ABSTRACT This study tested the hypothesis that Muslim women who wear the hijab are disadvantaged in employment processes relative to their counterparts who do not wear the hijab. A meta-analysis synthesized the findings of seven studies published between 2010 and 2020. The sample-weighted, pooled estimate among the most internally valid, experimental studies suggested that the chances of being hired and so gainfully employed were 40% lower among Muslim women wearing the hijab than they were among, otherwise similar, Muslim women not wearing the hijab: relative risk (RR) = 0.60 within a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.54, 0.67. This religion-based discrimination effect was deemed hugely significant in human, public health and policy senses. Immigration trends suggest that millions of Muslim women in the west likely experienced such employment discrimination over the past generation, and millions more are bound to similarly suffer over the next generation if policy status quos are retained. It seems that much of the relatively greater employment discrimination experienced by Muslim women who wear the hijab is due largely to potential employers' prejudicial reactions to the hijab itself. Practice and policy implications and future research needs are discussed.


AIM
This study aimed to examine the effects of both obesity and bariatric surgery on gut microbiome, dietary intake, as well as metabolic and inflammatory parameters.

METHODS
All participants (15 with morbid obesity who had bariatric surgery, 8 with morbid obesity and 11 non-obese) were followed-up for a 6-month period with the interviews at baseline (M0), at the end of 3 (M3) and 6 months (M6). Dietary assessment was done, and blood and faecal samples were collected.

RESULTS
Dietary energy and nutrient intakes as well as serum levels glucose, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and hs-CRP levels decreased by surgery (p<0.05, for each). Participants with morbid obesity had higher levels of Firmicutes and lower levels of Bacteroidetes at M0 compared to non-obese participants. The abundances of Bacteroidetes increased (p=0.02) while Firmicutes decreased (p>0.05) by the surgery, leading a significant decrease in Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio (p=0.01). At sub-phylum level, the abundances of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium decreased while Akkermansia increased by the surgery (p<0.01, for each). Although participants who are morbidly obese had a distinct profile according to ß-diversity indices at M0, it became similar with the profile of non-obese participants (p>0.05) at M3 and M6. Similarly, α-diversity indices were lower in subjects with morbid obesity at M0, but became similar to levels in non-obese controls at M6.

CONCLUSION
This study confirmed that bariatric surgery has substantial impacts on gut microbiome composition and diversity, as well as anthropometrical measurements and biochemical parameters, which were associated with the alterations in dietary intake patterns. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


The in vitro metabolic activation ofcarcinogenic arylamine 4-aminobiphenyl(4-ABP) bymyeloperoxidase (MPO) from human neutrophils wasinvestigated. In the presence of hydrogen peroxide,4-ABP was metabolized by MPO to form twometabolites which covalently bound to DNA. High per-formance liquid chromatography and massspectrometry analysis showed that in the absence ofDNA the major metabolite of 4-ABP was azobis(biphenyl). Both ascorbic acid and glutathionesignificantly inhibited covalent binding of 4-ABPmetabolites to DNA, and reduced the metabolites backto 4-ABP in the incubation mixture without DNA.Based on these data and mass spectrum of the majorproduct, the active intermediate was suggested to be4-ABP radical. The formation of 4-ABP-DNAadducts was confirined by 32P-postlabelling method.Eight spots of 4-ABP-DNA adducts were detectedand the profile of the adducts formed by MPO wasshown to be different from that fornied bv the reactionof DNA with N-hydroxy-4-ABP, the activated spe-cies of 4-ABP by cytochrome P450. The results sug-gest that the metabolic activation of 4-ABP by MPOmay play a role in the extrahepatic carcinogenesis ofthe careinogen.


The article analyzes the tools and mechanisms that Indian elites used to adapt the country's foreign policy to the post-Cold War world order. We describe the internal political development of India over the past 30 years, noting that the general foreign and economic policies remained unchanged due to the political consensus. We analyze the desire of the Indian leadership to form a solid economic foundation, which is perceived in the framework of India's strategic thought as a prerequisite for the country to claim the status of great power. Finally, we discuss the primary imperatives of the Indian external policy, i.e., building a sphere of influence necessary for the polycentric world. It is noted that India's main external security challenges remain the same (China and Pakistan), although they have changed qualitatively: the PRC has become one of the superpowers, overtaking India in terms of economic development, and Pakistan acquired nuclear weapons. We conclude that, on the whole, the Indian elites managed to relatively safely lead the country through the chaos of the post-Cold War world, turning it into one of the largest economies in the world and providing the necessary conditions for raising its status in world politics.


The article considers the urgent problem of combating cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in the Nizhny Novgorod region, including the high prevalence of CVDs and the timely identification of risk factors. The changes in mortality from all and individual causes was analyzed. Attention was paid to the negative impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the health of people suffering from noncommunicable diseases. We also described the necessity to improve healthcare efficiency for CVD patients by improving the complex of managerial and preventive measures.


Primary hepatic mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (MALToma) is a rare entity. Its coexistence with other malignancies is even rarer. Only few case reports of its association with other malignancies mostly gastric and colon cancer have been published. We report a case of primary MALToma of liver in an unusual setting of dual solid malignancy.


Abstract This review discusses the size effects on Raman scattering from microcrystals. For ionic microcrystals, the existence of surface phonon modes is predicted from electromagnetic theories. It is shown that Raman spectroscopy is very effective to detect the surface phonon modes. The size effects on nonpolar phonons in covalent microcrystals can also be studied by Raman spectroscopy. However, the relaxation of the wave-vector selection rule or the phonon confinement explains only some of the experimental data. Development of lattice dynamical theories of Raman scattering from microcrystals including surface effects is highly required. Enhancement of Raman intensities arising from the excitation of electromagnetic normal modes of microcrystals is also discussed.


The hydrogen bond formation with formic acid would affect the complementary pair of bases between uracil and adenine, but the binding modes and spectral properties of hydrogen bonds are still obscure. Density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory were applied to investigate the intermolecular hydrogen bonds between uracil and formic acid. The reduced density gradient (RDG), bond lengths and vibration absorption frequencies revealed that the most probable uracil-formic acid (U-FA) interaction mode formed in the position c of FA and the site 1 of U, that is, the mode 1c. The theoretical parameters in excited state complexes manifested that the variety of hydrogen bond configurations led to different degrees of strengthening or weakening of molecular interaction. In the implicit solvent (water), the formations of O-H∙∙∙O in the uracil-formic acid complexes were promoted obviously. These theoretical studies would positively affect the researches of life science and medicinal chemistry.


With the use of a high yield prokaryotic expression system, large amounts of human eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) have been obtained. This has allowed a thorough kinetic study of the ribonuclease activity of this protein. The catalytic efficiencies for oligouridylic acids of the type (Up) n U>p, mononucleotides U>p and C>p, and dinucleoside monophosphates CpA, UpA, and UpG have been interpreted by the specific subsites distribution in ECP. The distribution of products derived from digestion of high molecular mass substrates, such as poly(U) and poly(C), by ECP was compared with that of RNase A. The characteristic cleavage pattern of polynucleotides by ECP suggests that an exonuclease-like mechanism is predominantly favored in comparison to the endonuclease catalytic mechanism of RNase A. Comparative molecular modeling with bovine pancreatic RNase A-substrate analog crystal complexes revealed important differences in the subsite structure, whereas the secondary phosphate-binding site (p2) is lacking, the secondary base subsite (B2) is severely impaired, and there are new interactions at the po, Bo, and p-1sites, located upstream of the P-O-5′ cleavable phosphodiester bond, that are not found in RNase A. The differences in the multisubsites structure could explain the reduced catalytic efficiency of ECP and the shift from an endonuclease to an exonuclease-type mechanism.


This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract It is expected that future IP devices will have a variety of access technologies to gain network connectivity. Currently there are access-specific mechanisms for providing client information to the network for authentication and authorization purposes. In addition to being limited to specific access media (e.g., 802.1X for IEEE 802 links), some of these protocols are limited to specific network topologies (e.g., PPP for point-to-point links). The goal of this document is to identify the requirements for a link-layer agnostic protocol that allows a host and a network to authenticate each other for network access. This protocol will run between a client's device and an agent in the network where the agent might be a client of the AAA infrastructure.


The effective use of dynamic reconfiguration requires the designer to address many implementation issues. The market introduction of feature-full platform FPGAs equipped with embedded CPU blocks expands the number of situations where dynamic reconfiguration may be applied to improve overall performance and logic utilization. The paper compares the design of two similar systems supporting dynamic reconfiguration and the issues that were addressed in their implementation. The first system supports 32-bit data transfers between CPU and the dynamically reconfigurable circuits. The other implementation supports 64-bit transfers, but its effective use is more complicated and several restrictions must be taken into account. The work includes a performance comparison of the two designs on several simple tasks, including pattern matching, image processing and hashing


In this work, mode conversion and wavefront shaping by integrating a metallic metasurface on top of a planar waveguide are proposed and demonstrated. The metasurface consists of C‐shaped nanoantennas. By controlling the orientation of each nanoantenna, mode conversion and focusing effect for the cross‐polarized electric fields inside the waveguide are achieved. The design and simulation results of 16 scenarios of wideband transverse‐magnetic to transverse‐electric mode converters with the mode purity up to 98%, and on‐chip lenses at the wavelength of 1550 nm are reported. It is worth noting that the dimension of the devices along the propagation direction is only 9.6 µm. This work manifests the potential application of mode division multiplexing systems and on‐chip optical interconnections based on metasurfaces.


PURPOSE: A producing method of functional half-moon-shaped rice cake containing ramie leaves is provided to enable users to produce the half-moon-shaped rice cake without using chemical seasonings. CONSTITUTION: A producing method of functional half-moon-shaped rice cake containing ramie leaves comprises the following steps: mixing 30-80L of water with 3-5kg of hovenia dulcis, 3-5kg of euonymus sieboldianus, or 3-5kg of dendropanax morbifera, and heating the mixture to concentrate; soaking washed rice in the concentrate, and pulverizing the rice; mixing the concentrate and the ramie leaves with the rice powder, and adding saccharide and salt into the mixture for kneading; producing the skin of the half-moon-shaped rice cake using the obtained dough; filling the skin with fillings obtained by mixing sweet potato, potato, chestnut, pumpkin, soybean, red bean, mung bean, sesame seeds, or walnut; and steaming the obtained half-moon-shaped rice cake.


【This study was performed to investigate concept, systoms, causes of disease, pathogenic mechanisms, therapies and precriptions about senile constipation through the successive medical literature, recent chinese medical literature and chinese medical joumals. Senile constipation seems to be applicable to dryness syndrom and constipation of insufficiency type, have something to do with kidney(the most), lung, spleen and large intestine. The most principal cause of disease is yin-fluid, the rest deficiency of qi, insufficiency of yang, stagnation of qi and retention of fever etc. There are enriching the blood and moistening dryness in principal therapy, the rest are invigorating qi and loosing the bowel, warming and invigorating the spleen and kidney, regulating the flow of qi and promoting the stagnancy of qi and expelling the pathogenic heat etc. In prescriptions there are Yunjangtang, Jengaektang, Hwanggitang, Jechunjeon, Yukmatang and Majainhwan as the causes of disease, meanwhile are Yungjang-tang, Jechunjeon and Majainhwan in the vulgaris prescriptions. And in medical herbs there are nourishing yin medicines as Rhizoma rehmanniac, Radix ophiopogonis and Radix scrophulariae etc., invigorating qi medicines as Radix astragali, Radix codonopsitis and Radix polygoni multiflori etc, invigorating yang medicines as Caulis cistanchis and Semen psoraleae etc., promoting qi circulating medicines as Radix saussurea, Lignum aquilariae and Radix linderae etc., and reducing fever and therapeutic method to keep the adverse qi flowing downward medicines as Semen cannabis, Rhizoma rhei, Fructus immaturus ponciri, and Cortex magnoliae etc.. Meantime Rhizoma rehmanniae, Radix ophiopogonis, Caulis cistanchis, Radix angelicae gigantis, Semen cannabis, Semen biotae, Semen pruni japonicae and Semen persicae in principal herb-medicines. In clinical reports the process of disease was between 10 to 20 years, the evacuation cycle between 4 to 7 days, generally possessed chronic diseases as hypertension, diabetes, arteriosclerosis and cerebro- vascular disorders etc. and the efficiency rate was more than 90%. The senile constipation is occured in succession or promoted by chronic diseases as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, arteriosclerosis. hrperlipemia, cerebro- vascular disorders etc., so diet-regulating, adequate exercise, proper evacuation-habit and psychologic rest etc. are important more than medicine-treatments.】


The Hula Valley has two key Acheulian sites: Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY), a large flake Acheulian site with hundreds of basalt bifaces and a significant number of flint handaxes, and Ma'ayan Barukh (MB), where more than 3500 flint handaxes were collected. Over the last one million years, the valley was filled by alluvium and basalt flows, devoid of flint sources suitable for handaxe production. We conducted archaeological and geological surveys combined with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry geochemical study to determine the source(s) of flint, comparing elemental compositions of handaxes from GBY and MB with those of different flint sources using a novel statistical method. The results demonstrate that Hula Valley Acheulian flint handaxes were derived from Eocene flint. For GBY, the nearest matching source for its small number of excavated handaxes is a secondary deposit of the Dishon streambed found ~8 km northwest of the site. A more likely source for both GBY and the thousands of MB handaxes is the Dishon flint extraction and reduction complex located 20 km to the west, a possibility also supported by the near absence of production waste flakes at the sites themselves. These findings support direct procurement strategy as early as the Lower Paleolithic.


The works of Professor Wolf and Professor Brown are concerned with the same period of time but not with the same material. Taken together they illustrate in a significant way the diversity and the unity of possible interests. Professor Wolf has been mainly interested in philosophy and especially in that part of it called logic. As a teacher in the University of London and author of various works . concerning logic, together with others on Spinoza and Nietzsche, he has be'en led naturally to a study of the history of the sClences in what has been called the century of genius. It is in many respects an ideal epoch to choose. In the perspective of time it is not difficult to distinguish the right degrees of importance and select the most vital issues: the sciences were never more fresh and vigorous; lack of knowledge left indefinite scope for rapid progress and a multitude of inventions which brought fame to their discoverers arl:d were) in general} real contributions to the progress of civilization. If the limitations and errors of Francis Bacon must always make his status among men of science painfully ambiguous, there is no reason to dispute his right to be a most typical figure of the days when men were learning that "nature is conquered by obedience" and that knowledge is one of the forms of power. Professor Brown has approached his subject along a different path. As a student of French literature he has made a comprehensive and penetrating study of the documents relative to the social and scientific life of the French in the years from 1620 to 1680. The words social and scientific may be rightly joined together in this connection, for the main topic is not the actual contributions to science made by some of those who appear in the pages of this book, but rather the forms of co-operation and communication which sustained and fostered the growth of science. In effect the


We present the numerical solutions for the PDE-constrained optimization problem arising in cardiac electrophysiology, that is, the optimal control problem of monodomain model. The optimal control problem of monodomain model is a nonlinear optimization problem that is constrained by the monodomain model. The monodomain model consists of a parabolic partial differential equation coupled to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations, which has been widely used for simulating cardiac electrical activity. Our control objective is to dampen the excitation wavefront using optimal applied extracellular current. Two hybrid conjugate gradient methods are employed for computing the optimal applied extracellular current, namely, the Hestenes-Stiefel-Dai-Yuan (HS-DY) method and the Liu-Storey-Conjugate-Descent (LS-CD) method. Our experiment results show that the excitation wavefronts are successfully dampened out when these methods are used. Our experiment results also show that the hybrid conjugate gradient methods are superior to the classical conjugate gradient methods when Armijo line search is used.


In this work we present a semi-analytical method to solve systems of integro-differential equations under mixed boundary conditions. The proposed method handles linear and nonlinear systems of FredholmVolterra integro-differential equations in a reliable manner. We present a convergence analysis for the proposed method to emphasize its reliability. Numerical examples are examined to show the efficiency and the accuracy of the scheme. We show that a few number of approximating terms gives results of high accuracy level, and by increasing the number of these terms, the error of the approximated solution decreases rapidly. The proposed method is powerful and reliable to solve other kinds of systems of integro-differential equations. Further, it has a small CPU time and its computational time is less than the other methods.


The wide divergence of views among the Russian Westernizers makes it difficult to generalize about them, and the personality of Vladimir Pecherin, in particular, defies all categorization. In his search for perfection he was, like the radical Westernizers, led from idealism to left Hegelianism to revolution. But unlike the radical Westernizers he ultimately freed himself from the revolutionary mystique and moderated his demands for perfection, finding meaningfulness in a life of service as a Roman Catholic priest at a hospital in Dublin. It seems worth while to re-examine Pecherin's intellectual development, since the only Russian biography of Pecherin, by Mikhail Gershenzon, was completed before the publication of Pecherin's memoirs, Zamogil'nye zapiski. Of two recent German works, the essay by Victor Frank centers on Pecherin, the Russian exile, but takes the memoirs insufficiently into account in evaluating Pecherin's religious views.


KRUMPHOLC TOMAS, BARTOŇ STANISLAV: Driver's infl uence on kinematics of articulated bus. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 2013, LXI, No. 3, pp. 683–689 Driver's infl uence on kinematics of articulated bus. This paper studies kinematics properties of the particle coach as function of driver's activity. The main goals are the prediction of the trajectory, the computation of the vector of velocity of each wheel as a function of the real velocity vector of the midpoint of the middle axle and the real curvature of the bus trajectory. The computer algebra system Maple was used for all necessary computations. Article is divided into four main parts. In the fi rst part are derived integral relations describing trajectory of the middle axes midpoint as a function of the absolute value of the velocity and trajectory curvature. At the second part is computed joint trajectory and diff erential equation describing relation between joint position and position of the midpoint of the rear – towed axle. At the third part is shown how to integrate such system of integral-diff erential equation using Runge-Kutta method and how to estimate proper size of the time step. In the fi nal part is shown how to compute curve passing time and graphical results of the numerical solution are presented. kinematics, trajectory curvature, generalized tractrix, system of diff erential equations, numerical integration, Maple Classical problem of kinematics In the following computations we should use these main variables: X(t), Y(t) – general coordinates of the moving body, later coordinates of the midpoint of the central axle of the articulated bus. x(t), y(t) – coordinates of the midpoint of the towed – rear axle. (t), (t) – coordinates of the joint of the bus. L – constant distance between midpoint of the rear axle and joint. k – constant distance between midpoint of the central axle and joint, see Fig. 1. The classical problem of kinematics is the computation of the speed V(t) and the acceleration vector A(t) of a body as a function of time when the location of the body is given by the functions P(t) = [X(t), Y(t)]]. The next step is the computation of the tangential acceleration At(t), which changes the absolute value of the velocity and the normal acceleration An(t), which changes the direction of the velocity. And fi nally, the function of the center of the osculation circle of the trajectory C(t) and its radius R(t) are derived. These functions can also be found in (BRAND 1947, SPALLEK 1980, OR WEBFYZ). The infl uence of the driver The driver controls the bus using the gas and the brake pedal – he controls the absolute value of the velocity of the bus |V(t)|. Furthermore – using the steering wheel he controls the radius of the osculating circle R(t), on which the bus is currently moving. For further calculations it is useful to use the inverse value of the radius of the osculation circle – the curvature of trajectory (t) = R(t)−1. By combining these two controls the bus driver keeps the bus moving smoothly on the road. MATERIALS AND METHODS Inverse problem Let us assume that we know the temporal behavior of driver's operations. Thus we know the functions of the speed magnitude |V(t)|= v(t) and curvature (t). 684 Tomas Krumpholc, Stanislav Bartoň Then the problem is to compute the trajectory of the bus and the related kinematics variables. For this we need to solve a non-linear system of two ordinary diff erential equations of second and fi rst order, they are solved in (BARTOŇ, 2011, or KRUMPHOLC, 2012). 2 2 ( ) X Y v t     ,  3 2 2 2 ( ) Y X X Y t X Y           . (1) A er some algebraic manipulations the equations (1) are transformed to an explicit system of two diff erential equations of order two:


Background: Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) contaminations of food have impact on human and animal health especially in sub-saharan Africa. However Animal model studies on the role of Aflatoxins in aggression behaviour is limited and this have implication for mental health and aggressive in children and emergent adults. Aims/Objective: The role of AFB1 in excessive territorial aggression behavior in Wistar rats was assessed. Material/Methods: Rodents in the experimental group (Group A, n = 6) were orally infused with AFB1 diluted in dimethylsulfoxide administered 0.3 mg/kg/day on days 1–12. Controls received distilled water similarly on days 1-12 days (Group B). For the observation, an intruder was introduced into the cage containing the residents who are experimental rats treated with aflatoxin and rats in the control treated with distilled water. Records of observations of territorial aggressive behaviors exhibited by the experimental and control rats toward the intruder were recorded. Each rat was given three trials of 5 min each. The study utilized the randomized blocked two-way ANOVA (factors timeline × treatment), followed by a post hoc analysis using Bonferroni correction to analyze the data, and statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: Findings demonstrated that exposure to aflatoxin significantly influenced aggressive behavior among Wistar rats F (1, 322) = 29.89, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.09. Aflatoxin-treated animals significantly exhibited more aggressive behavior than animals treated with distilled water (Bonferroni = 4.04, P < 0.001). Exposure time to aflatoxin interacted with treatment to significantly influence aggressive behavior among Wistar rats F (1, 322) = 3.26, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.10. The mean comparison reveals that there was no significant difference in aggressive behavior of the aflatoxin-treated and distilled water-treated rats from days 1–7. However, significant differences were observed from the 8th day onward to the 12th day. Aggressive behavior increased by 10% as the chronic exposure increases more than 7 days. Conclusion: Aflatoxin-induced toxicity in rodents influenced aggression through exacerbation of neurocognitive decline and brain biochemical distortions leading to aggressive behavior.


Background/Aim: This study aimed to investigate the clinicopathological, prognostic and molecular characteristics of uterine mesonephric-like carcinosarcoma (MLCS). Patients and Methods: We collected clinical, pathological, and genetic information from 12 MLCS patients, and analyzed their differences from mesonephric-like adenocarcinoma (MLA) and conventional endometrial carcinosarcoma (CECS). Results: The epithelial component was exclusively MLA in all MLCS cases. Metastatic and recurrent tumors consisted predominantly or exclusively of MLA in the majority of MLCS cases. Patients with MLCS and MLA presented with more advanced-stage disease than those with CECS. They also exhibited post-treatment recurrence and lung metastases more frequently than CECS. Disease-free survival rates of MLCS and MLA were shorter than those of CECS. Tumor protein 53 gene mutations were detected in four MLCS cases. Conclusion: The predominance or exclusive presence of MLA in metastatic and recurrent tumors highlights the possibility that MLA may determine the clinical outcomes of patients with MLCS. Further studies are required to provide direct molecular evidence of the monoclonal origin of uterine MLCS.


With the development of the computer network and the increment of the information Industrial Manufacture acquired,the demand for integration of the enterprise information system is growing quickly,OPC?XML and OPC XML-DA 1.0 specification released newly by OPC Foundation is introduced in this paper,each part makes up of the whole system based on the OPC and XML is also presented particularly.


The study aim to examine (1) The relationship directly of the anxiety to sport performance in competitive male's karateka kumite, (2) The relationship directly of the aggressivity to sport performance in competitive male's karateka kumite, (3) The relationship Indirect of the anxiety to sport performance in competitive male's karateka kumite. One hundred and three males karateka kumite (20 ± 2 years) participated in this study. Karateka were taken in Kejuaraan Nasional Antar Mahasiswa Sebelas Maret Cup VII in Surakarta. The research of methodology is the correlation descriptive. The results of study are (1) there is the relationship directly between the anxiety to sport performance in competitive male's karateka kumite. (2) there is the relationship directly between the aggressivity to sport performance in competitive male's karateka kumite. (3) there is the relationship indirectly between the anxiety to sport performance in competitive male's karateka kumite. The conclusion of this study, to achieve the anxiety and aggresivity exercises. Thus, hopefully the male karateka kumite can able to develop aggresivity and to control the behaviour of themself.


The aim of introducing agroforestry and community-based forestry is to secure and improve livelihoods, maintain and restore ecosystem services, and contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, the adoption and scaling up of these systems among food insecure communities have proved to be difficult. To better understand why, I identified barriers and bridges at different adoption stages and levels of governance. These were analysed using policy narratives and the sustainable livelihood approach in the light of sustainable development, sustainability and resilience of landscapes. The first stage was the negotiation process between the Swedish NGO Vi-Skogen and the Swedish International
Development Agency (Sida) about funding. Three explanatory approaches were used: organizational, power and context. Vi-Skogen and Sida were caught in policy
incompatibility dilemmas that slowed down the NGO policy process, and delayed critical changes that could have improved project outcomes. The second was Vi-Skogen's agroforestry project in Tanzania's Mara Region. A random sample of 21 households was drawn from each of 89 project villages. The proportion of households with surviving agroforestry trees varied from 10-90 % among villages.
Field training and visits to farmers with good practices were important for households to start planting trees. Local collaboration, perceived ownership of trees and benefits of trees for crop production were additional factors important for households' decision to continue with agroforestry practices. The third was eleven
community-based forest producer and user groups (CBFGs) in eastern and southern Africa. Development of many groups had stagnated and few had managed to develop large scale value-added production. I identified eight barriers and four bridges that influenced the scaling up process of agroforestry and community based forestry among food insecure households. All resulted from interactions
among social, political, and economic structures and processes at multiple levels of governance. It is concluded that these interactions influenced the scaling up process and the development of sustainable subsistence systems among food insecure households. Collaborative knowledge production and learning is an approach through which the social capital and organisational capacity of the food insecure households can grow, enabling them to constructively address these multidimensional interactions to work in their favour. The use of this approach, i.e. a landscape approach, holds the opportunity through which subsistence systems can be transformed from causing degradation to promote sustainable development and livelihoods.


ObjectiveTo estimate the level of flt 3 ligand(FL) in cord blood of neonates with maternal pregnancy induced hypertension syndrome(PIH), and to explore the relationship between FL level, neutrophile count in peripheral blood and maternal PIH. MethodsFL level in the cord blood serum of 46 neonates with maternal PIH and 32 neonates born by normotensive mothers was measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), additionally, neutrophile in infants' peripheral blood was counted. Results①To non PIH group, FL level ( 69.9 ± 9.5 ) ng/L in the PIH group was significantly higher, but the neutrophile count was significantly lower. ②Compared with non PIH group, FL level in severe PIH group and severe PIH complicated with pre eclapsia group was significantly higher; but there was no significant increase in the slight moderate PIH group. ③The level of FL in cord blood was negatively related to the neutrophile count. ConclusionThe infants with maternal PIH had higher FL level in their cord blood, which increased with the advancing of maternal PIH, and negatively related to neutrophil count.


Ci-iAiM Berlin of Tel-Aviv states it is now the accepted view of dermatologists that Dermatitis Herpetiformis in childhood is rare. A case is reported in a female child, aged three. K.G. was flrst seen on May 30, 1957. The mother gave the following history: "Three weeks ago Kay had 'chicken pox', and then on Sunday (May 26) this rash appeared all over her." Nothing relevant was revealed in the family Mstory. She had not had a temperature, nor had she any history of drug taking.


Black individuals use social media at higher rates than their racial counterparts, and these relationships often promote favorable group-based outcomes. However, quantitative examinations of these relationships are lacking. Using a cross-sectional U.S. Black adult sample (N = 295) and applying social identity gratifications, the present work examines individuals' social media use, racial adherence, perceptions of group vitality, and motivations toward collective action. Results suggest that racial adherence positively mediates the relationship between identity-focused social media use and perceptions of group vitality. Moreover, this relationship is positively related to individuals' motivations to engage in collective action on behalf of Black communities.


An infinite series of (3,6) cages is defined by trivalent carbon polyhedra composed of hexagonal and four triangular rings. A zone-folding construction is applied to the graphene band structure to yield explicit expressions for the \ensuremath{\pi}-molecular orbitals, energies, and symmetries of the cages that depend only on four indices m, n, p, and q. Leapfrog members of the series $(m\ensuremath{-}n=0$ mod 3 and $p\ensuremath{-}q=0$ mod 3) have closed shells in a neutral form with two filled nonbonding orbitals; all others have closed shells as dications. Quantum chemical calculations on ${\mathrm{C}}_{12},$ ${\mathrm{C}}_{48},$ and ${\mathrm{C}}_{52}^{2+}$ confirm this result. Embedding relationships are proved for the spectra of (3,6) cages related by inflation transformations corresponding to stretching and rotation of the polyhedral net.


Analyzing national survey data, we found that workers in traditionally blue-collar industries (service jobs, farming, construction, and transportation) experienced the largest gains in health insurance after implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014. Compared to other occupations, these had lower employer-based coverage rates before the ACA. Most of the post-ACA coverage gains came from Medicaid and directly purchased nongroup insurance.


The category of the 'postmodern' is our first glimpse of the historical emergence of a field of post-Romantic aesthetics. The cultural theory of the 1970's ... demonstrated the impossibility of the modernist ideal of art as a sphere of 'higher' values, independent of history, social forms, and the unconscious; this same theory has undermined the modernist dogma that 'visual art' is a mode of symbolisation independent of other symbolic systems .... [M]odernist pretensions to artistic independence have been further subverted by the demonstration of the necessarily 'intertextual' nature of the production of meaning; we can no longer unproblematically assume that 'Art' is somehow 'outside' of the complex of other representational practices and institutions with which it is contemporary-particularly, today, those which constitute what we so problematically call the 'mass-media'. ... 'Art theory,' understood as those interdependent forms of art history, aesthetics, and criticism, which began in the Enlightenment and culminated in the recent period of 'high modernism,' is now at an end. In our present so-called 'postmodern' era the end of art theory now is identical with the objectives of theories of representations in general: a critical understanding of the modes and means of symbolic articulation of our critical forms of sociality and subjectivity.1 (204)


Contributor names and short CVs • Lotte Belice Baltussen. Project manager at the Research & Development department at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum, the Netherlands. • Lilia Pérez Romero. Interaction Designer, User Experience Specialist, PhD candidate at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. • Lyndon Nixon. Senior researcher in the New Media Technology group at the MODUL University in Vienna, Austria. • Lynda Hardman. Coordinator of the Information Theme, a member of the institute's management team and a member of the Information Access research group at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.


. We consider homogeneous spaces of functions defined on the real axis (or semi-axis) with values in a complex Banach space. We study the new class of almost periodic at infinity functions from homogeneous spaces. The main results of the article are connected to harmonic analysis of those functions. We give four definitions of an almost periodic at infinity function from a homogeneous space and prove them to be equivalent. We also introduce the concept of a Fourier series with slowly varying at infinity coef-ficients (neither necessarily constant nor necessarily having a limit at infinity). It is proved that the Fourier coefficients of almost periodic at infinity function from a homogeneous space (not necessarily continuous) can be chosen continuous. Moreover, they can be extended on C to bounded entire functions of exponential type. Besides, we prove the summability of Fourier series by the method of Bochner-Fejer. The results were received with essential use of isometric representations and Banach modules theory.


Disclosed are a solar collection apparatus and a steam generator including the same. The solar collection apparatus includes a housing having an open upper surface; a dual glass plate coupled with the upper surface of the housing and formed therein with a storage space for receiving and storing water, in which solar light is transmitted through the dual glass plate; a first mirror fixed to a lower surface of the housing to collect and reflect the solar light transmitted through the dual glass plate; a second mirror fixed in the housing to reflect the solar light reflected from the first mirror; and an optical fiber having a first end located in the housing to receive the solar light reflected from the second mirror and a second end connected to a place of use to transmit the solar light to the place of use.


To the Editor: In a recent issue of Critical Care Medicine, Freeman et al (1) conclude that the mortality of patients who need extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has a reverse relationship with the center's volume of cases. One cannot argue that ECMO cannulation is a risky procedure and an experienced practitioner is expected to have better results than an inexperienced one. However, this variable is not reported in the article. All the included patients were already placed on ECMO. secreted into the proximal renal tubule, such that CL CR measures will generally exceed the true GFR. In this respect, assuming a GFR of 125 mL/min/1.73 m and 20% tubular creatinine secretion (4), a CL CR measure of 150 mL/min/1.73 m might be considered normal. In those with ARC on day 1, we observed a mean CL CR (95% CI) of 172 mL/min/1.73 m (164–181 mL/min/1.73 m) (Supplemental Appendix A in [2]), suggesting augmented tubular secretion, an increase in filtration, or both. The assertion that this likely represents an increase in GFR is based on the association between augmented CL CR and suboptimal concentrations of β-lactams (5), and vancomycin (6), both of which are primarily cleared by glomerular filtration. The alternate suggestion that this may represent early occult chronic kidney disease is interesting, although the high prevalence of ARC observed would suggest otherwise. Rather we propose this as a transient phenomenon, linked with the underlying inflammatory state, as recently demonstrated by Shimamoto et al (7). As implied, ARC will greatly impact the pharmacokinetics of renally eliminated antibacterial agents, predisposing to subtherapeutic drug exposure. We agree that many factors, including an expanded volume of distribution, distorted protein binding, and altered drug clearance, may contribute to such variability in the critically ill. Therapeutic drug monitoring is therefore a useful tool to combat this heterogeneity. Unfortunately for many agents, such technology is unlikely to be widely available at the bedside for some time, such that ongoing research to identify clinical variables that may assist in optimizing drug exposure is warranted. Our study essentially serves to remind the clinician that an assessment of renal function should focus on more than simply identifying acute kidney injury. In scenarios where ARC is likely, consideration may be given to empirical dose escalation, particularly with less susceptible organisms, although we would rather suggest systematic study of such an approach in the critically ill. Dr. Udy is employed by Alfred Health and lectured for Pfizer Inc. (speakers fees, accommodation, and travel). His institution received grant support from the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Research Foundation (research scholarship and project grants) and The University of Queensland (project grants). Dr. Baptista received support for travel from Pfizer (European Congress 2013; Intensive Care Medicine). Dr. Lipman served as board member for the Bayer ESICM Advisory Board; consulted for Merk Sharp Dohme, Pfizer Australia, and AstraZeneca; received grant support from AstraZeneca; and lectured for AstraZeneca and Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd. The remaining authors have disclosed that they do not have any potential conflicts of interest.


This study was conducted to determine the level of awareness and acceptability among students, facu lty, administrative staff and other stakeholders on the vision, mission, goals and objectives of Eastern Samar Stat e University. A descriptive survey method of research was followe d involving randomly selected students and faculty fr om the different colleges of ESSU Salcedo campus. Assessm ent of administrative staff and other stakeholders were al so determined. Data were collected using a researcher -made questionnaire which was designed from the vision an d mission of the institutions, goals of each college, and program objectives of every curricular offerings of ESSU Sa lcedo Campus. Data were analyzed using mean to determine their level of awareness and acceptability of the VMGO. Results of the study revealed that students are gen rally "much aware" of the vision and mission of the university. In addition, they are "very much aware" of the goals of the college and program objectives. In terms of their l evel of acceptance, students "like very much" the instituti on's vision and mission; college goals; and program objectives. On the other hand, faculty members are "very much aware" and they "like very much" the vision and mission of the institution. Furthermore, they "like extremely" the goals of the college as well as objectives of the specifi curricular programs. The administrative staff were found "much aware" and "like very much" the vision and mission of the inst itution. Lastly, other stakeholders are "aware" and "like very much" the existing vision and mission of the institution. These findings are indicative that with proper dissemination, students, faculty, staff and other s takeholders are informed of the VMGO of the university with high level of acceptance.


The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has amended its advice on the management of outbreaks of suspected botulism in sheep and goats. This follows recommendations in a report by the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF). The change brings the FSA's advice in line with the


The effect of Nigella sativa cake (NSC) (capsules after oil extraction) on growth performance of Ossimi lambs, nutritive values and feed conversion were studied in a feeding trial. The NSC was included at 0, 12.5, 25 and 37.5% of the tested diets replacing concentrate feed mixture (CFM) formulating four dietary treatments. The control diet consisted of 75% CFM + 25% sugar cane bagasse (SCB). Twenty four growing ossimi male lambs of 21 ± 1 kg live body weight were distributed into four similar groups. Each group was fed one of the four different dietary treatments in feeding period which lasted 90 days. Results of digestibility revealed that NSC improved significantly (P≤0.05) organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), crude fiber (CF) and nitrogen free extract (NFE). Nutritive values followed the same pattern. While, lambs daily gain, feed consumption and feed conversion were not significantly affected. Economical evaluation was in favor of NSC diets especially at 37.5% level.


In this article, we aim to present an illustrative case study concerning civic engagement of Romanian universities. Some of the initiatives of the Department of International Relations and European Integration (DIREI) of the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration are analyzed. We believe that DIREI's initiatives could be considered good practices examples and could provide useful guidelines for developing university civic responsive role.


This research studies how firms and NGOs achieve fit for implementing practices that create value in socially sustainable supply chain. We elaborate a conceptual framework that identifies the factors that allow firms and NGOs to achieve fit. Previous research suggests that the study of truly sustainable chains should include the collaboration with non-economic stakeholders and the study of innovative practices. To address our research purposes, we study a nested case study made of two level of analysis: the dyad and the organizational level. The case is an international project launched by a NGO to alleviate poverty among poor producers in Latin America.


First, Do No Harm Lisa Belkin. 270 pages. New York: Simon and Schuster; 1993. $23.00. Journalists don't always get it right, but sometimes they do. In Lisa Belkin's First, Do No Harm, this particular journalist does manage to get most of it right. After 3 years closely observing the inner workings of the Hermann Hospital Ethics Committee, as well as interviewing patients and their families, she has woven a heartrending series of ethically charged clinical vignettes. These are real people with real stories, and interestingly real names are used in all but rare instances. The challenging medical problems she describes are the complex illnesses in which uncertainty of outcome and quality of life issues, present and future, fuse to create the very dilemmas hospital ethics committees were intended to help clarify. If a minor defect can be found in Ms. Belkin's approach, it is in waiting until the end of the book to provide the details of the most confounding case to face the Hermann Hospital Ethics Committee. The details of the Committee's deliberations over the distress of what the parents should do with their newborn son, a premature child who suffers from the immediate danger of infection and the long-term quality-of-life concerns of spina bifida, is vivid enough to force the most callous reader to pause. Before this case is described, much of what interests Ms. Belkin in the Ethics Committee centers around its nurse chairman, and although she is an interesting individual, one wonders if more time might have been profitably spent with the Committee's deliberative process. However, the ethical tensions surrounding this child with spina bifida forces the reader to try and decide what he or she would do as a parent if faced with the probable poor outcome for this severely deformed youngster. How lucky we are all made to feel not to have to make the decision faced by the parents of this child. More time spent on the details of such burdensome cases would have been welcome. Several different patients are described in an extraordinarily readable style. With the skill of a short story writer, Ms. Belkin confidently moves from one sad tale to another, and then back again as new troublesome developments beset her subjects, their families, the hospital staff, and the Ethics Committee. Often she writes about children whose attachment to life literally hangs by a technologic thread, whether it is the 15-year-old surviving a constantly infected intravenous feeding catheter or a premature infant whose claim on life is constantly negotiated through the medium of a ventilator. In addition to the riveting and noteworthy case histories that we come to know in great detail, this book comes with a bonus lesson in health economics. Ms. Belkin touches on some of the health care costs that escalate unmercifully for a hospital whose patients are permanently paralyzed or in need of continuous respiratory support from a ventilator. You may even start to understand why the rest of us pay $5 for an aspirin tablet. If you have a copy of this book you probably will not want to set it down until you are finished. Not only does the prose and the substance of what Ms. Belkin describes grab you, but, if this book is left alone, one of your close associates will quickly become attached to the real-life tales contained therein.


This paper presents a method for users to monitor their heart rate conveniently. It becomes necessary for individuals to know their heart rate because of the fact that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world, especially in developing countries. Heart rate measurement is an indication of how healthy the heart is. This heart rate monitor (HRM) uses the technique of reflectance photoplethysmography (PPG) to detect the pulse from the fingertip, filter and amplify the pulse using two-stage OP-Amp, count and decodes the pulse with the aid of a microcontroller and display the output in beats per minutes (BPM) on an LCD. The device is easy to use, cheap and portable compared to the expensive ones available that also requires medical expertise. It can be used by athletes and anybody to monitor the state of their heart rate with negligible error.


reactions to antituberculosisdrugs affect up to 5% of treated patients (1).This case report describes a commondiagnostic strategy leading to thedemonstration that rifampicin was the causeof reaction, and to an unsuccessfulintravenous desensitization procedure.A 53-year-old patient was referred to ouroutpatient clinic to start antituberculosistreatmentbecause of cervicaltuberculouslymphadenopathy.His habits includedalcohol intake (100 cc daily) and cigarettesmoking (one pack daily). There were nohistory of atopic disease, other antibioticsensitivity, or previous treatment withantituberculosis medications. Besides thelymphadenopathy, there were no symptoms,no sign at examination, and no weight lossor fever. Biologic measurements were asfollows: SGPT=59 IU/ml, SGOT=35 IU/ml, gamma GT=235 IU/ml, serumcreatinine=10 #129;mg/l, serumurea=0.43 g/l. Blood count was normal.Ophthalmologic examination was normal.Antituberculosis treatment includingRifater


The invention discloses a method for preparing 2-hydroxybenzonitrile from ammonium salicylate as a raw material, comprising the following steps of: introducing ammonia gas or ammonia water to a salicylic acid slurry until the pH of the solution is 7.5-13.0, then evaporating to obtain ammonium salicylate solid; forming a mixture from the ammonium salicylate solid, urea, sulfamic acid, a catalyst and a solvent, wherein the catalyst is prepared from 0.0001-10 of magnesium oxide, 0.0001-5 of aluminum oxide, 0.0001-8 of calcium oxide, 0.0001-8 of silicon oxide and 0.0001-10 of artificial zeolite, and the solvent is prepared from 0.0001-10 of o-methyl phenol, 0.0001-6 of p-methyl phenol, 0.0001-8 of diethylene glycol, 0.0001-9 of methyl salicylate, 0.0001-10 of diphenyl oxide and 0.0001-12 of dichlorophenol; and after insulating at 150-180 DEG C for 0.5-10.0 hours and insulating at 190-260 DEG C for 0.5-10.0 hours, filtering or centrifuging the material, evaporating to remove the solvent, crystallizing, recrystallizing, and drying to obtain the 2-hydroxybenzonitrile product of which the mass percentage composition is greater than 90%.


The development intensity refers to the ratio of the building area to the total area in one region.It is not only a key guideline which needs to be measured in Major Function Oriented Zoning,but also a basic means to control the total area of construction and to optimize the spatial structure.Although the basic ideas and formula of measuring the development intensity are clearer,there are many issues which need to be exploring,such as specific database based on GIS,measuring technical line,conclusion expression and so on.Based on VM-MapInfo,this paper accounts the development intensity of all regions taking an example of Dalia City.By adopting basic ideas,working process and technique methods,it is a useful method that resolves the technical questions to deduct elevation limit construction,kinds of agriculture and other limit construction uses during the regional development intensity reckoning.It has the important guiding sense to survey the region development intensity.By measuring,Dalian current situation construction land,future construction land,surplus construction land are 1333km2,3237km2,1904km2,and the corresponding development intensity,the future potential intensity,the surplus development intensity respectively are10.4%,25.1%,14.8%.First,the southern areas of Dalian City,especially the construction land of three districts,Ganjingzi District is developed already "excessive ".It also has certain area not suitable for urban and industry building.Second,future construction land mainly distributes in the northeast area of Dalian City.It considers building industrial development area and population gathering area in construction concentrate area.Third,future construction land includes three types which are coast abandoned salt field and tidelands,countryside residential area and unutilized ground.The conclusions instruct Dalian's spatial layout in optimizing and guiding the construction of the industrial park,urbanization overall arrangement,the cultivated land and basic farmland protection.


Scale is a key issue in the spatial and environmental sciences. In this paper, we retrieved the sun-view geometries of each slope element of Badain Jaran Desert using ASTER GDEM data. Combined with the 30m resolution of Landsat ETM+ data, the characteristic of directional reflection of land surface reflectance was discussed. Then we derived a simplified physical BRDF model assuming that the main radiation source of land surface is direct solar radiation, and calculated the land surface reflectance of spatial resolutions from 30m to 500m and 1000m, which is compared with the results calculated by MODIS BRDF products in given sun-view geometries. Linear-regression analyses were performed to simulate and analyze scale characteristics. Moreover, some factors, such as solar zenith angle and azimuth angle, are taking into account for its fitting precision. The results show that our model is more precise in visible band than in nearinfrared and short-wave infrared bands, in which the sky diffuse radiation and adjacent terrain radiation cannot be ignored.


Abstract The peel test is a simple mechanical test commonly used to measure the adhesion of flexible films bonded to rigid substrates. When the film is deformed elastically during peeling, the peel force is a direct measure of the strength of the interface. However, when plastic deformation takes place, the work of detachment is much larger than the thermodynamic work of forming the fracture surfaces. Simultaneous mechanical and calorimetric measurements of the work of detachment and the heat generated during the peeling of polymeric films from metal substrates and metal films from polymeric substrates have been made. An energy balance for peeling has been proposed. Most of the work of peeling was consumed by plastic deformation. The peeled polymer dissipated approximately one half of the work of peeling as heat and most of the remainder was stored in the peeled material. The peeled metal dissipated most of the work of peeling as heat.


Abstract The irrecoverable deformations in the substructure layers are detrimental to the track stability and demand frequent maintenance. With an escalation in axle load and traffic volume, the fr...


PRICES OF RAW MATERIALS; PART IV - CHEMICAL, CERAMIC AND RELATED RAW MATERIALS AND THOSE FOR INDUSTRY OF ABRASIVE MATERIALS AND EARTH PAINTS

.


This research aims to understand and address the barriers that disabled, older and chronically ill people face when accessing WASH in Zambia and Uganda. A mid-term review was conducted to assess how the approach impacted on the lives of the target group. A process review was carried out to understand how the approach was developed and implemented. Findings demonstrate that the inclusive WASH approach has improved vulnerable people's WASH access, though barriers still exist. The approach may have had a positive impact on stigma and discrimination, dignity and self-esteem of vulnerable individuals, but older people continue to face disproportionate levels of discrimination due to decreased mobility and ill health. Vulnerable people's participation in the intervention is lower than expected, though activities to improve this have been identified. This paper captures findings from both reviews, analyses emerging trends and makes recommendations for practitioners attempting to reduce inequalities in WASH access.


Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods have shown their effectiveness in data assimilation for wildfire simulation; however, when errors of wildfire simulation models are extremely large or rare events happen, the current SMC methods have limited impacts on improving the simulation results. The major problem lies in the proposal distribution that is commonly chosen as the system transition prior in order to avoid difficulties in importance weight updating. In this article, we propose a more effective proposal distribution by taking advantage of information contained in sensor data, and also present a method to solve the problem in weight updating. Experimental results demonstrate that a SMC method with this proposal distribution significantly improves wildfire simulation results when the one with a system transition prior proposal fails.


Lithium was the first effective psychotropic drug avalaible 3-4 years
before chlorpromazine and almost a decade before antidepressants.
An Australian psychiarist, John Cade, who proposed toxic products in
the urine as the cause of mania, coincidentally discovered the
antimanic effects of lithium. In 1949, John Cade reported the results of
administration of lithium salts to patients with psychotic excitement for
the first time. On the 50th anniversary of John Cade?s historical article
entitled ?Lithium salts in the treatment of psychotic excitement?, many
articles were published and lectures given all over the world to salute
this important advance in psychiatry and psychopharmacology. We
would like to present the interesting history of lithium and also discuss
current findings regarding the clinical usage and mechanism of
actions of lithium once more to celebrate the 55th year of its usage in
psychiatry.


Peer-review is a necessary and essential quality control step for scientific publications. However, the process, which is very costly in terms of time investment, not only is not remunerated but it's also not recognized by the academic community as a relevant scientific output for a researcher. Therefore, scientific dissemination is affected. Here, to solve this issue we propose a blockchain-based incentive protocol that rewards scientists also for their contributions to other scientists' work and that builds up a reputational system. We designed a basic Bounty-like contract called AntsReview that allows any author to issue a call for peer-reviewing their scientific publication. If requirements are met, peer-reviews will be audited by an external editor and payed by the Issuer. To promote ethical behaviour the system will implement a quadratic funding on AntsReview.


What does it mean to write with pain? This is the fundamental question that Michael D. Snediker asks his readers to confront in Contingent Figure: Chronic Pain and Queer Embodiment. "To be competent to speak of pain," Sharon Cameron proposes in Beautiful Work (2000), "is to speak of pain that isn't yours. This requires experiencing pain that is yours. Pain experienced as if it were your own." This set of propositions, which Snediker recalls in the final chapter, captures his book's premise, as well as its project. Contingent Figure indeed dwells in the space of "self-distance" where chronic pain is experienced "as if" it were one's own (212), and it views literary texts as the very medium where the "as if" of pain—its intimate dialectics of identification and othering—is at work, where it is figured in the act of writing and felt in the act of reading.


Viewing-angle controllable liquid crystal display (LCD) without using an additional panel or pixel division is proposed. In the device, hybrid aligned nematic liquid crystal using a liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy is used. The device shows narrow viewing angle when it is driven only by fringe-electric field, however, it exhibits wide viewing angle if driven by vertical- as well as fringe-electric field. With the approach, the viewing angle of the LCD can be controlled from 120° to 20° in horizontal direction.


Author(s): Bergstrom, Theodore C. | Abstract: What can our evolutionary history tell us about the economics of the family. This paper explores the implications of the partially coincident, partially opposed reproductive interests of family members.


Objective
To evaluate the application value of interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) in tuberculosis diagnosis, and to explore the related cut-off value of the diagnosis of active tuberculosis.

Methods
Selecting patients who have taken IGRA test from department of respiratory medicine and tuberculosis clinic, calculating IGRA diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and analyzing the possible causes of false positive.In addition, the positive results of IGRA were selected to explore a quantitative boundary value (cut-off value) for the identification of active tuberculosis and false positive results.

Results
The sensitivity and specificity of IGRA detection in IGRA were obtained from the IGRA test samples of department of respiratory medicine and tuberculosis clinic in 2017 were 84.7% and 78.6%, respectively.The positive predictive value was 28.1%, and the negative predictive value was 98.1%.Old tuberculosis was an important risk factor that resulted in false positive results of IGRA.The diagnostic boundary value (cut-off value) of the quantitative test results based on IGRA positive sample was 80.2.

Conclusions
IGRA has high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis, and it has higher diagnostic value, but its positive predictive value is lower, which means higher false positive rate.For IGRA test positive samples, the patients who did not indicate TB can be assisted by the IGRA quantitative results, and 80.2 as the cut-off value to provide the reference basis of differential diagnosis.

Key words:
Interferon-gamma release assay; Tuberculosis; Cut-off value


Today, molecular diagnostic methods have unignorably position in diagnostic laboratories. It is estimated that 60-70% of all decisions depend to molecular diagnostic procedures. However, many of Iranian physicians have not fully trusted to them specifically to those newly developed protocols yet. In necessary cases they are requesting some available confirmatory tests to carry on simultaneously for final decision.Aim of This short study is going to review the causes of uncertainty this attitude and current challenges in Iranian clinical centers. All influential items from the role of providing materials and equipment and supplying routs, up to the reliability and validity of released the patients reports will be looked up. Significant parameters including those related to pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical have been checked one by one. Causes of current limitations were discussed based on released documents and reported periodical inspection according to the published standardized criteria. The outcome clearly indicates the necessity of basic revisions in some parts of involved authority bodies.


The continuing challenge of Title VII is, in a way, a personal theme for both of us. One of us was admitted to the bar shortly before the passage of Title VII,t and during each week of his practice since the effective date of Title VII, July 2, 1965, he has worked on one or more Title VII actions. The other has worked on Title VII cases since 1971. Nevertheless, we do not want to dwell on the particular issues involved in the cases with which we have been associated; rather, we will review the general progress, or lack thereof, during the past two decades, and related developments in Title VII law. Moreover, we will step back and make some observations regarding these twenty years in the history of our country's attempt to deal with the effects of slavery, racial segregation, and discrimination. Finally, we will comment on the debate today regarding Title VII civil rights law and policy generally and examine the important role the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) needs to play in the evolution of Title VII policy.


Nowadays, technology-enhanced learning systems must have the ability to reuse learning resources from distributed repositories, to be context-aware, adaptive and based on substantial advances in pedagogical theories and knowledge models. We focus on learning systems using a problem-based learning approach represented by scenarios. Our main contribution is a semantic and didactic-based model of scenarios for designing an adaptive and context-aware learning System. The scenario model is acquired from: i) the know-how and real practices of teachers (inquiry based science teaching); ii) the theory in didactic anthropology of knowledge of Chevallard; iii) a hierarchical task model.


Current groupware systems do not work well over wireless networks, as a wireless connection is of variable and often poor quality. Our research suggests a number of changes that allow groupware applications to make efficient use of a wireless channel. One fundamental change is providing adaptability, which allows applications to take advantage of favourable network conditions and to react to difficult conditions as they occur. Our experiments with a multi user text editor revealed several strategies for adaptive groupware. Applying these strategies demonstrated a bandwidth reduction in one scenario of over 90%.


The differences of the load-bearing state and the intensity were considered between steel and concrete while a structure collapsing.A common node separate model was adopted to simulate the collapse process of a reinforced concrete structure by using the finite element analysis software ANSYS/LS-DYNA.A series of analysis were carried out for the failure processes of the steel and concrete elements inside and outside the steel-reinforced concrete support pillars.And the simulated results were compared with the actual blasting results.It is shown that the common node separate model can describe the load failure differences between steel and concrete in the collapse process of the reinforced concrete structures.And it is feasible that the common node separate model is used to simulate the collapse process of the reinforced concrete structures.


4 Bedrooms Bedrooms 12 Rooms Rooms With 2 Bathrooms Bathrooms Rental For Rent Palm Trail In 22931 Palm Trail Drive, Katy, Texas 77494


Bitolterol, (3–4 diester colterol) is a new β2‐adrenergic agonist. Since it in itself is biologically inactive, bitolterol is considered a pro‐drug. When administered it is activated within the lung by esterase hdyrolysis to the active compound colterol catecholamine N‐t‐butyl‐arterenol). In preclinical and clinical studies to date, bitolterol has proved to be an effective bronchodilator for adult and pediatric patients with chronic stable asthma and for some with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.


John MacFarlane's truth relativism (2005, 2007, 2011, 2014) makes use of two notions of propositional truth: a monadic assessment sensitive one taken to be our ordinary truth notion, and a non-monadic one that is meant to account for the assessment sensitivity of the former notion. Some authors (Cappelen and Hawthorne, 2009, 2011; Montminy, 2009; Soames, 2011) contend that any theory introducing a technical non-monadic truth notion has to make sense of it (i.e. show that it is a truth notion) by defining or characterizing it in terms of ordinary monadic truth. First, I give some reasons why the relativist should not discard this approach to make sense of the notion of truth relative to a context of assessment. Second, I argue that an illuminating characterization of this notion must provide an answer to a dilemma Paul Boghossian (2011) poses to the relativist. Third, I single out the characterization that can answer this dilemma. Finally, I contend that the relativist still needs to show that this solution works for each case subject to a relativist treatment.


Based on the image method and superposition method, the calculation model of ampacity of 35kV Cable laid in power pipe is established. According to the model, the ampacity of 8-Circuit cable in different arrangement forms of power pipe is calculated, and the variation of ampacity under 6×4 arrangement, 4×6 arrangement, 3×8 arrangement and 2×12 arrangement is analyzed, thus the recommended arrangement form of power pipe based on ampacity maximization is proposed.


The invention provides a wastewater treatment method and wastewater treatment device, and the wastewater treatment method comprises the following steps: first, the wastewater to be treated is introduced, by a nickel reduction storage tank, into a treatment tank, the pH of the wastewater to be treated in the treatment tank is enhanced, a coagulation agent is added, and the wastewater to be treated is precipitated to obtain nickel containing sludge and filtrate. The invention also provides the wastewater treatment device using the wastewater treatment method, and the wastewater treatment device comprises the nickel reduction storage tank, the treatment tank, a dewatering device, a filtrate groove, at least one pumps and a plurality of pipelines. Through the above configuration, the wastewater treatment device uses the characteristic that minimum solubility of nickel metal in the wastewater occurs at about pH = 10.5 to improve separation rate of the nickel metal in circuit board process waste liquid for satisfaction of environmental protection standards.


PURPOSE: A wide range temperature control system of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus using a thermoelectric device is provided to improve energy efficiency by using a heat exchanger in a refrigerant tank. CONSTITUTION: A heat exchanger(220) exchanges heat with the collected refrigerant. A heater(210) is formed in a refrigerant tank(200). A circulating unit circulates the collected refrigerant in the refrigerant tank. A refrigerant variable valve varies a refrigerant path. A temperature managing unit divides a temperature control region into a plurality of parts. [Reference numerals] (200) Coolant tank; (210) Heater; (220) Heat exchanger; (250) Pump; (AA) Load recovery; (BB) Load supply


Therapeutic interventions for intervertebral disc herniation remain scarce due to the inability of endogenous annulus fibrosus (AF) cells to respond to injury and drive tissue regeneration. Unlike other orthopaedic tissues, such as cartilage, delivery of exogenous cells to the site of annular injury remains underdeveloped, largely due to a lack of an ideal cell source and the invasive nature of cell isolation. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be differentiated to specific cell fates using biochemical factors and are, therefore, an invaluable tool for cell therapy approaches. While differentiation protocols have been developed for cartilage and fibrous connective tissues (e.g., tendon), the signals that regulate the induction and differentiation of human iPSCs towards the annulus fibrosus fate remain unknown. Here, we screened a number of candidate factors (and their combinations) and assessed the transcriptomic signatures of key signaling factors involved in embryonic AF development and differentiated function. The transcriptional signatures of treated cells were compared to those of mature human AF cells, and conditions that promoted expression of annulus fibrosus extracellular matrix genes and key transcription factors involved in embryonic AF development were identified. These findings represent an initial approach to guide human induced pluripotent stem cells towards an annulus fibrosus-like fate for cellular delivery strategies.


The present invention relates to a method of separating the antibody from other compound (s) in the liquid sample, the mobile phase containing the sample here is a multiple of the antibody to adsorb the stay does not desired compound while leaving the glass in a liquid-mode separation It is contacted with a matrix, wherein the multi-mode separation matrix comprises a first group, and the target compound and the charge that can interact with the charged portion and a negatively target compound capable of interacting at least one non-charge interactions the second group comprises a. The present invention also provides the above-described multi-relates to a filter having a mode-mode separation matrix filled with a chromatography column, and the multi-adsorbed on their surface. Antibody purification, a multi-mode separation matrix, chromatography, adsorption


Food products are a top priority on the UK's climat e change agenda. Little evidence has been provided so far to understand where greenhouse gases are emitted in the international supply chain. However, such knowledge is a precondition for effective climate change policies. Following Peters and Hertw ich (2006) we apply structural path analysis in a generalised multi-regional input-outp ut model to identify GHG emission hotspots in the international supply chain of two f ood products (product groups) consumed in the UK (meats and oils). To do so, sect oral GHG emission accounts for 87 countries and regions are constructed using the GTA P database. We compare the results


Oppenheimer's paper "The Life-Cycle Squeeze: The Interaction of Men's Occupational and Family Life Cycles" in the May 1974 issue of Demography deserves comment. She finds that, depending on their occupation, men's earnings peak at different ages. Relating this finding to the pattern of family growth over the family life cycle, she argues that the earnings of many husbands, particularly those in low status occupations, level off or decline before the child-rearing expenses of their families have peaked. Hence, she infers, there is in these families a growing gap between child-rearing expenses and the husband-father's income. This gap, she concludes, is surely an important determinant of wives' labor force participation, especially when they have children of high school or college age. She believes this argument helps account for the relatively high labor force participation rate of wive.s in their forties. In her effort to ascertain the covariation of income and expense over the family life cycle, Oppenheimer used 1960 cross-sectional data as an approximation of cohort data. In respect to the time pattern of men's earnings, this approximation is particularly questionable. The various birth cohorts in this cross-sectional analysis are of different size, and they have obtained increasing amounts of education. Both factors influence the starting level of income and the subsequent rate and pattern of income change. Carter and Glick (1970, p. 206), therefore, properly "caution against an uncritical interpretation of the age pattern of median income for MSP [married spouse-present] men in 1960 as being typical of changes in relative financial status throughout the marital cycle." Although there seems to be less reason to question the approximation of family life-cycle variation with respect to the presence and age of children, it would be desirable to assemble what cohort data are available: to check this point to some extent. But whether cohort or cross-sectional data are used, the meaning of information on the presence and age of children is ambiguous in an important respect. The older the children, so long as they are dependent, the more expensive they are. Other things equal, this tends to motivate mothers to earn money. However, the older the children, the les,s child care they need. Other things equal, this tends to facilitate mothers' labor force participation. The problem, then, is how to identify the separate effects of these two determinants of the labor force participation of wives. The solution requires different measures of child-care expense and maternal child-care responsibility. Ideally, neither of these measures should consist of the data on the presence and age of children. Since, however, it would probably be difficult to measure maternal child-care responsibility without such data, it would be practical to use them but to, measure child-rearing expense differently. Other


The paper deals with a model of the allocation and reliability problem. This static problem, presented as a multistage decision process, can be solved using multiobjective dynamic programming. The goal of this paper is to formulate the allocation and reliability problem as a multistage decision process, to find the set of all its efficient solutions, to use the weighted sum method for multistage and single-stage criteria, as well as to perform sensitivity analysis.


To the Editor: The EMBRACE (30-Day Cardiac Event Monitor Belt for Recording Atrial Fibrillation after a Cerebral Ischemic Event) study by Gladstone and colleagues1 and the CRYSTAL AF (Cryptogenic Stroke and Underlying AF) study by Sanna and colleagues2 (both in the June 26 issue) raise the important issue of prolonged monitoring for the detection of atrial fibrillation after stroke. However, because both studies involved monitoring after incident stroke, the direction of causation (i.e., atrial fibrillation leading to stroke versus stroke leading to atrial fibrillation) cannot be determined. Indeed, arrhythmias and increased mortality have been reported after insular infarction, particularly on the right side.3,4 In these studies, further stratification according to location of the lesion might be informative.


In this letter, we consider the robustness of the mismatched filter in presence of off-grid target. Since for an off-grid target, the received sampled signal differs from the on-grid signal, the mismatched filter as optimized in the literature is not optimal anymore, and in particular may present a deteriorated sidelobe level. We propose here a general optimization program enabling to get an optimal mismatched filter—with respect to the integrated sidelobe level (ISL)—within the resolution cell. We detail then the resulting solution in two particular radar cases, namely a Doppler steering vector and a linear chirp signal. In both cases, the proposed solution involves the discrete prolate spheroidal sequences. Simulation results show that this solution indeed provides the best ISL in the resolution cell.


Objective
To analyze the clinical features of pediatric sepsis with initial symptoms of autoimmune hemolytic anemia(AIHA) and acute renal failure.

Methods
Ten cases of pediatric sepsis with initial symptoms of AIHA and acute renal failure were selected from January 2000 to January 2014 in Department of Nephrology, Beijing Children′s Hospital Affiliated to Capital University of Medical Science.The clinical data were retrospectively analyzed and long-time follow-up was taken.

Results
There were 8 boys and 2 girls of the 10 cases.The ages ranged from 8 months to 12.8 years.There were 8 children less than 6 years old having a prevalence of 80%.There were sudden dark urine and progressive anemia in all the cases, jaundice in 9 cases, abdominal pain and vomiting in 6 cases.Urine volume decreased in 7 cases and anuria in 3 cases.Four cases showed disorder of consciousness and 2 developed shock.Respiratory failure and disseminated intravascular coagulation happened in 1 case respectively.In terms of pathogens, 2 cases were infected by mycoplasma and 1 case was infected by hemolytic streptococcus.The rest of the pathogen was unknown.The Coomb′s test was 3+ -4+ positive.Serum urea nitrogen and creatinine gradually increased.High level total serum bilirubin and unconjugated bilirubin were shown in 8 cases and low level complement in 7 cases.Bone marrow films showed hyperplasia in all the cases.Renal biopsy was taken in 3 cases and no microthrombus was found.Corticosteroid was used in all 10 cases for 6 months.Blood purification was taken in 8 cases.Respiratory support was used in 4 cases.Nine recovered and 1 case gave up treatment.Further follow-up was taken for 2.2-8.1 years.Eight cases had normal urine and blood routine test and renal function.Relapse happened in 1 girl 1 year later.One case lost follow-up.

Conclusions
Once sudden hemoglobinuria, anemia and progressively decreased urine output occur in sepsis cases, the clinicians should consider AIHA and acute renal failure.Based on active infection control, the early use of steroids and blood purification treatment can improve the prognosis.

Key words:
Autoimmune hemolytic anemia; Acute renal failure; Sepsis; Child


Background: The indolent (follicular, marginal zone and mantle cell) lymphomas tend to recur with decreasing intervals of remission after standard chemotherapy. New modalities of treatment are necessary. Vorinostat (SAHA) is an orally administered hydroxamic acid histone deacetylase inhibitor with activity against class I and II deacetylases with preclinical and clinical activity against various forms of lymphoma. Methods : We report the results of a phase II study of oral vorinostat in patients with relapsed or refractory (to chemotherapy and/or rituximab) follicular, marginal zone, or mantle cell lymphoma. Vorinostat is given at 200 mg PO twice daily for 14 consecutive days on a 21 day cycle. CT scanning and/or FDG-PET are performed after every three cycles, as is marrow biopsy for those with marrow involvement at time of entry into study. Patients may have received up to four prior chemotherapy regimens including tositumomab or ibritumomab; previous transplant is allowed. Results: 37 patients (14 female, 23 male) were accrued (2 ineligible patient due to wrong histology are excluded from the analysis). The median age for evaluable patients at treatment was 65 (32–79) years. Histologies represented: follicular lymphoma (FL)-20, mantle cell (MC)-8, marginal zone (MZL)- 7. Treatment was well tolerated. Grade 3–4 toxicities possibly attributable to study drug were thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, anemia, diarrhea, anorexia, myalgia, hypokalemia, hypophosphatemia, thrombus (1 patient) and fatigue. 18 patients were taken off study due to progression. Three pts came off study due to toxicities (fatigue and diarrhea after 10 cycles, diarrhea and dizziness after 2 cycles, DVT after 5 cycles), 1 stopped therapy due to intercurrent illness, 1 came off for alternate therapy. By the current Cheson criteria, 6 patients achieved complete remission (CR), and 4 patients achieved partial remission (PR), for an overall response rate (CR+PR) of 29%. By histology, 10 formal responses were seen in patients with follicular (8) or marginal zone lymphoma (2), thus for patients with FL and MZL the response rate is 37%, whereas no responses were seen in mantle cell lymphoma. Two patients with PR as best response subsequently progressed (one at 6 months, one after 16 months), the other two remain on therapy. One CR was achieved after 2 years of stable disease on therapy. At a median follow up of 12 months, median progression-free survival for the 35 eligible patients is 7 months; 5 patients are progression-free for more than 18 months. Eleven patients remain on therapy. Conclusions: The histone deacetylase inhibitor vorinostat is well tolerated over long durations of therapy, and shows promising activity (10 CR+PR out of 27 patients) against relapsed/refractory follicular and marginal zone lymphoma.


We investigate the Cauchy problem for second-order hyperbolic operators in the framework of the space of C∞ functions. In the case where the coefficients of their principal parts depend only on the time variable and are real analytic, we give a sufficient condition for C∞ well-posedness, which is also a necessary one when the space dimension is less than 3 or the coefficients of the principal parts are semi-algebraic functions (e.g., polynomials) of the time variable.


ABSTRACT Kyoto University has been for a long time an important center for Chinese Studies in Japan. It has attached great importance to the study of Chinese religions and attained considerable accomplishment. Unfortunately, the unique contribution that the scholars at Kyoto University made to the study of Chinese Chan Buddhism has been hitherto little known in the academic community. This article aims to address the oversight and introduce the scholarly achievement of Matsumoto Bunzaburo by analyzing the characteristics of his research in Chinese Chan Buddhism.


PURPOSE: To measure the thickness of a thin plastic film making use of an interference phenomenon of infrared rays without touching, by performing a fast arithmetic process of interference stripe spectra of infrared rays formed by the thin plastic film. CONSTITUTION: Infrared rays emitted from infrared-ray light source 1 penetrates semitransparent mirror 3 and is projected by filter 4 on thin plastic film 5 of a needed wavelength range; and it is reflected by Cona-cube 6 and then passes through film 5 again, so that its interference stripes will be made distinct. Then, interference-stripe spectra, which are reflected by semitransparent merror 3 after penetrating filter 4 and then led to spectral detection part 15, are sent, together with an infrared-ray wavelength signal, to fast arithmetic processing part 18, where its film thickness is calculated. COPYRIGHT: (C)1980,JPO&Japio


We investigate the mechanism of deuterium retention by lithiated graphite and its relationship to the oxygen concentration through surface sensitive experiments and atomistic simulations. Deposition of lithium on graphite yielded 5%–8% oxygen surface concentration and when subsequently irradiated with D ions at energies between 500 and 1000 eV/amu and fluences over 1016 cm−2 the oxygen concentration rose to between 25% and 40%. These enhanced oxygen levels were reached in a few seconds compared to about 300 h when the lithiated graphite was allowed to adsorb oxygen from the ambient environment under equilibrium conditions. Irradiating graphite without lithium deposition, however, resulted in complete removal of oxygen to levels below the detection limit of XPS (e.g., <1%). These findings confirm the predictions of atomistic simulations, which had concluded that oxygen was the primary component for the enhanced hydrogen retention chemistry on the lithiated graphite surface.


Consider an M/M/1queue with vacations such that the server works with different rates rather than completely stops during a vacation period.In order to solve the interfering factors take place in the M/M/1 queuing system,the M/M/1queuing system with negative customers and working vacations is studied.The serve rules are First Come First Served.The working vacation policy is exhaustive service and multiple working vacations.Negative customers remove positive customers only one by one at the tail(if present).When a negative customer arrives,if the system is empty,it will disappear.Negative customers need no services.Using QBD(quasi birth and death) process and Matrix-Geometric solution,we gain the steady-state distributions for the number of customers in the system,point out the result of stochastic decomposition of the queue length and obtain mean of the system size of positive customers and waiting time.


An effective technology of protection of information resources of departmental communications systems, including their automated management system, and also information resources of all distributed automated office systems, is offered. The features of safety maintenance of connection of a departmental telecommunication network, including satellite communication channels using ABCS technology and star-shaped satellite network with earth satellite stations PES and SCPC, are presented.


The measurement conversion from a radar's r-u-v coordinate system to a Cartesian coordinate system is discussed in this paper. Although the nonlinearity of this coordinate transformation appears insignificant based on the evaluation of the bias of the converted measurements, it is shown that this nonlinearity can cause significant covariance inconsistency in the conventional (first order) converted measurements (CM1). Since data association depends critically on filter consistency, this issue is very important. Following this, it is shown that a suitable corrected version (with second order terms) of the conversion equations (CM2) eliminates the inconsistency. The decision between using the standard conversion and the second order version is based on a condition ratio, namely, for an r-u-v measurement whose condition ratio is lower than a certain threshold, CM2 should be used. Results on various tracking filter using these conversions are presented in part I [1].


Livestock husbandry is the most important sector of agriculture in Mongolia and the main employment opportunity in rural areas. Herders keep their livestock in nomadic systems and live of the sales of livestock and its products. Herders' livelihood depends on the pastures as the fodder basis of livestock. In recent years pasture degradation and erosion have been identified as major threats for the livelihood of herders. Overgrazing caused by increasing livestock numbers is the main reason for pasture degradation. An option to improve the situation and decrease herders' vulnerability is to destock herds. Destocking will only be feasible, if herders can have a similar income with destocked herds as they have with the present number of livestock. The present study analyses the potential of value chain development as a means to support destocking of herds in the region of Tariat; the option analysed is labelling of cashmere. Data analysis showed that most herders are aware of the problem of decreasing pasture quality but at the same time most herders don't want to decrease their livestock numbers. Herders with large herds have been found to have lower intentions on increasing their herd size further. These herders seem to be more open towards engaging in cooperation outside of kinship. Since they also own more than half of the region's livestock, they could be targeted for the development of a project on labelling. Herders seem to be positive towards value chain development: most herders would be willing to work on the quality of their products if it would be rewarded by higher prices. The experts and retailers interviewed were rather positive on the potential of labelling cashmere. If a CBA-model is calculated on a project scenario, cashmere labelling would not be profitable in the short term. In the long term labelling could be profitable if the assumed effect of decreasing pasture productivity would be taken into the model. Although the prospect of eco-labelling is positive and promising as a means to support destocking, it is only feasible, if improved pastures can be enforced and livestock numbers can effectively be controlled.


The Relationship Between Destination Personality, Self-Congruity, and Behavioral Intentions by Ahmet Usakli Dr. Seyhmus Baloglu, Examination Committee Chair Professor of Hotel Administration University of Nevada, Las Vegas The purpose of this research was to investigate the perceived destination personality of Las Vegas and to examine the relationships among destination personality, self-congruity, and tourist's behavioral intentions. A convenience sample of 382 visitors to Las Vegas was surveyed and 368 usable questionnaires were analyzed. The findings of the study indicate that tourists ascribe personality characteristics to destinations and perceived destination personality of Las Vegas is five dimensional: vibrancy, sophistication, competence, contemporary, and sincerity. These dimensions have a positive influence on intention to return and intention to recommend. The study also supports the self-congruity theory within the context of tourism destinations, indicating that both actual and ideal self-congruity has positive impact on behavioral intentions. The study concludes that self-congruity is a partial mediator on the relationship between destination personality and behavioral intentions. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed within the context of destination branding and self-congruity theory.


Eutrophication is one of the most important causes of water pollution and is also one of the bottlenecks of water pollution treatment and control all over the world.Different treatment and control techniques of water eutrophication,including the regulation of physical,chemical,physicochemical,biological and environmental factors,were reviewed in this paper.Meanwhile,development trends of the treatment and control techniques were discussed.


In this paper,the initial modulus,tensile strength and other mechanical properties and applications of chitin fiber and pearl fiber are compared,it shows that elongation at break and initial modulus of chitin fiber are better than that of the pearl fiber,curled rate is so better that it is suited to clothing which required,durability is also better.Because the special structure of chitin fiber when it is prepared and it makes its moisture property better,the molecule structure of the chitin is similar to human collagen and the compatibility is better,and the antimicrobial medical and security are better,too.


This contribution presents four dye-based CONs derived from the reaction of triformylphloroglucinol with thionin acetate (RIO-43), safranin chloride (RIO-51), phenosafranin (RIO-47), and Bismarck brown Y (RIO-55). These materials, called Covalent Organic Networks (CONs), are insoluble solids formed by organic lamellar stacked structures and present permanent porosity, light absorption across the whole visible spectrum, fluorescence, ion exchange capability, and ion and electron conductivity. Periodic DFT calculations carried out indicated that the bent nature of most of those building blocks affords conductive extended materials containing pores with the shape of three-petal flowers, with the anion positioned at the petals. The turbostratic disorder makes only the center of the flower-shaped pores accessible, decreasing the specific surface areas. The material that has a higher surface area is the one derived from thionin acetate (RIO-43), such as the highest electrical conductivity (1.96 × 10–5 S cm−1), followed by RIO-47 (1.12 × 10–7 S cm−1), RIO-55 (1.58 × 10–7 S cm−1) and RIO-51 (3.26 × 10–7 S cm−1).