tion. This support included sessions where teachers learned about PBL and shared information with other teachers, as well as international exchange visits where U.S. and Finnish teachers became immersed in an educational system in a different national context. In addition to building a professional community of science instructors, the authors have already begun sharing their science curricular materials with the wider public, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, as well as teachers who have expressed interest in participating in the PBL intervention in the future. Despite the book's very well-developed and well-executed intervention study, as well as its clear and accessible writing, there are theoretical and empirical limitations that may be considered missed opportunities by readers, particularly readers of a journal of sociological book reviews. For example, the book does not leverage insights from the field of sociology to inform the intervention and the larger study. This point is perhaps unsurprising, given that the learning sciences and science education fields have been heavily influenced by psychological perspectives and approaches. However, as a sociologist I was left wanting to know about the role of group relations, institutional structures and cultures, and macro-structural conditions (e.g., school and residential sorting dynamics) in setting up the institutional practices that impact science engagement and learning. Moreover, with the exception of the international comparison, there was little discussion about internal variation in the effectiveness of the PBL intervention. Although analyses of gender and, to a greater extent, race/ethnicity and economic status range from thin to absent in this book—despite more than one-third of the students being low-income and students of color—the authors mentioned that ''future evaluation efforts will consider both the average effect of the intervention and its differential effect on student subgroups'' (p. 134). Another potential avenue for exploration on the topic of internal variation would be to compare the implementation—if not the effect—of the intervention by school type (e.g., urban, suburban, and rural) in an effort to better understand how to ''bring high-quality science instruction to schools serving predominately low-income and minority students'' (p. xii). Limitations aside, Learning Science offers a highly promising design-based science curriculum intervention and a global model to policy-makers, science educators, and parents for how to transform high school science learning environments via enhanced student engagement and ultimately reignite a passion for scientific discovery and workforce entry for generations to come.


With the preeminent features of polyurethane (PU) panels such as sound insulation, heat insulation, fireproof, high load capacity, lightweight, high aesthetics, especially using simple and easy assembly construction and move, so new PU panel is now the first choice for construction projects. In this work, the authors study the new generation physical foaming agent cyclopentane that is environmentally friendly and completely does not destroy the ozone layer. Study investigating and evaluating the effect of content of physical foam cyclopentane on free expansion density, reaction time of rigid polyurethane foam (R-PUF), and reaction time values (cream time, gel time, tack-free time, and rise time). The morphology and size of the closed-cell of the R-PUF samples with cyclopentane concentrations increasing from 0% to 20% are observed by the optical microscope image and the closed-cell size distribution chart is determined by IT3 software. In addition, the physical and mechanical properties of dimensional stability and compressive strength were analyzed to evaluate the quality of the expanded R-PUF insulation in the mold using a cyclopentane physical foaming agent. Experimental procedures according to Taguchi's analysis on the continuous production line are aimed at giving optimal parameters for the industrial PU panel manufacturing process. The research results provide an excellent reference value for manufacturers to further improve the performance and quality of PU panels.


In response to the European Union's initiative toward achieving carbon neutrality, the utilization of water electrolysis for hydrogen production has emerged as a promising avenue for decarbonizing current energy systems. Among the various approaches, Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell (SOEC) presents an attractive solution, especially due to its potential to utilize impure water sources. This study focuses on modeling a SOEC supplied with four distinct streams of treated municipal wastewaters, using the Aspen Plus software. Through the simulation analysis, it was determined that two of the wastewater streams could be effectively evaporated and treated within the cell, without generating waste liquids containing excessive pollutant concentrations. Specifically, by evaporating 27% of the first current and 10% of the second, it was estimated that 26.2 kg/m3 and 9.7 kg/m3 of green hydrogen could be produced, respectively. Considering the EU's target for Italy is to have 5 GW of installed power capacity by 2030 and the mass flowrate of the analyzed wastewater streams, this hydrogen production could meet anywhere from 0.4% to 20% of Italy's projected electricity demand.


In the context of the interaction of international competitiveness of economic entities and their economic security, it should be noted that globalization of the world economy has one of its consequences a relative equation of the conditions of competition in national markets. As a result of providing by governments the most favored and national regimes, as it was required by international norms of legal regulation of the economy, national and foreign producers find themselves in roughly similar conditions on individual countries or their unions markets. In this case, foreign economic and international security should become a barrier to global threats for the development of national economy and its producers in the global system of world economy. At the same time, the universal requirement imposed on any national economic entity is its competitiveness.


The utility model belongs to the technical field of power transmission and distribution, and relates to a single-busbar multi-segment wiring centralized spare power automatic switching system, comprising a plurality of main transformers, wherein each main transformer is respectively connected with two sections of buses through two main breakers; all sections of buses are sequentially connected to form a ring-shaped wire; the voltage detection signal of each section of bus is connected to the same centralized spare power automatic switching device; and the emergency power supply automatic switching of all the buses are controlled by the centralized spare power automatic switching device. The utility model has convenient installation and debugging and low equipment cost. In system capacity increasing, the mode of increasing the plug-in connector can be used to correspond to the number increasing of the buses after capacity increasing, thus improving the device expansibility and reducing the amount of work of installation and debugging; and the centralized spare power automatic switching device can be conveniently arranged at the bus measurement and control screen, thus effectively reducing the cable using amount and simplifying the installation and debugging process.


The purpose of this article is to evaluate the relationship between the brand personality attributed to Disney by consumers and how it affects the perception of their relationship with the brand. This quantitative study presents a survey with 283 Brazilian visitors from Disney parks. The Structural Equation Modeling was used, confirming the prediction relationship between brand personality and relationship perception. The results show that Credibility, Sensitivity, Audacity and Sophistication influence the client's relationship perception with Disney brand. Among them, Credibility dimension was the main predictor. Our discussion contributes with the body of knowledge of relationship marketing and branding, especially in identifying the nature of the relation between these marketing variables.


This paper describes the design of RF transmitters for wireless applications. Following a review of constant- and variable-envelope modulation, general issues regarding the baseband/RF interface and the power amplifier/antenna interface are introduced. Various transmitter architectures are then presented and the design of upconversion mixers and power amplifiers is studied. Examples of state of the art are also described.


This paper critically examines a type of legislation currently pending before both houses of Congress. This legislation seeks to encourage computer manufacturers to donate computer equipment to school systems by giving them preferential treatment under the tax code. It is argued that this sort of legislation is not in the public interest.


The use of perfluorinated anionic carboxylic acids (PFCAs) as surfactants is common and widespread. Investigations of PFCAs have shown that their physical properties and toxicological aspects are dependent upon the carbon chain length. The magnitude of these properties is not a linear function of chain length and as yet no explanation of these unique observations has been made. Their environmental dissemination is expected to be nonproportional to the PFCAs chain length. An understanding of the fundamental underlying reason for this novel physical property, chain length trend, would aid further investigators' interpretation of their environmental and toxicological observations. In this study we have utilized 19F NMR techniques, such as, chemical shift, spin−lattice (T1), and spin−spin (T2) relaxation phenomena, coupling constants, and variable-temperature NMR to furnish a qualitative explanation of why increasing the carbon chain length causes unexpected intrinsic property changes within this group of che...


Health jurisdiction is growing up nowadays. Juridically, hospital takes over all the charge of negligence caused by health workers in the hospital. As the preventive, the hospital did credential to all health workers that do the direct medical treatment, one of them is ownership of the license. There are law issues in hospital's services, such as practice without a license that are done by anesthesia directors. It causes legality problems and burdens charge from practice without license that are did by anesthesia director in hospital. The research method is normative juridical, using statute approach and conceptual approach. The result of research obtains that hospital does not take the charge and take the responsibilities legally about the practice without a license that are done by anesthesia director, depends on agreement letter between hospital and anesthesia director. So that respondeat superior doctrine that implied in article 46 Law Number 44 Year 2009 concerning to The Hospital, do not apply absolutely.


The article is dedicated to one of the topical and most difficult problems of modern society oncology, namely to the social-medical work with oncological patients. The author emphasizes our attention to the palliative help to the incurable oncological patients, the organization of which takes special place in the socialmedical work with such patients. Palliative help is active help to patients with long current illnesses, while illnesses can't be cured and the navigation with pain and other symptoms remains one of the most important social, psychological and spiritual problems, providing help to patients until their death. The special attention in the article is paid to hospices; the organization of their work is the most effective form of solving problems with palliative help to incurable patients, and also to the problems of need to input to the staff of palliative medicine a social worker, this will help to make the quality of incurable patients' and their families' life better.


There are some internal advantages in Xinjiang dairy industry: early start?the government support?abundant resources?good foundation and faced with the external opportunity of the policy of the nation industry?big market space?entry into WTO?western development, and exist the unbalance of development?the lower commodity rate?badly market?and without establish the system of the quality fixed the price of internally inferior strength and the sufficient investment?market losing?ill-informed etc.external threat, therefore, Xinjiang dairy industry must be depend on advantage, catch the opportunity, overcome the inferior strength, defeat threat, definite the correct strategic thinking and strategic aim, form a complete set of the development strategy:strengthen the union, enlarge scale; put in all kinds of investment; extend the "the plan of the students drinking mild"; science and technique support; rational layout of source of milk production and dairy product processing; establish the stable industry style; strengthen macroscopic controls by government; ensure the production of healthy development; enforcement "the profect of the millions cattles";the enforcement"the profect of the dairy industry information";with the continuing development of the market strategic leading the dairy.


In this paper, Maturana and Varela's theories of autopoiesis, cognition and language will be applied to the development of online curricula, with a view to the facilitation ofimproved problem solving skills for students. In particular the implications of the theory for designing online environments that support self-directed and problem based learning modes will be discussed. It will be argued that autopoietic theory has significant implications for the way in which online curricula are designed and implemented


Dielectric and Ferroelectric (D-E) hysteresis loop measurements were conducted for evaporated organic thin films by utilizing a newly developed sample cell. A vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (VDF/TrFE) copolymer sample with 54 mol% VDF content clearly exhibited a ferroelectric nature when an electric field of 30 MV/m was applied during the evaporation process.


IN CONNECTION with the sexual intercourse by which heaven impregnates earth with rain Kirk-Raven comment: "Eros . . . in its most concrete formn as rain/semen exists between sky and earth according to poetical references... [but] not in Homer or Hesiod.", In Theogony I76f Heaven "came bringing night with him, and desiring intercourse he covered 1 77) Earth." The sexual relation is explicit, but there is no mention of rain. In fact, Heaven is shortly castrated by Kronus, "an-d Earth received all the bloody drops that rushed out" (I 8 3f). This involves something like r ain/semen and yields Nymphs, but it also yields Erinyes and Giants and really has nothing to do with fruitful love. Works and Days 547-g56 runs as follows: The dawn is cold, when Boreas has struck. A fruitful dawn mist (a'p =Tupoyopo6) stretches (-re'rrou) From starry heaven (oUpcxvo5) to earth upon the fields of blessed men (poxxipwv dl EpyoLq). The mist is drawn up from endless rivers And is lifted above earth by gusty winds; At times it rains toward evening, At times it blows, when Thracian Boreas rolls the clouds. Get your work done before that happens and come home To avoid being caught in a dark cloud from heaven.


Introduction - Venise T Berry Racialism and the Media PART ONE: ISSUES IN FILM Cultural Engineering and the Films of Spike Lee - William A Harris Intimations of Invisibility - Ruth Elizabeth Burks Black Women in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema The New Ghetto Aesthetic - Jacquie Jones PART TWO: ISSUES IN PRINT If It Weren't for Bad Luck - Oscar H Gandy Jr Framing Stories of Racially Comparative Risk How Four Newspapers Covered the 1992 Los Angeles 'Riots' - Jyotika Ramaprasad Entering the Twenty-First Century - Reginald Owens Oppression and the African-American Press Carol Moseley-Braun - Carmen L Manning-Miller Black Women's Political Images in the Media PART THREE: ISSUES IN TELEVISION/CABLE Television, Black Americans, and the American Dream - Herman Gray Sex on the Soaps - Sharon Bramlett-Solomon and Tricia M Farwell An Analysis of Black, White, and Interracial Couple Intimacy Broadcast TV News Coverage of the O J Simpson Murder Case - Eddith A Dashiell Racist or Starstruck? Advertising Discourse and the Marketing of I'll Fly Away - Karen M Smith Black Entertainment Television - Alice A Tait and John T Barber Breaking New Ground and Accepting New Responsibilities? PART FOUR: ISSUES IN RADIO/MUSIC Empowering Voices - Sharon Albert-Honore KUCB and Black Liberation Radio 'Pride and Profit' in Black Radio Promotions - Phylis Johnson and Thomas A Birk Celebrating Family Days and Business Partnerships Music in African-American Culture - Portia K Maultsby Rap Music, Black Men, and the Police - Venise T Berry and Harold Looney Jr


Article describes a problem of new model of textbook for teaching history at school, both its historical texts and didactic exercises, for which meeting it is appointed. The need for a new textbook model appeared as a result of challenges put for school
history both from education reform and modern reception of the past which takes place in (a) public space.
Complicated methodological consequences coming from the change of textbook model, which meets various expectations, are presented in the article.


Pertaining to the estimating equations proposed by Tsiatis, based on the linear rank test, we show the existence of local confounding between the baseline hazard function and the covariates. Due to the local confounding, an estimating equation in Tsiatis' family with a larger time point of truncation could contain less information about the regression parameter than the estimating equation with a smaller time point of truncation. This phenomenon further indicates significant loss of efficiency of Tsiatis' estimating equations as well as the power loss of log-rank type tests when the baseline hazard function goes up and down along the time scale. To take care of this local confounding without using nonparametric estimates of the derivative of the baseline hazard function, we propose the empirical process approach (EPA) based on an empirical process constructed from Tsiatis' log-rank estimating equation by varying its truncating time point. The EPA will provide very tractable estimations of the regression parameters as well as Pearson's chi-squared statistics for testing the model's assumptions. Specifically, the performance of the EPA estimator is shown to be very close to the best estimator in Tsiatis' family.


It is a key stratagem for Chengdu to promote high-tech industry in 21-century. The paper first sum up the characteristic of high-tech industry in Chengdu, point out the primary question that obstacle high-tech industry, and analyze effect that China join in WTO for Chengdu's high-tech industry. On the basis of the above analysis, major strategies are put forward, such as to change governmental function, to increase investment for high-tech industry, to improve innovation ability, to develop electronic and informational industry and Chinese traditional medicine industry on basis comparative advantage, to improve traditional industry by information technology, ect. 


The United States Coast Guard continues to protect natural resources in the Arctic, as well as enhance maritime mobility and safety, prevent maritime disasters and emergencies, and implement law enforcement activities in the region. It helps develop oil spill response regulation and policy in the Arctic region; establishes locations in Alaska's Nome, Kotzebue, Barrow and Prudhoe Bay areas to focus on fulfilling operational needs; and undertakes analysis of waterways to evaluate navigational needs.


State-space models are widely used in ecology. However it is well known that in practice it can be difficult to separate process and observation variances. We consider this issue for integrated population modelling. To some extent the mechanism of such models protects against this problem, but it can still arise, and two illustrations are provided, in each of which the measurement variance is estimated as zero. In the context of an extended case study involving data on British Grey herons we consider alternative approaches for dealing with the problem when it occurs. In particular we consider penalised likelihood and introduce a method of pseudo replication. We recommend the use of pseudo replication, which is undertaken via a simple bootstrap procedure. For the case study of the paper it is shown that when it occurs, an estimate of zero measurement variance may not be important for inference relating to the model parameters of primary interest. The wider implications of the work are discussed.


Theanine is a unique amino acid present in green tea. It is partly responsible for the taste of green tea and possesses various psychological effects. Theanine has a preferred taste, like umami and sweetness. Therefore, theanine may improve unpleasant tastes such as bitterness and sourness of foods. To investigate new uses of theanine, we investigated its taste-modifying effect by human sensory evaluation. A reduction in sourness was observed with theanine addition. Investigation of the mechanism of taste improvement found that sourness is relatively improved by theanine addition due to the increase in pH and the addition of the umami taste.


EHEC O157:H7 clade 6 strains harboring stx2a and/or stx2c and clade 8 strains harboring stx2a or stx2a/stx2c were frequently associated with childhood HUS cases in Japan. Rapid and specific detection of such lineages are required for infection control measures.


In the spring of 1616 observers at James I's court were somewhat startled to learn that an Irish official holding a post below the rank of great office had been appointed lord deputy of Ireland. In the king's name, English privy councillors announced that Oliver St John, former master of the ordnance in Ireland, had been chosen to succeed Arthur Chichester, the incumbent Irish governor. Preoccupied with notions of hierarchy, the royal court reacted with contempt and shock to the announcement. Edward Sherburne, agent to Dudley Carleton, England's ambassador to the Hague, perhaps reflects best the contemporary attitude in his biting comment that such an unusual appointment could have only one possible explanation. St John was a distant kinsman of the rising favourite, George Villiers, and Sherburne noted with undertones of cynicism: 'Sir Oliver St John made lord deputy of Ireland by Villiers' influence whose power is so great "as what he will, shall be'".


Future electric lighting will be composed of white LEDs (light emitting diodes). Indoor wireless optical communication system utilizing white LED lights has been proposed and studied. Though the characteristics of the proposed system in LOS (Line-of-Sight) have already been announced in our laboratory, it can be assumed that the effect of the multi-path due to the reflection is appreciable in the high speed communication system. In this paper, we will analyze the performance characteristics of the proposed system in the effect of the multi-path due to the reflection, and show the effectiveness of the system.


The high strength and low dielectric constant of silicon nitride (Si3N4) ceramics are an irreconcilable conflict. It is a compromise to introduce a suitable reinforcing phase in Si3N4 ceramics to receive well dielectric properties without excessive loss of mechanical properties. In this paper, Si3N4 nanowires were in-situ synthesized by pyrolysis of polysilazane with Si3N4 nanopowders as catalyst without introduction of impurities in Si3N4 porous ceramics. The formed Si3N4 nanowires not only improve the mechanical property but also reduce dielectric constant of porous Si3N4 ceramic. ©2019 The Ceramic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.


Research purposes: Nowadays shield machine is widely used in metro construction.However,the much loss in stratum may occur during shield tunnelling and too much loss in stratum may cause big-scaled surface subsidence,resulting in bad impact on the ground buildings and underground pipelines,even damaging them with big economic loss.Taking the Line 1 of Nanjing Metro as an example,the site tests are done for the displacements of buildings and underground pipelines and changes of underwater level during shield tunnelling,and through making analyses of them,the regularities of impact on the surrounding environment are obtained.Considering the relations between stratum subsidence and soil pressure in soil chamber and between synchronous grouting volume and discharging waste soil volume,the discussion is made on the preventive measures for control of stratum subsidence.Research methods:The site tests are done for the displacements of buildings and underground pipelines and changes of underwater level during shield tunnelling and through making analyses of these tested data,the valuable conclusion is obtained for reference to construction.Research conclusions:Modification and right choice of the parameters for shield tunnelling,keeping effective balance of soil pressures and ensuring the effect of synchronous grouting are the effective means and important measures for control of the loss in stratum and reduction of displacement of stratum and impact of shield tunnelling on the surrounding environment.


An image forming apparatus includes: a body frame having an opening, a cartridge being configured to be removably mounted to the body frame through the opening; and a cover configured to open and close the opening, wherein the cover includes a metallic reinforcement plate that is configured to face the cartridge mounted to the body frame when the cover is closed, and wherein the reinforcement plate includes a first recess part configured to receive therein a part of the cartridge mounted to the body frame when the cover is closed.


The present invention relates to a high-efficiency coal-saving dusulfurizer for various coal fired boilers, kilns and civil cooking stoves. One or more materials which can generate high-activity chloride form a first class raw material, one or more materials which can generate metallic oxide by the heat treatment of the temperature of more than 40DEG. C form a second class raw material and the high-efficiency coal-saving dusulfurizer is formed by compounding the first class raw material and the second class raw material. When in use, the high-efficiency coal-saving dusulfurizer is evenly added into coal according to the coal weight of 0.1% to 0.5%. The high-efficiency coal-saving dusulfurizer and the coal are delivered into a furnace to be combusted. The coal is quickly decomposed, sufficiently activated and reasonably combusted, and thus, the boiler heat efficiency is enhanced; the harmful gas discharge, such as smoke dust, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, smoke gas blackness, etc., is reduced; simultaneously, the two purposes of high-efficiency coal saving and pollution reduction are obtained. The high-efficiency coal-saving dusulfurizer has excellent economic, environment protecting and social benefits.


Achieving sustainable outcomes on projects increasingly requires a holistic, integrated view of its context risks and challenges. Applying systems thinking is an effective approach that encourages the full context and wider environment to be understood, and recognises the inter-dependencies between the elements of the project. Such an approach fosters sustainable outcomes though more integrated solutions with multiple benefits. This particularly applies to complex, multi-faceted engineering projects. This paper will present a series of practical tools for applying a systems approach coupled with case studies of how they have been applied to a range of projects, including mining, highway design, power stations and water pipelines. The impacts from applying the tools and structured process include re-thinking the project boundary, recognising inter-dependencies and relationships between issues that at first did not appear to be closely connected, and understanding the multiple dimensions (social, environmental, economic, legal, technological) of key issues that can influence our approach to resolving them. Many of the examples demonstrate the link to innovative thinking that was only identified by taking a broad view, challenging existing assumptions, and looking for more holistic solutions that deliver multiple benefits.


Photoaging and damage to the skin from the sun's rays don't always occur through episodes of actual burning. In fact, quite often, the opposite is true. The damage is the result of small amounts of sun exposure continually over a long period of time.


The sharing of scarce resources among multiple rational agents is one of the classical problems in economics. In exchange economies, which are used to model such situations, agents begin with an initial endowment of resources and exchange them in a way that is mutually beneficial until they reach a competitive equilibrium (CE). CE allocations are Pareto efficient and fair. Consequently, they are used widely in designing mechanisms for fair division. However, computing CEs requires the knowledge of agent preferences which are unknown in several applications of interest. In this work, we explore a new online learning mechanism, which, on each round, allocates resources to the agents and collects stochastic feedback on their experience in using that allocation. Its goal is to learn the agent utilities via this feedback and imitate the allocations at a CE in the long run. We quantify CE behavior via two losses and propose a randomized algorithm which achieves Õ( √ T ) loss after T rounds under both criteria. Empirically, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this mechanism through numerical simulations.


Objective: To explore the value of capsule endoscopy and its clinical application.Methods: Analyze the data of 42 patients under went capsule endoscopy studies.Results: 42 patients who was suspected of astrointestinal tract disease were tested by capsule endoscopy,there were 20 small lesions among them,the intestinal villi scattered in the acute or chronic inflammation hyperemia debaucjed consideration in 8 cases(40%),5 cases(25%) of small intestinal angiodysplasia,3 cases(15%) of the small intestine multiple polyps,3 cases(15%) of small ulcers and proliferative lesion clinical diagnosis crohn's disease,1 case(5%) of small intestinal tumor.Total positive rate was 47%.In 2 cases capsule stay in esophagus more than 2 hours.In 37 cases capsule could smoothly through the back into the colon in working hours.In 5 cases the capsule cound not through into colon until the batteries ran out.Conclusion: The capsule endoscopy in doubt intestinal disease diagnosis is importance.It is safety with no pain and good susceptible to patients,so it is the best choice for the small intestine.


A 14bits 1GSps Pipelined-SAR (P-SAR) ADC design is presented in this paper. We apply 4 sub-stages with each stage using a 4-bit sub SAR ADC to reach an optimized overall performance. A new dynamic amplifier is proposed and used as the residue amplifier (RA), which improves the linearity and reduce the power largely. The multi-comparator structure is used in sub SAR ADC, which significantly reduces the comparator's reset time and hence increase the conversion speed a lot. For each single comparator, a two-stage structure is designed to effectively reduce the kickback noise. Besides, since it is extremely difficult to obtain precise interstage gain with open-loop dynamic amplifier, we propose a novel digital background calibration technique based on comparator metastability to compensate the interstage gain error and capacitor mismatches. This P-SAR ADC is designed in a 22nm FD-SOI process. The simulation results show that our ADC achieves an SNDR of 69dB and an SFDR of 85dB respectively with the input signal frequency of 100MHz at a sampling rate of 1GS/s. The core ADC consumes 109mW (excluding the reference generator).


SUMMARY This study was carried out with the aim of assessing the antibacterial effect of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and N-heterocyclic pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC) on Xanthomonas campestris pv. vignicola, the causal agent of bacterial blight of cowpea. Disease severity in cowpea was analysed after seed and seedling treatment with the chemicals at different stages of growth. Pretreatment of cowpea seeds and seedlings with 1 mM H 2 O 2 or PCC led to a reduced disease severity compared to untreated controls. A combination of H 2 O 2 and PCC treatment conferred a better suppression of the disease in greenhouse trials than when H 2 O 2 or PCC were used individually. In addition, the efficacy of PCC and H 2 O 2 when used together to sterilise seeds was higher than that of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), a well-known seed sterilizer. The induction of NADHperoxidase activity mediating disease defence response in chemically treated cowpea seedlings is discussed. Our results suggest that PCC and H 2 O 2 inhibited pathogen growth in seeds and seedlings and can be used to control seed-borne diseases under laboratory conditions.


Mechanistic Insights into Photoinduced Charge Carriers Dynamics of BiOBr/CdS Nanosheet Heterojunctions for Photovoltaic Application Huimin Jia,ab Beibei Zhang, b Weiwei He,b Yong Xiang,*a and Zhi Zheng*b aSchool of Energy Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, P. R. China. bKey Laboratory for Micro-Nano Energy Storage and Conversion Materials of Henan Province, College of Advanced Materials and Energy, Institute of Surface Micro and Nano Materials, Xuchang University, Henan 461000, P. R. China.


Objective:To study the somatotype characteristics of type 2 diabetes mellitus with Heath-Carter method.Methods:A sample of 293(male 153,female 140) type 2 diabetes mellitus patients diagnosed at first was randomly selected from out-patient or in-patient in the department of endocrinology in Hohhot,studied with Heath-Carter method,divided groups by gender and age,and calculated the values of endomorphic,mesomorphic and ectomorphic factor.Then determine their somatypes with the three factor and compared with domestic existing somatotype datas.Results: Findings indicated that the mean somatotype of male was 5.7-4.1-1.4,being in the meso-endomorphy category.In somatotype distributions,meso-endomorphy category is in the majority(60.78%).And that of female was 6.5-4.1-0.9,being in the meso-endomorphy category.In somatotype distributions,meso-endomorphy category is also in the majority(84.29%).Conclusion:The main somatotype of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients is meso-endomorphy category,this crowd groups have more fat and musculoskeletal,the figure is chubby,there have differences with some domestic existing somatotype dates.


The crystals contain dinuclear molecules in which all-trans octahedral ReCl 2 (O) 2 (1-methylimidazole) 2 units share an O-atom apex. The O=Re-O-Re=O backbone is linear by symmetry and the bonds in the ReCl 2 N planes of the two units are staggered. The main bond lengths are : Re-O=1.913 (1), Re=O=1.703 (8), Re-Cl=2.415 (2) and Re-N=2.132 (6) A


Abstract We prove that the class number of the imaginary quadratic field $\Q(\sqrt{2^{2k}-3^n})$ is divisible by n for any positive integers k and n with 22k < 3n, by using Y. Bugeaud and T. N. Shorey's result on Diophantine equations.


Abstract In the present study, three-dimensional thermal elastoplastic analysis has been carried out in order to clarify the mechanical phenomena of the thermal elastoplastic behaviour of multispot welded joints. As the shape of multispot welded joints is not axisymmetrical, unlike single spot welded joints, the solution domain for simulation should be three-dimensional. Therefore, the present study first developed three-dimensional heat conduction and thermal elastoplastic programs using the isoparametric finite element method. Second, from the results analysed by the developed programs, thermal and mechanical characteristics and their production mechanisms on single and multispot welded joints were clarified. Moreover, effects of pitch length on the temperature distribution, welding residual stresses and plastic strain of multispot welded joints were evaluated, indicating that a pitch of 30 mm was more advantageous compared to a pitch of 15 mm.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality and functionality of Elaeagnus multiflora powder for developing a processed food using Elaeagnus multiflora powder. Elaeagnus multiflora 'Sulgidduk' was developed by adding 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12% Elaeagnus multiflora powder and the physicochemical characteristics of the 'Sulgidduk' were examined. Analysis of the general contents of the 'Sulgidduk' added with Elaeagnus multiflora powder showed that moisture, crude protein, crude lipids and crude ash increased, while the carbohydrate content decreased with increasing amount of added Elaeagnus multiflora powder the pH also decreased. The Brix value and soluble protein content increased as the amount of Elaeagnus multiflora was increased while the reducing sugar content decreased. The 'Sulgidduk' "L" value decreased, while its "a" and "b" values increased with increasing amount of Elaeagnus multiflora powder and the hardness, adhesiveness, cohesiveness, and chewiness decreased, the polyphenol contents and electron donating ability also increased. On the basis of these results, the preserved quality of 'Sulgidduk' added with Elaeagnus multiflora powder was higher than that of the control 'Sulgidduk'.


The authors present a new fast way, the spectral index method (SI), of modelling polarized modes in semiconductor rib waveguides. The spectral index method finds a simple solution in the rib using symmetric slab modes and links this with a Fourier transform of the solution below the rib. The field equations are solved exactly in all regions except actually on the base of the rib, where a variational principle is used to link the two exact solutions. The field distributions below the rib appear in the form of a known Fourier transform which can be readily inverted using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). In combination, the spectral index waveguide solver and an FFT routine to generate field profiles constitute an accurate and versatile tool for fast waveguide analysis. >


This article, first in a series on the rail world of Ed Burkhardt, gives a current profile of the railroad executive. Two decades at the Chicago & North Western (C&NW) gave Burkhardt the experience needed to enable him, along with several partners, to purchase Soo Line trackage in 1987, name it the Wisconsin Central Ltd., and convert it into a bustling regional carrier. Unfortunately, Burkhardt was relieved of his position as CEO in 1999, and this then led him to establish Rail World Inc., a Chicago-based railroad investment, management, and consulting company. Burkhardt is continuing to implement his philosophy of open communications as he expands his railroad expertise in Colorado, Maine, and Poland.


Rationale: In March of 2020, New York City became an epicenter of COVID-19. Due to the risk of airborne transmission and limited personal protective equipment, hospitals restricted patient visitations to protect both healthcare workers and patients. In response to the initiation of this visitation restriction at our hospital on March 18, 2020, we piloted a video-based communication program for families to virtually "visit" their family members in the hospital. This is a quality improvement project designed to evaluate the utility and limitations of these virtual family visits during the pandemic. Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted of all patients over 17 years-old hospitalized between March 18 and May 31, 2020 for documented video encounters performed by hospital staff at a New York City public hospital. All video calls were performed using Whatsapp, Facetime, or Google Hangout communication app on a hospital-issued smartphone or tablet. Data collected included date of call, patient age, call facilitator, preferred language, patient location during hospitalization, use of mechanical equipment for assisted breathing, hospital length of stay, patient disposition, discharge diagnosis, and any additional limitations noted by the staff during video visits. Patients admitted to the psychiatric, rehabilitation, pediatric, labor and delivery, forensics wards, or if only a voice call was performed, were excluded. Results: Of the 2068 hospitalizations qualified for chart review, 177 patients have thus far been identified with documented video visits. A total of 1416 video visits were performed in these patients. 71.0% of the patients were intubated during their hospitalization and when video visits occurred. 37.3% of the patients expired, while 24.9% were discharged home or to a short-term rehabilitation center (38.9%). The average length of stay was 35.2 days (SD 2.1). Majority of the diagnoses were COVID-related illnesses (61.0%). Social workers conducted 78.5% of the video visits, followed by physicians (57.7%) and hospital chaplains (9.6%). Average patient age was 62 years-old. Chart review process is currently ongoing. Conclusions: The use of smartphones and tablets for video visits facilitated communication between patients and their families when in-person visits were restricted. We were able to provide visual visits to families when patients were intubated and were unable to verbalize. While a significant number of patients expired during this period, families were able to "see" and communicate with their family members prior to their deaths. The use of this technology is an invaluable tool for families to communicate and partake in patient care. .


We address the problems of application of carbon fibers and magnesium nanoshpineli as modifiers of polytetrafluoroethylene. We give the examples of demonstration of changes of complex volume and surface polymer features. We consider the mechanical properties of composite materials based on politeretraftoretilena and behavior of the material in friction. We show the features of chemical and phase structure of the material and the influence of these properties on deformation and strength characteristics. We consider metal-polymer friction pair. We summarized in a table the difference of polymer properties with additives from the properties of pure PTFE. We give the recommendations of the percentage composition of particulate filler in PTFE for friction units. We exemplify the various methods of introducing nanoparticles in the binder material. We consider the materials characterized with stable and low values of friction coefficient and increased strain-strength characteristics.


Abstract : This thesis builds on the research and ideas of the school of thought that believes strategy is the most important factor in predicting war outcomes. One shortcoming of that school is the inability to explain why strong actors would implement a strategy that does not provide the highest probability of victory. The thesis uses game theory to illustrate how a seemingly nonoptimal strategy may be rational for the initial phases of a conflict (this rationale would not apply beyond the initial stages of the conflict). To explain nonoptimal strategy selection in prolonged conflicts, the author analyzes strategy drivers -- factors that influence strategy selection and implementation. Probability of victory is only one of the factors that has been found to influence strategy implementation. The author finds that the institutional predisposition of a military is the most important factor because it is the most consistent and the most controllable by the military. Using this conceptual basis, the author analyzes U.S. involvement in Afghanistan since 2001, U.S. operations in Iraq since 2003, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The model and case studies illustrate a U.S. military institutional predisposition towards direct attack. As such, the thesis recommends that the U.S. military take action to adopt a more neutral institutional predisposition.


The European Commission's proposed Directive on the internal electricity market and electricity liberalisation across Europe (see Energy World 243) has crossed another hurdle since this article was written, by being approved by the European Parliament. Here, the Commission's Joanna Tachmintzis describes the Commission's plans for a directive promoting the use of rational planning techniques in the electricity and gas distribution sectors.


The electronic structure and the energetics of oxygen deficient interfaces, constituted by MgO(100) substrates that are capped by epitaxial $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ or $\mathrm{Sr}\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ layers, are studied within first principles. Various configurations with one O vacancy per $(1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1)$ surface unit cell, which is located either in the MgO or in the $\mathrm{Sr}\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ interfacial layers, are compared. The excess electrons either fill Ti states at the bottom of the conduction band or form an $F$-center as in MgO(100), depending not only upon the side of the interface in which the vacancy is created, but also on the actual vacancy environment. In most cases that we consider, the interface has a metallic character. Our main result regards the order of stability of the various configurations; the oxygen vacancies can be formed more easily in the $\mathrm{Sr}\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ overlayer than in the MgO substrate. Moreover, we show that the formation energies of O vacancies can be related to the nature and energy level of the excess electron state. Such a behavior is primarily determined by the interfacial electrostatic potential, which plays a prominent role as in other oxide/oxide interfaces.


At present, there is a widespread tendency of valuing science and technology above the humanities in universities and colleges. The cause is that functions of the humanities are not so direct, rapid and clear, as the natural science in a short period of time. But in the long run, the humanities can not be made light of. The history of China and foreign countries indicates that humane campain, undoubtedly, exerts great influence on enlightening the whole nation's ideology before revolutionary storm. It also demonstrates that the humanities and the natural science are two indispensable wings flying to civilization in this society with the theme of peace and development.


The study examined the impact of coursework-only assessment, as made necessary at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, adopting a quantitative research approach with 1013 students. The data obtained were analysed using SPSS version 27.0 to obtain descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed significant differences between the 2019- and 2020 marks for the same courses. In two of the science courses (T2 and T3), the mean scores for 2019 were significantly higher than the mean scores for 2020. In the mathematics course, the 2020 marks were significantly higher than the marks for 2019. While a normal distribution was assumed for the science courses, the mathematic course showed marks that were skewed to the right. A higher number of distinctions in the F1 course and a significant decline in the mean scores for T1 and T2 implies that there is a need for professional development of lecturers teaching in the online space. It is, therefore, recommended that higher education lecturers need adequate professional development on setting and administering online assessments. The assessment should test adequate lower- and higher-order cognitive skills for sufficient testing of student knowledge during online assessments. Furthermore, a variety of assessment methods and a diversity of tasks may be used to ensure the reliability of the assessment outcomes.


the root, at last laid bare, of our entire intellectual life," something primordial, at once very simple and very rich. This intuition, we are told, is always a gift bestowed upon the intellector rather its metaphysical content, which covers the entire domain of intelligibility and reality-is a gift bestowed by an intuition which infinitely exceeds the experiences which may have led up to it. Here is language which must appeal to the theologian who takes seriously his creation in the Image of God. Is it possible that Brunner and Maritain may ultimately be saying the same things? The Second Lecture deals with Counterfeit Metaphysical Coin, the being of Logic, Science, and Dialectic. The Fourth Lecture reveals the surprising richness of that being which is the true subject of metaphysics. The last three lectures expound and relate the Principles of Identity, Sufficient Reason, Finality, and Causality. This restatement of elementary principles in the light of modern criticism is indispensable to those who are trying to apprehend the essence of Thomism whilst groping in the maze of modern thought. To such, the whole book is intensely relevant, portraying as it does the Philosophia Perennis realizing itself under the pressure of many " potential philosophies."


Objective.—To determine if migraineurs with aura respond differently to biofeedback/relaxation than those without aura and, if so, whether the variability in outcome can be explained by blood flow velocity.


Capabilities of the Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) method to perform in-depth scanning have been successfully demonstrated for hidden corrosion detection. In the present work, a drive pulse and the response is analyzed in terms of Fourier Transform to understand the scope of material penetration with PEC. Variations of the drive pulse shape can be an effective technique to control the depth of penetration of conductive materials. An observation time interval and a sampling rate are the components that can be used for "in-depth slicing" of conductive media. Two-dimensional scanning of multi-layered structures such as aircraft skin structures with a PEC probe provides detection of subsurface defects. Experiments have been performed on aluminum panels with flat bottom holes. An image processing routine is applied to reconstruct geometry of the component from a series of eddy current images obtained with a two-dimensional scanner. A problem of accurate reconstruction of the internal geometry of the component under test is considered. The advantages and limitations of the technique are discussed.


This paper investigates a cylindrical nonlinear Schrodinger (cNLS) equation, which describes the cylindrically diverging quasi-plane envelope waves in a nonlinear medium. With the Hirota method and symbolic computation, bilinear form and N-soliton solutions in the form of an Nth-order polynomial in N exponentials are obtained for the cNLS equation. By means of the properties of double Wronskian, the N-soliton solutions in terms of the double Wronskian is testified through the direct substitution into the bilinear form. Based on the bilinear form and exchange formulae, the bilinear Backlund transformation is also given. Those solutions are graphically depicted to understand the soliton dynamics of the cylindrically diverging quasi-plane envelope waves. Soliton properties are discussed and physical quantities are also analyzed. Dispersion parameter has the effect that it may extend (or shorten) the periodic time of soliton interaction and change the direction of soliton propagation. Amplitudes of solitons are related to the cubic nonlinearity parameter.


Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common reason for accessing health care services in all age groups. Women are more susceptible to UTI across age groups. Among males, the prevalence decreases in adolescence. Socio-economic and behavioural factors may play a significant role in the higher prevalence of UTI among adolescent girls. A study on UTI among children and adolescents will give a better insight in to the gravity of the problem and suggest appropriate interventions. Aim of the current study was to investigate the prevalence of urinary tract infection in males and females in the age group 0 to 20 based on the urine routine examination.Methods: This retrospective study included patients who had urine routine examination (URE) done based on clinical symptoms, during the period from January to December 2018 in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Data was obtained from the laboratory records and medical records department.Results: 1574 (3.43%) out of 45896 patients had a URE. This included 716 males (46%) and 858 females (54%). Among those with positive URE results, females were more affected than their male counterparts and this was statistically significant (male 21.8%, female 78.2%, p< 0.0001). As age advances, the prevalence decreases in males.Conclusions: Urinary tract infection is more prevalent in females across the pre- adolescent and adolescent age group. It decreases with age in males. Understanding the factors responsible for the persistent higher prevalence in females may decrease the prevalence of urinary infection in adolescent females.


It is demonstrated that luminescent porous silicon (PS) exhibits an efficient thermoacoustic effect owing to its extremely low thermal conductivity. The experimental device is composed of a patterned thin Al film electrode (30 nm thick), a microporous PS layer (10–50 μm thick), and a single-crystalline Si (c-Si) wafer. The PS layer was formed by a conventional anodization technique. When an electrical input is provided to the Al electrode as a sinusoidal current followed by Joule's heating, a significant acoustic pressure is produced in front of the device as a result of an efficient heat exchange between PS and air. The output amplitude is in inverse proportion to the square root of the input frequency (0.1-100 kHz) as predicted by a theoretical analysis. The observed effect is a novel useful function of PS as a completely depleted nanocrystalline system.


The responses of the grenadier fish Coryphaenoidcs (Ncmatonurus) armatus to bait deployed on the sea floor at station M in the North Pacific Ocean (34"50'N, 123"OO'W; 4,100 m deep) in February and October were compared. In February 1990 and 1992, the first fish arrived after an avcragc time of 25 min and stayed an average of 150 min. In October 199 1, the respcctivc times were 15 and 98 min. The faster response in October is correlated with a higher mean swimming speed of 0.0692 m s ' compared with 0.0262 m s ' in February. Fish activity was clcvatcd in October following seasonal enrichment to the benthos by downward flux of particulate organic matter from the surface. Grenadier abundance was estimated from arrival times as 325 individuals km l, corresponding to a wet weight biomass of 146 mg m 7 or 10.2 mgC m '.


Realised rates of genetic improvement depend upon structural, technological, economic and cultural factors. The potential nature and rate of genetic improvement of livestock has largely been dictated by accuracy of the predicted genetic merit of selection candidates. Major milestones in predicting merit include the use of objective measurements rather than visual appraisal; adjustment of measured performance for nongenetic factors; use of aggregate measures of economic merit for multiple trait selection; combining of information from all available sources of relatives and traits; and properly accounting for previous selection. Despite these advances, use of pedigree and performance information has major limitations. Genomic technologies can trace inheritance of chromosome fragments and with knowledge of the fragment values can improve accuracy of prediction in young selection candidates. Current genomic methods perform more poorly with real than with simulated data, and predictive abilities erode when applied to target animals not closely related to the population used to quantify fragment values. Several strategies are being investigated to improve genomic predictions, but in the meantime the principal benefit of the technology has been to increase accuracy of predicted merit of young selection candidates for routinely measured traits. In some cases this has reduced the generation interval.


The objective for this project is to investigate various electrical and software means of control to support and advance the development of a novel vacuum adhesion system for a wall-climbing robot. The design and implementation of custom electronics and a wirelessly controlled real-time software system used to define and support the functionalities of these electronics is discussed. The testing and evaluation of the overall system performance and the performance of the several different subsystems developed, while working both individually and cooperatively within the system, is also demonstrated. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank Dr. Thomas Mackin for having faith in me to successfully complete this project and providing me with this amazing learning opportunity. I would also like to thank Dr. John Ridgely for always being willing to answer my numerous spontaneous questions and sharing with me his vast knowledge in electronics and software. I also thank Dr. Xi (Julia) Wu for her dedication to my educational development and her constant enthusiasm and happiness that always put a smile on my face. I could not have asked for a better, more skilled committee to guide and accompany me through this project and I hope to be able to work with them all again in the future. I would also like to thank Jim Stefani for diligently working alongside me on this project and always being there for me when I needed help. His constant support and knowledgeable insight have proven to me that he will be successful in all he does in the future and I hope to continue the great friendship we have developed for many years to come. Many thanks to my mother as well, who constantly supported me and encouraged me to always work hard to be the best I could be. Lastly, many thanks to Brian Austin for always being there for me and providing me with unending encouragement and support in all of my successes and failures. Without all of these wonderful people playing such important roles in my educational development, I would not be where I am today. Many thanks again to all of you! vi TABLE OF CONTENTS


Purpose – The paper aims to investigate disclosure practices in the annual reports of Libyan banks in the run‐up to the opening of the nation's first stock exchange. Banks dominate this embryonic market but very little research has examined the extent (or determinants) of transparency achieved by these firms, an issue argued by Stiglitz and others to be crucial in the post‐crisis era. Currently, no detailed evidence of disclosure practices prior to the launch of the exchange exists, making an accurate assessment of the market's impact in this area impossible; the present study therefore contributes in this regard as well.Design/methodology/approach – The study employs two main methods: a disclosure index‐based analysis of mandatory and overall disclosure levels; and panel regression analysis of the determinants of the overall disclosure levels.Findings – The results suggest that while many items are disclosed on a regular basis, on average barely more than half of all possible items appear in the annual r...


Epidural hematomas of the clivus are very uncommon. We, hereby, present a case of retroclival epidural hematoma as a complication of posterior fossa decompressive surgery for the management of acute cerebellar infarction. Serial MRI examinations of the patient was documented and demonstrated. In addition, the etiology of retroclival epidural hematomas were also discussed.


ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to exploit the potential application of weighted index overlay analysis for assessing groundwater potential mapping at Dhungeta-Ramis sub-basin, Wabi Shebele basin, Ethiopia using remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technique. For this purpose, seven groundwater occurrences and movement controlling factors, including, lithology, slope, land use land cover (LULC), rainfall, lineaments, soil, and drainage density were mapped. Then, weight was assigned to thematic maps, and the groundwater prospective of the sub-basin is qualitatively classified into five classes, namely, very good, good, moderate, poor, and very poor which account for 2.22%, 26.93%, 56.74%, 13.84%, and 0.26% landscape, respectively. The cross-validation of the resultant model was carefully carried out using spring, hand-dug, and deep well data. The result reveals that 89% of springs were overlaying good and/or very good groundwater potential zones and 58% of deep well shows the same scenario, whereas 42% of deep well overlays moderate zone. As a result, the map generated using this platform could be used as a preliminary reference in selecting suitable sites for groundwater resource exploitation.


The stone skipping has been a popular pastime for thousands of years. In this paper, we propose a method for simulating motion of stone skipping with physically based modeling. From a physical point of view, stone skipping is a collision response of objects with water. In order to handle the collision reaction, we compute the force acting on the stone due to the water and calculate deformation of the water. We also show that our method performs well in applications where interactive performance is preferred to realism. The techniques presented can easily be extended to simulate other interactive dynamics systems. Keywords— Physically-based modeling, Real-time simulation, Stone skipping.


Recently, Mazor and Pearlman[1] proved a source coding theorem for transform trellis codes. In this paper we apply their results to code speech using backward adaptation. Two spectral estimation techniques, called the moving average (MA) and autocorrelation (AR) techniques, are presented for estimating the spectrum from past and current blocks of speech for the purpose of constructing the trellis code for the next block of speech. Simulations are performed using both methods. The performance for the MA method is about 11 dB for a code of rate 1 bit/sample. For the AR method, the performance is about 12.5 dB for the same code rate. Tests are also performed on the effect of the trellis parameters on coding performance.


To improve the classification accuracy of hyperspectral remote sensing images by utilizing labeled and unlabeled samples,a new semi-supervised manifold learning method called Semi-supervised Sparse Discriminant Embedding(SSDE)is proposed.By combining the advantages of manifold structure among classes and sparsity,the algorithm not only preserves the sparse reconstruction relationship between the samples,but also gets the intrinsic attribute of high dimensional data and the manifold structure of low dimensional data by introducing a few labeled training samples and a large number of unlabeled training samples.So,it extracts the discriminant feature of data and improves the classification accuracy.The classification experiments in Washington DC Mall and Indian Pine data set show that the method is a more effective way to find the internal structure of data in a high dimensional space.Compared to other methods,the SSDE obviously improves the classification perform-ance.By taking randomly selected 8training samples with classification labels and 60ones without classification labels as examples,the highest classification precision of SSDE respectively reach 77. 36%in Indian Pine and 97.85%in Washington DC Mall data set.


Investment is considered to be an important indicator for economic growth in developing countries. The main purpose of the study was to find the economic determinants of investment for Pakistan by empirical method using data from the year 1972 to 2013. The ARDL approach was used to check short and long run relationship among dependent and explanatory variables. In short run the results showed that the relationship of real interest rate (R) and terrorism (TER) is negative and statistically insignificant. External Debt (EXD) has also negative relationship but it was weakly significant while the relation of Tariff duty (TAR) with dependent variable capital formation (K) was found significant with positive relationship. In long run the result was same as in short run because real interest rate (R) was found with in negative relationship with terrorism and the relation was statistically insignificant. External debt (EXD) had also significant negative relationship with Real Interest Rate (R). Tariff duty was found to have positive and significant relationship with dependent variable. The government should focus on law and order situation in order to overcome terrorist activities. Strong monitory policies needed to be implemented in the country. Revenue and expenditure must be regulated by the authorities concerned. Keywords: Investment, ARDL Approach, terrorism, External debt, Tariff duty, Real Interest Rate


Palindromic DNA has many interesting and functional properties, including the ability to form non-canonical DNA structures such as hairpins, cruciforms, and slipped strand structures. Palindromes also serve important roles in binding sites and enzyme activity, and have a strong effect on mutation rates. Palindromes are abundant in most genomes, often occurring within coding sequences, though in many instances it is still not clear how their presence affects genomic functions. The identification and study of palindromic DNA is essential to the progression of our understanding of the genome. To address this need, we present a novel method using an in-memory computing environment for identifying, extracting, and indexing palindromes in a searchable database for all mammals in Ensembl release 80. We discuss the preliminary results of a multi-species study on palindromic DNA, focusing on the size, frequency, and distribution of palindromes. Utilizing a Big Data ecosystem enables us to generate the largest palindrome database to date, comprising 42 genomes. Our study offers new insight into the dynamics of palindromes and facilitates future investigation.


General local spin $S$ ground states, described by a Valence Bond Solid (VBS) on a two dimensional lattice are studied. The norm of these ground states is mapped to a classical O(3) model on the same lattice. Using this quantum-to-classical mapping we obtain the partial density matrix $\rho_{A}$ associated with a subsystem ${A}$ of the original ground state. We show that the entanglement spectrum of $\rho_{\rm A}$ in a translation invariant lattice is given by the spectrum of a quantum spin chain at the boundary of region $A$, with local Heisenberg type interactions between spin 1/2 particles.


Raman scattering spectra of metformin hydrochloride, one of the most widely used oral anti-diabetic drugs which also possesses anti-aging and anti-tumor properties, have been obtained by high-resolution and high-sensitivity Raman-scattering technique. It is established that rather narrow (4–10 cm–1) spectral lines of molecular vibrations are observed in of the metformin hydrochloride pressed powder sample in the important spectral range of 50–1700 cm–1. These "fingerprints" can be applied to reveal which chemical bonds produce spectral components corresponding to the vibrations of particular functional groups and the presence of crystalline state of the metformin hydrochloride without evidence of an amorphous phase. This observation makes the metformin hydrochloride as promising model system for development and application as molecular biosensors.


The two cases here given were of interest to me, occurring as they did about the same time and bearing directly upon the question of metastasis.


Hibiscus Sabdariffa (Roselle) is popular as a beverage in countries within Africa, Asia and South America. Benefits of Roselle, demonstrated in vivo, include lowering cholesterol and reducing raised blood pressure. These benefits have been attributed to Roselle phenolic compounds; Anthocyanins in particular. This study monitors the effects of processing and storage life on these compounds in a Roselle extract. An aqueous extract of Roselle (90oC,20mins) was pasteurised (85oC,25mins) and stored for 90days at room(21oC), refrigeration(4oC) and freezing(-21oC) temperatures and analysed for total phenolic (TP) content, total anthocyanins (TA) and antioxidant properties at different time points. Initial values for TA, antioxidant capacity (FRAP) and TP contents were 42.3±4.57 mg Cyanidin-3-Glycoside/L Roselle extract, 140.23±21.42 g Ascorbic Acid Equivalent/L and 132.75±3.32 mg Gallic acid equivalent/L respectively. Overall, there was no effect of pasteurisation on TP, TA and antioxidant activity. However, there was a significant effect of storage temperature and time particularly evident extracts stored at room temperature; resulting in a 70% loss of TA from initial. There was also an effect of storage time on TA content and antioxidant capacity. Pasteurisation with cold temperature storage within 90 days did not result in significant changes in Roselle bioactive.


This text describes several methods to approximate multivariate integrals. Cubature formulae that are exact for a space of polyno-mials and Monte Carlo methods are the best known. More recently developed methods such as quasi-Monte Carlo methods (including lattice rules), Smolyak rules and stochastic integration rules are also described. This short note describes the contents of a session keynote talk at ABSTRACT This text describes several methods to approximate multivariate integrals. Cubature formulae that are exact for a space of polynomials and Monte Carlo methods are the best known. More recently developed methods such as quasi-Monte Carlo methods (including lattice rules), Smolyak rules and stochastic integration rules are also described.


Today, instant messaging has been becoming a major communication technology in business environment. One important causal factor related to the use of instant messaging is critical mass. Specifically, the use of instant messaging requires collective efforts and interdependence among two or more people, and thus is conceptualized as intentional social action in the current study. Drawing on prior studies of social influence and critical mass, we propose a research model and empirically evaluate it using survey data collected from 227 respondents. The results indicate that perceived critical mass impacts usage we-intention both directly and indirectly through attitude and social influence factors. We believe the findings of this study will provide important implications to both researchers and practitioners.


Hu Fengs literary thought launches from the methodology and epistemology of the art ,and complete harmonized with July Styles writing practice. They both presented the characteristic of aesthetic modernity. On the artistic method, the realism is compatible with romanticism and modernism. In the narrative style, it showed the aesthetic rhyme and feelings. On the culture spirit, the life consciousness make open. In the meta-discourse, the spirit of the Enlightenment exists in the text.


Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWGs) are popular and sometimes notorious devices. They are geometrically complex and consist of 10s of optical and geometrical design parameters. This talk discusses how to design AWGs across different technology platforms.


An improved electrolytic labeling technique has been developed for tagging human plasma proteins at physiologic pH condition. The basic principle involves the addition of protein after electrolysis and pH adjustment, thus avoiding harsh treatment of the protein and preserving its biological properties. High binding efficiency has been obtained for human fibrinogen, immune gamma globulin and serum albumin with an average of 77%, 86% and 87% respectively as assayed by paper radiochromatography. The labeling mechanism is not known. Data from protein electrophoresis demonstrate the existance of chemically active 99mTc-complex species with high protein binding capacity. The entire labeling process requires less than 1 hour. Since plasma proteins are labeled at pH 7.4, the problem of protein denaturation has been significantly reduced.


The STP number is the maximum edges-disjoint spanning tree in G,denoted σ(G).In this paper, we invesgate that the relations between the STP number and the embed and the embeddablity of a graph. We obtain that ω(G)p_0(2+b(G-E_0)p_0-σ(G)),where p_0=c(G-E_0)-1, c(G-E_0)denotes the components of G-E_0, b(G-E_0) is the components of G-E_0 with odd Betti number. As an appliation, we discuss the upper embeddablity of the graph G~3.


The problem of laser induced damage of optical materials is one bottleneck to restrict laser power levels and beam quality enhances unceasingly. The research on laser induced optical material damage, improving optical material laser damage threshold, becomes a hot issue in the development of laser technology. In this paper, laser-induced sapphire damage morphology using nanosecond 1064nm Nd: YAG is reported. Analyzed the temperature variation of sapphire inclusion under different laser fluence irradiation, and the temperature variation of inclusion's dimension radius by finite element method. The laser-induced damage experiment of sapphire materials are investigated (pulse width is 6ns). At the same time, the sapphire laser-induced damage threshold, the damage position distribution, the influence of different laser fluence on the damage area and damage growth characteristics are analyzed. Results show that the inclusion absorption mechanisms can better explain the sapphire under the nanosecond laser pulse irradiation damage, and simulation results are in agreement with the experimental results. In addition, for 1-on-l irradiation, the surface damage area for sapphire surface increase linearly, for s-on-1 irradiation, the damage area on the back surface increases exponentials with the increase of shot number.


Milton's Epitaphium Damonis is often described as a profoundly lonely work, marking the loss of his oldest and most intimate friend, Charles Diodati. It also one of the first works to announce Milton's epic ambitions, and accordingly it holds an important place in narratives that describe Milton as a singular, or even antisocial, poet, producing poetry from the deep well of his interior self. But this chapter examines the poem as a deeply social, collaborative work, and one of Milton's important early experiments in using print publication to cultivate and maintain relationships. Milton needed printers to establish his name; printers like Augustine Mathewes and Matthew Simmons needed authors with established names as allies in their own extended war against print licensing and monopolies. The wider context of the Epitaphium Damonis's production makes it clear that the circumstances of Milton's stationers cannot be disentangled from the arc of his own career. His emerging authorial identity was not solitary but social, and print was an essential strategy for constructing, promoting, and preserving it.


Pontike, Qst. Akad. Wiss. Phil. Hist. Klasse, Denkschr. 106, Wien, 1972). Although Asheri's is richer, more learned and more imaginative, on certain points Burstein's common sense seems preferable. Take, for instance, the notorious problem caused by Strabo's anomalous statements (xii.542) that the Milesians were the first to settle Heraclea, and the first to enslave the Mariandynoi. All our other literary evidence on Heraclea attributes the colony to Megarians and Boeotians, and this evidence is amply supported by the cults, institutions, and dialect of the city. Asheri suggests that the small Milesian settlements on the coast in what became the most easterly part of Heracleot territory at its greatest extent may be the justification for the statements of Strabo (or his source). But Burstein (p.15) is surely more likely to be right to argue that we should follow those who regard Strabo's statements as simply mistaken, since his information about the Mariandynoi so clearly retrojects the actual arrangements that existed at Dorian Heraclea. The only obvious weakness in Burstein's armoury is his knowledge of archaeological evidence. The statement that the Greek objects found in the Pontus are not earlier than the middle of the seventh century is false; see Coldstream, GGP p.3 77. Also his choice of a sixth-century foundation date for Cailatis goes against the archaeological evidence, which seems to show that the Amyntas whose accession is used to date the colony in Ps.-Scymnus (761 ff.) must be not Amyntas I but III. The unorthodox way in which Burstein refers to volumes of IG and the misprints in the Greek of the inscription on pp.56 f. possibly suggest that he is also more at home with literary than epigraphic evidence. There are in fact rather a large number of minor misprints and two odd misspellings (Chersonnesus and Phanegoria), which detract from the generally professional standard of presentation. The lack of a map is regrettable, but much the worst fault of this nature is the absence of an index, inexcusable in an academic work.


This thesis deals with the potential of the electrospinning process to create substrates composed of synthetic and natural polymers for use as alternative scaffolds for peripheral nerve regeneration. In the first part, it has been estimated the influence of solvent permittivity, polymer/solvent thermodynamic affinity and other technological parameters (i.e., concentration, flow rate) on the morphology and on the physical properties of poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) electrospun fibers in order to address cell response for nerve tissue engineering applications.
Secondly, it has been evaluated the effect of gelatin protein integration into PCL fibers on morphology and physico-chemical properties to identify the contribution of biochemical cues and scaffolds topography on cells (hMSC and PC-12) response. Lastly, PCL and PCL/Gelatin electrospun conduits have been designed and optimized for in vivo implant in rat sciatic nerve model, in order to test them as artificial graft for peripheral nerve regeneration. Our experimental data showed that the PCL conduits gave good performance in resisting collapse and stretch forces in vivo, thus inducing a better recovery in comparison with PCL/Gelatin conduits. Despite the submicrometric size scale of fibers promotes a better in vitro response with primary cells, PCL/Gelatin electrospun scaffolds are less capable of sustaining nerve regeneration in vivo, due to lacks in mechanical response of the device.


Objective: To investigate the myocardial cell apoptosis in dog hearts following hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and modulation of Fas/FasL pathways and role of myocardial oxidative stress in this setting. Methods: Ten adult dogs were randomized into sham-operated and CPB groups. Samples of left ventricle (LV) were obtained before CPB, during CPB, 1 h and 3 h after CPB. In situ TUNEL was used to detect apoptotic myocardial cell. Immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry were employed to detect the expression of Fas and FasL. TBARS method was applied to measure the content of lipid peroxide. Results After CPB, the number of apoptotic myocardial cells in LV was significantly increased as compared with that of before and during CPB and that in the sham-operated group (P < 0.01, respectively). Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that Fas and FasL proteins were constitutively present on the sarcolemma of LV myocytes. FACS results showed that the expression of Fas and FasL was significantly upregulated after CPB (P < 0.01, respectively). The content of lipid peroxide in LV was also significantly increased (P < 0.01, respectively). Conclusion: Hypothermic CPB induces myocardial cell apoptosis in dog hearts and the CPB-induced myocardial cell apoptosis was associated with upregulation of expression of Fas and FasL and increase of oxidative stress in the myocardium.


In allusion to insurmountable expression effect in face recognition,a new human face recognition approach based on eigenface and wavelet transform was proposed.Firstly,some human face images were decomposed using wavelet transform and the image dimension was reduced.Then,eigenface recognition was parallel processed using these sub-images.Finally,the face recognition result was gained through weight-adding arraying.Experiment in Striling face library shows that this algorithm has higher recognition rate and can largely reduce computing complexity.


Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate three combinations of antibiotics applied perorally prior to laparotomy and gastrointestinal surgery and to select the most favorable combination. Research was performed on 24 female and male dogs divided into four groups. Following abdominal wall incision the caecum was compressed manually and 5 mL of saline solution was injected into it. Five mL of caecum contents was aspirated in a sterile syringe and only 0.1 mL was incubated into blood agar and homogenous agar. Bacterial colonies were counted and determined. Prior to surgery the control group (n=6) received no antibiotics. The group which received the combination of gentamicin and clindamycin (n=6) achieved the best reduction of E. coli whereas Enterococcus faecals was 100% destroyed. The group which received amoxicillin with clavulanic acid and metronidazole (n=6) acquired a reduction of bacteria Enterococcus faecalis, which could be sufficient for prophylaxis. The combination of gentamicin and erythromycin (n=6) failed to accomplish a reduction of the number of bacteria.


A metaphysics that never quits a high level of abstraction is as irrelevant and arbitrary as one that, for a specific domain, is merely an assemblage of trivial generalizations and wooden applications of its categoreal scheme. Paul Weiss's You, I and the Others is a challenge to contemporary philosophers precisely because it successfully runs these metaphysical risk~. The result is an account of human existence of uncommon density and scope, providing a formidable argument for the integrity and status of human individuals and social realities under certain ultimate conditions.1 The method Weiss employs in You, I and the Others is simply brilliant. In successive chapters Weiss analyzes the use of the personal pronouns ' you ', ' me ', ' I ', ' we ', and ' they ' and ' others ' to establish that each human existence is a highly complex, yet privately unified actuality expressing itself in a public domain. Consciousness is not deified as something inscrutable though Weiss recognizes that 'I' and 'me' have unique referents maximally intelligible to their sustaining self alone. Unpacking these terms requires more of the philosopher than phenomenological inspection and simple analysis of the neutral medium of language. The exclusive pursuit of these methods amounts to either a disguised idealism, collapsing the individual into a social Geist, or a thinlyveiled naturalism plying its trade as behaviorism or social Darwinism until neurology comes of age. What is required beyond these contemporary philosophical methods is a statement of content, a description of language's users and referents, of human actualities interacting with ultimate conditions, such as only a speculative and realistic metaphysics can supply. Only by making a metaphysical turn, if Weiss is right, can philosophy retain its integrity and be of genuine service to other disciplines. Indeed, You, I and the Others offers exciting possibilities for a vast and fruitful reconstitution of theoretical and practical disciplines from political economy and jurisprudence to psychology and social sciences. But the importance of Weiss's work for philosophers is its demonstration that the real end of


After theoretical considerations of organizational changes, the research findings were presented in relation to the following: the selection of the optimal model for implementation of organizational changes in the port that is subject of analysis and establishing of the character of the correlation between the organizational changes, the productivity level and the ship service time (components related to cargo handling operations). Through the implementation of AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method, it has been identified that the optimal model for implementation of organizational changes in the studied port is restructuring. Starting from the relevant elements of the process model of productivity improvement, direct interdependency has been identified between the character of organizational changes and the level of productivity per full-time employee in the port, as well as the existence of correlation between the character of organizational changes, productivity level in the cargo handling process ship service time. KEY WORDS: port, organisational changes, AHP method


Abstract Background: Kleptomania is a disease that shares features with obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders (OCD) and with substance abuse disorders (SAD). This is underlined by therapeutic approaches in kleptomania ranging from cognitive behavioural therapy and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors that are effective in OCD, and opioid antagonists that are currently being used in SAD. However, almost no literature exists about exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy in kleptomania. Furthermore, there is a clear lack of objective markers that would allow a therapeutic monitoring. Aim: To show the effectiveness of ERP therapy in kleptomania in a single case report. Method: An ERP therapy under real-world conditions and later augmentation with the opioid antagonist naltrexone is described. Continuous measurements of galvanic skin response (GSR) before, during and after therapy sessions are reported in association with changes of the Kleptomania Symptom Assessment Scale (KSAS) self-questionnaire. Results: While KSAS scores showed a clear treatment response to ERP sessions, the GSR was significantly lower during ERP treatment in comparison with baseline measures. However, during augmentation with naltrexone, GSR measures increased again and clinical severity did not further improve. Conclusions: This case shows the possible usefulness of ERP-like approaches and therapy monitoring using electrophysiological markers of arousal for individualized treatment in kleptomania.


We compare the attenuation of high-frequency (3–30 Hz) shear waves for crustal paths in New York State, South Africa, and southern California over source-receiver distances of about 10–400 km. The data consist of digital recordings of S waves (Δ = 5–100 km) and Lg waves (Δ = 100–400 km) produced by earthquakes. We use a coda normalization method to remove the effects of site amplification and source excitation from the amplitudes of the S and Lg waves. Over the entire distance range studied (10–400 km), the amplitude decay of 3-Hz shear wave energy is considerably less for the tectonicaily stable areas of New York and South Africa than for the tectonicaily active region of southern California. High-frequency (30 Hz) S wave attenuation is significantly less for New York and South Africa than for southern California, for distances between 15 and 90 km. We parameterize the decay with distance (R) of coda-normalized shear wave amplitudes with a frequency-independent Q and geometrical spreading exponent γ, where geometrical spreading is proportional to R−γ. For New York State the S wave amplitude decay (3–30 Hz) is well described by a frequency-independent Q of 2100−330+490 and γ of 1.3±0.1. The decay of Lg wave amplitudes from 3 to 15 Hz in the New York State region is fit with a frequency-independent Q of 1600−280+330 γ of 0.70±0.2. The S wave amplitudes (3–30Hz) in South Africa yield a Q of 1500−190+380 and γ of 1.3±0.1. Fixing the geometrical spreading at R−0.5 produces an Lg wave Q estimate at 3 Hz in South Africa of 360−50+80. This Lg wave Q is low considering that South Africa is a cratonic, tectonicaily stable area. The S wave amplitudes from southern California are described with a frequency-independent Q of 800−150+240 and a large geometrical spreading exponent of γ of 1.9±0.2. We find an Lg wave Q at 3 Hz of 260±30 for southern California, after constraining the geometrical spreading at R−0.5.


The laden phrase "identity politics" has come to signify a wide range of political activity and theorizing founded in the shared experiences of injustice of members of certain social groups. Rather than organizing solely around belief systems, programmatic manifestos, or party affiliation, identity political formations typically aim to secure the political freedom of a specific constituency marginalized within its larger context. Members of that constituency assert or reclaim ways of understanding their distinctiveness that challenge dominant oppressive characterizations, with the goal of greater self-determination. 1. History and Scope 2. Philosophy and Identity 3. Liberalism and Identity Politics 4. Gender and Feminism 5. From Gay and Lesbian to Queer 6. Race, Ethnicity, and Multiculturalism 7. Contemporary philosophical engagement with identity politics Bibliography References cited Other important works Academic Tools Other Internet Resources Related Entries


The first five chapters of Neurologic Disease and Therapy: Handbook of Neurological Speech and Language Disorders cover terminology, give useful schemes for bedside examination, and discuss classic syndromes, apraxia of speech, and basic anatomy. Beyond these basic chapters, the book proceeds into increasing detail discussing a wide range of dysphasia either by the pattern of dysphasia, for example, conduction aphasia, or by etiology, for example, head injury. These chapters include, for example, sections on language and epilepsy, naming disorders, alexias, positron emission tomography, the right hemisphere, head injury, aphasia in old age and dementia, and pharmacotherapy. The order of the chapters is somewhat confused. Research techniques, psychological tests, syndromes, etiologies, and anatomic sites are mixed together. However, the chapters cover virtually all aspects of dysphasia and dysarthria and fortunately describe and illustrate the speech disorders discussed, in addition to the using aphasiologist's code, which is a boon to the nonexpert


Within our studies of the profile of fatty acids of emerging row of the Portuguese autochthonous Alentejo local pig breed, we decided to emphasize the importance of odd chain fatty acids in the qualification and distinction of their final products. Therefore, we used samples of dorsal subcutaneous fat of 36 carcasses of Alentejo local pig breed (18♂♂castrated and 18♀♀females) spread over two (2) lots with different food management in the fattening stage (Lote1, n = 24, regime feed montanheira and the final third with herb spontaneous pasture and corn grain and Lote2, n = 12, feeding of montanheira and the final third with herb spontaneous pasture and triticale grain). From the analysis of the results, on average, in sums of odd chain fatty acids (Lote1 = 0.66 ± 0.13 and Lote2 =1.02 ± 0.33), we've found that the Lote2 showed a highly significant difference (P≤0.001) in relation to Lote1, which enabled us to distinguish the final products derived from the carcasses of pigs consumed grass and triticale in the final third of montanheira in maize. Thus, we conclude that by using the % of the sum of the profile of the odd-chain fatty acids it is possible to disentangle (fresh and / or processed end products) from the Alentejo local pig breed, according to the diet of grazing in the montanheira and, simultaneously, the substitution of corn in grain by triticale grains in animal husbandry will facilitate the mitigation of scarcity and food shortages caused by the degradation of the Mediterranean ecosystem.


In recent decades, the speed of construction, expansion, and development of smart cities by humans has been increasing faster, thanks to new technologies. However, alongside the fantastic development of new technologies also comes negative impacts such as climate change. One of the characteristics of climate change is the changing thermal comfort of humans living in the city. Heat stress is a feature of the urban heat island phenomenon. Congestion of airflows within the urban area causes localized hot areas, causing a temperature difference of 2-3 degrees between the areas inside the city and the suburbs. This study presents a method for determining surface temperature and the location of heat islands based on Google's cloud computing platform. The platform uses a combination of satellite imagery, Earth observation data, and machine learning algorithms to allow users to identify and measure changes in land use, ecosystems, and climate patterns at a global scale. Google Earth Engine enables researchers and organizations to process enormous amounts of data with short turnaround times. The method described in the article allows the analysis and retrieval of data in the large dataset of the Landsat 8 satellite. By determining the location of heat islands, the government, policymakers, and planners can develop plans to cope with the urban heat island phenomenon and improve the quality of life for residents.


Automated audio captioning is a cross-modal translation task for describing the content of audio clips with natural language sentences. This task has attracted increasing attention and substantial progress has been made in recent years. Captions generated by existing models are generally faithful to the content of audio clips, however, these machine-generated captions are often deterministic (e.g., generating a fixed caption for a given audio clip), simple (e.g., using common words and simple grammar), and generic (e.g., generating the same caption for similar audio clips). When people are asked to describe the content of an audio clip, different people tend to focus on different sound events and describe an audio clip diversely from various aspects using distinct words and grammar. We believe that an audio captioning system should have the ability to generate diverse captions, either for a fixed audio clip, or across similar audio clips. To this end, we propose an adversarial training framework based on a conditional generative adversarial network (C-GAN) to improve diversity of audio captioning systems. A caption generator and two hybrid discriminators compete and are learned jointly, where the caption generator can be any standard encoder-decoder captioning model used to generate captions, and the hybrid discriminators assess the generated captions from different criteria, such as their naturalness and semantics. We conduct experiments on the Clotho dataset. The results show that our proposed model can generate captions with better diversity as compared to state-of-the-art methods.


60 students currently enrolled in state-approved public school programs for the gifted at Grades 6 and 7 were given the Leadership Skills Inventory. Four certified teachers of these students were asked to complete an inventory on each subject to assess its concurrent validity. On mean T scores of students and mean teachers' ratings of students t-tests showed no significant differences between the means of the students and ratings of two teachers who had several years of experience teaching gifted students and who had more experience with the inventory. It was concluded that the inventory should be used primarily as a self-rating instrument.


Acid sulfate soils are widespread in coastal wetlands and sulfidic mine sites. The adverse environmental impacts of acid sulfate soils have attracted great attention from government regulators, land developers and managers, and scientific researchers around the world. The status of various acidity forms is the most important criteria for the risk assessment of acid sulfate soils. There are three forms of acidity in acid sulfate soils: water-soluble acidity, retained acidity and sulfide-derived potential acidity. This article reviews various forms of acidity in acid sulfate soils and the analytical methods for their measurements are also given.


Clinical T2N0 esophageal cancer is the treatment threshold for neoadjuvant therapy. Because of limitations in the diagnostic accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound and positron emission tomography-computed tomography, a number of these patients were verified to have lymph node involvement after esophagectomy. We aimed to develop and validate a nomogram for predicting nodal disease and selecting patients eligible for neoadjuvant therapy.
 A predictive nomogram was constructed using the training cohort. We identified patients who underwent esophagectomy for pT2 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in our department from January 2009 to December 2014. Binary logistic regression was used to determine risk factors for lymph node metastasis. We selected predictors considering both statistical significance and clinical importance. Furthermore, bootstrapping was used to assess the predictive accuracy. An independent cohort from the same institution was used to validate this model. This cohort included consecutive patients with cT2N0 who underwent esophagectomy between January 2015 and April 2019.
 The training cohort comprised 551 patients. Logistic regression identified six variables that were associated with lymph node metastasis, including tumor diameter (OR: 2.43, 95% CI: 1.44–4.09; P = 0.001), tumor length (OR: 10.63, 95% CI: 6.32–17.89; P < 0.001), circumferential involvement (OR: 5.14, 95% CI: 6.3–17.9; P < 0.001), differentiation (OR 3.65, 2.24–5.93; P < 0.001), lymphovascular invasion (OR 12.18, 95% CI: 5.91–25.21; P < 0.001), and the presence of multifocal tumors (OR: 8.67, 95% CI: 1.47–51.14; P = 0.017). The C-index was 0.914 (95% CI: 0.889–0.938) in the training cohort and 0.962 (95% CI: 0.939–0.985) in the validation cohort.
 A validated nomogram for patients with clinical T2N0 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma may aid in assessing the risk of lymph node metastasis. Neoadjuvant therapy is recommended for high-risk patients.