: The paper presents a Text-To-Speech synthesizer of Polish language employing automatic prosodic modification. The method used for synthesizing the speech signal is concatenative synthesis using constant-length segments – diphones. The subsequent modules of the synthesizer are introduced. Employed language analysis and signal processing techniques are described. The synthesized speech yields high intelligibility and naturalness, which is proved by auditory tests. The proposed system can be used in educational and therapeutic applications or multimodal interfaces for disabled people.


In this paper we investigate the asymptotic behavior of solutions of a problem describing temperature and vertical displacement evolution in a homogeneous, thermally isotropic, Kirchhoff plate composed of material with linear memory and subject to thermal deformations. In addition, a non–Fourier constitutive law for the heat flux is considered here. The resulting model has been derived in the framework of the well–established theory of heat flow with memory due to Gurtin and Pipkin [5] and will appear in [3]. In the sequel we sketch the modelling procedure. We assume that the plate occupies a fixed bounded domain V%R , with Lipschitz boundary G4G 0NG 1 and is rigidly clamped along G 0 and simply supported along G 1. In addition we suppose that G0OG1c ̄. The material composing the plate is isotropic (mechanically and thermally) and viscoelastic, so that its stress-strain law is given by


AIM: To evaluate the curative effect and mechanism of simvastation and amiodarone in the treatment of patients with paroxyswal atrial fibrillation(PAF).METHODS: One hundred and eighteen patients with PAF were randomly distributed into control group(n=59) treated with oral administration of amiodarone alone and trial group(n=59) treated with combined oral administration of amiodarone and simvastatin.Changes of the sinus rhythm sustaining rate and the level of c-reactive protein(CRP) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1) before and after the treatment were investigated in the two-year follow-up.RESULTS: The recurrence rate of PAF in the control and the trial groups was 18.6% vs 10.1% after 12 months and 40.6% vs 18.6% after 24 months.The recurrence rate of the trial group decreased more significantly than that of the control group and the level of CRP and ICAM-1 also significantly decreased in the trial group.CONCLUSION: The combined administration of simvastatin and amiodarone reduces the recurrence of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation,which may be related to the anti-inflammatory action.


Big data have the potential to revolutionize the project management, but it is not clear how. Despite the growing interest, there is a paucity of exploratory research to assess the practice and the impact of big data tools and technologies on project management approaches and practices. To address this gap, in this article, we initially embrace the technological–organizational–environmental (TOE) framework as the research basis for the adoption process and conducts in-depth interviews with project managers from French organizations in different sectors. The synthesis of interviews reveals that many organizations are still in the early stage of the adoption process, mainly due to a lack of resources, especially expertise. Besides the factors of the three contexts of TOE, the project-level factors are also found to be critical for the adoption of big data in project management. Most of them adopted big data solutions to support them in the conception, definition, and execution phases of project management. Drawing on the findings, this article also provides guidelines to broaden the understanding of big data applications and their role in project management. Based on these results, we present a model with testable propositions and discuss insights that arise for organizations and project managers regarding how to apply big data tools and technologies to create value and overcome the related challenges.


A Humboldt squid shows its colors in the lights of a remotely operated vehicle 300 meters below the surface of Monterey Bay. Credit: © 2010 MBARI


Objective
To explore the status and influencing factors of sub-health in inpatient caregivers.

Methods
A total of 432 caregivers met the inclusion criteria were enrolled.Suboptimal health status questionnaire (SHSQ-25) was used to evaluate the status of sub-health.Sub-health was defined as SHSQ-25 score ≥ 35.100 people undertaking routine physical examinations were enrolled as control group.The incidence and influencing factors of sub-health in caregivers were analyzed.

Results
(1) The caregivers group valued higher in SHSQ-25 score significantly (36.9±8.6 vs.27.5±13.0, P<0.05). The incidence of sub-health was obviously higher in caregiver group than that in control group (69.9% vs.39.0%, P<0.05). (2) A significant difference in the SHSQ-25 scores between female caregivers and male caregivers was observed (37.9±9.0 vs.34.6±7.1, P<0.05). The SHSQ-25 score was positively related with age (r=0.578, P<0.05) and accompanying time(r=0.507, P<0.05). Parents, children, or spouses of patients got higher scores than other types of caregivers(38.1±8.1 vs.31.1±8.8, P<0.05). (3) Among the sub-health caregivers, only 10.9% of them were aware of their sub-health status.

Conclusion
The incidence of sub-health may be higher in inpatient caregivers than the general population.Gender, age, accompanying time, and the relationship between patients and caregivers may be influencing factors for sub-health.Effective action should be taken to improve the health status of caregivers.

Key words:
Caregivers; Sub-health; Influencing factors


The decomposition rates and mass of fine ( 10-cm-diameter) woody detritus were measured in the dry tropical forests of the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula. The smallest mass of woody detritus was found in undisturbed stands: fine fractions averaged 4.7 Mg ha-' and coarse fractions ranged between 13 and 38 Mg ha-'. The largest mass of fine woody detritus (32.2 Mg ha-') was found in a hurricane-disturbed forest; whereas, the largest mass of coarse woody detritus (99.5 Mg ha-') was found in stands disturbed by catastrophic fires. A decomposition time-series study installed in 1989 indicated that decomposition rates varied greatly among species and diameters of branch segments. Over a 4-year period, the decomposition rate constant for fine woody detritus ranged from 0.151 to 1.019 year-' and that for coarse woody detritus ranged from 0.008 to 0.615 year-'. The halflife of woody detritus increased 33-fold (among pieces ranging from 1 to 30 cm in diameter) for the most decayresistant species (Manilkara zapota) but was relatively constant for the least decay-resistant species (Bursera simaruba). The wide range in decomposition rates observed in these forests indicates that the poor substrate quality of some species may override climatic (e.g., warm temperatures) and biotic (e.g., termites) factors favorable to rapid decomposition, leading to a substantial accumulation of woody detritus.


The view that the poliomyelitis virus is transmitted centrally by way of nerve axons is supported by substantial experimental evidence (1-6). Particularly pertinent are the experiments in which infection was secured by exposure of the end of a sectioned nerve to a suspension of active virus (6-7). In all such experiments the criterion of infection is either paralysis or the occurrence of lesions in the affected nuclei of the central nervous system. The relative rapidity of the central transport of the virus (2.4 mm. per hour according to Bodian and Howe) suggests that the microstructure of the axon may be important in the colloidal phenomena concerned with this process. I t was therefore considered profitable to study infected nerves with the electron microscope. Thus far electron microscopy has been applied to the study of nerve structure chiefly by means of the fragmentation technique. In fragmented preparations of various types of vertebrate and invertebrate nerves the present authors observed fibrous structures which characteristically have dense edges (8). Because of this appearance the fibrils were tentatively called "neurotubules." Such structures had not previously been observed in other tissues and reasons were given for supposing that they may be axonic in origin. Although the fragmentation technique, as applied to whole nerves, makes impossible the localization of structures to particular regions of the nerve fiber and also involves severe sampling difficulties, it appeared to be the only method applicable to the problem at the present time. In the experiments described in the present paper attention was focused upon the neurotubules. Some of the observations have been briefly reported previously (9).


The second in a series of three articles which provide a contribution to the debate in the UK on the appropriateness of competence‐based qualifications. Identifies and emphasizes some of the particular strengths of established qualification methodologies which provide clear advantage over the competence philosophy. Draws attention to a number of false assumptions about current practices which premise the competency case.


Nanosized magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) with sheet and flower structure were prepared via precipitation reaction between magnesium chloride and alkaline precipitant, such as ammonium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and urea. The structure and morphology of as-prepared samples were characterized through X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Effect of precipitants and surface modifier on morphology and size of nano-Mg(OH)2 were investigated. Heat-resistance of Mg(OH)2 in polymer was discussed by thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis. Mg(OH)2 nanostructure present superior morphology and heat-resistance with NH4OH-NaOH as precipitant and 3mol% acrylic acid as surface modifier.


To solve the problem of identifying Kazakh basic phrases,an automatic identification method was presented based on conditional random fields.There are many features around the context in the process of identification,and an automatic selection method of feature template based on the greedy algorithm was adopted to select features to combine with characters of Kazakh base phrases.In this algorithm,relatively best feature items were added to the final feature template at each time,and the recognition precision was improved.Experimental results show the recognition precision and the recall rate reach 89.01%and 84.07%respectively.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate color change and enamel surface changes using the plasma arc light source during tooth bleaching treatments. Twenty-four extracted bovine incisors were selected and embedded in the resin blocks. All the specimens were highly polished and discolored with commercial COCK®. High concentration carbamide peroxide with and without plasma arc were used for bleaching. Specimens were bleached for 1 hour per week during 3 weeks. Color and enamel surface changes were determined with colorimeter (TC-8600A), microhardness tester(MXT-a7), scanning electron microscope(S-4200). All the collected data were analyzed with paired t-test, t-test and one-way ANOVA. After the bleaching, both groups showed the color changes(∆E*). Microhardness of two group decreased after tooth bleaching. The SEM evaluation of enamel surface of both group showed a similar morphology of decalcification after tooth bleaching. Office bleaching using the plasma arc application with 35% carbamide peroxide can increase the color change. Office bleaching using the high concentration of carbamide peroxide and plasma arc also detract the outer surface of enamel. It is recommended that careful procedures are needed during office bleaching with high concentration of carbamide peroxide and light source.


We discuss large scale geometric properties of Cayley graphs of the integers using different infinite generating sets. We define the notion of k-prisms for graphs and study the large scale geometry of graphs with this property. It turns out that graphs with k-prisms for all k cannot have property A and thus are infinite dimensional in a strong sense. We give an example of an infinite family of graphs that have k-prisms for all k and we also give an example of a space the has property A and "almost has" k-prisms.


There is no comprehensive guide for teaching psychological writing, and little is known about how often instructors teach the topic. We present a best practices guide for teaching psychological writing beyond just American Psychological Association style, discuss psychology-specific writing assignments, and examine psychological writing instruction. In an online survey, 177 psychology instructors across the United States reported on psychological writing instruction and their writing assignments. In general, we found that instructors reported using many best practices. Comparisons between courses revealed that instructors use course-specific writing instruction such that it becomes progressively complex across courses. However, instructors might not provide students with enough training to successfully complete assignments. Instructors assign diverse assignments, though, suggesting that students get varied practice at psychology-specific writing.


Objective To evaluate the effects of interventional thermotherapy on vascular permeability of tumor and normal liver tissue at 60℃ via hepatic artery.Methods Thirty white rabbits were used in the experiment.VX2 tumor-bearing rabbit models were developed by direct injection of VX2 tissue in liver parenchyma and were randomly divided into three groups :non-perfusion group(n=10);normothermic perfusion group(n=10,30 ml normal saline at 37℃±0.5℃was perfused via hepatic artery in 15 minutes);hyperthermic perfusion group(n=10,30 ml normal saline at 60℃±0.5℃was perfused via hepatic artery in 15 minutes).The vascular permeability in tumor and normal liver tissue was assessed with Evans blue.Results Vascular permeability was higher in tumor than in normal tissue(P0.05) in three groups.Normothermic perfusion resulted in a insignificant increase in permeability of vasculature(P0.05).Hyperthermia resulted in a significant increase in permeability of vasculature(P0.05);vascular permeability was increased higher in tumor than in normal tissue(P0.05).Conclusions Hyperthermia increases vascular permeability in tumor and in normal tissue.


The aim of this paper is to offer a summary state of the question on the controversial origin of a beautifully illustrated manuscript of the XII th century (Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Ms. 19). Both a Montecassino and a Ripoll origin has been postulated for it by reputated scholars. Until now, Spanish historiography has assumed Millas Vallicrosa position about a Ripoll provenance for the codex, based on supposed catalan expressions in the text. However, the author of this article presents some evidence which hints to an Italian origin, basing on the Montecassino origin of the compilation, the beneventan script copy on which the manuscript was based and the permanence in South Italy during the Late Middle Ages of the illustrative tradition to which can be adscribed the set of astronomical miniatures. On this bases, even if accepting the hypothetic catalan origin of the scribe, it would be more plausible to think in a catalan monk writing in Italy than a manuscript of this series being copied in Ripoll.


The reaction of a 2-acylphenylacetic acid derivative (I) with primary amines in glacial acetic acid produces novel, colorless aminonaphthols (III) which are isomeric with the brilliant yellow 3(2H)isoquinolones (II) obtained in the same reaction. A combination of chemical and spectral techniques allowed identification of the isomers as derivatives of 4-amino-2-naphthol. A plausible mechanism of formation of aminonaphthols versus 3(2H)isoquinolones is discussed and supported by chemical synthesis of N-substituted 2-aeylphenylacetamides (VIII) and a 1,4-dihydro-1-hydroxy-3(2H)isoquinolone derivative (IX).


FIELD: oil and gas industry. SUBSTANCE: method of thermofoam-acid treatment of the near-well zone of the carbonate reservoir involves simultaneous pumping of acid and gas-generating compositions through two channels separated from each other with their subsequent pumping in the formation. An aqueous solution of urea with sodium nitrite is used as a gas generating composition containing, wt %: urea 28.4-38.4; sodium nitrite 18.2-27.6; water is the rest. As an acid composition, the aqueous solution of inorganic acid with additives is used. In this case, in the acid composition the aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid of 19-26% concentration is used as inorganic acid, 2-alkylimidazoline is used as additive in concentration of 5-15 wt % and phosphorous acid in concentration of 0.5-2.5 wt %. The volume of acid composition is1-3 m 3 per linear meter of processing interval for vertical wells and0.1-0.2 m 3 - for horizontal wells. The compositions are pumped by killing fluid or commercial oil in volume of cavity of pumped channels plus 3-5 m 3 followed with well closure for 4-12 h for reaction of acid composition. EFFECT: extended application field of the technology due to reagents resistant to high temperatures while reducing the processing costs by reducing the amount of used equipment. 4 cl, 2 ex


The purpose of this research is to determine job satisfaction generally among teachers in Sekolah Menengah Derma after the implementation of TQM towards achieving ISO 9002 certificate. Factors that were taken into account for this research were sex, age, year of service, salary and allowance, working environment, training and recognition, collegue and quality managment.
To achieve the objective of this research, data was collected by issuing questionnaires to 72 teachers in Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Derma. This type of research was known as Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire to determine the level of job satisfaction. T-test and one-way ANOVA were used to test differences. While Pearson 'r' test was used to test correlation. All statistic tests were carried out at a significant level of p < 0.05.
The result of the research showed that 57 teachers (79.1%) obtained high satisfaction, 14 teachers (19.5%) obtained middle satisfaction and a teacher (1.4%) had a low satisfaction. General mean score of job satisfaction was 12.167 which showed that job satisfaction was high. The result of the research showed that only collegue factor and training and recognition had significant with job satisfaction. Other factors like sex, age, year of service, salary and allowance, working environment and quality management did not determine job satisfaction after the implementation of TQM. According to the correlation analysis only training and recognition factors could greatly influent teacher's job satisfaction after
implementation of TQM.


The title compound, [Ru2(C22H34Si2)(CO)4], contains two RuI atoms linked by a bridging (η5-tBuC5H2)2(SiMe2)2 ligand (tBu is a tert-butyl and Me is a methyl group) with an Ru—Ru bond length of 2.8401 (7) Å. The dihedral angle between the planes of the cyclopentadienyl rings of the ligand is 123.13 (19)°. The four terminal carbonyl ligands are bound in a symmetrical and staggered array. In the crystal, molecules are linked via pairs of C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming inversion dimers.


Infections of the lower reproductive tract are a public-health concern. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the link between menstrual hygiene, water, sanitation and hygiene variables and lower reproductive tract infection has not been appropriately explored. This study sought to determine the menstrual hygiene management practices associated with occurrence of lower reproductive tract infections among adolescent girls in Informal Settlements in Nakuru County. The study used a community-based cross-sectional design targeting adolescent girls in informal settlements in Nakuru County. Multi-stage and simple random sampling methods were used to obtain a sample size of 385 adolescent girls. The findings showed that the proportion of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) among the participants was 59.71% Regarding the menstrual hygiene management practices, adolescents who changed absorbent material more than twice a day were 0.22 times less likely to report experiencing a LRTI compared to those who changed once a day, (p=0.005), those who dried their reusable absorbent material outside the house were 0.26 times less likely to be infected with LRTI compared to those who dried inside the house, (p=0.014), and those who reported bathing  3times during menstruation were 0.27 less likely to report occurrence of LRTI compared to those who bath once, (p=0.012). The study found significant association between type of absorbent material, frequency of changing absorbent material, frequency of bathing, presence of hand washing equipment and presence of anal cleansing material in toilets and lower reproductive tract infections. A study in this population that incorporate comprehensive microbiological and clinical assessments so as to get a better estimate of the prevalence of LRTI would be recommended, this will also support development of public health interventions. Keywords: Menstrual Hygiene Management, Lower Reproductive Tract Infections, Adolescent Girls


The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between stock return volatility and stock returns and operating performance of the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. To address this issue through the six hypotheses and information about 93companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange for the period between 2004to 2011wereanalyzed. The results showed that the correlation between variable levels of operating performance and stock return volatility and adjusted operating performances negative. The results show that lowlevel stock return volatility variables had a significant positive correlation with adjusted operating performance. Also the result showed that return spread of the value variable had positive and significant effect on return spread of size had negative and significant effect on stock returns.


: In the screening for insecticidal antibiotics with mosquito larvae (Culex PiPiens Pallens) as a test insect, the isolated Streptosporangium albidum strain (TI-1) that produeed a substance with highly insecticidal actix,ity, From the results of the examination on cultural conditions for producins, the larvicidal antibiotic in vitro, the dilutions of the culture filtrate of lf8,OOO-1110,OC)O to kill 509.l of lst instar larvac were considered as an extremely acL'ive titre. It might be supposed that the antibiotic has net contact insecticidal ability but stomach toxicity, because it was inactive against the mosquito pupae, their


Effective drug treatment of hypertension for the prevention of fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular disease passed its 50th anniversary 2 years ago.1 Until recently, the most consistent observation among trials had been that stroke risk was directly related to the fall in blood pressure on treatment.2 Older trials established the value of antihypertensive drug treatment and generally recruited disease-free participants at their outset. Recent trials have focused on less healthy participants. Recruitment has been extended to those with a prior stroke, recent myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, chronic renal disease (with or without diabetes mellitus), heart failure, and combined high-risk states and the elderly (old-old). The benefit of antihypertensive drug treatment is still related to the reduction in blood pressure.3 Differences between drug classes have been found in some but not all trials; the differences are generally small, even if statistically significant. Antihypertensive drug treatment is effective in reducing risk for those with a higher disease burden, but risk is never lowered to levels equal to those who have lower pressure without antihypertensive drug treatment and lack prior cardiovascular disease. The hands of the cardiovascular clock may slow, but they never stop or reverse. It is a challenge to unmask traits that might account for the limited effectiveness of antihypertensive drug treatment in its present form.

Article see p 569

In a retrospective look at blood pressure patterns in several stroke trials and the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial–Blood Pressure Lowering (ASCOT BP) …


 The Coalition set out no aims in relation to neighbourhood inequalities and conditions. It argued that regeneration was a local issue, with national government in a 'strategic and supporting role'. It stopped monitoring spatial inequalities or setting targets.  Existing neighbourhood renewal programmes were cancelled, and replaced by very small scale schemes to support community organising and projects in coastal and coalfield communities. Spending on these schemes averaged £32m per year. By comparison, the previous government's Neighbourhood Renewal Fund alone cost £500m per year.  The government concentrated its efforts on promoting local economic growth, especially after the 2012 Heseltine Review when efforts were stepped up. Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) were established, and could negotiate new Local Growth Deals to fund housing and infrastructure developments, while 'City Deal' status gave 28 urban areas powers to attract private investment in return for pledges on innovation and efficiency.  The early impact of the Government's new programmes on jobs, business creation and new homes fell well below expectations. Initial forecasts for Enterprise Zones and the Growing Places Fund were revised downwards.  Neighbourhood conditions and inequalities depend on many factors including the economy, public services, benefits and voluntary activity as well as regeneration programmes. At this stage there is no evidence of regional re-balancing of the economy and austerity measures have hit the poorest areas hardest. All of this leaves the poorest neighbourhoods very vulnerable.  Indicators to date do not suggest a spiral of decline. However, gaps between the poorest neighbourhoods and others, which got wider during the recession, had only slightly narrowed again by 2013. Large disparities remain on all key indicators.


Objective To compare the changes of anti-coagulation and fibrinolysis in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and other types of acute leukemia (AL) as well as to study the effects of treatment with all-transretinoic acid (ATRA) on anti-coagulation and fibrinolysis system in APL patients. MethodsChanges in both parameters of anti-coagulation and fibrinolysis were observed in 42 patients with AL before treatment and 11 patients with APL before and after treatment.ResultsThe levels of serum α 1-antitrypsin (α 1-AT) and plasma D-dimer (D-D) increased in patients with APL, whereas their plasma levels of antithrombin Ⅲ(AT-Ⅲ),α 2-plasmin inhibitor (α 2-PI), fibrinogen (FG) and plasminogen:A (PLG:A) activity decreased. Significant differences of these parameters in APL existed as compared with other types of AL and normal controls. Activities of anticoagulation and fibrinolysis turned gradually to normal after treatment with ATRA.ConclusionsThe changes of anti-coagulation and fibrinolysis activities in patients with APL are more significant than those in other types of AL. These abnormalities can be corrected by ATRA administration, while their bleeding symptom is greatly relieved in the early stage of its treatment.


Research area of herbal psychopharmacology has been increased in this era. It is demand of the era to have comprehensive review of preclinical studies of Ayurveda herbal drugs as antidepressant, anxiolytic, and hypnotic psychopharmacology. On the basis of these findings, further clinical uses as well as better understanding of its mode of action and dosage form can be planned. In this review, search engines such as Ayush Portal, PubMed, DHARA, Research Gate, Scopus, AYU, Google Scholar, Academia, and Google were used to find out widely used psychotropic herbal medicines (last 20 years). A review was conducted to determine mechanisms of action of those drugs, in addition to a scientific review of preclinical trials for the treatment of most common psychiatric clinical conditions, i.e., anxiety and depression. Specific prominence was given to most apparent herbal medicines. Neurochemical as well as epigenetic activities were evident by results of individual herbal medicines in this review. Some drugs were found to be more effective in psychotropic activity, i.e., Kava (Piper methysticum G. Forst.) and Klamath Weed (Hypericum perforatum L.) for anxiety and depression disorders, respectively. However, because many researches have not been produced, caution should be exercised when interpreting the findings.


In this Letter, a class of impulsive switched cellular neural networks with time-varying delays is investigated. At the same time, parametric uncertainties assumed to be norm bounded are considered. By dividing the network state variables into subgroups according to the characters of the neural networks, some sufficient conditions guaranteeing exponential stability for all admissible parametric uncertainties are derived via constructing appropriate Lyapunov functional. One numerical example is provided to illustrate the validity of the main results obtained in this paper. Keywords—Switched systems, exponential stability, cellular neural networks.


For the purpose to make a small volume,high frequency,high power and narrow pulse laser driver,we designed a thyristor switch by using high power transistor with positive feedback,and would apply it to high-frequency pulse laser ranging and narrow pulse laser emission circuit.The laser reverse breakdown is suppressed by using the clamping diode laser.Through theoretical analysis for RLC circuit,the transistor switch circuit and thyristor device,SCR circuit was designed,and by analyzing principle of the discharge circuit,the whole driving circuit is simulated with SPICE program.Practical board was made.The peak current is 12 A and pulse width was 8 ns.


Abiotic stresses such as drought,high-salt and low temperature severely affect the growth and development of plant.It was reported that transcription factors played vital roles in regulating downstream gene expression and improving of adversity-resistance in plant.Stress-related bZIP transcription factors(basic leucine zipper) mainly participated in response to ABA,drought and high-salt stresses and its over-expression could significantly enhance the adversity-resistance of plants.In this study,Elytrigria repens with strong drought and salt tolerance was used to isolate and obtain a bZIP transcription factor gene,which was nominated as ErABF1(E.repens ABA Binding Factor 1).Sequence analysis of amino acids showed that ErABF1 had higher homology and rather relative relationships with bZIP transcription factors of Arabidopsis,wheat and maize,etc.The expression of ErABF1 was intensively induced by ABA,drought,high-salt and low-temperature.Preliminarily functional analysis on the stress medium containing 2% PEG and 200 mM NaCl showed that ErABF1-overexpression improved the tolerance to drought and high-salt stresses in transgenic tobacco plants.


I am a contrarian. What I often do in this column and my
other writings is oppose something or other in the computing/
information systems field. But in doing that, I run the risk of
being labeled an "againer." (A friend of mine was called an
"againer" because whatever subject was brought up, he was
against it!). So in this column I would like to do a "now for
something completely different" thing.
Here, I would like to express support for some things that,
while not in the midst of the field's mainstream (one might
even call them "obscure"), still appear to be potential major
contributors to its progress. I would like to name three such
things:
1. The Impact project, and its attempt to trace the impact of
computing / software engineering research on software
engineering practice.
2. The recent creation of a list of the "25 most dangerous programming
errors," and the further creation of a method for
trying to eradicate them.
3. A (by now somewhat ancient) book on the "assessment and
control of software risks."
In each case, I want to stress what I see as the positive contribution
of these things, but at the same time, I cannot risk adding
a "but . . ." to the end


Solid state fermentation (SSF) is a green process to produce enzymes from fungi. Different substrates such as rice husk, paddy straw, sugarcane bagasse and wheat husk taken from top soil were used to produce laccase by Pleurotus ostreatus strain PKN 04. The process of SSF was characterized by FTIR. Microbial fermentation resulted in conversion of complex polymeric lignocelluloses substrates into simpler monomers. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analyses of metabolites confirmed the breakdown and complete degradation of lignin, cellulose and polysaccharides at different fermentation time intervals of 0, 15 and 30 days.


This paper is concerned with the emergence in Britain in the early 1990s of a large group of domestic mortgage holders with negative equity (i.e. whose property had fallen below the value of the mortgage advance used to purchase that property). The emergence of negative equity is traced to the conjunction of the long-term trend towards wider home-ownership in Britain and the effects of deregulation of the financial system in the 1980s. Using individual records from a major building society, the temporal, geographical and social distribution of negative equity is assessed. The results suggest that negative equity was far more likely to affect certain social groups living in particular places and that these appear to be the people least well placed to 'help themselves' out of debt. The concluding section attempts to draw out some of the policy conclusions from these findings.


The optimum design of the advancing helicopter rotor for high-speed forward flight always involves a tradeoff between transonic and stall limitations. However, the preoccupation of the rotor industry was primarily concerned with stall until well into the 1970s. This emphasis on stall resulted from the prevalent use of low-solidity rotors with rather outdated airfoil sections. The use of cambered airfoil sections and higher-solidity rotors substantially reduced stall and revealed the advancing transonic flow to be a more persistent limitation to high-speed rotor performance. Work in this area was spurred not only by operational necessity but also by the development of a tool for the prediction of these flows (the method of computational fluid dynamics). The development of computational fluid dynamics for these rotor problems was a major Army and NASA achievement. This work is now being extended to other rotor flow problems. The developments are outlined.


To evaluate the degree of loss of positional accuracy when a spatial offset is present between position and sensor data, we have simultaneously collected GNSS data (with RTK correction) using a GNSS receiver that was mounted on an ATV and two other receivers that were mounted on the front and end of an elongate sled. Comparing the predicted locations with the actual positions allowed to quantify and visualize the prediction error. As a result, the strengths and weaknesses of applied corrections can be evaluated, allowing to select an appropriate correction for a given survey implementation.


A general system of equations for the motions and for the electrodynamics of a plasma which is understood as a system of charged and neutral particles is presented. The equations describe arbitrary processes in these media and set the limits for the application ot the older theories of three kinds of oscillations exist. If the degree of charge of the plasma is not great, diffusion oscillations of the electron-ionic gas and acoustic oscillations of the neutral gas appear, otherwise there are several electro-acoustic oscillations. (TCO)


Objective To inquiry into the constitutes of the cost and its influential factors in community health service about prevention.Methods The conditions of supplies and working time of health protection in 3 community health service stations were investigated retrospectively for four weeks;the item cost of community health service was calculated by the item cost price method of medical service.Results The average work cost of the department of health prevention in community health service station was 0.74 RMB per person.Conclusion To meet the requirements of residents in community health and increase the efficiency of community healthcare organization are effective ways to reduce the costs of community health service.Meanwhile the government should consummate the reimbursement policy for community health service about health protection.


In this paper we study the impact of the processing order of nodes of a bipartite graph, on the performance of an iterative message-passing decoding. To this end, we introduce the concept of neighborhood reliabilities of graph's nodes. Nodes reliabilities are calculated at each iteration and then are used to obtain a processing order within a serial or serial/parallel scheduling. The basic idea is that by processing first the most reliable data, the decoder is reinforced before processing the less reliable one. Using neighborhood reliabilities, the min-sum decoder of LDPC codes approaches the performance of the sum-product decoder.


The teleeducation' s development causes that the campus and education has received limits of the space and time no longer, the students study more independent. Campus network helps the open education resources, and encounters more security risks. This paper systematically analysis the security risks, and based on the characteristics of campus network, presents the corresponding politics about physical layer, system application layer and access control layer.


In this paper, we study the problem of relaying a single bit of information across a series of binary symmetric channels, and the associated trade-off between the number of hops m, the transmission time n, and the error probability. We introduce a simple, efficient, and deterministic protocol that attains positive information velocity (i.e., a non-vanishing ratio $\frac{m}{n}$ and small error probability) and is significantly simpler than existing protocols that do so. In addition, we characterize the optimal low-noise and high-noise scaling laws of the information velocity, and we adapt our 1-bit protocol to transmit k bits over m hops with ${\mathcal{O}}(m + k)$ transmission time.


We report on experimental observations that the two-fluid Hall dynamo plays an important role in plasma relaxation. Measurements of the Hall effect during relaxation are made in the plasma core and edge. The Hall dynamo is found to be small at the edge ( € r /a ≥ 0.85) but increases substantially towards the interior (r/a=0.82) as measured by probes. In the high-temperature plasma core (r/a=0.35), using a fast laser Faraday rotation diagnostic, the Hall electromotive force is found to be significant (~40 V/m ), suppressing (flattening) the equilibrium core current near the resonant surface. Quasilinear two-fluid dynamo theory based on tearing modes predicts that the Hall dynamo can exceed the MHD dynamo under certain conditions. A one dimensional temporal model is used to determine how the effect of the Hall and MHD dynamos is divided between local current density production and local electric field production. Theoretical expectations are qualitatively consistent with experimental observations, implying that effects beyond single-fluid MHD are important.


We calculate the expected mid-infrared (MIR) molecular hydrogen line emission from the first objects in the Universe. As a result of their low masses, the stellar feedback from massive stars is able to blow away their gas content and collect it into a cooling shell where H2 rapidly forms and IR roto-vibrational (as for example the rest-frame 2.12 μm) lines carry away a large fraction (up to 10 per cent) of the explosion energy. The fluxes from these sources are in the range 10−21–10−17 erg s−1 cm−2. The highest number counts are expected in the 20-μm band, where about 105 sources deg−2 are predicted at the limiting flux of 3×10−18 erg s−1 cm−2. Among the planned observational facilities, we find that the best detection perspectives are offered by the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), which should be able to reveal about 200 first objects in one hour observation time at its limiting flux in the above band. Therefore, mid-IR instruments appear to represent perfect tools to trace star formation and stellar feedback in the high (z≳5) redshift Universe.


Analyze the requirements and standards that are established by normative documents, which provide reliability, control, diagnosis, determination of the parameters and information security intellectual power system based on the concept of Smart Grid systems. Investigated the existing normative documents that apply to information security in the intellectual power network projects on the basis of Smart Grid systems concept, which is a qualitatively new set of mutually - integrated electric traction networks and distributed computing resources and management technologies, customers, generation capacity and means protection combined based on modern principles of a common information space, self-regulation, self-healing, support the principle of a single model of primary data, the principle of simultaneous information exchange. The questions of application of standardization system, shows the hierarchy standard of intelligent network This article contains an overview of the documents of international and industry standards related to information security management systems, supervisory control and data acquisition systems - the SCADA, automated process control systems - Process Automation and Smart Grid. Including documents Standards National Institute of Standards and Technology, which describe safety issues and introduce the concept of cyber security in SCADA and Smart Grid systems.


An Ag–Ni semi-empirical potential was developed to simulate the segregation of Ni solutes at Ag grain boundaries (GBs). The potential combines a new Ag potential fitted to correctly reproduce the stable and unstable stacking fault energies in this metal and the existing Ni potential from Mendelev et al (2012 Phil. Mag. 92 4454–69). The Ag–Ni cross potential functions were fitted to ab initio data on the liquid structure of the Ag80Ni20 alloy to properly incorporate the Ag–Ni interaction at small atomic separations, and to the Ni segregation energies at different sites within a high-energy Σ9 (221) symmetric tilt GB. By deploying this potential with hybrid Monte Carlo/molecular dynamics simulations, it was found that heterogeneous segregation and clustering of Ni atoms at GBs and twin boundary defects occur at low Ni concentrations, 1 and 2 at%. This behavior is profoundly different from the homogeneous interfacial dispersion generally observed for the Cu segregation in Ag. A GB transformation to amorphous intergranular films was found to prevail at higher Ni concentrations (10 at%). The developed potential opens new opportunities for studying the selective segregation behavior of Ni solutes in interface-hardened Ag metals and its effect on plasticity.


Measurements of the electric field dependence of the phonon scattering in vitreous silica indicate that the energy levels of the localized modes generally presumed to contribute to phonon scattering at low temperatures are independent of electric field to a high degree. The thermal conductivity of soda lime glass doped with Fe2+ ions in octahedral sites was found to be independent of magnetic field to a comparable degree. This provides a lower limit to the distortion at the Fe2+ site.


We study chiral properties of eigenvalue spectrum for staggered quarks. We present a new method to identify would-be zero modes and nonzero modes using their symmetry and chiral properties. Here, we review the traditional method with HYP improved staggered quarks, and extend it to a completely new method which uses the chiral Ward identities and leakage patterns to achieve the goal.


In the last century, fl uoride, like penicillin, was heralded as a major public health advance in mankind's battle against disease and its eff ects. Today, fl uoride, like antibiotics, is under attack, a victim of its success, popularity, and ubiquity. When it comes to fl uoride in dental practice, today's clinician often has diffi culty separating fact from fi ction, solid from junk science, professional organization paranoia from pathophysiology. I, for one, am fl oundering in a fl uoride fog, fostered by frequent fears and fed by fragmented factual and fi ctitious factoids! I'm no longer sure about how fl uoride fi ts into the health of my patients. The recent " interim statement " by the American Dental Association (ADA) 1 about mixing baby formula with non-fl uoridated water is the latest illustration of the confusing information confronting clinicians. The ADA has just recommended that formula that requires mixing be constituted with fl uoride-free water, to reduce the likelihood of fl uorosis in teeth forming during this period of life. Systemic fl uoride is recommended for all people, beginning at six months of age 2 yet, this recent recommendation says not. Further confusing me is the ADA's support of the Food and Drug Administration's acknowledgement of the anti-caries benefi t of fl uoridated bottled water. 3 So, why not put fl uoridated water in formula? I am not the only one in a quandary. This past summer, in diff erent settings, I overheard two general dentists, with over 50 years of dental practice between them, reveal their fl uoride knowledge. One touted fl uoride given to mothers during pregnancy as the solution for early childhood caries. The other said she tried to avoid fl uorosis by always trying to keep topical fl uorides on the posterior teeth when giving of fi ce treatments! Today, I cannot speak to pediatricians about any aspect of pediatric dentistry without the conversation eventually shifting to fl uoride and their puzzlement about prescribing for today's Perrier-ed and PUR-ifi ed patients! When it comes to fl uoride, I fear we have become a profession of paranoia. In spite of the fact that the early childhood caries juggernaut just keeps rolling along, fl uorosis now has center stage as dentistry's chief pediatric concern. Michael Crichton, MD, the well-known author of science-based fi ction, aptly describes what is happening in dentistry in his recent book, " …


In this paper we study the testing indexes of corn grits used in beer industry and make standard of corn grits products from several subject such as moisture content,granulation,extract and fat content.Then according to it buying corn,testing new integrated corn milling process and making more proper technology indexes.


This article reviews the basic equations needed to quantify the impact of step changes in fluid flow, which are often to blame for water hammer in pipes. It also offers sizing equations for surge absorbers, and discusses ways to minimize surge.


The Ga-doped ZnO thin films (GZO) were deposited at room temperature by DC magnetron reactive sputtering. The influence of vacuum annealing temperature on the morphology, internal stress, optical and electrical properties were investigated. The results showed that with the rise of annealing temperature, the grain size increased, the preferred orientation and crystallization degree became better, the internal stress reduced, the resistivity firstly decreased slightly before 350°C and then increased sharply. The minimum resistivity of 1.32×10-3Ω•cm was obtained at 350°C. The annealing temperature had a very big influence on the transmittance, and the average transmittance was about 80% in the visible range.


Low-dimensional metallic transport is at the heart of modern high-performance transistors. While the best devices are currently based on III-V heterojunction quantum-well channels, we demonstrate that much greater performance gains reside in the unique properties of one-dimensional carbon nanotubes. Using recent experimental data, we show how the specific features of degenerate carrier kinetics in metallic nanotubes enable a novel class of quantum-confined signal detector whose current gain exceeds present transistor technology. We analyze the key interplay of degeneracy and scattering dynamics on the transconductance via a microscopically conserving quantum-kinetic description.


Chapter 5 problematizes the position of women's artistic gymnastics as a sport designed to adhere to gender norms and asks whether it can offer any kind of feminist experience for the gymnasts involved. Over the twentieth century, the sport transformed from its balletic origins into an acrobatic pursuit. Correspondingly, gymnasts' ages and bodies changed. Injuries prevailed and the sport was notoriously authoritarian. Through these different styles, gymnasts demonstrated diverse interpretations of femininity and apologized for their gender transgressions. Yet, at the same time, they experienced the freedom of complete mastery over their own bodies in space. This chapter shows how collaboration across borders can be subtle. Social ideals about "race" and gender from around the world were inscribed on the sport and the bodies that practice it as the result of officials, technologies, gymnasts, and coaches working together, shaping the sport to align with contemporary ideals of womanhood.


The intelligent agent based wireless sensor network data aggregation path optimization method comprises: in wireless sensor network environment, generating the primary agent initial route, and allocating executive agent; deciding the route by executive agent; reporting to system; collecting and updating system information by the primary agent; re-calculating an optimized route; collecting data and state message by the executive agent. This invention belongs to instructive strategy, saves energy consumption on the aggregation node, and improves network performance.


Abstract The objective of this study was to perform a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of gefitinib and docetaxel in treated patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods. A literature search was performed using PubMed and CNKI databases for relevant keywords and the Medical Subject Headings. After further full-text screening, 10 clinical trials were included in the final meta-analysis. Specific odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals were calculated. Results. The outcomes of treatment efficacy included disease control rates, quality-of-life improvement rates, 3~4 grade adverse events. Comparing gefitinib to docetaxel for NSCLC patients, the pooled odds ratios (OR) of disease control rates was 1.09, (95% confidential index [CI] = 0.84–1.43), the pooled OR of quality-of-life improvement rates was 2.49, (95% CI = 1.77–3.49), the pooled OR of 3~4 grade adverse events was 0.49, (95% CI = 0.32–0.75). Conclusion. Gefitinib was found to significantly improve patients' quality-of-life and obviously decrease patients' adverse events of 3~4 grade.There is no difference of disease control rates between gefitinib and docetaxel.


This study was aimed to highlight the significance of medicinal plants, used for the treatment of diabetes from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. A total of 340 informants including 171 males and 169 females were interviewed through questionnaire. For reliability of medicinal knowledge, relative frequency of citation (RFC) and family importance value (FIV) were calculated. Novelty of the work was found out with the help of Jaccard index (JI). RFC and FIV were further analysed by multivariate cluster analysis. A total of 42 plant species belonging to 41 genera and 30 families were recorded during the survey. Leaves were the most commonly used plant part and decoction was the most recommended remedy preparation method. Momodica charantia, Berberis lycium, Syzygium cumini and Oxalis corniculata were the most cited species with relative frequency of citation 0.81, 0.72, 0.59 and 0.55 respectively. The highest consensus between informants and indigenous uses of family was shown by Lamiaceae with 97.44 FIV followed by Fabaceae (87.05) and Myrtaceae (85.88). Novelty index showed that Berberis lycium, Beta vulgaris, Coriandrum sativum and Oxalis corniculata were the newly documented species against diabetes. The results of present study could play vital role in conservation of traditional knowledge of study area.


The authors have investigated the partial oxidation of methane in systems containing an aqueous electrolyte, dissolved CH 4 and O 2 and an electrode. Electrode materials have been Au, Cu, Mo, and carbon for applied current experiments, and insulting or semiconducting oxides for open circuit experiments. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse low temperature partial oxidation products, and suggest possible mechanisms


A high-density plasma driven by a capacitive discharge with a radio frequency of 13.56 MHz has been developed using a powered electrode with a ring-shaped trench for dry processing. It was found that a hollow cathode discharge was produced in the trench at a wide range of pressures from 10 to 400 mTorr. In order to satisfy the hollow cathode discharge, it was clarified that the trench width was twice as long as the sheath thickness formed in the trench experimentally. It became clear that a wider trench width easily produced the hollow cathode discharge under lower pressure conditions. A maximum plasma density of 1011 cm−3 was attained at Ar gas pressures of 100–350 mTorr and/or an input power density of 0.64 W cm−2. It was indicated that the radial profile of plasma density had a peak near the ring-shaped trenches and was uniform inside the ring-shaped trench.


Abstract:  The presence of serum autoantibodies has been associated with Sjögren's syndrome (SS), an autoimmune rheumatic disease that targets salivary and lachrymal glands. The association of apoptosis with autoantibodies production seems to play a role in the pathogenesis of glandular damage. The best‐defined antibodies in SS are those reacting with the ribonucleoprotein antigens SS‐A (Ro) and SS‐B (La). Anti‐Ro antibodies are found in about 70–90%, and anti‐La in approximately the same frequency, of patients with primary SS. The objective of this work was to explore whether anti‐Ro and anti‐La autoantibodies purified from Sjögren IgG fractions are able to trigger apoptotic process in the human salivary gland cell line A‐253. Anti‐Ro and anti‐La autoantibodies were purified on protein G Sepharose affinity column and used for the A‐253 cell treatment. Apoptosis induced by autoantibodies was revealed by FACS analysis, and the active caspase‐3 and the cleaved caspase‐3 substrate poly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase (PARP) was demonstrated by colorimetric assay and Western blot. This report shows that anti‐Ro and anti‐La autoantibodies, but not healthy IgG, activate the caspase‐3 and determine the cleavage of PARP in A‐253 cells. Apoptosis triggered by Sjögren autoantibodies could be responsible for the impairment of the secretory function in the salivary glands.


Business network is a subject which shows relevance in the academic literature in the last few years. Companies form networks when there is cooperation and commitment in the actual relationship between them. On the other hand, the use of information systems to connect companies – known as inter-organizational systems (IOS) – is increasing. The basic issue delt by this article is: can we say that companies in networks are those which use IOS in a more advanced way? To answer this question indicators need to be created which allow measuring the relationship intensity among companies in networks as well as the use of inter-organizational systems. This study offers a first proposal for the creation of those indicators and identification of their importance, based on literature analysis of the two constructs – company networks and inter-organizational systems. The 15 indicators created were submitted to the analysis of a Systems Manager who worked on the implementation of a recent inter-organizational system by one of the major car assemblers in Brazil , which connects the company to 470 suppliers. It is an exploratory study which revealed indicators "mutual dependency" and "product development agreements" as the most important for networks, and "integration depth" and "business process specificity" for IOS.


Background: COVID-19 inevitably affected community-based learning. Though the literature has begun to explore the impact on higher education and community partners, more information is needed about how their partnerships have been operating. Purpose: This study investigated the perspectives of both community partners (n = 145) and higher education institutions (n = 62). Top challenges to community-based learning and ways partnerships have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic were explored. Methodology/Approach: A cross-sectional qualitative design was used to comprehend COVID-19's impact on community-based learning. The researchers used an online survey with responses collected from Fall 2020 to Spring 2021. Findings/Conclusions: The top challenges for community-based learning included concerns about the pandemic, collaboration, and resources. Challenges specific to each stakeholder group (i.e., higher education and community partners) were also identified. Specifically in the wake of COVID-19, the most frequently discussed pandemic-related changes were the disruption of partnerships (cessation/postponement or extensive changes) and interaction changes (amount or modality of communication). However, some discussed being able to maintain or improve partnerships. Implications: Additional consideration is needed among service-learning stakeholders for adapting projects, addressing power differentials, and improving communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Partnerships may use these insights to inform their own adaptations.


Integrated studies of the hydrocarbon system in frontier areas are important to assess exploration risk. The Rubio block located in the Tchira Depression has been the focus of various geological studies, yet very few studies of its petroleum system have been published. Based on seismic, surface geologic, and geochemical data, a study of the petroleum system has been developed. We have identified, based on quality limited seismic and surface data, at least three major periods of deformation in the study area, ranging from the Upper Cretaceous to the present. The first event is of Late Cretaceous age and is characterized by compression. The second period is characterized by extension and took place at least during the Paleocene. Both events may be related to the development of the Colombian Central Cordillera and the flexure caused by its tectonic load, which affected western Venezuela from the Upper Cretaceous to the Paleocene. The third event is characterized by compression that has occurred quite recently, and it may be associated with the development of the Mrida Andes. This last event is responsible for the development of the major structures in the Rubio block. It is worth noting that western Venezuela also was affected by a Jurassic extensional event that is not illuminated by the seismic data of the study area but has been amply shown in both surface and seismic data in the surrounding areas. According to the 1-D and 2-D geochemical modeling results, we propose that maturity of the source rock (the La Luna Formation) is greater to the west than to the east. Hydrocarbon expulsion from the source rock started in the western portion of the area 25 m.y. This local kitchen stopped expelling because of its uplift, which was caused by the latest compression. On the other hand, the La Luna Formation in the eastern portion started to expel hydrocarbon very recently, which is still ongoing. This active oil kitchen may be feeding the oil seeps in the eastern part of the study area.


Within the UK, there is a rapidly rising incidence of malignancies, including cutaneous cancers. Over 1 million new patients are referred to dermatology each year, and a large proportion requires a diagnostic or therapeutic biopsy. Dermatologists often rely on histopathology to confirm or diagnose cancers, determine margins and perform specialist testing. The increasing rates of cancers are adding significantly to the histopathology workload. According to the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath), only 3% of departments report having adequate staff to meet clinical demand. There are a significant number of unfilled training posts and a concurrent retirement crisis, with 25% of all pathologists over 55 years old. It can take up to 15 years to train consultants, with the more experienced able to handle greater workloads. The lack of pathologists, with widespread vacancies, has a significant impact. The resulting costs to the health service of employing locums and outsourcing work has been estimated to be £27 million annually. For patients, the costs of these shortages mean delays in diagnosis and treatment. A RCPath key performance indicator advises that 80% of cases should be reported within 7–10 calendar days. Across dermatology departments, there is a wide reported variation in reporting times from 1 to 28 weeks. In 2019, the longest wait, on average, was 5.8 weeks. We surveyed 60 histopathology consultants across different National Health Service trusts in England to determine the reasons behind these delays. The survey response rate was 45%. The results showed that 78% of departments have unfilled posts, 83% have employed locum staff or outsourced reporting of skin biopsies in the last 5 years and only 20% are able to meet the RCPath guidance. Additionally, almost one-quarter reported that they have had complaints or serious incidences related to delayed dermatopathology reporting. Survey comments revealed many other areas of potential diagnostic delay from sample labelling and prioritizing to prolonged laboratory processing times, unclear pathways to expedite samples and lack of histopathology secretaries. This survey highlights the increasing workforce demands and emphasizes the need for innovative changes to avoid delays in patient care. Possible solutions to address increased workload in an understaffed environment include adequate secretarial support, increasing pathology pathway navigators who prioritize urgent cases, improving information technology services, digital slide reporting and developing artificial intelligence to screen samples. Increasing dermatopathology training and exposure to histopathology at a junior level is mandatory. Raising these issues and making them a key investment priority for the government is imperative.


The article presents the results of the study of youth labor potential in the Vologda Oblast. We analyzed qualitative and quantitative characteristics of this age population group. It shows that qualitative characteristics of young people have some similar trends with the total population of the region. The main concern is the low values of integral indices of creative and cognitive potential.


The current article analyzes the importance of clothing and disguise of one of the female characters in order for her to conquer the attention of a man. However the text enforces the consideration of transvestism, at the end the heterosexual marriage plot is seen as a normative ordering device


The behavour of a monohufi at high forward Speed ¡n headwaveS lead to an unacceptable level of vertical accelerations which may hamper the safe operability of the craft. in general this has led to the. development of all kinds of 'advanced' concepts like the SWATH, the Hydrofoil or SES. All these concepts, however, may tend to be considerably more complex and therefore more expensive to build, maintain and to use. The question therefore arises to which extend the overall design performance of a last monóhull may be improved upon. One of the possibilities to improve the seakeeping behaviour in waves of a- fast monohull at reasonable cost, apart from raising the deadtise and changing the bow shape, Is to make use of the socalled 'enlarged shIps concept In this concept the length of the hull Is Increased considerably, In particular forward of the the accommodation, and no changes are made to the payload' functions, speed and the layout and interior of the ship. As a result the length, the length to beam ratio and the length to displacement ratio increase, ail benificial for seakeeping. An assessment of the possible changes in operability, resistance & propulsion, weight, building cost and operational cost has been made In order to be able to quantify and qualify the increase in operability against the increase In cost The overall optimum vessel is deduced from this assessment and the enlarged ship concept is found to be very attractive for the case presented here.


A section of an auditory canal (2) stretching from an auricle up to an ear-drum is irradiated and inflicted with vibrations generated by a source of vibrations. A treatment device (1) has a fiber-optic light guide (14) to emit radiation (17) as well as a transmission element (18) for injecting the vibrations. An independent claim is also included for a treatment device for reducing ear noise and removing tinnitus.


In a former paper the author had shown the correlation of the strata beneath the Bracklesham series in England, the Calcaire grossier and Lits Coquilliers in France, and the Upper Ypresian system in Belgium, and had proposed to designate that lower series the "London Tertiary Group," from the circumstance of these strata attaining the largest and most distinct development in the English area. In the present paper Mr. Prestwich entered into an account of the structures of the deposits next above. In France this is the Calcaire grossier, which the French geologists have divided into four stages:—1. a series of white and light-green marls, apparently of freshwater origin; 2. an upper divison, of calcareous rock, harder and more flaggy than the next below, and rich in Miliolites and Cerithium, mixed with a few freshwater shells and the remains of plants and land-animals; 3. a middle one, of a calcareous freestone abounding in marine organic remains (Grignon, Courtagnon, and other celebrated localities being in beds of this zone); and 4. a lower one of green sands, with few fossils. Each division attains at places a thickness of 30 to 40 feet, but the lower ones are thickest in the centre and west of the Paris basin; whilst the upper, on the contrary, are thickest to the eastward. The total thickness of the deposit, therefore, rarely at any one place exceeds 100 feet, whilst the Upper Bracklesham series, with which it corresponds, is more than 500 feet thick.


The article is dedicated to the problem of financial strategies choice by russian companies. This problem is the actual under present-day conditions. There were the essence and kinds of financial strategies examined.


The objective of this study was to compare the performance of the FWD agricultural tractor, equipped with three types of tires (bias ply, radial and low pressure), with and without tire water ballasting, operating in four forward speed. The research was carried out at UNESP, SP, Brazil, with the tractor pulling a chisel plow. A tractor with 89kW (121cv) engine power equipped with FWD, was used in the experiment, and the tires used had the following characteristics: radial (front: 14.9R26 and rear: 620/75R30), bias ply (front: 14.9-26 and rear: 23.1-30) and low pressure (front: 500/60-26.5 and rear: 700/55-34). The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized block, design (3x2x4), with 24 treatments and three replications. The results evidenced advantages for the tractor equipped with radial tires.


This study aims to evaluate the severed urban space caused by the inner city railway tracts and to suggest a useful methods of connected system. The connecting factors of concourse is applicated as functional differentiation and to combine each building blocks to activate urban mixed use space for pedestrian movements in the affected urban area. Continuous flow of the contemporary examples of redeveloped existing railway station area in Germany and U.K are evaluated to elicit some significant characteristics and method which maybe applicated in korea. Followings are prototypes of the concourse.
① Concourse connection for multi=building in a single block
② Concourse connection between underground and elevated walkways of multiple buildings
③ Concourse connection by singular building in multi-blocks
④ Concourse connection by elevated deck over railways


The aim of this paper was to investigate the change regularity of viscosity,total acidity and number of living strain of solidication type leben during the storage of 4℃ for 12 d,based on completely fermented leben to detect the indexes of leben from seven points of test.The results indicated that the viscosity of the leben was decreased gradually when storaged,the number of living strain and total acidity were increased gradually.There were correlations between the acidity and viscosity of the leben.


This paper presents and analyses integrated slot-type tag antennas for passive UHF RFID. Many cardboard packages are nowadays foiled with highly conductive material, and these slot-type tag antennas can be easily integrated into the packages by cutting a slot into the foiled surface of the container. This makes integrated and cost-effective tag antennas possible for container and item-level tagging. In this paper the radiation properties of slot-type tag antennas are modeled with finite element method (FEM) simulation tool and the performance of the tag antennas attached to conductive and liquid-containing packages is verified in practice with read range measurements


Jurisdiction — In general — Territorial — Exemptions from and Restrictions upon — Foreign armed forces — NATO Status of Forces Agreement, 1951, Article VIII (5) — Provision that claims against members of NATO forces bedealtwith by receiving State — Whether creating employer/employee relationship between receiving State and members of NATO forces stationed in its territory — The law of France


In the spring of 2007, approximately 50 undergraduate introductory geography students in Papua New Guinea and the United States participated in a four-week international collaboration using the nationalism module available from the Association of American Geographers' Center for Global Geography Education. This paper reports on the challenges and rewards of students' interactions and uses a core-periphery model to question the underlying assumptions of internationalization efforts in undergraduate geography education. Prior to the interaction, it was necessary to overcome technological obstacles related to the "digital divide". For instance, edits to the nationalism learning module allowed for student communication via fax and airmail, rather than the usual online discussion boards used for international interaction among core countries, where Internet-based technology is widely available. The most important challenges included time delays in student material exchanges and language barriers. The rewards of the project included content knowledge gains, students' enthusiasm for international cooperation, the exchange of collaborative learning materials and broadened student perspectives as measured by pre- and post-tests.


In article questions of measurement of modern network dynamics of branch of culture and definition of the main direction of its network development, in particular, an incorrectness measuring the technician as the reason of incorrect cultural policy are considered. Examples of unauthenticity of the statistical information on dynamics of a network of the cultural institutions provided by official statistics, and also data on the actual type of a trend in dynamics of a network of theaters, museums both concert organizations, and the factors defining it are given. Justice of the negative direction of network dynamics of culture supported by measures of administrative and budgetary reforms is considered in article on the basis of the analysis and an assessment of compliance of the actual level of security of the population with the organizations of culture to the social standards and norms established in the Russian Federation by the order of the Government of the Russian Federation and foreign experience.


Background: Vitamin D deficiency, secondary osteoporosis and low-energy fractures (LEF) as side effects of specific drugs were first described more than half a century ago. These effects are recognized in guidelines where patients prescribed risk drugs are recommended follow-up with testing and supplementation. How these drugs are managed within Swedish healthcare has not been previously investigated. Aim: To study epidemiological aspects of drug-related vitamin D deficiency and osteoporotic fractures. Methods: The association between drugs for continual use and vitamin D levels in the elderly was investigated in a clinical study including more than 550 patients (paper I). Real-world data on drug prescriptions, laboratory testing and demographic variables from electronic health records were thereafter used to assess the clinical management and vitamin D levels. More than 12 000 patients prescribed risk drugs were included in this cross-sectional study (paper II). Focus group interviews were then undertaken to explore determinants of risk drug management among physicians from seven primary care centers. Thematic analysis with an inductive approach was used to create a framework addressing adherence to medical guidelines (paper III). Finally, a multifactorial risk assessment tool was developed from LEF risk factors in more than 15 000 patients prescribed antiepileptic risk drugs in a retrospective open cohort study (paper IV). Results: A weak inverse association between the number of prescribed drugs and levels of vitamin D was found (paper I). Fewer than one in fifteen patients prescribed risk drugs were tested for vitamin D while close to a third were supplemented. Differences in management and vitamin D levels with regard to type of risk drug were found (paper II). Awareness levels, expressed beliefs and perceived responsibility were reasons behind these differences (paper III). The Kalmar Epilepsy Fracture Risk Index (KEFRI) confirmed previously suggested risk factors (paper IV). Conclusions: Drugs generating vitamin D deficiency, secondary osteoporosis and LEF are often overlooked in healthcare. Awareness and attitudes need to be improved and strategies to better manage patients prescribed these drugs are required in order to avoid unnecessary side effects. The KEFRI could aid clinicians in treatment decisions, potentially reducing fracture risks in specific patient groups.


We investigate the space efficiency of a Propositional Knowledge Representation (PKR) formalism. Informally, the space efficiency of a formalism F in representing a certain piece of knowledge α, is the size of the shortest formula of F that represents α. In this paper we assume that knowledge is either a set of propositional interpretations or a set of formulae (theorems). We provide a formal way of talking about the relative ability of PKR formalisms to compactly represent a set of models or a set of theorems. We introduce two new compactness measures, the corresponding classes, and show that the relative space efficiency of a PKR formalism in representing models/theorems is directly related to such classes. In particular, we consider formalisms for nonmonotonic reasoning, such as circumscription and default logic, as well as belief revision operators.


This guide will demonstrate how to create, manage, import and export from your ORCID profile. ORCID allows you to create a unique author identifier for yourself to specifically identify your publications.


A Dead Sea Scroll fragment containing text from the book of Leviticus now belongs to the National Christian Foundation with inventory number ncf. scr.004742. It has been assigned the designation dss F.203 or dss F.Lev6 (Lev 23:24–28) by Eibert Tigchelaar. The fragment contains portions of four lines of text from Lev 23:24–28, part of a larger passage addressing the appointed festivals of Israel. The fragment corresponds to the section addressing the blowing of trumpets on the first day of the seventh month (Lev 23:24–25) and the beginning of the section related to the Day of Atonement (Lev 23:26–32). The text of this fragment is attested by all the primary textual witnesses (mt lxx sp t s v), which exhibit very few variant readings. Lev 23:24–28 is also present in two Qumran scrolls: 4QLevb (4q24) and 11QpaleoLeva (11q1). While 4QLevb contains fairly substantial portions from the book of Leviticus, for this passage it preserves only traces of a few letters.1 On the other hand, the text of Lev 23:24–28 in 11QpaleoLeva is almost entirely intact and exhibits a text identical to mt. The text of dss F.Lev6 likewise presents a text close to mt. However, a reconstruction of the missing portions of the lines implies the presence of a variant most likely corresponding to that of the lxx and s.


: In his article, " Mapping Out Chinese Modernity and Alternative Modernity, " Song Li reviews the writings of Kang Liu, particularly his Aesthetics and Marxism. Kang Liu studies the intellectual trajectory of Chinese Marxism from its inception to its post-Mao phases of transformation by comparing it with the cultural and aesthetic thinking of Western Marxism. It provides not only a new perspective for the study of Marxism in general and Chinese Marxism in particular, but also opens up a new space for mapping out Chinese modernity and alternative modernity. Its 2012 Chinese translation makes it more accessible in China, and it will have a far-reaching impact on the Chinese intellectual


As we know that the sources of petroleum fuels are limited and it will deplete soon in the future. Also use of conventional fuel in engine increase CO, HC, Nitrous Oxides and particulate matter into the atmosphere. This gives support to engineers and researchers to move towards use of an alternative fuel that can be used in the engine. Many researchers have found that hydrogen is alternative fuel but use of hydrogen as an energy source in compression ignition engines involves some issues such as production, storage and transportation. Study towards the use of fuel that is easy to storage and transport is considered. To achieve the better operation condition literature shows that use Hydrogen as the supplementary fuel, using hydrogen peroxide as the additives in the Diesel fuel as the hydrogen present in it.


* Introduction 1. Presidential Power and Constitutionalism * Constitutionalism and Executive Power * Dynamic Variables in Emergency Constitutionalism * Emergencies and Constitutional Perspectives 2. Presidents and Constitutionalism * President Lincoln: "Popular demand and public necessity" * President Wilson: "if there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression" * President Roosevelt: "every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage" * President Truman: "Within the aggregate of his constitutional powers" 3. President Bush and Constitutionalism * Torture * Surveillance * Detention Conclusion: A Call for Executive Constitutionalism * Presidential Power Claims and Constitutional Perspectives * Executive Constitutionalism * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index


Abstract Eastward enlargement poses an unprecedented challenge to EU policies for economic convergence. On the existing criteria for distribution of the structural funds, new central and east European members would qualify for sums that are politically unacceptable to the current EU‐15. Yet the policy objectives of the structural funds are highly relevant to CEE, given the regional inequalities in income and employment both within and between the applicant states, and the prospect that catch‐up with average EU income levels could take many years after accession. In 'Agenda 2000', the Commission proposed a neat compromise between the competing interests of net contributors, current recipients and CEE needs, but one which sacrifices the principles of solidarity and cohesion. Gaps between the applicants could widen as the front‐runners become eligible for much higher levels of EU funding than those left outside.


The manipulation of particles using acoustic forces is a basis for a potentially valuable continuous separation method. The method is unique in that particles can be distinguished based on their relative compressibilities, as well as on mass density and size. An acoustic standing wave is oriented perpendicular to the fluid flow direction which enables an incoming particle mixture to be separated into different streams at the fluid output. Effects which cause mixing such as heat convection and acoustic streaming must be minimized through careful design. An imaging system has been implemented to record the trajectories of individual particles as they flow through the separation cell. Trajectories of various types of particles ranging from 5 to 55 microns are compared to theoretical estimates of separation effectiveness, with a particular emphasis on the role of secondary inter‐particle acoustic forces. [Work supported by NASA through Grant No. NAG8‐1351.]


Numerical simulation has been carried out to study the unsteady phenomenon of a buoyancy-induced periodic flow and convection heat transfer in a lid-driven arc-shape cavity. The governing equations in terms of the stream function-vorticity formulation are solved by the finite-volume method coupled with a body-fitted coordinate transformation scheme. In the range of the Reynolds number (Re) from 100 to 2,000 and Grashof number (Gr) up to 5 2 10 7 , the heat transfer characteristics and flow pattern have been predicted. Attention has been focused on the combined effects of the inertial and buoyant forces exerted on the fluid. Results show that only when the inertial and buoyant forces are of approximately equal strength that can the periodic flow pattern be observed. For an inertia-dominant or buoyancy-dominant situation, the periodic flow pattern is not visible.


As the US Armed Forces restructure and decrease, their missions are changing from those of the Cold War's forward-deployed force to more complex missions of a post-Cold War expeditionary force. For the US Army and Marine Corps, these new missions will likely involve urban combat, what one contemporary author has called "combat in hell."1 Although urban combat has been a constant throughout history, its frequency and scale are likely to increase as emerging threats such as urban guerrillas, terrorists and underdog armies seek cover in the cities.


A critical prerequisite for unbiased anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) exoproteome exploration is the optimal extraction and treatment of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Herein, by l...


The American Heart Association and American Council of Cardiology recently updated the guidelines defining hypertension to systolic blood pressure (BP) values >130 mmHg or diastolic BP values >80 mmHg (i.e., Stage 1 hypertension; HTN1). Hypertensive adults classified via the 2003 JNC7 definition (systolic BP >140 mmHg or diastolic BP >90 mmHg) are now categorized as having Stage 2 hypertension (HTN2). Adults with HTN2 exhibit pronounced microvascular dysfunction, one of the first pathophysiological manifestations of the disease. However, the degree to which endothelial dysfunction is evident in the microcirculation of adults meeting the updated definition of hypertension (HTN1) remains equivocal. We tested the hypotheses that microvascular endothelial dysfunction would be present in HTN1 compared to normotensive adults (NTN; systolic BP <120 mmHg and diastolic BP <80 mmHg) but would be less severe compared to HTN2. Endothelium‐dependent dilation (EDD) was retrospectively analyzed in 21 NTN (5 M; 51±1 yrs; resting BP 107±1/68±1 mmHg), 15 HTN1 (6 M; 54±1 yrs; resting BP 126±1/82±1 mmHg), and 37 HTN2 (24 M; 54±2 yrs; resting BP 144±1/93±1 mmHg). Red blood cell flux (laser Doppler flowmetry) was measured during graded intradermal microdialysis perfusion of the endothelium‐dependent agonist acetylcholine (ACh; 10−10–10−1 M). EDD was assessed as flux (perfusion units; PU) and cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC; flux·mmHg−1). Systolic and diastolic BP were significantly different between all three groups (P<0.05 for all). EDD was blunted in both HTN1 and HTN2 relative to NTN when expressed as both flux (NTN: 74±2 vs. HTN1: 60±3 vs. HTN2: 59±2 PU; all P<0.01) and CVC (NTN: 0.86±0.03 vs. HTN1: 0.62±0.04 vs. HTN2: 0.58±0.02 flux·mmHg−1; all P <0.01); however, ACh‐induced dilation was not different between HTN1 and HTN2 (flux P=0.9; CVC P=0.5). These preliminary data suggest that cutaneous microvascular endothelial dysfunction is evident in HTN1 and is as severe relative to HTN2. Future studies are required in order to elucidate the mechanistic mediators of vascular regulation in HTN1.


To assess the frequency of vitamin D deficiency among men with prostate cancer, as considerable epidemiological, in vitro, in vivo and clinical data support an association between vitamin D deficiency and prostate cancer outcome.


While polymorphonuclear neutrophils are endowed with potent mechanisms for phagocytosis and the killing of microbes, and thus contribute to a host defense against microbicidal infections, they have also long been recognized as important effectors of inflammation. Indeed, when their migration in tissues is not regulated, their excessive accumulation could contribute to host tissue injury following release of two essential groups of toxic products: granular substances and toxic species of reduced oxygen.' Lungs are particularly exposed to such insults and constitute a primary site of damage caused by host defense mechanisms. Indeed, if only a few neutrophils are normally present in the lung interstitium and alveolar spaces, these cells are susceptible to respond to chemotactic stimuli and accumulate in the lung. Thus, neutrophils have been specifically implicated in the adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and emphysema.' After several years, the concept that neutrophils contribute to inflammation not only alone but also through interactions with platelets, has emerged. For example, a neutrophil-dependent platelet deposition was observed in different experimental models such as dermal inflammation,3 occlusion-reperfusion myocardial injury,4 or subendothelial immune complex glomerulonephritis.5 In a model of ARDS, it has been shown that not only neutrophils but also platelets contributed to lung injury.6 In this pathology, characterized by a loss of integrity of the alveolar-capillary wall, platelets have been described as potential contributors.' I n uitro studies have revealed that such a cell-to-cell interaction was effective and was of extreme complexity. Different biochemical and biological pathways have thus been depicted: generation of oxygen derivatives, synthesis of arachidonate metabolites and platelet-activating factor (PAF), contact through the expression of P-selectin (GMP140 or CD62). formation of neutrophil-activating peptide 2 (NAP-2), and participation of p r o t e i n a s e ~ . ~ ~ ~ We have focused our interest on one of these mechanisms, that is, the neutroPhil-induced platelet activation mediated by proteinases and modulated by cyto-


Performance increment in determination of land regions with using marine radar video frames is important in terms of target tracking, coastal security and ship route spotting. In literature, clutter map creation or sea and land statistics determination methods, by using many frames, are proposed to determine land regions. In this study, image segmentation on a single frame and also segmentation of the clutter map which is generated by using multiple frames methods have been examined in order to determination of land regions. As a result of these experiments, the performances of these methods were examined and interpreted.


16-Epiestriol 16- and 17-monoglucuronides (XI, V) were prepared from 3-benzyloxy-17β-hydroxyestra-1, 3, 5 (10)-trien-16-one (I) employing Koenigs-Knorr reaction as shown in Chart 1. These synthetic glucuronides readily underwent hydrolysis with beef-liver β-glucuronidase preparation to furnish 16-epiestriol and free glucuronic acid.


Private sector buyers often award construction contracts through negotiation rather than through open competitive tendering. Negotiating with a reputable contractor is a way to mitigate contractual hazards. For many public sector buyers, however, open competitive tendering is required by law. The practices of procurement officers in local authorities are examined in regard to the selection of construction contractors, focusing particularly on their use of scoring‐based competitive tendering and ex ante information exchange between procurement officers and the firms competing for contracts. Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with 15 procurement officers in 10 local authorities in Sweden. Using the contractor's staffing of the project organization as a contract award criterion allows procurement officers to select reputable contractors. Arranging face‐to‐face meetings with contractors before the final award decision allows procurement officers to resolve at least some technical problems in complex construction projects. When negotiations are prohibited by law, these practices can be seen as combined responses to hazards of construction contracting.


Although the accruing evidence demonstrates the importance of social functioning for young children's developing school competence, previous research has, for the most part, included peer relationship quality as the indicator of social emotional competence (e.g., Ladd, 1990; Ladd & Coleman, 1997). Here, this focus is expanded to consider how the other half of the socioemotional construct, namely emotional competence, might contribute to positive schoolrelated outcomes for young children. Emotional competence refers to children's ability to apply knowledge of emotion and expression in their efforts to regulate their emotional experiences and negotiate social exchanges with others (Saarni, 1990). Given the critical role of emotions in the creation of a positive classroom climate, there is a pressing need to understand the extent to which specific dimensions of child emotional competence are associated with young children's school-related developmental outcomes. At the same time, the ability of teachers to emotionally connect with children may also have an enduring impact on the learning that occurs in the preschool classroom.


The purpose of the Gran Telescopio de CANARIAS (GTC) project is the design, construction, erection and startup of a telescope with a segmented primary mirror equivalent to a circular aperture of 10 m in diameter. The GTC project was created to satisfy the needs of Spanish astronomers for more telescope time and larger telescopes. The GTC project does more than simply increment the list of `8-10 meter class' telescopes. Its requirement for higher specifications differentiates it from other telescopes of its generation. The GTC will combine a large collecting surface with excellent image quality and suitably optimized observation in both the visible and the infrared. The Gran Telescopio de CANARIAS Project Office Telescope Group, based in the Canary Islands, together with a joint venture of Spanish companies, are developing the telescope mechanics systems, taking into account the scientific requirements established. This paper summarizes the scientific requirements that have technically led the design process of the telescope mechanics and the features that have been incorporated to meet said requirements.


In most regions of the central part of the North Caucasus, there is a persistent increase in the prevalence rate of congenital malformations of the child population and the development of other health problems. It is probable due to the fact that unlike many other regions of Russia the upper reaches of the Kuban water are contaminated by metals with a significant excess of MPCrx due to their entry from rock depths. The highest excess of manganese, copper and iron was observed. For other metals there are specific for individual waters deviations upward or downward. To date, the water in large quantities for the irrigation network is transmitted in steppe regions, feasting upon the path of additional quantities of natural contaminants, and mainly anthropogenic origin. The massive use of irrigated agriculture, the saturation of groundwater contaminants is the basis for their accumulation in the agricultural products. Thus, after drinking it is the second a local source of metals in the human body. The problem for detection of correlative relationships between pollution and human health in this case is the lack of such a target as the total MPC of pollutants in the human body, balancing entry-selection for different age, gender and other characteristics of human differences.


This article describe about administration of students, who have the purpose of discuss everything that needs to be done in administration process of students. This article is written using the literature study method, which this method is done by collect various sources, both from books, journals, articles, and other documents that are still related to the problems under study. And administration of students itself is a process of activities carried out by the school for students, starting from the acceptance of new students to students completed their education from school.


WE GAIN insight into the lives of others when we know what they read, see and hear. This is one of the chief purposes to be served by any systematic survey of public attention. One general, though far from universal, human attribute is the tendency to over-estimate the amount of attention given to the self by other persons. Everything concerning the precious ego is so intimate and immediate that it is difficult to accept a realistic picture of what other people are thinking and feeling about us. We know this is true in our person-to-person relationships. It is equally true when we think of ourselves as Americans in contrast to Germans, British, or Russians. By means of a World Attention Survey it is possible to correct any tendency to over-estimate the amount of attention given to the United States. Chart i reveals the comparatively modest number of references to the United States appearing in two of the most influential news-


This paper studies audio-video transmission in a wireless LAN with the EDCA of the IEEE 802.11e MAC protocol in terms of application-level QoS and user-level QoS (i.e., perceptual QoS). By simulation, we first compare the performance of the EDCA and the legacy IEEE 802.11 DCF in the case where audio, video, and data are transmitted in a common wireless channel. The EDCA supports priority control for multimedia transmission. Numerical results show that the EDCA can improve the audio and video quality of the DCF when data traffic load is heavy. We then study the effects of dynamic video-resolution and media synchronization control on the application-level QoS. Simulation results show that the two kinds of control at the application layer in addition to priority control with the EDCA at the MAC layer is effective in achieving excellent application-level QoS of audio-video transmission. Furthermore, we assess user-level QoS by the method of successive categories, which is one of the psychometric methods


Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify and rank the effective factors on customer values from the perspective of banking customers. Design/methodology/approach – This study is a practical and descriptive survey. In order to rank the factors affecting customer values, a fuzzy analytical hierarchical process has been used. The data were gathered through Delphi method and questionnaires. Findings – The results of this study indicate that the factors affecting customer values include costs, relational benefits, brand perceptions, and services quality. These factors influence customer values, respectively. The results also indicate that financial costs among costs, operational benefit among relational benefits, trust in employee behavior in customer brand perceptions, and finally confidence in service quality dimensions have the highest priority. Research limitations/implications – The proposed model and research findings will greatly help researchers and practitioners understand the factors influe...


Ever since the 1994 elections ushered in the new South Africa, the traditional leaders of the Eastern Cape have found themselves in a kind of purgatory — awaiting their fate in a transitional limbo between heaven and hell. On the one hand, they have fallen from the heaven of the old Transkei 'homeland' or 'Bantustan' system, where traditional leaders had autocratic powers and did more or less as they pleased within their own administrative areas. On the other hand, they have not yet been condemned to damnation. They can reasonably hope that they too will be enabled to share in the glories of the African Renaissance, and that the new millenium will add a new gloss to the shop-soiled but ever adaptable vehicle now known as traditional leadership.


Intensities of primary characteristic x‐rays generated by electron bombardment of a target are logarithmically related to the difference between the electron‐accelerating voltage and the critical excitation potential for the observed radiation. An analogous relationship has now been developed for secondary x‐rays, generated by x‐ray bombardment of a secondary target. The correlation was further extended to elements having atomic numbers from 28 to 56, and including several that are industrially important. This unexpected extension of the correlation to many elements should be particularly useful in fluorescent x‐ray analysis.