burdon Sanderson, Pasteur, Greenfield, and Buchner, showed (i) that this bacillus could not be converted into the hay-bacillus (B. szlblilis) ; (2) that the cultivations became gradually less active until they were quite innocuous ; (3) that, when the filaments were kept for a time at a temperature which prevented the appearance of the spores, the virulence became attenuated, and ultimately disappeared. Further experiments may show that the attenuated forms are capable of affording protection from the active forms. In conclusion, it was mentioned that the bacillus could be cultivated on the fresh cut surfaces of potatoes and in gelatine-the recent methods described by Koch. CREMATION; WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE RECENT CASES IN DORSET, THE FIRST IN


An understanding of Ab responses to polysaccharides associated with pathogenic microorganisms is of importance for improving vaccine design, especially in neonates that respond poorly to these types of Ags. In this study, we have investigated the role of the lymphoid-specific enzyme TdT in generating B cell clones responsive to α-1,3 dextran (DEX). TdT is a DNA polymerase that plays a major role in generating diversity of lymphocyte AgRs during V(D)J recombination. In this study, we show that the DEX-specific Ab response is lower, and the dominant DEX-specific J558 idiotype (Id) is not detected in TdT−/− mice when compared with wild-type (WT) BALB/c mice. Nucleotide sequencing of H chain CDR3s of DEX-specific plasmablasts, sorted postimmunization, showed that TdT−/− mice generate a lower frequency of the predominant adult molecularly determined clone J558. Complementation of TdT expression in TdT−/− mice by early forced expression of the short splice variant of TdT-restored WT proportions of J558 Id+ clones and also abrogated the development of the minor M104E Id+ clones. J558 Id V(D)J rearrangements are detected as early as 7 d after birth in IgM-negative B cell precursors in the liver and spleen of WT and TdT-transgenic mice but not in TdT−/− mice. These data show that TdT is essential for the generation of the predominant higher-affinity DEX-responsive J558 clone.


We introduced a three-tier architecture of intrusion detection system which consists of a blacklist, a whitelist and a multi-class support vector machine classifier. The first tier is the blacklist that will filter out the known attacks from the traffic and the whitelist identifies the normal traffics. The rest traffics, the anomalies detected by the whitelist, were then be classified by a multi-class SVM classifier into four categories: PROBE, DoS, R2L and U2R. Many data mining and machine learning techniques were applied here. We design this three-tier IDS based on the KDD'99 benchmark dataset. Our system has 94.71% intrusion detection rate and 93.52% diagnosis rate. The averag cost for each connection is 0.1781. All of these results are better than those of KDD'99 winner's. Our three-tier architecture design also provides the flexibility for the practical usage. The network system administrator can add the new patterns into the blacklist and allows to do fine tuning of the whitelist according to the environment of their network system and security policy.


The method of discriminant classification of Wuyi yan tea based on multiple chemical fingerprint by conjoining two HPLC chromatograms was studied. The results showed that samples from two raw material cultivars or from two districts could be distinguished effectively by using those discriminant method obtained from the investigation. The recognition accuracy for the training sample set was 100%, cross-validating was above 97% and the recognition accuracy for the testing sample set was about 85%. Those result revealed that it was possible to distinguish or verify Wuyi Yan tea by combining the techniques of multiple chemical fingerprint and discriminant classification.


The reaction of phenylphosphorodichloridate (P.P.D.C.) with various alcohols in the presence of a tertiary base has been studied. With equimolar proportions of the P.P.D.C. and the requisite alcohol in light petroleum, the following compounds have been obtained: phenyl n‐undecyl, phenyl n‐butyl and phenyl methyl hydrogen phosphates. When two molar proportions of the alcohol in acetonitrile are added to P.P.D.C., phenyl bis‐n‐undecyl, phenyl bis‐n‐butyl and phenyl bis‐n‐amyl phosphates may be isolated. By hydrogenolysis (of the phenyl group diundecyl, dibutyl, and dimethyl hydrogen phosphates result.


The results of experimental studies of the convergence of shock waves (SWs) generated by the underwater electrical explosion of a spherical wire array supplied by a current pulse with an amplitude ∼300 kA and rise time ∼1.1 μs are reported. In the experiments, the power and spectrum of the light emission from an optical fiber, the explosion of a copper tube, and the time-dependent resistance of a resistor placed in the equatorial plane of the spherical wire array were measured. A comparison of the experimental data with the results of numerical simulations of SW convergence shows that the SW keeps its uniformity along the major part of the convergence towards the implosion origin.


The paper considers a problem pertaining to control of electric load at enterprises with piece-wise-continuous expenditure characteristics at various electric energy tariffs. Open Joint-Stock Company «Моzyrsol» has been taken an example for optimization of the enterprise operational regimes according to a criterion of minimum expenses for electric energy purchase, a criterion of minimum electric energy expenditure and complex optimization by two criteria simultaneously with two-rate and two-rate-differential tariffs for electric energy. Results of the optimization con-tribute to saving not only electric energy but money resources only due to re-distribution of volume of manufactured products.


A semiconductor device is provided to reduce damage to the surface of a gate caused by a polishing process by performing a wet etch process after a hard mask is partially left on the gate. A gate(30) is formed on a substrate(10), made of silicide. A spacer(20b) is formed on the sidewall of the gate. A source/drain(22) are formed on the substrate, made of a epitaxially grown silicon layer. The gate protrudes more than the spacer. Silicide(24) is formed on the source/drain, made of nickel silicide.


Highly efficient 2D/2D layered heterostructure of nickel oxide (NiO) and molybdenum sulphide (MoS2) has been fabricated for the photo electrochemical (PEC) water splitting and degradation of Bromophenol Blue (BPB) under...


The purpose of this study is to investigate the question to what extent the homogenization of climate data records of snow depth is suitable. A set of consistent and reliable long-term time series of snow depth on a daily scale from selected meteorological sites across Austria is used. The data records were collected by the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) and the Hydrographical Central Bureau of Austria (HZB). They cover a time period from the late nineteenth century until today.


AbstractThe following essay sets out to examine the interrelations between economic processes and social and political change within a single county during the half century before the Civil War. It is argued that in this period a rise in European demand and price of lead improved the fortunes of many Derbyshire families, strongly influencing political patterns in that county. Existing local institutions laid the basis for social change by permitting large numbers of people to own lead mines and so benefit from the new opportunities. This helped to undermine older power structures and produced an increasing conflict of interests among different segments of Derbyshire society. Royal determination to regain a larger share of the lead profits added to these internal tensions, which culminated in the breakdown of the county community into two warring factions in October 1642.


Tear-drop fractures of the cervical spine are relatively rare injuries. Those involving the upper cervical spine commonly occur in older patients following minor trauma. However, they may occur following major trauma like car accidents, falling from heights and diving into shallow water. They are stable injuries and are treated conservatively with relatively good outcome. They are usually not associated with neurological deficits unless they are associated with injuries at other levels. The cause of neurological fallout is commonly due to associated injuries. Tear-drop fractures of the lower cervical spine are usually caused by severe trauma including sports. About 83% - 87% of tear-drop fractures due to sports are accompanied by neurological fallout. Tear-drop fractures of the lower cervical spine are regarded as unstable. The management of tear-drop fractures of the lower cervical spine is very controversial. The controversies are: should all these fractures be managed surgically? If so, what is the best surgical approach? Unfortunately, available literature does not offer convincing answers. Current surgical techniques provide acceptable stability, at least according to biomechanical studies. It is still to be established whether these biomechanical findings are confirmed clinically.


This is the 1st instruction manual dealing with the delivery of family planning services in the Caribbean. It will be of great value to nursing and medical students clinicians and other allied health care professionals. Most of the contributors came from the West Indies because of their wealth of knowledge and experience in the practice of family planning in the region. The material has been crystallized into clear steps to help beginners and quick accurate references for those already in the field. Each chapter has a pretest in the beginning and a posttest at the end to help with selfanalysis. The subject matter ranges from contraceptive technology family planning as a human right to dealing with sexual molestation HIV infection mental and physical handicaps and teenage pregnancy. Students will find useful information about the rationale and significance of family planning its history and essential skills like counseling and communication in depth information on each type of contraceptive is also included. There is a list of recommended activities encouraging the application of learning to real-life situations. And there is a section of recommended references for further study. The material in this manual is designed to be appropriate for Caribbean health professionals but can also be used in countries of similar economic development as well as more developed nations.


The article focuses on liquidity management in Commercial Banks, and presents the steps that a good management has to follow to ensure that the position of the bank is not put into jeopardy following a lack of liquidity. Different management decisions and


In the past few years, the computational linguistics research community has begun to wrestle with the problem of how to evaluate its progress in developing natural language processing systems. With the exception of natural language interfaces, there are few working systems in existence, and they tend to focus on very different tasks using equally different techniques. There has been little agreement in the field about training sets and test sets, or about clearly defined subsets of problems that constitute standards for different levels of performance. Even those groups that have attempted a measure of self-evaluation have often been reduced to discussing a system's performance in isolation---comparing its current performance to its previous performance rather than to another system. As this technology begins to move slowly into the marketplace, the lack of useful evaluation techniques is becoming more and more painfully obvious. In order to make progress in the difficult area of natural language evaluation, a Workshop on the Evaluation of Natural Language Processing Systems was held on December 7-9, 1988 at the Wayne Hotel in Wayne, Pennsylvania. The workshop was organized by Martha Palmer (Unisys), assisted by a program committee consisting of Beth Sundheim (NOSC), Ed Hovy (ISI), Tim Finin (Unisys), Lynn Bates (BBN), and Mitch Marcus (Pennsylvania). Approximately 50 people participated, drawn from universities, industry, and government. The workshop received the generous support of the Rome Air Defense Center, the Association of Computational Linguistics, the American Association of Artificial Intelligence, and Unisys Defense Systems. The workshop was organized along two basic premises. First, it should be possible to discuss system evaluation in general without having to state whether the purpose of the system is "question-answering" or "text processing." Evaluating a system requires the definition of an application task in terms of input/output pairs that are equally applicable to question-answering, text processing, or generation. Second, there are two basic types of evaluation, black-box evaluation, which measures system performance on a given task in terms of well-defined input/output pairs, and glassbox evaluation, which examines the internal workings of the system. For example, glass-box performance evaluation for a system that is supposed to perform semantic and pragmatic analysis should include the examination of predicate-argument relations, referents, and temporal and causal relations. Since there are many different stages of development that a natural language system passes through before it is in a state where black-box evaluation is even possible (see Figure 1), glass-box evaluation plays an especially important role in guiding the development at early stages. With these premises in mind, the workshop was structured around the following three sessions: (i) defining the notions of "black-box evaluat ion" and "glass-box evaluation" and exploring their utility; (ii) defining criteria for "black-box evaluation"; and (iii) defining criteria for "glass-box evaluation." It was hoped that the workshop would shed light on the following questions.


To strengthen the education of college student party members' political view will not only improve their moral quality but also stabilize the society,which is of great importance to the construction of social modernization.Various approaches can be applied,for example,develop their subjective initiative while teaching;Integrating the scientific and value nature;setting up a correct,optimistic and healthy environment of spirit,culture and information by making use of internet technology;putting theories into practice by organizing the students to observe the society.


Introduction: Organ transplantation provides benefits to society as a whole as well as to the individuals who receive transplants. However, the success of transplantation for end-stage organ failure is limited due to the availability of suitable organs for transplant Public awareness is critical for the development of donation program. Methods: Total 200 adult participants were included in the studies from outpatient department by consecutive sampling method. A self-administered semi structured questionnaire was filled by participants in the presence of researchers. Results: Awareness of organ donation (67.5%) was higher than awareness of body donation (34.5%) and cadaveric dissection (32.5%). About 28% and 24% participants were aware of live organ donation and brain death. Willingness for organ donation was observed 21.5% participants, unwillingness in 51.5% of participants and 27.0% in undecided state of mind. Conclusion: Knowledge level regarding organ donation was found sufficient but same did not reflect in their attitude and practice towards organ donation. Educational session of health care professional through internet and television can play critical role in rising up positive attitude towards organ donation. Fear of misuse of donated organ is the most common reason for unwillingness to be a donor.


ABSTRACT Cyclic voltammetry was used to study the electrochemical behavior of new 1,5-benzodiazepine derivatives on a glassy carbon electrode. Well-defined oxida-tion peaks were observed in DMSO. The Electrochemical response of the glassy carbon electrode was evaluated as function of the scan rate, showing that the electron transfer process for compound ( 5 ) and ( 6 ) resulted to be controlled by diffusion. Keywords: Cyclic voltammetry, 1,5 benzodiazepines, Diffusive behavior. e-mail: email@example.com 1. INTRODUCTION Benzodiazepines (BZP) are biologically active molecules widely used as analgesic, hypnotics, sedatives and antidepressants agents 1,2,3 . Among others, there are some differences between the pharmacological effects of 1,4 and 1,5-BZP, for the latter, therapeutic potential and lower incidence of side effects has been described 4 .In addition to the other electrochemically active groups present in BZP core, such as, nitro, N -oxide and carbonyl groups, the drugs bearing the 1,4-benzodiazepine core are characterized by the presence of a relatively easily reducible azomethine


We utilize confined nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation to fabricate one monolayer of gold nanospheres on glass, with narrow size distribution and high packing densities. With a laser fluence of ∼400 mJ/cm2, the size of the nanospheres is as small as ∼50 nm and the packing density is as high as ∼2 × 1010 cm−2. The light heating efficiency is higher for smaller size nanospheres, so the heating and sphere regrowing process naturally results in the narrow size distribution for the gold nanospheres.


Traditional protein microarrays require time-consuming processes of protein production and purification since the protein activities are not stable and the array products could not be stored properly for a long time.Self-assembling protein microarrays utilized cell-free expression system and DNA immobilization technique,which allowed multiple-protein expression simultaneously and in situ immobilization on the surface of arrays.This technology effectively overcomes the problems of traditional protein microarrays,and provides a useful tool for functional proteomics analysis.Currently,self-assembling protein microarrays are primarily used for screening protein-protein interactions,identifying immunodominant antigens and so on.This review focused on the recent advancement and application research on self-assembling protein microarrays.


Using UNITY as a model for asynchronous hardware systems, we give a generic specification of a device that obeys a four phase protocol. The specification is general enough to allow devices with bundled data as well as dual-rail coded ports, and two phase signalling can be seen as a special case. We give a generic implementation of a function cell and show that A. Martin's Adder cell is an instance. Finally, we prove two composition theorems that allow four phase devices to be combined into larger four phase devices. All stated theorems were checked using a mechanical theorem prover and we give complete definitions for all the concepts used in the generic specification.


New terpenyl sulfides of the pinane series have been synthesized on the basis of (-)-β-pinene,cis- andtrans-verbenols, and myrtenol. Screening for the antifungal activity of monoterpenoids of the pinane series has been carried out and a correlation between the structure and antifungal properties of the synthesized compounds has been established.


The objective of this paper is to describe how external effects of transport occur if a resource is used commonly by different agents, of which the property rights are not defined. In a narrow definition, external effects are characterized by three properties: (1) involuntary interaction; (2) processing outside the market; and (3) disturbance of adaptive efficiency. The paper describes how all externalities have to be removed by taxes and subsidies. The optimal level can be computed as the difference between the private and the social marginal cost in the equilibrium situation. According to theorems presented, externalities can be internalized through allocation of property rights and private bargaining. This presupposes that the transaction costs are very low and there are no problems of asymmetrical market power. Externalities should only be removed if the net benefits are positive. The paper also describes how congestions costs, which are often denoted as one of the most challenging externalities of the transport sector, basically indicate that the organization of transport infrastructure management is wrong. Therefore, instead of trying to find out the correct Pigouvian tax, an alternative solution could be to manage road capacities according to private management rules. The quantification of external effects can be done on the basis of neoclassical utility theory or risk analysis. Third, the fuzziness of social cost calculations is by no means an argument to reject public policy instruments for reducing externalities of transport. However, it shows that basing environmental policy on social costing is not enough. It is not a substitute for a clear public setting of goals to achieve a sustainable development of the transport sector. Unlike rigid regulatory provisions, pricing strategies have the advantage that they are flexible and perceptible and can provide strong incentives for behavior consistent with the pursued objective. Finally, while there may be considerable external of transport infrastructure provisions by state, no external benefits of infrastructure use by private agencies could be identified.


In this paper, we propose a new intuitionistic entropy measurement for multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems. The entropy of an intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) measures uncertainty related to the data modelling as IFS. The entropy of fuzzy sets is widely used in decision support methods, where dealing with uncertain data grows in importance. The Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS) method identifies the preferences and ranking of decisional variants. It also allows for a more comprehensive analysis of complex decision-making problems, where many opposite criteria are observed. This approach allows us to minimize cost and maximize profit in the finally chosen decision (alternative). This paper presents a new entropy measurement for fuzzy intuitionistic sets and an application example using the IFS COPRAS method. The new entropy method was used in the decision-making process to calculate the objective weights. In addition, other entropy methods determining objective weights were also compared with the proposed approach. The presented results allow us to conclude that the new entropy measure can be applied to decision problems in uncertain data environments since the proposed entropy measure is stable and unambiguous.


In this paper, the formulas of alkali activated materials (fly ash, metakaolin, GGBS) were prepared by mixing Sodium hydroxide (14 M) and Sodium silicate with suitable mix ratios. The glass fibred (3%) gypsum board and plain gypsum cubes were casted and coated with alkaline activated materials. The mechanical and physical properties were investigated. The cube compression specimen coated with AAMK was 12.96 MPa and the control mix has value 23.7 % lesser than the AAMK.


the Upper Jurassic carbonates formation from a well located in the western part of the Carpathian Foredeep. Qualitative analysis of the T1 (longitudinal) and T2 (transverse) distributions from the NMR well logging was performed to illustrate differences in the plots regarding time position and amplitude of peaks in sandstones, carbonates and claystones. Quick identification of the reservoir zones in the borehole section was highlighted. Porosity values from NMR laboratory experiments, helium pycnometer measurements and NMR well logging were compared and the differences were explained emphasizing additional information derived from discrepancies. Permeability was calculated based on the NMR laboratory experiment results comprising free water, capillary-bound water and clay-bound water. NMR permeability calculations were compared with the results of Zawisza formula calculations and results presented by Halliburton Co. The permeability results were different, but the trend of the changes was similar. The analysis shows that NMR logging is very useful in the qualitative and quantitative interpretation of reservoirs despite the difference between the point laboratory results and continuous curves of logging outcomes. The final conclusion is as follows: to complete proper interpretation of very informative NMR laboratory and well logging data the full information about calibration of measurements should be available.


V. Ambartsumian (1956) has shown that the observable quantity of double and multiple galaxies much exceeds that expected, based on the assumption about dissociative balance. He has concluded that the members of double and multiple systems, as well as the clusters, could not arise independently of each other, and only then to be united in systems, by mutual capture. They should arise in common. Moreover, when in a group are large luminous central galaxies, the origin of the weak members of the group should be caused by activity of a nucleus of the central galaxy (Ambartsumian 1962). On the other hand, recently, there was widespread the opinion that the properties of central galaxies of groups and clusters are caused by interactions with environmental galaxies. Mahtessian et al. (1995) has confirmed the earlier result (Mahtessian 1982, Tikhonov 1987), that there is not sufficiently strong influence on the morphology of galaxies from the environment. Hickson et al. (1984) deduced that in compact groups in which the firstranked member is a spiral galaxy, the relative number of spirals is higher than in the other groups. The population of ellipticals in the group with a first-ranked elliptical member turns out to be significantly higher than in the other groups (Ramella et al. 1987, Wirth 1983). Hickson et al. (1988) has shown that the distributions of morphological types of first-ranked galaxies and all galaxies in compact groups do not differ from each other. The relative quantity of spiral galaxies for all of the sample is 0.49, which almost coincides with the relative quantity of spiral galaxies among the first-ranked members of groups (0.48). Besides in these groups is found morphological concordance. As has appeared, in 20 of 58 quartets, all four galaxies have the same general type (early or late). The probability of such an event, counted from the assumption of independence of morphological types, is small (10-5) . Mahtessian (1982) found that in groups with higher relative number of elliptical and lenticular galaxies among spiral members early spirals meet more often. A study of double galaxies (Karachentsev, Karachentseva 1974, Noerdlinger 1979) determined, that the tendency of pairs have galaxies with close morphological types. Similar conclusion have come by Yamagata (1989), where 16930 pairs of nearest neighbor galaxies were investigated. Dependence of morphological types of non-first-ranked and second-ranked galaxies from a morphological type of the first-ranked .galaxy in loose groups (Mahtessian 1988,1997,1998) has been studied. Compared also are distributions


Excitation systems have been supplied on turbine-generators with response ratios from 0.5 to 3.5, some with high initial response voltage characteristics. Tests on brushless excitation systems have shown that the new model features for alternator-rectifier excitation systems described in this paper provide a good representation of the actual response. Such tests, along with an examination of the new model structures, are presented in this paper. 4 refs.


In 2015, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, goal 3 being to "ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all."1 The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery 2030 estimated that one-third of all deaths worldwide in 2010 were associated with conditions requiring surgery, more than 4 times the number of deaths from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.2 Two-thirds of the world's population (90% in lowand middle-income countries) lacks access to basic surgical care, contributing to approximately 80 million disability-adjusted life years annually.2 In addition, disasters—both natural (eg, earthquakes, storms, flooding) and "unnatural" or caused by humans (eg, infrastructure failures, terrorist events, armed conflict)—create mass casualties requiring urgent surgical care for hundreds of thousands of people annually.3,4 The benefits of improved surgical care for both mass-casualty disasters and daily health care have been documented in the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction5 and the National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anesthesia Plan6 developed by the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery. The converging priorities of surgical and disaster planning indicate that resource integration is key to developing the resilient health care systems necessary to address global surgery needs. An external response (eg, UN, World Health Organization, Red Cross) often arrives too late in mass-casualty events—days to a week or longer—to treat acute injuries that require surgical care within minutes to hours.


The possibility to incorporate wheel chair users into the urban traffic should be addressed within the analysis of the following circumstances and situations: (1) profile of potential users with regard to their limitations of mobility; (2) characteristics of technical aids for mobility; (3) design of roads infrastructure in urban areas; (4) regulatory background; and (5) guidelines for the approval of regulations and their incorporation to traffic regulations, with particular reference to safety conditions. This proposal focuses on people with severe deficiencies in mobility due to impairment of lower limbs and functional or structural restrictions in upper limbs, which will demand an evaluation of their reflex and response to traffic conditions. Analysis of different kinds of technical aids in substitution of ambling ranges from standard self-propelled wheel chairs to modern motorized mobiles geared with standard features and any complements necessary to improve safety conditions. Mapping of urban roads to evaluate their conditions for the use of non-ambulatory persons with technical aids on exclusive and/or shared vehicular an pedestrian lanes, including the implementation of a signal system to improve orientation and safety. Compilation, up-dating and comparison of regulations in force and evaluation of compliance and results in different countries are presented. Recommendations to be included in the traffic regulations for vehicles and non-ambulatory persons with technical aids.


Background

Systemic inflammatory responses play important roles in the development and progression of cancer, including the propensity for metastasis. High neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are associated with poor prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), but the underlying reasons are unclear. Here, we investigated the associations between a range of hematological parameters and T, N, and M stage in patients with NPC.

Methods

This was a retrospective study of 834 patients treated at our hospital for NPC between November 2011 and December 2012. A control group consisted of 647 healthy volunteers. Associations between disease stage and pretreatment laboratory data including absolute white blood cell (WBC), neutrophil, lymphocyte, and platelet counts; red cell distribution width (RDW); PLR, and NLR were analyzed using the Kruskal−Wallis test. Associations with patient survival were analyzed using the Kaplan−Meier method and log-rank test. The relationship between tumor expression of vascular-endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and circulating neutrophil counts was also evaluated in a subset of patients.

Results

NLR, PLR, RDW, total WBCs, neutrophils, and platelets were elevated, lymphocyte counts were lower, and hemoglobin was unchanged in NPC patients compared with healthy control subjects. NLR, PLR, and RDW were significantly associated with increasing N stage (P<0.0001, P=0.0024, P<0.0001, respectively), and NLR, WBCs, and neutrophils were significantly associated with increasing M stage (P=0.0034, P=0.0157, P=0.0064, respectively). Absolute neutrophil counts correlated positively with tumor VEGF expression (P=0.0377). An NLR of ≥2.26 was associated with a better 5-year distant metastasis-free survival rate compared with <2.26 (89.4% vs 85.0%, P = 0.034).

Conclusions

NLR is significantly associated with local and distant metastasis in NPC patients, and absolute neutrophil count is significantly related to tumor VEGF expression, suggesting that these parameters may be useful predictive biomarkers for NPC.


To solve the data hazard of embedded processor,a dynamic scheduling controller is designed.Compared to traditional controller only one single-instruction buffer and some combination logic are added in.In FFT and FIR experiment,the pipeline conflict decreases by 75% and 62.5% respectively which the area increase is only 8.2% of the whole processor.


Background: Nonimmune hydrops fetalis (NIHF) is the abnormal accumulation of serous fluid in more than two fetal or neonatal interstitial spaces due to non-immune causes. It is a serious condition that requires extensive medical care as it indicates severe fetal compromise. Severe anemia, infections, heart or lung defects, and liver disease are all possible causes. Less common causes of NIHP include single gene defects and chromosomal abnormalities.

Case Presentation: We report a 2-month-old girl born at 32 weeks of gestation and found to have polyhydramnios and massive congenital ascites. Whole exome sequencing (WES) identified a biallelic pathogenic variant c.617G>A p. (Cys206Tyr) in the THSD1 gene. She was misdiagnosed to have ascites secondary to liver dysfunction.

Conclusion: Rare causes of fetal Hydrops like THSD1 mutation need to be excluded in cases of recurrent non-immune Hydrops with no obvious etiology.


Influences of the various pumping fluids on the operating performance of 8″ ejector booster type vacuum pump are examined.The fluids used are diethylphthalate, dibutylphthalate and hydrocarbon oil (mean molecular weight=250). Another combined factors, i. e. diameter of throttle, heat input, foreside pressure are also changed together.The authors have gotten some effective informations with these three pumping fluids about the relations between evacuating speed and heat input, boiler pressure and heat input, boiler temperature and heat input respectively.


In recent years, there is a growing interest towards the role of auditory information in sport. The majority of studies in this area focused on the use of sounds deriving from well-executed sport gestures/movements as a mean to improve sport performances, highlighting that such interventions can be even more effective than those based on visual information [1]. On the other hand, there are just a few studies that focused on athletes' response to sounds that do not derive from the self, but that can influence their performances to a significant degree as well [2]. The present study fits the latter perspective, as its aim is to compare the role of visual and auditory information in the discrimination of the speed of penalty kicks. To this purpose, 13 amateur soccer players were asked to discriminate the speed of a soccer ball kicked by another player, according to a two alternative forced choice paradigm. The task was carried out in three conditions: Audio-video, Audio, and Video. Depending on the condition, the stimuli consisted of audio and/or video recordings of penalty kicks from the goalkeeper's perspective; the stimuli were temporally occluded at the moment of football contact, so that in all the conditions, the information available to the participants concerned the run-up of the penalty taker and the impact between his foot and the ball. Participants were instructed to watch and/or listen to two stimuli presented in a rapid sequence in order to discriminate whether the second shot was faster or slower than the first one, by pressing one of two keys on a keyboard. Participants, who were required to be both fast and accurate, were exposed to 60 pairs of stimuli for each condition; after 30 pairs of stimuli, the response keys were inverted to control for the dominant hand effect. The three sessions (Audio-video, Audio, and Video) occurred in three different days, and the order of the sessions was counterbalanced among participants. Both the percentage of correct responses (response accuracy) and the average response times were calculated. As concerns response accuracy, a set of one-sample t-tests revealed that participants' accuracy was significantly above the chance level (i.e., 50% of correct responses) in all three conditions, while a repeated measures ANOVA showed no differences between the conditions. As concerns response times, a repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of the condition; then, a set of paired samples t-tests highlighted that …


We formulate a version of Baum-Connes' conjecture for a discrete quantum group, building on our earlier work ([9]). Given such a quantum group A, we construct a directed family {EF} of C -algebras (F varying over some suitable index set), borrowing the ideas of [5], such that there is a natural action of A on each EF satisfying the assumptions of [9], which makes it possible to define the "analytical assembly map", say μ i , i = 0, 1, as in [9], from the A-equivariant K-homolgy groups of EF to the K-theory groups of the "reduced" dual Âr (c.f. [9] and the references therein for more details). As a result, we can define the Baum-Connes' maps μri : lim −→ KK i (EF , C| ) → Ki(Âr), and in the classical case, i.e. when A is C0(G) for a discrete group, the isomorphism of the above maps for i = 0, 1 is equivalent to the BaumConnes' conjecture. Furthermore, we verify its truth for an arbitrary finite dimensional quantum group and obtain partial results for the dual of SUq(2).


We present a drift-diffusion model of semi-insulating n-GaAs detectors, taking into account the presence of hot-carrier dynamics, conduction band features and the kinetics of trapping and detrapping from deep and shallow centres. We provide unambiguous evidence of a field-enhanced capture cross section for EL2 and EL3 centres as conjectured by McGregor [1] for the case of EL2. This result is shown to be strictly correlated with the active thickness of the detector varying almost linearly with the applied voltage, in excellent agreement with recent experimental measurements performed with the Optical Beam-Induced Currents (OBIC) technique. Evidence of Poole-Frenkel effects at the highest applied voltages is provided by the current-voltage characteristics.


AIM
The study has been commenced to discover the potential of sodium dependent glucose co-transporters (SGLT) in neuroprotective mechanism of ischemic postconditioning (iPoCo) in diabetic and non-diabetic mice.

METHODS
Cerebral ischemic injury in mice was induced by bilateral carotid artery occlusion (BCAO) for 12min followed by reperfusion for 24hr. For iPoCo three episodes of carotid artery reperfusion and occlusion of 10 sec each was instituted immediately after BCAO followed by 24 hr reperfusion. Learning and memory was evaluated using Morris water maze test. Motor coordination was assessed using rota rod test, inclined beam walking test, neurological severity score (NSS) and lateral push response. Glutathione and Thiobarbituric acid reactive species level was quantified to evaluate the oxidative stress; cholinergic activity of brain was estimated in term of acetylcholinestrase activity; and the levels of myeloperoxidase were measured as inflammation marker. Cerebral infarct size was evaluated using triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. Fasting blood glucose levels of animals were taken before and 6 hr after surgical procedure.

RESULTS
BCAO resulted in impairment of memory and motor coordination and biochemical alterations along with marked rise in cerebral infarct size and NSS. iPoCo diminished the deadly effect of BCAO in non-diabetic mice however failed to abolish the deleterious effects of ischemia reperfusion injury in diabetic mice. Pretreatment of Phlorizin (SGLT-inhibitor) potentiated the neuroprotective effects of iPoCo in non-diabetics and restored the protective effect of iPoCo in diabetic mice.

CONCLUSION
It may be concluded that neuroprotective effect of iPoCo is abolished in diabetic mice and SGLT plays an important role in neuroprotection.


This article offers a panoramic view of the theoretical and epistemological foundations of Biblical research in the periods called Modernity and Postmodernity. It studies the relations of Biblical research with the Philosophy of the subject and with instrumental reasoning, characteristics of a good part of modern thought, synthetically describing its paradigmatic crises in the present. Finally, it offers, by way of the new possibilities opened up by the feminist reading and the grass roots reading of the Bible, the description of a possible new paradigm for Biblical research, centered on the texts and on human action, based on the incorporation of the new contemporary epistemic possibilities. The intention of the article is to contribute to the theoretical dialog happening in the current field of Biblical research.


: Recently, it has become possible to make use of not only simple purchase history but also acquire various types of information. For example, we can get the information related to items (auxiliary information) and the information related to users (attribute information). Therefore, it is expected to analyze these various kinds of data in order to investigate customers' purchasing behavior for marketing purposes. For that reason, the KGAT model, which learns user preferences by modeling the relationship between users, purchase items and their auxiliary information, has been proposed. In this model, the users' preference can be interpreted by using the auxiliary information of items and this interpretability can be useful for planning marketing policies. But, the users' attribute information cannot be considered in KGAT, so we cannot in-terpret users' purchase behavior in the viewpoint of users' attribute information. Therefore, this research proposes a model that enables more diversified analysis by extending KGAT by using not only auxiliary information of items but also the relationship between users and their attribute information. Finally, we apply the proposed method to the evaluation of historical data of actual EC sites and show the usefulness of the proposed method.


The selection and optimization of environmental protection measures in villages were analyzed and discussed by taking Tangfang village of Kuijiao town in Zhaotong as a case.


Increased life expectancy has extended the shared lifetime of grandparents and grandchildren. Various theoretical approaches focus on either grandparents, or on grandchildren's development, or on the family. In this overview, results of empirical studies of grandparenthood and on the relationships between grandparents and grandchildren are presented. Research has shown that for most women committed grandmotherhood is associated with life fulfillment, and grandmotherhood appears to open up new perspectives for older age. The paper also discusses changes of grandparent roles as consequence of parental divorce, as well as the grandparents' part in the political socialization of their adolescent grandchildren.


Purpose
This study aims to find the determinants of internal and external customer satisfaction of Islamic banks of Pakistan through service quality indicators that are assurance, reliance, empathy, tangibility, responsiveness. Compliance has also been added as a determinant of customer satisfaction. In this study, customers are divided into two groups, internal customers are those who are an employee in the Islamic bank and also an account holder. While external customers are account holders only in Islamic banks of Pakistan.

Design/methodology/approach
In this study, a quantitative research approach is used for analyzing the behavior of internal and external customers of Islamic banks in Pakistan. The instrument which is used to analyze the study's data, is a structured five-point Likert-scale questionnaire. The structural model was analyzed with the help of the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach.

Findings
This study concluded that internal customers of Islamic banking are well aware and have full information and their level of satisfaction is positive toward the bank's services. While external customers feel satisfied while using the Islamic banking services in Pakistan. Service quality indicators are positively and significantly related to customer satisfaction in the external customer model. On the other hand, some of the indicators are not showing a significant impact on the internal customer multi-group analysis shows a difference of coefficients are insignificant between internal and external customers.

Practical implications
This study helps policymakers, to understand the behavior of internal and external customers of Islamic banking in Pakistan for creating favorable policies for an interest-free banking service.

Originality/value
This research study provides an analysis of the customer satisfaction of Islamic banks in Pakistan by dividing Islamic bank customers into two groups (internal and external customers). The purpose for dividing Islamic bank customers into two groups is that this study wants to highlight that external customer's perception is the same as internal customers or not? Before this study, it is difficult to find single research on this topic, whereas only one study is find-out on the factors that affect internet banking adoption among internal and external customers.


We give a direct proof of the magnetic Aharonov-Bohm effects without using the scattering theory and the theory of inverse boundary value problems. This proof can serve as a framework for a physical experiment to confirm the magnetic AB effect. We prove also the electric AB effect and we suggest a physical experiment to demonstrate the electric AB effect. In addition, we consider a combined electric and magnetic AB effect and we propose a new inverse problem for the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equations. Finally we study the gravitational AB effect.


Objective To establish the method of detecting platelets membrane protein GMP-140 by FCM,and to analyse the expressive effect of GMP-140 after by acting cell factor.Methods Salt water,TPO and GM-CSF were incubated with plates in room tempreture and divided into control group and experiment group.The expression of plate CMP-140 was determined by FCM through adding antibodies conjugating fluorescence.Results The expression of plate GMP-140 was significantly higher in 125ng/ml TPO group compared with that of salt water control group(P0.001),and there was no statistical diffenrence between 100 ng/ml GM-CSF group and control group(P0.5).Conclusion The FCM method to detect plate GMP-140 is success.125 ng/ml TPO could activate plates and 100 ng/ml GM-CSF couldn't in vitro.


The advantage of multimedia teaching is realized by altering individual perception.Furthermore Barsalou(1999)put forward the new viewpoint—the perceptual symbol theory that the perception system can represent information as cognition system.Its way of representation is perceptual symbol.The perceptual symbol theory break the limit to designating and carrying out multimedia caused by the propositional symbol theory.So the multimedia teaching is given an irreplaceable place by the perceptual symbol theory.


In the previous number of the Revue francaise de science politique, Bruno Latour proposes that science studies and political science unite their efforts to work on common objects according to a renewed approach of "science" and "politics". Pierre Favre answers these propositions by granting at first to the author that both disciplines have numerous objects of study in common, even if certain perspectives diverge outstandingly. But he refuses to follow Latour on the major presuppositions of his approach. He disputes the assertion of Latour according to which we cannot distinguish "science" and "politics" which would have no different domains. He disagrees with the Latour conception of a science finally deprived of any cognitive capacity. To follow this extreme version of science studies, political science would not be scientific any more. Latour does not seem itself to be able to apply its own program, actually self-refuting.


Iron grafted over mesoporous silica (8 wt %Fe/SBA‐15) is a sustainable, efficient heterogeneous iron catalyst for direct arylation of biphenyl methane C(sp3)−H and benzene C(sp2)−H bonds. The selective extraction deposition (SED) technique was adopted to graft iron easily over the mesoporous support SBA‐15 by using LaFeO3 as an iron precursor. The synthesized catalyst has been characterized by EPR spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance UV/Vis spectroscopy, and temperature programmed reduction (TPR) analysis to understand the coordination environment and state of oxidic iron species grafted over the mesoporous SBA‐15. TPR results confirm the presence of isolated, clustered, oligomeric oxidic iron species in the catalyst. The adopted SED technique is highly successful for grafting 8 wt % iron into the mesopores of SBA‐15 without forming iron oxide particles. Unlike homogeneous iron, the 8 wt %Fe/SBA‐15 catalyst does not need support from an electron‐withdrawing group and additives to carry out arylation of benzene and could be successfully recycled five times.


Angiographically determined changes in segmental wall motion (SWM) and ejection fraction (EF) are sensitive indices of left ventricular (LV) function. To compare the effects of exercise on LV function, first pass radionticlide angiocardiography was used before and during maximal upright bicycle stress in patients with nonsignificantly stenosed coronary arteries, and in those with > 75% stenosis. Gamma camera acquisitions were made in the 30° RAO projection using a 20 mCi I.V. bolus of 99mTc-pertechnetate. In the control group (seven normals, one nonsignificant CAD) the EF significantly increased between rest and exercise (0.65 ± 0.03 to 0.81 ± 0.03 (mean ± SEM), p lt; 0.005). In this group SWM measured over the two anterior and two inferoposterior segments uniformly increased. In the 11 patients with a history of angina and significant coronary artery obstruction, the EF did not change in three and significantly decreased in the remaining eight (0.57 ± 0.04 to 0.45 ± 0.03,p lt; 0.005). In all 11 patients SWM either decreased or did not increase in the areas supplied by the significantly stenosed coronary arteries. Upright maximal stress angiocardiography appears to be well-suited for diagnosing ischemic heart disease and localizing the area of ischemic dysfunction.


In the third year of Han Gaodi(before 204 BC),the famous battle between Han and Zhao in Jingxing broke out around the area of Pingding and Luquan of the present Shanxi and Hebei provinces.The saying by Zhao Guang,Wu Jun and Li Zuoche as "On the Jingxing road,the car must not side track,not into a ride out," refers to the most rugged and steep terrain between the towns of Baijing and Tianchang,now the down town section of Jingxing.The main battlefield "back water front" made by Hanxin was located in the water town,the area between Yanfeng Village and Changan Town of Jingxing today,which is the only place to be seen for the trail of the battle of hundreds and thousands of troops.


Aims: To study the obstetrical complications in women with first trimester bleeding, to evaluate the perinatal outcome in women with first trimester bleeding, to prognosticate the obstetrical and perinatal outcome based on severity of first trimester bleeding, and to compare it with the obstetrical and perinatal outcome in women having normal pregnancy. Materials and methods: This study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, PBM and associated group of hospitals attached to Sardar Patel Medical College, Bikaner, India, during the study period of 1 year, i.e., January 2014 to December 2014. Results: The percentage of stillbirth in study group was 4.9% and in control group it was only 1%. The percentage of early neonatal death in study group was 3.7% and in control group was 2.1%. The difference was found statistically highly significant (p < 0.001). According to antenatal complications, all the parameters were statistically insignificant (p > 0.05) except pregnancy-induced hypertension preterm labor and antepartum hemorrhage where the difference was found statistically significant (p < 0.05), and abortion where the difference was found statistically highly significant (p < 0.001). Conclusion: In conclusion, considering the results of our study, first trimester vaginal bleeding can be a predicting factor for adverse outcome of mother and infant. It is necessary to increase the knowledge of pregnant women in this regard for close observation. Also, the study is appropriate because the clinical intervention of attentive obstetrician has important role in not only the continuation of pregnancy but also decreasing fetal complications in these high-risk pregnancies.


A method of precisely estimating the /spl alpha/ factor for electroabsorption-type optical-intensity modulators is described. This method takes into account the nonlinearity of extinction-ratio characteristics. It yields smaller /spl alpha/ factor values than the conventional method under linear extinction-ratio characteristics for large-signal modulation. InGaAs/InAlAs MQW modulators are consequently shown to have an /spl alpha/ factor of less than 1.0 under actual driving voltages.<<ETX>>


This thesis gives some applications of the theory of folding of A-graphs. In the first application, we investigate the relationship between the bridge number of a knot k, a geometrically defined invariant of the knot, and the meridional rank of the knot group G(k). We give a new proof that these two invariants coincide if k is a torus knot. With similar techniques we show that the same holds if k is a knot whose complement is a graph manifold. Next, we study killers of knot groups. We prove that the group G(k) of any cable knot k contains infinitely many killers, none of which is the automorphic image of another. As a corollary we show that if k is a knot whose complement is a graph manifold, then G(k) has the same property. Finally, we study generating sets of planar discontinuous groups. We show for a large class of planar discontinuous groups that there are only finitely many Nielsen equivalence classes of generating tuples.


Since the 1980s there has been an explosion in the use of formalized methodologies for increasing quality and efficiency. Methods outlined by philosophies such as Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, Lean, and ISO 9001 have yielded great returns in the manufacturing environment. These techniques have proven successful in reducing costs, increasing production, and improving quality in both manufacturing and service environments. After several generations of exposure to similar yet distinct philosophies of quality management, several hybrid methodologies have arisen to leverage the strength of two or more systems simultaneously (Dahlgaard and Dahlgaard-Park, 2006; Karthi et al., 2011). Since health care has become an area of continued attention in the pursuit of reducing government waste, it is a natural candidate for the application of the systematic and data driven techniques defined by TQM, Six Sigma, Lean, and ISO 9001 philosophies. The nature of healthcare as a service necessary for wellbeing, the presence of 3 party payers, and the non-employee relationship between hospitals and healthcare providers contribute to presenting unique challenges when implementing quality improvement initiatives. This paper performs a literature review of the relationship between quality management practices and their effects on quality outcomes focusing on the unique challenges to implementing quality improvement initiatives in a healthcare setting. An approach is suggested using elements of TQM to create a standardized management structure and organizational focus (Irani et al., 2004; Taveira et al., 2003), lean to identify waste, six sigma to reduce redundancy and monitor processes so that small tests of change can be effectively monitored via the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) cycle, and ISO 9001 to ensure that monitored processes are documented and enforced. Previous studies have shown Baldrige Award (for Performance Excellence) winning hospitals to have better patient safety records than similar hospitals that have not won the Baldrige Award (Denney et al., 2009; Foster, 2011). We continue this investigation by comparing patient safety in hospitals that choose DNV accreditation to hospitals that choose another accrediting body. The DNV hospital accreditation organization "seamlessly introduces ISO 9001 quality methods into the hospital setting." If the assumption is made that hospitals focused on standardization and process oriented quality improvement initiatives would choose the accreditation agency most closely aligned with its quality improvement philosophy, then DNV accredited hospitals would represent a more process-oriented population than their peers. This paper investigates whether a hospital's investment in a formalized methodology of quality improvement translates into better performance on select AHRQ and SCIP measures of patient safety, patient satisfaction via the HCAPS survey, readmission rates for select conditions, and hospital acquired conditions by comparing DNV accredited to non-DNV accredited hospitals. Background Many cite the inception of total quality management with a specific publication such as 'The Principles of Scientific Management' by Frederick W. Taylor In 1911. Others would only include later more comprehensive works such as those developed in the 40s by Americans such as Deming, Juran and Feigenbaum using Japan as a laboratory and proving ground for their ideas. Still others would only consider incarnations of these principles arising from modern organizations present in the current market valid, such as the Six Sigma system developed by Motorola in the 1980s. The 1990s brought the Lean methodology stemming from the Toyota total production system, where even human intervention was pushed through the sieve of waste reduction. This paper seeks to bring the goal and tacit knowledge of each method under common roof referred collectively as Process-oriented quality management (PQM) . The principles underlying each of these techniques represent objective fundamentals in the goal of maximizing the ratio of reward to effort. The progression and refinement of explicit knowledge in these areas is not representative of competing philosophies, but rather a hill climbing toward a global maxima in fitting specific techniques to a hidden and highly dimensional ideal. For this reason, the management architectures discussed below are not considered distinct or even milestones, but rather a progression along a gradient with each of the methods having highly overlapping borders with the others. In this way PQM begins with the perfecting of the hand axe by Paleolithic man, progresses through the industrial revolution, and comes of age in the modern incarnation of precise analysis and disambiguation. Any system of quality management is implemented via the acquisition, acceptance, and dispersion of knowledge. At the core of successful business implementations of quality management philosophies are individuals with a common understanding, vocabulary, and motivation to effect change in their organization. Before the efficacy of a methodology can be evaluated, there must be a reductionist elucidation of the functional components that fall under a common moniker. We investigate TQM, LEAN, SIX SIGMA, and ISO9001 with the goal of understanding explicit knowledge of the practices and tools used in their implementation. Since adaptation of specific cases and generalization is needed for philosophies underlying the tools and methods to be applied across companies and industries with distinct cultural, economic, and organizational makeup, tacit knowledge is also addressed with the goal of providing a generalized framework for the application in the healthcare industry. Proponents of differing schools of quality management, often fueled by consulting firms specializing in one philosophy or another, often cite the differences in quality management regimens in order to bolster the results of the training or certification they have to offer over competing schools of thought. This out with the old in with the new sales pitch has left many who have been present for more than one quality paradigm shift with the feeling of being sold the "same old wine in new bottles" Since there is often a financial incentive to portray the system of guiding principles, techniques, and tools as being unique and novel, there is a force internal or external of company management to buy in whole heartedly to a single program. This paper views the common goals of customer focused reduction of waste through consistent executive and managerial goals by focusing on processes and implementing standardization and measurement to be the result of using a synthesis of PQM methods. TQM: The Primary strength of TQM is in the mature management structure developed by soliciting data and feedback from front line personnel. Successful implementation of a quality improvement initiative requires buy in from the top executive layer to provide the necessary human and capital resource. In fact, executive buy-in has been shown to significantly correlate with outcome measures of hospital performance in the Italian health system (Macinati, 2008). According Hayes (2007) "executive engagement is one of the most critical factors for Six Sigma to succeed." There should also be substantial acceptance and contribution from the front line staff. This coherence of mission is fostered under TQM by setting "Core Values" that represent the shared observations and tacit knowledge of all levels in the corporation. TQM makes the assumption that employees want to do a good job, and will seek to find ways to better service the customer if they are empowered to do so. In TQM management feedback is solicited from those closest to the process. The involvement front line staff in quality improvement initiative decision making ensures that there is a homogonous dedication to the patient. The lack of such involvement can lead to the view that quality improvement is being forced upon staff by administrators that are out of touch with the reality of day to day operations. This can lead to poor staff compliance. The original 14 points made by Deming are summarized below. The 14 points. Summarized by the Edward Deming institute http://deming.org below 1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs. 2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change. 3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place. 4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust. 5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs. 6. Institute training on the job. 7. Institute leadership (see Point 12 and Ch. 8). The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers. 8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company (see Ch. 3). 9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service. 10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and


Background/purpose – COVID-19 has forced many people to face psychological problems, with already difficult living conditions having become progressively more challenging. Individuals with low prepandemic levels of communication anxiety saw those levels increase, which negatively affected their self-efficacy. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effect of fear of COVID-19 on the relationship between communication anxiety and self-efficacy. Materials/methods – Three measurement tools were used to perform analyses regarding the purpose of the research;the Communication Anxiety Scale, the Self-efficacy Scale, and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale. Along with these variables, the moderating effect of COVID-19 fear was examined. IBM's SPSS 25 package program and Hayes's process were used to perform the analysis. Data from 393 participants were included in the analysis within the scope of the research. Results – In the model in which the moderating effect of COVID-19 fear was examined, it was concluded that fear of COVID-19 worsened the relationship between communication anxiety and self-efficacy. In addition, a negative and significant result was obtained between communication anxiety and self-efficacy. Conclusion – According to the results obtained from this research, fear of COVID-19 increases communication anxiety and decreases self-efficacy. At the same time, fear of COVID-19 had a negative moderating effect on the relationship between communication anxiety and self-efficacy. This research was completed by analyzing the variables, presenting the results, forming a discussion, and with suggestions put forward. Copyright © 2021


A biomimetic process was developed to prepare two groups of -tricalcium phosphate/ apatite composites, sample 1 and sample 2. First, porous -tricalcium phosphate scaffold material was prepared by a multiplex method, which integrated foam technique in porous ceramics preparing and three-dimensional gel-lamination technique in rapid prototyping. Subsequent immersion in a solution with 1.5 times ion concentrations of simulated body fluid (1.5 SBF) led to the formation of sample 1. Different from sample 1, the preparation of sample 2 involved a pre-soaking of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution before immersion in 1.5 SBF. They were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mercury intrusion porosimetry, wide angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Further, MTT assay was used to investigate the attachment and proliferation of mouse preosteoblastic cells cultured on the composites. The cells morphology on the materials was observed by SEM. XRD and FT-IR measurements showed that two composites consisted of a normal -tricalcium phosphate structure and bone-like apatite formation on their surface. When cells were cultured on two scaffolds, no proliferation inhibition was found. Osteoblasts attachment of sample 2 was significantly better than that of sample 1 after 1 and 3 days of culture. These results suggest that two composites are promising materials for bone repairing and provide further basis for the use of -tricalcium phosphate/ apatite composite as the scaffold in bone tissue engineering.


© BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2021. No commercial reuse. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. DESCRIPTION A 52yearold man presented with a 6month history of lower limb swelling that has acutely worsened over the last month. He was diagnosed with syphilis more than 5 years ago. Plain radiograph of the knee done on presentation demonstrated deformity, debris, disorganisation and maintenance of bone density, consistent with neuropathic arthropathy (figure 1). MRI revealed loss of normal morphology of the muscles in the anterior compartment of the left shin, with areas of heterogeneous cystic change and lack of contrast enhancement (figures 2 and 3). These imaging findings are consistent with myonecrosis. The posterior compartment of the left calf was relatively spared. Secondary infection of the necrotic muscles occurred and the patient had to undergo multiple sessions of debridement, which nonetheless failed to clear the necrotic/infective tissues. Tissue cultures grew methicillinsusceptible Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. He eventually underwent an aboveknee amputation (AKA) for infection source control. The team chose to proceed with an AKA instead of a belowknee amputation as the soft tissues below the knee were deemed too unhealthy for proper wound coverage and also to optimise prosthesis function postoperatively. Syphilis is caused by infection with Treponema pallidum, a spirochete bacterium that is usually sexually transmitted. Syphilis has reemerged in several regions including North America, Europe and China, largely due to hostassociated factors such as highrisk sexual activity, migration and travel. 2 While early, uncomplicated syphilis is easily treatable with a single intramuscular injection of benzathine penicillin G; treatment might not undo any irreversible damage the infection has already done to the cardiovascular and nervous system. Tabes dorsalis is a manifestation of late tertiary neurosyphilis, seen in 2%–9% of patients in untreated syphilis. Tabetic arthropathy occurs in 6%–10% of these patients. Tabetic arthropathy can present up to 30 years after the primary syphilis infection. Most cases of tabetic arthropathy are diagnosed on the basis of radiological findings with positive serological and/or spinal fluid results. The destructive process of the bone and joint is believed to be due to the absence of normal protective sensory feedback. This predisposes the patient to repetitive trauma and injury, causing progressive joint destruction. The radiographical features of a Charcot joint have traditionally been described as six 'D's, namely, density (osteopenia or sclerosis),


Cellular handsets include multiplexers where several RF filters are connected to a common antenna. As band count and carrier aggregation (CA) requirements continue to expand, filter loading loss becomes increasingly important. Filters load each other as their out-of-band reflection coefficients are decreased by dissipated energy within their acoustic resonators. TC-SAW, composed of SiO2/LiNbO3, exhibits loading losses at frequencies above the passband, due primarily to guided mode effects. These loading losses lead to insertion loss degradation within the multiplexer as a whole. Reduction of the loading loss will therefore contribute to performance improvement of the multiplexer. This study proposes 12[x]°YX-LiNbO3 bonded on a high impedance substrate to provide a wide-band clean reflection coefficient. By using the proposed substrate configuration, the reflection coefficient improves significantly over a very wide frequency range because of better acoustic wave trapping by a support substrate. To verify the mechanism of this feature, a parametric sweep study was conducted by piezoelectric simulations. Experimental resonators were fabricated and verified, exhibiting a good reflection performance over a wide frequency span. This paper proposes 12[x]o YX-LiNbO3 bonded on a high impedance substrate as a candidate structure for high-performance multiplexer solutions. Simulated and fabricated resonator responses show excellent reflection coefficient over a wide frequency span.


A comparative study of the optical properties of Tm3+ in LiYF4 (YLF) and LiLuF4 (LLF) crystals is presented. Room temperature polarized absorption spectra and fluorescence spectra for Tm3+ in LYF and LLF were measured and analysed. By applying the Judd–Ofelt approach, the intensity parameters Ω2,4,6 were calculated. The radiative transition rates, branching ratios and radiative lifetimes were also obtained. The results were analysed and compared between these two samples, indicating that both of them are favourable laser media.


Design of intelligent management systems (IMS) is an important task. However, IMS design methods for lifecycle management of complex technical systems (CTS) have not been sufficiently developed. The article considers an approach to building an intelligent lifecycle management system for CTS based on Open Semantic Technologies for Intelligent Systems (OSTIS). The knowledge base of such a system is based on a set of domain ontologies supporting the design management, as well as further CTS development. The problem of intellectualization of the lifecycle management is considered in the context of developing the IMS as a system for managing knowledge circulating at all stages of the lifecycle. The article presents methods for OSTIS component-based design, IMS architecture, fragments of the lifecycle domain ontology and of the project management domain in the SCn language.


"Red Songs"(also called Revolutionary Songs) Fever in China has its own value.It provides a rich cultural atmosphere for the construction of socialist harmonious society,enriches the value orientation for Chinese and sets up a practice platform for the cultivation of national spirit.


Abstract. In the present paper, a new CA-based model considering the following car horning is established and is analyzed in great detail. Firstly, how the following car horning can influence the traffic system is discussed. Secondly, by applying the cross-covariance method, proper parameters are indicated to explore the phase transition features of the model. The results show that the model proposed in this paper can simulate complex and realistic traffic phenomena.


The paper analyzes the factors affecting the process of 3D printing using fused deposition modeling (FDM) and examines the possibilities of improving the surface quality by reducing the surface stair stepping of the manufactured product. It also describes a mathematical framework for assessing the orientation of the model in the working area of a 3D printer, which will optimize the process of layer-by-layer deposition during 3D printing and expand the scope of this technology.


The nature of multimedia Quality of service Detailed requirements Broad survey of FDT S Assessment of specific FDT S An evaluation of lotos- based specification techniques Why a new approach? The design of QTL Examples of the lotos / QTL approach Implications for validation Specific validation approaches.


Very little information is available in regard to Permian conodonts. Three small collections from the Phosphoria formation of southeastern Idaho provide the basis for the present report. The specimens are poorly preserved and the variety is not great. However, the genera Gondolella, Prioniodus? and Streptognathodus are represented. Three new species are established-two of them belong in Gondolella, the dominant genus in the collections, and one in Streptognathodus. Because of the general lack of other described Permian conodonts, no precise correlations of the Phosphoria can be suggested on the basis of these fossils alone. However, their evolutionary stage, together with the associated faunas, including the edestid shark Helicoprion, suggest a Middle Permian age for the formation. DURING the summer of 1949, a study was made of certain of the Paleozoic formations of Idaho south of the Snake River Plain. Special consideration was given to the possible microfossil content of these strata. The Phosphoria formation was sampled at several localities in the Caribou, Bear River, and Preuss ranges. Conodonts were secured at two localities in the Preuss Range and at a single locality in the Bear River Range. Altogether, more than 100 specimens were collected, many of which are only fragments. These conodonts are not well preserved and their variety is not great. Fifteen specimens, which represent the more nearly complete individuals, as well as the several genera and species which occur in the collections, are illustrated and


Prior to the nationwide introduction of the Committee on Safety of Medicines "yellow card" adverse drug reaction reporting for hospital pharmacists, a study was carried out to investigate the activities undertaken by hospital pharmacists in adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting. A survey of 200 United Kingdom hospitals was conducted and 172 (86 per cent) questionnaires were returned. Local ADR reporting schemes were in operation in 26 (15.1 per cent) surveyed hospitals. The majority used locally designed cards to report ADRs. The most common reasons for the lack of a local ADR scheme (n=141) were staffing, the fact that a scheme had never been considered, time factors and the lack of perceived need to operate a scheme. Of these 141 departments, 80.1 per cent said they would consider implementing schemes in their hospital. With the inclusion of pharmacists in the CSM "yellow card" scheme, there is an incentive for them to become officially and further involved in the management and reporting of ADRs. Local ADR reporting schemes encourage pharmacovigilance and could allow pharmacists to take a leading role in this area of clinical practice.


The utility model relates to an electron candle lamp, to solve the problem that the similar products cannot imitate actual candle light effect, and that the equipment and maintenance are both quite inconvenient. In the utility model, a light source unit equipped inside a candle flame shaped hollowed light conductive lamp mask (1) comprises at least one constant bright typed LED and at least one scintillation typed LED. Furthermore, a cylindrical hollowed battery drum (5) is equipped inside a main shell body (2), the lower portion of the battery drum is equipped with a pole plate clamping button (7), the pole plate clamping button is equipped with a second pole plate (11) which can form a controlling switch with a springy plate (8) on a chassis (10), and the side of the battery drum is equipped with a dent used to position wires. When the electron candle lamp of the utility model powers on and works, the lamp not only has constant bright lights, but also has scintillation lights, thereby the effect is more close to real lamp lights, meanwhile, since the battery drum structure is adopted, and the corresponding chassis, springy plate and pole plate are matched, the performance of the equipment of the whole electron candle lamp, the using, the maintenance, the battery changing or the like are quite convenient.


East Central Europe communism and totalitarianism revolutions of 1989 in East Central Europe transition to democracy in theory transition to democracy within East Central Europe since 1989 in practice nationalism the break up of nations - Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia social cleavage elections election results and recent events parties and party systems new legislatures the new executives.


A knowledge-based system has been developed for segmenting computed tomography (CT) images. Its modular architecture includes an anatomical model, image processing engine, inference engine and blackboard. The model contains a priori knowledge of size, shape, X-ray attenuation and relative position of anatomical structures. This knowledge is used to constrain low-level segmentation routines. Model-derived constraints and segmented image objects are both transformed into a common feature space and posted on the blackboard. The inference engine then matches image to model objects, based on the constraints. The transformation to feature space allows the knowledge and image data representations to be independent. Thus a high-level model can be used, with data being stored in a frame-based semantic network. This modularity and explicit representation of knowledge allows for straightforward system extension. We initially demonstrate an application to lung segmentation in thoracic CT, with subsequent extension of the knowledge-base to include tumors within the lung fields. The anatomical model was later augmented to include basic brain anatomy including the skull and blood vessels, to allow automatic segmentation of vascular structures in CT angiograms for 3D rendering and visualization.


The study of the microcracks in granites from Redstone Quarry (NH), Granite Mountains (WY), and Sherman Mountain area (WY) shows the following: microcracks are abundant; most microcracks are sealed; common sealing phases are carbonate minerals, quartz, magnetite, hematite, Nb-bearing phosphate, a Ca and REE-bearing mineral, quartz, and feldspar; and many microcracks contain U. It is concluded that microcracks were the channels through which U migrated; that REEs are mobile; and that the mobilities of U and REEs may be related. It is suggested that sealed microcracks can be dated absolutely with modified fission track techniques. Cracks that contain U and cut quartz and also cracks that contain quartz and cut uraniferous minerals can be dated. Heat flow and heat generation in several provinces were examined and the data used to constrain models of the distribution of U, Th, and K in the crust. Seismic velocity was measured as a function of direction in several locations in New Hampshire where other researchers have mapped joints. Anisotropies in the velocities were found that correlate roughly with the joint distributions. The sealed fractures associated with a dike penetrated by the corehole at Redstone Quarry were examined. It is concluded tentatively that the coolingmore » of rock in-situ from 600 to 100/sup 0/C produced a significant volume of open fractures.« less


We aim to investigate the effect of single dose of statin pretreatment prior to primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) on long-term clinical outcomes in patients with ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI).

 Using data from China Acute myocardial Infarction (CAMI) registry, we compared the outcome in STEMI patients with vs without atorvastation pretreatment prior to primary PCI. The primary endpoint was the composite outcome of all-cause mortality, non-fatal MI or stroke events during follow-up. Propensity-score (PS) matching was used to assemble a cohort of patients with similar baseline characteristics. All patients were followed till 24 months since baseline.

 Of all 3772 patients who met our inclusion criteria at 108 hospitals in China, 3288 patients (1644 patients in each arm) were included in our PS-matched cohort. In the PS-match cohort, overall 144 (8.65%) and 113 (6.79%) patients in the control group and pretreatment group had the primary endpoint respectively (p=0.048). The estimated HRs were 0.78 (95% CI: 0.606–0.997, p=0.046) in the unadjusted model and 0.76 (95% CI: 0.596–0.984, p=0.032) in the adjusted model (Figure). The HRs were broadly similar for the pretreatment dosage of 40 mg or 80 mg (0.78 vs 0.77, p=0.75). The HRs were even stronger in patients with single-vessel only than multi-vessel coronary artery disease (0.31 vs 0.75, p=0.014).

 Among Chinese patients with STEMI, atorvastatin pretreatment before primary PCI may have better long-term composite outcome of all-cause mortality, non-fatal MI, or stroke events.

 CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS) (2016-I2M-1-009)


Abstract We propose the logistic modelling of normality through ROC analysis based on residual sample variances. We estimate logistic survival function for normality test which contains new statistics from Q – Q plot and from P – P plot.


Third harmonic conversion of radiation from a XeF laser is described and processes that limit the conversion efficiency are examined. Proposed experiments at the 200 mJ pump level, designed to produce VUV pulses near the mJ level, are discussed.


Background: Sebaceous tumors are adnexal tumors with usually low-gradebehavior. The distinction between sebaceous adenomas and carcinomas, especially on small biopsies from sensitive sites (i.e., ocular), may bedifficult. We compared the expression of various oncogenic andprognostic markers by immunohistochemistry in order to distinguishbenign from malignant sebaceous tumors.Design: 10 sebaceous adenomas, 10 sebaceous carcinomas, and 5 cases ofsebaceous hyperplasia, were studied with antibodies directed againstKi-67 (mib-1), bcl-2, p53, p21, p27, c-erb2 (Her-2/neu), CD117 (c-kit), cyclin D1, MDM2, and CD99 (mic2).Results: We found that sebaceous carcinomas differed from sebaceousadenomas by having increased staining for p53 (50% vs 11%) and mib-1(average 1.8+ vs. 1.0+), and significantly reduced levels of bcl-2 (7%vs 62%) and p21 (16% vs 34%).The other markers did not differ significantly, although there was atrend towards more Her-2/neu staining in the carcinomas. No cases showedany c-kit staining.Conclusions: We have shown that several markers, including mib-1, p53, p21, and bcl-2, are expressed at significantly different levels insebaceous carcinomas versus adenomas, and may be of use indiagnostically challenging cases. Whether or not any of these markerswill prove useful in predicting prognosis remains controversial.


In view of the present situation that the optimization design for rectangular microstrip antenna mostly relies on people's experience and repeated tests,an optimization design method is studied and proposed.The veracity of transmission-line theory in rectangular microstrip antenna analysis is tested firstly.The improved quantum genetic algorithm is combined with transmission-line theory successfully to apply to optimization design of rectangular microstrip antenna.A rectangular microstrip antenna is designed by the method,and the result of optimizing is compared with that of finite element software HFSS,which shows that the algorithm is efficient and precise.Finally,a software package for optimization design of rectangular microstrip antenna is developed for easy application of the method.


Abstract We report the whole mitochondrial genome of the Brycon orbignyanus, commonly known as the piracanjuba. The mitogenome was determined to be a circular, 16,800 bp DNA molecule, containing 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and one 1160 bp noncoding control region. Twelve of the PCGs were located on the heavy strand, and one PCG (Nd6) was located on the light strand. The most common start codon was ATG; however, the Cox1 gene displayed the GTG start codon. Seven PCGs had incomplete stop codons: specifically, Cox2, Cox3, Nd3, Nd4, and Cytb contained the T– – codon, and Nd2 and Atp6 contained the TA– codon. The Cox1 gene contained the AGG stop codon.


Background: Black women are more likely to die of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) than women of other races and ethnicities in the United States. However, it is unclear whether this disparity remains after accounting for differences in clinical characteristics, treatment regimens and factors related to access to care. Methods: Women with a primary diagnosis of TNBC between 2004 and 2014 were identified from the National Cancer Database. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for 5-year all-cause mortality in association with race/ethnicity (i.e., non-Hispanic [NH] white, NH-black, Hispanic, Asian, and other group) were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models with stepwise adjustments for age, clinical characteristics, as well as treatment and access-to-care related factors. Stratified analyses by stage and age (i.e., ≤50 years and >50 years) were also conducted. Results: Of 82,653 study populations, there were 53,908 NH-white (65.2%), 17,350 NH-black (21.0%), 5,116 Hispanic (6.2%) and 2,334 Asian (2.8%) patients. Compared to NH-white patients, a higher proportion of NH-black and Hispanic patients were diagnosed with stage III/IV cancer (21.4%, 20.8%, and 16.4% for NH-black, Hispanic, and NH-white patients, respectively, P Conclusions: After accounting for clinical characteristics, treatment and factors related to access-to-care, there is little white-black difference in 5-year all-cause mortality, but Hispanic and Asian patients in general had lower mortality compared with white patients. Citation Format: Fei Wang, Wei Zheng, Christina E. Bailey, Jennifer A. Pietenpol, Xiao-Ou Shu. Racial/ethnic disparities in overall mortality among patients diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 1178.