Since 1915 when eye-frequenting noctuids were discovered in Nyassaland and South Africa by Marshall et al. (1915, Proc. Roy. Ent. Soc. Lond. cxvii–cxix), and in Tanganyika by Poulton (1915, in Reid 1954, Proc. Roy. Ent. Soc. Lond. B. 23: 200–04), eye-frequenting Lepidoptera on animals including man have been reported from a number of countries in the Eastern Hemisphere; however, to my knowledge the observation presented herein constitutes the first record in the United States. Noctuids have been found feeding on the lachrymal secretions of various animals in Cambodia (Buttiker, 1959a, Acta Trop. 16: 356–61; B¨ttiker, 1959b, Nature 184: 1167; B¨ttiker, 1962a, Proc. Roy. Ent. Soc. Lond. B. 31: 73–76; Buttiker, 1962b, Proc. XI Int. Congr. Ent. Vienna 1960, Verhandlungen 2: 10–15); Thailand (B¨ttiker, 1964a, Verhande. Naturf. Ges. Basel 75: 231–36; B¨ttiker, 1965a, Proc. 12th. Int. Congr. Ent. 1964, London: 826–28); Rhodesia (B¨ttiker & Whellan, 1966, Rhod. Agr. J. 63: 24–27); India (B¨ttiker, 1967c, Rev. Suisse Zool. 74: 389–98); and Nepal (B¨ttiker, 1969, Rev. Suisse Zool. 76: 363–70). B¨ttiker (1964a, loc. cit., 1965, loc. cit.; 1967a, Ceylon J. Sci. Biol. Sci. 7: 91–95; 1967b, Mitt. Schweiz. Ent. Ges. 39: 151–79; 1967c, loc. cit.) has also reported geometrids and pyralids on the eyes of a wide range of mammals. While no conclusions were indicated, some blood was found in the midgut of 2 species of the eye-frequenting noctuids Lobocraspis griseifusa Hampson and Arcyophora sylvatica B¨ttiker (B¨ttiker, 1959a, loc. cit.; B¨ttiker, 1962b, loc. cit.).


This study examined longitudinal education and career outcomes of the Meharry-Vanderbilt-Tennessee State University Cancer Partnership, the longest-running National Cancer Institute (NCI) Comprehensive Partnerships in Advancing Cancer Health Equity (CPACHE) program site in the United States. Degree completion rates were calculated and progression along the entire postsecondary "pipeline" was quantified for 204 participants recruited between 2011 and 2020. For participants who had entered the workforce, career outcomes were also analyzed. Relative to comparison data, participants completed degrees and progressed through the higher education "pipeline" to earn advanced degrees at remarkably high rates; the majority entered careers in which they support or conduct cancer research. The latter is important, because most participants identify with demographic categories currently underrepresented in the cancer research workforce. This article makes two contributions to knowledge on research training programs for underrepresented students: 1) it quantifies participants' progression along the entire postsecondary education pipeline as well as into the workforce, and 2) it identifies points where participants are most prone to exit the pipeline rather than progress. We identify two types of exits—permanent and temporary—and offer empirically supported operational definitions for both. Evaluators may find the quantitative model and/or definitions useful for analyzing similar programs.


This paper studies the design of procurement mechanisms when a manufacturer purchases from multiple suppliers that are heterogeneous in their production costs and salvage values. The option to purchase from different suppliers helps the manufacturer hedge against demand risk. We first consider the case when the set of suppliers' cost parameters is public information. We propose a simple mechanism that achieves efficiency and allows the manufacturer to extract full surplus from the suppliers. We then study the case when the suppliers' cost parameters are privately observed. We establish the revenue equivalence between several widely used procurement mechanisms. We also discuss the optimal mechanism and characterize sufficient conditions under which the manufacturer can extract full surplus.


The "price discrepancy in the mergence" in our country contains the margin that arises from the offset between the investments given by the parent companies and the part of rights and interests in the subsidiary companies which belong to the parent company.It also includes the margin that arises from the bond investments inside the long investments of the group companies and the inside bond which should be paid.This article is an attempt to probe and analyse the differences in the accounting arrangement about the part of margin in China and America in the comparative way,and further analyses the reasons for the differences.Thereby we can learn the accounting arrangement experience of America and seek some feasible measures to make our consolidated financial statements understandable.


Objective To evaluate 99Tcm-Octreotide orbital SPECT scan in thyroid associated oph- thalmopathy (TAO) active degree judgement. Methods 32 patients with TAO and 8 control subjects were included in this prospective study. 99Tcm-Octreotide was intravenously injected and images were obtained at 2 hour after injection. The scans were analyzed by a region of interest technique.An uptake ratio between the orbits and brain was determined. Results There was a linear positive regressive relativity between the ratio and clinical score. Conclusion More objective and accurate conclusion can be received by 99Tcm-Octreotide orbital SPECT scan being performed in TAO active degree judgement.


Unidentified woman sings at microphone. WDCU-FM Jazz 90 personality Faunee, owner of Duke Ellington Building Ulysses 'Blackie' Auger, Felix Grant's wife June Grant and Congressman Walter Fauntroy surround singer.


"It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone." John Steinbeck

#quote


Objective
To investigate the distribution and antimicrobial resistance profile of clinical bacteria isolated from blood culture in China.

Methods
The clinical bacterial strains isolated from blood culture from member hospitals of Blood Bacterial Resistant Investigation Collaborative System (BRICS) were collected during January 2016 to December 2017. Antibiotic susceptibility tests were conducted by agar dilution or broth dilution methods recommended by US Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) 2019. WHONET 5.6 was used to analyze data.

Results
During the study period, 8 154 bacterial strains were collected from 33 hospitals, of which 2 325 (28.5%) were Gram-positive bacteria and 5 829 (71.5%) were Gram-negative bacteria. The top 10 bacterial species were Escherichia coli (34.7%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (15.8%), Staphylococcus aureus (11.3%), coagulase-negative Staphylococci (7.4%), Acinetobacter baumannii (4.6%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (3.9%), Enterococcus faecium (3.8%), Streptococci (2.9%), Enterobacter cloacae (2.7%) and Enterococcus faecalis (2.5%). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (MRCNS) accounted for 34.2%(315/922) and 77.7%(470/605), respectively. No vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus was detected. The resistance rate of Enterococcus faecium to vancomycin was 0.6%(2/312), and no vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium was detected. The ESBLs-producing rates in Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus were 55.7%(1 576/2 831), 29.9%(386/1 289) and 38.5%(15/39), respectively. The incidences of carbapenem-resistance in Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae were 1.2%(33/2 831), 17.5%(226/1 289), respectively. The resistance rates of Acinetobacter baumannii to polymyxin and tigecycline were 14.8%(55/372) and 5.9%(22/372) respectively, and those of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to polymyxin and carbapenem were 1.3%(4/315) and 18.7%(59/315), respectively.

Conclusion
The surveillance results from 2016 to 2017 showed that the main pathogens of blood stream infection in China were gram-negative bacteria, while Escherichia coli was the most common pathogen; the MRSA incidence was lower than other surveillance data in the same period in China; carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli was at a low level during this surveillance, while carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae is on the rise.

Key words:
Gram-positive bacteria; Gram-negative bacteria; Drug resistance, bacterial; Bloodstream infection; Microbial sensitivity tests; Nationwide scale; Resistance surveillance


Islam had great contribution in the architecture of India. Indians, on the other hand, developed an art which is unique in the world of Islamic architecture. These achievements were undoubtedly attained through the spirit of loyalty and cooperation which had been prospered during the centuries of co-existence between Moslems and Hindus. This spirit is still goes strong even though it was disturbed by the western colonizers for more than 200 years. This can be observed in the great architectural designs of India.


This study proposes a model of individual daily activity and travel patterns that captures the concurrent influence of the individual's lifestyle and modality style on each of the many decisions that together constitute her daily activity and travel pattern. Modality styles are defined as lifestyles built around the use of a particular travel mode or set of travel modes (Vij et al., 2013). They are hypothesized to influence all dimensions of individual and household travel and activity behavior. Transportation policies and infrastructural investments seeking to change existing patterns of travel and activity behavior are frequently undermined by deeply entrenched lifestyles and modality styles built around the use of the car. As Ryuichi Kitamura (1988) wrote in his seminal paper on lifestyles and travel behavior, "To deal with the challenge to urban transportation, one must first recognize that congestion is not the problem, but merely a symptom. The true problem is the life-style to which Americans aspire; the American dream is to live in a suburban single-family house on a half-acre lot with a three-car garage. If this is the root of the urban transportation problem, then obviously a fundamental solution to the issue of congestion cannot be reached without addressing the question of life-style." Travel demand models constitute an important component of the planning and policy-making process. Forecasts from travel demand models are regularly employed to determine the required capacity that new infrastructure must satisfy, and to facilitate the economic, environmental and social impact assessments that usually accompany the debate on how to allocate funds between competing initiatives. The field of travel demand analysis has progressed far beyond the aggregate models that defined the profession for much of the last century. Research during the eighties and nineties culminated in the activity-based model, a disaggregate model of individual and household travel and activity behavior which formulates the demand for travel as a function of the demand for various activities, predicting which activities are conducted where, when, for how long, with whom and using what mode of travel. Though the shift towards disaggregate models of decision-making has been seen as a significant step forward, activity-based models currently in practice continue to be deficient in their inability to account for the existence of different modality styles, and the subsequent influence exerted by these differing modality styles on multiple dimensions of individual and household travel and activity behavior. The objective of this study is to develop and test an econometric model framework that recognizes the influence exerted by modality styles on all facets of an individual's daily activity pattern. Using the model of daily activity patterns embedded within the San Francisco Chained Activity Modeling Process (SF-CHAMP), the state-of-the-art activity-based model developed for the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA), as our point of departure (Cambridge Systematics, 2002), we build on recent advances in discrete choice analysis in the sub-domains of taste heterogeneity, choice set generation, preference endogeneity and simultaneous choice models to develop a latent class choice model (LCCM) of daily activity patterns. Our framework extends the LCCM framework proposed by Vij and Walker (2014), first applied to study the influence of modality styles on travel mode choice behavior, to include the additional influence of modality styles on other dimensions of behavior, such as time of day and destination choice, that together make up an individual's daily activity pattern. For example, in the context of time of day choice, different modality styles may be characterized by differences in the times considered when deciding when to travel and differences in the sensitivity to accessibility measures when making that decision. In the context of destination choice, different modality styles may be characterized by differences in the places considered when deciding where to travel and differences in the sensitivity to land use variables when making that decision. These individual differences, when jointly modeled, should offer a greater understanding of differences in lifestyles and modality styles underlying existing patterns of behavior. Figure 1 illustrates the model framework in greater detail. Modality styles are represented as latent classes, and the class membership model predicts the probability that an individual has a particular modality style as a function of socioeconomic variables, such as employment and household income, and long-term travel and activity decisions, such as residential location and level of car ownership. Conditioned on the class, or modality style, that the individual belongs to, the class-specific choice model predicts the probability that the individual chooses a particular daily activity pattern as a function of the attributes of the transportation and land use system. The class-specific choice model may further be decomposed into a series of sequentially nested logit models, analogous to SF-CHAMP's daily activity pattern model. Lower dimensions, such as trip mode choice and trip destination choice, are conditioned on higher dimensions, such as full-day pattern choice and tour time of day choice; outcomes to higher dimensions are formulated as a function of logsums feeding upwards from lower dimensions. Heterogeneity in the decision-making process is captured by allowing taste parameters and choice sets for each choice dimension to vary across the classes. The framework is tested using single-day travel diary data retrieved from 17,199 individuals belonging to 8,081 households residing in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, collected as part of the larger California Household Travel Survey 2012. Early estimation results indicate the existence of seven distinct modality styles, or classes, in the sample population. Different modality styles differ from one another in terms of their socioeconomic composition, their predisposition towards different alternatives and their sensitivity to different attributes of the transportation and land use system. For example, one of the seven classes, labeled Suburban Drivers, comprises 13.7% of the sample population and consists largely of adults belonging to high-income households with kids living in single-family homes with high levels of car ownership. Suburban Drivers do not consider any travel modes other than the car when deciding how to travel, are unlikely to frequent mixed-use walkable neighborhoods, and are immune to congestion and other service-related factors when deciding what time of day to travel. Another class, labeled Multimodals, comprises 6.0% of the sample population and consists largely of single employed adults belonging to small households with no kids living in rented apartments, often with a carshare membership. Multimodals consider all travel modes when deciding how to travel, prefer to visit mixed-use neighborhoods (though they too do not prefer walkable neighborhoods), and are sensitive to congestion and other service-related factors when deciding what time of day to travel. In summary, the LCCM framework is able to paint a far more vivid picture of lifestyle and modality style typologies that exist in the Bay Area than would be possible using a more traditional activity-based model, such as the SF-CHAMP. Ongoing work is refining some of these estimation results and exploring implications for policy analysis. The model framework developed by this study represents a paradigmatic transition from activity-based models of travel and activity behavior to lifestyle-based models of travel and activity behavior. Our findings should serve as a proof-of-concept for how other activity-based model systems, such as the Comprehensive Econometric Micro-simulator of Daily Activity-Travel Patterns (CEMDAP) developed by Bhat et al. (2004), or the Coordinated Travel - Regional Activity Modeling Platform (CT-RAMP) developed by Parsons Brinckerhoff (Davidson et al., 2010), may analogously be extended to incorporate the influence of lifestyles and modality styles, with the intention of facilitating the kind of analysis that Kitamura thought necessary two-and-a-half decades ago. References Cambridge Systematics (2002), " San Francisco Travel Demand Forecasting Model Development: Executive Summary ," prepared for San Francisco County Transportation Authority. Bhat, C. R., Guo, J. Y., Srinivasan, S., and Sivakumar, A. (2004), " Comprehensive econometric microsimulator for daily activity-travel patterns ," Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board , Vol. 1894, No. 1, pp. 57-66. Davidson, W., Vovsha, P., Freedman, J., and Donnelly, R. (2010), " CT-RAMP family of activity-based models ," Proceedings of the 33rd Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF) . Kitamura, R. (1988), " Life-style and travel demand ," Transportation Research Board Special Report 220 , pp. 149-189. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board. Vij, A., Carrel, A., and Walker, J. L. (2013), " Incorporating the influence of latent modal preferences on travel mode choice behavior " Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Vol. 54, pp. 164-178. Vij, A., and Walker, J. L. (2014), " Preference Endogeneity in Discrete Choice Models, " Transportation Research Part B, Vol. 64, pp. 90-105.


In this paper, we investigate an open topic of a multiuser single-input-multiple-output (SIMO) generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) system in the presence of carrier frequency offsets (CFOs) and in-phase/quadrature-phase (IQ) imbalances. A low-complexity semi-blind joint estimation scheme of multiple channels, CFOs and IQ imbalances is proposed. By utilizing the subspace approach, CFOs and channels corresponding to $U$ users are first separated into $U$ groups. For each individual user, CFO is extracted by minimizing the smallest eigenvalue whose corresponding eigenvector is utilized to estimate channel blindly. The IQ imbalance parameters are estimated jointly with channel ambiguities by very few subcarriers. The proposed scheme is feasible for a wider range of receive antennas number and has no constraints on the assignment scheme of subsymbols and subcarriers, modulation type, cyclic prefix length and the number of subsymbols per GFDM symbol. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms the existing methods in terms of bit error rate, outage probability, mean-square-errors of CFO estimation, channel and IQ imbalance estimation, while at much higher spectral efficiency and lower computational complexity. The Cramér-Rao lower bound is derived to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, which is shown to be close to simulation results.


Adaptive reactions to chronic stress, reaching a certain intensity, can become harmful and be involved in any pathological process. Therefore, the search for new ways to increase the adaptive capacity reduced with age and the body's resistance to the negative effects of chronic stress remains relevant. The aim of the study was to experimentally study the age-related protective properties of the combination of molsidomine and ATP in chronic mild stress. The experiments were performed on young (6 months) and old (26 months) Wistar rats exposed to stressors that changed periodically at random for 8 weeks. During the 6-8th week of the experiment, against the background of stress, the animals were sublingually administered a pharmacological combination based on molsidomine 2 mg / kg, ATP 10 mg / kg. It was found that the adaptive reactions of young and old animals to chronic stress have qualitative and quantitative differences. Chronic stress in old rats caused changes in behavior and psycho-emotional state, deterioration of cognitive function, changes in lipoperoxidation. On the part of the immune system in old rats, against the background of a pronounced age involution of lymphoid organs, no significant changes in thymus mass and cellularity were observed during chronic stress, while the mass and cellularity of the spleen increased. The combination of molsidomine and ATP prevented post-stress changes in animal behavior, reduced anxiety, normalized social activity, restored the lost ability to recognize, improved cognitive function. The drug contributed to the preservation of the function of immunocompetent organs in young animals and to a lesser extent showed a protective effect in older animals against the background of involutional changes caused by both aging and chronic stress. The combination of molsidomine and ATP had an antioxidant effect. Thus, in chronic mild stress, older animals showed a different response from young animals to both stress and the administration of molsidomine with ATP. The applied pharmacological combination can be considered as a promising stress-protective agent that has a complex effect on various pathogenetic links of chronic stress due to its neuroand immunomodulatory, energy-saving, antioxidant properties.


This paper describes a service evaluation project to identify psychological need among patients recovering from a cardiac event. Results suggest interesting possibilities for early psychological intervention to address issues that affect the recovery process and future cardiac risk.


While many interpreters of the Enochic Parables have recognized a connection between the Enochic Son of Man and personified wisdom, this article argues that the Enochic Son of Man should be primarily identified as God's wisdom as well as God's word. To this end, the article argues that (a) the Son of Man is best understood as a divine being rather than an idealized human being, (b) a prominent word and wisdom theology existed in the late Second Temple period, and (c) both similarities between the Enochic Son of Man and word/wisdom as well as the narrative of the Parables support the conclusion that the Enochic Son of Man is an apocalyptic embodiment of God's word and wisdom.


The local matching problem on surfaces is: Given a pair of oriented surfaces in 3-space, find subsurfaces that are identical or complementary in shape. A heuristic method is presented for local matching that is intended for use on complex curved surfaces (rather than such surfaces as as cubes and cylinders). The method proceeds as follows: (1) Find a small set of points-called "critical points" -on the two surfaces with the property that if p is a critical point and p matches q, then q is also a critical point. The critical points are taken to be local extrema of either Gaussian or mean curvature. (2) Construct a rotation invariant representation around each critical point by intersecting the surface with spheres of standard radius centered around the critical point. For each of the resulting curves of intersection, compute a "distance map" function equal to the distance from a point on the curve to the center of gravity of the curve as a. function of arc length (normalized so that the domain of the function is the interval [0,1]). Cll the set of contours for a given critical point a "distance profile." (3) Match distance profiles by computing a "correlation" between corresponding distance contours. (4) Use maximal compatible subsets of the set of matching profiles to induce a transformation that maps corresponding critical points together, then use a cellular spatial partitioning technique to find all points on each surface that are within a tolerance of the other surface. Disciplines Computer Engineering | Computer Sciences Comments University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science Technical Report No. MSCIS-84-13. This technical report is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/cis_reports/1007 LOCAL MATCHING OF SURFACES USING CRITICAL POINTS Gerald M. Rada.ck Norman I. Badler A1S-CIS-84-13 Department of Computer and Information Science Moore School/D2 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, P A 19104: May 1984 Local Matching of Surfaces Using Critical Points Gerald M. Radack Norman I. Badler


The study of the microwave generation regimes with intense higher harmonics taking place in a high-power vircator consisting of a relativistic electron beam with a virtual cathode has been made. The characteristics of these regimes, in particular, the typical spectra and their variations with the change of the system parameters (beam current, the induction of external magnetic field) as well as physical processes occurring in the system have been analyzed by means of 3D electromagnetic simulation. It has been shown that the system under study demonstrates the tendency to the sufficient growth of the amplitudes of higher harmonics in the spectrum of current oscillations in the VC region with the increase of beam current. The obtained results allow us to consider virtual cathode oscillators as promising high power mmw-to-THz sources.


Abstract This paper describes a case study exploring how critical design and public exhibition could be consolidated into an inclusive qualitative creative research method to engage participants in conversations about community. Past literature has acknowledged the ability of physical objects and creative methods in research to activate different lines of thinking and elicit thoughtful, in-depth responses from participants that may not have arisen through more 'traditional' methods of enquiry. Critical design, by nature, is intended to be a tool for starting discussion and debate. We employed this approach to inform the design of critical artefacts on the topic of community. These were then displayed at pop-up exhibitions in public spaces to engage members of the public in conversations on community. Responses informed future artefacts, which were exhibited again in an iterative cycle. We explored the potential of this research approach to both elicit and disseminate knowledge.


In recent years, computer network architectures are experiencing a significant shift motivated by a myriad of edge devices generating a tremendous volume of data, service providers deploying real-time and huge bandwidth-consuming network applications, and mobile end-users demanding stringent quality of service and reduced service disruption. The fog computing architecture aims at addressing several related issues by employing computing resources at the edge of the network. However, frequent and even unexpected handover among distinct fog domains is yet a research challenge because it hinders the continuous availability of shared edge resources. In this work, we employ reinforcement learning (RL) to learn from experience how to maximize the availability of resources at fog domains by minimizing the handover frequency in vehicular scenarios through smart resource placement. We evaluated our RL-based model in simulations mimicking real-world scenarios where each moving vehicle may connect to different fog domains throughout its route. The results show that the proposed model yields an improvement in the availability of resources in comparison to a greedy strategy under all simulated scenarios.


In the decentralization process, which combines the responsibilities of state and private partners (companies and social partners) at different levels, is the assessment of public policies an appropriate support mechanism for the exercise of political responsibility? This paper sheds light on some aspects of the question. Are the political responsibility of "rulers" and the technical responsibilities of assessment experts becoming mutually accountable? This article is based on three forms of assessment in perspective: two studies, one in Rhone-Alpes and one in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur dealt with state-regional contract plans signed in the 1990s on vocational training; these were part of a pluralistic assessment, the now predominant assessment standard in France. The contract-based coordination technique has tended to confuse public action instead of clarifying the imperatives at stake. This risk can be averted if locally-initiated projects are politically assumed and publicly debated.


Fuzzy logic has been used in different research fields for more than three decades. It has be-
come a robust method to solve complex and intricate problems which are otherwise difficult
to solve by traditional methods. But it still requires some human experience and knowledge.
In the present study, an attempt is made to design a hybrid optimization technique for au-
tomatic formation of the fuzzy knowledge based rules using an evolutionary algorithm. This
hybridization technique has been applied in the field of damage detection and location of
cracks in cracked structural elements. In this paper, a robust fault diagnostic tool based on
a differential evolution algorithm and fuzzy logic has been proposed. Theoretical and Finite
Element analyzes are done to model the crack and to find the effect of the presence of cracks
on changes of vibrational characteristic (natural frequencies) of a fixed-fixed beam. The in-
puts to DEA-FL system are the first three relative natural frequencies, and the outputs from
the system are the relative crack depth and relative crack location. For the validation of the
results obtained from the proposed method and to check the robustness of the controller,
experimental analysis is performed. To find average error rates, the bootstrap method has
been adopted.


The synthesis of tris-O-dodecyl-gallic acid (3,4,5-tri-dodecyloxybenzoic acid) was selected as a model system in our program to define design tools and a methodology for fine-chemical scale-up. The just-suspended conditions of potassium carbonate in MIBK have been studied to find a scale-up rule for this system from 1 dm3 lab-scale to an industrial scale of 6000 dm3. By adjusting the relation of Zwietering to the values obtained by visual observations of the lowest stirrer speed at which the solid particles are just-suspended on a 1- and a 10-dm3 scale with different particle sizes and two stirrer types, a scale-up rule was developed which was verified under just-suspended conditions on a 50-dm3 scale. In addition, a prediction was made using this rule as a minimum criterion for a 6000-dm3 reactor where no problems regarding off-bottom criteria are expected. The focused beam rotating measurement (FBRM) and photo video measurement (PVM) Lasentec techniques have been used successfully to determine just-susp...


*Department of Applied Physics and Chemistry, The University of Electro-Communications, 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan, ** Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan, *** Department of Molecular and Material Sciences, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Kyushu University, 6-1 Kasugakoen, Kasuga-shi, Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan


Laurent & Poljak introduced a class of valid inequalities for the max-cut problem, called gap inequalities, which include many other known inequalities as special cases. The gap inequalities have received little attention and are poorly understood. This paper presents the first ever computational results. In particular, we start presenting a cuttingplane scheme based on an effective heuristic separation algorithm for gap inequalities, and showing that these yield extremely strong upper bounds in practice. Then, we propose an exact separation algorithm for gap inequalities to compute exact gap integrality ratios for small max-cut polytopes.


In recent years, international private military and security companies (PMSCs) have been the focus of increasing analytic scrutiny (Avant, 2005; Kinsey, 2007; Singer, 2008). In the Canadian context, several studies have examined how this developing industry has affected the Canadian Forces (CF) and Canada's foreign and defence policies (Perry, 2007; Spearin, 2004a; 2004b; 2005; 2007; 2008; 2009). Although during this time there have been many academic and policy-related proposals regarding international PMSC regulation, it is only now that a concrete effort is being made to examine and assess the impact of international regulation on state involvement with the PMSC industry (Cameron, 2006; Holmqvist, 2005; Jennings, 2006). This effort is the Montreux Document on Pertinent International Legal Obligations and Good Practices for States Related to Operations of Private Military and Security Companies During Armed Conflict (hereafter the "Document"). Following three years of negotiations, Canadian officials along with those from 16 other countries—Afghanistan, Angola, Australia, Austria, China, France, Germany, Iraq, Poland, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States—signed the Document, the product of a Swiss-based scheme, on 17 September 2008. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) heralds it as an important and groundbreaking framework regarding PMSCs as it "outlines for the first time ever detailed and practical measures to help states enhance compliance with international humanitarian law and ensure respect for human rights" (Seventeen countries..., 2008). At the Document's heart are identification and clarification of hard international humanitarian and human rights law that bind states. There are also 73 non-biding soft standard—good practices—designed to make real the hard law obligations. These good practices apply to three possibly overlapping categories of states: contracting states, home states, and territorial states (i.e., states in which PMSCs carry out their contracts). Additionally, the Document's drafters suggest that the good practices are equally applicable to the wider issue of developing responsible state-PMSC relationships. Taken together, for the head of the Swiss foreign ministry's international law division, the Document's "practical impact will be, I hope, quite a big one" (cited in Slater, 2008). This paper examines the practical impact and the challenges that Canada will likely confront in applying the good practices in full. There are several factors that underscore the utility of this exercise. Canada's involvement with PMSCs, both as a contracting state and as a home state, is increasing. Also, the Document's good practices were negotiated, in large part, by states with Canada, at times, taking a lead role on certain matters. Although the good practices are non-binding, they are nevertheless a political outcome amongst states. What is more, these practices exceed in their robustness the limited number of current state 1


In the area of combinatorial studies of string languages under formal grammars, the concept of Generalized Parikh Vector (GPV) gives the positions of symbols in linear strings. It has been proved that GPVs of the strings of the same length lie on a hyper plane. The studies on GPV of strings over a binary alphabet gave rise to the concept of line languages. The concept has been extended to surface languages in this paper.


The present invention relates to a method of purification by anion exchange chromatography column pentose compounds, the method is pentoses crude product was loaded onto an anion exchange chromatography column, eluted with an aqueous solution. The method of purification of the high efficiency, easy operation.


Filamentous fungi colonize food ingredients, penetrating into them, releasing a variety of enzymes, raising metabolites and reaction products and increasing their biomass. In many cases, this sequence of events is considered as spoilage (Pitt and Hocking, 1985) because of off-odours, unwanted discolourations, taste defects, and toxicity. Interestingly, however, mankind experienced that in certain situations, colonizing filamentous fungi (moulds in short) bring about desirable changes in foods, and termed them fermentations (Fukushima, 1985). Considering the chiefly aerobic metabolism of moulds, the usage of the term fermentations indicating the anaerobic mechanism of energy generation is incorrect by definition. Nevertheless the term fungal food fermentation is widely accepted in the sense of bioprocesses resulting in improvements of quality. Whereas the origin of fungal food fermentation is the Orient, some specific processes have developed in Europe. Increasing international travel and trade have been the vehicle for the worldwide distribution of some of the derived products. In principle, the birth of fungal food fermentations must have been from "spoilage"; from an ecological point-of-view it may thus be expected that the concept of "spoilage associations" (Dalgaard et al., 2003) also applies to fungal food fermentations. This implies ecological niches consisting of suitable substrate, microbial competition, and favourable envi ronmental conditions. It therefore seems quite logical to encounter moulds with optimum growth temperature (Topt) of 20-30 °C in the moderate climates, and those with Topt of 30-40 °C in the humid tropics. Table 1 presents an overview of selected filamentous fungi, the fermented foods in which they feature, their role in quality improvement, and some recent literature references. In the following sections these cases will be discussed in some detail, with a focus on the scientific questions of recent interest.


Fiberglass reinforced epoxy (FG/epoxy) and carbon fiber reinforced epoxy (CF/epoxy) composite components are known to be produced in high volumes using the compression molding process. This same molding technology can reasonably be expected to produce high volumes of CF/epoxy automotive body structure and chassis components. The author discusses epoxy unique chemistry, forming and molding processes possible due to the thermoplastic stage-of-cure referred to as the epoxy B-stage. B-staged epoxies are discussed and then compared to what is commonly referred to as a B-staged Sheet Molding Compound (SMC). A progression molding assembly line concept similar in configuration to existing automotive sheet metal forming lines is discussed. This conceptual molding operation would be capable of producing complex CF/epoxy structural composite components at a rate of at least 120/hour.


Stalin's Piano is a collection of "voice portraits" of artists and politicians in juxtaposition. The music is derived from the intonation of each speaker, closely followed and framed by the piano, which distills prosodic features into a idiolectic style for each person, and primes audience perception of the musical aspects of spoken prosody. Each speaker is heard in a recording and accompanied live by solo piano. The central story concerns the relationship of Joseph Stalin and Maria Yudina, a virtuoso pianist who was very defiant in a climate of terror, banishment and death for opponents. She was blatantly and publicly religious and regularly performed banned compositions and read banned poems in her concerts, but was spared death because she was Stalin's favourite pianist. Other artist/politician pairings are explored throughout the work, including figures such as Joseph Goebbels and Thomas Mann, Mao Zedong and Ai Wei Wei, Bertoldt Brecht and the House Un-American Activities Committee, Megyn Kelly and Donald Trump, Jackson Pollock and Gough Whitlam, John F. Kennedy, Julia Gillard and others. The composition is strongly informed by linguistics and music perception studies, and seeks to focus emotional and non-verbal communication within the speeches. This performance took place in Sydney's City Recital Hall, Angel Place, and is introduced by the composer Robert Davidson and by the pianist Sonya Lifschitz, for whom and with whom the work was conceived and composed.


The temperature dependence of the field-cooled and zero-field-cooled static dielectric susceptibilities of the deuteron glass Rb 0.4 (ND 4 ) 0.6 D 2 PO 4 has been determined. Whereas above the freezing temperature T f the two susceptibilities are equal, a splitting of the two branches as well as a remanent polarization if observed below T f . The fact that this splitting takes place demonstrates the occurrence of a freezing transition on crossing the Almeida-Thouless-like line


In this paper we consider a perturbed linear-quadratic control problem on a finite interval. The only difference from the traditional LQ-control problem is that the problem has an extra linear term in the cost function which makes it time-dependent. The major motivation for this extension comes from [4] where we consider applications of very efficient primal-dual interior-point algorithms to the computational analysis of multi-criteria linear-quadratic control problems in minimax form. It turns out that the linear-quadratic control problem on a finite interval with the linear term in the objective function can also be applied in the optimal control of innate immune response which is considered in [5].


Objective. Associations between psychiatric problems and white matter (WM) microstructure have been reported in childhood and adolescence. Yet, a deeper understanding of this relation has been hampered by a dearth of well-powered longitudinal studies and a lack of explicit examination of the bidirectional associations between brain and behavior. We investigated the temporal directionality of WM microstructure and psychiatric symptom associations from late childhood to early adolescence. Methods. In this observational study, we leveraged the world s largest single- and multi-site cohorts of neurodevelopment: the Generation R and Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Studies (total n scans = 11,400). We assessed psychiatric symptoms with the Child Behavioral Checklist as broad-band Internalizing and Externalizing scales, and as syndrome scales (e.g., Anxious/Depressed). We quantified WM with Diffusion Tensor Imaging, globally and at a tract level. We used cross-lagged panel models to test bidirectional associations of global and specific measures of psychopathology and WM microstructure, meta-analyzed results across cohorts, and used linear mixed-effects models for validation. Results. We did not identify any robust longitudinal associations of global WM microstructure with internalizing or externalizing problems across cohorts (confirmatory analyses). We observed similar findings for longitudinal associations between tract-based microstructure with internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and for global WM microstructure with specific syndromes (exploratory analyses). Conclusion. Uni- or bi-directionality of longitudinal associations between WM and psychiatric symptoms was not robustly identified. We propose several explanations for these findings, including interindividual differences, the use of longitudinal approaches, and smaller effects than expected.


Objective To evaluate the clinical significance of detecting of interleukin(IL)-10 serum levels in nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC) patients.Methods IL-10 serum level was detected by ELISA in 60 patients with NPC and in the 20 subjects in the control group,and the dynamic vaiation in IL-10 serum level between pre-radiotherapy(pre-RT) and post-radiotheraph(post-RT) was evaluated in part of patients.Results IL-10 serum level in NPC was significantly higher than that in the control group(P0.05).IL-10 serum level in stage Ⅰ and Ⅱ patients was signficantly lower than that in the patients in stage Ⅲ and Ⅳ(P=0.011).IL-10 serum level in patients with lymph node metastases or distant metastases was higher than that in patients without lymph node metastases or distant metastases,bu no statinstical significance were observed.IL-10 serum level in all but 2 patients significantly decreased after radiation therapy as compared to that before radiation therapy(P0.005),these 2 patients had local recurrence.Conclusions Detection of IL-10 serum level is of significance in diagnosing,staging,and evaluation the outcome for NPC patients,and it is worthy of further study.


Introduction: MR imaging is an attractive modality that allows direct and non-invasive evaluation of the aortic stiffness. This is commonly done using Cine-MR sequences in which the evolution of the aortic contour is tracked during the cardiac cycle, commonly in an axial plane at the level of the pulmonary trunk. The maximum and minimum of the area are then used to calculate the aortic compliance. Although this parameter can serve as an early hallmark in specific diseases, it remains inadequate to distinguish various other disorders such as Marfan syndrome (inherited disorder of connective tissue) or Ehlers-Danlos disease. In this study we propose an approach in which the whole curve representing the evolution of the aortic area during the cardiac cycle is taken into consideration and analyzed. The analysis of the aortic area variation is done using the wavelet transform [1] which gives an insight about the spectral components of this variation and their localization in time. The proposed approach was used in this study to distinguish two classes of patients (subjects with Marfan syndrome [2, 3], and subject with MYH11 mutation [4]) from normal healthy subjects. In addition, some of the commonly used aortic stiffness measurements such as compliance, and pulse wave velocity (PWV) were obtained for the studied population for comparison.


ONE OF THE GREATEST dangers to international security today is the possibility of a military confrontation between China and Taiwan that leads to a war between China and the United States. Such a war would be not only tragic but also unnecessary, since it would result from a failure of imagination and diplomacy-fought because a place that has long declared itself independent was attacked for doing so again. Neither Beijing nor Taipei wants a war, but both sides have adopted policies that run an unacceptably high risk of bloodshed over the next several years. The Bush administration should therefore take steps now to reduce the prospect of conflict across the Taiwan Strait. Under standing what those steps should be, however, requires getting past the rhetorical constructs that have dominated discussion to date. China says that it wants stability across the Taiwan Strait, that it can postpone final resolution of the cross-strait issue for a long time, that it is developing its regional military capabilities solely to deter Taiwanese independence, and that it will use force if necessary to prevent or reverse a declaration of independence. But these positions have not served China's interests well, because it has failed to make clear exactly what "declaring independence" involves.


AbstractA case of rat-bite fever, not described from Sweden since 1949, has been diagnosed by cultivation of Actinobacillus muris from blood together with demonstration of antibody increase against this organism and a typical clinical picture. Recovery was rapid on penicillin treatment.


Some studies reported that the anisotropic failure strength of shale will be weakened by increasing confinement. In this paper, it is found that there are various types of anisotropic strength behaviors. Four types of anisotropic strength ratio (SA1) behaviors and three types of anisotropic strength difference (SA2) behaviors have been classified based on laboratory experiments on nine groups of different shale samples. The cohesion cw and friction angle ϕw of the weak planes are proven to be two dominant factors according to a series of bonded-particle discrete element modelling analyses. It is observed that shale is more prone to a slight increase of SA1 and significant increase of SA2 with increasing confinement for higher cohesion cw and lower to medium friction angle ϕw. This study also investigated the mechanism of the anisotropic strength behaviors with increasing confinement. Owing to different contributions of cw and ϕw under different confinements, different combinations of cw and ϕw may have various types of influences on the minimum failure strength with the increasing confinement; therefore, different types of anisotropic behaviors occur for different shale specimens as the confinement increases. These findings are very important to understand the stability of wellbore and underground tunneling in the shale rock mass, and should be helpful for further studies on hydraulic fracture propagations in the shale reservoir.


In 2002,the investigation about predator spider population fluctuation in the fields of Bt transgenic cotton and conventional variety (control) was made in Jiangsu coastal district.The results showed that Theridion octomaculatum, Erigonidium graminicola,Pardosa T-insignita and Misumenops tricuspidatus were four dominant populations and the ratio of T. octomaculatum was 59.00%-63.00%. Six species of spiders were common in both fields.The decreasing order of the amount was T. octomaculatum, E. graminicola,P. T-insignita,M. tricuspidatus,Clubiona maculata and Tetragnatha javana. The difference of spider proportion between the two fields was insignificant.Comparing with that of control,the amount of T. octomaculatum, E. graminicola, T. javana and spider totality in Bt cotton field increased 46.90%,94.09%,100.00% and 55.38%, respectively. But the amount of C. maculata decreased 85.71%.Their differences were significant. The amount of P. T-insignita increased (10.59%) and that of M. tricuspidatus decreased 9.52%.But the differences were insignificant.


In time domain, seismic amplitude and rise-time are commonly used for obtaining the attenuation coefficient or the quality factor (Q value) of subsurface rock. Because it is difficult to measure seismic source energy, we have developed a method of seismic neighboring trace attenuation tomography in time domain that can remove the effect of source from the calculation process. Seismic velocity tomography, seismic amplitude attenuation tomography, and rise-time attenuation tomography have been integrated into a series procedure that is applied to field data obtained in a mine. The results prove that the seismic tomographic method is flexible, practicable, and reliable.


The measurement of cell constant in a diaphragm-cell method is the most important factor. In order to get the correct cell constant, the diffusion coefficients of potassium chloride were measured, at various concentration and temperature of potassium chloride solution, and at the stirring rate in the cell. The pseudo-binary diffusion coefficients of organic aroma component (benzaldehyde) in sugar solution has been measured at various concentration and temperature with the cell constant obtained above. Experimental results were compared and discussed with the semi-empirical epuations from literatures. And, especially, the diffusion coefficient of benzaldehyde, for a small solute diffusing in a viscous solvent of larger molecules is proportional to the -0.82 power of the viscosity of aqueous sugar solution, at constant temperature, .


Using a real-space real-time implementation of time-dependent density functional theory coupled to molecular dynamics (TDDFT-MD) nonadiabatically, we theoretically study both static properties and collision process of cytosine by 150–1000 eV proton impact in the microscopic way. The calculated ground state of cytosine accords well with experiments. It is found that proton is scattered in any case in the present study. The bond break of cytosine occurs when the energy loss of proton is larger than 22 eV and the main dissociation pathway of cytosine is the breaks of C1N2 and N8H10. In the range of 150 eV ≤ Ek ≤ 360 eV, when the incident energy of proton increases, the excitation becomes more violent even though the interaction time is shortened. While in the range of 360 eV < Ek ≤ 1000 eV, the excitation becomes less violent as the incident energy of proton increases, indicating that the interaction time dominates mainly. We also show two typical collision reaction channels by analyzing the molecular ionization, the electronic density evolution, the energy loss of proton, the vibration frequency and the scattering pattern detailedly. The result shows that the loss of electrons can decrease the bond lengths of C3N8 and C5N6 while increase the bond lengths of C4H11, C5H12 and C4C5 after the collision. Furthermore, it is found that the peak of the scattering angle shows a little redshift when compared to that of the loss of kinetic energy of proton.


Over decades,the Central Government has been paid high attention to the in-deep level issues about the social economic development of Tibet and made several important decisions regarding to its leaps and bounds development and long-term stability in order to systematically guarantee the work of Tibet has been done smoothly.These significant decisions having high rational recognition function and practical path stimulation function.The guiding thought and sets of significant decisions made for reducing the gap between Tibet and central plain from the perspective of systematic supply.


to a wide range of neurological symptoms, ranging from headaches, dizziness and altered mental status to coma. The basis for this is thought to be hypoxia. Carbon monoxide competes with oxygen for binding to hemoglobin (Hb) and once bound, shifts the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve to the left, thus impairing off-loading of oxygen molecules, leading to hypoxia . A sizable minority of CO poisoning cases also develop a delayed neuropsychiatric syndrome (DNS) following a lucid interval of 2-40 days . The underlying pathophysiology of DNS is much less well understood and only recently, with the advent of advanced neuroimaging techniques, have we been able to draw distinctions between DNS and other forms of cellular injury1. We present a case of delayed neuropsychiatric syndrome following CO poisoning for whom diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed restricted diffusion but in a temporal pattern distinct from ischemia.


Experiments were performed to determine some of the chemical and physiological changes accompanying exposure of bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris 'Topcrop') to saline aerosol. Plants were exposed to various dosages of salt (0-150 ..mu..g Cl/sup -//cm/sup 2/) when the primary leaves were approximately one-quarter expanded (7-8 days old). Respiration, photosynthesis, and transpiration rates were determined after salt exposure. There was an increase in the respiration rate of salted plants as compared to the unsalted controls. Photosynthesis rate increased when expressed on a unit chlorophyll basis. Transpiration rate decreased with exposure to saline aerosol. When the primary leaves were fully expanded (15-17 days old) they were analyzed for contents of chloride, water, total nitrogen, total chlorophyll, total free amino acids, soluble sugar, and starch. The chloride content increased linearly with increased exposure. As the chloride content increased, the total nitrogen content decreased. Chlorophyll and amino acid contents increased until symptoms appeared, then they decreased. With increased exposure to salt total soluble sugar content increased.


continued, "did . . . [God] not desire to do all that would make . . . [them, the poor] happy here [on earth] by the gifts of His Grace,and hereafter by a share in His Kingdom."Not surprisingly, she reported that her audience was little moved by her classist-inspired counsel.What she feared most,however,was that she had not turned them from their desire to use the parish funds to alleviate their poverty. Thus, she concluded,"what an awful thing is the loss of Grace. A perverse spirit seems to hold the heart and force it on to ruin"(p. 342). VINCENT J. MCNALLY Sacred Heart School of Theology Hales Corners, Wisconsin


The formulation of the problem from this research is Is the development of LKPD based on a scientific approach on matrix material in high school feasible to use? How are students' responses to LKPD based on a scientific approach to matrix material? as the purpose of this study is to determine whether the development of LKPD based on a scientific approach to matrix material in high school is feasible to use. To be able to find out how students respond to LKPD based on a scientific approach to matrix material. This research is a research and development Research and Development (R&D) that uses a 4D development model which consists of 4 stages, namely the definition stage, the design stage, the develop stage, and the dissemination stage. However, in this study, the researchers only limited it to the 3D stage, namely define, design and develop. The instrument in this study was a questionnaire sheet for the expert feasibility test. Based on the validation results from the validator, the LKPD assessment scores were obtained by two expert lecturers and one mathematics teacher with an average percentage value of 79% and categorized as "Eligible". For student responses to LKPD based on a scientific approach to matrix material, the average percentage value is 86% and is categorized as "Very Good". It can be concluded that the LKPD based on a scientific approach to the matrix material developed by the researcher is feasible to be used as additional teaching material for students.


FDA expanded the approved use of ibrutinib (Imbruvica, Pharmacyclics and Janssen Biotech) as a single agent, oral kinase inhibitor for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients who have received at least one previous therapy.


This article studies the implications of complementarity on the problem of the long-term forecast. The conditions for maintaining long-run equilibrium between factor demand and factor supply are derived and illustrated with the help of a three-factor model, so as to bring out the particular problem of foreign trade. Equilibrium for all of the three factors appears possible only if the parameters of the system satisfy a set of specific relations or certain policy variables are introduced. Finally the complete system as used by the Central Planning Bureau is presented, together with the numerical values chosen for the parameters. 1. SOME IMPLICATIONS OF COMPLEMENTARITY 1.1. FOR THE PURPOSE of long-range projections a choice must be made as to the nature of the production function. Two extreme assumptions are possible, viz., perfect substitutability and strict complementarity. Most long-range projections published hitherto are based explicitly or implicitly upon the hypothesis of complementarity. Some of the implications of this hypothesis will be discussed in the first and second sections of this paper. In the third a model based on complementarity as has been used by the Central Planning Bureau for projections covering the period 1950-1970 will be presented. 1.2. The type of model to be considered will cover a period of only one to three decades. It is, moreover, not concerned with the cyclical variations of the variables nor with problems of a really secular character such as those studied by Haavelmo.' Furthermore, the implications of disequilibria due to a disproportionate development as between sectors of the economy will be ignored.2 The main problem to be dealt with is therefore the question of equilibrium for the macro variables in the medium-long run. As compared with economic statics the equilibrium concept should obviously be widened so as to allow for the dynamics of long-run development. In the following equilibrium will be defined as a development that is compatible with the equality of demand and supply for each of the factors of production. Neither stable values of the endogenous variables nor constancy of the policy parameters is required. Defined in this way, long-term equilibrium does not necessarily imply optimal development. Unless only one development-equilibrium is possible, restrictions other than that


The development of the computer network and wide application of Internet have accelerated the process of enterprises and social informalities, but at the same time they have brought a lot of network security problems. So, according to the network application inside enterprises and the security problems existing in network, the paper presents some methods such as using the tri-layer switch and VLAN technology to realize user access control, using corresponding firewalls on the different levels of the network model to realize the isolation between interior and exterior network. Moreover, data transmission by encryption and identity authentication by digital signature were realized by using IDE-C++ Builder and SQL database technology, and the log management sub-system as well as database backup sub-system were constructed. The network security is complicated system engineering, so many kinds of security policy is needed to be use in concert with each other, and multilayer multidimensional precaution architecture of network security needed to be established also in order to improve the security of networks as a whole.


Social workers are expected to serve, communicate, and interact effectively with a broad range of clients across various cultural contexts. Military culture is unique in that it puts the mission first, above one's life, family, and personal comfort. Military culture has its own beliefs, language, values, and legal system that significantly impact the use of healthcare practices. There has been recent research identifying the significant gap in knowledge and training for behavioral health providers serving military members, veterans, and their families. In 2014, a survey examining behavioral health providers in Maryland identified significant gaps in knowledge and confidence for providers assessing and treating clients with military experience (Koblinsky, Leslie, & Cook). Additionally, the RAND Corporation examined community based providers' capacity to deliver culturally competent, quality mental health care to veterans and their families (Tanielian et al., 2014). The findings highlighted that few civilian providers are prepared to serve military members, veterans, and their families. Only 13 percent of surveyed civilian providers met all the readiness criteria, and those that met these criteria did not necessarily meet the other threshold for providing the best evidence-based care (Tanielian et al., 2014). This dissertation briefly explores the history of military social work both in active duty and civilian settings. It provides an introduction to military culture and social work practice, seeking to identify the unique culture of each branch of service and its impact on the psychosocial health of our service members and their families. It aims to thoroughly examine the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) code of ethics and many ethical dilemmas social workers encounter serving this unique population. It addresses dual loyalty and mixed agency concepts, educating students on how the social worker is tasked to maintain allegiance to the military and the profession. It critically examines and addresses both legal and moral contexts for ethical dilemmas in active duty and veteran social work settings. The dissertation examines the veteran's developmental processes, predisposing factors, and vulnerabilities that often exacerbate military related trauma. Finally, it identifies the copious amounts of transitional resources available to our nation's veterans and the many social work implications. The primary objective of the dissertation is to create a military social work graduate certificate program guided by the Council on Social Work Education Core Competencies and Practice Behaviors. The graduate certificate program will include three elective courses designed to fulfill requirements of the MSW program and specified field placement experiences. This format will allow students to complete their MSW and military social work graduate certificate program simultaneously with no additional coursework required. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Social Work (DSW) This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations_sp2/102 First Advisor Marcia Martin Ph.D. Second Advisor Nicholas McKinnon, MD Third Advisor Jonathan Everett Brown, M.Div., MSW, LCSW, LCAS


The value evaluation criterion and the threat evaluation criterion ware chosen based on the combat missions that tank unit carried out,and the evaluation indexes ware determined accordingly. The radial basis function neural network genetic algorithm(RBF-GA)is designed based on the rapidity and the optimal approximation ability of RBF neural network and the overall search capability and the parallel processing ability of genetic algorithm to evaluation combat target of tank unit. The example shows that the algorithm not only meets the demands of evaluation technical indicators,but also has a high practical value.


On Mars, a smooth, draping unit—the "latitude‐dependant mantle" (LDM), believed to comprise meter thick layers of dust and ice—extends from the midlatitudes to the poles, covering at least 23% of the surface. We show that the LDM can be 30 m deep on pole‐facing crater walls, and by measuring the erosional and depositional volumes of small gullies that incise these LDM deposits, we show that it must contain between 46% and 95% ice by volume. Extrapolating to a global scale, these deposits account for ~104 km3 of near‐surface ice, doubling previous LDM volume estimates. Thick LDM deposits can be emplaced during the many orbital variation‐driven climate excursions that occurred during the Amazonian period. We suggest that LDM deposits are similar to ice sheets composed of massive ice with a surface lag.


The selection of rational direction of integrated approach and planning of effective anti-epizootic measures is impossible without scientific foresight. An integral part of both basic and applied aspects of epizootological research is currently a program approach. Most of information in the field of epizootology is of descriptive nature and is expressed by formalisms which evaluation is often subjective. The research data is presented in the form of numbers and cartograms, and it is not always possible to arrange and classify it due to the ambiguity of interpretation. In this research we used archival data of disease cases records and comparative-historical and comparative-geographic methods for describing epizootic diseases which enabled to correlate the diseases and natural-geographical and social-economic conditions. The data of the Bayevskiy District of the Altai Region was analyzed. Notifiable epizootic cases were recorded in 1973 and 1974, and the incidence rate was 76 per 10 thousand animals at the beginning of the period, and one animal at the end. The average incidence rate of the first three periods of the study was less than 30, and during the last period the incidence rate decreased dramatically to 2 per 10 thousand animals. Wave motion of the incidence rate was recorded both in time and space in the districts of the Altai Region.


Making more efficient and attractive agri-environmental measures **Sites involved in the action Basses Vallees Angevines / Moyenne Vallee de la Charente / Moyenne vallee de l'Oise **Objective Improving the agro-environmental measures (MAEt) **Description Given the evolution of the French corncrake population, the agri-environmental measures undertaken since the early 1990s do not seem to drive towards an effective preservation of Corncrakes populations. This action is therefore a priority (...)


SUMMARY The belted radial passenger car tire is idealized as a prestressed circular ring connected to a hub through a distribution of linear springs modeling the sidewall. A second distribution of such springs exterior to the ring represents the tread rubber. The tire is supposed to be at rest, loaded at its hub, and pressed onto a flat, rigid, frictiontess roadway. In this situation the linear differential equations of the model are solved using a singular perturbation technique. Given the load at the hub, the solutions furnish the length of tread in contact with the road, the radial and circumferential displacement of all points on the ring, and the distribution of pressure over the region of contact.


The metabolic fate of β-dimethylaminoethylbenzhydrylether (Restamin, R.) was studied in guinea pigs, and was compared with that in rabbits and toads. The results obtained were as follows : 1) R. subcutaneously or orally administered was absorbed rapidly. Symptoms of stimulation developed when the levels of R. in the blood exceeded 5 mg per cc. 2) Urinary excretion of R. was also relatively rapid in guinea pigs, and 4.2-23.2 % of the injected dose was excreted in the urine in unchanged form in 24 hours. 3) R. was distributed through all the tissues in guinea pigs, and the highest concentration was found in lungs, and decreasingly in spleen, liver, kidneys and small intestine. 4) The rate of decomposition in slices from the livers of guinea pigs was more rapid than that from other tissues. In toads the decomposition activity was lower than in the other animals and its optimal temperature for decomposition was slightly lower. In the perfusion experiments on the liver and hind legs of toads similar results were obtained.5) The optimal condition for the decomposition of R. was found at 37.5°C and pH 7.4. 6) In the decomposition of R. in liver tissue in the first step the ether linkage was broken down and benzhydrol and dimethylaminoethanol were found as metabolic products. Then benzhydrol was metabolized into an unknown acidic substance, and dimethylaminoethanol was partly metabolized through an unknown route. The antihistaminic and antiacetylcholinic activity were not demonstrated in these metabolic products. 7) The decomposition of R. in the liver slices of guinea pigs was inhibited markedly by some reducing agents, such as cysteine, ascorbic acid or hydroxylamine, and in perfusion experiments on the liver and hind legs of toads, cysteine showed the same effect, but in vivo experiments these reducing agents had no influence.


In recent works, rational interpolation has been applied with success to many performance functions in stochastic discrete-event systems (DES). In this paper, we consider the issue of convergence of rational interpolants. We show that, for some performance functions in DES, the convergence of rational interpolants is at least geometrically fast. An error bound for rational interpolation on integer points has also been obtained.


In order to interpret the 'irreversibility line' found in most found in most high‐Tc superconductors, it is necessary to understand how pinning modifies the flux lattice melting transition. Here, the effect of pinning is incorporated in a quasi‐two‐dimensional formulation, which should be appropriate for these highly anisotropic materials. Comparing the results to experiment, it is found that the flux lattice appears to be very different in YBa2Cu3O7−δ than in the Bi‐ and Tl‐layered materials.


Diseases of the oro-dental tissues are of great interest in dental medicine. On these lines, the interest shown for the parodontal diseases has increased since it has been scientifically proved that there is a connection between cutaneous-mucous diseases and the paradontopathies, with different degrees of severity, within systemic morbidity: arteriosclerosis, myocardial infarction and cerebral haemorrhages, [1]. Anti-inflammatory ingredients can be used in regenerative therapy for tissues affected by the parodonthal disease; these ingredients are obtained from natural resources such as marine algae, which have proved to have an anti-inflammatory action on some negative gram and positive gram germs. The extracts from marine algae are incorporated in type I nondenatured fibrillar collagen matrixes. Structural modifications of the marine biomass performed by extraction biotechnological processes, the production of type I fibrillar collagen hydrolysate (dereticulation) by lyophilization techniques in order to obtain hydrogels and porous matrixes or by free drying in order to obtain membranes and atomization in the production of powders, [2,3] as well as the actions of the active ingredients at the biocellular level are considered to be nanomaterials acting at trans-dermal and transmucous levels. Based on certain previous rheological measurements performed with type I nondenatured fibrillar collagen gels [4,5], containing ethyl alcohol with a pH of 3 or not, the concentrations selected for preparing gels with hydro-alcoholic extracts of marine algae were 0.6% for collagen and 5 and 10% for extracts from algae, in mass percentages. We have not used higher concentrations for extracts from algae nor for ethyl alcohol when extracting the components thereof, since ethyl alcohol can cause a decrease in the viscosity of the collagen-based gel, large quantities of it being likely to actually lead to its destruction (dissociation into two phases, one rich in water, the other rich in collagen). Hydroalcoholic extracts from marine algae have been used as they have been obtained, without being previously diluted or concentrated in order to be brought to the same concentration, which means that the gels which contain prepared algae extracts do not have the same concentration of dry ingredients. The gels with collagen concentrations of 0.6 and hydroalcoholic extract concentrations of 5%, 10% respectively in mass percentages have been prepared at room temperature for the initial gel with a collagen concentration of 1.64% (g collagen per 100 g of gel) by adding the relevant quantities of distilled water and hydroalcoholic extracts from marine algae while shaking. In order to state, subsequent to rheological measurements, whether there are interactions between the components of the three hydroalcoholic extracts from algae and Type I


To identify the sensitivity and resistance of various Staphylococcus aureus strains to methicillin, intact cells from 76 S.aureus clinical isolates were analyzed by matrix _ assisted laser desorption ionization time _ of _ flight mass spectrometry(MALDI _ TOF MS). The mass spectral fingerprints were incorporated into the user's database and subjected to cluster analysis. Polymerase _ induced chain reactions(PCR) with nuc and mecA genes were employed as a reference for the characterization of MALDI _ TOF mass spectra. About 74% of the isolates have been correctly identified as S.aureus by MALDI _ TOF MS. Significant discrepancies between the spectra of methicillin _ sensitive Staphylococcus aureus(MSSA) and those of methicillin _ resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) were observed that could be used for their characterization. Based upon cluster analysis, all the clinical isolates have been categorized into two groups, namely, sensitive and resistant groups. In comparison with PCR results, 7 mecA _ negative strains were identified as resistant strains by MALDI _ TOF MS, whereas five of the sensitive strains identified by the conventional susceptibility assay were also confirmed by MALDI _ TOF MS to be sensitive. Most of the strains have been identified correctly with the aid of software that allowed the mass spectral patterns to be searched against those in the database. Owing to its high resolution, MALDI _ TOF MS can differentiate bacteria at the strain level for the discrimination of MRSA and MSSA in the study. The results suggested that MALDI _ TOF MS could be used as a rapid and reliable method for bacterial taxonomy.


Abstract:A body has a history that constrains or conditions its future, that carries forward into the future the past's imprint. This paper addresses biocultural theories that highlight the temporality of a body and the significance of the fact that it becomes what it is over time. Samantha Frost's recent account of the biocultural status of the human sees the temporality of a body as key to understanding its present ontology or being. Frost can be productively read with other scholars who draw out how time provides a body's ontological contours in light of a body's interbeing with its environs.


Objective: SN-38(7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin), a Camptothecin derivative is the active metabolite of Irinotecan hydrochloride, poses a challenge in terms of drug delivery due to its low solubility and labile lactone ring. In spite of being 100-1000 times more cytototoxic than its prodrug, it is yet in clinical trials and needs FDA approval. It poses anticancer activity against cancers like colon, lung, cervix and pancreas. The aim of this study was to develop biodegradable SN-38 incorporated polymeric nanocapsules (PLNP) using (PLGA) Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid). Methods: PLNP were prepared by emulsion-solvent evaporation method and optimized by 32 full factorial design. The physicochemical properties are characterized by TEM, DLS, Zeta Potential, DSC and FTIR. Its stability was checked at pH 4.5 and 7.4 and at 25oC and 37oC. Results: The entrapment efficiency and drug loading content of optimized formulation were 72.6 (± 1.02) % and 10 (± 0.47) % respectively. The in vitro drug release studies showed higher release in simulated intestinal fluid with 4% rat cecal contents as compared to simulated gastric fluid and intestinal fluid. At 25 oC, about 25% of the SN-38 was degraded after 96 h for free SN-38 and 10% of SN-38 for PLNP entrapped SN-38, whereas at 37 o C, 28% of the SN-38 was degraded after 96 h. Conclusion: PLNP showed better drug release in simulated intestinal fluid with 4% rat cecal contents which makes it a suitable candidate for colorectal cancer therapy. PLNP was maintained even after 96 h of exposure to pH 7.4 and 37oC, indicating that in vivo SN-38 loaded nanocapsules (PLNP) should display increased stability and better performance compared with the free drug.


. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs, such as ipilimumab and pembrolizumab) are drugs used in the late stages of some cancers, including melanoma, kidney cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. ICIs act by enhancing a person's immune defence against the cancer. Unfortunately, adverse effects on the immune system are common, affecting around 60% of patients. Skin reactions are especially frequent, requiring treatment to be interrupted or even discontinued. This study was conducted at 10 centres across southern Europe and one in Argentina. The authors, who specialize in skin side-effects of cancer treatments, reviewed immune-related skin reactions attributed to this group of drugs. Out of 762 patients, the most commonly treated condition was non-small cell lung cancer (51%), followed by melanoma (26%). The study found that 197 patients (26%) developed more than one skin reaction during treatment. Psoriasis and itching were the most common reactions, followed by lichen planus (a type of rash) and vitiligo. Eight patients developed a life-threatening skin condition such as toxic epidermal necrolysis (blistering and peeling of the skin). The type of skin reaction varied with the type of cancer: psoriasis predominated in patients being treated for non-small cell lung cancer, whereas patients with kidney cancer most frequently developed itching. Vitiligo was especially seen in patients receiving treatment for melanoma. In conclusion, based on the frequency of skin reactions observed with the use of ICIs, dedicated referral to oncodermatology clin-ics is necessary for diagnosis and management. Until then, patients on ICIs should be closely monitored by specialized dermatologists as part of standard care.


This study conducted to determine the mathematics teacher's self-efficacy of technology integration and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) based on gender and teaching experience. In this research, 66 mathematics teachers from national secondary schools were chosen as the samples to answer a survey questionnaire containing 71 items with a five-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics, such as mean, percentage, and standard deviation, were employed to analyze the data. T-test was used to gauge the mathematics teacher's self-efficacy of technology integration and TPACK based on gender, and one-way ANOVA was employed to determine mathematics teacher's self-efficacy of technology integration and TPACK based on teaching experience. Besides, Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between the mathematics teacher's self-efficacy of technology integration and TPACK. The findings showed no significant difference between genders and the teaching experience of the mathematics teacher's self-efficacy and TPACK. However, mathematics teacher's self-efficacy of technology integration and TPACK were strongly associated. In conclusion, whether male or female, for as long as mathematics teachers had been working, they have a positive self-efficacy in initiating technology integration and introducing TPACK. The implication was gender and teaching experience were not a critical factor for mathematics teacher's self-efficacy of technology integration and TPACK. For future research related to this study, it could introduce other factors, such as academic qualification and technology courses they had attended.


The rare kaon decays K → πl + l - and K → πνν proceed via flavour changing neutral currents, and are thus heavily suppressed in the Standard Model. This natural suppression makes these decays sensitive to the effects of potential new physics. These decays first arise as second-order electroweak processes, hence we are required to evaluate four-point correlation functions involving two effective operators. The evaluation of such four-point correlation functions presents two key difficulties: the appearance of unphysical terms in Euclidean-space correlators that grow exponentially as the operators are separated, and the presence of ultra-violet divergences as the operators approach each other. I present the results of the first exploratory studies of the calculation of the long-distance contributions to these decays using lattice QCD. The decays K → πl + l -  are completely long-distance dominated; this lattice calculation is thus the first step in providing ab-initio estimates for the amplitudes of these decays. Our simulations are performed using the 24 3 x 64 domain wall fermion ensemble of the RBC-UKQCD collaboration, with a pion mass of 430(2)MeV, a kaon mass of 625(2)MeV, and a valence charm mass of 543(13)MeV. In particular we determine the form factor, V (z), of the K + (k) → π + (p) l + l -  decay from the lattice at small values of z = q 2 =M 2 K (where q = k - p), obtaining V (z) = 1.37(36); 0.68(39); 0.96(64) for the three values of z = -0.5594(12), -1.0530(34), -1.4653(82) respectively.The decays K +  → π + νν are short-distance dominated, although the long-distance contributions represent significant sources of uncertainty. The lattice calculation of the decay amplitudes is made particularly difficult by the presence of ultra-violet divergences in the four-point correlators. I present the calculation of the renormalised decay amplitudes, using the 16 3 x32 domain wall fermion ensemble of the RBC-UKQCD collaboration, with a pion mass of 421(1)(7)MeV, a kaon mass of 563(1)(9)MeV, and a valence charm mass of 863(24)MeV. In particular we find the difference between the perturbative and lattice estimates of the charm contribution to these decays to be ΔP c = 0.0040(13)(32)(-45).


and 16] provide the notation and terminology for this paper. We follow the rules: C denotes a simple closed curve, i, j, n denote natural numbers, and p denotes a point of E 2 T. The following propositions are true: (1) BDD C is Bounded.


If it is often easy to make the ballistic organic assessment, caused by small bullet gauges, it is another for traumatisms by firearms. These last because of their etiological specificities (bombs, grenades, weapons of war, exploding agents...) produce larger damage leaves. Ballistics being a speciality of the scientific police, is a restricted term. During the various scientific workshops of the loco-motor apparatus in the HCA (Central Hospital of the army in ALGERIA), the term of traumatisms by firearms was adopted, which made it possible to give a more total definition. Through various conflicts, the traumatisms by firearms are characterized by their organic specificities in their etiologic aspects, closely related to the various battle fields. In our study, we present forty cases of limbs injuries by firearms, follow-up with the physical therapy unit of HMRU, Oran, Algeria between 2001 to 2007. The cases followed are young male adult being divided into three groups: Fractures of members - amputations - medullar casualties. Throughout our process of taking into care, we avoided two traps ; therapeutic eagerness and palliative equipment whereas functional recovery is still possible.


— Presently in the grid, twelve inverters followed by twelve transformers of 720/415V have been used. This combination results in very less efficiency of the existing plant. In this paper, a prototype of single phase grid connected transformerless inverter is designed to overcome the problems associated by their combination. From solar panel of 720V DC output is given to Buck converter which further reduces the output to 415V DC. Buck converter is followed by single phase inverter of 250 kW. The inverter topology is a full bridge inverter with addition of two more switches after the input stage. High efficiency of this proposed inverter is achieved by using Unipolar Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation switching strategy.


An efficient and mild oxidative desulfurization procedure using o-iodoxybenzoic acid has been developed for the synthesis of carbodiimides starting from easily synthesizable 1,3-disubstituted thioureas.


Computed tomography (CT) can be used to study wood-water interactions in differentways, such as by determining wood moisture content (MC). The determination of MCrequires two CT images: one at the ...


Purposes of Research The research, which is conducted based on the conservation of resource theory, aims at having a deeper understanding of the factors for micro entrepreneurs' job burnout. The five purposes of the research are as follows. 1. To find out the differences of micro entrepreneurs' job burnout when the different background of population is variable. 2. To find out the differences of micro entrepreneurs' job burnout under different level of job stress or different amount of entrepreneurial resources. 3. To find out the relevance between job burnout and entrepreneurial resources, job stress, personality hardiness, and social support. 4. To understand the predictability for micro entrepreneurs' job burnout based on the entrepreneurial resources, job stress, personality hardiness, and social support they have. 5. To find out whether personality hardiness or social support would moderate micro entrepreneurs' job stress or job burnout. Research Method The research adopts purposive sampling. There were 305 research participants; most of them are micro entrepreneurs who had attended the entrepreneur guidance program held by the Chinese Management Association. Research tools used in this research include questionnaire for profile, job stress inventory, entrepreneurial resources inventory, personality hardiness inventory, social support inventory, and job burnout inventory. Based on the purposes of research, hypothesis testing has been conducted by applying analysis of variance, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and hierarchical regression analysis. Research Results 1. The level of job burnout is lower when the micro entrepreneur is elder, married, or has more years of work experience before starting the business. 2. Entrepreneurial resources don't moderate job stress or job burnout. However, entrepreneurs with more entrepreneurial resources have lower level of job burnout compared with those who have less entrepreneurial resources. Micro entrepreneurs with less job stress also have lower level of job burnout. 3. With more entrepreneurial resources, less job stress, higher personality hardiness, and more social support, micro entrepreneurs' level of job burnout would be lower. 4. Personality hardiness (mainly the sense of involvement and challenge) and social support (mainly tangible support) can effectively ease job burnout. Also, personal responsibility lowers job burnout, too. Job stress (mainly role stress), on the other hand, significantly increases job burnout. The significance of entrepreneurial resources has been ruled out because of the sense of involvement part of personality hardiness. 5. Personality hardiness and the sense of involvement and challenge included can effectively moderate the correlation between job stress and job burnout. 6. Social support and the emotional support, tangible support, and informational support included cannot effectively moderate the correlation between job stress and job burnout. Conclusion There are three suggestions for the practice based on the research results. 1. To gain more work experience, to strengthen organizational capital, and take the initiative to seek for family and friends' tangible support in order to have more external resources. 2. To strengthen self-perception ability in order to understand one's limitation of role load and to make order for the needs based on their importance in order to solve problems effectively; e.g. to look for support or collect data to ease role stress. 3. To learn to find the sense of significance and the worthiness to learn and grow even in stress situation in order to think positively when dealing with stress. Limitation of the research and suggestions for future related research are also included.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the significant indicators of macroeconomic environment that influence credit risk in high-income countries.

Design/methodology/approach
The study employs the system generalized method of moments estimator to avoid the dynamic panel bias and endogeneity issues. Different indices of economic growth are used in each model in order to find the most significant proxy of the economic cycle that influences problem loans. The analysis is carried out using a sample of 49 developed countries covering a 16-year period (2000–2015).

Findings
The overall empirical results highlight that the development of industrial sectors and exports are the main drivers of loan performance in high-income countries. The findings specifically recommend adopting an expansionary fiscal policy to boost per capita income and potential productivity for the safety of the banking system.

Practical implications
The findings have direct practical applicability for stabilizing the financial system. The study recommends the government to increase the productivity of export-oriented industries in order to boost employment and increase the payment obligations of individuals and business firms. More importantly, it highlights the essentiality of perfect economic policy to control default risks.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study that compares the relative effect of three alternative proxies of the economic cycle on credit risk and identifies the most significant proxy. The current study also empirically shows that industrial development could be one of the crucial factors to improve financial health in developed countries.


Many deep learning methods for image inpainting rely on the encoder-decoder architecture to estimate missing contents. When guidance information from uncorrupted regions cannot be adequately represented or utilized, the encoder may have difficulty handling the rich surrounding or background pixels, and the decoder could not recover visually sophisticated or realistic content. This paper proposes an effective multi-scale optimization network to alleviate these issues and generate coherent results with fine details. It adaptively encodes multi-receptive fields feature maps and puts multi-scale outputs into a discriminator to guide training. Specifically, we propose a Multi-Receptive feature maps & masks Selective Fusion (MRSF) operator that can adaptively extract features in different receptive fields to handle sophisticated destroyed images. Then a multi-gradient discriminator (MGD) module uses the intermediate features of the discriminator to guide the generator to produce results with natural textures and semantically real contents. Experiments on several benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed method can synthesize more realistic and coherent image content.


Abstract : The purpose of the Proposed Action is to renovate, construct, or replace infrastructure and facilities at Niagara Falls ARS to enable personnel to perform activities necessary to meet USAF mission, emergency response, and force protection concerns at the Installation. The 914 AW has identified the need to implement 8 construction and maintenance projects to support various base organizations. These projects are 1. Revitalize water distribution system. 2. Extend AFRC ramp. 3. Widen driveway at Hazardous Waste Storage Building (Building 830) and repave existing driveway. 4. Add to and alter Civil Engineering Building (Building 425). 5. Construct bivouac. 6. Replace Wagner Drive culvert. 7. Reconfigure parking lots to meet antiterrorism standards. 8. Study and replace sanitary sewer system. Under the No Action Alternative, Niagara Falls ARS personnel would continue to use existing facilities and plans. There would be no change from existing conditions at the Installation. This alternative would not address USAF mission, emergency response, and force protection concerns at Niagara Falls ARS. An EA has been prepared to evaluate the Proposed Action, alternative actions, and the No Action Alternative. Resources that were considered in the impact analysis include noise, land use, air quality, safety, geological resources, water resources, cultural resources, biological resources infrastructure, and hazardous materials and wastes. The EA will be made available to the public upon completion.


In this paper, we propose and analyze a family of hybrid finite element methods for interface problems with possibly non-matching meshes. These methods are related to hybrid mixed finite element methods and discontinuous Galerkin methods, as well as Nitsche-type mortaring techniques, but overcome some of the disadvantages of these. By introducing the additional hybrid variable, we obtain methods that allow for subassembling on the subdomain level yielding positive definite global systems. Moreover, the primal unknowns can be eliminated by solving local Dirichlet problems on the subdomains, yielding Schur complement systems for the hybrid variables only. In contrast to dual domain decomposition and mortar methods, the space for the hybrid variable can be chosen with great flexibility without perturbing the stability. We derive the basic a-priori error estimates in energy and L-norm, and confirm the theoretical results by numerical tests.


ABSTRACT Objectives The primary objective was to assess the efficacy, cycle control and tolerability of a monophasic combined oral contraceptive (COC) containing nomegestrol acetate (NOMAC) and 17β-oestradiol (E2). Effects on acne were evaluated as a secondary objective. Results were compared to those of a COC containing drospirenone (DRSP) and ethinylestradiol (EE). Methods Women (aged 18–50 years) were randomised to receive NOMAC/E2 (2.5 mg/1.5 mg) in a 24/4-day regimen (n = 1591) or DRSP/EE (3 mg/30 μg) in a 21/7-day regimen (n = 535) for 13 cycles. Results Estimated Pearl Indices for NOMAC/E2 and DRSP/EE were 0.38 and 0.81 in women aged ≤ 35 years and 0.31 and 0.66 for all women (18–50 years), respectively. Scheduled withdrawal bleedings were shorter and lighter among users of NOMAC/E2 and were sometimes absent altogether. Intracyclic bleeding/spotting was infrequent in both groups, and decreased over time. Type and frequency of adverse events were similar to those typically reported for COCs. Conclusions These data show that NOMAC/E2 provides high contraceptive efficacy with acceptable cycle control as well as an overall adverse event profile similar to that of DRSP/EE.


Harmonic univalent mappings have attracted the serious attention of complex analysts only after the appearance of a basic paper by Clunie and Sheil-Small [4] in 1984. These researchers laid the foundation for the study of harmonic univalent mappings over the unit disk as a generalization of analytic univalent functions. Interestingly, almost at the same time, the famous Bieberbach conjecture which was posed in 1916 by L. Bieberbach [3] was settled by Louiz de Branges [5] in 1985. Surprisingly, the use of hypergeometric functions in the proof of Bieberbach conjecture has been motivated several researchers to make renewed interest in applying the hypergeometric functions and its related other special functions in the Geometric Function Theory including the theory of Harmonic Mappings. This thesis deals with some classes of univalent, multivalent and p-harmonic mappings by involving the Wright generalized hypergeometric (Wgh) functions and in particular the generalized hypergeometric functions which are analytic in the unit disk U: A family of all harmonic complex-valued, orientation-preserving univalent functions f = u+ iv de…ned in the unit disk U normalized with the condition f(0) = 0 = fz(0) 1 is denoted by SH : Thus, a function f = u+ iv 2 SH admits the representation f = h+ g; where h(z) and g(z) are of the form


The purpose of this study is to describe nonverbal conversation-regulating signals among the blind adult and to describe how these signals are manifested through body movements/positions and paralinguistic sounds/silences. Data consist of videotaped conversations between blind-blind pairs and blind-sighted pairs. The data are analyzed in a hermeneutical/phenomenological sense. The analysis is also inspired by Conversational Analysis. The analysis resulted in descriptions of four major signal types, i.e. the listener's back-channeling signals, the speaker's turn-holding signals, the listener's starting signals, and the speaker's turn-yielding signals. One central conclusion is that earlier experience of vision does not seem to be a prerequisite for showing a variety of different types of nonverbal conversation-regulating signals in a systematic and distinct manner.