Design of the Integrated English Language Curriculum has been blamed for falling standards of students' competence in the subject. Teacher input in the curriculum design has rarely been considered in the centralized curriculum development approach used in Kenya.  However, it is now recognized that teacher input is critical if curriculum is to be effective.  The purpose of this study was therefore to evaluate the implementation of the integrated approach to the teaching of English in secondary schools in Kenya and provide a proposal for a revised programme that takes into account teacher input which is often ignored in centralized curriculum development systems such as the one in Kenya.  Data was collected from curriculum developers using an interview schedule and from teachers of English using a questionnaire. The study revealed that stakeholders perceived the integrated approach in conflicting terms and Teachers were not well prepared to implement the integrated approach. Curriculum developers advocated for the continuation of the integrated practice while teachers of English called for separation of English and Literature.  A new shared integrated model is proposed.


The coating speed upon static coating of glass capillary columans was evaluated in terms of inner diameter and length of the column, viscosity and pressure of solvent vapor, etc. From the equation obtained it can be shown that a smaller diameter of a microbore column restricts solvent vapor transfer to the orifice of the column drastically. To compensate for this restriction, a higher pressure at the meniscus is needed. As an alternative to using a higher coating temperature, application of more volatile solvents such as n-butane and isobutane is proposed. Several glass capillary columns (130 μm i.d.) were coated with SE-54 dissolved inpentane-acetone mixed with n-butane or isobutane and the column performances were evaluated. Selection of these solvents permitted free release static coating of ca. 100 μm columns at lower or even ambient temperatures and they were equally suitable as commonly applied solvents (e.g. pentane) to coat highly efficient columns.


Background: Cotinine is the major metabolite of nicotine. It is also a specific biomarker for nicotine exposure in cigarette smokers. The measurement of urine cotinine concentration will enable: (1) the assessment of the smoking status of lung transplant patients and (2) tobacco abstinence to be studied in patients during treatment under smoking cessation programmes. Methods: We have developed and validated a method for the measurement of urinary cotinine using reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). This technique utilizes online ion exchange coupled with an analytical column to eliminate ion suppression effects. The chromatography was performed using a WatersTM 2795 Alliance HT LC system. Results: Cotinine and d3-cotinine had a retention time of 2.5 min and the cycle time from injection to injection was 4 min. The transition identified for cotinine was m/z 177.1>79.6 and for d3-cotinine m/z 180.2>79.6. This method was linear up to 1000 μg/L. Mean recovery of the assay was 112% with a range of 107-117% (n=9). The limit of quantitation for this assay was 2.5 µg/L and the limit of detection was 0.156 µg/L. The intra- and inter-assay imprecision was <12% and <10% respectively over a concentration range of 22-660 μg/L. Conclusions: We have developed a robust and rapid assay for measuring and analysing urine cotinine by LC-MS/MS, by utilizing a technique, which has reduced ion suppression effects. Ultimately, the method will facilitate the assessment of lung transplant patients' smoking status.


3128 Background: Primary breast cancer in the older ( > 70 years) population has distinct biological characteristics associated with favourable outcome, such as higher rate of estrogen receptor (ER) positivity. Due to comorbidities, older patients with primary breast cancer are more likely to die of non-breast cancer-related causes compared to their younger counterparts. Biomarkers that may influence treatment strategy therefore require interpretation in the specific biological and clinical context of older women. Cyclin E regulates cell cycle transition from G1 to S phase, and its deregulation is implicated in breast cancer pathogenesis. Tumour-specific isoforms of cyclin E localise to the cytoplasm. Expression of cytoplasmic cyclin E (c-cyclin E) is linked with poor clinical outcome. We now present multivariate analysis of breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) by c-cyclin E and clinical markers of disease biology from a cohort of older women. The primary outcome, BCSS, excludes deaths from competing causes and is used as a surrogate for tumour biology. Methods: Between 1973 and 2010, 813 older women underwent initial surgery for early breast cancer and were followed up in a dedicated clinic in Nottingham. Excised tumours from 517 of these patients were successfully incorporated into a tissue microarray (TMA). Expression of c-cyclin E was assessed by IHC using an assay developed at MDACC, along with a panel of 24 biomarkers. Of these, ER, progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) and Ki67 are in current clinical use and are analysed alongside c-cyclin E. Grade was assessed from the primary tumour. Multivariate analysis of BCSS was performed by Cox proportional hazard test. Results: In multivariate analysis alongside markers of disease biology currently used in the clinic (ER, PR, HER2, Ki67 and grade), c-cyclin E is the only factor that independently predicts BCSS in this cohort of older women (HR 5.0, 95% CI 2.1 – 12.0; p< 0.001). Conclusions: In the older population with primary breast cancer, c-cyclin E expression is the only independent biological marker of BCSS. Patients with low c-cyclin E expression are unlikely to die of breast cancer. These data have potential to influence treatment strategy in older patients. For example, patients with ER+, c-cyclin E negative disease plus multiple co-morbidities may be suitable for primary endocrine therapy. This hypothesis warrants prospective clinical evaluation.


The present invention provides an aluminum clamping rivet with which: when laying the rivet for caulking and assembly, without forming a pilot hole on the aluminum plates, it does product or cracking or buckling or jamming, or the like; it is possible to assemble and matting aluminum plates with high efficiency and safely; recycling opportunities are very good; and, further, it is possible to lighten the products. The rivet is made of an aluminum alloy series 6000 according to JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard), and has a head and a shank, wherein the surface hardness Hv of the rod is 135 or more.


A growing body of data supports greater pharmacist involvement in medication safety, said speaker Deb Saine at a recent Pharmacy OneSource webinar.


A right to health is one of a range of socioeconomic rights for which states accept an obligation under international law. However, the politics of rights has meant that socioeconomic rights are rarely given the same status as liberal freedoms associated with civil and political rights. This article discusses the liberal rationale for rejecting socioeconomic claims as rights and examines the basic rights challenge to liberal arguments. Given the dominance of liberalism, the article concludes with an examination of the potential for promoting a right to health within the context of globalisation.


Being one of the greatest German jurists, Savigny's theory has spread over not only the continental countries but also the Anglo- America countries through the English translation of his works. While tracing back to the birth of the English historical law school, America's codification controversy after the America Civil War, the legal education reform in both England and America in the late 19th century and the judicial practice in the United States before 1900, one can easily sense Savigny's influences, which are far deeper than those of other continental scholars. There are many reasons for the considerable influences of Savigy; for example, his individual reputation, his eminent status in German society, and the rise of the historical view of law. But the most important one is the tradition of the legal cultures' communication between the continental countries and the Anglo- America countries.


In contemporary Tourism industry, DMOs are necessary to adopt and offer innovative experience in order to attract contemporary tourists. Gamification, combined with Augmented Reality and all the relevant to this technology innovations are examined in this paper. Efforts should rely on the demands and needs of generation Z tourists as up and coming generation. However, there are specific implications such as the use of augmented reality smart glasses, incentives and personal data protection that occur. This paper contributes in understanding the new Generation called "Z", under the light of tourism and the effective use of augmented reality for tourism purposes, combined in one travel-product experience.


Most of the recurrent intussusceptions present within 6 months of initial episode and have been observed with almost all the treatment modalities. These are frequently reported after non-operative reduction (hydrostatic/pneumatic), whereas their incidence is negligible after operative management. This is especially true where the resection of the involved part of intestine is performed. The recurrence may occur once to as many as 8 times or more [1-3].


The method of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was used in analysis of the archaeological enamel samples from the ancient settlement of Jochi Khan (XIV century). During the qualitative analysis, it was found that the elements of the enamel matrix are Si, Pb, K, Na, Mg, Ca, Al. The glaze color is due to the presence of copper and iron. Clustering by the k-means method revealed two groups of samples similar in composition of enamel, but differing in place of origin within the settlement. For the studied samples the semi-quantitative composition of glazes was established from the spectra of LIBS using a method based on the hypothesis of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and a chemometric approach (Projection to Latent Structures, PLS). Probabilistic deterministic design of experiment was used to search for pairs of element lines that are not subject to changes when the conditions for spectra registration vary, and to determine the coefficients in the equations based on LTR. Calculations using the PLC method were carried out in the "R" programming environment. The following content of the matrix elements was obtained in terms of the most stable oxides, %: SiO2 — 49–61, PbO — 23–31, MgO — 1.7–2.3, CaO — 4.6–6.9, Na2O — 4.1–5.3, K2O — 5.1–6.4, Al2O3 — 0.8–1.7, CuO — 0.32–0.4, Fe2O3 — 0.09–0.16. The results of both methods are generally consistent with each other. The inaccuracy between 4 parallel determinations were 15-24 % for LTE, and 9–14 % for PLS. Taking into account the data of semi-quantitative analysis, it was concluded that the division into two groups is based on a different ratio of copper and iron in enamel.


It doesn't matter what future television transmission technology is being discussed for the new ATSC3.0, they all have one thing in common, the need for higher data rates and more channel capacity. Broadcasters will become "Bit Managers" knowing that more power equates to higher quality of service (QoS). With broad industry consensus, assumptions can be made about next generation systems. In general they will be based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) synchronous single frequency networks (SFN) limited within the current coverage footprint as defined by the FCC and will have the flexibility to support capacity growth. As a result of post-auction repack there is likely to be more co-located channel sharing requiring broadband antenna systems with the central high power antenna retaining full ERP status. The use of physical layer pipes (PLP's), a new concept to US broadcasters will allow for business models to evolve and to tailor areas for fixed (rooftop reception), nomadic (stationary or slow moving reception at a variety of locations), and mobile (fast moving, vehicular reception) services within the coverage umbrella. In order to take full advantage of these efficiencies, the antenna must be able to adapt to provide the necessary signal strength in the desired locations.


________________________________________________________________ v CONTENTS ________________________________________________________________ vii LIST OF FIGURES ___________________________________________________________ x LIST OF TABLES ___________________________________________________________ xii LIST OF ACRONYMS _______________________________________________________ xiii LIST OF SYMBOLS _________________________________________________________ xv


A bacterium producing agarase was isolated from the vellar estuary and potential strain was identified as Bacillus subtilis. The ideal parameters was found to be of pH 8, temperature of 40°C and 3% of NaCl concentration for optimal growth and agarase activity. Agar as carbon source and yeast extract as nitrogen source was found to be suitable for optimum growth and agarase activity. The activity of enzyme obtained from the cell free filtrate was 15.2 U/L and the activity of the partially purified enzyme was 5.3 U/L and the purified enzyme activity was found to be 2.3 U/L. The stability of the partially purified enzyme on pH profile was found to be pH 8 and thermostability was found to be up to 40°C. The purified enzyme was determined to be homogeneous on the basis of SDS PAGE and had a molecular weight of 20 KDa.


[Objective] To determine the content of total flavonoids in Crateva unilocularis from different producing areas.[Method] Using rutin as reference substance,contents of total flavonoids in Crateva unilocularis from different producing areas including Xishuangbanna,Puer,Shiping and Jianshui were determined at 510 nm by UV spectrophotometry colored with sodium nitrite-aluminum nitrate-sodium hydroxide.[Result] Contents of total flavonoids in Crateva unilocularis from Xishuangbanna,Puer,Shiping and Jianshui were respectively 1.89,2.22,2.02 and 1.49 mg/g,among which content of total flavonoids in Crateva unilocularis was the highest in Puer and lowest in Jianshui.[Conclusion] The method was accurate,reliable,repeatable and could be used to determine the content of total flavonoids in Crateva unilocularis.


In the United States, smell is often poorly delivered. Think, for example, of the clumsy smell-o-vision attempts in 1950s movie theaters, or the overbearing fragrance of scented candles. The phenomenon of "nose-blindness," whereby we become desensitized to a scent within minutes of experiencing it, means that common scent delivery often seems heavy handed, or is partner to a separate primary experience, as is the case when eating food. But Living with Scents, a oneroom exhibition curated by Elisabetta Pisu and Clara Muller, offered an alternative vision of fragrance. Muller, who writes for the French olfactory magazine NEZ, sees the cultural presence of scent changing. As Muller told me in an interview conducted via email:


Background : Ameloblastoma is the most frequent odontogenic tumour reported in Nigeria. It is a slow growing locally invasive tumor which though rarely undergoes metastasis, but is clinically persistent. Aim : The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of the various histopathological subtypes of ameloblastoma seen at the Oral Pathology department of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and compare it with other studies in Nigeria and elsewhere. Materials and Methods : This is a five year (2008-2013) retrospective study of all histopathologically diagnosed ameloblastoma at the Oral Pathology department of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt. Lesions were categorized using the 2005 World Health Organization classification of odontogenic tumours. Results: Within the study period, there were 52 cases of ameloblastoma out of a total of 63 odontogenic tumors seen. The patients' age ranged from 7 – 65 years with a mean age of 28.5±14.6 years. There was equal sex predilection. Solid/multicystic ameloblastoma was the most prevalent 30(57.7%) and mandible was the predominant site with 43(82.7%) cases. Solid/multicystic ameloblastoma were more in females while unicystic ameloblastoma were more in males. Solid/multicystic and unicystic ameloblastoma were predominantly seen in the mandible. There was no case of malignant ameloblastoma or ameloblastic carcinoma. Conclusion: Solid/multicystic ameloblastoma was the most prevalent with higher incidence in females. The mandible was the commonest site of occurrence.


In this paper we shall make a study of the completion of a space" here by a space we mean a set in which there is defined a closure operation satisfying three conditions A, -, and A tJ BU. Such a space was introduced by Tukey [8] and studied also by Fisher [4] under the name of a convergence space." In this paper we shall describe a space by assigning a neighborhood system to each point of it. Thus we get a generalization of the results of the author's paper [7]. ) 1. Let be a mapping o a set Xinto a set Y. Thenora amily ?/consisting of subsets of X, we will denote by (/) the amily ((A)IA e?I} and for a family ! consisting o subsets o Y, let's denote by -1() the family (-I(B) IB e . Let X be a subset of a set X*, then or a filter in X, the filter in X* generated by is denoted by *. We consider a set X together with a family N of filters in X satisfying the ollowing three conditions" N1) to every x e X there corresponds uniquely a filter (x) each member of which contains x, N2) a filter in X containing an element of N also belongs to N, N3) or every x e X, (x) e N. We will denote such a space X with N by (X;N) and call it a space simply. A filter base in X converges to x in X if and only if the filter generated by contains (x). 3) A filter (x) and each o its members are called the neighborhood system of x and a neighborhood o x respectively. A mapping f of a space (X;N) into a space (Y ;M) is continuous if and only if or every x e X a filter generated by (f((x)) contains


Experience with concurrent programming has shown that concurrent programs can conceal bugs even after extensive testing. Thus, there is a need for practical techniques which can establish the correctness of parallel programs. This paper proposes a method for showing how to prove the partial correctness of programs written in the Chare-kernel language, which is a language designed to support the parallel execution of computation with irregular structures. The proof is based on the lattice proof technique and is divided into two parts. The first part is concerned with the program behavior within a single chare instance, whereas the second part captures the inter-chare interaction.


In this study, the direct enantioseparation of unprotected 1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)ethylamines (1a and 1b) via diastereomeric salt formation is reported. After the one-pot synthesis of racemic 1, the screening of seven acidic chiral resolving agents showed that the extraction of (S)-naproxen (6) with dibenzoyl-L-tartaric acid (5) afforded the corresponding 1 : 1 diastereomeric salts that were suitable for the resolution of 1a and 1b. The optimization of the solvents resulted in high efficiencies for the resolution of 1a·6 in aqueous alcohols, which was consistent with the fact that the incorporated water molecules in the less-soluble diastereomeric salt reinforced its hydrogen-bonding network. For the efficient enantioseparation of rac-1b with 5, the intramolecular CH⋯O hydrogen bond played an important role in the chiral recognition.


Purpose: To investigate changes in corneal astigmatism and refractive power in intermittent exotropia after lateral rectus recession with or without medial rectus resection. Methods: We compared visual acuity, spherical equivalent, refractive power, astigmatism from cycloplegic refraction, and Orbscan corneal topography in two groups consisting of 40 eyes from 20 patients who underwent bilateral lateral rectus recession (Group 1) and 33 eyes from 33 patients who underwent monocular medial rectus resection with lateral rectus recession (Group 2) immediately preoperatively and at 1 and 4 weeks postoperatively. Results: In Group 1, the refractive power changed +0.12 D on average in the horizontal median and -0.08 D on average in the vertical median at 1 week postoperatively. The refractive power changed +0.07 D on average in the horizontal median and -0.04 D on average in the vertical median at 4 weeks postoperatively. No significant change in the corneal astigmatic axis was detected. In Group 2, the refractive power changed +0.4 D on average in the horizontal median and -0.19D on average in the vertical median, and the corneal astigmatic axis significantly shifted by +0.51 D in the 'with-the-rule astigmatism' direction at 1 week postoperatively (p=0.02). However, the refractive power changed +0.2 D on average in the horizontal median and -0.09 D on average in the vertical median, and the corneal astigmatic axis changed +0.2 D at 4 weeks postoperatively, although these values were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Postoperative refractive power and corneal astigmatism did not change significantly, as compared to preoperative values, at 4 weeks postoperatively in the lateral rectus recession-only or medial-and-lateral rectus recession group.


Zidovudine is a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTIs) which is widely used in the treatment of patients infected with Human Immuno deficiency Virus (HIV). It is a prodrug which must be phosphorylated to Zidovudine triphosphate by thymidilate kinase which is its active constituent. Zidovudine is also used as a constituent in combination chemotherapy to prevent maternal to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV. 1, 2


The 1 095 bp fragment of f3h gene of anthocyanin biosynthesis was cloned from fruit peel of riped Red Bartllet pear by RT PCR method. cDNA sequence showed that it was 97% homologous with that of f3h cDNA from Fuji apple.


With the development of our country socialist market economy,enterprises' demand for talents will also change.The corresponding talents training of the school education should be reformed to adapt to the social demand.To improve the quality of teaching is universities' key working process.Teachers are the key to improve the quality of teaching.This paper intends to analyse existing problems reasons of the current accounting classroom teaching,the current accounting teaching to discuss on the reform of current accounting teaching.


to craft and enforce the "stylistic compression and simplicity of language" that became hallmarks of the novelist's mature style (194). Further, she places Lewis's copywriting and Cather's storywriting in dialogue to show a shared set of "aesthetic practices and cultural concerns" (194) on matters such as gender and point of view and the cultural power of women's labor. Some readers may feel Homestead oversells the evidence for collaboration, but Lewis's role in Cather's writing process was clearly more substantial than has been recognized. Homestead gives Lewis her rightful due and pokes a few holes in the persistent myth of Cather "as a solitary genius who exerted control over every aspect of her fiction and resisted editorial intervention" (13). Those are welcome moves. Melissa Homestead's longawaited book is a truly wonderful thing for Cather studies. I wish it a long, happy, influential life and hope that it, along with Sue Hallgarth's delightful series of Cather– Lewis mysteries (including On the Rocks, set in Whale Cove), might bring Cather and Lewis into clearer view for both scholarly and nonscholarly readers, increasing engagements with their story and Cather's writings in a variety of spheres. After all, when rigorous queer biography and researchinformed fan fiction come, can a rollicking TV series along the lines of Apple TV's Dickinson not be far behind? This aging Cather critic certainly hopes so.


This research aim to know the usage of Lamtoro flour seed (Leucaena Leucocephala) In feed of Consumption And Final Wight At Broiler.
Research executed in Karang Kunci Village. District of Singosari. Items used is broiler counted 100 tail by 4 treatments and each treatment repeated by 6 times. Method which using is device and experiment that used is RAL
Tabulation obtained Data and analyzed by variansi, if the analysis of variansi show real influence or very real hence will be continued with Test of Uji Beda Nyata Terkacil ( BNT).
Result of research indicate that giving of Lamtoro flour seed ( Leucaena Leucocephala ) at feed till level 9% doesn't have a really effect of consume and final wight.
Suggested require to be conducted on futuristic research to give correct information about optimizing lamtoro flour seed ( Leucocephala Leucaena) in feed, so that the better result will found and will be necessary information for other breeder.


Certain aspects of the present disclosure relates to techniques for advanced discovery in a peer-to-peer (P2P) wireless network according to sync found wake up. Wireless node, firstly, it can obtain information about one or more time instant. Thereafter, the wireless node, to discover one or more other wireless nodes for communication, can wake up. Here, the wake-up occurs in one or more time instant which is synchronized between the one or more other wireless nodes. According to the position information of the wireless node, one or more time instant may be updated.


The invention provides a baking oven and a control method thereof. The baking oven comprises a control assembly and multiple heating devices. A pre-set program is arranged in the control assembly. The multiple heating devices differ in heating manners. The control method of the baking oven comprises following steps: setting cooking parameters of the baking oven; and controlling the heating devices to heat during a cooling process according to cooking parameters and controlling the heating devices to work during a heating phase of the cooking process by the control assembly. The control method of the baking oven provided by the invention can control the multiple heating devices so that flexible control over heating manners is achieved. Therefore, the cooking process can be well controlled based on cooked food and cooking parameters such that cooked food tastes better.


This research is motivated by the hustle culture phenomenon which is now starting to spread among university students. In this study, researchers tried to discuss the hustle culture phenomenon  from a student's point of view. This study uses a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach. The theory used in this study is the theory of phenomenology according to Alfred Schutz and the theory of self presentation. The purpose of this research is to find out how communication experience is, what are the meanings and motives of Communication students at Singaperbangsa Karawang University to experience a hustle culture by participating in various activities outside of their lecture activities such as being active in campus organizations, activities and/or work while studying. The results of the study stated that there were differences in communication experiences, meanings and motives that were known from informants, including the communication experiences experienced, namely: positive communication experiences, experienced by informants while undergoing a hustle culture, communication experiences before and after undergoing a hustle culture, reduced communication experience during breaks and interactions with friends and family, decreased health communication experience at certain moments when living in a hustle culture and known motives, namely because motives is social motives is productivity motives, self-confidence motives and objective motives (in-Order Motive), among others motives improvement in soft skills, networking and financial motives as well as a hustle culture which is interpreted by learning and practicing knowledge, maximizing one's time and potential, getting to know the world of work, feeling joy and proud.
Keywords: Communication experiences, motives, meaning, hustle culture, students


The chemical behaviour of the sulfonic acids of pentamethylbenzene (PMB) and the three tetramethylbenzenes (TeMB's) in concentrated aqueous sulfuric acid has been studied quantitatively using 1H and 13C NMR and UV spectroscopy. PMB-sulfonic acid yields (protonated) hexamethylbenzene (HMB) and the 2,3,4,5- and 2,3,4,6-TeMB-1-sulfonic acids in an initial ratio of 9/1/8 up to a substrate conversion of 36%; the ratio of HMB to the TeMB-1-sulfonic acids remains 1/1 and the only subsequent reaction is the relatively slow conversion of the 2,3,4,6- into the 2,3,4,5-TeMB-1-sulfonic acid which is the only stable TeMB-1-sulfonic acid isomer in concentrated sulfuric acid.

2,3,5,6-TeMB-1-sulfonic acid yields, as initial products, 2,3,5- and 2,4,5-trimethylbenzene(TrMB)-1-sulfonic acid together with PMB-1-sulfonic acid in a ratio of ca. 1/3/4. The subsequent products are the 2,3,4,6- and 2,3,4,5-TeMB-1-sulfonic acids, of which the former slowly isomerizes to the latter, together with some HMB.

2,3,4,6-TeMB-1-sulfonic acid yields the stable 2,3,4,5-isomer. It is proposed that the conversion proceeds via inter-molecular trans-methylations involving 1,3,5-TrMB and PMB as intermediates, the concentrations of which, however, are below the limits of NMR detection.

Based on (i) the desulfonation-sulfonation equilibrium data of the TrMB-, TeMB- and PMB-sulfonic acids, (ii) the strong rate decrease for the conversion of both 2,3,4,6- and 2,3,5,6-TeMB-1-sulfonic acid in 98.4% H2SO4 in the presence of added cyclohexane and (iii) the very strong electron-withdrawing and meta-directing effect of the SO3−/SO3H substituent, it is proposed that all the conversions proceed inter-molecularly, that the trans-methylating reagent is the polymethylbenzene (and not the corresponding sulfonate) and that the substrate undergoing methylation is most likely to be once again the polymethylbenzene rather than its sulfonate ion.


This paper puts forward and tests a simple model of how the median voter in a local authority (LA) may determine the level of its expenditure in relation to its needs, to see what lessons may be learned. For Scottish LAs, variations in spending in relation to need are very small, but the model explains these variations well; it also suggests that the Scottish National Party leads to the lowest spending levels, and that the island LAs receive over-generous needs allowances. For England, the model explains variations in service levels very well for LAs with relatively low spending but very poorly for LAs with relatively high spending: this suggests that the latter are prevented by capping from providing the high service levels that their median voters want. Also, it is found that among underspenders, increased efficiency reduces spending. Finally, no evidence was found to suggest that the 2002 downward revisions in the relative spending needs of the English shire counties were inappropriate.


Emerging next-generation sequencing technologies have opened up exciting new opportunities for genome sequencing by generating read data with a massive throughput. However, the generated reads are significantly shorter compared to the traditional Sanger shotgun sequencing method. This poses challenges for de novo assembly algorithms in terms of both accuracy and efficiency. And due to the continuing explosive growth of short read databases, there is a high demand to accelerate the often repeated long-runtime assembly task. In this paper, we present a scalable parallel algorithm to accelerate the de Bruijn graph-based genome assembly for high-throughput short read data.


This paper presents a new technique for OFDM signal PAPR reduction by adding an artificial signal in order to restrict the envelope of the resulting signal. The algorithm is presented, some simulation results and a complexity study are given. According to these results, the new method outperforms the conclusions presented in [1]. The PAPR is reduced of about 2 dB for a CCDF value of 10-3. In term of complexity, the presented method is similar to [1] which realizes 7 * additions and 9 * multiplications while geometric technique realizes 5 * additions and 10 *N multiplications (represents the number of samples per OFDM symbol).


This paper presents an in-depth study and analysis of the mathematical control of space-based kinetic energy weapons and the evaluation of the damaging effect by partial differential equations. The spectral element discrete format of the optimal control problem is constructed, the a priori error estimate of the control problem solution is proved theoretically, the posteriori error estimator is constructed, and the adaptive solution algorithm is designed. The posteriori error estimator is used as the encryption criterion to guide the local encryption of the grid so that the distribution of the dissection nodes is denser where the function regularity is poor. In the case of a compartment subjected to a shell attack, the effect of different factors on the structural damage of a single compartment under two explosions is investigated by varying the explosive mass, the location of the blast point, and the interval between the two explosions. In this paper, the problem of implosion in the cabin is studied, and the main factors affecting the response of the implosion structure are analyzed using dimensionality. The data of various simulation conditions are counted, and the dimensionless damage number is fitted with the deformation results of the bulkhead under each damage mode. It is still difficult to obtain the acceleration information of the target. Experimental studies were conducted on the composite honeycomb sandwich structure penetrated by fragmentation at different velocities and angles, and the accuracy of the theoretical model and the fragmentation residual formula was verified based on the test results. The analysis found that the antidamage performance of the composite honeycomb sandwich structure is better than the existing honeycomb sandwich body structure, and the energy absorption per unit volume of the structure is 27.2%–84.2% higher than that of the existing structure in the range of different penetration velocities. The average error between the theoretical calculation results and experimental results of the remaining velocity of the broken piece is within 6%, the error with the numerical simulation is about 8%, and the composite honeycomb sandwich structure with the best energy absorption characteristics and structural parameters is obtained.


This chapter provides an overview of how US securities regulation applies to the sale of cryptographic tokens using a distributed ledger, so-called initial coin offerings. Token sale transactions that meet the definition of 'investment contract' qualify as regulated securities transactions following the seminal 1946 court decision in the Securities Exchange Commission's lawsuit against the W. J. Howey company. Currently, there exists substantial legal uncertainty regarding the regulatory classification of token sales involving utility tokens that provide their holders with non-financial, software-based functionality. As implied in a June 2018 speech by a high-ranking SEC official, sales of tokens may initially qualify as regulated securities transactions, yet later fail to qualify as regulated investment contracts if the tokens' underlying network becomes sufficiently decentralized. Distributed ledger technology is disrupting the nature and operation of early-stage fundraising and access to software services and enabling the sale of digital tokens that operate as a cryptocurrency or provide access to a software service through the use of a blockchain or distributed ledger. The sale of such tokens, so-called initial coin offerings ('ICOs'), is often in exchange for cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum or Bitcoin (however, tokens could be sold in exchange for fiat currency). From January to May 2018, globally US$13.7 billion in tokens were sold by 537 companies or projects, an amount greater than all previous time periods combined. This chapter discusses under what circumstances US securities law applies to the sale of such tokens.


Background  Autoantibodies in linear immunoglobulin A (IgA) disease (LAD) are reported to be of IgA class and directed against a 97–120 kDa epidermal antigen.


While much concern has been expressed in high places about the supposed vulnerability of Falkland wildlife to recent events, few people appear to have had the time, knowledge, opportunity or inclination to study and report on it in detail, so that many of these alarmist statements are regrettably imprecise. The current military activity provided an obvious opportunity to learn more of a neglected area, so I took advantage of a tour as a ship's doctor to attempt an independent appraisal. While it may not provide as full a picture as Ian Strange and Simon Lyster in the January Oryx, it has a different perspective.


Structures of self-made polyether block hydrophilic amino silicone were characterized by infrared spectrum,and its application to soft finishing of cotton fabric was carried out.Influences of pH value and temperature of treatment bath,dosage of the softener and drying temperature on finishing results were investigated,and significance of processing conditions on finishing results was analyzed.Results showed that the optimum finishing process with polyether block hydrophilic amino silicone were: treating at 40 ℃ with softener 3%~5%(omf)and pH value 6,and then drying at 90 ℃.Temperature and pH value of treatment bath and drying temperature had significant influences on whiteness of treated fabric,while color,softness,hydrophilcity of treated fabric had good tolerability to processing conditions.


Sitophilus zeamais M. was a warehouse pest that attacks corn kernels in storage. S. zeamais pest control commonly used fumigant insecticides that used still has many disadvantages such as food safety impacts, environmental pollution and pest resistance, so that a safe alternative to control was needed, one of which was using noni seeds. This research was aimed to obtain a dose of noni seed flour that was effective to S. zea mays corn powder pest mortality.The research was conducted at the Laboratory of Plant Pest, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Riau from March to May 2018.The treatment used was the dose of noni seed flour 0 g.100 g-1 corn, 2 g.100 g-1 corn, 4 g.100 g-1 corn, 6 g.100 g-1 corn, and 8 g.100 g-1 corn. This research was conducted experimentally using a completely randomized design (CRD) with 5 treatments and 4 replications. Based on the results of the research, the dose of noni seeds 8 g.100 g-1corn had not been effective in controlling S. zeamais with mortality of 52.50%, shrinkage of corn seed weight by 8.78% and an increase in individuals by 8.20. Keywords: Morinda citrifolia L., Sitophilus zeamais M., Zea mays


The author, based on the content of legislative acts regulating the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, archival documents, as well as interpretations of modern scientists, presented the range of responsibilities, the main financial and economic functions and the process of awarding Church elders in the 19 th - early 20 th centuries. The article reveals the conditions for receiving various awards by Church elders and the documents accompanying the procedure of their awarding, preserved in Tobolsk state archive. As the cases of the Tobolsk State archive can show, Church elders were awarded with medals and commendable leaves; moreover, different institutions could express gratitude to them. A study of archive cases showed that the initiating documents in the cases on awarding the Church elders were the petitions of the Church elders, deans' reports or letters of institutions, for example, a letter of the ataman of the Siberian Cossack troops if the elder served in the prison Church. Archival materials indicate the presence in the 19 th - early 20 th centuries of the established procedure for awarding Church elders, consisting of 17 stages, which began most often with the petition of Church elders or deans' reports and ended with a response report of a dean, who accompanied the fee for the award.


The proportions of sapwood and heartwood of trees have significant impacts on various uses. Electric resistivity tomography (ERT) and corresponding electrical resistance (ER) value maps were examined in Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don), Taiwania (Taiwania cryptomerioides Hayata), and Luanta fir (Cunninghamia konishii Hayata) trees. The position of the sapwood-heartwood demarcation was measured on incremental cores from living trees and the corresponding ER of the sapwood-heartwood boundary was acquired from the ER map. A positive significant relationship was found between the maximum ER plus minimum ER values (ERmax + ERmin) and ER of the sapwood-heartwood demarcation from the tomographic data. The position of the sapwood-heartwood demarcation was determined by corresponding ER, and the critical ER can be established by the ERmax + ERmin value of the tomographic data. The results from this study indicate that ERT technique can be used to determine the position of the sapwood-heartwood boundary and can serve as a methodology in undamaged living trees of Gymnosperm species.


In time of economic crisis people very often use online auction websites like eBay.com or bolha.com, with the intent to save or earn some extra money. When a average user is posting an ad on bolha.com he's very limited to what he can do with his post. He can write the title, description, price and he can add some images of the product. In this thesis we developed a prototype system, which recommends a price to the user of bolha.com. The purpose of the system is to make the research process of the price evaluation intuitive and as fast as possible. The system uses users input and the information of existing ads on bolha.com and mimovrste.com. The thesis starts with an overview of related recommendation systems, then we introduce the idea behind our system and explain the details of the implementation. At the end we also made an analysis in which we tested how precise the system is and if we can trust it's recommendations.


Low cost, fixed wing UAVs have become available for a series of missions aimed to acquire data and operation information at entry and middle level. The concepts of fixed wing mini-UAVs make a necessity for users to have a proper knowledge regarding the flight and operation performances, in order to select the best type of aircraft for the required mission. The article contains a series of flight performances analyses for MFD Nimbus including 2D airfoil and 3D wing analyses, but without considering aerodynamic interferences between wingfuselage-tail.


Tunability of the cw radiation from a GaAs injection laser in an external dispersive cavity was achieved over a range of 150 A about a center wavelength of 8525 A at 77°K. The emitted radiation was analyzed with a Fabry‐Perot etalon. Under certain conditions single‐mode operation with cw output power as large as 17 mW was observed. Half‐width of such modes was estimated to be less than 350 MHz.


The invention discloses an adjustable constant flow source circuit. The adjustable constant flow source circuit comprises: an operational amplifier which a normal phase input end is connected with voltage reference (VREF), and a transistor which is formed by coupling a grid electrode and the outlet end of the operational amplifier. The output end of the operational amplifier is respectively connected with the grid electrode of the transistor through a switch SB1, a switch SB2, ...and a switch SBn in a coupling mode, a source electrode of the transistor is respectively connected with a sense resistor Rs1, a sense resistor Rs2, ...and a sense resistor Rn, one tail ends of the sense resistor Rs1, the sense resistor Rs2, ...and the sense resistor Rn are connected with ground, and the other tail ends of the sense resistor Rs1, the sense resistor Rs2, ...and the sense resistor Rn are connected with the negative phase input end of the operational amplifier. The adjustable constant flow source circuit has the advantages of being simple in structure and low in implementation cost.


Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) with phosphorescent emitters (PhOLEDs) exhibit efficiency roll‐off at high luminance because the long‐lived triplet excitons are prone to emission quenching and triplet–triplet annihilation (TTA). Herein, the synthesis, purification, and characterization of an emitter layer host that is a noncrystallizable mixture of isomers (OLEDIQ HT‐1700) is described. In this host, the triplet lifetime of a phosphorescent yellow emitter (IYD‐560) is increased relative to a conventional single‐molecule host (3,3′‐di(9H‐carbazol‐9‐yl)‐1,1′‐biphenyl, mCBP), with high photoluminescence quantum yields and unchanged emission spectra. Characterization of the doped films with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and microscopy showed that the emitter is incompatible in mCBP but totally compatible with the noncrystalline host. The increased triplet lifetime is interpreted as decreased triplet quenching in the noncrystallizable host‐based film, while emitter aggregation in the conventional host film leads to triplet quenching.


Abstract Maine and Massachusetts paid bounties on seals during the 19th and 20th centuries. To determine the number of seals killed for bounty, we examined historical records of bounty claims, and used geographic information systems and multiple linear regression to find predictors of places where large numbers of bounties were paid. We found records of 24,831 bounties paid in Maine (1891–1945) and 15,690 in Massachusetts (1888–1962). Considering possible fraud, missing data, and seals struck and lost, this suggests that 72,284 to 135,498 seals were killed in the bounty hunt, probably enough to account for regional declines in seal populations. Larger numbers of bounties were paid where there were more seals and a higher human population.


A first object of the present invention is to provide a bill storage apparatus which does not give a customer chafe and can increase the storage number of bills without introducing unnecessary size increase. A second object of the present invention is to provide a bill storage apparatus which can increase the storage number of bills without being restricted regarding the arrangement position of the bill storage apparatus and without reinforcing a front face door. The present invention is a bill storage apparatus including a bill discriminating apparatus which performs discrimination about real/false of bills received, and a bill storage box housing therein a stack apparatus moving real bills sent from the bill discriminating apparatus to a storing section and stacking bills moved by the stack apparatus in a stacking state, where the bill discriminating apparatus and a driving apparatus of the stack apparatus are attached to a frame, and the bill storage box is mounted on the frame attachably and detachably and the driving apparatus and a to-be-driven apparatus on the side of the bill storage box are drive-coupled to each other, thereby transmitting driving force to the stack apparatus, wherein the frame is formed in a gate shape and has a mounting hole extending through the frame in the same direction as a bill insertion direction of the bill discriminating apparatus, and the bill storage box is inserted in the mounting hole from the bill insertion direction so that the driving apparatus and the to-be-driven apparatus are drive-coupled to each other and the bill storage box is fixed in a state that the bill storage box has penetrated the mounting hole.


Prosthechea sessiliflora is a Brazilian endemic orchid species notably poorly represented in biological collections. The type material whereabouts is unknown, and the species had no further herbarium specimens until very recently. After the recent rediscovery of the species in the Cerrado domain, a deeper morphological evaluation was possible, as well as necessary nomenclatural adjustments. Herein, we present an updated morphological description of the species, together with a composite digital plate highlighting its morphology, perform a lectotypification and epitypification, and provide a preliminary conservation assessment of the species, in addition to nomenclatural and taxonomic notes.


This paper discusses on the new progresses of the application of the modern biological techniques in the research on the environmental protection,which include the cultivation of the gene engineering microbes that can eat the toxic waste materials,the treatment of the pollution through degradation of the pesticide waste water by the microbes,and the water quality detection with the biological sensor,and the prevention of the crop insect pest with traditional Chinese medicinal herbs,etc.


Migration effect of labor force is the goal of labor transfer.Reflecting labor transfer process and achievements scientifically should establish comprehensive evaluation indicator system including the working capacity of training,transfer and employment,the level of industry and social development and labor transfer of development of human capital.Through study on the relationship among them,it is necessary to apply statistical analysis mathematic model to focus on the linked characters between the pulling and pushing forces in the transfer and their results.In order to optimize the effect,we should improve the mechanism of the industrial connecting in labor transfer training,push the transfer mode of nearby employment,accelerate equalization of basic public service,improve economic social system reform and perfect overall and dynamic evaluation index.


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For granular composite having nano-onions (nanosized, multicore-shell structured particles) dispersed in a matrix we derived an effective dielectric permittivity tensor including off-diagonal terms, based on the Maxwell Garnett effective field approximation. The magneto-optical Kerr effect was calculated from the effective permittivity tensor for the composite containing nano-onions with Au (core)/Fe (inner shell)/Au (outer shell) structure. The off-diagonal term, 〈exy〉=〈exy′〉+i〈exy″〉, of the effective permittivity tensor and Kerr effect derived from it exhibit a dispersion relation, 〈exy′〉 making a peak and 〈exy″〉 crossing zero, at a wavelength around 630 nm. The dispersion may be ascribed to the plasma resonance of Au, because similar peak was found in the Kerr rotation spectra for compositionally modulated multilayered Au/Fe films due to the plasma resonance of Au.


Two new species of Violaceae are described: Rinorea friisii from the forests of SW Ethiopia and Hybanthus puberulus from the Borena bushland of S Ethiopia. The position of Viola erythraea within the V. cinerea complex is discussed.


The establishment of tribology database can decrease the test time.Neural network is used to transform different systems by associating non-testing data from limited testing ones.The interface language for connecting matlab and visual basic is programmed to let calculation by the former background processing while the window just present the outcome,which can used to inquire data by multi-condition inputting online.


Speaking in 2010 of the International Security and Stabilisation Support Strategy (ISSSS) for the DRC, a MONUSCO officer argued that the escalation of violence in the Kivus over the last few years was caused by the DRC state being 'inexistent' (MONUSCO – ISSSS/STAREC liaison officer 2010). For this MONUSCO representative, some functions of the state did not work properly. So the task of international actors was to operationalise the state towards making 'the police, police, the judiciary, judge ... get the software ... the public servants, pay them!' The image of the DRC as a failed state looms large over policy-making, but also over academic research. This is added to by activist media campaigns that portray the DRC as a place of desperation, war, neglect and tragedy: 'the world's worst country to live in' (War Child 2011), 'a Zaireshaped hole in the middle of Africa' (The Economist cited in Reno 1998a: 14) and 'the world's largest failed state' (Fisher 2009). The complexities of the multi-state wars that have taken place since 1996, and the ongoing conflict in the eastern provinces, defy a single causal explanation, although these explanations have been the tendency rather than the exception, as the standard recourse to the failed state shows. An analysis of resistance brings out different aspects of the history and present of the conflict. The war that started in 1996 was seen by popular classes as an opportunity to realise their long-awaited dreams of change. In addition to the multi-state wars, coups and internal military revolts, there was a popular uprising. The violence that is experienced today still shows aspects of those several layers of conflict. The various forms of resistance linked to how conflict and peacebuilding have affected the everyday lives of popular classes predate the conflict. Looking at the coercive and extractive practices of states writ large, resistance shows that it follows patterns in state–society relations. Resistance also shows the particular configuration the that Congolese state has taken as a result of colonisation, decolonisation and the Cold War. For Schatzberg, this configuration made the


Trust in the traditional business-to-consumer relationship in the online context has been studied widely over the last decade. However, the recent rise of Sharing Economy, has left the literature lagging behind. This thesis aims to shed light to the currently unanswered question of how sharing economy companies build trust between the platform and peers. The question will be answered on a practical level, by presenting the tools being used in Finnish sharing economy companies, structured based to a multi-dimensional trust model into an integrative framework. This paper will also discuss the interplay and the relationships of the three parties involved, peers and a platform, in the context of the tools and mechanism identified. This research was conducted by combining the previous literature with insight from the field and analyzing and categorizing the results on top of a Tan and Sutherlands (2014) trust model. The previous knowledge was explored through an extensive literature review, also looking into the trustbuilding mechanisms in the neighboring fields, such as e-commerce, and to gain practical insights from the field, semi-structured interviews with experts were conducted. The findings of this work give an overview of the broad spectrum of the trust-building tools and mechanisms used in the field. These include similarities to the neighboring fields, but also some completely new sharing economy specific tools and mechanisms were identified. One of the keyfindings was that sharing economy platforms in Finland tend to find the interpersonal trust-creation more significant than building trust towards the platform and thus, most of the tools used are also targeted to this relationship.


Selected mapping (SLM) is a well-known technique for peak to-averagepower ratio (PAPR) reduction of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. In this technique, different representations of OFDM symbols are generated by rotation of the original OFDM frame by different phase sequences, and the signal with minimum PAPR is selected and transmitted. To compensate for the effect of the phase rotation at the receiver, it is necessary to transmit the index of the selected phase sequence as side information (SI). In this paper, an SLM technique is introduced for the PAPR reduction of space-frequency-block-coded OFDM systems with Alamouti coding scheme. In this paper, we also propose a simple technique for the reduction of high Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR), based on Clipping and Differential Scaling, in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. In this technique, the amplitude of complex OFDM signal is clipped and then scaled in such a way so that the PAPR is reduced without causing much degradation in bit error rate (BER). We have determined the threshold values for clipping and scaling using Monte Carlo Simulations. We have presented PAPR and BER of the system considered using simulations for QPSK constellation.


Localisation in wireless sensor network is the process of determining the geographical location of the sensor nodes. Conventional localization is space oriented which uses GPS (Global Positioning System) signal to obtain the location information of the nodes. But the GPS signals fail to work in indoor environments, the reason for which it becomes mandatory to opt for terrestrial localisation. The proposed indoor-terrestrial localisation work aims at designing localisation service through WSN where sensor nodes are mobile and form cluster. As most of the wireless sensor applications, essentially requires reliable information of the physical location of the sensor nodes, the work aims to provide localisation using the Angle of arrival (AoA) for angular estimation. The use of triangulation method for the position calculation and the Root Minimum Mean Square Error analysis (RMMSE) of the actual position in contrast to the calculated position further assists the sensor nodes to achieve reliable location information.


The simulation of diffusion bridges is a difficult statistical problem, and methods for this are attracting a great deal of attention. Analytically, the conditioning on a future pointintroducesasecondtermtothedriftoftheSDEthatincludesthetransitiondensity of the unconditioned process. However, transition densities of diffusion processes are often intractable, whereby other, often computationally intensive methods are necessary. A useful method is Monte Carlo simulation, the computational cost of which, however, is often prohibitively high, necessitating the use of some variance reduction techniques. In this thesis, a novel method for simulating discrete time realisations of diffusion processes satisfying some stochastic differential equation (SDE), and conditioned on hitting some end-point is proposed. This new method is based on the partitioning of the process into one deterministic and one random part, where the deterministic part accounts for the drift of the process, leaving the residual, random process a Brownian bridge. The difficulty then lies in finding a good approximation of the deterministic process, and it is herein proposed that already accepted realisations are used to adaptively improve an estimate of the optimal deterministic process, which is used for simulation. The proposed sampler uses the linear noise approximation (LNA) of the process as initial distribution. Taking the mean of previous realisations ensures convergence to the proper expected path, but may initially produce distorted approximations. During an initial burn-in period, the proposed sampler therefore uses recursively formulated regression based on a suitably chosen number of sine basis functions to approximate the remaining dynamics and forms the approximation of the expected path as the sum of the LNA and the approximation of the remainder. Choosing a suitably low number of basis functions accords the regressive approximation with a resilience towards the erraticbehaviourofindividualrealisationsbutintroducesbias. Therefore,afteraburnin period, the sampler switches to taking the mean, ensuring proper convergence. The proposed sampler is tested on two different models: the Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model and the stochastic Lorenz model, and its performance compared to existing approaches, showing similar results for easy cases and a significant increase for difficult ones.


e13057 Background: The phosphate ester PR104 is rapidly converted in vivo to the alcohol PR-104A, a nitrogen mustard prodrug that is metabolized to hydroxylamine (PR104H) and amine (PR-104M) DNA crosslinking agents by one-electron reductases in hypoxic cells and by aldo-keto reductase 1C3 independently of oxygen. In a previous phase I study using a q 3 week schedule the maximum tolerated dose was 1,100 mg/m2 and neutropenia was dose-limiting. Methods: Patients (pts) with advanced solid tumors received PR104 as a 1-hour intravenous infusion on days 1, 8, and 15 every 28 days with assessment of pharmacokinetics on cycle 1 day 1. Results: A total of 26 pts were enrolled (16 male/10 female; median age 58 yrs [range 30 to 70 yrs]) who had received a median of 2 prior chemotherapy regimens (range, 0 to 3) for melanoma (6 pts), NSCLC (3 pts), sarcoma (2 pts), glioblastoma (2 pts), or other solid tumors. PR104 was administered at 135 mg/m2 (3 pts), 270 mg/m2 (6 pts), 540 mg/m2 (6 pts), 675 mg/m2 (7 pts), and 900 ...


We discuss different formal frameworks for the description of generalized probabilities in statistical theories. We analyze the particular cases of probabilities appearing in classical and quantum mechanics and the approach to generalized probabilities based on convex sets. We argue for considering quantum probabilities as the natural probabilistic assignments for rational agents dealing with contextual probabilistic models. In this way, the formal structure of quantum probabilities as a non-Boolean probabilistic calculus is endowed with a natural interpretation.


In updating the regional transportation plan for the Eugene-Springfield area in Oregon, the Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) developed a series of six alternative plan scenarios to test the effectiveness of various strategies (transportation demand management, land use, system changes). To measure the effectiveness of scenarios performance criteria were developed. While safety was a broad issue of interest to policy makers and the public, no safety criterion was found that could be modeled and forecasted in a practical manner. In 2001, a research project was undertaken by the University of Tennessee to develop and test practical tools for assessing safety impacts of transportation plans for urban areas. As part of this research, LCOG was engaged to apply a set of accident rates to its alternative long-range plan scenarios. This study concludes that, in general, at the point where issues raised as part of this application are addressed through future research, the approach of using a standard travel-demand forecasting model and a series of crash forecasting spreadsheets could provide a practical means for assessing the safety impacts of long-range plans in small and medium-sized communities. The application effort yielded several specific observations relevant to future efforts. Key issues include lack of transferability of crash data, availability of and easy access to detailed crash data for a given urban area, refinement of continuous functions for developing crash forecasts, and refinement of intersection crash analysis methods.


The invention discloses a sitagliptin impurity and a preparation method thereof, and belongs to the technical field of medicinal chemistry. The structure of the sitagliptin impurity is as shown in the description; a synthesis method of the sitagliptin impurity comprises the following steps: using Boc-(R)-3-amino-2, 4, 5-trifluoperbenzene as a raw material to be esterified with ethanol; removing Boc; and forming salt to obtain the impurity. The sitagliptin impurity prepared by the synthesis method of the invention has advantages of high yield, high purity and simple synthesis operation, and can be used as a reference substance for the quality study of a sitagliptin bulk drug.


Carbonyl fluoride is a versatile intermediate to organic fluorine compounds. Its reaction with carbonyl compounds such as cyclohexanone, benzaldehyde and benzophenone gives the gem-difluorides, while N,N-dimethylformamide yields a,a-difluorotrimethylamine. Metal fluoride-catalyzed addition at the ethylenic bond in perfluoroolefins forms perfluoroacyl fluorides, while the C--?! unsaturated compounds CF3X=CF2, CsHsS=CO and CFaC=r': give, respectively, ( CF3)?SCOF, C&?;(COF)? and CF3CF2KCO.


Background: Burnout is a psychological syndrome in nursing due to prolonged close contact with other people. Social support is one of the major factors inhibiting the negative effects of stress. This study was performed in order to determine the burnout and the social support for nurses and also the relationship between these variables. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 114 nurses working in hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. For collecting the data, valid and reliable questionnaires of social support McCain and Marklyn and Burnout Inventory Maslach and Jackson were used. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 17 and Chi-square test. Results: 86% of nurses stated that they had been received the average social support from their colleagues, head nurses and their supervisors. 67.5% of them had a burnout. 34.2% of them expressed levels of burnout in emotional exhaustion in the moderate level, and more than half of the nurses reported low levels of depersonalization and inadequacy. There was a statistically significant relationship between social support and burnout (p=0.01). Conclusions: Due to high levels of burnout in nurses and not being ideal the amount of social support received from colleagues and a positive impact that this support could have on the performance of nurses, it is necessary to consider arrangements to reduce the burnout and increase the receiving of social support.


Despite many interest in e-grocery, little has changed, over the years, in the offering that is often geared only towards low value staple products. Yet, from an e-supermarket perspective, the number of sourcing stores is increasing regularly providing an illusion of service improvement. This situation, we argue is leading e-grocery providers to forego profits as consumers need to look both at the competition online and offline to satisfy their overall regular grocery needs. Expansion of e-grocery operations could be better achieved, we argue, by serving diverse and premium priced products (e.g. organic, limited production, regional items; special occasions items and products related to health e.g. allergies, diabetes) and utilizing more efficiently modern logistic techniques. A framework is offered presenting a model including the delivery of premium products from various suppliers and providing an integrated service solution to e-grocery customers that complete traditional supermarket ranges, creating potential high value added products niches. In this context, the objective was to understand the consumer discrimination factors (ie: range of product, delivery timing, location, service quality) leading to intentions towards purchasing more items from e-grocery retailers. Data are derived from a survey of 356 respondents in Turkey's three biggest metropolitan areas. The relationship between consumer attitudes and demographic characteristics are also analyzed. Factor and SEM analyses are used to discriminate within the sample (n=356, no of items=150). Results, future research and policy implications are discussed.


The relationship between phosphor dots on the screen and the holes in the shadow mask has been determined by light beams emanating from small light sources located at the red, green and blue color centers. This is acceptable for tubes with small deflection angles, but becomes less acceptable for tubes with large deflection angles. This is due to the fact that in an operating tube the electrons do not appear to originate from points in a fixed deflection plane, but rather from points in a deflection plane which moves closer to the shadow mask as the deflection angle is increased. This causes a color impurity for the larger deflection angles. The color impurity has been eliminated by determining the relationship between phosphor dots on the screen and the holes in the shadow mask with an exact light analogy for the electron trajectories.


Abstract We report the first analysis of inequalities in Disability-Free Life Expectancy (DFLE) trends for Australia, based on two cohorts of the nationally representative Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. Each cohort was aged 45+ at baseline with 7-years of annual follow-up (Older cohort: 2001-2007, n=6363; Younger cohort: 2011-2017, n=8197). Disability was defined by a Global Activity Limitation Indicator, and socioeconomic position (SEP) by an area-level index of disadvantage. Compared to men in high advantage areas, men residing in low advantage areas experienced smaller gains in life expectancy (3.0 vs 4.6 years at age 65), DFLE (0.6 vs 1.8 years) and years with disability (2.4 vs 2.8 years). In contrast, for women in low advantage areas all years gained in life expectancy (2.6 years) were years with disability, whereas women in high advantage areas experienced gains in DFLE (1.7 years) and even more years with disability (2.7 years).


In this article is used the sacrificial material method to generate different porosities between 44.42% and 69.14% in ceramics based on expansive clays from San Jose de Cúcuta metropolitan area, Colombia, to analyze the effect of concentration of starch (porogenic agent) in the morphological and structural properties using calcium carbonate as a stabilizer. The porous ceramics was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Finally, the images were analyzed with the software Image J, Image Tool and Origin. The results showed that the weight concentration of starch has a relationship with the average pore size, the number of pores and the porous area of the samples where the percentage of porous area and the average pore size of the mixtures increases as starch is added due to the decay of the sacrificial material. The number of pores of the mixtures decreased by increasing the weight concentration of the starch due to the agglomeration of the starch.


In the National Basketball Association (NBA), when an attacking team is trailing by a small margin in the last seconds of a game, the coach has to make a critical decision: should he or she design a play for the star player or a non-star player's In this strategic situation, the offensive team can choose to let either the star or the non-star to shoot the ball while the defensive team can either double-team the star player or play conventional one-on-one defence. For the purpose of this research, star players are divided into two types - perimeter and interior. Given different point deficits, an equilibrium point is obtained and comparative statics are computed to analyze how the equilibrium will change given a change in a player's shot percentage. It is found that the offensive team should play the star player at most 3 out of 10 times in all scenarios.


Introduction. Intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents has revolutionized the management of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME), macular edema in retinal vein occlusions (RVO), and other retinal diseases accompanied by neovascular and macular edema. The aim of the study is to show the efect of switching from bevacizumab to alibercept in patients with recalcitrant wet AMD as the best clinical approach and regimen for patients with neovascular and macular edema accompanied retinal diseases. Methods. All our patients received the intravitreal injections of 1.25 mg (0.1 mL) bevacizumab as the irst treatment option, and we switched to alibercept or triamcinolon acetonid when the therapy including bevacizumab seemed not to be efective enough, according to visual acuity and optical coherent tomography (OCT) indings. Case presentations. We presented four cases: two patients with wet AMD, one patient with macular edema due to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) and one patient with DME in non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (nPDR). The majority of our patients felt visual and anatomical improvement. Some patients felt anatomical improvement although their visual acuity did not improve. Switch to alibercept had prolonged the positive efect of bavacizumab for approximately 2 months. When regular therapy including bevacizumab was reintroduced, the therapeutic efect would be prolonged. The efective clinical approach was not only the switching therapy but the combination therapy as well. Individual treatment approach and pro re nata regimen were most commonly used in our patients. Conclusion. Switching anti-VEGF drug showed positive results in patients with refractory or recurrent wet AMD and macular edema.


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are key molecules regulating various cellular processes. However, what the cellular targets of ROS are and how their functions are regulated is unclear. This study will discuss the methodologies including novel chemical probes to identify the redox sensitive Cys-containing ROS target proteins and their redox sensitivity, as well as the sites and species of their PTMs. Cutting edge proteomics tools by employing peptide sequencing with UPLC-ESI-MS/MS adopting our MS and informatics tools including SEMSA and MODi, have also revealed that Cys residues are modified in numerous ways, not recognized until recently: thiosulfinate and thiosulfonate similar to disulfide, oxidation to sulfenic, sulfinic, sulfonic acids and thiosulfonic acid, transformation to dehydroalanine (DHA) and serine etc.. The possible structure-activity relationship of redox sensitive proteins have been elucidated employing hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS), which have revealed stepwise protein oxidation of Nm23-H1/NDPKA and calcium binding proteins in response to oxidative stresses. We suggest the new name "ROSics" for the science of describing the principles of mode of action of ROS at molecular levels.


Introduction. The regional geographic information system, being a tool for information and analytical support for making managerial decisions, has been widely used in almost all areas of the Federal Service in the field of consumer protection and human well-being, increasing their effectiveness and efficiency. Purpose. To analyze the effectiveness of the use of a regional geographic information system in solving the problems of the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the region and to assess the prospects for the development of this system in the activities of the service. Material and methods. Retrospective analysis of the results of the adopted management decisions to improve the state of the environment and health of the population based on the implemented regional geographic information system. Results. The conducted retrospective analysis showed the high efficiency of using regional geoinformation systems when performing environmental and hygienic studies to assess the state of public health, environmental pollution, and in particular, to establish cause-and-effect relationships between the influence of environmental factors on public health and medical demographic indicators. Limitations. The limitation of the study is due to the inability to analyze the long-term experience of using geoinformation systems in solving the problems of sanitary and epidemiological well-being, as well as the lack of indicators of the effectiveness of their use on examples from other regions. Conclusion. The use of geoinformation technologies makes it possible for the authorities of the region to visually present information on priority hygienic and epidemiological problems in a particular administrative territory, and helps to determine the priorities for developing measures aimed at preserving the health of the population.


University financial performance presents a complex set of problems for managers. This research builds on previous work that provided a simple model of financial performance using data found in the public domain, and which yielded six key ratios describing: the nature of a university's business; its academic and operational efficiency; and its research strategy. That model has been improved and its ratios calculated for six English universities from 1994/95 to 2000/01. Trends in these ratios are related to the strategies and the business environment of the universities concerned. The research quantifies the effects of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) upon the behaviour of the universities, and shows how the model can be used to explain the current problems faced by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.


Experiments were conducted on the corrosion and hydrogen absorption characteristics of Zircaloy-2, nickel-free Zircaloy-2, and Zircaloy-4 in 680 deg F lithium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, and lithium salt solutions. No adverse effects of lithium hydroxide on either the corrosion or hydrogen absorption kinetics in solutions up to and including 2 x 10/sup -3/ molar (pH ~ 11.3) was uncovered; with more concentrated lithiated solutions (5 x 10/sup -3/ molar and above) a severe loss of corrosion resistance was clearly indicated. Hydrogen absorption data were found to be consistent with neutral water exposure over the range of concentrations studied. (auth)


Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat has recently become more prevalent in Manitoba, Canada. The objectives of this study were to assess the pathogenicity of Fusarium species isolated from infected wheat spikes, determine their potential to produce trichothecene mycotoxins and evaluate wheat cultivars for resistance to these Fusarium species. This information is a prerequisite to the development of cultivars with effective resistance to FHB in Manitoba. Eight Chinese and three Canadian wheat cultivars were evaluated against individual strains of seven Fusarium species singly in the field. Severity of FHB was measured as percentage of discolored peduncles and percentage of tombstone kernels. On this basis, Fusarium culmorum and F. graminearum were highly pathogenic, F. sporotrichioides had intermediate pathogenicity, and the other species were weakly pathogenic. For F. culmorum and F. graminearum, FHB severity correlated positively with kernel weight reduction and recovery of Fusarium species from the seed ...


Summarizes and analyses the malfunctions of circuits in CT power supply and describes the measures for the troubleshooting of the circuits,which is valuable for reference in testing and maintaining CT power supply circuits.


Abstract Analysis of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image of 14 May 1984 has shown that such data can be used to survey vegetation and sediment distributions in the intertidal zone of the Wash estuary at a spatial detail comparable with current methods practised by the.Nature Conservancy Council. Multispectral classification of this TM image showed good separation of salt-marsh vegetation communities which had recently been surveyed by the Nature Conservancy Council and for which reliable training data could be taken. The sensitivity of classification performance, using both parametric and non-parametric algorithms, to apparently minor differences in phenology at training site locations demonstrates two requirements for improved salt-marsh classification. They are the need for strict definition of training data and that TM wave bands 2, 3, 4 and 5 provide suitable spectral vectors for classifying intertidal environments.


The primary purpose of this study is to measure and investigate factors affecting technical inefficiency of chili farms in Thailand. This study applies a stochastic frontier production function approach to measure farm-specific technical inefficiency using the 2013 farm-level cross-sectional survey data of Thai chili farms in a single estimation technique applying the maximum likelihood estimation method. The non-negative technical inefficiency effects are modeled as a function of farm-specific management and socio-economic factors. The empirical results suggest two important findings. First, there is confirmation that the difference in variety used has influenced the technical inefficiency of chili farms. Second, good agricultural practice (GAP) also has different impacts on technical inefficiency in Thai chili production in different farms.


In terms of music teaching in an applied university,practical education is an indispensable procedure. A win-win practical teaching mode can help to facilitate the development of the practice of music arts and serve campus culture. What's more,it is of significance for talent training,campus culture enrichment,education quality promotion,and so on and so forth. A practical teaching mode must conform to the quality of the pragmatic music talents and meet the demands of the development of college music culture. Thus,good faculty members,a reasonable curriculum design and sufficient teaching conditions are quite necessary for developing such a teaching mode.


The retrofit scheme for pulp machine driving is with the section-drive control mode replaing the mechanical line-shaft control mode.Each transmission point of wire section,press section and dryer section installs an ac motor,and 7 Samco SHF type inverters connected with 7 ac motors drive 7 driving points.After the completion of the transformation of 1200 line′s transmission system,regulating accuracy increased,the number of paper breaking greatly decreased,machine working speed improved from 28 m/min to 32 m/min,annual production capacity improved 15%,output improved 2000 tons and annual output value increased 24 million RMB Yuan.


Obstructive pulmonary diseases are a group of respiratory conditions characterized by airflow limitation. They are prevalent in the population and lead to significant morbidity and mortality. The two most commonly encountered conditions are asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Although, for many years the two conditions were regarded as separate it was realized that some patients may have an overlap between these illnesses. This observation lead to identification of asthma-COPD overlap (ACO) syndrome. ACO is an umbrella term that is used "to collectively describe patients who have persistent airflow limitation together with clinical features that are consistent with both asthma and COPD". Its importance in the field of respiratory medicine is increasing every year as there are more data that underline the importance of its timely diagnosis and management. The current review is a timely update of the advances in our understanding of ACO.


Highway designers are showing broad interest in designs that fit communities better and observe the suggested American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Green Book guidelines. The enthusiastic reception of a new Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) publication, "Flexibility in Highway Design," has unexpectedly exhausted the initial printing and led to a reprint. In May 1998, over 350 persons attended "Thinking Beyond Pavement: A National Workshop on Integrating Highway Development with Communities and the Environment," sponsored by the Governor of Maryland, the Maryland State Highway Administration, and FHWA. The publication and the joint efforts of FHWA and AASHTO have created interest in a possible national training effort on this timely subject. Discussions are underway to develop training and technical assistance in flexible design principles and practices for interdisciplinary transportation staff members by early 1999.


Thesis (M.A.)--Georgetown University, 2009.; Includes bibliographical
 references. This study examines China's reassurance strategy in Southeast Asia from 1998-2008.
 Much of the international relations literature on reassurance argues that an actor must send
 "costly signals" to another actor for reassurance efforts to be credible and
 successful. Costly signals require the sender to accept risks and incur costs for the sake of
 reassuring the receiver. I hypothesize, however, that China has adopted a low-cost reassurance
 strategy and that this strategy has been sufficient to reassure Southeast Asia that its
 growing economic and military power do not pose a threat to the region. I test this hypothesis
 by examining three dimensions of China's reassurance strategy--regional multilateralism,
 confidence-building measures, and economic reassurance--and three areas in which China could
 incur costs for carrying out the strategy--politico-diplomatic, economic, and military. The
 findings support my initial hypothesis and suggest that China's success thus far in building
 up trust and goodwill in Southeast Asia may rest on a shaky foundation. Analyses that
 emphasize China's "ascendance" in the region may be overlooking a key
 vulnerability of its reassurance strategy.


The narrow pulse laser fuse based the DPSSL has the advantages of short transmitted pulse、high range resolution and low cloud backscatter.However,because the echo pulse width is very narrow,the data acquisition system must have a high sampling speed to extract accurate information from the echo.In the article,a high-speed 1-bit digital acquisition system based on phase shifting and frequency multiplying technology is designed on the Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA.Verified by experiment,the equivalent sampling frequency can reach 1.8 GHz,which can meet the speed requirements of the narrow pulse laser fuse with 3 ns emitted pulse.The result is useful to improve fuse's target identification capability.


Our previous spaceflight experiment CERISE showed that gene and protein expression levels of muscular components, cytoskeleton, and mitochondrial enzymes are altered in space flown wild-type C. elegans. To confirm and clarify whether the C. elegans muscle fibers and mitochondrial network are physically altered in response to microgravity, this Nematode Muscles project was designed with wild-type and several mutant lines with GFP expression. This investigation also studied whether microgravity could affect the insulin/ IGF-1 (Insulin-like growth factor -1) and/or TGF-β signaling by imaging DAF-16::GFP fusion protein. Wild-type and several mutants were grown in a culture bag kept under microgravity or 1G centrifuge conditions on board ISS for 4 days starting from L1 larva. All samples were fixed on board and recovered, to be analyzed on the earth. The worms did not grow well in the μG culture bag probably due to unexpected air bubbles. Therefore, DAF-16 activation observed in larval worms in μG and not in 1G may be attributed to starvation instead of μG response. In 1G samples, we could successfully find normal mitochondrial network. We also found that chemical fixation using CFA is an effective method for preservation of GFP containing C. elegans in space environment. ©2018 Jpn. Soc. Biol. Sci. Space; doi: 10.2187/bss.32.6 Introduction Space travel has been observed to have a negative impact on human health. Several physiological and metabolic changes are observed in humans while adjusting to microgravity (μG). A few of them are: negative calcium balance, bone density loss, muscle atrophy, cardiovascular decline and metabolic decline (Vernicos and Schneider, 2009). Among these, the phenomenon of muscle atrophy has been repeatedly observed in various studies, however, the mechanism is not clear. This makes it important to study the changes in muscle cells to find the molecular pathways leading to muscle damage and novel mechanisms to prevent it. The possibility of space travel being a part of our daily lives is not far in the future and it is an important time to study the effect of μG and radiation on humans. Since astronauts travelling to space is an expensive affair that happens rarely, we need to use other model organisms that can be easily manipulated to study the effect of μG as well as radiation in space and earth. C. elegans is being used as a model organism for several decades now (Honda et al., 2014). It proves to be an excellent system to study muscle cells, germline development and neuronal cells because of easy handling and short reproductive cycle. Moreover, 35% of the nematode's genes share homology with its human counterpart (Honda et al., 2014). International C. elegans Experiment First (ICE-FIRST) was the first project to use the nematode in space study (Selch et al., 2008). Since then multiple studies using the nematode have been conducted with respect to μG including C. elegans RNA interference space experiment (CERISE) that was conducted by JAXA (Higashitani et al., 2009). One study found movement defect due to altered muscle development in C. elegans after a 10 day flight (Higashibata et al., 2006). It was also found that apoptosis proceeds normally and the amount of mutations observed due to space radiation are below the experiment's limit of detection after spaceflight in C. elegans (Higashitani et al., 2005, Zhao et al., 2006). Gene expression studies reveal that the transcriptional response is consistent with the physiological and biological effects of spaceflight. Downregulation of cytoskeletal proteins, mitochondrial proteins and muscle proteins have also been observed in our last spaceflight experiment CERISE (Higashibata et al., 2016). The absence of gravity and exposure to space radiation has been proposed to cause an effect similar to ageing (Vernikos and Schneider, 2009). Thus the various physiological and metabolic changes observed both in humans as well as C. elegans make it essential to study the effect of μG as well as space radiation using C. elegans as a model system. Considering these points the objective of this study (Nematode Muscle Project, Fig. 1) was to check whether C. elegans muscle fibers and cytoskeleton networks are altered in response to μG. The Received: June 27, 2018; Accepted: July 10, 2018 *To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: A. Higashitani: email@example.com A. Higashibata: email@example.com Original Paper Biological Sciences in Space, Vol.32, 6-10, 2018


Mangrove conservation is known as a significant means of sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide to help mitigate climate change. Recently, a network called "Phenocam" has initiated the use of low-cost camera photos to monitor vegetation phenology world-wide. Despite that Phenocam has been proved to be feasible and useful for many tree species, to the authors' knowledge, the Phenocam approach has not been tested on mangroves. In this paper, we first collected two months of repeated digital camera photos capturing mangroves in the Mai Po Nature Reserve (MPNR), Hong Kong. Then, vegetation indices were extracted from the camera photos and validated with in situ measured NDVI. The feasibility, effectiveness, and potential biases of using camera photos to monitor the phenology of mangroves are discussed.


This research aims to improve teachers and staff as individuals, team, and organizational learning through the organization development interventions (ODI) for a private school with 3,087 students, from kindergarten to higher secondary, with 213 Thai teachers, and 32 foreigner teachers. The  researcher facilitated an action research with mixed of both quantitative and qualitative approaches to examine current understanding, practice, and factors enable individuals, team and organization learning. The research designed and implemented Organization Development Intervention (ODI), sets of designed planned actions, organizing workshops, and on spot trainings in an atmosphere of schooling activities to improve organizational learning. The progress analysis was determined from the Mean scores of the different gap scores of the variables between the Pre ODI and Post ODI. The pair simple t-test was applied as statistical analysis to test the hypothesis. Ho1 is rejected as there is a significant difference between Pre ODI and Post ODI on individual learning, team learning and organizational learning. The qualitative data indicates that after engaged to ODI teachers and staff at the school demonstrated improvement of their interest and support for the school organizational learning at all levels. This study success to raise the impacts to personal attitudes and changes practices. The school teachers and staff as individuals, team, and organizational learning have been improved organizational learning through OD Intervention that enable them to practice it and make use to break through the turbulent situation, ensure sustainability and retains its competitive advantage in very competitive and changing circumstances.


The field of performance management can comprise two separate types of management. In one aspect of performance management, an analyst may view the performance of a company as a whole, and also evaluate the effectiveness of the managers and heads of companies in reaching goals. In another sense, performance management may be a system of evaluating employees to help them reach reasonable goals and thus ensure that the company performs better. This discussion will focus on the latter definition.


(57) Abstract: The present invention, in only three steps, including the use of a compound which can be commercially available or readily prepared as a starting compound, the formula (I) (IH) - benzo [c] quinolizine 3 a method of manufacturing a one derivatives. Compound of formula (I) are effective as inhibitors of 5α- reductase.


In the Russian Federation, the incidence of influenza and other acute viral respiratory infections (ARVI) increases every year during the autumn-winter period. The most common ARVI are parainfluenza, adenoviral and respiratory-syncytial infection. The constant mutability of influenza viruses and emergence of new ARI pathogens are especially dangerous. Medications from various groups including interferon inducers, particularly Kagocel, are recommended for the treatment and prevention of influenza and ARVI.


The invention relates to a sample carrier centrifuge for a sample carrier (24) that has at least one sample channel (26) extending along an essentially central sample channel longitudinal axis (P), having a sample carrier receptacle (14), which can be rotated around a rotation axis (R) and has a holding section (38) into which the sample carrier (24) can be inserted in a loading procedure when the sample carrier receptacle (14) is not rotating, in which section the sample carrier (24) is held in the loaded state of the sample carrier receptacle (14), and from which section the sample carrier (24) can be removed in an unloading procedure, which is characterized in that a platform (22) of the sample carrier centrifuge (10), which is embodied for supporting the sample carrier centrifuge (10) in accordance with its designated use, is oriented parallel to the rotation axis (R).


The use of vaginal pessaries for symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is well established. Recently pessaries have been offered routinely as a first-line treatment option for symptomatic POP, and in patients with medical comorbidity, those who are unfit for surgical intervention, and young women who still wish to bear children. The favourable physical and chemical properties of silicone have made pessaries safer to use for the treatment of POP. Complications associated with neglected pessaries are well documented, and it is probable that complications are rare when pessary care is regular. We present a case of partial encapsulation of a ring pessary despite regular follow-up at a tertiary urogynaecological unit, and review the literature pertaining to early entrapment of vaginal ring pessaries.


An agroecological alternative to high-artificial-input forage monocultures exists: the use of diversified grasslands (DGs). Created by sowing complex seed mixtures, DGs persist for more than 3 years and contain over 6 species/varieties from several plant families. Current DG planning methods are not very accessible to French farmers. Here, we describe a decision-making tool called Capflor (R) which we developed in collaboration with farmer collectives. It allows farmers to design species mixtures that are adapted to their needs. Capflor (R) incorporates current knowledge in ecology and the agricultural sciences and employs a filtering approach. It applies 3 successive filters to yield a final list of 6-14 species that can be used to generate a DG. The tool does not recommend specific species proportions, which will be location dependent.


A 5-year study of the injuries sustained by a single intercollegiate wrestling team is presented. The total number of injuries, a description of the injuries clas sified according to anatomical distribution, and mech anism of injury are given. A high incidence of upper body injuries is noted, and comments are made con cerning protective measures that can be taken.