A new type of electrichemically-driven actuator is described. This actuator uses graphiticcarbon as the electroactive materical(as opposed to the polymeric films used in previous devices of thistype) ,and it is the first example of an actuator based on a nanostructured material. The actuator con-sists of branched carbon nanotubules embedded within the pores of a microporous alumina templatemenbrane. Electrochemical Li + intercalation causes this nanotubule-containing membrane to flex, andelectrochemical de-intercalation causes the membrane to relax to its original position. The characteris-tics of this new actuator are described here.


INTRODUCTION
The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a high-fat diet (HFD) on oocyte maturation and quality in a mouse model.

METHODS
Female BALB/c mice were allocated to one of the following groups: (a) control group (n = 40), which received a controlled diet; or (b) HFD group (n = 40), which received an HFD for 12 weeks. Sections of the ovary were examined histologically. The number of follicles and corpora lutea were counted. In vitro maturation and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) were assessed in germinal vesicle (GV) and metaphase II (MII) oocytes, respectively. The expression of bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15) and leptin receptor genes in GV and MII oocytes was evaluated using reverse transcription real-time polymerase chain reactions.

RESULTS
In the HFD group, there was a decreased number of primordial and Graafian follicles, as well as corpora lutea (p < 0.05). The rate of oocyte development to the MII stage was also reduced (p < 0.001). Cumulus expansion was observed more frequently in the control group than the HFD group (p < 0.05). The IVF rate in the HFD group was lower than that in the control group (p < 0.05). In the HFD group, BMP15 and leptin receptor genes were upregulated in the GV stage (p > 0.05) and MII stage (p < 0.05), compared to the control group.

CONCLUSION
An HFD reduces folliculogenesis in the primordial and Graafian stages, in vitro maturation and in vitro fertilisation rates, as well as oocyte quality in mice.


I like to describe a bit about my background in order to give some perspective to my remarks about women in the computing workplace. During my nearly 30 years in the computing field I have worked for small, medium and large companies and have taught at two colleges. I have been "girl Friday," programmer, systems designer, manager, and for most of the past dozen years, a researcher. In addition, my personal experience has been considerably augmented by connection with many other women. In 1987, I started a small Internet mailing list for women in computing. Today, systers is a virtual community of more than 3000 technical women in the computing field in 25 countries. The membership consists of the full range of technical women, from undergraduate majors to retirees. The discussions on systers reflect the full range of the issues that women have as participants in the computing field.


Each year, more than 200,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and approximately 40,000 die from the disease.1 Nearly half of these women present with hormone receptor–positive, lymph node– negative disease, a subgroup that has increased in size due largely to routine breast cancer screening and increased awareness. Currently, the decision to treat early-stage breast cancer with adjuvant chemotherapy and hormonal therapy is based on clinical and histologic criteria including tumor size, grade, hormone receptor status, human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER-2)/neu overexpression, and the presence or absence of lymph node involvement. Patient menopausal status may affect treatment decisions due to presumed lower recurrence risk and both smaller benefit and greater toxicity with systemic chemotherapy in older women. Clinical practice guidelines recommend adjuvant chemotherapy as well as hormonal therapy for most women with hormone receptor–positive, lymph node– negative early-stage breast cancer. However, the majority of women with hormone receptor–positive lymph node–negative, breast cancer do not develop distant recurrence or death even in the absence of adjuvant chemotherapy. In addition, systemic chemotherapy is associated with both immediate and delayed toxicity, as well as considerable cost.2,3 At the same time, randomized controlled trials have shown that adjuvant chemotherapy is beneficial in some women with early-stage breast cancer, while others will develop distant metastases despite receiving chemotherapy.4 Many breast cancer patients therefore continue to be either overtreated or undertreated with adjuvant chemotherapy due to the lack of sufficiently accurate prognostic and predictive information. The availability of high-performance screening techniques using DNA microarrays has permitted analysis of gene expression patterns and study of their relationship to the risk of disease recurrence as well as treatment effectiveness, in an effort to guide clinicians in their daily decisions on the use of systemic adjuvant therapy.


The workshop report entitled, Emerging Research Questions for Limnology: The Study of Inland Waters, is available on the ASLO website (http://aslo.org/announce/ limnologyworkshop.html) or from the ASLO Business Office. Although the workshop did not deal with all the disciplines encompassed within limnology, it was encouraging that NSF is showing interest in supporting exciting new research challenges in limnology, particularly interdisciplinary studies. An important outcome of the workshop and subsequent meetings was that we gained a better awareness of the diversity of programs at NSF that support research on fresh waters. The NSF website has information on both the core programs and for special research opportunities. For example, the Geosciences' Hydrologic Sciences Program now includes geolimnology as a topic area and the Engineering Directorate's Division of Bioengineering and Environmental Systems considers projects that focus on the engineering aspects of limnological research. The Biological Sciences Directorate's Long Term Ecological Research (LTER), Ecosystems Studies, Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research, and Ecology and Population Biology Programs continue to support limnological research, as does the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. There are special competitions in the Geosciences Directorate in water cycle research, integrated carbon cycle research, and biogeosciences. Additionally, crosscutting programs such as information technology, nanoscale science and engineering, and biocomplexity in the environment, are potential funding sources for limnological research. By all accounts the workshop was successful in demonstrating to the Geosciences Division of NSF that limnology is a vibrant field with much to contribute to the understanding of fresh waters in ways that relate to the geosciences. The addition of limnologists to programs dealing with larger-scale water-cycle issues that have been dominated by hydrologists will likely lead to important increases in scientific understanding and management approaches for inland waters.


We analyze the universal properties of a new two-dimensional quantum gravity model defined in terms of locally causal dynamical triangulations. Measuring the Hausdorff and spectral dimensions of the dynamical geometrical ensemble, we find numerical evidence that the continuum limit of the model lies in a new universality class of two-dimensional quantum gravity theories, inequivalent to both Euclidean and causal dynamical triangulations. The presence of significant finite-size effects, which are present even at the largest volumes investigated, prevents us from reaching a more definite conclusion.


We will use this guide during our 1 hour workshop to identify strategies for teaching young students information literacy and to find helpful print, multimedia and online resources to support inquiry in the P/J classroom. Small group work investigation of NoveList Plus features


A flight dynamics simulation with reduced-order aeroelastic effects derived with Lagrangian and Eulerian dynamics approaches is developed and optimized to predict the behavior of inflatable flexible structures in small UAVs. The model also includes compensation for large buoyancy ratios and an investigation of the effects on different modes of forward flight. Existing literature documents the similarity in structural dynamics of rigid beams and inflatable beams before wrinkling. Thus, wing bending and torsional modes are approximated with the geometrically exact intrinsic beam equations using NATASHA (Nonlinear Aeroelastic Trim And Stability for HALE Aircraft) code. Some brief discussion also includes unique behaviors such as the onset of failure in the wing. An experimental glider platform is designed and flight tested. Data logged from these tests are used to support simulation model data. These results may later be used to specify recommended limits on flight maneuvers for inflatable UAVs.


Olfactory‐specific quality of life (QOL) can be measured using the Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders–Negative Statements (QOD‐NS), which examines various aspects of olfactory dysfunction. It is unknown if certain factors of the QOD‐NS differentially impact QOL.


The standard hierarchy theory (SHT) of the fractional quantum Hall effect is generalized. We find that for each hierarchy state of the SHT, one can build two kinds of daughter states. The first one belongs to the next hierarchy class of the SHT, while the second one, which is stabilized by the condensation of paired quasiparticles (or quasiholes), can give rise to even-denominator states. The even-denominator states constructed in this way are incompressible but deformable, and thus able to explain the experimental results. Charges carried by excitations of this kind of states are unusual. Two new even-denominator states are predicted, which could be used to test the theory experimentally.


502 Multisite quality improvement (QI) initiatives involving practices such as community health centers, academic practices, and managed care groups, often known as collaboratives, have been the subject of numerous reports. The participating teams use a combination of shared and individualized initiatives to improve previously identified areas of care quality. Through a series of iterative change cycles, specific care processes are redesigned and tested to see if quality of care is improved, ideally without increasing costs to the practice. Common among these collaborative efforts has been the sharing of previously developed processes, new ideas or strategies, and outcome data. Evaluation of collaboratives' successes has generally relied on shortand intermediate-term clinical process and outcome measures, with varied results. The overarching goals of QI collaboratives are (1) to improve care processes and outcomes, and (2) to create an infrastructure that will sustain these improvements. Nevertheless, the ability of collaboratives to create a sustaining infrastructure is seldom considered in published reports. Sustaining improvements in care quality has important implications for patients and health care delivery systems, yet relatively little is known about the processes required to sustain these QI initiatives after the initial project, and frequently its funding, has ended. QI outcomes may not always be sustained or disseminated following the initial period of support. Neily and colleagues found that leadership, teamwork, and skills acquisition during a QI collaborative on inpatient falls and injury prevention were important correlates of sustaining QI processes one year later. Nease et al. reported that use of a depression screening instrument in primary care practices extended beyond the initial QI process but provided little information on the correlates that may be associated with sustaining practice changes. In the current study, we sought to better understand and describe the characteristics and/or activities of primary care practices that are associated with sustaining QI initiatives. Our work in this area draws on our participation and leadership in Article-at-a-Glance


Collaborative systems available on the Web allow millions of users to share information through a growing collection of tools and platforms such as wikipatforms, blogs, and shared forums. With abundant information resources on the Internet such as Wikipedia or the Freebase, we study the connections between two proper nouns. Nevertheless, the problem is a challenging search problem, as information on the Internet is undoubtedly large and full of irrelevant information. In this project, we first parse and mine the entire Freebase database in order to extract the relevant information of proper nouns. Further we apply Ant Colony Optimization method for finding the path that connects two proper nouns together.


In electrostatic force microscopy (EFM), a conductive atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip is electrically biased against a grounded sample and electrostatic forces are investigated. This methodology has been broadly used in the scientific community to characterize dielectric properties of samples at the nanoscale. Two are the main operating conditions associated with this technique. The oscillation amplitude is usually kept to very small values to allow a linearized approach to the force reconstruction and the tip-sample distance is maintained elevated. However, this latter condition negatively affects the lateral resolution of the technique. Thus, electrostatic interaction should be probed in the vicinity of the sample. Theoretically, in this region the force can be linearized using oscillation amplitudes in the order of A. This might cause the trapping of the tip on the surface (snap-in). Furthermore, at small distances, short-range forces (i.e. Van� der� Waals')� might� reach� values� comparable� to� electrostatic� forces.� Here we present a framework that combines EFM and dynamic amplitude modulation AFM to achieve decoupled reconstruction of forces. It permits reconstructing the real shape of the electrostatic force and the capacitance of the tip-sample system even in the vicinity of the surface. This is done using a technique proposed in literature by Sader and Katan to reconstruct the force without the linearization approximation. The steps needed to decouple short-range and electrostatic forces are explained in detail. This data can be employed to derive the electrical properties of thin films with enhanced lateral resolution with respect to the commonly used EFM techniques.


With the rapid growth of internet usage, authorship authentication of online messages became challenging research topic in the last decades. In this paper, we used a team of support vector machines to authenticate 5 Twitter authors' messages. SVM is one of the commonly used and strong classification algorithms in authorship attribution problems. SVM maps the linearly non separable input data to a higher dimensional space by a hyperplane via radial base functions. Firstly using the training data, 10 hyperplanes that separate pair wise five authors training data are built. Then the expertise of these SVMs combined to classify the testing data into five classes. 20 tweets with 16 features from each author were used for evaluation. In spite of the randomly choice of the features, one of the author accuracy around 75% is achieved.


Process for the manufacture of curved workpieces, in which an extruded profile leaves the die (1) of an extruder in the direction of extrusion outlet and subsequently, by the effect of external forces bends in a curvature, characterized in that, the extruded profile leaving the die (1), before bending, is deflected so that the direction of extrusion exit (a) runs obliquely forward opposite the rear curvature of the workpiece.


The writer was invited to represent the New York Botanical Garden at a meeting of plant pathologists and Connecticut farm bureau agents, held during the week beginning August I8 at New Haven, Storrs, and elsewhere, for the discussion of some of the most important problems now confronting the Connecticut farmers, fruit growers, and truck gardeners. About twenty botanists, mostly from New England and New York, were present; while several hundred other persons were in attendance at special meetings. The evenings were devoted to brief papers and discussions; the mornings and afternoons to automobile tours through the plantations between New Haven, Hartford, and Storrs. A distance of three hundred miles was covered in these tours, during which time the weather was most delightful. The meeting on Monday evening at the Graduates Club of New Haven, presided over by Dr. E. H. Jenkins, was devoted to a variety of general subjects, such as "Plant Pathology and the College Course," "Closer Relations between France and America," "Entomology and Pathology," "Tropical Forestry," "The Botanical Garden and the Pathologist," and "Reminiscences of Dr. Farlow."


Wireless devices and networks provide practical, cost-effective access to online information and to voice communications for many people. Bluetooth technology, which was originally developed in the 1990s, is the foundation for wireless personal area networks (WPANs), also referred to as ad hoc or peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Bluetooth technology has been integrated into many types of business and consumer devices, such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptops, automobiles, printers, and headsets.


Based on the delay analysis of optical burst switching networks, a pipeline scheme is proposed to support real-time traffic. Some pipelines are established between edge nodes and core nodes. When the burst control packets of the real-time traffic pass through the core nodes of a pipeline, they are not need to be processed. This is to say the process time equals to zero. This can helps to decrease the offset time and network delay. And it can decrease the number of the burst control packets processed by core nodes, and reduce the complexity of core nodes. Simulation results show that the pipeline scheme can effectively reduce the end to end delay of the real-time traffic.


In the 20th century, Mankind witnessed a phenomenon without precedent in the annals of Enlightened Europe: the influx of thousands of stateless persons and refugees who fled their native lands in search of protection, of thousands of human beings who had become superfluous. In these pages, we will try to demonstrate the superfluous character that refugees continue to have and how certain political and administrative measures taken during the last century persist to this day: the holding in quarantine of individuals in detention centers, the growth of the border security industry and in situ protection


During its eight years of operations, the ICC (or the "Court") has shown a remarkable resilience to administer justice in the face of U.S. pressure. But with the Obama administration's recent pledge to work with the Court, the ICC now faces its most challenging task: administering international justice efficiently in the states it is currently operating. Few expected that the ICC's task of investigating and prosecuting the most serious international crimes would be easy; political instability at the domestic level, however, has made this task increasingly difficult to carry out. Many international officials, for instance, have criticized the ICC for obstructing peace talks, especially in Uganda and the Sudan. Meanwhile, officials in these states have either condemned the Court's activities (Sudan), or pressured it to drop its indictments (Uganda). Sudan's condemnation of the ICC should come as little surprise here, since the ICC has already indicted its leader, Omar al-Bashir. But Ugandan leaders' insistence that the ICC drop its arrest warrants (in exchange for trying these indicted criminals at a national war crimes court) remains troubling, since these officials have sought to tie their demands to the peace settlement between the state and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).


As is well known, the skeletal muscle is composed of regularly arranged assembly "of two kinds of filaments, the thin and thick filaments, arranged in a parallel way. A cross-bridge having a two-headed structure projects from each myosin molecule (the subunit of the thick filament) to actin molecules (the subunits of the thin filament). On each head there is an ATPreacting site. A weak enzymatic activity of ATP degradation to ADP of the myosin head is very much enhanced by actin. This actomyosin-ATPase activity is tightly coupled with direct conversion ~f the excess energy of ATP to the mechanical energy of the sliding motion between the two kinds of filament, which is observed as muscular contraction at macroscopic level. During contraction the cross-bridge repeats the elementary cycle of A TP binding and a subsequent degradation of ATP to ADP on the thin filament. We have pointed outll •2> that the interaction between a doss-bridge and thin filament during muscular contraction can be well expressed in terms of a "hydrodynamic interaction"; with a minor modification our equations of motion might be reproduced as du;,/dt-::::. [..l.(u0 -ut) -rut


The glycerol part of E.coli phospholipid was specifically deuterated by supplying 2H5-glycerol in growth media of glycerol-requiring auxotroph. The 2H-spectra of cardiolipin were obtained for dispersion of the purified deuterated cardiolipin mixed with non-deuterated other components. The structure of the whole polar region of cardiolipin in the lipid bilayer appeared to be dynamically symmetric, and quite rigid.


Lightning strikes are one of the most frequent cause of overhead line outages. To reduce backflashover rate of critical lines special lightning protection system must be applied. In this paper application of line arresters and underbuilt wire on 110 kV and 220 kV overhead transmission line are analyzed. Efficiencies of applied lightning protection systems are estimated through the numerical calculations performed in the EMTP-ATP software. It is concluded that both line arresters and underbuilt wire can provide high level of line lightning protection. Installation of underbuilt wire at overhead line provide better lightning protection efficiency than installation of one line arrester per tower, except in case when tower footing grounding resistance is extremely high.


A pair of polynomial matrices, P(s) and Q(s) , is defined to be "externally skew prime" if and only if a solution, M(s), N(s) , to the polynomial matrix equation P(s)M(s)+N(s)Q(s)=I exists. It is shown that P(s) and Q(s) are externally skew prime if and only if Q(s)P(s)= \bar{P}(s)R(s) with Q(s) and \bar{P}(s) relatively left prime and P(s) and R(s) relatively right prime. This observation implies a new constructive procedure for determining M(s) and N(s) where P(s) and Q(s) are found to be externally skew prime and P(s) is nonsingular. A new procedure for obtaining solutions to the more general polynomial matrix equation, P(s)M(s)+N(s)Q(s)= V(s) , based on the notion of skew-prime polynomial matrices is also presented. A characterization of all solutions when V(s)= I is also given, under appropriate assumptions, and then employed to determine a unique solution to this polynomial matrix equation.


Objective: This study aimed at assessing the visual outcome of patients that had corneal laceration repair with their influencing factors in order to reduce the significant consequential vision loss in the patients. Design: A cross sectional study. Subjects: All patients who had open globe injury and corneal repair procedures. Methods: Clinic and theatre records of all patients who had open globe injury and corneal repair procedures between January 2015 and July 2017 were retrieved. Demographic characteristics, main eye complaints, duration of symptoms, laterality, presenting visual acuity, corneal repair procedures and six weeks post operative visual acuity were obtained from the records. All patients who had open globe injury but had primary Enucleation or Evisceration were excluded from the study. Data obtained were recorded and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Results: Forty patients had corneal repair procedure constituting 22.2% of all ophthalmic procedures. There were 30 (75.0%) males and 10(25.0%) females. At the oculoplastic clinic, majority of the patients 33 (82.5%) presented with monocular blindness (VA<3/60) while, only the dependent group of patients 5 (12.5%) presented with normal visual acuity ≥6/18. There was 10% improvement in vision after corneal repair procedure. There was positive correlation between pre-operative visual acuity and post-operative visual acuity. Conclusion: Corneal laceration injury has a relatively high incidence with a 10% improvement in vision after corneal repair procedure. Timely presentation, prompt clinical assessment and early intervention when non-avoidable ocular injury occurs remain the key to a good functional post-operative vision.


Reinforcement Learning (RL) [10] is the branch of Machine Learning focused on decision making. The theoretical framework used to represent the typical learning scenario is the Markov Decision Process (MDP) [8]. An MDP is a stochastic control process that allows to model situations in which an agent has access to a set of observable features, can choose what to do from a set of actions, and receives rewards in the measure of how well it is doing a certain task. The agent acts following a policy π(·|s) that specifies the probability distribution over the possible actions given that the agent is in state s. In the classical application, the goal is to find the optimal policy π∗, i.e. the one that gives the agent the greatest expected sum of future rewards. To find this policy, the agent can search inside a space of functions called policy space and indicated with ΠΘ. The policy space is defined by the set of observable features the agent has access to, that represent its perception of the environment and of itself. The size of this space is an index of the learning capabilities of the agent: the greater it is, the more complex behaviours it will be able to show. In fact a particular policy depends on a linear or nonlinear combination of these features specified by a vector of parameters θ ∈ Θ. In general the policy space of an agent may not be known, and its inference can be interesting in many situations. A common problem in the RL literature is Imitation Learning, the task of learning through the observation of the behaviour of an expert. This method allows a faster convergence to an optimal solution and can be tackled with two different methods: Behavioural Cloning (BC) and Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL). The first tries to directly reproduce the policy used in the observed interactions with the environment, while the latter aims at understanding the reward function used by the expert. Both these approaches however usually require a representation of the policy space of the observed agent to work properly, hence the importance of its identification. Another motivation to support the importance of this topic is related to the choice of the environment in which to put a learning agent. In fact, it is often possible to choose a specific environment in a learning experiment, and knowing the policy space of the agent offers the possibility of choosing the right level of difficulty for its specific capabilities. The problem of identifying the policy space of an agent is not trivial. Since this space depends on the features the agent has access to, a possible approach could consist in their detection. Having access to a greater set of features, we may find out which ones are necessary to explain the behaviour of the agent. However in the classical framework with a fixed environment, many observable state features might be useless to the agent in the definition of the optimal policy, and hence undistinguishable from the ones that are not actually perceived. To solve this issue we would need to put the agent into different environments, so to solicit the use of the features which we are uncertain about. Configurable Markov Decision Processes (Conf-MDPs) [3] are an extension of MDPs that add the possibility to configure the environment, and hence can be used to distinguish observable features from useless ones. For example, in the task of driving a car it is possible to change how the car reacts to the agent's actions, such as increasing the maximum speed, e.g. to discover if an agent can perceive obstacles at higher speeds. We can imagine the presence of a supervisor modifying the probability distributions that define the model's dynamics or


INTRODUCTION The penetration of interactive technology in everyday life fundamentally challenges the way we understand and design for human-computer interaction. As computer systems change from being very specific tools for work to computational things present as just ordinary everyday things, the meaning of human-computer interaction also changes as exemplified by the interactive pillow Johan Redström refers to in his article in this issue: Interactive Pillow is a reinterpretation of what it means to hug a pillow when longing for someone, and a transformation of this act into an act of communication . .. These pillows come in pairs that are wirelessly connected to each other (through the Internet), and when one of them is hugged, the other will light up. We are dealing with new devices and new qualities of use which are not necessarily related to efficiency but rather related to emotional qualities, to ex-periential qualities, and to aesthetic qualities as illustrated by the case of the pillow. New conferences and workshops that explore various aspects of the consequences of the integration of computing into everyday life are emerging. New terms are entering the HCI vocabulary such as emotion, pleasure, experience, expression, and indeed aesthetics. Work by Dunne, Gaver, Raby and others at The Royal College of Art in London and the work on tangible media at the MIT Media Lab are examples of pioneering work in this area that has been particularly influential—not to forget the importance of the work on ubiquitous computing done by Weiser and others at Xerox PARC. Aesthetics is increasingly viewed as a key issue with respect to interactive technology and we see this as a useful reference for digging into the new land of HCI. To some extent, it is a perspective and an area of research and development that has been hidden or forgotten for a rather long time. There are many reasons for this but an important one is the distinction between HCI as empirical science and HCI as design practice. There is often a gap between interaction design as a subject in the design schools and computer-human interaction as a behavioral science. Expressing functionality in the process of designing necessarily involves aesthetic considerations, whereas aesthetic experience is but one possible aspect of human-computer-interaction we might study. Another aspect is the distance we have to walk between both of these places and the engineering schools hosting computer science where HCI sometimes …


ents, preservation high-speed railway vehicle stability amic is modeled using a 38-DOF includes the lon entioned axes. A heuristic nonlinear creep model a . Stable vibrations and corresponding limit cycle beh lyses are performed. These analyses are carried out f ealed that the longitudinal displacement does not aff s by increasing the wheel conicity or decreasing the ra linear Creep Model, Critical Hunting Speed, Numerical Simula


Despite the development of codes for the electromagnetic wave propagation based on a numerical solution of the complete system of Maxwell's equations, asymptotic methods describing wave fields in smoothly inhomogeneous media with complex dielectric response still remain the main instrument of interpretation and optimization of experiments on microwave heating and current drive in magnetic confinement systems, in problems of signal generation in the Earth ionosphere and many other fields of physics and astrophysics. The main and most studied asymptotic approach is based on calculating the geometric-optics ray and absorption along them [1]. However, geometric optics can only qualitatively describe wave propagation and diffraction of the beam in more complex media with strong spatial dispersion and absorption, like, the vicinity of the electron cyclotron resonance in warm plasmas. The quasi-optical approach is a more accurate asymptotic method, which reduce Maxwell's equations to the evolution equation for the smooth envelope of the wave beam. Such a description allows one to consistently take into account the media anisotropy, spatial inhomogeneity, dispersion, and resonance dissipation within the framework of a unified approach [2]. Its generalization to the case of anisotropic and gyrotropic media with spatial dispersion and dissipation [3] was used to simulate the propagation of quasi-optical wave beams in tokamaks and showed much higher accuracy for resonance absorption in comparison to the previously used approaches [4]. In this paper, we discuss the further generalization of the quasi-optical approach [5] and the features of its application in media of a special kind. A quasi-optical equation [3] is the equation for the scalar complex amplitude U of the wave beam corresponding to selected electromagnetic mode in smoothly inhomogeneous media ( ) ( ) [ ] 0. ˆ , = r U H p r (1)


Reposting is the basic and key behavior for information diffusion in online social networks. It would be beneficial to understand the influence factors of reposting behavior and predict future reposting status, which could be practically applied in breaking news detection, marketing, social media researches and so on. Existing reposting analytics and prediction approaches mainly focus on factors related to the original information content and the social influence of the information publishers. However, online information diffuses by viral cascades instead of single-source broadcast in social network, which means some reposting behavior actually occurs in information propagators rather than the original publishers. In some social networks, users are allowed to comment when they repost, which represents their views and attitudes to the information they propagate. In this paper, we evaluate how emotional tendencies of information propagators influence future reposting. We first propose a modified sentiment analysis method and present emotional analysis on the user-generated content in online diffusion. Experiments are conducted with a real-world dataset and the results indicate the effectiveness of our finegrained emotional features in reposting prediction.


In attempts to analyze gene expression changes in plants infected with pathogens and treated with abiotic stresses, the Arabidopsis transcriptome response to dehydration and the plant parasitic nematode, Heterodera schachtii, was performed using microarray.4 In addition, analysis of the transcript profiles on Arabidopsis plants treated with flagellin, cold, heat, high light and salt did not only detect single stress responses, but also the shared responses between combinations of biotic and abiotic stresses.5 Recently, two reports on the transcriptome and co-expression network analyses after infection with Botrytis cinerea and treatments with cold, heat, drought, salinity, osmotic and oxidative stresses individually and in combination, identified potential regulatory genes in response to environmental stress.6,7 In the latter studies, the combinations of the expression of B. cinerea‐upregulated genes (BUGs) and B. cinerea‐downregulated genes (BDGs) with each of the six classes of environmental stresses were analyzed. It was found that 2.5%, 6%, 12%, 19%, 25% or 41% of the BUGs were also induced by heat, drought, oxidative stress, salinity, cold or osmotic stress, respectively. On the other hand, the percentage of co‐downregulated genes between B. cinerea and the same abiotic stresses were 7.6% heat, 6.8% drought, 5.5%, oxidative stress, 18.9% salinity, 33% cold and 47.8% osmotic stress. Overall, there were only 0.2% of the BUGs showed common induction and 1.1% of the BDGs showed common repressions with all six abiotic stress treatments.


Determination of the directional wave spectrum which offshore structures actually encounter is essential for multiple applications including wave-induced load and vibration evaluation, and hence becomes a fundamental task in ocean engineering. Due to the wave diffraction effect, wave field around an offshore structure is the mixture of incident wave components and diffracted wave components. Estimating directional wave spectrum in diffracted wave field significantly differs from the occasion in undisturbed waves since the amplitude and phase relationship between the incident and diffracted waves are coupled, and therefore making the conventional approach not applicable. In this study, the diffraction wave theory is introduced into the estimation of directional wave spectrum to consider the effect of diffracted waves using array pressure data from existing pressure gauges on structures. Considering the performance of the presented approach under scenarios with various gauge arrays, different directions, and spreading coefficients, multiple levels of background noise are evaluated and discussed, respectively. The presented approach is also deployed into an in-situ measurement application on a marine structure and compared with wave observation data to test its feasibility in engineering practice. In general, the presented approach can reasonably estimate the directional wave spectrum and show advantages over the conventional approach in which the diffraction effect is excluded.


Article type: Original Article Background: Among different mechanisms, oxidative stress has a possible role in neural injury in cerebrovascular events. Objectives: Assessment the oxidants-antioxidants imbalance in ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. Materials and Methods: Serum level of malondialdehyde, the main marker of lipid peroxidation, and total antioxidant capacity were measured in a group of 48 stroke patients consisting of 24 ischemic and 24 hemorrhagic cases with confirmed diagnosis by brain CT scan. Lesion volume and modified National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) in ischemic stroke, as well as location and volume of hematoma in hemorrhagic stroke based on the first brain CT scan were determined as study variables. Results: These two major groups did not have different oxidative profile. Low levels of total antioxidant capacity and high levels of malondialdehyde were associated with higher lesion volume in hemorrhagic stroke patients. Conclusions: This data suggested that oxidative stress is associated with lesion volume and therefore severity of hemorrhagic stroke.


TRIM28 is a well-known transcriptional co-repressor of Kruppel-associated box zinc finger proteins. The authors previously demonstrated that TRIM28 small interfering (si)RNA decreases cell proliferation and inhibits cell cycle progression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines. The present study further demonstrated that the stable silencing of TRIM28 expression by a specific siRNA lentivirus vector significantly inhibited the growth and exerted obvious anti-tumor effects in nude mice. The results of the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick-end labeling assay indicated that TRIM28 knockdown increased apoptosis. Furthermore, TRIM28 knockdown decreased the expression of B cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2 and increased the expression of Bcl-2 associated X, apoptosis regulator and p53 at the gene and protein levels. Auto-antibodies to TRIM28 were present in 12.32% of the sera of the patients with NSCLC. The results suggest that TRIM28 knockdown may be effective against NSCLC, and TRIM28 antibodies have the potential to act as novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools.


Most of weak foundation of Guangdong Province lies near the rivers. During the construction of higher level highway, high embankment is respectable because of the channels. That will result in large settlement and lateral displacement, which affecting the speed, comfort and safety. The treatment methods include: displacement, consolidation, geosynthetics, etc. These methods are economic, safe, and can get satisfactory result.


A fiber optic adapter block is disclosed. The fiber optic adapter block includes at least three fiber optic adapters provided in a stacked arrangement extending widthwise in a longitudinal direction, wherein every other adapter of the at least three fiber optic adapters is staggered in a front to back direction with respect to an adjacent adapter such that front ends of the every other adapter of the at least three fiber optic adapters are aligned at a first depth and a front end of the adjacent adapter is at a second depth that is different from the first depth.


An issue with standard autoencoders (AEs) and variational autoencoders (VAEs) is that the latent space fails to capture local information in the input image. Capturing local information is important for distinguishing brain regions in T1 weighted MRI imaging. One method proposed in the past to address this is the vector quantized VAE (VQVAE), which uses a codebook to transform the encoder output into a discrete latent space through clustering. We find that while the VQVAE improves with K Means initialization (SSIM: 0.73), a self-organized map VAE (SOMVAE), which maps each voxel onto a 2D grid is better able to preserve topological features of the image and achieve better reconstruction (SSIM: 0.82). We also test a recently invented probabilistic SOMVAE (PSOMVAE) which assigns a probability distribution over the whole grid for each voxel. In the end, while the PSOMVAE achieves best reconstruction performance (SSIM: 0.93) it results in an overly smooth SOM codebook that lies far from the encoder output. On the other hand, with SOMVAE, despite worse reconstruction, we were able to successfully embed closer brain regions onto closer nodes in the SOM grid.


Examining labour market developments in Brazil, the fastest growing economy in Latin America over the twenty years through 1985, means dealing with the impact and interactions of policies in a multifacetted country the size of a continent, harboring very large differences in population densities and income levels. However, as the title of the paper already implies, no attempt is made to do justice to all the manifold issues engendered within such a complex economy . The paper is thus limited to focussing on macroeconomic and sectoral labour market developments - be they on the demand or supply side of labour/human capital - and in this context on the impact of policies within the formal sector. The basic thrust of the evidence presented thereby is aimed at determining to what extent labour market policies in Brazil (especially as they impacted on the manufacturing industry) allowed labour to be efficiently employed.


Uncertainty over the data quality of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is the largest barrier to the use of this data source by National Mapping Agencies (NMAs) and other government bodies. A considerable body of literature exists that has examined the quality of VGI as well as proposed methods for quality assessment. The purpose of this chapter is to review current data quality indicators for geographic information as part of the ISO 19157 (2013) standard and how these have been used to evaluate the data quality of VGI in the past. These indicators include positional, thematic and temporal accuracy, completeness, logical consistency and usability. Additional indicators that have been proposed for VGI are then presented and discussed. In the final section of the chapter, the idea of integrated indicators and workflows of quality assurance that combine many assessment methods into a filtering system is highlighted as one way forward to improve confidence in VGI.


Radical cystectomy and urinary diversion is an excellent treatment option for invasive bladder cancer. Ileal conduit and orthotopic neobladder have been applied as the most frequent urinary diversion methods for many years. Stone formation is a rare complication in the ortotopic neobladder. In the case presented, a 67-year-old-man who had undergone radical cystectomy and orthotopic neobladder reconstruction ten years ago with no complaints in the following five years presented with fever, dysuria, and urinary frequency. We detected a 10.8 cm stone in the neobladder, and the giant stone was fragmented by endoscopic cystolithotripsy via transurethral approach. Complete stone clearance was achieved.


According to the ISO9000 quality management system,the appraisal program of medical quality and safety was designed systematically. Based on the conceptions of Balanced Score Card,360° Feedback,Key Performance Indicator( KPI) and Lean Production,the assessment criteria of medical quality and safety on surgical departments,Non-surgical departments and medical-technical departments were formulated. With informatization,the information system of medical quality and safety was developed with real-time and precise assessment. It also enriched assessment level,improved assessment content,strengthened assessment pertinence,strengthened timely and flexible feedback,and strengthened continued improvement of medical quality.


Geographic background models constitute an important component in scene simulations as they provide one component of clutter observed through IR sensors. Accurate modeling of the spatially-varying features and signatures of the background presents a significant challenge to the developer of a scene simulation; especially for tactical applications. The approach employed within the Georgia Tech Research Institute is outlined in this paper. Emphasis is placed on the methodology for creating the spatial structure of the background, the underlying signature prediction model, and the relationship between the geographic features and the signature model.


The role of behavioural economics in energy and climate policy / Michael G. Pollitt and Irina Shaorshadze. Cambridge : Electricity Policy Research Group, Dec. 2011, 29 p.  (EPRG Working Paper 1130 ;  Cambridge Working Paper in Economics 1165) http://www.eprg.group.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/EPRG1130_Main.pdf This article explores how behavioural economics can be applied to energy and climate policy. We present an overview of main concepts of behavioural economics and discuss how the...


Introduction 1. The Network Theory of Well-Being 2. An Inclusive Approach to the Study of Well-Being 3. Positive Causal Networks and the Network Theory of Well-Bein 4. Positive Causal Networks and Positive Psychology 5. The Case for the Network Theory: An Inference to the Best Explanation 6. Issues in the Psychology of Happiness and Well-Being 7. Objections to the Network Theory 8. Conclusion References Index


The dissemination of tourism image plays a vital role in image promotion of rural tourist destinations and improvement of tourism attraction,which becomes an indispensable driving element.This article makes a thorough study of the dissemination of tourism image as a corresponding particular mode of dissemination,and then points out some defaults in dissemination of tourism image in our rural areas so as to realize its advantages and meanwhile render tourism in rural areas sustainable.


Objective:To explore the relationship between the changes of plasma N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in early acute myocardial infarction(STEMI).Methods:Seventy-two patients admitted to our hospital with AMI were randomly divided into two groups,35 were the the elective PCI group and another 37 were the temergent PCI group.The plasma NT-proBNP was measured within 24 hours after admission or before PCI and on the 6th day after postoperative.Results:The levels of plasma NT-proBNP decreased after the treatment in both of the two groups than that before treatment significantly (P0.05),and no significant difference were observed fo the temergent PCI group and the elective PCI group(P0.05).Conclusion:The emergent PCI and the elective PCI may make the plasma NT-proBNP to decrease significantly and to be beneficial for the Acute myocardial infarction.


Introduction Time-to-treatment window is critical for managing acute ischaemic stroke. The community healthcare practitioners (CHPs) who deliver frontline care in the health system play an important role in stroke prevention and treatment. Methods A multi-stage sampling design was adopted in Guangdong province, China. A total of 997 CHPs who participated in the survey were divided into two groups (the awareness group vs the unawareness group) according to their knowledge on the time window for stroke management. Logistic regression analysis was performed to explore factors associated with the awareness of "time window". Results Overall, less than half (49.1%) of CHPs were aware of the time window for stroke management. The proportion of CHPs who were able to recognise stroke symptoms were higher in the awareness group (42.7%) than that in the unawareness group (38.8%). Most CHPs (82.9%) in the awareness group had the knowledge about the effectiveness of intravenous thrombolysis in treating acute cerebral infarction, whereas this was perceived by only less than half (43.6%) of CHPs in the unawareness group. Factors associated with the knowledge of time window for stroke management included participation in cerebrovascular disease management training (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=4.203, 95% CI: 1.707–10.348, p=0.002), awareness of the time frame for CT initiation (aOR=5.214, 95% CI: 1.803–15.078, p=0.002) and for urokinase thrombolysis administration (aOR=11.927, 95% CI: 4.393–32.382, p<0.001), accurate perceptions about the target for blood pressure lowering (aOR=4.181, 95% CI: 1.713–10.207, p=0.002) and blood glucose control (aOR=2.446, 95% CI: 1.019–5.869, p=0.045), and the familiarity with prehospital stroke management principles (aOR=3.593, 95% CI: 1.383–9.332, p=0.009). Conclusion The CHPs need to enhance their ability to address the acute ischaemic stroke onset promptly to provide effective treatment within the beneficial "time window". This may help improve the stroke chain of survival with better multidisciplinary decision support systems that enable optimal stroke care delivery.


At realization of strategy of warring parties in the conditions of resource restrictions the problem definition of optimization of system of protection of the combined type on the basis of the entered criterion "the prevented damage" is considered.


OBJECTIVE
To describe a patient who had hypercalcemia attributable to subacute thyroiditis.

METHODS
A case history, including detailed results of laboratory tests, is presented, and the findings are discussed.

RESULTS
A young woman with neck pain and fever was found to have increased free thyroxine and triiodothyronine levels but a decreased thyrotropin value. Concurrently, the serum calcium concentration was increased. Subacute thyroiditis was diagnosed. Within 1 month, the free thyroxine and serum calcium levels were normal.

CONCLUSION
Thyrotoxicosis is a known cause of hypercalcemia. All previously reported cases of hypercalcemia due to hyperthyroidism involved Graves' disease, toxic multinodular goiter, or a toxic adenoma as the cause of the hyperthyroidism. The current case shows that short-term subacute thyroiditis can cause hypercalcemia.


The biology of chilli muranai mite, Polyphagotarsonemus latus (Banks) was studied in the laboratory and the life cycle ranged from 6.5 to 8.0 days during December. The mites breed on alternate hosts viz., cowpea, greengram, horsegram, Phaseolus trilobus, mulberry, gingelly, marigold and Solanum nigrum during the off-season. The mite population on chilli reached a maximum during February. Spraying dicofol 18.5 EC@ 200 g a.i./ha or dusting HCH 10% @ 500 g ai../ha or spraying wettable sulphur 35 SP @ 875 g a.i./ha twice was effective in checking the mite population.


Community studies found deficits of cognitive function in elderly persons with diabetes. The aim of the present study was to compare diabetes and other age-related diseases among residents of senior citizens' care facilities. Participants were 130 residents with and 130 without a diagnosis of diabetes aged between 65 and 98 years. Measures were neuropsychological tests designed for this age group, questionnaires of mood, quality of life and daily activities and level of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) as an index of metabolic control. Only verbal memory was significantly more impaired in residents with than without diabetes. Otherwise, both groups showed overall impairment of cognitive function and mood. Unexpectedly, a slightly elevated HbA1c level (6–8%) was associated with an increased level of cognitive and everyday functioning. In old age, diabetic patients might benefit from a slightly higher level of blood glucose than has hitherto been assumed.


We evaluate through computer simulation the performance of Photonic switching OPS/OBS networks of various sizes and configurations, based on a lossless (amplified) photonic switching node experimentally demonstrated previously. The great advantage of photonic switching is transparency to signal rate and format. Thus we propose a basic flexible network, with low-energy consumption and high-efficiency. In simulations traffic load is varied and network parameters such as, average number of hops (ANH), network latency (delay) and packet loss fraction are evaluated. Consistent results for the various configurations are presented, analyzed and discussed; and Interesting conclusions emerge.


This work investigates the value of augmenting recurrent neural networks with feature engineering for the Second Nuanced Arabic Dialect Identification (NADI) Subtask 1.2: Country-level DA identification. We compare the performance of a simple word-level LSTM using pretrained embeddings with one enhanced using feature embeddings for engineered linguistic features. Our results show that the addition of explicit features to the LSTM is detrimental to performance. We attribute this performance loss to the bivalency of some linguistic items in some text, ubiquity of topics, and participant mobility.


M om and I breathed deeply four times in the cool shadow of Table Mesa. In the distance, a worn road led southward through the Navajo reservation and northward to Shiprock, New Mexico. The white tips of Dibe Nitsaa, Mount Hesperus, the sacred mountain of the North, whispered above. We stretched our arms into a sky as turquoise as the stone in thenecklaceMommademe. Father Sky. Swollen gray clouds drifted slowly by. Then we folded ourselves in two; our fingertips brushed the red soil swirling about our feet.Mother Earth. Mom's eyes remained closed as she inhaled one more time and brought her arms to her chest, the way she normally embracedmewith all hermight. I wanted to melt there but instead I stood awkwardly beside her, trying to mime a graceful pattern of arm and legmovements that resembled Tai Chi.We faced East (thinking), then South (planning), West (living), and North (wisdom). Her short black hair settled into a curly halo around her beautiful round face, now unbelievably serene compared to moments earlier when she had slammed her hand-carved weaving fork on the table and said, "Your Rez Mom sucks at this." "Me, too," I'd confessed. Our placemat-sized rugs continued to turn into hourglass shapes, no matter howmany times we warned each other to think "loose." A few feet away from our meditation, five Caucasian women sat Indian style on tarps or folded Pendleton blankets. Before them, their looms displayed nearly finished rugs, which would soon win awards. Mothers, wives, grandmothers—all of them set aside these roles for five days to campwith no electricity or water onMasterWeaver Sarah Natani's ranch. The desert wind tangled wisps of blond and sandy brown hair loose from traditional Navajo E S S A Y


This paper tries to sort out issues, research gap and hypotheses to be tested by the researchers in the light of TRIMS and FDI. The government of India has followed liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) policy since 1991. As a member of the WTO, India suppose to follow TRIMS so as to have operation and implementation of FDI for maximise trade benifits. This paper is divided into three sections: the first one reviews literature on WTO. FDI and, TRIMS, the second one highlights FDI and other international studies, whereas, the third one sorts out issues, research gap and hypotheses to be tested. The paper appears as suggested framework on the basis of review of literature and very useful to those who want to work further in the area.


THE BUILD-UP OF THE BEŁCHATOW BROWN COAL DEPOSIT

Summary
The paper deals with preliminary works connected with construction of brown coal opencut mine at Belhatow as well as extension of the base and infrastructure. The exploitation of coal in the Belchatow mine will begin in this year but this requires removal of about 70,000,000 m3 of overburden, lowering of groundwater level and completion of works connected with the IVth stage of mine construction.
The mine is designed to give 38-40 millions t of brown coal for the use by power plants which should be giving 4320 MW.


party sections in Belgium (Kris Deschouwer) and so-called 'Interest Parties' in Israel (Yael Yishai). The final section deals with the impact of external factors on party organization, and the essays here are on the Czech and Slovak republics (Josef Blahoz), the former Communist Party in Poland (Jerzy Wiatr), and a comparative study of social democratic parties in Britain, France, Germany and Spain (Frank Wilson). In a concluding essay Kay Lawson discusses some of the links between the themes that have emerged in the preceding chapters. The real strength of the book is that it brings under one set of covers a variety of studies of the internal life of parties. Although Lawson has provided a very good structure for these essays, it is important to realize that this is very much a bringing together of separate research projects, and it is not a more tightly organized collection of essays in which each of the authors within a section addresses the same themes. All of the essays are well worth reading and, obviously, which ones a reader finds especially interesting will depend very much on his or her own areas of expertise. For what it's worth, the essay I found especially illuminating was Yael Yishai's. He examines the emergence in Israel of parties that combine features of both political parties and interest groups. His explanation of their emergence is located very much within a framework of comparative analysis, and his conclusion that their 'proliferation may indicate that neither parties nor groups have been fully successful in translating public wishes into policy outputs' (p. 221) suggests new avenues of research. In sum, this book's publication will be much welcomed by students of parties.


Opposed peripheral edge portions of a plurality of engaging claws are as close to the support substrate holding engagement in the double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet attached to surface of the wafer and urging the pressure element consisting of an approximately semi-spherical elastic member from the substantially center of the non-bonding surface of the support substrate, and , by elastic deformation of the pressing member while supporting the flat in contact with the substrate surface is bonded to the support substrate to the wafer. Substrate bonding device, the engagement pawl, the wafer, the support substrate, the pressing member


Although numerous scholars and publications advocate the use of conditional standard errors of measurement (SEMs) for evaluating measurement precision, they have yet to enjoy widespread use in psychological research or large-scale testing programs. This article describes methods for computing conditional SEMs and an overall index of reliability for performance ratings based on ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression. The proposed computational approach is straightforward and provides indices of measurement precision similar or identical to those based on generalizability theory. While the methods are illustrated within the context of performance assessments, the indices also apply to dichotomously scored responses from multiple-choice tests. Conditional SEMs from OLS, 3 Conditional Standard Errors of Measurement for Performance Ratings from Ordinary Least Squares Regression Traditional methods for computing reliability and standard errors of measurement (SEM) produce a single index that represents an average for all examinees. However, it is widely known that measurement error varies with, or is conditional on, examinee ability (Brennan, 2001). Lord's (1955) method for computing conditional SEMs based on the binomial error model was one of the early methods to gain popularity, probably due to its simplicity. It can be computed for any score by knowing only the number of items on a test. Over the past half century, several other methods for computing conditional SEMs have been proposed, including those based on analysis of variance, item response theory, and generalizability theory (Brennan & Feldt, 1989; Feldt, Steffen, & Gupta, 1985; Qualls-Payne, 1992). Despite their obvious utility, conditional SEMs have yet to be used on a wide scale by operational testing programs, perhaps because some types of conditional SEMs are computationally intensive. Conditional SEMs seem particularly important within the context of performance assessment, where errors of measurement are often larger than desirable (Baker, O'Neill, & Linn, 1993) and where errors can vary for individual examinees depending on the particular raters or tasks they happen to encounter. The purpose of this paper is to introduce simple methods for computing conditional SEMs within the framework of ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression. The use of OLS regression to reduce systematic measurement error (i.e., rater leniency) in performance assessment has become increasingly common over the past two decades (Braun, 1989; Harik, Clauser, Grabovsky, Nungester, Swanson, Nandakumar, 2009; Houston, Raymond & Svec, 1991; Raymond, Harik, & Clauser, 2011), and it would be convenient to have an approach for computing conditional SEMs and reliability coefficients within that same framework. This paper describes such an approach. Conditional SEMs from OLS, 4 The next section reviews methods for obtaining conditional SEMs based on generalizability theory. We then we describe a rater effects model based on OLS regression, present equations for computing conditional errors and reliability coefficients based on OLS and show their equivalence to those based on generalizability theory, and demonstrate the computation of conditional SEMs using both simulated and actual rating data. We also illustrate its application to dichotomously scored responses. Conditional SEMs from Generalizability Theory Generalizability theory provides an appealing framework for computing conditional SEMs because it of its flexibility in conceptualizing and quantifying sources of error for various types of measures given under complex administration designs. For completely crossed singlefacet rating designs, the model can be expressed in deviation form (Brennan, 2001, p. 22): Xpr =  + (p – ) + (r – ) + (Xpr – p –r + ) (1) where Xpr is the rating given to examinee p by rater r;  is the grand mean over all examinees and raters; (p – ) is the examinee effect for examinee p, (r – ) is the rater effect for rater r; and (Xpr – p – r + ) is residual effect (examinee-rater interaction). Generalizability theory distinguishes between two types of measurement error: absolute and relative, designated as Δ and δ. The absolute error for examinee p on the encounter with rater r is defined as the difference between the examinee's observed score and true score: Δp = Xpr − μp. (2) Absolute error is important for criterion-referenced score interpretations where an examinee's score is typically compared to a fixed standard of performance (e.g., passing score). In contrast, Conditional SEMs from OLS, 5 relative error provides information about the precision of examinee's score in relation to the group's performance and is appropriate for norm-referenced interpretations. It is defined as the difference between an examinee's observed deviation score and true deviation score: δp = (Xpr − μp) − (μr − μ) (3) or, equivalently as: δp = Xpr − (μr − μ) − μp . (4) The important feature of relative error is that it ignores, or removes, the systematic variability associated with the particular group of raters who serve as evaluators for a particular assessment occasion or test form. That is, absolute error includes the rater effect while relative error does not. Variances of these two errors of measurement are denoted as σ 2 (Δ) and σ 2 (δ), and their square roots are the conditional absolute and relative SEMs. The computation of both variances is described below; for a more thorough treatment see Brennan (1998; 2001). Absolute Conditional SEM. From equation 2, the variance of the absolute errors for examinee p can be expanded using the notation of conditional variance as follows: σ(Δp) = var(Δp|p) = var(Xpr − μp|p) , (5) which can be calculated from observed ratings: σ(Δp) = ∑ (Xpr−Xp.) 2 r nr(nr− 1) , where nr is the number of ratings received by examinee p and Xp. is the mean of those ratings. The square root of this provides an estimator of conditional absolute SEM: σ(∆p) = √ ∑ (Xpr−Xp.) 2 r nr(nr− 1) (6) Conditional SEMs from OLS, 6 Relative Conditional SEM. The variance of the relative errors for examinee p as shown in equation 4 is conceptually defined as: σ(δp) = var(δp|p) = var(Xpr − (μr − μ) − μp)|p) . (7) Because this definition involves the variance of a linear combination, it implicitly includes a covariance term, which is evident when terms are rearranged and expanded. The result is the following computational formula for the relative conditional SEM (Brennan, 1998, eq 36): σ(δp) = √ np+1 np−1 σ(Δp) + σ2(r) nr − ( np np−1 )(2 ∑ (Xpr−Xp.)(X.r−X..) nr 1 ) nr(nr−1) , (8) where np is the number of examinees, σ 2 (r) is the variance component for the rater effect, X.r is the mean of ratings for rater r, and the right most term represents the covariance over raters between each examinees' ratings and the mean of all ratings (i.e., the person-total covariance). The value of σ 2 (r) is obtained from a variance component or generalizability analysis, and σ 2 (Δp) is obtained using equation 6. It can be seen that σ 2 (δp) is equal to σ 2 (Δp) plus a rather complicated adjustment. This adjustment is negative for most examinees; therefore, the relative conditional SEM is less than the absolute conditional SEM for most examinees. Brennan (1998; 2001) suggests two simplifications. First, since the two ratios involving the number of examinees approach 1 as np →∞, those terms can be eliminated with large sample sizes. Even so, the computation still requires some effort and the covariance term contributes to instability of estimates. The second simplification eliminates the covariance term. While this shortcut is practical, it provides only a rough approximation (Brennan, 1998; 2001). The OLS framework described next provides a simplified and conceptually appealing approach to computing σ(δp). Conditional SEMs from OLS, 7 Modeling Rater Effects with OLS Regression While OLS regression can be used to estimate the parameters for completely crossed rating designs, it is particularly useful for unbalanced nested (incomplete) designs where groups of examinees are evaluated by different but overlapping panels of raters. For incomplete designs, the mean of observed ratings for a given examinee will be biased to the extent that some raters are more or less lenient than other raters. Parameter estimates obtained from OLS statistically control for leniency error. Simulation studies and those based on real data indicate that OLS-adjusted ratings result in considerable increases in reliability (Braun, 1988; Houston et al., 1991; Harik et al., 2009). The following linear model can be used to estimate examinee ability with the rater effect removed: Xpr = p + r + epr , (9) where Xpr is the rating given to examinee or person p by rater r; p is the examinee's true rating or score; r is the rater effect for rater r, defined as the true mean of rater r across all examinees minus the grand mean of all raters and all examinees; and epr is random error (examinee-rater interaction). Based on properties of OLS estimators, estimates of p can be shown to be equal to the mean score for examinee p over all raters after correcting for rater leniency. Estimates of r are deviation scores that correspond to the stringency index for each rater, with positive values indicating that the rater is more lenient than average. Expressing all parameters in deviation form results in equation 1. That equivalence is noted below because it provides the basis for computing σ(δp) from the OLS model. Specifically,  + (p – ) = p = p Conditional SEMs from OLS, 8 (r – ) = r (Xpr – p –r + ) = epr In practical applications it is common to use the results of the OLS regression to compute an adjusted rating for each rater-examinee encounter. The adjusted rating, Xpr ∗ , can be obtained by: Xpr ∗ = Xpr – r , (10) which is the observed rating with the effect for each rater removed. The adjusted rating can also be computed from: Xpr ∗ = αp + epr , (11) whe


The dielectric breakdown mechanism is studied from the viewpoint of the relationship with the generation of defect sites in the oxide film, utilizing the "A-mode" stress induced leakage current (A-mode SILC) under the constant-voltage stressing. It is demonstrated that the breakdown occurs when the A-mode SILC becomes a threshold level, I/sub th/. In spite of that, the constant I/sub th/ for various stress fields is expected by the conventional model which assumes that each defect site is generated randomly in the oxide film, I/sub th/, increases with the stress field. To explain this variety of I/sub th/ by the stress field, the concept of "breakdown-path creation efficiency" (/spl gamma//sub BPC/), is proposed, which represents the amount of defect sites in the whole gate area required to create a breakdown path from one side of oxide film to the other side at a local spot. According to this concept, it is demonstrated that the efficiency becomes smaller with the increase in the stress field. These results require us to take account the nonuniform distribution of defect sites in the oxide film into the model for the breakdown mechanism. The introduction of the stress-field dependent depth profile of defect sites allows to explain the variety of I/sub th/.


A notion of bounded bisimilarity is introduced for discrete-time piecewise linear systems. Bounded bisimilarity is the same as the usual bisimilarity except that only trajectories of finite length are considered. We can always find a finite set of equvalence classes for bounded bisimilarity. Using bounded bisimilarity, we propose a method for computing control inputs that achieve a state trajectory satisfing given temporal logic formula and also a desirable level for a given objective function.


One of the major reasons hindering the use of biodiesel is its filter plugging temperature, which is higher than that of No. 2 diesel. Cloud point (CP) and pour point (PP) temperatures have been shown to be well correlated with filter plugging point, which primarily determines the operability of a diesel engine in cold weather. Many biodiesel cold flow additives are available in the market that claim to reduce pour point. In this study, neat and blended biodiesel fuels from different feedstocks were tested for change in CP and PP with various cold flow additives at 100%, 200%, and 300% of the specified loading (application) rate. The additives in general worked better for ethyl esters than for methyl esters. Average reductions in CP and PP for neat mustard methyl esters were 0.3°C and 7.2°C, respectively, compared to 3°C and 19.4°C for mustard ethyl ester at the recommended loading rate. In general, mustard biodiesel responded to additives better than soybean or used vegetable oil biodiesel for reducing PP. The effect of additives on CP of diesel fuel was not statistically significant, but PP was reduced to < -36°C with all additives at recommended loading. This result is expected as additives are mainly targeted to inhibit the crystal growth not necessarily the onset of crystallization. The additives were found to be more effective in diesel than in biodiesel for reducing PP, and hence the higher the percentage of diesel in a blend, the better the effectiveness was. Most additives reduced the PP of B20 and lower blends to < -36°C at 100% loading, and all additives did that at 200% loading. No added benefit was observed at more than 200% loading.


This paper deals with a small collection of West Indian ascidians (class Ascidiacea: sub-phylum Tunicata) made by Dr. P. WAGENAAR HUMMELINCK in 1930, 1948/49, and 1955, to which several specimens taken by Dr. J. H. STOCK in 1958/59 were added. The material collected by Dr. HUMMELINCK (indicated with Station number) has been deposited in the State Museum, Leiden, and that collected by Dr. STOCK in the Zoologisch Museum, Amsterdam. TRAUSTEDT (1882, 1883), SLUITER (1898), and VAN NAME (1902, 1921, 1924, 1945) have already described ascidians from the West Indies, and the following 24 species have been recorded from the Netherlands Antilles, all from Curacao.


Karyotype analysis and comparison of 7 subspecies of cole crops were conducted by traditional squash method.The results showed that broccoli(Brassica oleralea L.var.italica P.):2n=2x=18=8m+10sm(2SAT),satellites were observed at the 6th pair of chromosomes;cabbage(Brassica oleralea L.var.capitata L.):2n=2x=18=8m+10sm(2SAT),satellites were observed at the 6th pair of chromosomes;cauliflower(Brassica oleralea L.var.botrytis L.):2n=2x=18=12m+6sm(2SAT),satellites located in the 7th pair of chromosomes;cabbage mustard(Brassica alboglabra L.H.Bailey):2n=2x=18=8m+10sm(2SAT),satellites were observed at the 7th pair of chromosomes;brussels sprouts(Brassica oleralea L.var.germmifera Zenk.):2n=2x=18=8m+10sm(2SAT)(first time to be reported),satellites were observed at the 7th pair of chromosomes;collard(Brassica oleralea L.var.acephala DC.):2n=2x=18=10m+8sm and kohlrabi(Brassica oleralea L.var.caulorapa DC.):2n=2x=18=8m+10sm,no satellites were observed at these two subspecies.The karyotype type of all subspecies belong to 2A,presenting a ultimately symmetry karyotype.But the evolution extent is inconsistent among different subspecies.In addition,we also discussed about the genetic relationship and genetic diversity of cole crops.


Neuron activity presents two timescales, a fast one related to action potential spiking, and a slow timescale in which bursting takes place. Some pathological conditions are related with the synchronization of the bursting activity in a weak sense, meaning the adjustment of the bursting phase due to coupling. We investigated coupled Rulkov maps network with randomly distributed parameters, and exhibiting the small-world property. The clustered network exhibits collective oscillations in the form of synchronized bursting rhythms, without affecting the fast timescale dynamics. We analyzed global synchronization varying the probabilities of intracluster and intercluster connections. Numerical experiments appeared to have the same outcomes as analytical predictions. Besides, analysis of the distribution of the time of global synchronization showed a intermittent behaviour that is observed in epileptic activity.


Environmental cues for embryonic diapause termination (EDT) were investigated in the laboratory-produced encysted dormant embryos of the brine shrimp, Artemia franciscana. The cysts were spawned and kept throughout in a 2% sea salt solution. They were activated by various temperatures of the temperate zones or by continuous dark condition (DD), resulting in a state of EDT, and were thereafter able to resume their subsequent development and hatch under appropriate conditions. The level of EDT was conveniently assayed by a hatch test observed within 2 days at 28 degrees C under continuous light condition (LL). A cold treatment of the newly spawned dormant cysts, at 4 degrees C under DD for more than 100 days, resulted in more than 95% hatch of the dormant cysts. Similar treatments of the dormant cysts but at room temperature or 28 degrees C led to significantly different results (30-40% hatch). Almost all the residual non-hatched cysts derived from the above could hatch after an additional cold treatment (at 4 degrees C under DD for about 100 days). This might prove to be latent partial bivoltine in Artemia. Meanwhile, a rearing condition (28 degrees C under LL) induced the newly spawned cysts to hatch scatteredly at and after 1 month, resulting in 22% cumulative hatch on the 92nd day after spawning. When the newly spawned dormant cysts were pretreated at 28 degrees C under DD for 5 or 14 days and then reared at 28 degrees C under LL, the cumulative hatch significantly increased (60%). These results are discussed with respect to probable diapause regulator(s) involved in EDT.


The authors report on a 1992 survey of sexual behavior in France which was conducted "to develop a strategy for AIDS prevention and to construct models of the epidemics evolution....An overall multidisciplinary analysis is being undertaken with the object of identifying the social and psychological conditions that lead to relations which involve what the epidemiologists call unsafe practices. The results are expected to provide the instrument necessary for the understanding of unsafe situations and thus to develop more adequate prevention strategies." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA) (EXCERPT)


Nuclear power reactor licensing requires analyses of detailed fuel pin power distributions of thermal margin and safety assessments. With 40,000 to 50,000 fuel pins in a typical pressurized water reactor core, this task is both engineering labor and computer resource intensive. The industry standard for these computations has been the PDQ-7 fine-mesh diffusion code. To reduce costs and increase productivity, electric utilities have sought to develop alternative methods that achieve the accuracy and utility of PDQ-7 without the traditionally high cost. An alternative that reduces many of these costs is the PDQ-8 code. A recent study by GRP Consulting, Yankee Atomic, and Control Data suggests the use of PDQ-8 to achieve PDQ-7 fine-mesh point depletion accuracy employing coarse block depletion strategies. The results of this study suggest that the use of the PDQ-8 gross block/fine block depletion methodology, with the proposed improvement, could reduce overall computer requirements for nuclear plant reload licensing and core follow physics calculations. Furthermore, PDQ-8 is essentially an enhanced version of PDQ-7; utility engineering staff retraining requirements for PDQ-8 adoption are minimized.


The public administration of the administrative-territorial units has as its foundation / theme the decentralization of public services - the functional form of decentralization which, together with the territorial form, represents the essential particularity of the local public administration within the framework provided by the provisions of the Romanian Constitution in force. In this context, decentralization it is perceived, considered or understood as a transfer of administrative and financial competence from the level of central public administration to the level of local public administration or to the private sector. The decentralization of public services is usually approached in its interconnection and interdependence with their deconcentration / devolution and with the principle of local autonomy that I will approach.


This article presents the main results of research on the topic of theoretical and empirical approaches to assessing the optimality of the tax system in the Russian Federation. The paper provides an overview of international practice of analyzing the effectiveness of tax expenditures. The optimal tax system is based on three basic principles: efficiency (understands how to reduce losses for all individuals with given revenues to the budget), justice (understands how to reduce losses from taxation among individuals) and the quality of services and the inevitability of tax payments. In the framework of this work, according to these criteria, the main types of taxes and excise taxes in the Russian Federation will be analyzed.


The imperial coronation of Charles IV in 1355 has been widely regarded by scholars as of little import and without lasting historical significance. In fact, the opposite is the case. The coronation journey needs to be understood in the wider context of the power struggle between the Holy Roman Empire and papacy in Italy. This article examines the complex situation from the perspectives of Charles and his opponents and supporters in Italy. It demonstrates how the coronation led to a decisive redistribution of power relations in Italy and Europe, resulting in the Golden Bull (1356) and the Aegidian Constitutions (1357). A previously unknown letter by Niccolo Acciaiuoli, who directed the political affairs of the Kingdom of Naples, is discussed here for the first time. It illuminates the political tactics of the opposing Guelphs and the effect of Charles' presence in Rome on their aims. The article also re-examines the long-disputed question as to why Charles did not accept Petrarch's invitation to act in Italy as the defender of the res publica, and why the humanist failed to accept the invitation to accompany Charles to Rome.


In 1891, the Virunga Mountains of Eastern Zaire were first acknowledged as volcanoes, and since then, the Virunga Mountain chain has demonstrated its potentially violent volcanic nature. The Virunga Mountains lie across the Eastern African Rift in an E-W direction located north of Lake Kivu. Mt. Nyamuragira and Mt. Nyiragongo present the most hazard of the eight mountains making up Virunga volcanic field, with the most recent activity during the 1970-90's. In 1977, after almost eighty years of moderate activity and periods of quiescence, Mt. Nyamuragira became highly active with lava flows that extruded from fissures on flanks circumscribing the volcano. The flows destroyed vast areas of vegetation and Zairian National Park areas, but no casualties were reported. Mt. Nyiragongo exhibited the same type volcanic activity, in association with regional tectonics that effected Mt. Nyamuragira, with variations of lava lake levels, lava fountains, and lava flows that resided in Lake Kivu. Mt. Nyiragongo, recently named a Decade volcano, presents both a direct and an indirect hazard to the inhabitants and properties located near the volcano. The Virunga volcanoes pose four major threats: volcanic eruptions, lava flows, toxic gas emission (CH4 and CO2), and earthquakes. Thus, the volcanoes of the Eastern African volcanic field emanate harm to the surrounding area by the forecast of volcanic eruptions. During the JSC Summer Fellowship program, we will acquire and collate remote sensing, photographic (Space Shuttle images), topographic and field data. In addition, maps of the extent and morphology(ies) of the features will be constructed using digital image information. The database generated will serve to create a Geographic Information System for easy access of information of the Eastem African volcanic field. The analysis of volcanism in Eastern Africa will permit a comparison for those areas from which we have field data. Results from this summer's work will permit further study and monitoring of the volcanic activity in the area. This is of concern due to the large numbers of refugees fleeing into Zaire where they are being positioned at the base of Mt. Nyiragongo. The refugees located at the base of the volcano are in direct hazard of suffocation by gas emission and destruction by lava flow. The results from this summer study will be used to secure future funding to enable continuation of this project.


We have recently esterified cotton with phthalic anhydride. Samples of fabric and yam have been treated in the following ways. In the first process cotton was impregnated (100% pickup) with a solution of phthalic anhydride (4%) in dimethylformamide and then maintained at 155°C for 21 minutes (alternatively, 190°C for 20 seconds). In a second process an aqueous solution containing phthalic anhydride (4%), acetic acid (10%), and nonionic detergent (0.01%), maintained at 80°C, was used as the esterifying medium, the impregnated cotton being subsequently maintained at 170180°C for 21 minutes. Following scouring the modified cotton exhibits strong immunization against direct dyes but is readily dyed with cationic dyes (normally used to dye acrylic fibers). Very little reduction in strength is associated with either of these processes, and the modified yam has been woven without undue difficulty. Work continues on this subject. Subsequent papers will describe the procedures and their ramifications in greater detail.


In her first novel Owls Do Cry (1957) Janet Frame shows the sisters Daphne and Francie Withers imagining a bicycle by taking turns to name its parts - the dynamo, the tau-Ught, the headUght and so on.1 Diane Caney has suggested that the girls are like Shakespeare's Prospero, using words as magic speUs2 rather as they seem to have been used in Frame's own famuy, where (Frame teUs us), they 'were revered as instruments of magic'.3 Caney then foUows the trace to Vincent O'SuUivan's use of Barthes's Writing Degree Zero and the possibuity of 'a dreamed-of language' and an 'Adamic world' in which language would no longer be auenated'4 - in which the girls' naming would make an actual bicycle, presumably, and thus confirm the retrieval of a prelapsarian realm in which word and world have not faUen apart after all, where we have not been thus consigned to the unsatisfactory present and its used-up, inauthentic language.Frame's apparent nostalgia for such a realm, evident throughout her writing, has been most fuUy addressed by Marc Delrez in Manifold Utopia: the Novels of Janet Frame (2002), where he describes it as Utopian, a desire for an ideal state to be achieved through 'a new language for humanity'.5 In pursuing his argument, Delrez in effect divides Frame's principal characters into two groups, what we might caU the seekers and the sought. The first group encompasses the dupUcation of narrators and protagonists Uke Daphne in Owls Do Cry (1957), characters who share Frame's self-reflexive attitude towards how we write and speak: Istina Mavet, the psychiatric patient in the second novel (1961); Zoe Bryce, the artist manque 'va. the third, together with Alwyn and Aisley Maude in the fifth and Malfred Signal in die sixdi; Turnlung, an actual artist in the ninth, together with Mavis Halleton in the tenth, and die oddball imposter-novelist Dinny Wheatstone in the final novel, where we also find the literary critic Mattina Brecon. These are characters whose business is with language and whose urge is to understand what they see.The second group, die sought, represents what the first group wants to understand, and involves characters located beyond die pale of customary language use, through disablement, autism, age, forms of elective mutism, lycanthropy and so on. In Faces in the Water (1961) there are a female midget and a near-mute childwoman; in The Edge of the Alphabet (1962) a man with Down's syndrome; in Scented Gardens for the Blind (1963) the mute, autistic Vera/Erlene Glace; in Intensive Care (1970), the 'doll-normill'6 Milly Galbraith; in Uving in the Maniototo (1979) the lycandiropic Martin twins and the lycandiropic Adelaide; and in The Carpathians (1988) die autistic Decima James (Manifold Utopia pp. 69-74). Through their dislocation from customary language, these 'privileged instruments of exploration' and 'recoverers of experience,' as Delrez describes die second group (Manifold Utopia p. 69), are agents of what he describes as 'decreativeness', a process involving 'the knack of unlearning customary words and prevalent knowledge' (Manifold Utopia, p. 70). The state of 'knowing nothing' (Manifold Utopia, p. 71) thus achieved is what Edelman and Turnlung see in the innocence of the buffalo they visit at die Central Park Zoo in Daughter Buffalo (1972), the idea for which may have been born in the giant sloth at the Natural History Museum and the 'prehistoric companions' Frame told John Money in 1960 she used to visit there, 'when I am depressed and would like to get rid of all human beings from the earth and return to the time before speech and words and complexities ...'.7Delrez sees Frame's situation of her fiction at the meetingpoint of the animal and die human - human and wolf, human and buffalo, human and dogs, and so on - as tilting her writing away from the present and its unsatisfactory, phatic use of language, and, through tooth and claw, towards an ideaUsed, prelapsarian 'form of linguistic utopianism' (Manifold Utopia, p. …


In recent years, a large number of cameras have been installed in public spaces as a part of intelligent video surveillance systems. Such systems are being continuously developed due to the advancements in the Video Content Analysis algorithms. In this paper, some of the latest state-of-the-art intelligent video surveillance systems will be presented in the context of their most desirable characteristics and features. Due to the variety of the solutions the following categories have been taken into consideration: systems based on object detection, tracking and movement analysis, systems able to warn against, detect and identify abnormal and alarming situations, systems based on vehicle detection and traffic or parking lots analysis, object counting systems, systems based on multiple integrated camera views, privacy preserving systems and systems based on cloud environment. The paper describes several solutions for each category and underlines main functionalities of the current intelligent surveillance systems.


Abstract : A linear relationship does not exist between stress and strain for asphaltic concrete. Therefore, the modulus of elasticity and Poisson's ratio that may be cited must be referenced to a particular condition of strain. A knowledge of the elastic properties of the individual components of asphaltic concrete must be obtained before the probable deformation characteristics of a composite blend of these materials can be obtained. (Author)


AIM To perform CT MR registration. METHODS There are different medical information in different modal image. To give doctors more accurate and general image information in medical plan, the registration and fusion of images are important. Because there are clear contours in CT and MR image, we presented a registration method based on principal axes. Through matching the centrid and principal axes of image, registraion can be performed. RESULTS Practical registration was performed and the result was good. CONCLUSION This registration method has advantages of less computing time, no person needed, and the accuracy is better. So it is a good method of image registration.


We introduce a novel geometric approach to characterize entanglement relations in large quantum systems. Our approach is inspired by Schumacher's singlet state triangle inequality, which used an entropic-based distance to capture the strange properties of entanglement using geometric-based inequalities. Schumacher uses classical entropy and can only describe the geometry of bipartite states. We extend his approach by using von Neumann entropy to create an entanglement monotone that can be generalized for higher dimensional systems. We achieve this by utilizing recent definitions for entropic areas, volumes, and higher-dimensional volumes for multipartite quantum systems. This enables us to differentiate systems with high quantum correlation from systems with low quantum correlation and differentiate between different types of multi-partite entanglement. It also enables us to describe some of the strange properties of quantum entanglement using simple geometrical inequalities. Our geometrization of entanglement provides new insight into quantum entanglement. Perhaps by constructing well-motivated geometrical structures (e.g. relations among areas, volumes ...), a set of trivial geometrical inequalities can reveal some of the complex properties of higher-dimensional entanglement in multi-partite systems. We provide numerous illustrative applications of this approach, and in particular to a random sample of a thousand density matrices.


SUMMARY This paper provides information on the Conclusions of the ICAO study related to the GNSS cost allocation, as well as the proposal for amendment to the SARPs related to the implementation and evolution of the GNSS. References:


COVID-19 infection is caused by a betacoronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. It is highly variable in symptoms and clinical outcomes, ranging from mild to fatal forms. Hyperactivation of the immune system is potentially the factor precipitating the severe forms and mortalities of this infection. Both adaptive and innate immune responses to COVID-19 infection determine the natural history and progression of COVID-19. Microbiome (MB) often refers to the microbial taxa associated with man. Microbiome has many host-related functions. The gut has the largest population of microbes, and thus may have a vast impact on host health. Microbiome is involved in evolution of innate and adaptive immune system in humans, among other functions. Perturbations in composition of MB are referred to as dysbiosis. Dysbiosis can coincide with COVID-19 itself and be also drug-induced. Antibiotics commonly prescribed to COVID-19 patients often exert deleterious effects on composition of gut MB. In light of host-related microbiome functions, this possibly has consequences impacting severity and outcome of COVID-19. Gut microbiome integrity can be a crucial factor in COVID-19 patients, thus antibiotic use, in light of its impact on gut flora, may adversely affect disease outcome; however, the extent of these aspects is still unclear. A rational antibiotic use strategy should be an integral part in all COVID-19 therapeutic plans.


Abstract Net benefits of alternative forest policies are examined using a simulation model that links a model of the biology and economics of the forest with a GE model of the B.C. economy, thereby recognizing the effects of changes in timber supply on prices. Results indicate that: (1) price effects from the GE model reinforce policies oriented towards managing for non‐timber values; (2) carbon uptake values can generally be ignored if other nonmarket values are included; and (3) untargeted incremental silviculture is often uneconomic, but it increases C sequestration by 3,000–13,000 tonnes per year.


TWO OPTICAL PROCESSING SYSTEMS FOR RAPID CONTOUR GENERATION FROM VERTICAL TRANSPARENCIES INCLUDE: THE POSITIVE-NEGATIVE SYSTEM THAT USES TRANSPARENCIES PROCESSED TO PLUS AND MINUS VALUES OF GAMMA, AND PRODUCES DARK CONTOURS ON A STRUCTURE FILLED BACK-GROUND; AND THE SCATTER-PLATE SYSTEM IN WHICH MATCHING IMAGERY PRODUCES BRIGHT CONTOUR BANDS ON A DARK FIELD. FOR A GIVEN X-PARALLAX SETTING ALL CONTOURS ARE DISPLAYED SIMULTANEOUSLY. EXPERIMENTAL WORK TREATS CLOSE-RANGE PHOTOGRAMMETRIC EXAMPLES. MATHEMATICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS PROVIDE A DETERMINATION OF THE HEIGHT DISCRIMINATION.


In the design and use of human-made artefacts materials play a central role with regards to appearance and functionality. The performative capacity of a design is actualised through materiality. However, while architecture is a material practice, highly specific materials with carefully defined characteristics and properties are often chosen late in the design process. Moreover, often a materials response to extrinsic stimuli is regarded as negative. All sorts of measures are taken to neutralise such responses. In contrast, however, there is a growing fascination with 'smart' materials that can respond in controlled ways to extrinsic stimuli. If the definition of smart materials would be employed to embrace defined capacities in ordinary materials this may yield an fundamental rethinking of both the performative capacities of human made artefacts and the design disciplines. This article aims therefore at discussing material capacities and variable behaviour as a potential for rethinking design and sustainability.


PURPOSE: Provided are a cosmetic composition and a preparing method thereof. The cosmetic composition contains essential oil blend for aromatherapy to treat neuropsychic diseases. CONSTITUTION: A cosmetic composition contains essential oil blend for aromatherapy to treat neuropsychic diseases, wherein the essential oil blend consists of 0-25% of neroli oil, 0-25% of clary sage oil, 0-17% of chamomile roman oil, 0-25% of lavender oil, 0-34% of sandalwood oil, 0-30% of majoram oil, 0-6% of ylang ylang oil, 0-17% of cypress oil, 0-9% of bergamot oil, 0-25% of frankinsence oil, 0-10% of palmarosa oil, 0-9% of lemon oil, 0-17% of vetivert oil, 0-9% of spike nard oil and 0-50% of almond oil.


Objective To evaluate the safety and feasibility of cesarean myomectomy.Methods In this retrospective study,68 patients underwent cesarean myomectomywere compared with 68 patients without uterine myoma who underwent cesarean alone.Results The average duration of operation was more than 19 minutes longer in the patients who underwent cesarean myomectomy than those underwent cesarean alone(p0.05).The amount of blood loss,drop in average haemoglobin and rehabilitation during postoperation were similar between the two groups.Conclusions In selective patiens without serious syndrome,cesarean myomectomy is not a hazardous procedure and can be performed safely by experienced obstetricians.