Abstract Aim Despite the increasing trend to utilize radiation therapies for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), there is limited analysis comparing treatment outcomes of various radiation-based therapies including selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) to stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and proton beam therapy (PBT). This study aims to examine the heterogeneity of designs and outcomes in existing radiation therapy studies for the treatment of HCC. Methods A systematic review was performed to compare the radiation therapies for HCC including SBRT, PBT, and yttrium-90 (Y90) SIRT by searching through PubMed, EMBASE, Medline, and Cochrane library databases. The main outcomes analyzed were overall survival rates, median overall survival, and progression-free survival with additional analysis of baseline patient characteristics, including Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage, Child–Pugh class, and tumor size. Results Eighty-seven studies comprising 7,462 patients were included. The pooled 1-year overall survival rates for the Y90 SIRT, SBRT, and PBT groups were 57.8, 83.1, and 78.7%, respectively. The rates of Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer A, B, and C patients were 22.9, 32.2, and 42.5% in Y90 SIRT; 52.5, 20.2, and 25.1% in SBRT; and 36.3, 33.4, and 28.2% in PBT groups, respectively. The baseline intergroup differences were statistically significant (p < 0.0001). The median tumor sizes were 5.8, 3.1, and 4.5 cm in the Y90 SIRT, SBRT, and PBT groups, respectively. Conclusion In the management of HCC, there is substantial heterogeneity in studies investigating Y90 SIRT, SBRT, and PBT, with Y90 SIRT patients having worse Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer and tumor burden at baseline, which likely contributes to the observed lower survival outcome.


than structural changes in the economy through which sustainable livelihood sources may be ascertained' (p.205). However, the author has made commendable reflections on the political voices from the state that include politicians, officials, young scholars, intellectuals, activists, and student leaders. A particular chapter on encroachment, displacement, and people's entitlements at the Kaziranga National Park opens up a bold and complex conversation on conservation and national security (p.221). The concluding chapter ties the thread back to chapter 1 in summarizing many schemes introduced by the BJP for almost all the sections of the society, particularly the minorities and the backward classes. Dealing with the new political formations in the wake of the anti-CAA protests in Assam, it elaborates on how the pandemic has changed the entire narrative of people's resistance where the incumbent government turned into a saviour, culminating in its success in the 2021 elections. The chapter not only reflects the populism of BJP as strategic politics but also the embarrassing failure of the opposition in strategizing electoral campaigns. Yet, it confirms as to how politics in Assam has been reduced to propaganda politics and desperate attempts to win elections with no respect for altruism. Undoubtedly, the book offers a comprehensive understanding of the ongoing politics in Assam and will certainly be helpful for anyone following the NRC and the CAA debate in the state. However, there are four areas, which could have further been elaborated. These involve the proliferation of local media houses and online portals in Assam and its ownership and capitalist motives in shaping political narratives; the impunity of the security forces in carrying out extra-judicial killings during the CAA protests, which would also offer insights on the increasing cases of custodial deaths and fake encounters in the region; women's thoughts on the Hindutva regime or their political inclusion in the saffron party; and that of the detention centres, which draws attention to humanitarian concerns. Nevertheless, the book can be considered as not only an academic endeavour but also a major contribution for general readers and scholars across disciplinary boundaries in understanding the rise of the saffron party in India.


Now, any score that is less than 95.6 or greater than 104.4 leads to the rejection of the null hypothesis. Notice that the range of acceptable scores — which do not cause us to reject the null hypothesis — is smaller than before. In other words, we are more likely to reject the null hypothesis even when it is true. This change in the Type I error makes sense because we increased ↵ from .025 to .05. If we set ↵ = .01, then our decision criteria would be 94.8 and 105.2, and any score that is outside that range leads to the rejection of the null hypothesis. Now the Type I error rate, .01, is lower than before.


Effective removal of toxic 1,5-naphthalenedisulfonic acid (NDS) and 2-naphthalenesulfonic acid (NSA) from contaminated water still faces a challenge to date. Herein, porous MIL-101, MIL-101-NH2, and MIL-101-SO3H were systematically studied for their adsorption performances toward these toxic molecules. Upon the introduction of −NH2 groups, H-bond interaction and electrostatic interaction were enhanced, and accordingly MIL-101-NH2 can exhibit more excellent adsorption capacity (NDS, 188.1 mg g–1; NSA, 285.0 mg g–1) compared to MIL-101-SO3H, MIL-101, and some other common adsorbents. Further study indicates that MIL-101-NH2 can be easily regenerated even after three adsorption processes. This work demonstrates that MIL-101-NH2 may have large potential in naphthalenesulfonic acids removal and rational selection of organic functional groups may be critical in construction of adsorbents.


This article examines how the politics of scale affect a process of dialogue led by civil society actors over fishing conflicts taking place at the local level in South Asia. The location is the Palk Bay and the fishers are Tamils from India and Sri Lanka. An agreement over fishing rights reached between these fishers in August 2010 remains largely unimplemented, but takes centre stage for this article, which examines the negotiation processes in terms of politics of scale and highlights the various difficulties encountered. Major pitfalls in a dialogue of this sort are the failure to recognise diversity within the population(s) involved and lack of recognition of the linkages of this population with other actors at different scales or levels. In a transboundary context, national and regional identities at times override local identity and interests, thereby making locally constructed solutions difficult, if not impossible, to implement.


Duodenal leiomyoma represents a very unusual cause for acute gastrointestinal bleeding. The authors report the case of a 49-year-old male with a massive bleeding from an ulcerated duodenal leiomyoma involving the ampulla of Vater. An emergency Whipple's pancreaticoduodenectomy was carried out under suspicion of local malignancy. It is emphasized that the proper diagnosis of smooth muscle tumors is often difficult, both clinically and from the pathological point of view.


The molecule of the title compound, C16H16ClN3O3SH2O, is L-shaped being bent at the S atom; the S—N—C—C torsion angle is 132.0 (3). The central part of the molecule, C—C—N—N C, is almost linear, with the C—C—N—N and
C—N—N C torsion angles being �174.1 (2) and 176.0 (2), respectively. The dihedral angle between the p-toluenesulfonyl ring and the S—N—C—C( O) segment is 67.5 (4), while that between the two aromatic rings is 52.17 (11). In the crystal, the water H atom is involved in O—HO hydrogen bonds with asulfonamide O atom and the carbonyl O atom. The water O atom is itself
hydrogen bonded to both NH hydrogen atoms. These four hydrogen bonds lead
to the formation of corrugated sheets lying parallel to (100). There are also weak
C—HO contacts present within the sheets.
1. Chemic


This was a descriptive quantitative research aimed to determine the effect of
sharia factors, service, family, location, product, promotion and brand image.
Independent variables in this research were syariah factor, service, family,
location, product, promotion and brand image, while the dependent variable was
customer decision. The object of this research was the customers of Bank
Muamalat Indonesia in Purbalingga Branch office. This research employed 104
samples of respondent. Accidental sampling was used as the data collecting
technique while validity and reliability test, classical assumption test, multiple
regression analysis and hypothesis test were used as data analysis techniques .
The result of the analysis illustrated that all the variables simultaneously made an
effect on customer's decision, then partially sharia factor affect significantly to
customer's decision. Meanwhile, service did not have significant
effect to customer's decision. Family had significant effect to customer's decision
and location had no significant effect to customer's decision. Next, the product
also had a significant effect on customer's decisions as well as the promotion and
brand image.


Received: February 6, 2017 Published Online: February 23, 2017 Citation: US Ophthalmic Review, 2017;10(1):13–4 Corresponding Author: Marjan Farid, MD, University of California-Irvine, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, 850 Health Sciences Road, Irvine, CA 9269, US. E: email@example.com The role of secondary intraocular lens (IOL) implantation has evolved. Following advances in cataract surgery, surgical aphakia is becoming uncommon, and secondary IOL implantation is now most commonly performed as part of an IOL exchange procedure. A number of techniques and IOLs are available for secondary IOL implantation, and debate persists regarding which methods are best for eyes lacking sufficient capsular support. It is therefore important to consider specific techniques, choice of IOL, sutures, and medication regimens, in order to tailor the approach to the individual patient. In an expert interview, Marjan Farid of Gavin Herbert Eye Institute discusses the optimal use of some of the most widely used techniques.


The objective of this research is to investigate the trade-off between operating cost and environmental acceptability of commercial aircraft. This involves optimizing the aircraft design and mission to minimize operating cost while constraining exterior noise and emissions. Growth in air traffic and airport neighboring communities has resulted in increased pressure to severely penalize airlines that do not meet strict local noise and emissions requirements. As a result, environmental concerns have become potent driving forces in commercial aviation. Traditionally, aircraft have been first designed to meet performance and cost goals, and adjusted to satisfy the environmental requirements at given airports. The focus of the present study is to determine the feasibility of including noise and emissions constraints in the early design of the aircraft and mission. This paper introduces the design tool and results from a case study involving a 250-passenger airliner.


An increase in the EU population aged 65+ is inevitable due to decades of low fertility and increased life expectancy. This is widely assumed to imply an increase in future economic burden based on conventional projections that rely heavily on the age structure of the population. A new IIASA study shows however, that when more sophisticated characteristics such as education, and increasing participation in the labor market are considered, the financial challenges posed by aging populations are much less.


In this paper is proved the limit theorem for randomly indexed sequence of random processes in the case where sequences of random index and random processes are independent, also the estimation of convergence rate is obtained.


Carrier-induced ferromagnetism is investigated in a diluted ferromagnetic Kondo lattice model for several ordered impurity arrangements on square and cubic lattices, allowing for quantitative comparison with different theoretical pictures. The spin stiffness is found to be optimized with respect to hole doping concentration, exchange interaction strength, as well as spin dilution due to a competition involving magnitude of carrier spin polarization and its oscillation length scale. The ferromagnetic transition temperature determined within the spin-fluctuation theory is in good agreement with experimental values for $\rm Ga_{1-x}Mn_xAs$.


A 9-year-old spayed female dog diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma and hypertrophic osteopathy was negative for additional lesions on computed tomography of the thorax and abdomen. Resection of the affected liver lobe resulted in resolution of clinical signs. This is the first case of hypertrophic osteopathy secondary to hepatocellular carcinoma.


This study aimed at investigating the effect of using the six thinking hats method on the development of EFL female eleventh grade students' writing skill in AlMazar directorate of education during the academic year 2013/2014. Also it aimed to investigate if there was an effect for using this method due to the student's level in English Language (high, intermediate and low). The sample of the study consisted of 50 female eleventh grade students from Mu'tah Secondary School for Girls which was selected purposefully and assigned randomly into two groups; an experimental group of 24 students and a control group of 26 students. To achieve the purposes of the study, two topics were chosen from the eleventh grade textbook .The instrument of the study was designed according to the characteristics of the six thinking hats, and then it was assessed for validity and reliability. To guarantee the equivalence of the two groups, the researcher administrated a writing ability pre-test, and then the experimental group was taught using the six thinking hats, whereas the control group was taught according to the conventional method. Descriptive statistics, One Way ANOVA and Scheffe for Multiple comparisons were used to analyze the results of the study. The findings of the study indicated that there were statistically significant differences at α≤0.05 in favor of the experimental group taught according to the six thinking hats. Also it indicated that there were statistically significant differences at α≤0.05 on the post test between the students in the high and intermediate levels in comparison with the students in the low level and in favor of the students in the high and intermediate levels, which means that using the six thinking hats method was more efficient for the students in the high and intermediate levels.


A series of five new compounds has been prepared in which terpyridyl fragments are linked to hexadentate aza-crown macrocycles. Reaction of 1-aza-18-crown-6 (1,4,7,10,13-pentaoxa-16-azacyclooctadecane) and 1,10-diaza-18-crown-6 (1,4,10,13-tetraoxa-7,16-diazacyclooctadecane) with 4′-bromo-2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine afforded macrocycles L1–L3 in which the aza-crown macrocycles are linked directly to the C4′ position of the terpyridyl groups via the macrocyclic N atoms. Compounds L1 and L2 contain a single macrocycle (1-aza-18-crown-6 or 1,10-diaza-18-crown-6 respectively) attached to a terpyridyl group, whereas L3 contains two terpyridyl groups attached to either end of a central 1,10-diaza-18-crown-6-unit. Alternatively, the aza-crown macrocycles reacted with 4′-[(4-bromomethyl)phenyl]terpyridine to give L4 and L5 in which the aza-crown fragments are separated from the terpyridyl fragments by tolyl spacers: L4 contains one macrocycle attached to a terpyridyl core, whereas L5(like L3) contains two terpyridyl binding sites attached to either end of a central 1,10-diaza-18-crown-6 unit. Reaction of these with [Ru(terpy)Cl3] afforded the complexes [Ru(terpy)L1][PF6]2, [Ru(terpy)L2][PF6]2, [{Ru(terpy)}2(µ-L3)][PF6]4, [Ru(terpy)(HL4)][PF6]3 and [{Ru(terpy)}2(µ-H2L5)][PF6]6, the last two having the aliphatic amine groups of the macrocycles protonated. The crystal structure of [(terpy)Ru(L2)Na(BF4)2][PF6]·1.5Me2CO {grown by recrystallising [Ru(terpy)L2][PF6]2 from a medium containing traces of NaBF4} shows that the pendant N2O4-donor macrocyclic group contains a sodium cation co-ordinated by five of the six macrocyclic donor atoms, and two additional monodentate BF4– ligands in axial positions. Significantly, the N atom of the macrocycle which is attached to the terpyridyl fragment is sp2-hybridised with trigonal geometry, which permits the lone pair, in a pz orbital, to conjugate with the π system of the terpyridyl fragment. This macrocylic amine group is therefore a poor base and is not co-ordinated to the sodium cation. The crystal structure of [{Ru(terpy)}2(µ-H2L5)][PF6]6·2MeCN confirms that the central macrocycle is doubly protonated, with the extra protons inside the macrocyclic cavity consistent with an endocyclic disposition of lone pairs. The electrochemical and UV/VIS spectroscopic properties of the complexes were also examined: in the dinuclear complexes there is no electrochemical interaction between the remote metal centres across the saturated bridging group.


BACKGROUND Montelukast or Singulair is a leukotriene receptor antagonist that reduces inflammation and relaxes the smooth muscles. It is known to be a safe and tolerable drug; nevertheless, it might be associated with several mild to severe adverse effects, one of which is dermatomyositis. Dermatomyositis is a rare acquired autoimmune myositis of unknown cause affecting adults and children. The literature has infrequently reported the association between dermatomyositis and montelukast use. CASE SUMMARY The current study reports a case of a 48-year-old black woman with a previous history of bronchial asthma and allergic rhinosinusitis who presented with typical signs and symptoms of dermatomyositis which were confirmed by investigations. Before developing dermatomyositis, the patient was prescribed montelukast for atopy and consumed the drug for five months. After administration of prednisolone, the patient had a significant improvement and is still being followed up. CONCLUSION Even though montelukast is widely used and believed to be a safe drug for managing several conditions, the present case report highlights the possibility of adverse effects of montelukast. Therefore, future studies with advanced study designs are highly recommended to investigate the association between dermatomyositis and montelukast use. Aly MH et al. Dermatomyositis and montelukast sodium use WJD https://www.wjgnet.com 11 September 2, 2022 Volume 10 Issue 2


The invention relates to a radio module for a networked home device, the wireless standard is adapted, it being provided that to achieve different frequency bands, different modulation methods, different encryptions and the like., The radio module comprises a digital signal processing block based on a programmable computer and an analog signal processing block for controlling at least a transmitting and receiving antenna, said block for controlling at least one antenna is further configured that an active antenna matching can be carried out to the local conditions and with a coupling of the digital signal processing block with the analog signal processing block by a converter block of digital to analog - or analog-digital conversion takes place. Further, the invention relates to a household appliance, by radio module according to the invention is incorporated.


This article is an overview of scanning acoustic microscopy, which is one of the more advanced ultrasonic imaging technologies. The scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) uses ultrasound to produce enlarged images of the microscopic structures of materials. In other words, the SAM is an instrument that subjects an object to ultrasound and detects the variations of the elastic properties of the object. The elastic properties are determined by the molecular arrangement of the material, molecule size, intermolecular force or the like, and each material has its unique characteristics. Accordingly, each object reacts in its own peculiar way when subjected to ultrasonic waves. The waves received from the object can be converted into an image. Because ultrasonic waves can penetrate into an object's interior, the surface and also the interior can be visualized.

The contents of this article are as follows: First, the need in industry for this process is described. Second, the history of the development of the SAM is illustrated in brief. Third, the basic theory of ultrasonic imaging used in the SAM is depicted, as well as the basic theory of the implements used in the SAM. Furthermore, the V(z) curve method for material characterization is described. Selected images are given for a better understanding of the sections.

Keywords:

scanning acoustic microscopy (sam);
history;
principles;
acoustic lens;
contrast;
application;
modification;
quantitative data acquisition


Nitrogen penetration and persistence in soil under uncovered and covered farmyard manure heaps

After deposition of cattle manure for 308 days neither the total nitrogen nor the nitrate but onlv the ammonia content in the soil (0–70 cm) was significantly increased. During a 258 days period from autumn to spring the observed microbial oxidation of penetrated ammonia to nitrate was tardy and by no means quantitative. So leaching of nitrate was hardly to be detected during the whole period. In the soil layer 40–70 cm a maximum of 1.6 g NO3−-N/m2 was measured, which was in an equivalent range with the amounts detected by large scale investigations in agricultural soils at the same season. Therefore the manure heaps in question did not lead to an uncommon increase of nitrate in soil. The protection of the heaps against precipitation simply brought about small and only a few times significant reductions in soil Nmin content.


In this work, a new early skip mode based method is proposed to reduce computational load of the constrained one-bit transform based motion estimation approach. The early skip mode decision is given using a few operations in the proposed approach. Experimental results show that the computational complexity can be reduced by up to 30% with insignificant motion estimation accuracy performance fall.


All college students in China, English majors and non-English majors, have to learn English. Both teachers and learners have tried hard to find a good and effective way to teach and learn English in order to achieve high proficiency of English. Recitation, the traditional Chinese teaching method has been well kept in teaching language, particularly in primary school. In this paper, the writer reviews the related language learning theories and the studies of recitation and attempts to explore the positive effect of recitation, which is based on the theory of "input hypothesis" and accords with the cognitive process of human mind. Through experiment, it is found that recitation is helpful to students' writing.


This paper deals with discourse of Restorative Dentistry. Discourse analysis shows the text as part of socio-cultural practice. Such analysis requires the form, structure and organization of the text to be studied at all levels: phonological, grammatical, lexical, graphology-orthographic, and even at higher levels of text organization. Text analysis often helps us understand the content of the text, that is, the message the text carries. However, sometimes it is very important to pay attention to the parts of the text that are missing. Therefore, multifunctional view of the text is of a crucial importance.Through the analysis of discourse, we make a distinction between longer discourse sections and shorter parts. Nowadays, we witness a huge number of new inventions. A need for new terminology has appeared and consequently, the need for new terms appears all the time. As the most world wide-spread language, English has influenced many languages and Serbian is no exception. For this reason many Anglicisms have appeared in Serbian and the discourse analysis proved this. In order to perceive the terminology of Restorative Dentistry better, we have analyzed the discourse of Restorative Dentistry and the corpus is based on the book "Pulp-Dentin Biology in Restorative Dentistry." In this paper we were also interested in the translation of the corpus since this field of Dentistry, with a special discourse, has not been so


The microstructures and precipitated phases of as-extruded AZ31 magnesium alloy were studied by OM,SEM and XRD.The mechanical properties of the alloys at room temperature and high temperature were also tested.The results show that the addition of Nd results in the formation of Al2Nd and Mg12Ng phases in the matrix and the grain refinement in AZ31 alloy,and the amounts of Al2Nd and Mg12Nd phases increase with the increase of Nd addition.The mechanical properties at room temperature and high temperature are improved significantly due to the precipitation of second phases and grain refinement.The average grain size of alloy changes from 26μm without Nd to 10μm when added 0.6%Nd. The tensile strength,yield strength and elongation of as-extruded AZ31 alloy with 0.6%Nd are 325 MPa,247 MPa and 18.1%at room temperature.The tensile strength and yield strength of alloy with Nd decrease,but the elongation increases with increasing temperature.


In previous studies of the mechanical behavior of line focusing solar collectors, the reflective surface panel was modeled as a thin, initially flat, elastic plate that underwent large displacements to attain the shape of a prescribed parabolic cylinder. Attention was focused upon the stresses that developed in an adhesive layer which bonded the deformed panel to a rigid, parabolic substructure. Among the myriad possible collector designs, some possess longitudinally oriented, hollow ribs or corrugations in the substructure which interrupt the transverse continuity of the bond line between the deformed panel and the substructure. Thus, finite gaps in the adhesive are present which create regions where the panel surface becomes intermittently supported. The presence of these gaps perturbs the otherwise smooth distribution of adhesive contact stresses and it is the analytical modeling of this behavior that is the subject of the present report. In particular, attention is devoted to gaps which overlap with the edge effect zone - a region near the rim or vertex of the deformed panel where, in the absence of uniform edge loads necessary to maintain a true parabolic shape, high stresses and associated deformations occur. Significant influences of the gap size and position in the edgemore » effect zone are demonstrated and discussed.« less


Gene regulation circuits control all aspects of the life of plasmids. This review gives an overview of the current orchestration of the circuits that control plasmid replication, plasmid transfer, plasmid segregation and plasmid maintenance.


The Particle Image Velocimetry, PIV, has been implemented for the investigation of high-speed jet flows at the NASA Langley Research Center. In this approach the velocity (displacement) is found as the location of a peak in the correlation map of particle images acquired in quick succession. In the study, the technique for the correct seeding of the flow field were developed and implemented and the operational parameters influencing the accuracy of the measurement have been optimized.


The invention provides an information display method and an information display device, wherein the method comprises the following steps of: obtaining current position information and/or time information of a mobile terminal; looking up corresponding scene information in a preset feature scene mapping table according to the position information and/or time information; looking up corresponding user attention information in a preset scene attention information mapping table according to the found scene information; and outputting the display result for the user according to the user attention information. The information display method and the information display device provided by the invention can simplify the use procedure of a map, and can realize intelligent operation of the mobile terminal.


N-Aryl and N-alkenyl carbamoyl benzotriazoles were prepared in good to excellent yields from acyl azides and benzotri-azole via Curtius rearrangement, while N-alkylcarbamoyl benzotriazoles were formed from N-alkanoyl benzotriazoles and sodium azide in one pot. The carbamoyl benzotriazoles can be used as a stable isocyanate alternative, as has been demonstrated by its reaction with amines to synthesize ureas in excellent yields.


Latent structure of quantitative dermatoglyphic traits has been analysed from the population in Middle Dalmatia: islands of Brac, Hvar and Korcula, peninsula of Peljesac and Makarska coastal region. We analysed 18 variables from fingers and palms, and principal component analysis was performed. In males we extracted 5 factors for all groups except island of Korcula (6 factors). In females we extracted 4 factors for the island of Korcula, 5 factors from the island of Brac and Peljesac peninsula and 6 factors for the island of Hvar and Makarska region. The total variance in males was from 70.41 % to 75.20 % while in females from 65.85 % to 79.27%. In all population groups on the first factor all fingers and on the second factor all palmar dermatoglyphs were extracted. In other factors there is evident variability of extraction, especially in females. The analysis of variables from extracted factors might give us information about similarities and differences between the groups concerning the latent structure, and also the differences and interindividual variability in females in comparison to the males. This study provides an insight into the effects of population structure and microevolution on quantitative variation.


Based on the CFD method,3D numerical calculation was used to simulate the air-conditioning system of the engine laboratory.By comparing and analyzing the simulation results,it can find out the variation and distribution of the air temperature and air velocity.The findings are as follows:Reasonable design of the air conditioning system can make the temperature of the lab be reduced by 50 K,which provides safe and comfortable working environment for experimental personnel.The result provides a reference for other structure-like room air-conditioning system design and engineering application.


The last couple of years have proven to be very tough for the airline industry. Macroeconomic turmoil, like the September 11 attacks, consequent economic recession, the threat of terrorism and the SARS virus have all had a combined drastic effect on both volumes and values of traffic performed by the industry. Microeconomic and industry-related change, most definitively the dramatic growth of market power of low-cost carriers (LCCs), are haloing this condition of the airline environment, putting into deep crisis incumbents' traditional business models and giving life to liquidity losses, huge deficits and bankruptcies. In the U.S. market, LCCs have been a reality since the early 1970s and have been counterattacked many times, with scarce luck, by incumbent network carriers. In the European environment, instead, LCCs' attack is fresher and the ultimate answers by national carriers are still to be put into practice. The risks of inaction, however, are probably stronger than in the U.S., due to the higher fragmentation of the European industry and the State ownership of many carriers that still prevents radically invasive market reactions like mergers. After an introductory but compulsory parenthesis on the rise of low-cost phenomenon in the airline industry, this paper aims to analyze the new market scenario for the airline industry, focusing on the European context. Furthermore, the paper will analyze the main marketing tactics European carriers might adopt to cope with the huge wave of low-cost entities and survive in the current tough environment.


Introduction: Diabetes mellitus type 2 is an increasingly public health problem and it is a major cause in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Endothelial dysfunction is a key mechanism that contributes to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases and is a well-known feature of clinical diabetes. Prior studies have demonstrated an impaired nitric oxide bioavailability and a reduced endothelium-dependent vasodilation under diabetic conditions and in animal models, JNK activity has been widely described to be involved in systemic insulin resistance. Hypothesis: Our study aimed to evaluate the involvement of JNK in endothelial dysfunction, studying its potential role in altered eNOS activation and NO synthesis in diabetic patients. Methods: We measured endothelial function and JNK activity in freshly isolated endothelial cells from diabetic patients (n=38) and nondiabetic controls (n=40). Results: ECs from diabetic patients displayed impaired eNOS activation and reduced NO release after insulin and...


How does one read a rabbinic text? The answer to this question has rarely been simple; the introduction of modern literary and historical methods has only further complicated the picture. Anyone sensitive to the differences between biblical and rabbinic worship systems, to the differences between the rituals performed in the Jerusalem Temple and those found in the rabbinic synagogue, must ask where, when, and how the latter system developed. The rabbinic literature itself raises the question and proposes answers that, until the nineteenth century, were satisfying, placing the origins of statutory Jewish prayers in a mythic antiquity and thus endowing them with great authority. But as Jews entered into Western university culture, they learned to ask new questions of the texts, questions that penetrated beyond the rabbinic sacred histories to ask, "What actually happened?" With this sense of history came a skeptical approach to the information embedded in the rabbinic corpus. In the years since Leopold Zunz's first application of philological tools to determine the "real" origins of the various prayers,1 university-based scholars have struggled to determine how to read the evidence, both rabbinic and extra-rabbinic, so as to reconstruct the origins of rabbinic liturgy. The major methods and players in the development of Jewish liturgical studies were well described by Richard S. Sarason in his 1978 article "On the Use of Method in the Modern Study of Jewish Liturgy"2 and need not be repeated here. For most of the twenty years since the publication of Sarason's analysis, study of early Jewish liturgy progressed little, satisfied with and dominated by the theories with which Sarason concludes his article—those of Joseph Heinemann, whose pathbreaking application of the methods of form criticism in his Prayer in the Talmud: Forms and Patterns3 revolutionized the field in the 1960s. However, in a series of Hebrew articles beginning in 1990, Ezra Fleischer raised a serious challenge to several of the fundamental assumptions underlying Heinemann's theories and proposed an alternative understanding of the genesis of rabbinic liturgy. Because Fleischer claims to topple the fundamental principles undergirding the training of the current generation of liturgical scholars, his articles have been greeted with considerable skepticism. But precisely because Fleischer is among the leading senior scholars of Jewish liturgy, one of the few who have advanced significantly the study of piyyut (liturgical poetry) and its liturgical setting, Fleischer's claims also may not be ignored.4 Whether or not one


* Questions many key assumptions about the efficacy of NGOs and civil society in development. * Provides suggestions on how to improve NGO performance and how NGOs can better link with local Africa ...


Objective:To investigate the effect of complex Biejia Ruangan tablet (CBRT) on renal transforming growth factor-β_1 (TGF-β_1) expression in rats model with chronic renal failure(CRF).Methods:5/6 nephrectomized rats animal model was used.The rats were randomly divided into 7 groups:normal group,sham operation group,model group,Fosinopril treatment group,CBRT low,middle and high dose treatment groups.The rats were killed two months after operation.Renal tissue were examined by light microscopy and evaluated by glomerulosclerosis index(GSI) and the score of renal tubular-interstitium injury. Immunohistochemistry was applied to measure the renal expression of TGF-β_1.Results:In comparision with normal group and sham operation group,GSI,the score of renal tubular-interstitium injury and the renal expression of TGF-β_1 of model group all markedly increased (P0.05).In comparision with model group,GSI,the score of renal tubular-interstitium injury and the renal expression of TGF-β_1 of CBRT low,middle and high dose treatment groups and Fosinopril treatment group all markedly decreased (P0.05),no significant difference was detected between four treatment groups (P0.05).Conclusion:CBRT can decreased the renal expression of TGF-β_1 in rats with CRF and the renal tissue injury.And maybe CBRT improves CRF and suppresses renal fibrosis development in part via down-regulating TGF-β_1 expression.


The present study demonstrates a green process for the synthesis of spherical-shaped and stabilized silver nanoparticles Ag NPs using gamma irradiated conditions. This method has certain advantages over conventional methods since it can manage the particle size and structure and generates totally reduced and extremely pure nanoparticles free from by-products or chemical reducing agents. Silver nanoparticles composite (Ag NPs / CM) is prepared from an aqueous solution of silver nitrate, chitosan and isopropanol, at room temperature using gamma irradiation doses to induce reduction and cross-linking to formation in situ Ag NPs/ CM-chitosan-isopropanol solutions. The production and homogenous distribution of silver nanoparticles in the hydrogel matrix were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, XRD, Zeta potential and UV-Vis spectrophotometer analysis. The silver/ CM-chitosan-isopropanol matrixes possessed different gamma doses using a Co- 60 gamma source. Through the comprehensive results of IR- Ag NPs /(CM- chitosan isopropanol solutions due to antibacterial activity test, the results show the prepared Ag NPs /CM-chitosan-isopropanol could be used as an antibacterial agent. The obtained Ag nanoparticles were stable for over 3 months at room temperature. the analysis outcomes indicate that the colloidal Solution (silver nanoparticles / (CM chitosan - isopropanol)) has a promising ability to be used in antibacterial applications in the future.


T antigen, purified from KB cells infected with type 12 adenovirus, was characterized by chemical and physical methods. The immunologically active molecule had an ultraviolet-absorption spectrum characteristic of a protein, and was partially inactivated (i.e., approximately 85%) by trypsin (final concentration of 150 μg/ml). Centrifugation analyses indicated that the purified antigen was a single molecular species with an average sedimentation coefficient of 2.40S (measured by zonal centrifugation in sucrose gradients) and an S20,w of 2.58 determined by analytical centrifugation. The antigen was inactivated at temperatures above 40 C, it was stable between pH 5.7 and 8.8, and it had an isoelectric point of approximately 5.0, as determined by electrophoresis on cellulose polyacetate membranes.


We perform a multiscale wavelet analysis to gamma rays petrophysical registers of wells to identify electro-facies and electro-facies associations at different scales comparing the results with those obtained through standard geological procedures on the same registers. We then apply coherence analysis, a type of covariance cross-correlation based on the wavelet power spectra of gamma ray series of different but related wells. We show that coherence is a valuable technique to identify common features in well registers and also we show that they provide a feasible technique to associate or discriminate between wells belonging to the same or different sandstone formations. All our analysis are based on oil field pilot and our conclusions relate to actual cases in Chicontepec Formation of the Tampico-Misantla basin in Mexico.


To The Editor:

I read with interest the article "Comparison of Arthroscopic and Open Treatment of Septic Arthritis of the Wrist" (2009;91:1387-93), by Dr. Sammer and Dr. Shin. I would raise the point that the authors' statement in the opening paragraph that "open irrigation and …


The article is devoted to the concept of "law enforcement agencies" at the present stage of statehood development. The scientific and legal community still cannot decide on this definition, as this legal unit has not received legislative consolidation. The materials of the article can be useful in the scientific study of this issue, as well as in the educational process within the framework of legal areas of training.


Verity Lancaster was named BJM Student Midwife of the Year for her work developing a care pathway for Down Syndrome in the ante- and postnatal periods. Here, she discusses diagnosis


Schr\"odinger's equation serves as a fundamental component in characterizing quantum systems, wherein both quantum state tomography and Hamiltonian learning are instrumental in comprehending and interpreting quantum systems. While numerous techniques exist for carrying out state tomography and learning Hamiltonians individually, no method has been developed to combine these two aspects. In this study, we introduce a new approach that employs the attention mechanism in transformer models to effectively merge quantum state tomography and Hamiltonian learning. By carefully choosing and preparing the training data, our method integrates both tasks without altering the model's architecture, allowing the model to effectively learn the intricate relationships between quantum states and Hamiltonian. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach across various quantum systems, ranging from simple 2-qubit cases to more involved 2D antiferromagnetic Heisenberg structures. The data collection process is streamlined, as it only necessitates a one-way generation process beginning with state tomography. Furthermore, the scalability and few-shot learning capabilities of our method could potentially minimize the resources required for characterizing and optimizing quantum systems. Our research provides valuable insights into the relationship between Hamiltonian structure and quantum system behavior, fostering opportunities for additional studies on quantum systems and the advancement of quantum computation and associated technologies.


The present invention discloses a tooth holder, for the breaking teeth assembly comprising a body, a front end face of the central body having a cutter mounting hole adapted to the crushing teeth, the bottom surface of the body is arcuate surface, and the bottom surface of the lower tangential to the material conveying direction. Operation, since the lower bottom surface of the material conveying direction tangential to the arcuate surface of the body, can be effectively reduced or avoided during the extrusion operation of said apparatus and crushing teeth tooth holder assembly of the relevant parts on the material force, thereby avoiding wear between scraper conveyor beneath its associated components, and the overall structure of the tooth holder assembly is relatively simple and reliable. The present invention also discloses an application of crushing teeth of the tooth holder assembly.


Renal allograft survival is lower in African American patients compared with white patients. Interethnic differences in cyclosporine (INN, ciclosporin) pharmacokinetics in renal transplant recipients have been described but have not been well characterized. Pharmacodynamic responses to cyclosporine have not been compared among ethnic groups.


This study takes into account an extremely high price of technological search of lightguides with the given parameters for concrete operations. The described method of lightguide synthesis allows to obtain the law of a refractive index in the cross-section of a lightguide with the given power localization coefficient for a propagated wave on a fixed frequency. To test the proposed method, numerical simulation is carried out using the solution of an analysis problem for synthesized lightguides. The comparison shows that the discrepancy is not more than 0.15%. An application of such lightguides expands functional possibilities of the integrated optical elements, which can be used in various waveguide devices.


In this study, the authors examine the co-variability of surface sensible heat flux and 850 hPa temperature, and found that they are generally negatively correlated. They constructed phase diagrams which suggests that most of the strongest interactions occur in the cold sector of the weather systems, with the flux increase leading the 850 temperature increase, and hypothesized that the spatial variability in the SST is important in increasing the spatial variability of the temperature field. I think the results are interesting. Nevertheless there are a number of issues that are not well explained and should be addressed in the revision.


The 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku an Earthquake Tsunami at 14:46 JST, 11 March 2011 affected the large areas of eastern and northern part of Japan, and also caused many sea disasters against vessels moored along the terminals inside the harbor basins. However, there was a successful example of safe mooring harborage of an Aframax tanker during the tsunami. In order to investigate the tanker behavior and find out the causes to achieve the safe harborage, the authors have conducted a hearing investigation to the crews, and tried to reproduce the moored tanker behavior during the tsunami by the numerical simulation methods on ship motions and tsunami.


In this paper, concepts of fractional-order (FO) derivatives are discussed from the point of view of applications in the circuit theory. The properties of FO derivatives required for the circuit-level modelling are formulated. Potential problems related to the generalization of transmission line equations with the use of FO derivatives are presented. It is demonstrated that some of formulations of the FO derivatives have limited applicability in the circuit theory. That is, the Riemann-Liouville and Caputo derivatives with finite base point have a limited applicability whereas the Grünwald-Letnikov and Marchaud derivatives lead to reasonable results of the circuit-level modelling.


From gigabits to terabits of data transmission, Fiber optic communication is the most perfect as well as smartest choice. This sort of communication is used in the transmission of voice, video, images, and data over great distances, local area networks (LAN) or computer systems. The fiber optic communication system uses light-wave technology to transmit information over the fiber by converting electrical signals into light. Fiber optic communication has some incredible features like wide bandwidth, narrower diameter, compact size, long-distance signal transmission, low attenuation, reliability and many more. This paper analyses the fiber optic communication system, including its main advancements, and further addresses its mechanical trend towards the next era.


The basic principle of the colorimetric temperature measurement is presented.A two-CCD temperature measurement system is built based on colorimetric temperature measurement.In the system ,two CCDs are adopted to capture two different wavelengths infrared images of the temperature field, the two-CCD send the images to the personal computer to process the images,the pixels of two different wavelengths gray images are got to calculate the temperature of objective by using the principle of the colorimetric temperature measurement.Tungsten filaments are adopted as a study object to test the system,the image of the distribution of the tungsten filaments temperature field is processed and analyzed.The experimental results validate the colorimetric temperature measurement and temperature measurement system.


New classification algorithm for multi-image classification in genetic programming (GP) is introduced, which includes algorithm of centered dynamic range selection with the power value of arithmetic progression and that of centered dynamic range selection with quick-decreasing power value of arithmetic progression. In the training of the operating agent for GP multi-image classification, different sets of power values are tested to achieve a more suitable range of margin values for the improvement of the accuracy in classification. The tests show that the two approaches can be used for more accurate classification for complicated problems of multi-image classification, and work better than the algorithm of either static or dynamic range selection.


In the course of another series of experiments, it was noted that epithelial lined cavities were occasionally formed as a by-product. Realizing the possible clinical importance of this finding, we undertook a group of experiments with the hope that a practical method of producing epithelial lined tubes and sacs might be developed. METHOD The study was made on a series of twelve dogs on each of which two epithelial lined cavities were produced. Under ether anesthesia, the abdomen was shaved and washed with green soap followed by benzine and alcohol. The skin was then painted either with 5 per cent picric acid in alcohol or with 2 per cent mercurochrome-220 soluble in alcoholacetone solution. 1 The latter was found to be much more efficacious than iodine in cleansing the skin and somewhat better than the picric acid solution. A whole thickness graft was then cut, its shape depending on whether


Abstract Introduction. Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) are the most common causes of dementia in the elderly. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of brief cognitive tests investigate the diagnostic value of brief cognitive tests in differentiating vascular dementia from Alzheimer's disease. Methods. Fifteen patients with mild VaD, 15 patients with probable AD and 30 healthy controls, matched for age, education and dementia severity, were submitted to the following cognitive tests: clock drawing (free drqawing and copy), category of letter fluency, delayed recall test of figures and the EXIT 25 battery. Results. VaD patients performed worse than AD patients in category fluency (p=0.014), letter fluency (p=0.043) and CLOX 2 (p=0.023), while AD cases performed worse than VaD patients in delayed recall (p=0.013). However, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves for these tests displayed low sensitivity and specificity for the differential diagnosis between VaD and AD. Conclusions. Altough the performance of VaD and AD patients was significantly different in some cognitive tests, the value of such instruments in differentiating VaD from AD proved to be very limited.


In the low energy part of an ion accelerator, the ion beam reaches the first accelerating device through a drift tube where a residual neutral gas is present. A process of ionization takes place and secondary electrons and ions are created. We analyze the coupling between these secondary particles, the beam density and the electrical potential. In a previous article,2 we proved that a stationary Vlasov–Poisson problem with ionization source terms, which, at first sight, seems the natural model for this system, does not admit solutions. To overcome this difficulty, we propose here a heuristic model which consists of modifying the electron source term. In this new frame, we prove that the problem can be solved and we give numerical examples.


This study seeks to examine the contributions of irrigation activities in vegetable farms to cases of malaria infections in two communities in Lagos.  This is with the view that malaria has become one of the greatest menaces that causes high morbidity and mortality in most cities in Nigeria. The paper focused on strategy for irrigation management for vegetable cultivation, irrigation water quality, and sociocultural perception of community members and reported cases of malaria among farmers and non farmers. The concept of Ecosystem Approach to Human Health (ecohealth) which argues that human activities influence the state of human health and well being was adopted. 150 questionnaires were use to obtain information from farm community household. Information on irrigation management and incidences of malaria were further obtained from farmers and neighborhood clinics. In addition wells were observed and water samples were collected to determine presence of mosquito larva. Household survey was also carried out to determine malaria intervention and control strategies, and experts' knowledge was sought on the link between irrigation and mosquitoes' activities and malaria infections. Water observations and analysis shows non- presence of mosquito larva in the well water used for vegetable cultivation. The study shows that socio-cultural and behavioral factors play a key role in determing the extent of malaria infection among residents of the same community. Estimations of the proportion of variance accounted for by all variables  is 3.2% in Tejuoso and -5.6% in Alapere and size of land holding was found to have the greatest influence on irrigation activities in Alapere (r = .155) and in Tejuoso (r = .231).


A process for the production of a multilayer metallic flat gasket (1) which is provided an at least one side with a coating (3) bent plate (2), which has a thickness of 0.05 to 0.3 mm without coating, and at least one further gasket layer (4 ), and in which the flat gasket, at least one functional area is provided, which comprises a passage opening (5) and sealing devices for the through opening (5), wherein a seal means (by a trained in the bent plate and extending on the edge of the through hole fold 6) is formed, and at least one further sealing device (7) in at least one of the other gasket layers (4) is present, wherein the at least has a function area in the bent plate except the fold no further sealing devices for the through opening (5), characterized in that in the folded sheet metal (2) before it is coated, in a region outside the Weni gstens is a functional area of the seal, at least one stiffening bead (8) for stabilizing the Falzbleches (2) is molded so that the folded sheet metal (2) in coating non ...


To help the aerospace community (made by experimental, numerical, system engineers, scientists, managers, stakeholders, customers, authorities...) capitalize and share their outcomes, a digital library (DL) center will be set up, as a result of a national project called SIA (Sistema Informativo Aerospaziale). The objective of the digital library Centre is to demonstrate new ways in which, collections of documents, data and associated services, can facilitate collaboration within the aerospace community. This paper gives an overview of the key functions and how they map into the requirements of the target community. Attention is put on usability characteristics. Two forms of DL usability - interface and organizational - are tackled.


Accuracy ofevaluation functions isoneofthe critical factors incomputer gameplayers. Evaluation functions areusually constructed manually asaweighted linear combi- nation ofevaluation features thatcharacterize gamepositions. Selecting evaluation features andtuning their weights require deepknowledge ofthegameandlargely alleviates suchefforts. Inthis paper, wepropose anewfast andscalable methodto automatically generate gameposition features basedongame records tobeusedinevaluation functions. Ourmethodtreats two-class problems whichiswidely applicable tomanytypes ofgames.Evaluation features arebuilt asconjunctions ofthe simplest features representing positions. Weselect these features basedon twomeasures: frequency andconditional mutual information. Toevaluate theproposed method, weapplied itto200,000 Othello positions. Theproposed selection methodisfoundtobe effective, showing muchbetter results thanwhensimple features areused.TheNaiveBayesian classifier usingautomatically generated features showedtheaccuracy close to80% inwin/lose classification. We alsoshowthatthisgeneration methodcan beparallelized easily andcantreatlarge scale problems by converting these selection algorithms intoincremental selection algorithms.


The results of the research on selective laser melting process of the Inconel 718 superalloy powder under conditions of additive manufacturing of parts for special purposes are presented. The influence of process parameters on the quality of manufactured parts is shown. Process parameters which allow manufacturing parts with the density close to 100%, are determined. Also, the results of mechanical tests and investigation of microstructure are presented.


Let $\alpha$ be a string over $\mathbb{Z}_p$ with $p$ prime. The $j$th elementary symmetric function evaluated at $\alpha$ is denoted $T_j(\alpha)$. We study the cardinalities $S_p(n;\tau_1,\tau_2,\ldots,\tau_t)$ of the set of length $n$ strings for which $T_i(\alpha) = \tau_i$. The \emph{profile} $\langle k_0,k_1,\ldots,k_{p-1} \rangle$ of a string $\alpha$ is the sequence of frequencies with which each letter occurs. The profile of $\alpha$ determines $T_j(\alpha)$, and hence $S_p$. Let $f_n : \mathbb{Z}_{p^n}^{p-1} \mapsto\nobreak \mathbb{Z}_p^{p^n-1}$ be the map that takes $\langle k_0,k_1,\ldots,k_{p-1} \rangle \bmod {p^n}$ to $(T_1,T_2,\ldots,T_{p^n-1}) \bmod p$. We show that $f_n$ is well defined and injective and show how to efficiently determine its range. These results are used to efficiently compute $S_p(n;\tau_1,\tau_2,\ldots,\tau_t)$.


A review was made of 82 consecutive patients undergoing peripheral arterial embolectomy in the 15-year period 1948 to 1963 at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, with emphasis on the etiology and histology of the embolism. Rheumatic and arteriosclerotic heart disease comprised the most common causes. In-hospital mortality for patients with rheumatic heart disease was 25% (12 of 45), while that of patients with arteriosclerosis was 75% (23 of 31). Long-term mortality trends showed similar patterns. Aortoiliac arteriosclerosis is the most common cause of embolism of unusual origin. Careful gross and microscopic examination of an embolus may be most helpful in elucidating etiology.


Mathematical modeling of a thin layer solar kiln for drying of agricultural products is presented. Governing equations of the air temperature and air humidity ratio, material temperature and its moisture content, and the glass temperature are derived together with their initial conditions. Heat and mass transfer between the material and the air and the air and the glass cover are estimated using empirical relations for the coefficients of heat and mass transfer. The results of the calculations are analyzed to predict the effect of the following parameters on the transient performance of the kiln: rate of absorbed solar energy in the kiln, rate of air flow through the kiln, volume of the dried material, ambient temperature, and humidity ratio of the ambient air.


Acacia mangium Willd. is one of the fast-growing species that can tolerant very well of varied site conditions. It has been chosen for forest plantation in Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak. The objective of the research is to detennine the growth rate of A. mangium in Planted Forest Zone in Bintulu in tenns of diameter and height different ages as well as the mean annual increment (MAl). Data collected include diameter and height for various ages. Data analysis will also be done where the best fonnula will be used to calculate the diameter and height of the trees. The results expected in this research are the data on diameter and height as well as fonnula to be used to describe the growth rate ofA. mangium.


OF THE DISCLOSURE A process for making a catalyst for the oxidation of naphthalene to phthalic anhydride in which an organic flocculating agent is used to improve the distribution and quantity of components in the catalyst gel. The catalyst gel is atomized in the preparation of the finished catalyst at a particle speed sufficiently low to prevent the break up of gel particles into excessive fines. For example, the catalyst may be prepared by the addition of a polyacryl amide to a high solids content silica xerogel-salt (potas sium sulfate and vanadium oxide) slurry which is spray dried at an atomizer speed below 12,000 revolutions per minute and a peripheral speed below 18,800 feet per minute. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION The conversion of naphthalene to phthalic anhydride is commercially carried out in the vapor phase over a cata lytic fluid bed. Fluidization of the catalyst is maintained by the upward passage of a stream of reactant gases, such as naphthalene and air, at 0.5 to 4 feet per second, with a Suitable bed height to insure an optimum reaction time. The characteristics of the fluid bed process require de manding specifications for the composition and size of the catalytic particles. The fluidized catalysts are in finely di vided form, usually not more than 10% being coarser than 100 mesh, with the major portion being from 200 to 325 mesh, or finer. Patent application Ser. No. 288,548 sets forth in de tail several recent developments in the field of phthalic anhydride catalysts made from silica gels impregnated With vanadium pentoxide and potassium sulfate. This Copending application outlines the considerable research efforts which have been expended to provide high surface area catalysts, suitable heat transfer characteristics, main tenance of particle fluidity, attrition resistance and high activity. However, several major difficulities still existin the preparation and performance of these catalysts. In the formation of the xerogel-salt slurry the solids content must be kept low (typically 20-30%) to prevent settling and plugged lines, thus increasing the amount of slurry which must be handled. Additionally, spray-drying the slurry by atomization often has an adverse effect on particle size distribution. Moreover, the catalyst composi tion varies widely between the fine and coarse particles, which lessens the conversion of naphthalene to phthalic anhydride. The present invention is directed to overcom ing these drawbacks in prior art procedures and compo sitions. SUMMARY OF INVENTION This invention relates to an improved vanadium oxide potassium sulfate-silica base catalyst, its method of prep aration and its use in the vapor phase fluid bed catalytic Oxidation of naphthalene to phthalic anhydride. The addi tion of a flocculating agent to the silica-salt slurry results in improved handling for high solids content slurries and a more uniform composition of the catalyst particles. The 10


Presentation of Results
The field work for the Survey of Children's Dental Health was
completed in June, 1984 and in November of that year the
preliminary results,14 covering the primary aims of the survey,
were published. These showed that in the past twenty years there
had been a major decline in the prevalence of dental caries in·
children in Ireland and that this decline was greatest in children
who had been lifetime residents of communities served with
fluoridated water supplies. It was also shown that the level of
enamel fluorosis, as defined by Deans Index was very low in
Ireland, over 90 per cent having normal enamel, the remainder
showing evidence of either questionable, very mild or mild
fluorosis. Levels in fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities
were similar. In this report these initial.results are expanded and
information on the other conditions and topics covered in the
survey is presented.


This paper presents a brief history and overview of the field of artificial intelligence (AI), describes the architecture of an expert system, and discusses the logic procedures used in their development. The paper also discusses programming techniques and programming languages developed for AI. Successful applications of AI and expert systems are given, including two developed for water resources. An argument is presented for the use of AI techniques in water resources applications and the parallels between the development of AI and developments in the use of computers in water resources are made.


Aim of this study was to investigate the effect of flaxseed oil supplementation on the digestion, immunoglobulin concentration, some blood parameters, average daily gain, feed conversion and economic efficiency of suckling Friesian calves. A total of 28 newly born Friesian calves with weighing 31.42±1.9 kg were divided into two similar groups, 14 calves in each group. The first group (G1) was served as a control, while the second group (G2) was supplemented with 0.2 ml/kg LBW from flaxseed oil in suckling milk from birth up to weaning. Results showed that digestibility coefficients of DM, OM, CP, CF, EE and NFE and feeding  values as TDN and DCP as well as feed intakes as TDN and DCP were higher (P<0.05) in G2 than in G1. Blood plasma immunoglobulins concentrations were higher (P<0.05) during different suckling intervalsin G2 than in G1. Red and white blood cells count, percentages of monocytes, neutrophils and package cell volume, and haemoglobin concentration increased (P<0.01) in G2 than in G1. Percentages of basophils, eosinophils and lymphocytes were not affected by supplementation. Concentration of total protein, albumin and globulin in plasma were increased (P<0.05-P<0.01), while, albumin to globulin ratio and concentration of total lipids, creatinine and urea-N concentrations decreased (P<0.01) in G2 than in G1. Plasma glucose concentrations and AST and ALT activities were nearly similar in both groups. Live body weight, average daily gain and feed conversion improved (P<0.001) in G2 than in G1. Economic efficiency was higher (P<0.05) in G2 than in G1.
It could be concluded that flaxseed oil supplementation in milk of suckling Friesian calves (0.2 ml/kg LBW) during the suckling period improved growth performance and economic efficiencies as well as immune-response of Friesian calves without adversity effects on digestibility, haematological and biochemical parameters.


To eliminate the deficit of proteins in the diet of humans and animals, as an alternative to polymers of animal origin, modern methods and technological solutions for isolating preparations from various types of plant materials with modern physicochemical and biotechnological techniques are being developed. The most effective are the methods and processes with enzyme preparations, eliminating the destruction of the structure and composition of protein fractions of raw materials, in contrast to solutions of acids and alkalis. Protein preparations from peas and chickpeas, having a high biological value, along with polypeptides, also contain useful biologically active substances (fiber, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, etc.), the presence of which benefits human body and animals. The analysis of the state of production of leguminous crops in the country indicates that, on the existing domestic raw material base, the production of food and feed protein concentrates from pea and chickpea grain is promising to organize with the maximum preservation of biological value, composition and properties. It is also advisable to use biosynthetic processes with various types of fungal and / or bacterial enzymes, physical and physico-chemical methods of exposure to obtain safe products with high yield. In order to obtain a balanced diet of humans and animals, along with ensuring the complementarity of amino acids, it is advisable to include minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, etc., in the form of additives or by synthesis of functional ingredients from components of leguminous raw materials with selected microorganisms.


We present mid-infrared spectra of five submillimeter galaxies at z = 0.65-2.38 taken with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Four of these sources, at z ≲ 1.5, have strong PAH features and their composite spectrum is well fitted by an M82-like spectrum with an additional power-law component consistent with that expected from AGN activity. Based on comparison with local templates of the 7.7 μm PAH equivalent width and the PAH-to-infrared luminosity ratio, we conclude that these galaxies host both star formation and AGN activity, with star formation dominating the bolometric luminosity. The source at z = 2.38 displays a Mrk 231-type broad emission feature at rest frame ~8 μm that does not conform to the typical 7.7 μm/8.6 μm PAH complex in starburst galaxies, suggesting a more substantial AGN contribution.


Abstract
The relation of a neural network model of the human sentence processing mechanism to the syndrome of agrammatic aphasia is explored. The model is shown to be adequate for accounting for some recent results, and suggests further experiments. The model is submitted as evidence of the potential of Cognitive Science for generating fruitful interaction between disciplines.


A channel estimation (CE) technique that uses a postfixed pseudo-random sequence padded with zeros is investigated in this paper to extend pseudo-random-postfix orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (PRP-OFDM) communications onto mobile applications. The proposed technique takes advantage of pseudonoise (PN) sequences periodically inserted after each OFDM block within the original guard interval (GI) in conventional zero-padded OFDM (ZP-OFDM) or within the original cyclic prefix (CP) in conventional CP-OFDM. This allows accurate estimation of the channel impulse response (CIR). In addition, the proposed technique takes advantage of the null samples padded after the PN sequences for reducing inter-symbol interference (ISI) occurring with the CEs and the information detection in the conventional PRP-OFDM. The proposed technique successfully applies either (1) a least-squares (LS) CE with assistance from decision-directed (DD) data or (2) approximate LS (ALS) CE method onto PRP-OFDM-like communications for the purpose of improving CE performance on rapid time-varying channels. Computer simulations show that the proposed technique can achieve lower error probabilities in mobile environments.


Abstract Medulloblastoma (MB) is a primary central nervous system tumor and the most common malignant brain cancer among children. Neuropathologists perform microscopic inspection of histopathological tissue slides under a microscope to assess the severity of the tumor. This is a timeconsuming task and often infused with observer variability. Recently, pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNN) have shown promising results for MB subtype classification. Typically, high-resolution images are divided into smaller tiles for classification, while the size of the tiles has not been systematically evaluated. We study the impact of tile size and input strategy and classify the two major histopathological subtypes-Classic and Desmoplastic/Nodular. To this end, we use recently proposed EfficientNets and evaluate tiles with increasing size combined with various downsampling scales. Our results demonstrate using large input tiles pixels followed by intermediate downsampling and patch cropping significantly improves MB classification performance. Our top-performing method achieves the AUC-ROC value of 90.90% compared to 84.53% using the previous approach with smaller input tiles.


Pneumatic artificial muscles are potentially useful actuators for the development of tunable modulus structures. This paper details the simulation and experimental validation of a unit Delrin hexagonal cell with three pneumatic artificial muscle inclusions for the purpose of actively controlling the modulus of the cell in the horizontal or vertical directions. The complete set of analytical equations used to simulate the cell is presented, including the PAM force equations, the cell wall modulus expressions, the force balance for the fully-assembled cell in the horizontal and vertical directions, and the secant modulus method. Then, simulation is compared to experimental measurements of the cell modulus in the horizontal and vertical directions over a range of pressures up to 1302 kPa. It is shown that simulation captures the trends evident in the experimental results and that the maximum increase in cell modulus is achieved when only the set of muscles perpendicular to the direction of loading is fully pressurized. A maximum increase in cell modulus of 227% is demonstrated in the horizontal direction with a corresponding change in equilibrium cell angle of only 3.75%.


T2 ribonucleases are endoribonucleases that are found in every organism and that carry out important biological functions. In plants, T2 ribonucleases are organized into multi-gene families, and each member is thought to have a specific function. In this study, the ribonuclease activity has been analyzed in common bean seedlings during germination and it was found that the activity was very high in the testa during this process. This high activity correlated with a high level of expression of the S-like ribonuclease T2 PvRNS3. The protein encoded by this gene was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and characterized. The purified protein showed ribonuclease activity with RNA and not with DNA, confirming that PvRNS3 encodes a ribonuclease. PvRNS3 is an acidic ribonuclease with remarkable heat stability, of which activity is inhibited by Cu and Zn, as well as by ditiotreitol (DTT). PvRNS3 expression was also selectively induced in some stress situations, such as salt stress in radicles and wounded leaves. The high level of expression in the testa and high ribonuclease activity suggest an additional role for the testa in common bean germination, apart from being a protective barrier for embryos in seeds. The putative role of this ribonuclease in the extracellular space after seed hydration and release to the surrounding space to improve seedling fitness is discussed.


Hereditary sensory autonomic neuropathies (HSAN) are rare forms of chronic neuropathies in children, which lead to severe complications like foot ulcers, mutilations, fractures and deformities. We report an eight years old female who presented with nonhealing perforating ulcer over anterior sole, resorption of terminal portion of right middle finger and hyperhidrosis over back since two years of age. Deep tendon reflexes were absent in lower legs but were preserved in upper limbs. Nerve conduction studies and nerve biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of HSAN, Type I. Early diagnosis of hereditary sensory neuropathy led to significant reduction in morbidity and hence improvement in the quality of life in our patient.


The teaching of mathematics for the development of numeracy is emerging to be an important goal of recent reforms. In broad terms, numeracy involves the application of mathematical concepts and procedures in the understanding and solution of a range of problems including real-life problems. Teaching for numeracy, thus calls for skills in translating abstract concepts in mathematics into appropriate real-life contexts and developing an understanding of children's diffi culties in this area. In this study, we examined this issue by analysing knowledge of teachers as they attempted to contextualise an abstract fraction problem involving division. Data analyses showed that the participating teachers (n=4) have developed a conceptually weak schema that girds the comprehension and subsequent contextualisation of the given problem. This was evidenced by not only their failure to provide a correct real-life problem representation but also limited knowledge about how they could help students who might have diffi culty with similar problems. However, the teachers have developed a robust body of general pedagogical knowledge that was relevant to the teaching of fractions. Taken together the data suggested that their content knowledge for teaching mathematics and pedagogical content knowledge were both weak in this specifi c area of fractions.


The inherent property of gellan gum to gel and form circular beads through a process of ionotropic gelation in the presence of cations was utilized in the formulation of hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ).The prepared beads exhibited good drug entrapment efficiency, content uniformity, and sustained release potential. The gelatin-HCTZ beads could be utilized in the delivery of HCTZ, by which reduced frequency of the drug administration could be achieved.


Objective: To determine the clinical and disability characteristics of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) over age 60. Background: As the peak prevalence of MS shifts as patients with the disease age, understanding the characteristics that define this older patient population to improve management strategies in this age group is critical. Design/Methods: Demographics, MS disease history, iPad® based patient reported outcomes and neuroperformance tests were collected from 10 academic MS centers in the US and Europe utilizing the MSPATHS database (2016–2019). Results: We identified 2755 patients over age 60 from the MSPATHS database. Our cohort is characterized by: median age 66 years (IQR 63–70y), 67.2% female, 67.4% white, median disease duration of 25.0 years (IQR 15–34y). Disease course was relapsing-remitting (RR) (44.5%), with 19.9% secondary-progressive (SP), 11.7% primary-progressive (PP), and 10.1% progressive-relapsing (PR). Current disease modifying therapies were: glatiramer acetate (13.0%), interferons (8.1%), dimethyl fumarate (7.8%), teriflunomide (5.3%), fingolimod (4.3%) and none (30.1%). 37.4% of patients had a self-reported relapse in the prior 12 months, only 1.2% had a new gadolinium enhancing lesion, and 3.2% had a new T2 lesion in the prior 12 months. More RR patients lived at home without assistance (84.0%) and work full time (23.6%), compared to PP (61.2% and 15.2%) and SP (68.3% and 14.2%), respectively. The median Patient-Determined Disease Steps (PDDS) of: RR patients was 1 (IQR 0–3), PP was 5 (IQR 3–6), and SP 4 (IQR 3–6). Only 23.8% of RR required a walking aide, compared to 67.7% of PP and 65.2% of SP patients. Co-morbidities of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity appear similar among RR, PP and SP patients. Conclusions: Most patients over age 60 live at home without assistance, but a majority reports some difficulties with walking. Planned longitudinal analyses in this cohort will be helpful for management of this older population. Disclosure: Dr. Hua has received personal compensation for consulting, serving on a scientific advisory board, speaking, or other activities with Biogen, Genzyme, Novartis, EMD Serono, Genentech, Celgene and TG Therapeutics. Dr. Tian has nothing to disclose. Dr. Hersh has received personal compensation for consulting, serving on a scientific advisory board, speaking, or other activities with Biogen Idec, Novartis, Teva, Genentech, Genzyme, and EMD Serono. Dr. Hersh has received research support from Biogen Idec and PCORI.Dr. Mowry has received personal compensation in an editorial capacity for UpToDate. Dr. Mowry has received research support from Biogen, Genzyme, Teva, and Sun Pharma.Dr. Fitzgerald has nothing to disclose.


Although it is certainly true that changes in relative factor prices may well be required to identify the nature of technical progress, and although Mr. Sau' s mathematical derivation is quite appropriate in this respect, his conjecture, i. e., that "the positiveness of SKt as computed in my paper may be a reflection of factor substitution in favor of capital, rather than the capital-using nature of technical progress alone, " is not well-confirmed. As is well known, in the case of two factors of production under changing relative factor prices, the labor-saving bias of technical progress in the Hicksian sense can correspond to the


Transport is seen as being vital to the process of completing the market with the removal of customs barriers in 1992. The introduction of cabotage will allow freedom of movement for lorries bringing more danger and pollution. A Dutch survey showed that EC regulations were violated by a large proportion of drivers interviewed. Britain and France have increased their road building, and the Channel Tunnel will give road freight a significant boost. With road connections to the Tunnel to be improved there is no environmental check and no concept of sustainable levels of traffic. High speed trains have more in common with air transport than local rail or commuter rail traffic. The EC has no programme of involvement in urban traffic problems, elimination of congestion, improvement of public transport or improvement for pedestrians and cyclists. VAT (value added tax) is to be imposed on public transport in 1992. There are no clear plans to boost 'combined transport' - the use of freight wagons that can be hauled by road or rail, and no policy which would transfer freight from road to road, rail or water.


The specific properties of an atmospheric pressure plasma make it an attractive tool for the surface treatment of various materials. With this in mind, this paper presents the results of experimental investigations of a polycarbonate (PC) material surface modification using this new type of argon microwave (2.45 GHz) plasma source. The uniqueness of the new plasma source lies in the shape of the generated plasma—in contrast to other microwave plasma sources, which usually provide a plasma in the form of a flame or column, the new ones provides a plasma in the shape of a regular plasma sheet. The influence of the absorbed microwave power and the number of scans on the changes of the wettability and morphological and mechanical properties of the plasma-treated PC samples was investigated. The mechanical properties and changes in roughness of the samples were measured by the use of atomic force microscopy (AFM). The wettability of the plasma-modified samples was tested by measuring the water contact angle. In order to confirm the plasma effect, each of the above-mentioned measurements was performed before and after plasma treatment. All experimental tests were performed with an argon of flow rate up to 20 L/min and the absorbed microwave power ranged from 300 to 850 W. The results prove the capability of the new atmospheric pressure plasma type in modifying the morphological and mechanical properties of PC surfaces for industrial applications.


Crohn's disease is an idiopathic inflammatory enterocolitis characterized by chronic transmural disease. This condition can reach any segment of the digestive tract and is usually described with three main phenotypic aspects: inflammatory, stenosing and fistulizing. Described for the first time by Crohn et al.1 in 1932, digestive fistulas can accompany or complicate Crohn's disease in 20 to 40% of cases.1 They include external fistula (enterocutaneous (FEC) and anoperineal fistula) and internal fistula (enteroenteral (FEE), enterovetic (FEV) and rectovaginal (LIF)). These lesions are the most easily diagnosed whether they are symptomatic or not, and are responsible for significant morbidity. Before the introduction of biotherapies, most fistulas were treated by surgery, with a recurrence rate estimated at 34%.2–4 The aim of our work is to study the epidemiological, clinical, radiological, therapeutic and evolutionary aspects of intestinal fistulas, apart from anoperineal fistulas, during Crohn's disease and to highlight the difficulties of management of these patients.


A comparatively restricted fish assemblage, ranging from the end of the Pleistocene to the first half of the Holocene, is presented. Although the samples are not statistically significant, it appears that the peak of the fishing activities took place previous to the Azilian, when the various models and paradigms place the intensification of the harvesting of aquatic resources in earnest. In addition, the size distribution of the most common species, the sea trout (Salmo trutta trutta) hints at an occupation of the site throughout the year. The appearance of marine species that start with the Neolithic is noteworthy due to the presence of hake (Merluccius merluccius), a continental platform fish, that calls into question the value of actualistic models in order to explain distributions of certain marine species in the past.


Motivated by the nice form of the Poynting vector for the paraxial light a gauge theoretic formalism is proposed representing light by a complex massless scalar field. Angular momenta for paraxial beam and multipole radiation are derived using this approach. It is pointed out that a natural covariant generalization for the rotating system would offer an alternative formalism to rotating light beams.


A novel broadband mode-division multiplexing link based on adiabatic couplers is proposed and experimentally demonstrated with crosstalk <; -20 dB, insertion loss <; 1 dB and power penalty <; 1 dB, using Silicon integrated platform.


Reliable 135 W CW ytterbium doped fiber laser has been demonstrated with measured M/sup 2/ < 1.05. The stimulated Raman scattering imposed the major limit on the output power. No thermal distortions or damage of the fiber core was observed.


The objective of the present study was to develop and evaluate bi-layer tablets of Ketorolac tromethamine, a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug with short half-life, that are characterized by initial burst drug release in the stomach and comply with the release requirements of sustained-release products. Each of the proposed bi-layer tablets is composed of an immediate-release layer and a sustained-release layer, anticipating rapid drug release that starts in the stomach to rapidly alleviate the symptoms and continues in the intestine to maintain protracted analgesic effect. Gastro retentive Bi-Layer tablets of Ketorolac Tromethamine were prepared by using hydrophilic polymers with direct compression on floating – matrix technology and evaluated. Ketorolac tromethamine is freely soluble in water, so it is suitable to develop it as gastro retentive bi-layer tablets using hydrophilic polymers. The developed formulation is equivalent to calculated theoretical drug profile in view of its in vitro release. Immediate release layer was prepared by using dry granulation method in which ac-di sol used as a disintigrant for immediate release of drug. Sustained release layer formulated by using HPMC as release retardant, two grades of HPMC that are HPMC K4M and HPMC K100M used to get sustained release profile for 24 hr. Various trial batches are taken to get desired release profile. Ketorolac tromethamine release from the developed floating formulation followed Higuchi model and nonFickian diffusion is found to be the main mechanism of drug release. The manufacturing procedure was found to be reproducible and formulations were stable after one month of stability studies.
Keywords: FTIR; Gastro retentive bilayer; ketorolac tromethamine; in vitro release; stability; higuchi.


This paper summaries the distribution of Duzhong resources in cili county and the county party committee and the county government have formulated policies about the management and exploitage of Duzhong resources over the past years. It analyzes the problems existing in the utilization and development, and point out its measures at the present.


Military personnel are one of the occupations at high risk of developing low back pain (LBP) due to its job demands. Low back pain (LBP) is a major cause of morbidity and lost from work among military personnel. This narrative review was conducted to determine the risk factors of LBP in military personnel/recruits. Searches focusing on causal comparative and epidemiology studies using OVIDMedline, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, PubMed, and Scopus databases from year January 1950 to April 2018. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was used to select and synthesis of studies. The strongest personal risk factors identified were history of LBP (OR = 8.91, CI = 1.71 -46.5), female gender (OR: 6.59, CI 1.79 – 24.24), aerobic exercise involvement (OR = 4.39, CI 1.53- 12.57) and older age (OR 4.16). The strongest occupational risk factors identified were prolonged hours of flight per day (OR=11.3, CI 5.2 -24.8), driving in forward bending posture (OR = 3.63, CI 1.06 – 12.42), branch of services (Army; OR 2.74, CI 2.60-2.89 & Air Force; 1.98, CI 1.84 -2.14), Night training (OR = 1.8-2.0, CI 1.1 – 3.1) and whole-body vibration exposure (OR 1.94, CI 1.02 -3.69). The strongest psychosocial risk factors identified were worries (OR = 5.47, CI 1.70- 17.62), no support from others (OR = 4.0, CI 1.31 -12.34) high work stress (OR = 3.47, CI 1.31 – 12.34), depression (OR = 1.75, CI 1.08 -2.83), and psychological stress (OR 1.71). This review summarizes the personal, occupational and psychosocial risk factors associated with LBP among military personnel/ recruits. LBP risk factors differs based on the military branch of services and job scope. Primary LBP risk factor for Air Force pilots, helicopter pilots and military vehicle drivers LBP is sitting ergonomics. Primary LBP risk factor for army (i.e. combat infantry) identified are occupational physical exposure (military training, heavy lifting and carrying, patrol durations.) Further studies are required to verify if there is any interaction between personal, occupational, and psychosocial LBP risk factor categories among military personnel/recruits.


Based on the practical project of millimeter-wave system,the inner field tester control system was designed under CompactPCI bus test platform according to the requirements put forward by isolating the fault to Shop Replaceable Unit.This system can meet the need of high-speed,high performance,high reliability,high availability,standardization and modularization.The principle of the design,including components of the system and software design,were proposed on the basis of system function.Realization of key methods,such as switch operation,report management,multi-thread technology and time-out mechanism,in the test and control software were described according to the working process of inner field tester.


An ethnographic study using observation and in-depth interviewing of professionals from different organizations, intensively 'shadowed' a small number of alleged child abuse cases as they moved through the service system. A high level of inter-agency conflict was observed and common sources of conflict were: gatekeeping disputes; dispositional disputes; and domain disputes. Dynamics relating to the displacement of hostility on to other agencies in cases in which all the professionals involved felt impo-tent to protect vulnerable children, were also observed. These findings provide some fresh insights and hypotheses into the com-plexity of inter-agency interaction in the field of child protection.


Following government reforms in China during the 1980s, an increasing number of Chinese artists are now studying and working overseas, including in Australia. This research explores the impact of changing attitudes in China toward contemporary art and what this means for an emerging generation of Chinese artists working internationally. I consider how Chinese artists working outside of China today can capture their cross-cultural experience and establish a sense of identity in a changing globalised world. I explore how contemporary art can capture two different worldviews and reflect a cross-cultural dialogue between different societies. My practice-led visual arts research project, accompanied by this exegesis, addresses these considerations through my experience as a Chinese artist working in Australia.


That of carbones is a new family member in the class of low‐valent carbon compounds. Unlike its cousin, the conventional carbene, the carbone possesses two free electron lone pairs. In combination with their unique allene‐type structure, they possess stronger σ‐donating ability than conventional carbenes such as NHCs or CAACs. Because of this property, they have a huge potential to become a new class of ligands in organometallic chemistry and catalysis. Although carbodiphosphoranes (CDP) were initially discovered in 1961, nearly 50 years were needed to attract the attention of the chemical community with the synthesis of the carbodicarbene (CDC). This Concept paper summarizes developments over the last 10 years and future outlooks for this new class of σ‐donors, particularly carbodicarbenes.


The utility model discloses an anti-leak high-pressure fine water mist open-type spray head. A valve core (3) is mounted in a spray head body (1); one end of the valve core (3) is in contact with a base (2); an annular side cavity (6) is formed between an annular bulge (3-1) of the valve core (3) and the base (1); a B spring mounting slot is formed at the other end of the valve core (3); the two ends of the spring (3) are respectively mounted in an A spring mounting slot of the spray head body (1) and the B spring mounting slot of the valve core (3); and a group of holes in the valve core (3) are communicated with a water flow branch channel (1-3) of the spray head body (1) through a water flow channel (1-1). The anti-leak high-pressure fine water mist open-type spray head disclosed by the utility model has the advantages of long service life and good effect, and can realize a quick fire extinguishing effect.


The paper examines the problem of assigning available buses among bus lines under the conditions of a shortage of buses. This is frequently done by despatchers using experience and intuition, but because of the combinatorial nature of the problem, despatchers are often not able to discover the optimal solution. The authors use a dynamic programming approach to develop a model to minimize waiting time or to maximize the number of seats offered to passengers. The model offers a promising approach to help despatchers facing this problem.


When the only source of nutrition is formula, its composition and the amount administered must satisfactorily meet the patient's energy and nutritional requirements. In this sense, the aim of this research is to evaluate the effect of storage temperature and time on the chemical changes of main micro- and macro-components of a powdered milk formula; understanding these changes would make it possible to establish models for the estimation of the product's shelf life under different temperature conditions. The kinetics of the reactions researched followed a first-order model except for HMF, which was zero order. The activation energy (Arrhenius equation) was 11.220 kJ/moL for HMF, 36.957 kJ/moL for hydroperoxide and 50.536 kJ/moL for the formation of secondary products derived from lipid oxidation, 43.388 kJ/moL for loss of vitamin A, 51.960 kJ/moL for degradation of Vitamin C and 92.361 kJ/moL for the loss of protein solubility. Results showed that prevalent reactions are non- enzymatic browning, followed by lipid oxidation, loss of vitamin A and C and protein solubility. HMF could be used as a good indicator of storage conditions for enteral formulas.


Emerging markets used to be closed economies that have only recently begun opening up their markets to the world economy. In addition to multinational enterprises (MNEs) small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) from developed countries have also started to undertake international activities in emerging markets. This paper investigates whether SMEs from higher-income European countries that operate in emerging markets are different from SMEs that operate exclusively in other developed markets e.g. in terms of their firm characteristics, internationalization motives and perceived internationalization barriers. The empirical analysis uses firm-level data for 3,698 internationally active SMEs located in 19 European countries (i.e. EU-15, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).


Background/Aims : Helicobacter pylori infection is a recognized cause of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric adenocarcinoma. However, both positive and negative associations with colorectal neoplasia have been reported. The aim of this study was to determine whether H. pylori infection is associated with an increased risk of colonic neoplasia in a Korean population. Methods : We examined 1,590 subjects (1,297 men and 293 women) who underwent colonoscopy and serologic testing for IgG antibodies against H. pylori at the Health promotion Center in Kangbuk Samsung Hospital and at Samsung Medical Center. We compared the prevalence of colonic neoplasia in the seropositive subjects with that of the seronegative subjects. Results : The overall prevalence of H. pylori in our study population was 56.2%. There were no significant differences of the baseline characteristics between the two groups. There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of colonic neoplasia between the seropositive group and the seronegative group (p=0.090). Conclusions : These findings suggest that there is no significant association between H. pylori infection and colonic neoplasia. (Korean J Med 74:605-610, 2008)


A simple method was devised to estimate the temperature profile of a preheat exchanger train for anticipated new operations. The nature of the new operation was to have gas oil from a vacuum distillation tower go directly to a fluid catalytic cracker (FCC), without passing through storage. The new scheme would be implemented to conserve heat. The usual practice was to cool the gas oil to 86/sup 0/C before sending it to storage. Reheating of the gas oil was needed when the oil came from storage to be fed to the FCC. Direct transfer, omitting storage, would make the gas oil available to the FCC battery limit at 175/sup 0/C, instead of the earlier 86/sup 0/C. It was desired to estimate the intermediate stream temperatures of the FCC preheat exchanger train for the new proposed operation. A basic premise is to use existing exchangers without altering either feed or cycle oil flow rates. Yet finding exchanger outlet temperatures corresponding to new inlet conditions is a problem that usually is solved by trial-and-error methods. A quicker, simpler method is described herein.


For many years, advocates of a Scottish Parliament hoped that its eventual arrival would mark a new phase in local government: an increase in local autonomy and a redressing of the creeping centralization of the Conservative years. This article addresses the question: to what extent, if any, has there been a shift in the balance of power between centre and local government since the advent of a Scottish Parliament in 1999? It examines the pre- and post-1999 periods in this area of Scottish governance, focusing particularly on the legal/constitutional, financial and policy parameters set by the centre. It argues that continuity has been more important than change, and that reasons for the continued domination of the centre lie particularly with (a) the pervasive influence of the UK Union (b) a relative continuity in political actors and (c) the ongoing self-interest of the 'centre'.