We have developed and refined an interactive algorithm that characterizes geologic structure as a constrained Delauney mesh, an optimum triangulation of a medium based on supplied node points along with constraints that certain edges of triangles (e.g., those associated with geologic interfaces) be fixed. The triangulation uses spatial data structures that contain an adjacency topology of the model that enables all triangles to be aware of and communicate with their neighbors. Ray tracing of seismic waves through the mesh of triangles is then particularly efficient because ray paths know which triangle they are entering when they leave a previous one, and, with the chosen characterization of velocity structure, ray paths are simply parabolas within each triangle. With this ray tracing, we have implemented the method of Gaussian beams for efficient, interactive generation of synthetic seismograms on an IBM RS/6000 advanced workstation. Current work is aimed at extending the method to three-dimensions, wherein the triangles become tetrahedra, and to make the model generation and modification fully interactive. We have also developed a new approach to doing migration for media in which velocity does not vary laterally. With care taken to minimize grid dispersion, this approach, which operates in the time-wavenumber-domain, ismore » capable of accurately imaging reflections from interfaces at and beyond 90 degrees, such as happens for overhanging salt domes. A selection of other developments are summarized, as well. 15 refs., 4 figs.« less


As I read this book on the Biafran War and its aftermath, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted rights and mobility everywhere to varying degree, ushering in a state of prolonged uncertainty across the world. This present-day backdrop made it easier to imagine the cumulative and increasingly grave effects of the changes to daily life that war ushered in to 1970s Nigeria following the Republic of Biafra's brief existence. Daly's central argument is that "It is impossible to understand Nigeria's long experience of crime without the context of the Nigerian Civil War—specifically, the survival tactics that Biafrans and Nigerians developed to cope with wartime dangers and postwar hardships" (13). Criminality is not inherent to Nigeria as popular and scholarly portrayals too often suggest. Rather, it is contingent, arising from the war and its aftermath. Using evidence gathered from incomplete court records, memoirs and supplemented with some thirty oral interviews (2, 23-6), Daly has reconstructed a social history of Biafrans and Nigerians who lived in and with Biafra in wartime. He shows how after the war, state and non-state actors on both sides of secession navigated the three Rs—reconciliation, reconstruction, and rehabilitation—in ways profoundly shaped by what they had survived. Absent from this account are the exogenous factors that, while distracting us from local realities and historical contingencies, attract internationalists, political scientists and developmentalists to Biafra's brief history—namely international humanitarianism, state-building, diplomacy, and oil. Instead, Daly centers the historical context of Biafra itself. The rejection of the international lens trains the focus instead on the law— the main thread connecting the book's six chapters. Law was crucial to the foundation of the Biafran state (Chap. 1) as the government created a legal system (65) through which to assert its legitimacy (59, 65). Biafran law's three foundational cornerstones were the courts, "tasked with keeping the new republic intact and functional," the Special Tribunal of Biafra established under emergency measures, and the Law and Order (Maintenance) Edict of 1967, the new state's defining document in the absence of a constitution that afforded head of state Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu the authority to pursue and try Biafra's internal enemies (70). Changes in sentencing, jurisdictional confusion, and material lack signaled Biafra's waning viability as the lines blurred between civil


In this paper, the kernel fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm is extended to an adaptive cluster model which maps data points to a high dimensional feature space through an optimal convex combination of homogenous kernels with respect to each cluster. This generalized model, called Fuzzy C-Means with Multiple Kernels (FCM-MK), strives to find a good partitioning of the data into meaningful clusters and the optimal kernel-induced feature map in a completely unsupervised way. It constructs the kernel from a number of Gaussian kernels and learns a resolution specific weight for each kernel function in each cluster. This allows better characterization and adaptability to each individual cluster. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated for several toy and real data sets.


The aim of this study was to investigate the economic sustainability of family dairy farming activity within the scope of technical efficiency. The study was conducted with 150 dairy farms selected using the stratified sampling technique among the members of Bafra Milk Producer Union in Turkey. Data envelopment analysis was used to estimate the technical efficiency of dairy farming. The cost and profitability of dairy farming was estimated using partial budgeting analysis. The average technical efficiency of the inefficient farms was 0.80 which indicates that the inefficient farms could reduce their average input use by 20%. The average costs of milk production per liter in the efficient and inefficient farms were $0.24 and $0.32, respectively. Feed and labor costs in the efficient and inefficient farms accounted for 65.3% and 68% of the total cost, respectively. While the average profit per liter for the efficient farms was $0.06, it was only $0.01 for the inefficient farms. The inefficient farms could sustain their economic viabilities with the government's livestock supports. The government should facilitate the farmers in achieving efficient use of resources in dairy farming and the link between efficiency and economic sustainability should be recognized as a matter of policy priority.


Objective:To evaluate the application of Quantitative tissue velocity imaging(QTVI) in assessing the left ventricular (LV) systolic function in Children with dilated cardiomyopathy(DCM).Methods:Fifteen consecutive children with DCM were included in the present study,who were divided into group A(with light heart failure) and group B(with moderate and severe heart failure).Twelve children without any cardiac diseases were as controls.The dynamic tri-plane QTVI images of apical four-chamber,LV two-chamber and LV long-axis views were acquired simultaneously and the myocardial velocity curves in basal and middle segments were analyzed.Results:(1)The peak systolic velocity (Vs)redueed generally in group A and B compared with that in controls,especially in group B(P0.05).But the Vs did not reduce remarkably in some segments of group A(P0.05).(2)There were forty-two segments with the velocity of postsystolie shortening(PSS) more than that of the systole in DCM group,among which thirty segments(71.43%)were from group B,and twelve segrnents(28.57%)from group A. Analyzed with strain,twenty-one segments (50.00%)were actively shortened and eleven segments (26.19%)were paradoxical motion.Conclusion:QTVI can assess LV systolic function accurately in Children with DCM.


Respiratory research has historically focused on identifying risk factors for and treatment of established lung disease. Public health approaches to common conditions, however, mandate that health promotion is a central feature of disease prevention. While smoking initiation prevention and cessation efforts are essential to respiratory health promotion, there are far fewer accepted strategies of preventative care in respiratory medicine compared with cardiovascular medicine. A key reason for this is the absence of a comprehensive body of research guiding the assessment of risk for respiratory disease as has been established for cardiovascular disease. Recent evidence provides insight into how the respiratory community can shift research priorities towards developing a definition of respiratory health spanning ideal health, impaired health, and disease. Central to defining respiratory health are the dual concepts of pulmonary reserve as reflected by peak respiratory health in young adulthood and susceptibility as reflected by the rate of lung function decline following the attainment of this peak. Clear delineation of factors influencing pulmonary reserve and susceptibility and their underlying pathobiology will enable risk stratification and prediction of future respiratory disease as well as earlier treatment of chronic disease, akin to comprehensive models of care already employed in the cardiovascular field.


The third thematic issue of Marine Biology Research is devoted to recent investigations on the taxonomy, biology, and ecology of sharks and rays by European scientists. Although popular, the chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras) have been little studied, but in recent decades, scientists have shown a growing interest in this group of fishes. There are several reasons for this trend: (1) the chondrichthyans have a long evolutionary story starting in the Devonian era, i.e. about 450 million years ago, so their study is important to understand the basal evolutionary patterns of the vertebrates; (2) many sharks and rays have traditionally been exploited, but the huge increase of fishing efforts all around the world has caused serious concerns about the conservation of their populations that are drastically declining; (3) it has been demonstrated recently that sharks play an important ecological function in the regulation of the marine ecosystems, indeed as apex predators they regulate the populations of prey on which they feed; and (4) some sharks and rays are used as biological models to study a number of physiological questions (e.g. osmoregulation). Although the chondrichthyan fishes have a structural homogeneity, they are very diverse regarding shape, colour pattern, size, reproductive and feeding strategies, habitat and behaviour. In Europe, the European Elasmobranch Association (EEA) was set up in 1996 to promote research on the biology of sharks and rays, and to advocate for sustainable management of their fisheries and the conservation of threatened species and their habitats. Annually, EEA organizes a scientific meeting to make known the actual state of the art shark research and conservation. In 2007, the 11th EEA meeting took place in Brest (France) and was locally organized by the 'Association pour la Protection et la Conservation des Sélaciens' (APECS). It gathered together 100 specialists who presented 23 oral communications and 33 posters covering the following themes: palaeontology, taxonomy and biogeography, biology, ethology, fisheries and conservation of elasmobranch fishes. The present issue includes some papers resulting from communications presented at this 11th EEA meeting, along with other papers submitted separately, but dealing with the same topics. Since 5th February 2009, the European Community has adopted a community Action Plan for the conservation of sharks, following, with some delay, the recommendation of the FAO International Action Plan for the conservation and the management of shark populations ('IPOA-Sharks', FAO 1999). While waiting for the implementation of this community plan, some conservation and management measures have already been taken: a number


Summary.

1
Parent Coot treat all young conspicuously unlike their own as territorial intruders.

2
Parents with young less than two weeks old will tolerate, feed and brood young similar in appearance to their own. Three cases of permanent adoption are recorded.

3
Parents with young much over a fortnight old will not tolerate any strange chicks, however similar. This appears to prove that they recognize their own young individually.

4
The reactions of the young are controlled by releasers. Two are cited, viz. releasers of the following, and alarm, reactions.

5
Chicks up to at least eight hours old will follow men, accept food from (hem, and respond to calls made by them.

6
This tameness disappears by the second day (except in the case of hand-reared young). Imprinting is by then complete.

7
At first young will follow and beg from any adult Coot.

8
At 8–11 days young learn to avoid adults in an attitude of attack.

9
Individual recognition of adults develops at about three weeks.


This article estimates the demand for forest insurance of French private forest owners against fire risk. We combine experimental and real world data and use a Heckman selection model to separately analyse insurance participation and coverage-level decisions. Our results showthat some determinants explain either participation to insurance (e.g., ambiguity about the probability of occurrence of natural hazards) or coverage-level decision (e.g., the past perception of a public help in real life), some of them do not allow to explain the owner's insurance behaviour (e.g., having ever suffered from a fire in the past) while the other explain both the two behaviours (e.g., a contingent fixed help program).


Objective To observe the effect of tolterodine tartrate on urine leakage with indwelling balloon urethral catheter.Methods Fifty-six urine leakage patients with indwelling balloon urethral catheter in our department in 2011 were randomly divided into control group and observation group.The control group received conventional method while the observation group received tolterodine tartrate treatment in addition to the traditional method.Total effective rate of urine leakage was compared between two groups.Results The total efficacy rate in the observation group(100%) was higher than that of the control group(64.3%).Conclusion Tolterodine tartrate is effective in treating urine leakage with indwelling balloon urethral catheter.


Dockless shared bikes, which aim at providing a more flexible and convenient solution to the first-and-last mile connection, come into China and expand to other countries at a very impressing speed. The expansion of shared bike business in new cities brings many challenges among which, the most critical one is the parking chaos caused by too many bikes yet insufficient demands. To allow possible actions to be taken in advance, this paper studies the problem of detecting parking hotspots in a new city where no dockless shared bike has been deployed. We propose to measure road hotness by bike density with the help of the Kernal Density Estimation. We extract useful features from multi-source urban data and introduce a novel domain adaption network for transferring hotspots knowledge learned from one city with shared bikes to a new city. The extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach compared with various baselines.


In this paper we present a flexible communication architecture well suited for the interactive fruition of historical and artistic contents throughout a wireless network infrastructure. The proposed system integrates different communication technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS with the aim of offering, in a transparent and reliable way, a mixed set of different multimedia and augmented reality (AR) contents to mobile users equipped with handheld devices.


Problems in accurately identifying calcium-containing crystals has slowed progress towards understanding the role of these important particulates in osteoarthritis. Synchrotron FTIR analysis has been useful in studying mineral formation in bone. We set out to determine if it could be used in synovial fluid and tissue culture models to identify and characterize calciumcontaining crystals. Discarded synovial fluids were obtained and were examined for CPPD crystals by polarized light microscopy. Calcium-containing crystals were also generated in vitro using wellcharacterized models of crystal formation, including a tissue culture based model with porcine articular chondrocytes and a model utilizing porcine articular cartilage vesicles. Potential crystal-containing areas were identified with light microscopy, and examined with synchrotron based IR microspectroscopy. The results were compared spectra from multiple forms of pure calcium-phosphate crystals (e.g. CPPD and BCP), and cartilage proteoglycans, and various mixtures of the above. Both CPPD and BCP crystals were readily identifiable in synovial fluids and in articular cartilage vesicle models. The IR spectrum of crystals embedded in ACV's matched known standard spectra of both CPPD and BCP crystals. Similarly, crystals present in synovial fluid matched known standards of CPPD and BCP. Most CPPD crystals were monoclinic. CPPD crystals identical to those seen in synovial fluids were also readily identifiable in articular chondrocyte monolayers incubated with ATP. Most of the BCP crystals generated in vivo and in vitro were consistent with hydroxyapatite, rather than other calcium phosphate crystals known to be present in BCP. Interestingly, careful examination of different regions of a single human or porcine crystal often revealed both CPPD and BCP containing areas in a single crystal. IR maps of articular cartilage vesicles incubated with ATP and Bglycerophosphate show CPPD-like crystals in close proximity to BCP crystals. This exciting technology allows for careful and accurate identification of calciumcontaining crystals. These data support the presence of mixtures of calcium–containing crystals in a single region, and prove the validity of the monolayer model. This technology should further our understanding of these important pathologic crystals.


This paper describes a new manufacturing yield model for submicron VLSI circuits. This model attempts to handle process induced differences between IC layout and actual IC topography. The presented model focuses on the random nature of over and under etching phenomenon. The relevance of the new yield model in submicron domain is analyzed. Examples of yield calculations using the proposed model are presented as well.


People detection is a task that has generated a great interest in the computer vision and specially in the surveillance community. One of the main problems of this task in crowded scenarios is the high number of occlusions deriving from persons appearing in groups. In this paper, we address this problem by combining individual body part detectors in a statistical driven way in order to be able to detect persons even in case of failure of any detection of the body parts, i.e., we propose a generic scheme to deal with partial occlusions. We demonstrate the validity of our approach and compare it with other state of the art approaches on several public datasets. In our experiments we consider sequences with different complexities in terms of occupation and therefore with different number of people present in the scene, in order to highlight the benefits and difficulties of the approaches considered for evaluation. The results show that our approach improves the results provided by state of the art approaches specially in the case of crowded scenes.


INTRODUCTION:
Hospitalized children will regress with the skills that they had previously mastered. Within a safe environment, the sick child needs expert physical care, emotional support, expression of feelings (through play) and continuation of school education, to promote continued growth, both in acute and chronic illness. This concept helps to minimize the emotional trauma to the children and their parents for better adjustment during hospital stay.
STATEMENT OF THE STUDY:
A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Origami on Hospitalized Anxiety Among Children Admitted in Pediatric Ward of Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences Kulasekharam.
OBJECTIVES:
1. To find the pre test and post-test level of hospitalized anxiety among children of experimental group and the control group.
2. To determine the effectiveness of Origami on hospitalized anxiety among children of experimental group with control group.
3. To find the association between hospitalized anxiety among children with the selected demographic variables
HYPO.THESES:
H1- There is a significant difference on the level of hospitalised anxiety among children before and after intervention.
H2- There is a significant association between the level of hospitalized anxiety among children with selected demographic variables.
METHODOLOGY:
The study was quasi-experimental study with an evaluative approach. The study was conducted in Pediatric wards of Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences Kulasekharam. Data collection period was one month. Population was hospitalized school age children. Samples were children admitted in Pediatric ward

aged between 6-12 years. Purposive sampling technique was used. Sample size was 40(20 children in each experimental and control group). The tools used for data collection were demographic variables and Hospital Anxiety Assessment Checklist. Three point scale to assess the hospital anxiety of the children.
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY:
The findings revealed that the pre test mean score of the experimental group was 33.2 and that of control group was 31.75. The post test means score of experimental group was 28.9 and that of control group was 30.9. It showed that before implementing therapy, the experimental group had increased level of hospitalised anxiety than the control group. The t value was 6.61, df=38, table value= 2.02 and p<0.05, so it is highly significant. There is no statistically significant association between pre-test level of hospitalized anxiety with the selected demographic variables of experimental and control group except for age and care taker of the child during hospitalization.
CONCLUSION:
The conclusion drawn from the findings of the study are, The study result showed that, during pre-test there was 12 (60%) children in experimental group and 15 (75%) children in control group had mild level of anxiety and 8 (40%) children in the experimental group and 5(25%) children in the control group had moderate level of anxiety and there was no children who had severe level of anxiety. During post-test, 18 (90%) of the children in experimental group and 17(85%) children in control group had mild level of anxiety, 2(10%) children in the experimental group and 3(15%) children in the control group had moderate level of anxiety and there was no children who had severe level of anxiety. So the posttest reveals that 90% of children in the experimental group had reduction in the anxiety level and 15% children in the control group had reduction in the anxiety level. The results showed that both the groups had difference in exhibiting the hospitalized anxiety; however the experimental group children could adapt faster than the control group children.(mean difference of both the groups= 3.45).


Objective: School reopening has not yet started in China where the COVID-19 outbreak has reached ending stage, largely due to a great concern about COVID-19 infections on students. We attempted to quantitatively evaluate the risk of COVID-19 infections on students caused by school reopening. Study design: We collected the data of the numbers of teachers, population size and newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past 14 days in typical provinces/cities of China, and then analyzed the risk of COVID-19 infections in schools with respect to each province/city. Methods: A step-by-step procedure was explored to calculate the probability of COVID-19 infections on students as transmitted from infected teachers. Two critical assumptions for analysis were proposed: (i) only locally generated cases were counted while imported cases were omitted; (ii) the secondary attack rate of the COVID-19 virus in schools is similar to that in households in China, ranging from 3-10%. Results: The probability of COVID-19 resurgence within one week on students of primary, middle and high schools in China (outside Hubei) is extremely low (<0.2%) in each province/city, and such probability can be updated daily and weekly based on the newly confirmed cases in the past 14 days. In some areas without newly confirmed cases in the past 14 days, the risk is zero. Conclusions: Our work provides guidance for local governments to make risk level-based policies for school reopening. Currently, the risk of COVID-19 infections on students is extremely low in China (outside Hubei) and therefore school reopening can be initiated without the endanger of infections on students.


There is a clear need for imaging protocols in awake animals. Yet, there are only a few approaches in mice, despite their usefulness as translational research subjects. We introduce the first protocol for longitudinal simultaneous fMRI and Ca2+ imaging in awake mice. The same animals are imaged four times (from 4 to 12 months of age) – twice under anesthesia, and twice awake. Our framework includes two acclimation protocols: an initial intensive training followed by a 'refresher' course. We find a marked improvement in motion between the two awake sessions. Implications for future dual-imaging experiments in awake mice are considered.


About the Editors. About the Contributors. Introduction. Gullotta, The Family, Treatment, and Prevention: How Theory Influences Practice. Williams-Washington, Melon, Blau, Childhood Growth and Development Within a Family Context. Osher, Osher, Blau, Families Matter. Goode, Jones, Cultural Influences on Child Development: The Middle Years. Keys, Leaf, Public Health Principles and Approaches to Systems Interventions to Support Children's Emotional and Behavioral Health. Arcus, Chambers, Childhood Risks Associated with Adoption. Mensah, Fine, Divorce and Children. Hennon, Hildebrand, Schedle, Stepfamilies and Children. Fisher, Easterly, Lazear, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Families and their Children. Plant, Siegel, Children in Foster Care: Prevention and Treatment of Mental Health Problems. Nicholson, Cooper, Freed, Isaacs, Children of Parents with Mental Illnesses. Portwood, Physical Abuse in Childhood (Ages 5-13). Spitalnick, Younge, Sales, DiClemente, Sexual Abuse in Childhood (The Abused Child). Epilogue.


The basic working principle of direct torque control and the structure of every control part of ACS600 direct torque control at Baosteel High Speed Wire Rod Department are described.Major emphasis has been placed in this article on the characteristice of ACS600 control system.


Objective To assess the clinical value of early diastolic velocity of mitral annulus detected by tissue Doppler imaging(TDI)in left ventricular diastolic function evaluation,and to observe how coronary lesions affect left ventricular diastolic function.Methods Fifty-four patients with chest pain who undertook coronary angiography were selected,14 of whom were excluded CAD and served as control group,and the other 40 were divided into univessel group(n=10),bivessel group(n=11),moderate trivessel group(n=9)and severe trivessel group(n=10).The early diastolic velocity of mitral annulus from septal(Esep)and lateral(Elat)part was measured by TDI.The mean values Ea of Esep and Elat were calculated as well as the ratio of the mitral valve blood velocity(E).Results Compared with the controls,Esep,Elat,Ea,E/Esep,E/Elat and E/Ea were different in coronary groups and the differences became more obvious with more severe lesions.The sensitivity and specificity to diagnose CAD by E/Ea8.35 were 75% and 100%,respectively.Conclusion The early diastolic velocity of mitral annulus is a good index for evaluating left ventricular diastolic function.The left ventricular diastolic function assessed by E/Ea may help diagnose CAD and provide a reference for coronary lesion severity evaluation.


In this paper, we study the effect of using two stratifying variables on the approximate value of the variance of the stratified sample mean obtained by Al-Kassab and Al-Elemat. We assume that the stratifying variables distributed as bivariate normal. Ten special cases that obtained are applied on the two stratifying variables, by assumption that the two stratifying variables have bivariate normal distribution. A comparison between these special cases is given using bivariate normal distribution.


Abstract : Turbine tip clearance design and prediction techniques have been limited to analytical methods for lack of an accurate direct measurement device. It was the purpose of this program to substantiate prediction correlations utilizing direct measurements from a laser-powered miniaturized turbine tip clearance device (MTCMD) previously developed under Applied Technology Laboratory support. The resultant comparisons of measured versus analytically determined clearances based on measured temperatures would be used to verify or to improve the analytical techniques.


This paper describes the digital parametric design and fabrication optimisation that was carried out on the recently-completed Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies building
in Doha, Qatar. The processes, tools and techniques used are described, with background given about the issues and decisions that led to their development and implementation.
The benefi ts we believe these tools brought to the project are also discussed, from the point of view of both the building's construction and Arup's internal workflow.
The paper focuses on the building's roof structure, which is completely free-form, architecturally defined by a 3D doubly-curved NURBS surface. The roof's surface area
is approximately 13 500m2 and is constructed from curved plate girders, each one unique. The roof's geometry ranges from areas with a radius of curvature of approximately 500m, therefore relatively fl at, to areas of high curvature with a radius of 5m or less.


The major challenge of Internet of Things (IoT) generated data is its hypervisor level vulnerabilities. Malicious VM deployment and termination are so simple due to its multitenant shared nature and distributed elastic cloud features. These features enable the attackers to launch Distributed Denial of Service attacks to degrade cloud server performance. Attack detection techniques are applied to the VMs that are used by malicious tenants to hold the cloud resources by launching DDoS attacks at data center subnets. Traditional dataflow-based attack detection methods rely on the similarities of incoming requests which consist of IP and TCP header information flows. The proposed approach classifies the status patterns of malicious VMs and ideal VMs to identify the attackers. In this article, information theory is used to calculate the entropy value of the malicious virtual machines for detecting attack behaviors. Experimental results prove that the proposed system works well against DDoS attacks in IoT applications.


Nowadays adulteration is a social disease which is applied on food to make food more attractive and to
gain more profit from it. Along with different processed food products, Spices like Turmeric powder, red chilli
powder, etc. provides good nutrition to us until they are treated with some foreign colours or organic colours
to make them adulterated, which causes various detrimental effects in physiological system such as heart
failure, liver damage, cancer and many more, if people consume them over a certain period of time. Metanil
yellow, Sudan red dye, Congo red are such organic dyes which are used abundantly in different spices and
processed food products. These dyes are toxic chemicals and could be carcinogenic as well. The presence of
all these components can be detected with chemical experiments. This present research study is focused on
the detection of adulterants present in sample on the basis of pH variation of adulterated food sample from
the pure one and its estimation by variation of spectrophotometric absorbance with the concentration of the
adulterant in the sample. After testing samples with different concentration of adulterants, it has been
observed that pH of samples is gradually increasing with the increase in concentration of adulterants from 0
to 16.66 gm/100gm present in the sample.


Introduction: Chronic diseases have affected the health and quality of life of people in a vast number of countries. Critically, chronic diseases have been rapidly increasing worldwide and inflicting a heavy burden on society. As such, health screening has been applied to reduce individuals' risks of developing chronic diseases and to initiate health promotion or disease prevention. However, the participant rate is low, especially for people living in rural areas. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influence people's decisions to undergo health screening. Method: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken for 16 people aged between 30 - 60 years, and all interviewees had never attended health screening at our hospital despite being invited. Interviewees were from four districts in Taiwan: Anle District of Keelung City; and Ruifang, Gongliao, and Wanli Districts of New Taipei City. These districts were sampled to represent urban and rural areas, respectively, and people in these rural areas were suspected to have high risk of metabolic diseases, kidney and lung diseases or cancers. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, and NVivo 11 was used for data management. Result: Six motivating factors or barriers were identified: 1) Health attitudes and beliefs about the benefits of participating in health screening; 2) expectation of health screening from the perspective of participants; 3) cost consideration; 4) impact of social influence on willingness to participate in health screening; 5) the experiences of health screening; and 6) practical motivations or barriers of undergoing health screening. Conclusion: Health attitudes and beliefs about the benefits of having a health screening, personal health expectations, and free health services were identified as the top three important factors that influence a resident's decision to undergo health screening for chronic diseases in Taiwan.


The purpose of this study was to study the impact of ulul albab personality on the adversity quotient. The sample was composed of 139 undergraduate of Islamic State University of Malang. The result showed that r=0.182 p=0.045 it means ulul albab personality influence of adversity quotient. Key word:  Ulul Albab Personality,  Adversity Quotient


ABSTRACT
Huaca Bandera is an archaeological complex that is located in the northern area of the Lambayeque region, district of Pacora. The objective of the research was to evaluate the management of environmental impacts through the application of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in compliance with Law N ° 27446 (SEIA). National System for the Evaluation of Environmental Impact, and the D.S. 019- 2014 Housing. A situational diagnosis was made of the area of development and influence of the project, before beginning its execution, which will constitute the baseline. For the qualitative evaluation of the environmental impacts generated by the activities of the extension of the tourist services of the archaeological complex, the evaluation method proposed by Vicente Conesa was used. We have identified 06 environmental components susceptible to suffer impacts and 14 activities that can generate impacts. 117 impacts were determined, of which (-63) negative impacts were irrelevant and few significant and (+54) positive impacts between significant and insignificant.
The environmental components that suffer the most impact are: soil and air quality in a negative way and employment in a positive way. The project activities that generate the greatest impact are: the improvement of access and the construction of river defenses.


A process cheese capable of corresponding to various packaging forms that have a heat melting step, while maintaining the characteristics, and process cheese which contribute to the health lactobacilli are alive, their preparation we propose a method. Process cheese that lactic acid bacteria are added heated after the melting step of the cheese material is present as viable cells used in the production of A process cheese. The first step and the method for producing a process cheese having a second step of adding lactic acid bacteria to the cheese material after heating and melting for heating molten cheese raw material used in the manufacture of processed cheese. .Field


This study proposes a kinetic model for the uptake of the amino acid L-tyrosine under the influence of the thyroid hormone,L-thyroxine, across rat everted gut sacs. Our results showed that absorption of the amino acid did not remain relativelyconstant along the small intestine. It would appear that a non-energy dependent saturable "carrier" system was involvedduring the uptake of L-tyrosine. Furthermore, it was also noted that the influx and efflux of L-tyrosine was activated by Lthyroxine.In conclusion, kinetic analysis suggests that the model proposed for the uptake of the amino acid did notconform, reasonably well, to simple Michaelis-Menten enzyme-substrate kinetics.
 KEY WORDS: enzyme, kinetics, inborn errors, metabolism
 Resume
Cette etude propose un modele cinetique pour l'absorption de l'acide amine L-tyrosine, sous l'influence de l'hormonethyrodienne L-thyroxine, a travers l'intestin grele du rat. Nos resultats demontrent que l'absorption de l'acide amine n'estpas relativement constante sur tout le parcours de l'intestin grele. Il semble qu'un systeme "transporteur" autonomed'energie et saturable serait implique dans l'absorption de L-tyrosine. De plus, il a ete remarque que le transport de Ltyrosineetait active par la presence de L-thyroxine. Pour conclure, les donnees cinetiques suggerent que le modele proposepour l'absorption de l'acide amine ne se conforme vraiment pas au cliche cinetique enzyme- substrat, de Michaelis-Menten.
Mots cles: enzyme, cinetique, erreur intrinseque, metabolisme Discovery and Innovation Volume 15 Number1/2 June (2003) pp. 40-44


The invention discloses a moving object segmentation method based on optical flow field clustering. The method is characterized in that optical flow fields of an image sequence are clustered to effectively detect and segment single or multiple moving object(s) in a complex image background. An object area is segmented by utilizing moving internal epipolar constraint and C-mean value cluster algorithm to obtain a segmentation image; a detailed target area is obtained from the segmentation image by utilizing a Canny edge operator, and an edge image is obtained; and the segmentation image is merged with the edge image according to the flow velocity in the optical flow field, and complete single or multiple moving objects is/are detected. Thus, the moving object can be reliably segmented and detected under the condition that a camera moves.


A general method is proposed to model 3D microstructures representative of three‐phases anode layers used in fuel cells. The models are based on SEM images of cells with varying morphologies. The materials are first characterized using three morphological measurements: (cross‐)covariances, granulometry and linear erosion. They are measured on segmented SEM images, for each of the three phases. Second, a generic model for three‐phases materials is proposed. The model is based on two independent underlying random sets which are otherwise arbitrary. The validity of this model is verified using the cross‐covariance functions of the various phases. In a third step, several types of Boolean random sets and plurigaussian models are considered for the unknown underlying random sets. Overall, good agreement is found between the SEM images and three‐phases models based on plurigaussian random sets, for all morphological measurements considered in the present work: covariances, granulometry and linear erosion. The spatial distribution and shapes of the phases produced by the plurigaussian model are visually very close to the real material. Furthermore, the proposed models require no numerical optimization and are straightforward to generate using the covariance functions measured on the SEM images.


Purpose: Recanalization of chronic total occlusion (CTO) remains a major challenge in interventional cardiology. The objective of this pooled analysis was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of XIENCE V when treating CTO lesions.

Methods: Both XIENCE V USA and SPIRIT V are large, prospective, multicenter, post-approval, real-world studies conducted in the US and 29 countries in Europe and Asia Pacific. Baseline and 1-year clinical outcomes were compared between patients with and without treatment of at least 1 CTO lesion during the index procedure.

Results: Baseline characteristics and clinical outcomes are summarized in the table.

View this table:

Table 1. Clinical results in patients with and without CTO lesions treated

Conclusions: The one-year stent thrombosis rate and other clinical event rates were low in the CTO cohort and were comparable to those of the non-CTO cohort despite an increase in lesion complexity. These results demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of XIENCE V in real-world CTO treatment. However, despite the large population enrolled in both studies, the sample size of the CTO cohort was relatively small. Therefore, results obtained from this pooled analysis are yet to be confirmed in a large, prospective, randomized study.


This work was supported by FEDER funds through the program COMPETE (project PTDC/CTM/100076/2008) and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (PEst-C/CTM/LA0025/2013 - Projecto Estrategico - LA 25 - 2013-2014 - Strategic Project - LA 25 - 2013-2014).


An in situ generated cationic zirconium complex stabilized by an n-butylamine-bridged bis(phenolato) ligand is developed to catalyze hydroamination reactions of secondary amines.


The displacement of the wire-electrode during wire electrical erosion processing must be very precise, for the machine to process with maximum error 0,001 mm. For that it must have a very precise control of the wire in a very short time in order to obtain high productivity. In this paper it is shown one principle using a microcontroller PIC, with a small price and low consume.


The economic crisis has brought to the fore the debate about the need for new economic policy instruments. In particular, it demands new ways to prevent financial imbalances that in their cyclical inflections, causes consequences in the economy. Hence, the so called macroprudential policy was fetched to the center of the debate. In this context, the aim of this work is to perform a reading of macroprudential policy in a Keynesian perspective. The underlying argument is that policy can be understood as essentially Keynesian, because it deals with the unstable character of the economic system and with the endogenous systemic risk. In addition, macroprudential are consistent with the modus operandi of Keynesian economic policies. Discussions and development of the literature on the subject have taken place under pragmatic bases that do not relate immediately to orthodox or heterodox schools of economics. Thus, although the literature on macroprudential, in terms of objectives, instruments, transmission channels is advanced, there is still a need for theoretical debate to substantiate the use of this policy.


Maternal high fat diet (HFD) may alter the offspring intestinal immune system thereby enhancing susceptibility towards inflammatory bowel disease. The objective of the current study was to investigate the impact of maternal HFD on offspring intestinal health using a mouse model of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)‐induced colitis.


The CO2 emissions were measured in environmental rooms in 15 animal operation studies, including studies of dairy cow, steer, swine, turkey, laying hen and broiler. The objectives of this paper are to summarize CO2 emission data in these 15 studies;, to investigate the possible diet effect; and to evaluate the performance of the CO2 balance approach to estimate ventilation rate (VR) of animal houses. Lower CO2 emissions were observed from steers fed diets containing 60% DDGs as compared to that from steers fed the control diets (0% DDGs). Significant differences in CO2 emissions were observed among different studies for each species of broiler, laying hen, swine, and steer, which could be the result of different management practices, different stages of production, or different weather conditions. In 10 out of the 15 studies, the measured CO2 emissions were significantly larger than the estimated CO2 productions, which could represent the corresponding amount of CO2 generation that was not accounted in the metabolic CO2 production as well as uncertainties in measurements of CO2 emissions. The overall R2 was 0.97 when treating each of the 15 studies as one data point. The relative differences between measured and estimated VR were in the range of 6.3% to 20.5%. Uncertainties in estimated VR in dairy cow studies were relatively large because the relatively large variations in measured CO2 emissions in these studies were not well represented by the relatively constant estimated CO2 production values.


The purpose of this exploratory case study is to use social network analysis techniques to visualise and analyse potential real estate property flipping transactions which may be a type of investment in Mansfield, OH. While real estate property flipping is typically associated with hot real estate markets, Mansfield's real estate market, interestingly, has been a cold one. Social network analysis is a method for analysing the structure of relationships among social entities through networks and graphs. We look at how homebuyers and grantees of mortgages relate to each other, utilising Gephi and UCINET software for visualisation purposes. We find that almost 50% of the mortgage grantees are from Ohio, which runs counter to our expectations based on the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994. We also find that the topological structure is highly fragmented. In some cases, the components represent only a single transaction between one homebuyer and one grantee. In other cases, the clusters are more complex, indicating potential real estate property flipping.


The invention relates to a switchover device (1) for a thick matter pump, having a housing (2) which forms a pre-fill vessel (20) and which has, arranged on opposite sides (2a, 2b) of the pre-fill vessel (20), at least one inlet/outlet opening (19a, 19b) and at least one outlet opening (15), wherein a pivot body (3) which is arranged pivotably in the housing (2) and which has a passage duct (17) with openings (13, 14) at both sides is pivotable between two positions (a, b), wherein, in said positions (a, b), the passage duct (17) connects in each case one inlet opening (18a, 18b) to the outlet opening (15) at the opposite sides of the housing (2a, 2b), and wherein at least one opening (13, 14) of the pivot body (3) comprises an elastic seal (16), which is accommodated in a seal chamber (8), and a sealing ring (12), which elastic seal and sealing ring seal off the openings (13, 14) of the passage duct (17) with respect to the pre-fill vessel, wherein the elastic seal (16) is supported within the seal chamber (8) by a support strip (6) arranged around the outer circumference of the elastic seal (16). The invention also relates to the use of a support strip (6) of said type in a switchover device, and to the use of a pivot body (3) having a support strip of said type.


By obtaining imaging data in two photometric bands for 60 lenticular galaxies—members of eight southern clusters—with the Las Cumbres Observatory one-meter telescope network, we have analyzed the structure of their large-scale stellar disks. The parameters of radial surface-brightness profiles have been determined (including also disk thickness), and all the galaxies have been classified into pure exponential (Type I) disk surface-brightness profiles, truncated (Type II) and antitruncated (Type III) piecewise exponential disk surface-brightness profiles. We confirm the previous results of some other authors that the proportion of surface-brightness profile types is very different in environments of different density: in the clusters, the Type-II profiles are almost absent while according to the literature data, in the field they constitute about one-quarter of all lenticular galaxies. The Type-III profiles are equally presented in the clusters and in the field, while following similar scaling relations; but by undertaking an additional structural analysis including the disk thickness determination we note that some Type-III disks may be a combination of a rather thick exponential pseudobulge and an outer Type-I disk. Marginally, we detect a shift of the scaling relation toward higher central surface brightnesses for the outer segments of Type-III disks and smaller thickness of the Type-I disks in the clusters. Both effects may be explained by enhanced radial stellar migration during disk galaxy infall into a cluster that in particular represents an additional channel for Type-I disk shaping in dense environments.


Dispute resolution is indeed difficult to do, but that does not mean that it is impossible to materialize. The main capital of settlement through mediation is the willingness and good faith of the disputing parties to end the dispute that occurs between the two disputing parties. The purpose of this study was to analyze the mediation of land disputes between PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) VII Cinta Manis and Rengas Village Farmers, Ogan Ilir Regency, Sumatera Selatan Province. The research method used in this research is descriptive qualitative method. Data collection techniques are by means of interviews, observation and documentation. The findings in this study are that there is no neutrality of the mediator in resolving land disputes so that the mediation fails to reconcile the two parties to the dispute. The factors that determine the success of the mediation process are volunteerism to carry out mediation, confidentiality, and neutrality of the mediator. The conclusion in this study is that mediation will work well if the parties voluntarily agree to mediate and the mediator can be neutral in resolving land disputes.
JEL Classification: D74, Q24


The effects of food ingestion on the absorption of timegadine, a recently synthesised non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, was studied in ten healthy volunteers. It was found that food enhanced the absorption of timegadine as shown by increased peak plasma concentrations (Cmax), decreased time taken to achieve these concentrations (tmax), and increased area under the plasma concentration time curve (AUC).


Over half of all Australians are classified as overweight or obese and this is increasing by 1% of the population per year. Obesity is linked with a range of health ailments including type 2 diabetes, heart diseases and some cancers. At a population level it is well accepted that obesity is a result of the increasing use of modern technology, resulting in decreased energy expenditure, in combination with easily available high energy density foods, the "obesogenic environment". In the modern environment, there are two major areas of management to assist the overweight and obese. Both include a change in lifestyle. Future strategies in weight management should include reduction in energy density and increase in daily physical activity.


In this paper, we present an overview of two very crucial parts of today's network systems - the enterprise network and the metropolitan network. The current status of these two networks, the equipment available today, and the development trends are discussed in details. Metropolitan area networks (MANs) are public networks that are targeted to provide high-speed networking over metropolitan area distances. The metro area network is mostly based on SONET, SDH and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technologies at this time, but still far away from being fully developed. Since MANs are still in their initial state of development, we discuss the technologies and equipment that are currently available on the market such as use of resilient packet rings and Ethernet applications. Enterprise network is a multi-layered, cross-platform series of high-tech security network system with the objective of providing the greatest possible protection to the institution. After review of the current status of the enterprise network, we attempt to answer the questions related to the future development of the network


Laser drilling of dynamic hole-group on plaster based on gearing,dynamic emending is applicable through the study on the relationship between plaster and laser. "Plaster Laser Drilling System" produces the first plaster of densely covered small holes in China. The method of laser drilling of this system could not only drill group holes but also adjust the shape, the size and the density of holes on plaster. This system could be applied on plaster and other thin materials.


Leisure activities, their dynamics in ontogenesis and the way of managing the time allocated to them are a topic that is frequently researched. Purpose: to investigate students' attitudes, aiming at aspects related to forms of leisure, depending on specialization and level of physical activism, by applying a questionnaire. Material and method: The research took place in the academic year 2019-2020, on a number of 180 students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports in Galați. The differences for the pairs of independent specialty variables (PES / physical education and sport and PT / physical therapy), respectively physical activity (HLPA / high level of physical activity, and LLPA / low level of physical activity were analyzed, by applying the techniques of MANOVA and ANOVA calculation. Results: Multivariate analysis indicates significant effects of the physical activity variable on the items of the questionnaire for leisure budget factors, preferred leisure activities, leisure sports activities, and for the specialty variable significant effects are determined only at leisure sports activities, so the level of physical activism will generate more differences between the opinions expressed compared to the specialization of students. Univariate test results indicate significant F values (P <0.05) for a number of items, with weaker values, dominant for PT and LLPA groups. Sports activities and socializing on the internet (defining variant of young people) are at the top, so they do not exclude each other. Conclusion: the students from the PES and HLPA groups stand out through a better organization of free time, high satisfaction of its capitalization, a greater involvement in the variants of active leisure and superior socialization, and those from the PT and LLPA groups allocate more time to watching on TV and using the internet.
Keywords: physical activism, specialization, questionnaire, active and passive leisure options, opinions


Source of Funding: Self Conflicts of interest: None DOI: 10.16965/ijims.2021.109 The Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an infectious disease caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and has affected people's lives globally, since first case was detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The coronavirus pandemic has turned the world's attention to the immune system, the body's defense mechanism against disease. Concept of Ojas is well explained in all ayurvedic classics, in modern perspective it is considered as immunity (Vyadhikshamatava). Ojas is necessary for well-being of the body, and mind. In Ayurveda textbook, the epidemics and along with their management are discussed under the term of Janapadodhvansa. The preventive and curative treatments for communicable diseases of the Janapadodhvansa (epidemics) are Panchkarma (five bio-purification therapies), Rasayana Chikitsa (rejuvenation treatment), Achara Rasayana (good conducts), and migrate to the place, free from communicable diseases. The intake of all types Rasayanas leads to increase of Ojas and reduce all psychological (mainly stress and emotional) disorder, thereby causes increase immunity responses and help to fight against covid-19.


With the implant-bone interface osseointegration theory put forward,Oral Implantology is entering a period of rapid development.Now the implant success rate has reached more than 95%,however,the clinical cases of implantation failure also occurred.The clinical and experimental studies found out that biomechanical factors play a decisive role in the failure of the implant-borne prothesis.This article will focus on the implant-bone interface biomechanical character-ristics,the aspects of the implant itself(material,surface structure,size),immediate loading,indications selection,tooth-implant supported fixed prothesis were reviewed.


In our previous study (1) we found that in ultrasonic diagnosis of the eye the lens exercises its influence by causing divergence of the sound beam and by a high absorption of ultrasound. Simultaneously we came to the result that both ultrasonic measurements and diagnosis are more difficult if made through the lens than past the lens. In the present investigation we have studied the effect of the whole eyeball on the properties of the ultrasonic beam. W e wished to clarify the nature of the sonic beam as it leaves the eye. On the basis of our previous experience we wished to clarify anew how great the influence of the lens is in such an investigation.


This paper describes the key units such as wideband carcinotron local oscillators, low noise Schottky mixers and lightweight Braggcell spectrum analysers whose development has been undertaken by the European Space Agency (ESA) in order to enable the realization of a high spectral resolution (1 in 107) submillimetre heterodyne spectrometer.


This paper describes how it is indeed a common notion world wide that civil engineering projects cause detrimental damage to the environment. However, concrete analysis of the balance between development oriented projects and nature and environmental conservation have yet to be pragmatically addressed from a civil and geotechnical engineering perspective. The necessity to develop the mechanical stabilization based Optimum Batching Ratio Method (OBRM) was first prompted by the lack of suitable materials for the construction of a 330km trunk road traversing mainly through lowland rural areas where the alignment soils were mostly of an expansive nature. Conventional engineering solutions would have necessitated deeper excavations of borrow pits to ensure the extrusion of quality materials. Furthermore, during the construction of this road, the 1998 El-Nino floods caused colossal damage to the pavement and hydraulic structures. The road works operations would therefore have been forced to expand requiring more land for realignment and material use. Two project case studies of trunk roads where the OBRM and other recently developed comprehensive design and construction procedures were adopted in solving issues that would have otherwise been detrimental to road users and land owners are presented from an engineering perspective. It is demonstrated that these methods effectively reduced the cost of construction and minimized negative environmental impacts mainly in terms of dust reduction, disturbance of the local habitat, contributed to the preservation of the adjacent national park and displacement of the inhabitants.


The Proterozoic Athabasca Basin hosts a large number of high-grade, large-tonnage unconformity-related uranium (U) deposits, many of which are also enriched in rare earth elements (REE). The basin also contains hydrothermal REE mineralization unassociated with U. Previous studies postulated that U and REE were derived from either the basin or the basement; however, the exact source of the metals remains ambiguous. This study provides evidence of U- and REE-rich fluids throughout the Athabasca Basin through laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) mapping of barren sandstone distal to mineralized areas. The results indicate that elevated U and REE concentrations mainly occur in the matrix; there are strong positive correlations between U and REE, Th, P and Sr, and moderate positive correlations between U and Zr, Ba, Fe, Al, K and Ca, but the few spots with the highest U are unrelated to these elements. Quantitative evaluation of the element correlations, together with scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) analysis, suggests that most of the elevated U and REE are hosted in aluminum phosphate sulfate (APS) minerals rather than apatite and monazite. As the APS minerals are of diagenetic-hydrothermal origin, the results testify to the presence of U- and REE-rich fluids within the Athabasca Basin. The elevated Th/U ratio (~10) and REE pattern (strong heavy rare earth element (HREE) depletion) are consistent with a model in which large amounts of U and REE (especially HREE) were leached from the sandstone within the Athabasca Basin and contributed to U and REE mineralization near the unconformity between the sedimentary rocks in the basin and underlying basement rocks. This study demonstrates that LA-ICP-MS mapping can be effectively used to evaluate microscale distribution of elements and their mobility in sedimentary rocks to address mineralization related problems.


PR prolongation is associated with poor hemodynamic performance and may contribute to heart failure (HF). There is some evidence that in HF patients, normalization of atrioventricular (AV) coupling can attenuate HF.

 To investigate acute hemodynamic effects of restoration of AV coupling by atrio-biventricular (BiV) pacing in patients with HF and PR prolongation, but without evident ventricular dyssynchrony.

 Nineteen patients underwent BiV pacemaker implantation. An invasive hemodynamic pacing protocol was performed during BiV and right ventricular (RV) pacing with four paced AV delays (100, 75, 50 and 25% of patient's PR interval during baseline AAI pacing). All patients had symptomatic HF, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <35% and PR interval ≥230 ms, without evident prolonged QRS duration >150 ms or left bundle branch block. Acute hemodynamic response was assessed by invasive left ventricular (LV) stroke work measurements (conductance catheter technique).

 At baseline, PR interval was 255±22 ms, QRS duration 122±19 ms and LVEF 29±6%. Reducing AV delay to 50% of patient's intrinsic PR interval by BiV pacing resulted in a median 25% increase (p<0.05) in LV stroke work relative to baseline (figure, left panel). This increase in LV stroke work was mainly determined by an increase in LV stroke volume (figure, right panel). In contrast to BiV pacing, reducing AV delay by RV pacing did not improve LV stroke work (figure, left panel).

 In patients with HF and PR prolongation, BiV pacing can be used to improve AV coupling that leads to hemodynamic improvement. These results suggest that BiV pacing may also be beneficial in this subset of HF patients that are currently not indicated for CRT.
 ReachPR Trial

 Type of funding source: Private company. Main funding source(s): Abbott funded a part of this study.


ABSTRACT College students' troubles with reading are largely explained by commodity consciousness (materialism or the search for the fast fix) and contextual confusion (approaching a book as though it were television). The challenge for teachers of reading is to make it a human endeavor. For many students reading is an operation done to extract data from the page; it is not an experience. Approaching a book as if it were a television set, these students expect to be able to understand the contents exactly. Teachers encourage these attitudes by selling "right answers"--the one way to interpret a text. Though television seems the enemy of reading, it creates two things which teachers of reading should try to replicate for their students: a sense of identification and a sense of community. This can be done by encouraging students to listen and respond to the speaker in the text and by forming small autonomous discussion groups which are encouraged to come up with differing interpretations of the text. To encourage self-involving reading teachers must create a context which makes such involvement worthwhile, not just for grades but for social interaction and personal growth as well. (14HC)


Results are provided for a study of the effect of surface-active substances (SAS) based on polyethylenenaphthalene sulfonic acids (SP-1, Thermoplast-1, Thermoplast-3, Thermoplast-4, Thermoplast-5, 3MB) on the production properties of refractory charges and physicoceramic properties of objects based on ordinary and high-alumina chamottes, and also electromelted corundum. It is established that on introducing the test SAS there is an increase in charge bulk density, which in turn promotes a reduction in molding pressure, increases raw material density and improves mechanical properties both after drying and for finished objects.


This paper contributes to closing a knowledge/empirical gap on social enterprises' realities and potential towards sustainable development in the extractive industry (EI) in Madagascar by linking stakeholders' engagement in the industry with the necessary legal framework and emphasizing the key role potentially taken by social enterprises. The brief empirical analysis of comparable countries like South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and other sub Saharan African countries confirmed the importance of a minimal State' engagement supported by private sector efforts for successful social enterprises implementation. Indeed, academic researches and case studies showed that in the context of resource-rich African countries, the lack of relevant regulatory framework led by a strong Government' will to consider the EI as an engine of inclusive growth, might uncontrollably shift towards curse' threaten including corruption, conflict and nation impoverishment. Political stability and commitment are seen as the main success' factor and must go along with political continuity as the management of extractive industries extends on decades and demands long term sustainability management.
On the other hand, this State' strong and continuous involvement needs to proceed with the involvement of other relevant stakeholders. A key one is the private sector, including the EI operators who are frequently MNCs, with sustainability and corporate responsibility embedded in their strategic background. In countries where EI expertise starts from scratch, MNCs bear the responsibility to lead strategic initiatives involving multi-stakeholders' platform when the Government is weak and unwilling to give the priority to collective interests.
Precisely, in those cases, social business stand as a bridge allowing private initiatives to support and accompany the development of EI towards inclusive and durable growth while involving economic local actors and resources.
Social enterprises are either individual entrepreneurs with small start-up capital who are less likely to fund it from the formal sector or SMEs to be integrated in the purchase cycle of the extractive industry, both schemes pointing to a possible room for policy interventions as their development requires State' support. But both become a lever for sustainable development in the extractive industry if they are included in the supply chain and purchase cycle or through local content programmes. Further, business training, capacity building programmes and infrastructures construction need to be positively associated with quality performance and stabilization, while considering the specific context of Madagascar. This comes in addition to deploying training programs for women entrepreneurs, whose design and targeting should be revisited as Madagascar remains a matriarchal society where women can lead and implement positive and sustainable changes in economic, social and environment spheres. Government' commitment and continuous leadership is therefore the only access to such ambitious transformative path. Thus, this paper will attempt to respond to the following precise question: to what extent can social enterprises contribute to sustainable development in the extractive industry (EI) in Madagascar?


As a conceptually new class of 2D materials, inorganic graphene analogue (IGA) ultrathin nanosheets perform an increasingly vital function in various electronic devices. However, the relatively low electrical conductivity of IGA ultrathin nanosheets severely hampers their application as electrode materials in devices. Through in situ synthesis, we report the combination of inorganic graphene and graphene into atomically thin nanosheets as efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Benefitting from the advantages of both IGAs and reduced graphene oxide, the g–MoSe2 and g–WSe2 nanocomposites showed excellent ORR activity associated with a number of exchanged electrons close to four, which corresponded to the complete reduction of oxygen into water. In particular, the two electrocatalysts exhibited a positive onset potential of −0.02 V (close to that of Pt/C, 0.02 V) and a high kinetic current density (JK) of 10.22 mA cm−2 for g–MoSe2 and 10.77 mA cm−2 for g–WSe2 at −0.20 V. Compared with commercial Pt/C, these catalysts possess outstanding long-term durability and fuel crossover resistance capacity in alkaline media. Therefore, nanocomposites of inorganic graphene and graphene can be developed into low-cost and efficient alternatives (to the noble metal Pt) to be used as cathodic electrodes in fuel cells.


ABSTRACTAn L-band Y-junction Stripline Circulator having a wide bandwidth is developed. The step-by-step procedure leading to the design of the circulator is indicated. The magnetic field for optimum circulation at different frequencies is measured and is found to increase linearly with increasing frequency—a result previously obtained by Yoshida1 with several circulators designed for operation at different frequencies.This circulator can also be made to operate with a bandwidth of several hundred megacycles at C-band, with a biasing magnetic field of below-resonance value.


This paper explores ethnography of municipal elections, promise-making and miracles to show how Christians problematise both friendship and politics on a settler frontier in Brazilian Amazonia. Bringing these themes together generates new anthropological perspectives on each, while complementing Derrida's critique of Schmitt's friend–enemy distinction – his definition of the political. Yet the main ethnographic point complicates the argument that both Schmitt and Brazilianist anthropologists critiquing clientelism have made: that Christianity reflects and legitimises the political order. In contrast, I show how the problem of friendship, produced through Christian concerns with the constancy of presence, legitimises and deligitimises politics at once. The overarching message is that politics, friendship (sociality) and Christianity – usually kept analytically separate – are uniquely clarified where they intersect, as they pass through persons, who foreground and background these domains themselves.


During the MAC Europe 91 Campaign, the area of Oberpfaffenhofen including the land application testsite Oberpfaffenhofen was flown by the AVIRIS imaging spectrometer, the GER 2 imaging spectrometer (63 band scanner), and two SAR systems (NASA/JPL AIRSAR and DLR E-SAR). In parallel to the overflights ground spectrometry (ASD, IRIS M IV) and atmospheric measurements were carried out in order to provide data for optical sensor calibration. Ground spectrometry measurements were carried out in the runway area of the DLR research center Oberpfaffenhofen. This area was used as well during the GER 2 European flight campaign EISAC 89 as a calibration target. The land application testsite Oberpfaffenhofen is located 3 km north of the DLR research center. During the MAC Europe 91 Campaign a ground survey was carried out for documentation in the ground information data base (vegetation type, vegetation geometry, soil type, and soil mixture). Crop stands analyzed were corn, barley and rape. The DLR runway area and the land application testsite Oberpfaffenhofen were flown with the AVIRIS on 29 July and with the GER 2 on 12 and 23 July and 3 Sep. AVIRIS and GER 2 scenes were processed and atmospherically corrected for optical data analysis of optical and radar data. For the AVIRIS and the GER 2 scenes, signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) estimates were calculated. An example of the reflectance of 6 calibration targets inside a GER 2 scene of Oberpfaffenhofen is given. SNR values for the GER 2 for a medium albedo target are given. The integrated analysis for the optical and radar data was carried out in cooperation with the DLR Institute for Microwave Technologies.


The limited geographic spread of medical genetics across the country has been well-documented (Penon-Portmann et al., 2020). The majority of the populace still lives outside of the catchment area of medical geneticists, with these providers often densely concentrated in large metropolitan areas (Penon-Portmann et al., 2020). Moreover, it has recently been reported that the United States has 2.5 times fewer clinical geneticists than the estimated need for this specialty (Bennett et al., 2017), which has been described as a "critical shortage" (PenonPortmann et al., 2020). Access to appropriate molecular diagnostic services is therefore a significant issue facing medical genetics and American healthcare more broadly. The concept of food deserts has been used since the early 1990s (Cummins, 2002) to explore the community-level barriers people face in acquiring affordable and nutritious food. The concept has been expanded more recently to investigate justice issues as diverse as access to legal services (Legal Deserts: How Texas, New York Are Tackling the Problem, 2022) and access to the internet (Mathews & Ali, 2022). Of particular relevance here, the concept of healthcare deserts has begun to gain purchase in the literature on inequalities (Carr et al., 2017; Qato et al., 2014; Wisseh et al., 2021). Additionally, domain-specific healthcare deserts have been described, including, for example, medication (Amstislavski et al., 2012) and surgical deserts (HPRI data tracks: Surgical deserts in the U.S.: Counties without surgeons, 2010). While as of yet, there has not been a systematic or scoping review of the literature on healthcare deserts, these areas can broadly be said to mirror traditional food deserts in being defined along two primary dimensions. One dimension is the distance or time it takes for a person to arrive at the nearest food market or healthcare facility. The second dimension consists of the socioeconomic factors that may impact a person's ability to acquire nutritious foods or appropriate healthcare services, irrespective of the physical location at which they are obtained (Beaulac et al., 2009). However, unlike traditional food deserts, healthcare deserts are affected by a wide variety of other barriers, and their subtypes are heterogeneous in nature. It is for this reason that several healthcare specialty deserts have been enumerated. For instance, barriers to access to one healthcare service such as pharmacies may or may not mirror barriers to access to another healthcare service, such as primary care, in any given community. In the same way, having access to good primary care does not necessarily mean that one has access to competent genetic services. Thus, given healthcare deserts' heterogeneity, there is the important potential for issues regarding access to one sort of healthcare service to be unique to that service. In what follows, we propose the concept of diagnostic deserts to analyze the distinctive set of barriers that communities of patients with undiagnosed rare genetic disorders face on their journey to a molecular diagnosis for their symptoms. Diagnostic deserts prevent these communities from accessing expedient, affordable, and appropriate care. Such deserts are distinguished from other forms of healthcare desert by a specific and unique constellation of issues entailed in the diagnostic odyssey. Moreover, they pose particular ethical issues of justice as they affect not only individuals but also communities of individuals, as members of specific classes. Our conceptualization of diagnostic deserts is based on a series of interviews we conducted with patients seen in the Undiagnosed and Rare Disease Clinic (URDC) at Indiana University and an extensive review of the literature on issues in accessing genetics services and on healthcare deserts. (Interview materials are available upon request from the corresponding author.) We believe that this conceptualization will make visible the unique, community-level barriers that affect patients in need of molecular diagnostic services. Following Shaw (Shaw, 2006), we break these Received: 3 October 2022 Accepted: 8 October 2022


Two freshwater mussel species thought to have been extirpated from Arkansas have recently been rediscovered in the Ouachita River in the vicinity of Camden. Prior to this survey, Wheeler (1918) last reported Arkansia wheeleri Ortmann and Walker, the Ouachita rock-pocketbook, and Cumberlandia monodonta(Say), the spectaclecase, from the Ouachita River near Arkadelphia. Quadrula apiculata (Lea), the southern mapleleaf, has been reported from Arkansas on two occasions, but due to taxonomic uncertainty, it has not been recognized in recent compilations of Arkansas freshwater mussels. During this survey, the southern mapleleaf was collected from the Ouachita River which verifies its occurrence within Arkansas. Quadrula fragosa (Conrad), the winged mapleleaf, is reported as a new state record. Arkansia wheeleriand Quadrula fragosa are listed as threatened and endangered species, respectively, by the U.S. Fish and WildlifeService.


As towns and cities developed, their characteristics manifest as the uniqueness brought by the diversity among them. However, modernization had cause the uniqueness tend to fade and lose its meaning as part of the image of a city. Kampung Bandar, the oldest historic district of Pekanbaru located on the riverside of Siak River, is no longer well-known for its prominent past. There are three historic sites that is potential to be developed as the image of the district, namely Rumah Singgah Tuan Kadi, Istana Hinggap and Rumah Tenun. This paper aims to assess how a sense of place influences the city image in the historic riverside district of Kampung Bandar based on the perceptions of its inhabitants, as well as the role of landmarks as attributes of the sense of place in the formation of the historic urban district's image. This research used a mixed-method. Qualitative methods involve in-depth interviews with experts and community leaders, whereas quantitative methods scored sites importance according to the local community. The results of the study show that Rumah Singgah Tuan Kadi have the highest sense of place and contribute significantly to the formation of the riverside urban district's image.


Sir, Intradermal nevus with adipocytic metaplasia is a common senescent change typically encountered in elderly individuals between the ages of 40 and 49 years and rarely seen in a congenital intradermal melanocytic nevus. Nevi with fat occur four times more commonly in women than men. The most frequent location is the head and neck. Most nevi with fat are intradermal. The appearance of fat within nevi is probably a multifactorial process associated with age and sun exposure. Histopathologic changes associated with aging of melanocytic nevi are fatty degeneration, fibrosis, and neural changes. Intradermal nevus with adipocytic metaplasia is characterized histologically by fat cell infiltration amidst nests of nevus cells in dermis. We, hereby, report a rare case of intradermal nevus with adipocytic metaplasia occurring in a congenital nevus. A 1-month female presented with single lobulated soft nodule measuring 2 cm × 3 cm on the back since birth. A clinical diagnosis of neurofibroma/neurocristic hematoma was made. Incisional biopsy was performed which on histopathology showed intradermal nests of nevus cells with interspersed mature adipocytes (Fig. 1). 1. Intradermal nevi are elevated, fleshy, and slightly or moderately pigmented papules. The variance in shape, size, or color of the lesion reflects the evolutionary process in which the nevi extend downward with age and nevus cells degenerate or become replaced by collagen, fat, and fibrous tissue. Cho et al. reported three cases of intradermal nevi with an unusual growth pattern which clinically showed lobulation. These were seen in younger age group and histologically showed prominent fat cell infiltration amidst nests of nevus cells, neuroid differentiation of nevus cells, and dermal fibrosis [1]. Cho et al. named the lesions "lobulated intradermal nevus" and suggested that their cases were an unusual form of regressing melanocytic nevus with lipomatous changes which are commonly seen in patients older than 50 years and that these changes in young age are a rare finding. Kim et al., in 2011, reported four cases of lobulated intradermal nevus with fibrotic and fatty degeneration in female patients with age ranging from 21 to 31 years [2]. Very few cases of intradermal nevus with lipomatous changes have been reported in young individuals, all of whom were interestingly females [3]. No case of congenital nevus showing lipomatous change has been reported in the literature. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of such a case in the literature. Smita Singh, Anamika Kashyap, Kiran Agarwal, Amrita Anand From Department of Pathology, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India Correspondence to: Dr. Anamika Kashyap, Department of Pathology, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi 110 001, India. Tel.: +91-9899566694. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Received 17 July 2017 Initial Review 10 August 2017 Published Online 09 October 2017


Chainsaw milling, the on-site conversion of logs into lumber using chainsaws, is supplying a large proportion of local timber markets with cheap lumber. while it offers socio- economic opportunities to local people, it is very often associated with corruption and illegalities. regulating and controlling the practice is a challenge due to the mobility of these chainsaw milling operations. with this issue of ETFRN News, Tropenbos international, together with Cifor, wishes to contribute to the discussion on how to address the domestic timber trade effectively and equitably at international and national levels.


Deaf children frequently have trouble understanding other people's emotions. It has been suggested that an impaired theory of mind can account for this. This research focused on the spontaneous use of mental states in explaining other people's emotions by 6-and 10-year-old deaf children as compared to their hearing peers. Within both age-groups deaf children referred to others' beliefs as often as their hearing peers and their references to desires even exceeded those of hearing children. This relative priority for the expression of desires is discussed in terms of possible communicative patterns of deaf children. The specific problemsthatdeafchildrenmeetintheirdailycommunicationmightexplaintheirabundanceofdesire-references:plausibly,theygiveahighprioritytostresstheirowndesiresandneeds unambiguously.


—A modified pseudo-elastic approach is proposed to model cyclic response on biological heart valves. The model takes into account hysteretic effects, in combination with hyperelastic anisotropic behaviour of valve leaflets, allowing reproduction of different loading and unloading paths. FEM implementation considered a biological heart valve during the closure phase.


In this paper, we present a study on the sensitivity of aggregation methods with respect to the weights associated with multiobjective functions of a multiobjective optimization problem. To do this study, we have developed some measurements, such as the speed metric or the distribution metric. We have performed this study on a set of biobjective optimization test problems : a convex, a non convex, a continuous and a combinatorial test problem. We show that some aggregation methods are more sensitive than others.


A very simple, strong, descriptive and interpretabl e model, based on a quantitative structure– activity relationship (QSAR), is developed using mu ltiple linear regression approach and quantum chemical descriptors derived from HF theori s using 6-31G* basis set for determination of the inhibit 50% of sensitive cell growth (pLD50) of some anti-cancer drugs. By molecular modeling and calculation of descriptors, two significant descriptors related to the pLD50 values of the anti-cancer drugs, were identif ied. A multiple linear regression (MLR) model based on 13 molecules as a training set has b een developed for the prediction of the pLD50 of some anti-cancer drugs using these quantum chemical descriptors. The effects of these theoretical descriptors on the biological activity are discussed. A model with low prediction error and high correlation coefficient was obtained . This model was used for the prediction of the pLD50 values of some anti-cancer drugs. A multi -parametric equation containing maximum two descriptors at HF/6-31G* method with good stati stical qualities (Rtrain=0.915, Ftrain=54.43, QLOO=0.891,R 2 adj=0.899,Q 2 LGO=0.879) was obtained by Multiple Linear Regression using stepwise method.


In gas-fired industrial furnaces, gas burners are typically used for heating of a load. The heating process inside the furnace has a strong influence on the product quality of the load. For accurate control of the load temperature, highperformance subordinate control of the mass flow of natural gas and air to the burners is crucial. For this purpose, a mathematical model of the fuel branch of a furnace is derived based on first principles. The model is validated by means of measurement data from a real plant. Finally, a two-degrees-of-freedom control strategy based on differential flatness in combination with a simple PID-feedback controller is proposed.


The field of process mining provides a collection of techniques and tools that aim to support the extraction of information out of event logs. This information may provide businesses insight into actual execution and performance of these business processes and may help identify ways of improving these processes. While the quality of the results of the application of mining algorithms depends on the degree of completeness of the event log (some even assuming that the logs are complete), it is necessary to evaluate completeness of an event log in an objective manner. Pragmatically speaking, the degree of completeness of an event log can be measured by estimating 1) the ratio of trace classes observed in the log versus the total number of trace classes, and 2) the coverage of behaviour observed (as a probability that captures how likely it is that a subsequent trace has already been observed). Based on some reasonable assumptions, we characterise the problem of estimating the degree of completeness of a log as a particular occurrence of the species estimation problem. Although this problem is still open in statistics, a number of methods for determining approximate solutions are available. Among these methods we provide a recommendation for those methods that are most appropriate in the context of process mining based on a number of experiments, both with real and with artificially generated event logs. In addition, a number of potential applications of (solutions to) the log completeness estimation problem are discussed.


Travel Time is the average time used the vehicle to travel the road segment with certain length , including delays , downtime , the average travel time of vehicles , obtained from comparing the length of the road segment L ( km). Speed and travel time varies with time , space and intermodal. Variations over time due to changes in traffic flows , the mixing of the type of vehicle and driver groups , lighting , weather and traffic events . As a primary arterial road in the city of Samarinda , Jalan Fortunately Soerapatti - Yos Sudarso used to serve regional traffic flow and continuously with the characteristics of the movement of vehicles which have a maximum speed of 60 km / h. Due to the influence of the development of the city of Samarinda , the development activities of the Road Fortunately Soerapatti - Yos Sudarso also very rapidly , as evidenced by the more intense the activity along the primary arterial road. This causes an increase in the intensity of the movement of both people and goods at Road Fortunately Soerapatti - Yos Sudarso very high , and results in an increase in volume of vehicles on the road segment. The method used for data retrieval Travel Time using the tool of GPS (global positioning system ) to obtain the vehicle speed per second . While the modeling method of travel time of two-wheeled vehicles were analyzed using multiple linear regression ( SPSS 20.0 ). There are three variables that significantly affect the travel time of the vehicle. These three variables showed signs of rationality test the suitability of the travel time. Wherein the increasing value of the variable is positive lead vehicle travel time will be growing, while the increasing value of the variable is negative causing the vehicle travel time will be reduced . Overall , the value of the indicator is a good level of fitness model , as indicated by the R2 value of 0.999 models.


In this paper, new linearization techniques for low-voltage bipolar OTAs using hyperbolic function circuits are described. First, a design of an exponential-law circuit, which is a basic building block to compose hyperbolic sine and hyperbolic cosine circuits, is proposed. This circuit is simpler than the conventional circuit and is suitable for low-voltage application. Next, two linearized OTAs using the hyperbolic function circuits are presented. The transconductance is given by maximally flat approximation. Although designs of the OTAs are different, the output currents are given by the same expression. Finally, performance of the OTAs is discussed. The linear input voltage range of the proposed OTAs is almost the same as that of the conventional OTA. However, one of the proposed OTA has no more than two-thirds the power dissipation of the conventional one. The other has a superior high-frequency characteristic. key words: analog integrated circuits, OTAs, low-voltage analog


We introduce a dense and a dilute loop model on causal dynamical triangulations. Both models are characterised by a geometric coupling constant g and a loop parameter α in such a way that the purely geometric causal triangulation model is recovered for α = 1. We show that the dense loop model can be mapped to a solvable planar tree model, whose partition function we compute explicitly and use to determine the critical behaviour of the loop model. The dilute loop model can likewise be mapped to a planar tree model; however, a closed-form expression for the corresponding partition function is not obtainable using the standard methods employed in the dense case. Instead, we derive bounds on the critical coupling g c and apply transfer matrix techniques to examine the critical behaviour for α small.


Abstract In the context of advection of trace species by 3D atmospheric flows, a comparative test of a hierarchy of finite volume transport schemes initially derived by B. Van Leer is presented. Those schemes are conservative by construction and Van Leer proposed a simple way of ensuring monotonicity. One of the schemes, introduced independently in the atmospheric community by M. J. Prather, is now considered as a reference in the GCM community. An important aspect of the present work is to perform test simulations with various spatial resolutions in order to compare the various schemes at a comparable numerical cost. The result is that higher-order schemes are much more accurate than lower order at a given spatial resolution but much more comparable when the lower-order schemes are run on a finer grid to make the numerical costs equivalent. Moreover, the higher moments of the tracer distribution introduced in the more sophisticated schemes become an issue when other processes such as chemistry or turbule...


The production of beauty quarks in ep interactions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for exchanged four-momentum squared Q > 10 GeV, using an integrated luminosity of 363pb. The beauty events were identified using electrons from semileptonic b decays with a transverse momentum 0.9 < pT < 8GeV and pseudorapidity |ηe| < 1.5. The fraction of events containing b quarks was extracted from a likelihood fit using variables sensitive to electron identification as well as to semileptonic decays. Cross sections for beauty production were measured and compared with leading-order plus parton-shower Monte Carlo predictions and with next-to-leading-order QCD calculations. The beauty contribution to the proton structure function F2 was extracted from the double-differential cross section as a function of Bjorken-x and Q.


Objective: To establish microbial limit test(MLT) for hospital topical preparations of TCM such as SanHuangGao and so on.Method: The recovery rates of hospital topical preparations of TCM were detected in treating 5 verified microbial strains respectively and microbial limit test for specified micro-organisms was validated.Result: The results of recovery test suggested that recovery rates of XiaoPengSan and YangYin ShengJiSan were higher than 70%,indicating neither drug had antimicrobial activity;ShiZhenGao,ZhiTongGao and YuHongGao had certain antimicrobial effects,but the effects can be eliminated by dilution;SanHuangGao,QingDaiGao and TieGuGao had the highest antimicrobial effects,the effects must be completely eliminated by centrifugation and membrane filtration method.Conclusion: Microbial limit tests for XiaoPengSan and YangYin ShengJiSan can be conducted with common method;ShiZhenGao,ZhiTongGao and YuHongGao with dilution method;SanHuangGao,QingDaiGao and TieGuGao with centrifugation and membrane filtration method.


Background: Patients of burn wound are generally more susceptible to infection due to concurrent status of malnutrition and immunosuppression. Among many bacteria, MRSA has appeared as a challenging pathogen irrespective of effective antibiotic therapy. Objective: The purpose of the present study was to detect the prevalence and antibiogram of MRSA in burn wound infected patients. Methodology: The present cross sectional study was conducted at Department of Microbiology in Rajshahi Medical College, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. The samples were collected from Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, for a period of one year. Phenotypic detection of MRSA were done by cefoxitin disc diffusion method and genotype (mecA gene) was detected by PCR which was conducted at Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka among all the S. aureus isolates. Result: A total of 212 wound swabs were subjected to bacteriological culture media for isolation of MRSA and other organisms. As a whole 89.62% samples yielded growth in culture of which Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the predominant pathogen (34.18%). Out of 21 S.aureus isolates, 07(33.33%) were detected as MRSA by cefoxitin resistance and presence of mecA gene. Although over 85% MRSA were resistance to ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone, but the present study could not detect any vancomycin resistant MRSA. Conclusion: The high prevalence and decreased sensitivity of MRSA to commonly used antibiotics has been observed in Burn Unit of RMCH. Therefore it is necessary to establish an antimicrobial surveillance system in hospital settings to prevent the spread of MRSA. [Bangladesh Journal of Infectious Diseases, June 2020;7(1):12-17]


Semiconductor lasers based on quantum dots may operate at di  erent transitionsknown as the ground state (GS) and the excited state (ES). We analyze an electron-hole model for simultaneous two state operation in semiconductor quantum dot laserand investigate the role of the gain factor during steady state operation.


Saltpans extraction is vital for coastal resource utilization and production management. However, it is challenging to extract saltpans, even by visual inspection, because of their spatial and spectral similarities with aquaculture ponds. Saltpans are composed of crystallization and evaporation ponds. From the whole images, existing saltpans extraction algorithms could only extract part of the saltpans, i.e., crystallization ponds. Meanwhile, evaporation ponds could not be efficiently extracted by only spectral analysis, causing the degeneration of saltpans extraction. In addition, manual intervention was required. Thus, it is essential to study the automatic saltpans extraction algorithm of the whole image. As to the abovementioned problems, this paper proposed a novel method with an amendatory saltpan index (ASI) and local spatial parallel similarity (ASI-LSPS) for extracting coastal saltpans. To highlight saltpans and aquaculture ponds in coastal water, the Hessian matrix has been exploited. Then, a new amendatory saltpans index (ASI) is proposed to extract crystallization ponds to reduce the negative influence of turbid water and dams. Finally, a new local parallel similarity criterion is proposed to extract evaporation ponds. The Landsat-8 OLI images of Tianjin and Dongying, China, have been used in experiments. Experiments have shown that ASI can reach at least 70% in intersection over union (IOU) and 78% in Kappa for extraction of crystallization in saltpans. Moreover, experiments also demonstrate that ASI-LSPS can reach at least 82% in IOU and 89% in Kappa on saltpans extraction, at least 13% and 17% better than comparing algorithms in IOU and Kappa, respectively. Furthermore, the ASI-LSPS algorithm has the advantage of automaticity in the whole imagery. Thus, this study can provide help in coastal saltpans management and scientific utilization of coastal resources.