The Introduction presents the main content of the book, namely how a shift from sovereignty to spirit changes our understanding of what democracy is. Itbegins by clarifying the key concept of the book: "the spirit." With this basic conceptual vocabulary in place, it describes the overall argument about the spirit of democracy, how it emancipates us from a state of self-incurred tutelage by sharing and dividing uncertainty about the future equally. It spells out the significance of this interpretation for the corruption, disintegration, and renewal of democracy. The Introduction ends with a note on the status of the argument, and a brief description of the chapters that follow.


illustrates the ambivalence of symbolic references in the fiction, relating ironic allusions in the novels of Marie-Claire Blais, for example, to the popular belief that death transforms baptized infants into angels. Parental relations and the socialization of children are treated in the third chapter. Drawing on the previous work of Jean-Charles Falardeau, Sister Sainte-Marie Eleuthere, Jack Warwick, and Antoine Sirois, Lemieux stresses the importance of rural or urban settings and of social class in the family power structure. In the fiction, rural and middle-class urban families tend to be patriarchal, working-class families matriarchal. Male and female roles are sharply distinguished, the man's existence being symbolized by the farm and the forest, the woman's by the kitchen and the horne. The patterns of shared authority are complex and constantly evolving, often including an imperious widowed grandmother. The socialization of children thus becomes a paradoxical mixture of discipline and indulgence. In her fmal chapter the author outlines the development of affection and sentiment in children, qualities inhibited or repressed in traditional Quebec society by a preoccupation with family needs over individual ones. Thus themes of solitude and lack of communication dominate in the absence of depictions of romantic or passionate love. Suppressed affection appears only obliquely, perhaps in the form of food preparation by the mother or story-telling by the father. In concluding her lengthy and detailed analysis, Lemieux refrains from making sweeping generalizations or imposing reductionist patterns, emphasizing instead the complexity, variety, and ambivalence of the presentation of child figures in the novels. Her study is thus suggestive and stimulating rather than dogmatic and definitive . Although somewhat diffuse and not easily read, it will reward both sociologists and students of literature; the former will find in it a previously unfamiliar corpus, the later will discover an unaccustomed methodology. All readers will, however, be disappointed by the lack of any index to assist in locating references to particular novels or novelists. A generous bibliography (pp 221-42) completes the book and provides guidance to those uninformed about either sociology of literary history. (DAVID M. HAYNE)


In her article "Black Australia 'Writes Back' to the Literary Traditions of Empire" Danica Čerče discusses the verse of Australian Indigenous authors Romaine Moreton and Alf Taylor, notable for the overt objection to the institutional and historical processes. These have enabled and maintained the dominant position of those identified as white on the one hand, and the concomitant political, economic, and cultural subordination of Indigenous Australians on the other. Focused on strategies and poetic devices used by the two poets to engage non-Indigenous readers in the experience of their writing, the article examines how the rhetoric of their critique and personal address solicit affective and political responses. In particular, it aims to show that, by challenging the public dynamics of racial separation, their poetry performs an ongoing role in destabilizing the assumptions of white privilege and entitlement. Danica Čerče, "Black Australia 'Writes Back' to the Literary Traditions of Empire" page 2 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 19.1 (2017):


An RFID(Radio Frequency IDentification) tag, and a system and a method for protecting RFID privacy are provided to protect RFID tag information by transmitting a real RFID to only the RFID reader authenticated based on a pseudo ID. A tag storing part(540) stores the pseudo ID used for authenticating the RFID reader. A determiner(530) determines whether the stored pseudo ID is matched with the pseudo ID generated by using a received key in case that the key is received in response to the pseudo ID transmitted by an information transmission request signal of the RFID reader. A tag controller(520) transmits the RFID of the tag to the RFID reader through a transmitter(550) in case that the stored pseudo ID is matched with the generated pseudo ID. The tag storing part stores a common pseudo ID generated by using a common key of an RFID privacy protection system.


Earth's climate is out of balance: the planet has been warming since industrialization began, because CO2 increasingly collects in the atmosphere. Even an immediate stop of all emissions would not bring global warming to a sudden halt, reveals a study by Thorsten Mauritsen, Research Group Leader at the Hamburg-based Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, and his colleague Robert Pincus, a scientist at the University of Colorado in the US: in this case, in addition to previous warming of 0.8 degrees Celsius, another 0.3 degrees Celsius would be added by the end of this century alone.


This book describes author's travel to India at Jadavpur University in Kolkata as invited speaker on neutrosophic logic/set (generalizations of fuzzy logic and respectively fuzzy set) and their applications to finance, business, situation analysis, economics. Also the book contains descriptions of museums, Hindu and Sikh temples, mosques, cathedrals, meetings with Indian University Professors and researchers in Delhi, Agra and Kolkata.


Sir Ernest George (1839-1922) was one of England's greatest architects of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He specialised in domestic work and was responsible for beautiful and imaginative houses in both town and country, and with his three successive partners he carried out over 200 works both in Britain and abroad. He was also a watercolourist of considerable stature whose work in the medium was acclaimed in his own time. This richly illustrated book is the first study of the man and his work, and will establish him as one of the major names in his profession. His life and career is fully documented, the buildings described, and a full catalogue of works provided. A special feature is a study of pupils and assistants who passed through George's office, including several who went on to be fame and success - Edwin Lutyens, Guy Dawber, J.J. Joass, R. Weir Schultz - and also the first woman to become a member of the RIBA, Ethel Mary Charles.

Hilary Grainger is a dean at the London College of Fashion and is the recognised expert of George and his architecture. She is also a leading authority on the architecture of cremation, and is the chair of the Victorian Society.


by Heather B. Reilly Plasmodium falciparum malaria is responsible for severe morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Anti-malarials used to treat malaria, such as chloroquine (CQ), exhibit increased failure and have an effect on the parasite genome potentially resulting in differences in parasite growth. Differences in erythrocytic growth rates between parasite clones affect parasite virulence (Chotivanich et al., 2000; Dondorp et al., 2005). Parasite growth is complex, composed of discrete biological steps contributing to differences in overall 'growth.' To identify genes and mechanisms regulating differential growth, a series of phenotypes ranging from bulk growth (e.g. blood smears and Hxincorporation) to its nested steps (merozoite production, invasion efficiency, and cycle time) were measured in progeny of a cross between a CQ resistant and CQ sensitive parasite, Dd2 and HB3 respectively, and used in quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping. Progeny exhibit quantitative distributions of growth in all five growth assays. Significant QTLs from the two bulk growth assays and cycle time produce a preliminary list of 167 candidate genes. An unbiased method using whole genome datasets and bioinformatics


This chapter explores how the notion of 'civil society' in East-Central Europe, and the discursive and organisational practices attached to the term, have been deployed in politics, and how this has affected how local development and empowerment are conceived and funded. In this respect, struggles over the meaning and practice of 'civil society' activism in the region speak to longstanding debates within the community development field relating to the role of state and market; the status, function, and relevance of professionalised organisations within communities; the relationship between political and economic freedoms; and the possibilities for meaningful transnational solidarity.


OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of Shenfu injection on the arrhythmia models in animals. METHODS:The myocardial ischemic model was set up in the dogs with ligating coronary artery method, arrhythmia model in rats with acontine and bradycardia model in the dogs with propranolol. After Shenfu injectionadministered,we observied the influence on the above arrhythmias. RESULTS: Shenfu injection were able to improve the hemodynamic indexes of myocardial ischemic arrhythmias of dogs effectively, it reduced separately the outbreak ratio of VE,VT from 39.3±5.2 times·(5min) -1 ,37.2±3.9 times·(5min) -1 before administration to 11.2 ±2.7 times·(5min) -1 ,9.1±2.5 times·(5min) -1 after administration; meanwhile it had antagonized effects to acontine induced VE?VT of rats; besides it picked up the heart rates to propranolol induced bradycardia.


The embodiment of the invention discloses a charging method which is applied to a first electronic device. The first electronic device can conduct charging through a second electronic device. The second electronic device comprises at least one power supply interface. The method comprises the steps of obtaining a first capability message, wherein the first capability message is used for representing the power supply capability of the power supply interface connected with the second electronic device; setting charging parameters according to the first capability message, and charging the first electronic device according to the charging parameters. The embodiment of the invention further discloses the first electronic device and the second electronic device. By the adoption of the technical scheme, the power supply capability of the power supply devices is fully utilized, the charging time is greatly shortened, and user experience is improved.


I was scanning popurls just now when I came across a post on Robert Scoble's blog entitled I've completely moved to social media. He's going to put


The author discusses the resources required for RF engineering projects for third or fourth year undergraduates and MSc students. The need for establishing good contacts with industry is emphasised.


Objective To analyze the quantity and quality of chronic non-communicable disease prevention and control(NCD-PC) human resources within public health system in two cities of central Anhui,to provide scientific basis for adjusting and building appropriate professional teams.Methods During March 2011 to June 2011,a general investigation was conducted on all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) in Hefei and Anqing,while community health institutions(CHSI) were selected by stratifying sampling method according to the administrative division.All chronic disease prevention and control staff in the two types of institutions were also investigated.Results In 17 CDCs,the NCD-PC personnel accounted for 4.2% of the total number,the full-time to part-time ratio was 1 ∶ 1.1 and tentatively employed persons are major; of whom 67.6% were males of preventive medicine professional background and 64.7% were bachelor degree or above.In 171CHSIs,72.5% have been equipped with NCD-PC managerial staff; the NCD-PC personnel accounted for 39.3% of the total number of professionals while the full-timer ones only accounted for 28.7%; of the NCD-PC personnel in CHSIs,65.6% were females,89.6% were from clinicine medicine and nursing,44.7% had a junior college degree while 33.9% graduated from high schools or below.Among the NCD-PC personnel in the two types of institutions,the average working years [P50(P25,P75) ] was 2(1,4) years,81.7% are young and middle-aged under 45 years and96.4% were intermediate and the following professional titles.The professional knowledge awareness rate was 66.1% and 77.8% staff received relevant professional training in the past five years,but the training was primary at the corresponding level with insufficient times.Conclusions The development of NCD-PC human resources in central Anhui is relatively backward.To meet people's ever-increasing demand for NCD-PC,efforts should be made to improve the present situation of disease prevention and control teams with few trained full-time staff few training,low education background of the community health workers and lack of preventive health care personnel.


physical activity and of fruit and vegetable can have a beneficial effect in maintaining a good health. However, has shown that physical activity levels and the intake of fruit and of older adults are low. Home health care professionals (HHC) may provide an important route to reach them and facilitate a healthy behaviour. An intervention program (training) was developed for HHC professionals to promote preventive activities provided at their clients to improve their lifestyle in a deprived, rural Dutch area. The effects of the intervention were evaluated on physical activity level and fruit and vegetable intake in older adults aged (cid:3) 55. With a quasi-experimental design an intervention group was compared with a control group, at 1 month (short-term) and at 7 months (follow-up) after intervention. The popula-tion included clients of HHC professionals (intervention group: N= 111; control group: N =95). Primary outcomes were physical activity level and fruit and vegetable intake of older adults, secondary outcomes were various behavioural determinants.


This paper investigates the ergodic capacity and outage probability performance of a single-input single-output (SISO) communication system aided by an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) in mixed fading channels, where Rayleigh fading from the base station (BS) to the user and Rician fading from the BS to IRS as well as the RIS to receiver are all considered. Firstly, the approximate probability density function (PDF) of the cascaded channel gain from the BS to user via the IRS is derived by means of the moment matching method, which is more accurate than the existing PDF based on the central limit theorem (CLT). Then, with the obtained PDF, an approximation of ergodic capacity of the system is deduced by using the Taylor series expansion, also the approximate expression of outage probability is derived. The derived ergodic capacity has more accuracy than the existing one based on the Jensen's inequality. Moreover, the obtained outage probability has more accuracy than the existing one with CLT as well. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the derived theoretical expressions, namely, the derived PDF and ergodic capacity as well as the outage probability can match the corresponding simulation better than the existing ones. Especially for small number of reflecting elements and/or large SNR, the accuracy is more obvious.


Summary: A total of 159 suspected cases of otomycosis comprising 101 adults and 58 children, 61 males and 98 females were investigated. Of these, 36 cases were confirmed specifically of mycotic etiology on the basis of microscopic demonstration of fungal structures in epithelial debris/plugs and positive culture. Another 31 cases positive for fungi by culture but negative for direct microscopy were considered of doubtful fungal etiology. The predominant etiological agents in the confirmed cases were Aspergillus niger (13 cases), followed by A. flavus (6), Candida albicans(6) and C.parapsilosis(4). Other species represented were Pseudoallescheria boydii (2), C. guilliermondii (1), Aspergillus sp. (unidentified) (2), and Candida sp. (unidentified) (1). One case was of mixed infection due to A. niger and C. albicans. Fungal cultures from normal healthy ear canals of 46 persons were positive in 17 cases, the predominant fungus being Aspergillus (mainly A. niger).


Our patients with 12 months training improved their global
diastolic function. The most important benefit was found in
walls supplied by occluded artery.


The azetidinone disulphide (1b), a structural analogue of Kamiya's disulphide (1a), has been synthesized. Some cyclization reactions of the disulphides (1)(Br2 in CH2Cl2 and AcOAg in ClCH2CO2H–CH2Cl2) leading to penam and cepham derivatives through episulphonium ions (2), have been studied. The data obtained show that changing the substituent X in (1a) and (1b) brings about changes in the distribution of the positive charge in the intermediate episulphonium ions (2a) and (2b), and thus affects to some extent the regioselectivity of the episulphonium ring opening and the chemical behaviour of (1a) and (1b).


As the new editor of JEMS, responsible for the current issue onwards, it is my pleasant duty ® rst of all to pay tribute to the pioneering work that my predecessor Malcolm Cross has done in establishing the journal ± ® rst as New Community and for the past ® ve years as JEMS ± as a foremost journal in the ® eld of migration and ethnic studies. Under his stewardship, and that of Jette Johst as Editorial Manager, the scope of the journal has been progressively enlarged from a UK to a European and now to a global scale, whilst retaining a broad thematic canvas across theory, policy, practice and empirical research, with particular reference to the advanced industrial countries. I have no intention of departing from these guiding principles, but I would like to signal some new and emerging aspects of the study of migration and ethnicity which are becoming ever more important, which diversify the nature of these phenomena and ® elds of study, and on which future articles would be particularly welcome. The study of migration suffers from what I would call the hubris of old migrations ± settler, labour and refugee migrations. We can observe in the world today many types of migration which differ signi® cantly from these `classic' forms of migration, and there are many new structures and processes which shape new ways and means of migration. International uneven development remains a powerful conditioning force for migration ̄ ows but the progressive globalisation of economic and cultural life reshapes the direction, character and motivation of many of these ̄ ows, whilst the growth of transnational communities offers new possibilities for diasporic, multiple and hybrid identities. Of course, such terms need discussion and re® nement, and a short editorial is not the place to try to do this. Instead, let me point to some new trends in the ® eld covered by the journal. First, the distinction between the advanced industrial countries and the rest of the world is becoming ever less sharp. The advent of post-industrial economies and societies, the particular growth of resource-rich economies such as the oil states, and the strong development of many economies in South-East Asia and, to a lesser extent, in Latin America mean that the geographical scope of JEMS can be extended to other parts of the world. Second, we can note the progressive transformation of migration into a global business with its own market-led logic of enterprise and pro® t. Traf® cking is one expression of this but there are other outcomes too, such as the creation of new international markets for migrant labour, both from the point of view of the recruiting countries which are becoming more overt in targeting those types of individuals they desire, and from the perspectives of individual migrants who `shop' for migration opportunities in several countries of the world. Third, there is an increasing realisation that migration is socially and geographically embedded in countries and regions of both origin and destination, as well as in more multi-local diasporas. This means that the fullest understanding


Earlier results by Hershcovitch, Kovarik, and Prelec in J. Appl. Phys. 67, 671 (1990) proved that, in a low‐pressure operating mode, hollow cathode discharges can have a two‐component electron population, one of which is that of ''fast'' electrons having an energy corresponding to the cathode potential and a thermal spread of about 0.13 eV, which could form a basis for an excellent electron gun. Investigations of extracted electron currents in this low pressure mode indicate the existence of a narrow pressure range characterized by very high electron current extraction.


Mobile WiMAX standard defines air interface for mobile broadband wireless access (BWA) systems and aimed to provide high data rate with seamless mobility while maintaining the quality of service (QoS). However, QoS of real-time applications depends on the link quality, which necessitate the channel-aware connection admission control (CAC) and scheduling schemes. In this paper Modulation aware CAC scheme and base station (BS) uplink scheduling algorithm are proposed to improve the system capacity and QoS performance respectively. The proposed CAC scheme aims to increase the admission of higher priority real time services by degrading the bandwidth of admitted lower priority connections on the basis of their channel status without deteriorating their QoS performance much. The performances of proposed algorithms are evaluated through simulation by considering the metrics like throughput, delay and number of connections admitted.


In present day scenario the need of high-speed applications and computational Systems in Digital Signal processing applications is drastically increased with increased mobile computing and multimedia applications. Whereas the FIR filter is a basic building block of any communication system. The previous works for the implementation of FIR filters using different multipliers overcomes the problems raised like optimization of area, delay and power. And the previous works comparison of various multipliers and adders has been carried out to find the best method to overcome the problems using the combination of Wallace tree and Kogge Stone


The role of HSLA steels in the future development of Chinese steel industry is described.Several papers of the 5th international conference on HSLA steels were selected to indroduce the development of product,alloying and prosessing design of HSLA steels abroad.


This paper presents an analysis of fixed-term employment in Australia or 3.3 per cent of employed persons in 2000. It finds that fixed-term employees are largely concentrated in Education (30 per cent of fixed- term employees in August 1998), Health and community services (18 per cent) and in the occupational category of Professionals (44 per cent). Just over 50 per cent worked in the public sector. Fixed-term employees are slightly more likely to be female and younger than ongoing employees.


Many ecosystems are likely to experience abrupt changes and extreme conditions due to forces such as climate change. These events and their consequences – including the loss of ecosystem services – may be predictable or may occur without warning. Given these considerations, greater efforts are needed in two areas of research: improvements in early warning capability and advances in the management of ecosystems to enhance resilience. Current research has provided enhanced forecasting ability, scenario analysis, and detection of statistical anomalies that indicate abrupt change, but two key concerns remain: the detection of early warning signs near thresholds of change and the use of such warnings for ecosystem management. Furthermore, there may be no advance warning for some types of abrupt change, reinforcing the need to enhance resilience by managing ecosystems to reduce the possibility of crossing thresholds of change. Designing and implementing large-scale management programs is one way to confront the...


Objectives: To report the cumulative experience of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in terms of the surgical technique, perioperative complications and otcomes of living-donor nephrectomy. Methods: A retrospective review on all living donor nephrectomy done at our Institution from year 2008 to 2012. Surgical complications of laparoscopic and open donor nephrectomy were compared. Results: In this study, majority of the living kidney donors were male and single. There were 654 open donor nephrectomy and 307 laparoscopic nephrectomy. Open donor nephrectomy was performed faster with less hospital stay than laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. The mean increase in serum creatinine from baseline to 1 week postdonation was 43%. No perioperative mortalities were noted over the 5 year period. The most common minor complication was fever followed by cough. When separated by technique, the overall complication rate in open donor nephrectomy was higher than laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. Minor complications such as pneumothorax, urinary tract infection and ileus were exclusively seen in open technique while peritonitis and wound infection were exclusively seen in laparoscopic technique. Conclusion and Recommendation: Living kidney donor nephrectomy in our Institute from 2008-2012 has been very favorable. No mortality noted with comparable rate of complications. Laparoscopic nephrectomy is the recommended surgical technique due to the higher complications noted in open donor nephrectomy.


The singular function boundary integral method is applied for the solution of a Laplace equation problem over an L-shaped domain. The solution is approximated by the leading terms of the local asymptotic solution expansion, while the Dirichlet boundary conditions are weakly enforced by means of Lagrange multipliers. Estimates of great accuracy are obtained for the leading singular coefficients, as well as for the Lagrange multipliers. Comparisons are made with recent numerical results in the literature. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Deep reservoirs of Shiwu fault depression in the Songliao Basin experienced multi-stage hydrocarbon accumulation and multi-stage evolutions.Basin simulation of hydrocarbon generation and expulsion history of source rock and reservoir fluid inclusion analysis show three periods of reservoir forming.Primary oil-gas pools formed at the end of Denglouku period.At the end of Quantou period,many kinds of oil and gas pools formed on a large scale.Former oil-gas pools enlarged with continuous charging of hydrocarbons generating by local mature source rocks,and the former crude oils cracked into gases.At the end of Nenjiang period,primary oil and gas pools reconstructed intensively.A lot of gas pools and secondary oil-gas pools were formed in this period.Two different accumulation patterns are developed in the Shiwu fault depression.One pattern is developed in central uplift called multi-stage forming and middle-late-stage strong adjustment's type,and another pattern is developed in deep zones and slopes called early-stage forming and late-stage weak adjustment's type.


Characteristics of a city's morphology and its evolution can only be studied within the context in which different phases of development or evolution took place. With this understanding in mind a comparative study has been done. It is observed that the Colonialists often created a dual urban regional system favoring the development of the major coastal cities tied to their home economy and the extraction of wealth from the inland regions. However, it is believed that under national rule, what ever the colonizers have produced will be observed, deliberated and re-evaluated time and again, for positive assimilation of useful ideas. As these are the ideas of a civilization that has emerged and experienced through t he ages but under different environment. This assimilation in spirit may eventually give direction towards a valid and authentic architecture and urban morphology suited to the land and the people.


October 13, 2022 Type Package Title Meta-Analysis of Medians Version 0.1.6 Maintainer Sean McGrath <firstname.lastname@example.com> Description Implements several methods to meta-analyze studies that report the sample median of the outcome. When the primary studies are one-group studies, the methods of McGrath et al. (2019) <doi:10.1002/sim.8013> can be applied to estimate the pooled median. In the two-group context, the methods of McGrath et al. (2020) <doi:10.1002/bimj.201900036> can be applied to estimate the pooled raw difference of medians across groups. Imports estmeansd, Hmisc, metafor, stats License GPL (>= 3) Encoding UTF-8 RoxygenNote 7.1.2


ABSTRACT This article discusses digital three-dimensional animations by Miao Xiaochun and Lu Yang. The two artists' works are commonly based on the expressive possibilities of digital software and virtual space, such as non-naturalistic rendering of objects, vertical and multiple perspectives distinct from the linear perspective of traditional painting and photography, and the virtual camera's freedom of omnidirectional and gravitation-free movements. While this article provides in-depth analyses of the works in terms of how these expressive possibilities allow Miao and Lu to create the spatially and temporally complex worlds in which past, present and future dynamically coexist and interact with one another, I also argue that both artists are different in their technical and conceptual approaches to digital technology and its impact on reality and subjectivity. To demonstrate these differences, I draw on the ideas of 'digital' and 'postdigital' art: whereas digital art is marked by the ambivalent tendency to exploit the new properties of the digital while also seeking the ways of translating the forms and techniques of traditional arts in the tools and space of the computer, postdigital art means a variety of artistic responses to the situation that the internet and digital technologies are no longer perceived as new but as fundamentally restructuring our subjectivity and world.


Codigestion of dairy manure and kitchen waste at different mixing ratios were conducted.The results indicated that the mixing ratio had significant effect on the digestion.In terms of system stability,COD removal efficiency,and methane productivity,it was showed that,on the basis of VS,the optimal mixing ratio of dairy manure and kitchen waste was 1∶1(the weight percentage of kitchen waste was 5.6%).Comparing with dairy manure digestion alone,the methane productivity and COD removal efficiency were increased by 76% and 26.4% respectively.And the gas yield of removed COD was 0.19 L.g-1.The VFA /Total Alkalinity(TA)was 0.35,which indicated good stability of the system.When the feedstock mixing ratio reached 1∶3 and 1∶6(the weight percentages of kitchen waste were 15% and 25.7% respectively.),propionate acid inhibition occurred in the acidogensis and methanogensis phases.The stability became low with the increase of kitchen waste addition,while ammonia inhibition was not found.


This chapter consists of two parts. The first examines the historical-phenomenological relationship between the Qur'an and Judaism (the Qur'an and Judaism), while the second examines perspectives expressed by the Qur'an toward Judaism (the Qur'an on Judaism). The former includes perspectives offered by pre-modern and contemporary non-Muslim researchers regarding the Qur'an and its relationship to the religion and culture of Judaism; the latter considers how the Qur'an itself appears to evaluate Judaism. Both are considered within an explicit evaluative framework of assessment that reflects on the problematic of tension inherent in the relationship between established religion and emergent religion


Space exploration missions are evolving toward more complex architectures involving more capable robotic systems, new levels of human and robotic interaction, and increasingly autonomous systems. How this evolving mix of advanced capabilities will be utilized in the design of new missions is a subject of much current interest. Cost and risk constraints also play a key role in the development of new missions, resulting in a complex interplay of a broad range of factors in the mission development and planning of new missions. This paper will discuss how human, robotic, and autonomous systems could be used in advanced space exploration missions. In particular, a recently completed survey of the state of the art and the potential future of robotic systems, as well as new experiments utilizing human and robotic approaches will be described. Finally, there will be a discussion of how best to utilize these various approaches for meeting space exploration goals.


Calcium-based brines, principally calcium chloride and calcium bromide, find widespread use as completion fluids and base fluids for reservoir drill-in fluids (RDF). The high ionic strength of these brines, combined with the chemical compatibility issues inherent with divalent ions, such as calcium, makes identifying additives for developing functional fluids challenging. While additives, such as hydroxyethyl cellulose, can provide viscosity to calcium brines, imparting the suspension properties needed for the transport of solid bridging agents or drill cuttings can be particularly problematic in divalent brines. Even the widely used and potent suspension agent, xanthan gum, in addition to being difficult to degrade, suffers from gelation and precipitation under certain conditions in high-calcium environments. In this study, nanocellulose, which has previously shown promise as a suspension additive in freshwater and low-salinity brines, was evaluated in high-density brine fluids.
 Extensive laboratory evaluation of the commercially sourced nanocellulose was conducted in sodium chloride, calcium chloride, and calcium bromide brines. Rheological determinations were made of simple systems containing only brine plus the novel additive, as well as fully formulated RDF containing the additive with sized calcium carbonate bridging solids, alkalinity, and filtration control additives. This data was compared before and after aging at various temperatures and was further compared to other biopolymers that are used today in divalent brines. Stability of the fluids and the capability of the formulated fluids to suspend solids were also examined. Fluid-loss control of full formulations was compared under API conditions. Single-phase return permeability studies were conducted.
 While results in sodium brines were mixed, nanocellulose was shown to outperform existing biomaterials in calcium brines. Nanocellulose was shown to be readily hydrated in the challenging high-density divalent environment and provided superior suspension to currently used fluid components at similar concentrations. Rheological performance of nanocellulose was found to be synergistic with bridging solids. In one particularly interesting example, it was also shown to complement a synthetic polymer in a high-temperature calcium bromide application.
 Nanocellulose provides superior rheological performance and reduced formation damage potential compared to conventional materials in difficult high-density calcium chloride and bromide brines. The improved rheological profile and enhanced thermal stability of fluids formulated with nanocellulose, combined with a greater diversity of removal options, can facilitate expansion of the utility of calcium-based brines in well construction and completion applications.


China's entering the WTO is of great importance to Chinese banking industry. Chinese banking industrycan be much closer to the international finance and enjoy a rapid development. While at the same time, the foreign finan-cial structure, holding their advanced experiences and techniques, enters China to find opportunities and occupy the mar-ket. The scale of Chinese banking industry seems to be large. However, compared to some foreign banks, its competitivepower is not so strong. In this situation, Chinese banking industry should reform to meet the requirements of globalizationto defend the national market and should go out to conquer the international market.


Abstract Thin films of the Fe60Co40 alloy produced by electron beam evaporation under ultra high vacuum are irradiated at 77 K with different ions: He, Ne, Ar, Xe. The as-evaporated films are polycrystalline with a very small grain size of about 8 nm and exhibit the structure of nanocrystalline materials formed of a crystalline component inside the grains and a second component in the grain boundaries with a random atomic arrangement. We have continuously measured the radiation damage as a function of the ion dose at 77 K using in situ electrical resistivity measurements. An important resistivity decrease is observed at high doses but only with heavy ions. This particular behaviour is discussed in relation with both the displacement cascade effects and the microstructural state of the films. It is suggested that nanocrystalline materials could be useful to study thermal spike behaviour and specific effects about displacement cascades.


Background: Low birth weight has many adverse consequences, some of which might be ameliorated if there is good postnatal compensatory or catch-up growth. Aim of the study: To record growth pattern in Low birth weight infants, compare their growth velocity with full-term peers during the first 6 months and its relation to different nutritional practice. Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 150 infants, divided into two groups:group1included 100 infants < 2,500 g, further subdivided into group1a included 70 preterm infants, group1b included 30 small for gestational age infants and group2 included 50 appropriate for gestational age babies as controls. Infants were followed for their catch-up growth every month during their first 6 months and anthropometric measurements were measured and Z-scores were calculated. Results: Significant catch-up growth for weight, length and head circumference(HC)were observed during the first6 months of life, however group1a remained lighter and shorter than infants of group1band group2 with mean z-score of weight(-0.79±0.67 ,-0.68±0.62 ,0.1±0.48) respectively, mean z-score of length(-1.75±0.81 ,-1.48±0.73, 1.33±1.02) respectively. But catch-up in HC was faster in group1b than group1a but both remained lower than those of group2. Breast fed infants showed the best performance in developmental parameters in the three groups. Conclusion: Low birth weight infants showed catch-up growth during the first 6 th months, but their weight, length and HC remained less than full-term peers and those with breast feeding showed better motor and mental developmental parameters.


Family violence occurs among family members, by beating, binding, confinement, mutilation or other means of family members to lead to the injury and destructionfrom the aspects of body, spirit and others. Crisis intervention should try to compare the current status of the current situation with the level of pre-crisis functions to determine the extent of the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral level. Three dimensional evaluation model makes use of the emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses to understand the evaluation process. Evaluation model of three-dimensional screening by Myer Myer's three-dimensional evaluation model of proposed by Myer in Pittsburgh of Pennsylvania. He believes that the crisis intervention should be used to compare the caller function level and the current crisis before as far as possible, in order to determine the crisis after the patient emotional, cognitive and behavioral functional level damage degree. He put forward a three dimensional evaluation model of emotional cognitive behavior of crisis intervention, using the three core components of emotion, cognition and behavioral response to understand the evaluation process. This evaluation model is considered to be a simple, rapid and effective evaluation system, from the three functions of patient's cognition and emotion and behaviors of the assessment of the patient's functional level will determine the current crisis intervention strategy and the choice of intervention after consulting in degree. Crisis intervention of Classified assessment scale Briefly confirm and describe the crisis event. Briefly confirm and describe the emotion performance at present. (If there are several kinds of emotions, please prioritize them.) Anger and hostility: .


A growing literature has investigated the role that formal and informal economic institutions play for autocratic survival. However, this literature has, so far, ignored a type of formal economic institution that has grown in importance among both democracies and non-democracies in recent decades, namely, national fiscal rules. In this article, we argue that fiscal rules can affect autocratic survival but that the effect is time-dependent. The introduction of a stricter fiscal rules framework causes short-term fiscal retrenchment and might increase the uncertainty among regime supporters about the provision of future patronage and spoils. [R, abr.]


The Marriage Act 1836 marked an important change in the rites required for a valid marriage, allowing couples to marry in a register office or registered place of worship. For some, however, these unfamiliar rites did not constitute a marriage at all, and in the early 1850s a particular controversy emerged regarding Anglican clergymen who 'remarried' couples who had already been legally married under the 1836 Act. This article examines three cases of such 'remarriages' and how two of the clergymen involved subsequently found themselves facing prosecution. It analyses the circumstances in which a rite might become a 'wrong' in the eyes of the law and traces the impact of these cases on the development of a new provision governing when an additional religious ceremony could take place and, more unexpectedly, on the form of register office weddings.


The main purpose of this study was to substantiate the strategic imperatives of managing environmental safety in the agricultural sector of economy. Analysis of the provision of strategic development of the agrarian sector at the national and international level has shown the need to create a fundamentally new system of regulatory and legal acts regulating environmental security in the agrarian sector. It is concluded that the current legislative base of Ukraine should be expanded by adopting and enforcing a single normative legal act that will serve as the doctrine of ecologically balanced development of rural areas and will allow implementing in practice a comprehensive approach to environmental protection in the agrosphere on the basis of complementary environmental requirements, established for the subjects of agricultural activities. Taking into account the main imperatives of the doctrine of ecologically balanced development of the agrarian sector, the strategy of environmental safety in the agrarian sector of the Ukrainian economy is justifi ed, which should become a reference point for state power and local self-government when developing state and regional programs for ensuring environmental security in the agrosphere.


The focus of the Africa region's new assistance strategy on achieving higher impact from economic reform program has created a need for better information about how adjustment programs are actually proceeding. To identify the measures that facilitate adjustment and the measures that delay adjustment or render it more difficult, one needs timely feedback of high quality macroeconomic and microeconomic data. Moreover, in order to know when and how to assist governments in making the inevitable course corrections to reform programs when things go wrong or do not work as expected, one needs to monitor the program, collecting these data as the reforms unfold. The aim of this note is to take a first step in developing a methodology for collecting data to monitor reform programs at the microeconomic level. This note is a monitoring exercise which must plan to collect data over an extended period of time to capture the process of adjustment. It concentrates on the details of what might be done in the first three years of such an exercise. The note includes a sample budget for a monitoring program of this sort and a sample of the questionnaire modules for: 1) baseline assessment of firms' production operations; and 2) compliance costs of selected regulations; and 3) future perceptions regarding firm investment.


This research examines the experience of Malayzia, which was able to form strong banking entities after the severe economic crisis it was exposed to in 1997. Malayzia is one of the fastest countries to emerge from the Asian crisis. The importance of the research is represented in reviewing the country's banking experiences and the impact of reforms on economic growth in Malayzia during the period from (1980-2014). This research aims to identify the major developments that have taken place in the banking sector and to understand their results. Among the most important results of the research is a study of reforming the Malayzian banking sector, and the application of the privatization policy. Malayzia has achieved diversification in the traditional banking sector and the Islamic banking system, which coexist and work together. Among the most important indicators of the Malayzian banking sector, according to the balance sheets during the period (2007-2014), is the risk-weighted capital adequacy ratio, which reached an average of 10.9% and the basic capital adequacy ratio, which reached an average of 9.33%. Also, the return on assets ratio reached an average of 1.48%. Among the most important recommendations reached by the research is the necessity to adhere to structural reform programs and link them with economic, financial and legislative reform, work to merge small banks, increase bank branches and provide medium and long-term loans to create investment opportunities and obtain an appropriate profit margin.


In this._paper, Probabilistic Universal Learning Networks (PrULNs) are proposed, which are learning netwo.rks_ wit~a capability of dealing with stochasti-c signals. PrULNs are extensions of Urliversal Learning Networks (ULNs). ULNs form a superset of neural networks and were proposed to provide a universal framework for modeling and control of nonlinear large-scale complex systems. A generalized learning algorithm h出 been devised for ULNs which can also be us-ed in a unified manner for almost al kinds of learning networks. However, the ULNs can not deal with stochastic variables. Specific value of a stochastic signal can be propagated through a ULN, but the ULN does not provide any stochastic characteristics of the signals propagating through it. The PrULNs proposed here are equipped with machinery to calculate stochastic properties of signals and to train network parameters so that the signals behave with the pre-specified stochastic properties. The PrULNs will contribute to the solution of the following problems: (1) improving the generalization capability of the learning networks, (2) more sophisticated stochastic control than the conventional stochastic controI, (3) designing problems for the complex systems such as chaotic systems. In this paper, PrULN is proposed and is applied to a nonlinear control system with nOlse.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of knowledge about Ebola viral disease among medical students. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among fourth-year and sixth-year students at the faculties of medicine in Belgrade and Kragujevac. Anonymous questionnaire was used containing data about social and demographic characteristics of students and data about epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Ebola, possibility of its prevention and protection of health care workers. A total of 858 medical students (401 fourth-year and 457 sixth-year students) filled in the questionnaire. Fourth-year students showed better knowledge about fruit bats as a natural reservoir of Ebola virus (p<0.001). They also showed better knowledge about transmission by direct or indirect contact with bodily fluids (91.1% vs. 79.7%, p<0.001) or sexual contact (43.9% vs. 30.8%, p<0.001), as well as that the infected person is not contagious during the incubation period (31.8% vs. 9.8%, p<0.001). Sixth-year students showed better knowledge about the first symptoms of Ebola, about therapy (69.1% vs. 80.3%, p<0.001) and about personal protective equipment for healthcare workers (88.9% vs. 93.1%, p=0.04). Fourth-year students expressed significantly higher interest in need for further education about Ebola viral disease (p=0.016). Given the current Ebola epidemic, which is still ongoing, as well as the possibility to introduce this disease into our country, there is a need for further education of medical students about Ebola.


Let C be a bounded closed convex subset of a uniformly convex Banach space X and let T be an asymptotically nonexpansive in the intermediate mapping from C into itself. In this paper, we first provide a ergodic retraction theorem and a mean ergodic convergence theorem. Using this result, we show that the set F (T ) of fixed points of T is a sunny, nonexpansive retract of C if the norm of X is uniformly Gâteaux differentiable. Moreover, we discuss the strong convergence of the sequence {xn} defined by xn = anx+ (1− an)T (μ)xn for n = 0, 1, 2, . . . , where x ∈ C, μ is a Banach limit on l∞ and an is a real sequence in (0, 1].


The invention discloses a method for preparing vildagliptin degraded impurities 2-(3-hydroxyl-adamantine-1-yl)-1-imido-hexahydro pyrrolo[1, 2-a] pyrazine-4-one and 2-(3-hydroxyl-adamantine-1-yl)-hexahydropyrrolo[1, 2-a] pyrazine-1, 4-dione. The method comprises the following steps: performing high-temperature degrading and performing column chromatography isolation by taking the vildagliptin as the starting material to obtain the 2-(3-hydroxyl-adamantine-1-yl)-1-imido-hexahydro pyrrolo[1, 2-a] pyrazine-4-one, and reacting with water and performing column separation to obtain the 2-(3-hydroxyl-adamantine-1-yl)-hexahydropyrrolo[1, 2-a] pyrazine-1, 4-dione. The method has the beneficial effects of preparing the standard substances of the vildagliptin degraded impurities 2-(3-hydroxyl-adamantine-1-yl)-1-imido-hexahydro pyrrolo[1, 2-a] pyrazine-4-one and 2-(3-hydroxyl-adamantine-1-yl)-hexahydropyrrolo[1, 2-a] pyrazine-1, 4-dione with the purity of more than 97%.


Fault zone failure spans a wide range of slip modes, including normal earthquakes, low-frequency earthquakes, episodic tremor and slip, non-volcanic tremor, slow slip events, and steady aseismic creep. Despite widespread observations in a range of tectonic and geologic environments, the physics underlying these events remain poorly understood. Here we present a systematic laboratory study of slow slip and build a mechanical explanation for the spectrum of fault slip modes. We show that complex behaviors can arise from relatively simple models using traditional rate-and-state friction (RSF) concepts.


We investigated the incidences of human casualties and cattle-lifting by tigers and circumstances of attacks and suggested mitigation strategies. In India, tigers mostly survive in small numbers in protected areas which are isolated due to habitat fragmentation and disturbances. Man-killing behaviour and predation on cattle are the main issues of confrontation, and as a result, the conservation efforts are adversely affected. In the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal, tigers have caused 161, 51, 7, 133, 25 and 445 human casualties respectively during 19902009. In Madhya Pradesh, 133 human casualties occurred in and around 6 national parks, 14 sanctuaries and 20 forest divisions. Male casualties were more (n=656) than female casualties (n=166). Out of 822 human casualties, most human casualties (n=376) occurred in the age group of 25-30 years. Most tiger casualties of humans (51%) occurred between 16:00-20:00h. Tigers in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal killed 511, 1938, 1899 and 733 cattle, respectively, during this period. In Madhya Pradesh, tiger and leopard killed 18736 cattle and a majority of cattle kills occurred within protected areas and reserve forests (92.6%) than in cattle sheds and outside the forests (7.4%). This has led to a strong resentment among people and they showed increased apathy and antagonism towards tiger conservation. Recommendations for reducing the human-tiger conflict include are suggested.


This article discusses about reform in the vocational high schools in Indonesia. Changes in the thinking paradigm, principles of implementation, and the technical policies supported by the allied parties, directly or indirectly, are needed to make the community perception towards the vocational high schools better. It is essential that the existence of the vocational high schools and their graduates be competed in competitive competition and transparency in this globalization era.


Employment remains the biggest challenge for Syrian refugees in Wollongong as Australia prepares to increase its humanitarian intake following worsening conditions in the Middle East.


OOVIET SCIENTISTS have a surplus of shortcomings. Such a statement coming from outside of Russia might be questioned in view of the evidence of rapid Soviet progress in increasing the quality and quantity of scientific and technical manpower and in such fields as atomic weapons, aircraft, and missiles. The statement, however, was made by Soviet officials. The criticism of Soviet science was made by Communist Party leader Krushchev and Premier Bulganin at the recent Communist Congress in Moscow. With world attention focused on the dramatic attacks on the late Josef Stalin during this congress, the criticism of Soviet science was generally overlooked, says Albert Parry, head of Colgate University's department of Russian studies. Criticism leveled at the Soviet science program covered many aspects, says Parry in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. Failure to expand contacts with leading scientists in foreign countries was one point mentioned. Other items included failure to follow a ...


Introduction: Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including epicardial coronary heart disease, silent myocardial infarction (MI), and coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) [1]. All of these can be assessed and quantified using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), including most recently quantitative myocardial blood flow (MBF). We aimed to determine the prognostic relevance of MBF in patients with T2DM and test the hypothesis that impaired stress MBF and myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR) have independent prognostic value over standard clinical and imaging parameters.

 A 4-centre study of patients with T2DM who underwent quantitative perfusion assessment using CMR. Diagnosis of T2DM was based on Hba1c >48mmol/l or a known diagnosis of T2DM. Image analysis was performed automatically using an artificial intelligence approach deriving global MBF and MPR [2]. Cox proportional hazard models adjusting for comorbidities and CMR parameters sought associations between stress MBF and MPR with death and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), including MI, non-fatal stroke, heart failure hospitalisation and death.

 A total of 630 patients with T2DM were included with a median follow-up of 722 days (interquartile range 493) days. There were 27 (4.3%) deaths and 76 MACE events in 62 (12.1%) patients. Patient data was represented into groups depending on threshold stress MBF values of 1.94ml/g/min and MPR thresholds of 1.96 using validated data from invasive coronary physiology [3]. Patient demographics and CMR data are seen in table 1. Kaplan-Meier curves are seen in figure 1. Stress MBF was associated with mortality and MACE after adjusting for age, LV ejection fraction and HbA1c. The stress MBF adjusted hazard ratios for all cause death and death and MACE were 0.35 (95% CI, 0.13–0.95, P=0.04) and 0.54 (95% CI, 0.30–0.96, P=0.04), respectively. MPR was not significantly associated with death and MACE after adjusting for age, LV ejection fraction and HbA1c; hazard ratio for all cause death and death and MACE was 0.83 (95% CI, 0.41–1.69, P=0.60) and 0.81 (95% CI, 0.53–1.23, p=0.32) respectively.

 In patients with T2DM, reduced stress MBF measured automatically inline using artificial intelligence quantification of cardiovascular magnetic resonance perfusion mapping provides a strong, independent predictor of adverse cardiovascular outcome.

 Type of funding sources: Other. Main funding source(s): 1. REC ID 14/EE/0007 (Barts Heart Centre funding). 2. For PREDICT (Leicester data) ethical approval was provided by the UK Health Research Authority Research Ethics Committee (reference 17/WM/0192). 3. MATCH Study, Leeds - British Heart Foundation - 17/YH/0300. 4. LEAN-DM, Leeds - British Heart Foundation - 18/YH/01685. CEED, Leeds: British Heart Foundation - REC reference - 18/YH/0190


The mixed cell agglutination test allows the selection of patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder who are at risk to develop invasive disease. A review of our retrospective experience and that of others reveals an overall accuracy of 78% in the prediction of tumor behavior. Current prospective studies are described and a rational, selective approach to the follow‐up of bladder tumor patients, influenced by the MCA test result, is advocated.


The synthesis of new sulfonamides has been directed to obtaining compounds with more therapeutic activity and slower elimination, aiming at the administration of lower doses at longer intervals of time. Recently, a new longacting sulfonamide, the N-(5,6 dimethoxy 4 pyrimidinyl) sulfanilamide, was made available for clinical use.* The new compound, related to sulfadimethoxine and sulfadiazine, has a very low toxicity, good antibacterial efficacy in vitro and in vivo, and a longer period of activity in humans than other sulfa compounds. Effective blood levels can be maintained with low oral or parenteral doses, given once weekly, which is a definitive advance in prolonged treatment of chronic diseases or in prophylactic use. Clinical reports concerning use of the new sulfonamide in treating respiratory, urinary and dermatological conditions and leprosy have been published by Aguirre and Casado,' Kaminsky et alBarclay et al.-^ and Opro-


Using cloud Database as a Service (DBaaS) offerings instead of on-premise deployments is increasingly common. Key advantages include improved availability and scalability at a lower cost than on-premise alternatives. In this paper, we describe the design of Taurus, a new multi-tenant cloud database system. Taurus separates the compute and storage layers in a similar manner to Amazon Aurora and Microsoft Socrates and provides similar benefits, such as read replica support, low network utilization, hardware sharing and scalability. However, the Taurus architecture has several unique advantages. Taurus offers novel replication and recovery algorithms providing better availability than existing approaches using the same or fewer replicas. Also, Taurus is highly optimized for performance, using no more than one network hop on critical paths and exclusively using append-only storage, delivering faster writes, reduced device wear, and constant-time snapshots. This paper describes Taurus and provides a detailed description and analysis of the storage node architecture, which has not been previously available from the published literature.


A compact multiband band-pass filter design for applications of GSM, Wi-MAX and WLAN systems is pre- sented. The design is based on the resonant characteristics of step-impedance and interdigital capacitor resonators with overlap cross coupling structure. The fabricated filter has been operated at the fundamental, first and second harmonic resonant frequencies of 1.8 GHz, 3.7 GHz, and 5.2 GHz, respectively. The experimental results of the fab- ricated filter agree very well with the simulation expecta- tions using IE3D package. The proposed filter has good performances, while the resonator size can be reduced from λ/2 �to λ/8, resulting in the most compact multiband band-pass filter compared with the others using transmis- sion line resonators .


The problem of designing structures to achieve a specified performance limit state has gain interest in seismic design practice. Currently, some methodologies have been proposed in order to take into account for inelastic behavior of the structures in design phases; in that sense, a performance limit state can be provided. However, most of these approaches are iterative processes and depend, in some cases, on the experience of the designer. Otherwise, they are based on the concept of equivalent structures, only adequate for regular structures. In this paper, a direct performance based seismic design methodology for irregular structures with damage control is proposed. This method is based on the superposition of two elastic analyses. The strength of the method is the selection of local damage regions (hinges) intentionally chosen by the designer. This distribution of hinges defines the zones where damage is allowed and the desired failure mechanism in the design. A combination of dynamic modal-spectral analyses using a damage parameter (?) to control the damage intensity in the plastic hinges and the non-structural damage through allowable displacement or drifts. The methodology will be presented for planar frame structures presenting vertical irregularities. Furthermore, the effects of higher modes of vibrations is highlighted.


Introduction: Gram-negative bacteria are the main cause of infections ranging from pneumonia to bloodstream infection. In the oral cavity, there may be microorganisms associated with systemic and opportunistic infections. In addition, the irrational use of antibiotics related to odontogenic infections will promote the colonization of these microorganisms and contribute to antimicrobial resistance. Objective: To investigate the presence of multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria in the oral cavities of patients in a dental clinic. Material and Methods: The characteristic of the study is to be observational, with a laboratory and cross-sectional design. A sample of 60 patients from all Asces-Unita dental clinics was used. Samples were obtained through a swab smear on the patient's oral mucosa. The technique for laboratory analysis follows the methodology of Winn et al. Antibiogram was performed according to the Kirby-Bauer technique. The antibiotics used followed the indications provided by CLSI 2021 and BrCAST 2021. This is a study using descriptive statistics. Results and Discussion: From 60 bacterial isolates obtained, 15 samples of gram-negative bacteria were obtained, mostly Pseudomonas aeruginosa 6 (40%), Klebsiella pneumoniae 5 (33.3%), Enterobacter sp 1 (6.66%), Citrobacter sp 1 (6.66%) and Proteus vulgaris 2 (13.33%). Multidrug resistance was observed in 20% of Klebsiella pneumoniae cases, in 83.3% of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cases, in 100% of Proteus vulgaris cases. Nowadays, antimicrobial resistance is the main problem in Intensive Care Units (ICU), the excessive use of antibiotics in communities and hospitals directly contributes to the development of bacterial resistance.Conclusion: Multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria were isolated in the oral cavity of patients seen at a dental clinic. In view of this finding, it is important to review the antibiotic treatment used to combat infections caused by gram-negative bacteria, based on laboratory identification and the use of an antibiogram.


1. As the 20th century draws to a close, Brazil ranks as the tenth largest GDP in the world economy, with the fifth largest territory and population on the planet. The Brazilian economy faced a long period of stagnation in the 19th century, but exploded into an accelerated growth process, unparalleled in almost any other nation of the world, from the 1870s to the 1970s. However, in the last twenty years, the vibrant growth trajectory that culminated in the period after World War II, has turned clearly downward. Today, per capita income ranks in forty-fifth position, while income distribution is still one of the most unequal in the world.


The objective of this paper is to study the performance of piezoelectric materials on a piezoelectric paint sensor. The paper begins by presenting a fabrication method for a paint sensor with piezoelectric properties using piezoelectric materials. The paint sensor is composed of piezoelectric powder and epoxy resin in a 1:1 weight ratio. Five different piezoelectric materials, including three soft-type and two hard-type materials, were used and their piezoelectric properties compared in paint sensors and ceramic sensors. The paint sensors were cured using a steel mold for producing a uniform specimen size of 20 × 10 × 0.2 mm3, and an electrode was made on the upper and lower sides using silver paste. Poling treatment was then successfully performed at room temperature (20 °C) under a 4 kV mm−1 electric field for 30 min in order to activate the paint specimen as a sensor. Impact signals were monitored by measuring output voltage from the paint sensor in relation to impact force. The sensor's piezoelectric properties were then calculated using normalized piezoelectric properties. In addition, five different piezoelectric ceramic sensors were fabricated and their d33 value measured to compare the sensitivity of paint sensors. As a result, Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3-Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 (PNN-PZT) powder showed higher sensitivity and higher piezoelectric properties than other piezoelectric materials in both paint and ceramic sensors.


The economic downturn in developed countries has had implications in the field of healthcare. In Finland, public hospitals have been forced to improve their production efficiency while coping with limited resources. In this study, 14 interviewees from two Finnish University hospitals were interviewed. The aim of the study was to shed light on today's work process, change, information, medical technology, and lean management challenges. Both hospitals had recently undergone rigorous renovation and relocation projects. The employees and patients were happy with the hospital management. However, there were several improvements needed regarding hospital hierarchy, bureaucracy, communication, ICT technology, logistics, safety, teamwork, personnel structure and outsourcing. The managements at both hospitals desired to improve their work processes, employee well-being and patient care, and also develop the lean work processes. Several functions were praiseworthy, and those in need of improvement were transparently discussed by the hospital management.


The study of the adequacy of difficult mathematical models of geophysical hydrodynamics is very important today. For investigation and the numerical solution one can involve methods of the inverse problems theory [1], approaches of the optimal control theory and the adjoint equations [2], modern methods of numerical mathematics. We consider one of such problems – a problem on the adequacy of a model of tidal dynamics in the World Ocean.


Usage of pneumatic artificial muscles as actuators of manipulators is due to their highly nonlinear characteristics conditional by using the nonlinear control algorithms. Hybrid fuzzy adaptive control presented in the paper consists of a linear PD controller in the feedforward branch and a fuzzy adaptive controller with reference model in the adaptation branch and an output signal controlling the positioning system with two antagonistic artificial muscles is then created by multiplying the output signal from the PD controller and the adaptation gain of the fuzzy controller output. In the paper there are tested two types of membership functions for Sugeno fuzzy controller used in the adaptation subsystem. There is also shortly described metaheuristic method (genetic algorithm) used for parameters optimization of fuzzy controller.


Based on the results of preliminary observations at SMA Negeri 1 Jereweh, West Sumbawa Regency, it shows that students are less involved in the learning process and students tend to be passive. One of the factors that causes students to be less involved in learning is because the learning model and learning approach applied by the teacher are less varied. Therefore, research has been conducted on the effect of the Guided Inquiry learning model on problem-solving abilities and cognitive learning outcomes of Class XI Biology students at SMA Negeri 1 Jereweh. The purpose of this study was to examine whether there was an effect of the Guided Inquiry learning model on problem solving abilities and cognitive learning outcomes of class XI students of SMA Negeri 1 Jereweh. The type of research used in this research is Quasi Experiment. The research design in this research was pre-test and post-test, and the research samples were 19 students from class XI IPA 1 as the experimental class, and 18 students from class XI IPA 2 as the control class. Data collection uses observation sheets to determine students' problem solving abilities and test sheets to determine students' cognitive learning outcomes. Based on the results of data analysis, the average value of the control class for problem solving ability was 82.5% in the high category, and the average value of the experimental class for problem solving ability was 90.62% in the very high category. The average value for the cognitive learning outcomes of the control class was 77.2, while the average value for the experimental class was 85.7. Testing the hypothesis using t-test analysis (t-test) at a significant level of 5%, obtained a tcount of 6.248 > ttable value of 1.684, so it can be concluded that there is an influence of the Guided Inquiry learning model on cognitive learning outcomes of class XI students of SMA Negeri 1 Jereweh.


The development of business in Eastern African region is becoming very lucrative. One of the key reasons of the profound interest in the region from the investor's perspective is the progressing economy. The investment environment in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzanian, Burundi and Rwanda (East African Community, together with South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia) now is substantially better than it was a couple of years ago. The region is becoming of interest partly due to the discovery of oil/gas, political stability as manifested by recent peaceful election in Kenya. Several multinational companies like Tullow Oil plc, CNOOC, African oil corp. and others, have entered the region, increasing demand for housing. East Africa is of particular interest to investors because the market is still virgin. Without analyzing the market situation, an organization is practically doomed to failure because it will not be able to forecast the future needs and demands of customers. This article, therefore sought to carry out a strategic analysis on East Africa's real estate business with particular interest in Uganda National Housing and Construction Company Limited (UNHCC). Normal 0 false false false EN-US ZH-CN X-NONE


An experiment was conducted to evaluate the responses of various concentrations of NAA (25, 50, 75 ppm) and Pseudomonas inoculum on growth, yield and some biochemical parameters of sesame (Sesamum indicum L. var. BARI Til-4). Results revealed that application of NAA treatments and Pseudomonas inoculum reduced plant height non-significantly. Significant result was recorded on number of branches per plants from 50 ppm NAA treated plants. Plants treated with 75 ppm NAA produced maximum number of leaves, fresh and dry weight of leaves and roots, leaf area per plant and specific leaf weight whereas significant variation was found on leaf area. Seeds treated with Pseudomonas inoculum exhibited maximum shoot and root ratio which showed non-significant variation with the results of NAA treated plants. Yield contributing parameters viz., number of pods per plant, fresh and dry weight of pods per plant, 1000-seed weight were recorded maximum from 75 ppm NAA which were statistically similar to control. Maximum length of pod and number of seeds per pod were also recorded from 75 ppm NAA treated plants which eventually produced 32.54% higher yield than control. Harvest index was significantly influenced by all the treatments. Foliar NAA treatments and Pseudomonas inoculum had stimulatory effects on pigment contents of fresh leaves at vegetative stage where, Pseudomonas inoculum treated plants produced significantly higher chlorophyll a and carotenoids content than control. Significantly higher protein content of fresh leaves and seeds were also recorded from 75 ppm NAA treated plants. Out of four treatments, 75 ppm NAA produced better responses in most of the parameters. Introduction Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is one of the ancient oilseed crops cultivated from tropical to temperate regions of the world under the family Pedaliaceae. It occupies fifth position as an oil crop in Bangladesh and plays vital role in human diet having high per cent of oil (42 45), protein (20) and carbohydrate (14.20). Seed contains 47% oleic, 39% linoleic acid and rich in omega 6 fatty acid (BARI 1998). Currently the annual demand of oil seeds is approximately 1.4 million metric ton whereas the production at national level is only 0.4 million metric ton (Azad et al. 2017). Acute shortage of this edible oil has been prevailing in Bangladesh during the last several decades and about 70% of this shortage has been met through imports, using a huge amount of foreign exchange every year. To meet the demand of oilseeds, Bangladesh needs to improve cultivation of oilseed crops for attaining self-sufficiency in the country. In addition, the yield of sesame is very low in the country due to lack of proper management practices (Rahman et al. 1994). The yield of sesame could be increased by using numerous improved technologies and practices where, application of growth regulators and plant growth promoting bacteria is considered as the easiest ways for such an attempt. Some investigations have showed that naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) had stimulatory effect on different oil seeds crops including sesame (Govindan et al. 2000, Haque 2005, Behera 2015, *Author for correspondence: <firstname.lastname@example.com>.


A novel liquid-crystalline material, S-2-chloropropyl 4′-(4″-n-nonyloxyphenylpropioloyloxy)biphenyl-4-carboxylate (902C13T), which undergoes an inversion of helical-twist sense in the cholesteric phase, was prepared and its physical properties were investigated. The behaviour of the pitch and the twist sense of the helical structure in the cholesteric phase are reported. It is suggested that the helix inverts because of changes in the populations of conformational isomers, and that these changes are temperature dependent. An equation that was originally formulated to account for an inversion in the sign of the spontaneous polarization (Ps) in certain smectic C* materials may be adapted for the modelling of helix inversions.


Abstract By 2008, ownership transfers of former council housing had been proceeding for 20 years. Since 1997, the process has encompassed many larger urban local authorities, with housing departments which could have been fairly characterised as monolithic, producer-oriented bureaucracies. Drawing on new research evidence from England, Scotland and Wales, this paper considers the extent to which these 'second generation' transfers have delivered against policy objectives to reform the governance and organisational culture of social housing. The empirical evidence suggests that second generation transfers have provided a substantial stimulus to tenant involvement and to the development of more consumer-focused, inclusive and commercially minded organisations. However, ministerial aspirations for transfer as a vehicle for community empowerment have not always been realised. And, to the extent that they have triggered beneficial change in governance and organisational culture, questions remain about the durability of such gains.


A method of increasing salt tolerance in a plant, the method comprising, a. introducing into the plant a polynucleotide encoding a transporter polypeptide Na + / H + elextremo truncated C-terminal, which when expressed confers increased salt tolerance in the plant; and Elque truncated transporter polypeptide consists of an amino acid sequence that is: i. at least 80% identical to SEQ ID NO: 2 over the entire length of transportadortruncado polypeptide; and ii. less than 475 amino acids in length; and b. selecting a plant which exhibits increased salt compared to a plant that has been introduced inthe a polypeptide encoding a peptide of SEQ ID NO tolerance: 2.


This paper describes an extension of viscoelastic Group Interaction Modelling (GIM) to predict the relaxation response of linear, branched and cross-linked structures. This model is incorporated into a Monte Carlo percolation grid simulation used to generate the topological structure during the isothermal cure of a gel, so enabling the chemorheological response to be predicted at any point during the cure. The model results are compared to experimental data for an epoxy-amine systems and good agreement is observed. The viscoelastic model predicts the same exponent power-law behaviour of the loss and storage moduli as a function of frequency and predicts the cross-over in the loss tangent at the percolation condition for gelation. The model also predicts the peak in the loss tangent which occurs when the glass transition temperature surpasses the isothermal cure temperature and the system vitrifies.


The first three books of verse of Pedro Salinas have been puzzling critics for many years. There is general agreement that all of them involve a questioning of external reality, a series of attempts to examine poetically the appearance of things and to seek behind it some essential values. But critics have offered radically different interpretations of this search. Angel del Rio described Salinas' first book, Presagios, as a record of the poet's failure to capture reality's elusive essence in words; he then characterized Salinas' next volume, Seguro azar, as an affirmation of the exactness of the modern world. Marta Morello Frosch has seen in Salinas' portrayal of both nature and modern artifacts a lack of faith in reality; Olga Costa Viva, on the other hand, has found in it an exaltation of the real. Julian Palley has viewed Salinas' early poetry as a desperate quest to create meaning in an enigmatic universe.1 Attempting to transcend these conflicting views, David Stixrude has suggested that this poetry is a tensive effort to find some "solution to these oscillations between reality's allure and its decep-


Complete List of Authors: Cai, Xianghai; State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Newworld Institute of Biotechnology Chen, Siqi; State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Newworld Institute of Biotechnology Yang, Hong; State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Newworld Institute of Biotechnology Wang, Wei; State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Newworld Institute of Biotechnology Lin, Lin; Research Laboratory for Functional Nanomaterial, National Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology Shen, Yaling; State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Newworld Institute of Biotechnology Wei, Wei; State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology Wei, Dongzhi; State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Newworld Institute of Biotechnology


The impact of automation had drawn our attention towards the advancements of closed-loop control systems (feedback/feedforward control systems). A PID control system is used in almost every industrial as well as commercial application. Therefore, it becomes important to efficiently tune these PID control systems. Various advancements are done in auto-tuning these parameters. However, due to the absence in the existing system, which implements the PID control as well as auto-tunes the parameter, this paper aims at constructing a system, which eliminates the hectic process of tuning the PID manually and implementing PID control with ease.


Work has begun on the measurements of the acoustic properties of uncompacted sediments. This paper describes some of the preliminary work on the measurement of the velocity of sound in sediments. A pulse technique is used and measurements have been made over the frequency range from 50 to 200 kc/sec. Results are reported for several artificial sediments containing a wide range of particle sizes and for sediments composed of relatively pure clay minerals. Velocity measurements in these sediments were made as a function of frequency and as a function of particle concentration. A slight dispersion has been measured and this dispersion is compared to existing theoretical predictions. (This work is supported by the Bureau of Ships.)


AbstractThere is a consensus in current research that Levitical law never requires blood to be tossed upon the upper surface of the altar. This conception has reinforced—and has been reinforced by—an understanding that yhwh is never to be offered blood. However, it appears that according to several priestly texts, the blood of many sacrifices, including wellbeing, whole-burnt and reparation offerings, is to be tossed upon the upper surface of the altar.


Clause is devoted to the characteristic of modern specialization of Russia in the international division of labour. Formative and civilizative ways of perfection of forms of participation of the Russian Federation to a new international division of labour proceeds are presented.


The invention provides a holistic Schadenslokalisierungs- and remediation techniques for supply and disposal lines and their surrounding bedding and overfill soil is demonstrated. a new static bearing system is provided by the use of liner remediation technologies in the old pipe and parallel performed cavity injection in the bedding and overfill the bottom of the pipeline, which secures the infra structure Turgut pipe as well as the overlying surfaces or building lasting and which prevents damages.


We report studies of magnetic aging in several Fe- and Co-based metallic glasses. In situ measurements of 50 kHz permeability, core loss, and exciting power at 150 and 200°C were made for up to 1000 h. For the Fe-based alloys, the core loss was stable, but permeability and exciting power degraded with a \log t kinetic. The zero magnetostriction Co-based glasses likewise degraded as \log t in permeability and exciting power with modest increase in core loss. The \log t kinetic is attributed to relaxation processes with a distribution of activation energies beginning at ∼ 1.4 eV for the Fe alloys and at ∼ 1.25 eV for the Co alloys. The apparent rate of decay is less in alloys with higher induced uniaxial anisotropy. Surface studies indicate that below 250°C, oxidation plays at most a minor role in aging.


Using the static coal combustion and ash cold sieving experimental method,the attrition rate constants of four kinds of coal ash were measured.It was found that the attrition rate constant of the same coal ash decayed exponentially with increasing particle size, while the attrition rate constants of different kinds of coal ash with the same size were different.The coal ash components were found to cause the above phenomena.By assuming the coal ash mainly composed of metakaolin, quartz, ferric oxide and calcium oxide, the influences and tendency of coal ash components on attrition rate constant were deduced with the gray system theory and neural network.The increase of metakaolin, ferric oxide and calcium oxide contents could increase the attrition rate constant, while the attrition rate constant would decrease with increasing amount of quartz.


The yogurt is thought to be a tasty product with high nutritional value. Its consumption per capita in Brazil has increased about 100% in the last 20 years. Most dairy products available in the market have added temperate climate fruits, but the agroindustry is always looking for innovation and improvement of technologies to meet the needs and requirements of consumers. Thus, aiming at the importance of developing new products with high added value, this study aimed to evaluate the influence of the addition of pumpkin jelly and cornstarch on the physicochemical and textural characteristics of Greek yogurt. The yogurts were prepared using the factorial design method 22 with 3 repetitions at the center point, resulting in a matrix with 7 experiments, with a varied concentration of starch and jelly. Subsequently, the analysis of physicochemical parameters and determination of texture pattern were examined. When analyzing the 7 formulations, it was observed that all parameters evaluated showed an increase directly proportional to the addition of pumpkin jelly and cornstarch to the product. Thus, the increase in the percentage of jelly presented the greatest interference on the response variables.


Embedding methods are feature representations of words, which are able to capture both semantic and syntactic information from contexts. However, existing embedding methods for learning context are typically unable to capturing sufficient sentiment information. In this study, we conduct an investigation on how to improve the performance of sentiment classification using sentiment embedding approach. Particularly, we first present a new word embedding method based on a supervised method to capture the semantic sentiment information. Then, Deep Learning models, by combining different architecture such as Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), and attention mechanisms are developed for improving the performance of the sentiment classification. The evaluation on well-known bench-mark datasets with different languages (i.e., English and Vietnamese) indicates the promising results of our method.


Correspondence: Amy M Kwon 505 S Hancock St, James Graham Brown Cancer Center, Louisville, KY 40218, USA Tel +1 502 852 1114 Fax +1 502 852 7979 Email firstname.lastname@example.com Background: The purpose of this work was to estimate the average effect of the covariate of interest when the outcome variable is dichotomized from a continuous variable and data are incomplete, with the missing data not missing at random (NMAR). The motivating example is to estimating the effect of vitamin D levels on secondary hyperparathyroidism among patients with chronic kidney disease. Methods: The average effect of the covariate of interest is computed by a two-step procedure. In the first step, we identify the conditional distribution of the original variable given the covariates by obtaining the parameter estimates. In the second step, we draw the predictive values from the identified distribution, and create binary values from the predictive values by dichotomizing them at the threshold. Results: According to the simulation results, the biases of the effects between logistic regression with the complete data and the estimated logistic regression with the converted binary variable are negligible. For the application example, the effect of vitamin D on the occurrence of secondary hyperparathyroidism is highly significant in the complete case analysis, but only a modest effect of vitamin D on secondary hyperparathyroidism is observed under the NMAR assumption. Conclusion: It is impossible to find consistent estimates without knowing the exact nature of the missing data when the missing data mechanism is NMAR. Also, the outcome variable is binary, so we may be faced with an unidentifiability problem when the missing data mechanism is NMAR. To avoid this problem, we estimated the average effect of the covariate of interest in the framework of a generalized linear model from the relationship between a dichotomized outcome and a continuous original outcome, and the estimated effect showed negligible bias according to this simulation.


Hypoxia often takes place clinically and may result in a series of changes in biochemical and physiological functions. The research progress in the effects of hypoxia on morphology, structure, function of mitochondria, energy metabolism, biochemical and physiological functions has been reviewed.


ABSTRACT The Landcare Research collections of biological specimens and their associated databases provide an essential resource for local and international researchers, administrators of New Zealand's plant-disease-related biosecurity system, border control agencies and non-professional citizen scientists. This article focuses on data provided for New Zealand's non-lichenised fungi and plant pathogenic bacteria, through the NZFungi nomenclatural and bibliographic database and the associated specimen databases for the PDD fungarium and International Collection of Microorganisms from Plants culture collection. A brief history of the development of the databases is provided, along with the resources used to deliver the data to users. The data is managed through an enterprise data management system rather than an off-the-shelf product, using international standards to allow exchange of data with other providers such as GBIF, Index Fungorum, StrainInfo and Species 2000.


Abstract : The problem of a hypersonic two-phase flow over a porous flat plate (or banks of nozzles) with massive blowing was considered. The method of integral relations was applied to simplify the governing equations and the starting solution was discussed. A detailed review of the particle drag and heat-transfer laws was included. Some suggestions for further work were also discussed.


Results: There were 1574 patients who received a drug typically used for hypertension. Depending on age and sex, 23% to 48% of patients had a potential interaction of high significance and 55% to 84% had at least one potential interaction. Both increasing age ( P .0007, odds ratio [OR] 1.012 [1.005,1.019]) and number of drugs ( P .0001, OR 1.120 [1.092,1.150]) were significantly associated with the potential for a highly significant drug interaction in the univariable models. Female sex was not significant (P .56, OR 1.074 [0.845,1.364]). The multivariable model found that there was a significant interaction between age and the number of drugs in the regimen (P .0001).


An abrupt excitation to a fluid contained in a system with flexible boundaries creates a coupling effect between the pressure response in the fluid and the flexible structure. Measurement of pressures within such a system may be contaminated by this coupling effect. A method to study acoustic wave propagation inside a rigid container is developed in this paper to address such a problem. With this method, the predicted pressure response for the fluid within a rigid container can be compared to test data from a flexible system. The results of this comparison can lead to a determination of the extent of contamination of the measured pressure response by the interaction of the fluid with the flexible structure. 6 refs.


The article describes the synthesis and characterisation of the Cr(III)-rutin complex along with an estimate of its antioxidant activity. The complex was characterised using elemental analysis, UV-VIS, IR, conductance data, thermal, and gravimetric analyses. In the UV-VIS study, a bathochromic shift of approximately 98 nm indicates the formation of a rutin complex by more than one chelating site. The FT-IR spectra clearly show the formation of the Cr—O bond between rutin and Cr(III) at 494 cm−1, while the thermal study shows the presence of eight coordinated water molecules in the complex. The gravimetric analysis quantitatively proves the presence of four chloride ions. From these data, the formula of the Cr(III)-rutin complex was deduced as [Cr2(C27H28O16)(H2O)8]Cl4. Moreover, the antioxidant study of the complex was evaluated by using 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free-radical, ferric-reducing, and phosphomolybdenum assays, which show that the complex has a higher antioxidant activity than rutin.


POLITICIANS, academicians and the general public alike have perceived that the status quo tax and transfer legislation creates inequities among living units. Tax laws create numerous situations in which living units with seemingly equal abilities to pay are taxed quite different amounts. State-by-state differences in welfare eligibility rules, benefit schedules and administrative procedures, the general unavailability of cash welfare to childless, nonaged, healthy couples and single individuals, and other features of transfer programs similarly provide vastly different levels of income support to units with "'equal needs." ' Advocates of major tax and welfare reform have marshalled such evidence into a central argument in favor of their proposals. While there is wide agreement that the process of redistributing incomes abounds with inequities, there have been few attempts to quantify their extent.2 This paper develops a measure of horizontal inequity and illustrates its use. Section II discusses the concept of horizontal equity, then builds upon familiar Lorenz curve-Gini coefficient analysis to derive the inequity index. The third part considers some problems of implementing the measure and illustrates it. Section IV provides a short conclusion.


BACKGROUND The surgical management of cutaneous metastasis (CM) is challenging, particularly in elderly patients, in whom general anesthesia can be difficult because of comorbidity. OBJECTIVES To test the effectiveness of tumescent local anesthesia (TLA) to achieve adequate anesthesia during the treatment of extensive CM with electrochemotherapy (ECT), previously only performed under general anesthesia. METHODS We conducted five ECT treatments of CM with intralesional bleomycin under TLA. We examined pain scores before, during, and after treatment; analgesic use; and side effects. The intention of the treatment was palliative in all cases. RESULTS We treated four patients (ages 75–88) with CM with a mean area of 126 cm2 (range 12–198 cm2) with 356 mL of TLA per treatment (range 180–450 mL). The ECT treatment under TLA demonstrated that anesthesia was adequate, with moderate pain during and slight pain after the procedure as measured on a visual analog scale (VAS). CONCLUSIONS In this proof‐of‐principle study, we demonstrated that ECT can be performed under TLA; TLA might be a useful new anesthesia option for patients treated with ECT.


The increase in popularity of online video streaming services and the self-scalability property of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays contributed to the development of P2P live streaming systems. In these systems, peers connect with each other to retrieve video content. The store-and-forward strategy to distribute stream induces forwarding delay at each hop from the source to a peer. Therefore, designing peer selection strategy to minimize end-to-end delay is an important research problem in P2P live streaming systems. In this paper, we develop a two-tier peer selection strategy which minimizes playback lag and startup delay. In the proposed two-tier peer selection strategy, peers are selected at both the levels (tracker and peer) based on propagation delay, upload capacity, playback lag and buffering level. The proposed two-tier peer selection strategy is compared with an existing system, Fast-Mesh using simulations. The results show that playback lag is reduced by 20-25% and startup delay is reduced by 10-15%.


Firstly, the reasons why calculation procedure might not be executed are analyzed by analyzing algorithms for previous work. The lower bounds for parameters in train problem are therefore given. Secondly, an improved adaptive algorithm is given, and satisfactory calculation results have been reached.


In the goal to implement an experimental wind energy board we have interest by a survey and development of a wind emulator based on DC-machine. The development of this subject has focused on modeling of a vertical axis wind turbine, a DC motor with independent excitation and its control via a fourth quadrant chopper. To carry out this work, we studied and designed the electrical and mechanical sensors dedicated to the stand and a PWM control using 18F452 microcontroller. The presented emulator permit to test some theoretical algorithm control used in the wind energy control system, such as, system was the SCIG, DFIG or PMSM.


Introduction: Asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory diseases and one of the main problems of health care systems in many societies around the world, including Iran. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of immunization against stress on anxiety, perceived stress and adherence of treatment in patients with asthma. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 30 patients with asthma aged 25 to 55 years were selected and divided into experimental and control groups. Participants first completed research questionnaires. First, the participants completed the research questionnaires. Then, the stress immunization training package was implemented in 9 sessions for the experimental group. Then the research questionnaires were completed after the sessions and again after three months. The instruments of this study include Beck Anxiety Scale, Cohen Perceived Stress Questionnaire and the scale of adherence to the treatment. In order to analyze the data, repeated measures analysis of variance test was used in SPSS software version 20. Results: The results showed that the difference between groups was significant for the perceived stress variables (p = 0.023) and treatment follow-up (p = 0.003) but was not significant for the anxiety variable (p = 0.360). Therefore, immunization training against stress had a significant effect on perceived stress and adherence to treatment of patients with asthma. Conclusion: Immunization against stress by reducing perceived stress in patients with asthma, in addition to reducing the risk of asthma attacks by improving adherence of treatment these patients leads to better control of their disease.