In tissue engineering cartilage, photopolymerization provides many benefits including rapid polymerization times under physiological conditions with temporal and spatial control over the polymerization. In situ forming hydrogels are attractive for their high water content and tissue-like elastic properties. We are interested in using photocrosslinkable macromers based on poly(ethylene oxide) to encapsulate chondrocytes in a three-dimensional hydrogel matrix to support cell proliferation and extracellular matrix production. In this study, we demonstrated that chondrocytes (at a concentration of 100/spl times/10/sup 6/ cells/cc) in a 10% (w/w) macromer solution containing a cytocompatible photoinitiating system polymerized in the form of a /spl sim/2 mm thick disk survived the photoencapsulation process and remained healthy in the hydrogel network. The biochemical content of the hydrogels was also assessed at 4, 6, and 8 weeks in vitro to determine the cellular activity. An increase in glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and total collagen contents was observed over time, and at 8 weeks the neocartilage was comprised of 0.4/spl plusmn/0.09% total collagen and 1.34/spl plusmn/0.10% GAG per wet weight of the construct. In addition, we demonstrated that photocrosslinkable hydrogels may overcome some of the limitations of other materials in obtaining uniform cell seeding and the production of thick cartilaginous tissue. In this study, chondrocytes were photoencapsulated in a thick 8 mm hydrogel and remained healthy throughout the construct both radially and longitudinally, and the cells produced a uniform GAG content as seen histologically.


After a research analyzes tourists′ length of stay during the National Day in Mountain Wuyi destination from the survival analysis,its results shows that average length of stay is 3.39 days,which is related to 2 factors of the travel budget and the itinerary arrangement but not to the factors such as demographic characteristics and the tourism effect.The research shows that the National Day has become a best travel period for native tourists in a year;however,tourists usually have relatively compacted journey and stay in a single destination for a short time.


Objective To observe effects of ulinastation on inflammatory factors during CPB for open-heart surgery.Methods 30 patients scheduled for selective cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB) for open-heart surgery were randomly divided into two groups: ulinastation group(U) and control group(C),15 cases in each group.Ulinastation group(U) total quantity to give ulinastation 12 000 IU/kg.Half quantity is dripped into the vein before the external circulation,and the external circulation within the aircraft respectively.Control group(C) uses the isometric the physiological saline.Gather blood specimen at such times as before the skin is cut(T1),30 min after the external circulation starts(T2),when the external circulation stops(T3),2 h after the external circulation finishes(T4),4 h after the external circulation ends(T5),24 h after the external circulation ends(T6),and determine blood serum tumor necrosis factor(TNF-α),interleukin-2(IL-2),interleukin-6(IL-6),interleukin-8(IL-8),and interleukin-10(IL-10).Results Two groups of T2,T3,T4,T5,the T6 various time select TNF-α,IL-2,IL-6,IL-8,IL-10 are obviously higher than T1(P 0.01 or P 0.05),but U group of TNF-α,IL-2,IL-6,IL-8 are lower than C group(P 0.01 or P 0.05).IL-10 is obviously higher than C group(P 0.01 or P 0.05).Conclusions External circulation causes the activation of white blood cell,the massive inflammatory medium release,the free radical production,and the whole body inflammation response syndrome.Ulinastation to apply in vitro follows in the crown of arch to look straight ahead in the surgery to be possible to reduce TNF-α,IL-2,IL-6,the IL-8 release,promotes to damp phlogocyte factor IL-10 the secretion,thus reduces effectively the CPB initiation inflammation response,reduces cardiac and pulmonary injury induced by lower extremity ischaemia reperfusion,and plays the role of protecting cardiac muscle.


Cache coherence protocols are important for operating a shared-memory multiprocessor system with efficiency and correctness. Cache coherence protocols have become increasingly complex because physical memory is logically distributed, so that it is difficult for programmers to understand the view of logical shared-memory systems. Since random testing and simulations are not enough to validate the correctness of these protocols, it is necessary to develop efficient and reliable verification methods. Through the use of the Symbolic State Model (SSM) of Fong Pong (1995), we verified a directory-based protocol called the RACE (Remote-Access Cache coherence Enforcement) protocol. The protocol is verified for any system size, without state-space explosion.


Special Topics. Above All, Do No Harm. The Hospital Experience. Cognitive Impairment. Systemic Disorders. Head and Neck. General. Airway and Endoscopy. Rhinology. Otology. Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Epilogue


When querying RDF data, one may use reasoning to reach intensional data, i.e., data defined by sets of rules. This is usually achieved through forward chaining, with space and maintenance overheads, or backward chaining, with high query evaluation and optimization costs. Recent approaches rely on pre-computing the terminological closure of the data rather than the full saturation. In this setting, one can even query the data without resorting to backward chaining, using a so-called semantic index. However, these techniques are limited in the type of queries they can support.
 In this paper, we introduce a data storage technique which mitigates the space issues of forward-chaining. We show that it can also be used with a semantic index. We propose a new structure for the index that relies on bitmaps making it resilient to updates. Our experimental results demonstrate that our storage model significantly reduces the space required to store the data. We show that the indexes can be computed quickly and fit well in memory even for very large ontologies. Finally, we analyze how query answering is affected by the data layout.


Abstract— The intracellular concentrations of a number of amino acids were measured in a normal clone of rat glioma cells, and in several independently derived clones selected for gross deficiency of the enzyme hypoxanthine‐guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT). A significant, approx 2‐fold increase in the concentration of free glycine was observed in both mutagenized and non‐mutagenized HGPRT deficient clones. The increase in glycine was independent of the phase of cell growth. A similar increase did not occur in HGPRT deficient lymphoblasts.


Social rights can make up the deficiency of supervision and mutual restriction among the national rights and play the role in the supervision and restriction of the governmental rights,which is helpful in the social administration as well as guarantee and realization of rights,so social rights are beneficial to the harmonious development of the whole society.


The efficient distance is a very important system indicator of the optical-electronic detector. When the examination conditions are identified, the system efficient distance was analyzed in order to find the quantitive-relation among the object, the atmosphere and the transducer characters. Thus the other design indicators of the system were coordinated and selected, so as to realize the best characters of the transducer system. The thesis took the synthetic optical-electronic detector on aeroplanes for example, the efficient distance of infrared, laser and television sub-transducer systems was analyzed, and the efficient distance in certain conditions was calculated quantitively.


These days, huge amounts of data are created by not only humans but also the Internet of Things (IoT). As databases increase in size, their buffer pool is becoming more crucial to the overall performance. Buffer flushing, i.e., writing dirty pages, is a key factor in buffer pool management. Tuning the buffer-flushing activity in a real system is often difficult because it depends on the workload and system configuration. It is usually done through trial and error. In this paper, we propose a self-tuning algorithm for automatically controlling the buffer-flushing activity. Our algorithm not only avoids synchronous writes, which block other operations, but also preserves the effectiveness of the buffer pool. Experimental results using TPC-C and TPC-H show that our algorithm gives up to a 2.1-fold higher throughput compared with the original buffer-flushing algorithm of MySQL and 1.5-fold compared with that of Percona Server, which is a variant of MySQL.


Although various perinatal outcomes in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pregnancies have been reported, the fetal and neonatal consequences of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection remain unclear. Several reports of miscarriages and stillbirths have been recorded, but vertical transmission by SARS‐CoV‐2 is considered very rare, and the cause remains unknown. We report a case of a 22‐year‐old uncomplicated Japanese woman infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 during the second trimester, resulting in intrauterine fetal death due to placental insufficiency associated with COVID‐19 placentitis. This report emphasizes the importance of longitudinal assessment of fetal well‐being by fetal heart rate monitoring and early detection of maternal coagulation dysfunction representing SARS‐CoV‐2 inflammation to manage COVID‐19 in pregnancy.


A good style is necessary and important in academic learning."One should be strict but never reserved;one should be active but never flighty;one should be creative but never claptrap;one should pursue truth but never fame." That is what a good style of study is.A good style of study exists in process,and it can be concluded into three steps,i.e.input——output——input.The 1st step is to enter the research object through reading,investigating,searching and sorting out the materials;the 2nd step is to give certain theory and academic hypothesis by surpassing your materials and keeping a distance from them;the 3rd step is to testify your hypothesis with precise and true materials.The academic achievements will appear after a complete process.


Osteoporosis is the most common cause of fractures. The lifetime risk of fracture after age 50 is 40% for women and 13% for men.Patients with rheumatological diseases are at greater risk for the development of osteoporosis, either due to the natural history of their disease or due to the side effects of the medications used. We proposed to carry out this study.Retrospective study aimed at determining the presence of risk factors in patients over 50 years of age who attend the Rheumatology service of a hospital in Venezuela during a follow-up from January 2010 to December 2020 in order to know these risk factors and thus generate strategies that allow better orienting the care of these patients.The main group of patients was constituted by the female gender and the ages between 50 and 65 years. The main rheumatological pathology was rheumatoid arthritis, followed by Lupus, Osteoarthritis in 3 place and finally in the last box other entities other than those indicated.Graph 1. Prevalence of Osteoporosis due to rheumatological pathologies.The 2 main risk factors for the development of osteoporosis were the use of steroids and obesity. The main type of osteoporosis of the 2 categories described was non-severe. The main group of rheumatological patients most associated with osteoporosis were those with rheumatoid arthritis. 12% of the patients with rheumatic disease and osteoporosis did not have appropriate therapy.[1]Tella SH, Gallagher JC. Prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2014 Jul;142:155-70. doi: 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2013.09.008.[2]Gambacciani M, Levancini M. Management of postmenopausal osteoporosis and the prevention of fractures. Panminerva Med. 2014 Jun;56(2):115-31.[3]McLendon AN, Woodis CB. A review of osteoporosis management in younger premenopausal women. Womens Health (Lond). 2014 Jan;10(1):59-77. doi: 10.2217/whe.13.73.[4]Eriksen EF, Díez-Pérez A, Boonen S. Update on long-term treatment with bisphosphonates for postmenopausal osteoporosis: a systematic review. Bone. 2014 Jan;58:126-35. doi: 10.1016/j.bone.2013.09.023.None declared


A method of allocating a base in setting up a communication between systems in a computer network using a socket function, comprising the steps of: Incorporate a time delay into a socket assignment process; Activating the time delay in response to an erroneous base allocation attempt; and Repeat the base allocation after the lapse of the time delay, said time delay is determined based on a system time delay in the closure of an abnormal base.


BCR-ABL fusion protein is the molecular marker of chronic myeloid leukemia(CML),which has constitutive kinase activity,playing an essential role in the pathogenesis of CML.Imatinib specially inhibits BCR-ABL,which is considered as the frontline treatment in the chronic phase of CML(CP-CML).Studies have shown that the interaction between BCR-ABL fusion protein and Src family kinases induces the activation of multiple signaling pathways which are responsible for the transition from CP to BP of CML and induction of imatinib resistance.In this paper,we reviewed the progress of the BCR/ABL and Src family kinases interaction machanisms and their biological effects.


A photonic crystal-based CdS–Au–WO3 heterostructure was constructed on WO3 photonic crystal segments. Highly efficient visible-light-driven hydrogen and oxygen evolution are demonstrated relative to those of single-, two-component and unstructured systems due to good light harvesting of photonic crystals and efficient electron transfer of this heterostructure.


We conduct the first assessment of likely future climate change impacts for biodiversity across the West African protected area (PA) network using climate projections that capture important climate regimes (e.g. West African Monsoon) and mesoscale processes that are often poorly simulated in general circulation models (GCMs).


Abstract To assess the consequences of shoreline development, whole-lake vegetation abundance of dense floating-leaf and emergent vegetation in 100 north-central Minnesota lakes was estimated from aerial photographs for selected years between 1939 and 2003. Lakes were randomly selected from three shoreland development classifications, which define statewide minimum shoreline development standards for Minnesota. The three classes, in order of increasing restrictions for development, are general development, recreational development, and natural environment. Image analysis techniques were used to estimate vegetation abundance (percent cover). Shoreline development varied by shoreland development class. Floating-leaf and emergent vegetative cover (percent of lake surface area) was significantly affected by development. Increases in shoreline development, indexed by dock sites per shoreline kilometer, reduced plant cover. A linear mixed-effects model estimated that in 2003, the mean floating-leaf and emergent...


The present study explored numerically the process of solidification of spherical phase change capsule,which spherical high-density polyethylene(HDPE)/paraffin shape stabilized phase change material(PCM) encapsulated by Calcium alginate.The mathematical model was solved numerically by using apparent heat capacity method.In simulation,it described the pore microstructure by the fractal geometry after the paraffin in capsule was extracted,and the volume change of paraffin in phase transformation and the cavity caused by manufacturing technology were also considered.Based on the fractal characterization,as one of the important physical properties of the HDPE/paraffin.the effective thermal conductivity was determined.The results show that The initial solidification process is almost unaffected when the volume change of the PCM is considered. However the heat transfer rate begins to shift to a significantly slower with the increment of solid rate. The initial cavity ratio influences the rate of the phase change heat transfer and reduces the phase change latent heat of each unit volume of capsule.The larger the size of spherical capsule,the greater the impact of Ste number on the complete solidification time.The conclusion would have important guidance significance to how to improve heat storage capacity and heat storage rate of the PCM.


Scholars have long focused on President George Washington's dynamic and quarrelsome cabinet. Yet scholars often assume the cabinet played a static role throughout Washington's presidency. This article demonstrates how Washington gradually created the cabinet to provide advice, not fully embracing weekly meetings until faced with an international crisis in 1793. This article also examines how Washington sidelined the cabinet in the final years of his presidency, returning to individual conferences and correspondence. As a result, Washington ensured the cabinet remained institutionally weak and a tool for the president to use at will—a legacy that survives in the twenty-first century.


Introduction: Prolonged rupture of membrane (PROM) is an important risk factor for early onset neonatal sepsis (EONS), which is associated with increased neonatal morbidity and mortality. This study is mainly done to know the outcome of neonates born to mothers with history of PROM. Methods: This study was conducted from January 2015 to December 2015 for a period of 12 months, in GSL medical college and hospital, Rajahmundry. Selection of cases-All the neonates born to mothers with history of prolonged rupture of membranes >18hrs were included in our study. Required investigations were done and followed during their hospital stay. Results: Out of 200 neonates born to mothers with PROM, 60 had clinical sepsis, 29 had confirmed sepsis. Out of 29 confirmed cases of sepsis, positive blood culture was seen in 22 cases. The incidence of EONS in present study was found to be 14.5%. In present study neonatal sepsis had a higher rate of incidence in preterm neonates (61.5%) than in term neonates (38.5%). The incidence of neonatal sepsis was found to be lower in neonates born to mothers who took prenatal antibiotic treatment (9.25%) as compared to neonates born to mothers who did not receive prenatal antibiotic treatment (20.65%). Respiratory distress was the commonest presenting clinical sign (33 cases). Out of all the five Sepsis screen parameters C-Reactive Protein has the highest sensitivity (90.90%). Conclusion: Preventive measures should focus on recognition of these high-risk infants with prompt laboratory screening for sepsis and early institution of empirical antibiotic based on local data


Many manufacturers of ultrasound systems offer elastography capabilities. Though the research literature describes techniques involving external actuators, commercial systems have preferred to adopt techniques that may be used with a single transducer. Techniques may be divided into those which measure strain and those which measure shear wave velocity. Strain elastography involves deformation of the tissue followed by imaging of the degree of compression or extension of the tissue. Strain elastography does not estimate tissue stiffness; however, the strain ratio may be used as a surrogate index of stiffness. Shear wave elastography provides true quantitative information on elastic modulus. This involves induction of shear waves, estimation of shear wave velocity c s and conversion to elastic modulus E using the equation E = 3ρ c s 2 where ρ is the density. The description of tissues as being purely elastic is simplistic. In practice they may also exhibit time-dependent viscous behaviour. Recent literature describe methods that have been developed for estimation of the viscoelastic behaviour from the change in strain with time or by estimation of the shear wave dispersion, a technique known as 'shear wave spectroscopy'. These methods may become commercially available in the medium term, offering a new quantity (tissue viscosity) for diagnostic use.


National celebrations have been defined as manifestations of collective identities that glorify the nation and strengthen the national community However, the magnitude and design of celebrations in autocratic states indicate a different ideational function that these symbolic events play in an autocratic political system Autocratic elites have the administrative capacity to distort everyday routines and impose ideological principles of how people participate in state celebrations How citizens engage in official celebratory practices in an authoritarian political context formulates a valuable contribution to the conceptualisation of national celebrations Drawing on focus group discussions and ethnographic observations, I investigate how people negotiate meanings of celebratory and commemorative practices in the context of autocratic Belarus I discuss how volatile the symbolic politics is when the invention of new symbolic traditions or the reinvention of old narratives does not appeal to all social groups and lacks authenticity


Current developments in computer technology give rise to increasing data communication over relatively short distances at backplane- and inter MCM interconnect level. It is foreseen that electrical interconnect will not be able to accommodate the necessary data traffic in advanced data processing systems in the future and hence a bottleneck will be created. A potential remedy for this interconnect problem is the use of parallel optical datalinks. In this paper we propose small diameter step index plastic optical fiber ribbons in combination with high efficient resonant cavity LED's as a cheap and feasible option for these optical links. A design for such an optical link is presented with special attention for the optical pathway. Experimental results on the optical properties of the used POF are shown. We describe the development of RCLED's at 850 nm specially designed for efficient coupling into POF. We measured a RCLED to POF coupling efficiency up to 40%. Additionally we report on the technologies used for the fabrication and assembly of the optical pathways and finally some experiments were carried out on the first realized assemblies.


Arabidopsis BOI(Botrytis Susceptible 1 Interactor) encodes a RING protein with ubiquitin E3 ligase activity and plays important roles in defense against Botrytis cinerea and response to abiotic stress.In this study,the function of BOI in programmed cell death(PCD) was analyzed using knock-down and overexpression lines and the functions of the conserved RING and WRD domains of BOI protein in PCD was ex-amined using constructs containing different domains of BOI protein.Down regulation of BOI led to reduced tolerance to oxidative stress and attenuated inhibitory effect on PCD induced by reactive oxygen species(ROS).Overexpression of BOI in stable transgenic lines and transient expression of BOI in tobacco leaves resulted in increased inhibitory effect on ROS-and α-picolinic acid(an inducer of PCD)-induced PCD.Further studies indicated that the RING domain but not the WRD domain in BOI protein was probably required for PCD inhibition.


Objective To explore the effect of body fat and leptin on female puberty development and to evaluate heritability of the serum leptin contents. Methods The study population consisted of 428 girls aged 6-18: 132 pairs of monozygotic twins, 48 pairs of same-sex dizygotic twins and 68 girls in opposite-sex twins. Their height, body weight, skin-fold thickness, Tanner stage and fast serum leptin contents were examined. Results All of the body fat mass, body fat rate, body mass index and serum leptin concentrations increased throughout puberty. The concentrations of leptin increased dramatically from 11 to 13 years and higher significantly in post-menarche group than pre-menarche group. Interclass correlation coefficients were higher in MZ twin pairs than in DZ twin pairs. The serum leptin heritability were 0.56, 0.61 and 0.50 for the girls before breast development,pre-menarche and post-menarche respectively. Conclusion Serum leptin surge at 11-13 years might be a predictor of the menarche. Sexual development and incretion are effected by heredity and environment. Heretability of girls' serum leptin changes in the shape of "V".


Mathematical modeling of difficult jetand slipstreams in the vicinities of a spherical body with an axial cylindrical channel at subsonic speeds has been made. As an object of research a spherical body with a channel, the physical modeling of which flow-around in aerodynamic stands is taken. This demanded using mathematical models of high level what numerical methods of the solution of the full equations of Navier-Stokes made for the computer. Aerodynamic characteristics of the sphere with an axial cylindrical opening («channel») have beeen received by the numerical solution of the full equations of Navier Stokes using the software package of Numeca. The dependences of aerodynamic coefficients of longitudinal and normal force, and the pitching moment from an angle of attack have been defined at Reynolds's number Re = 2·10 6 for diameter of «channel» of for a subsonic flow, which is necessary for the predesign estimates of stabilization of the aeronautic aircraft. Numerical calculations of aerodynamic characteristics of a considered model have been executed in the range of attack angles from 0 to 90°. It is interesting to note the transformation of vortex educations in a back hemisphere. At the attack angles of approximately α=0° rather symmetric toroidal system is observed. At attack angles of 1° there were two toroidal establishments in the back hemisphere, corresponding to the gas of an external stream and one in the stream which has left an axial channel (the so-called internal vortex educations looking like the effects of instability of Reley-Taylor). With the further growth of an angle of attack (to 10° and above) vortex which appeared after withdrawal from α = 0° break up in a turbulent trace, and the vortex toroidal establishments corresponding to a separation of the main stream on the sphere becomes asymmetrical. With an interval of attack angles of 70 80° and more, there are symmetry elements in toroidal vortex establishments, and the stream picture in an external field comes nearer to a case of a sphere flow-around by a subsonic stream.


The shear orientation of the hexagonal liquid crystal phase of nonionic surfactant/water mixtures was investigated by means of different techniques, namely, microscopy, small-angle light and neutron scattering, (SALS, SANS), birefringence, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). On a microscopic length scale probed by NMR, SANS, and birefringence, the shear flow results in an alignment of rodlike micelles along the flow direction. The 10 plane was parallel to the shear plane. On a mesoscopic length scale, studied by microscopy and SALS, a stripe texture was observed. This is due to an undulation of the director which is on average aligned in flow direction. The corresponding SALS pattern shows a better orientation correlation perpendicular to the flow direction.


Title Cooperation between the Nordic countries and Japan in advanced ice sheet and glacier modeling Author(s) Greve, Ralf; Zwinger, Thomas Citation 北方圏の環境研究に関するシンポジウム. 2011年10月31日(月). 北海道大学学術交流会館 小講堂. Northern Environmental Research Symposium (Hokkaido-Finland Days: A Bridge for Northern Cooperation). Monday, 31 October, 2011. Hokkaido University Conference Hall. Issue Date 2011-10-31 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/47648 Type conference presentation Note video file: Simulation of Austfonna using SICOPOLIS V3.0 / Thorben Dunse; Session 1: Ice and Climate Change Additional Information There are other files related to this item in HUSCAP. Check the above URL. File Information 1-2_greve.pdf (presentation)


Background IL-1 blocking agents have been shown to be effective in the prevention of attacks in colchicine resistant FMF (crFMF) patients. Canakinumab is FDA approved long acting recombinant IL-1 receptor antagonist for use in crFMF patients which is available for off label use in Turkey. Herein, we aimed to share our real life single centre experience for use of canakinumab in adult crFMF patients. Methods Data was derived from Gazi FMF cohort which was established in year 2010. From that date patients with FMF who were diagnosed according to the Tel Hashomer criteria were registered. Co-morbidities, detailed attack characteristics, type, duration, severity, treatments, laboratory parameters and impact of FMF on their life in terms of quality of life and work productivity were recorded either by FMF diary or a mobile phone application (FMF AIDD free to download from AppStore and android market). A retrospective cohort analysis was made from records of patients who were treated with canakinumab. Results Eighteen adult crFMF patients (%61 female) treated with canakinumab were enrolled in this study. The median age was 3124–58 years and the median disease duration was 2816–40 years. All patients harbour homozygous or compound heretozygos exon 10 MEFV mutations. Treatment reasons for canakinumab were colchicine resistance (n=14) and amyloidosis (n=4). In three patients canakinumab was initiated directly, while in 15 it was switched from anakinra (seven was allergic to anakinra, one patient had significant leukopenia, in six fail to control attacks). The median duration of canakinumab use was 8 (min 1- max 22) months. In two patients canakinumab was used as 300 mg/monthly, and in remaining as 150 mg/monthly. Pre- and post-canakinumab periods of patients were compared (Table). Patient reported attack severity (p≤0.01), duration (p≤0.01), frequency (p≤0.01), C-reactive protein (CRP) (p≤0.01) and erythrocyte sedimentation rates (p≤0.01) were significantly improved while serum creatinine and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels remained same (p=0.2, p=0.35, respectively). Canakinumab achieved complete disease remission in 5 patients. Side effects requiring discontinuation of canakinumab were observed in none of patients. Table. Comparison of attack characteristics of 18 Adult crFMF patients before and after canakinumab Colchisine Colchicine+canakinumab P Attack severity, VAS 8,5 (5–10) 3,5 (0–10) <0,01 Attack duration, hours 108 (48–144) 24 (0–96) <0,01 Attack frequency* 6 (1–10) 1 (0–3) <0,01 CRP, mg/L 35,8 (3,8–85,0) 4,2 (2,45–55) <0,01 ESR, mm/h 38 (11–67) 12 (3–44) <0,01 Serum creatinine 0,66 (0,40–3,00) 0,70 (0,43–3,00) 0,20 ALT 20 (10–55) 19 (9–70) 0,35 Treatment duration, months 204 (48–456) 8 (1–22) *Attack frequencies adjusted for 3 months intervals. VAS: visual analogue scale, CRP: C-reactive protein, ALT: alanine aminotranspherase, ESR: erythrocyte sedimentation rate Conclusions Canakinumab is effective in the prevention of attacks with a favourable safety profile. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Abstract Urbanisation and water scarcity pose a challenge to urban vegetable production and livelihoods in major cities across the world. At the same time, increasing demand for fresh vegetables coupled with the high profitability of vegetable production enterprises has made it attractive and indispensable as it creates jobs along the entire crop value chain. This study analysed the efficiency performance of urban vegetable producers and their willingness to pay (WTP) for treated wastewater using data collected from 214 farmers. By applying the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and logistic regression models, the results show that the current production system is technically inefficient as 33% more output could have been produced using the existing resources. The mean amount that farmers are willing to pay for treated wastewater to be delivered to their farms is GH¢66.7 per month. Technical efficiency influences farmers' WTP for treated waste water. Other drivers of WTP for treated wastewater include experience in vegetable production, type of irrigation practised, source of water used for irrigation, the volume of water applied per day, extension access, association membership, market demand for products, and access to market information. Strengthening public–private partnerships in the treatment and utilization of water resources and providing technical training to urban producers could enhance the efficient use of treated wastewater in agriculture.


Analytical results for the equivalent gains of two previously suggested nonlinear phase-advance compensators are found for sine and Gaussian inputs. Although they may improve the frequency response of a feedback system, they are shown to have no advantages for random inputs.


The method of the present invention, when starting the network (Network-initiated) PoC (Push to talk Over Cellular) group session is established, provides client information to respond to the first session to be initiated network. If it is determined that the event to satisfy the session start item has occurred on the server that manages the session, to send an invitation message to the at least one or more clients to participate in the session to try to start a session management server. Receiving a response signal to the invite message from at least one or more clients. Transmitting a message including information about the first client in response among at least one or more clients in the session start request client. Therefore, by notifying the conference information to be requested and the identification information of the initial caller to the user, it is possible to proceed smoothly PoC group call.


A 65-year-old male patient was referred to a university hospital with a skull mass and previous history of left lung carcinoma, although a left sided pneumonectomy had been performed two years ago. The large solitary extra-axial, intra- and extra-osseous skull mass exhibited uncharacteristic radiologic features that were atypical for all of the proposed differential diagnoses, which included metastasis, atypical meningioma, and osteosarcoma. An incomplete patient history also made the radiologic diagnosis more difficult. In the end a tumour excision was performed and the tissue morphology and immunohistochemical properties examined, and the diagnosis of a metastatic lung carcinoma to the skull was confirmed.


Smoking has a major effect on the outcome of many pregnancies and the health of young children. Midwives are very concerned about this and are committed to helping reduce smoking in pregnancy and young families. This article briefly reviews the prevalence and effects of smoking on the fetus and infants, and explores more fully the actions that midwives may take to help reduce this prevalence. It also highlights the new approaches to tackling smoking within health interviews.


A hybrid computational method was proposed for simulation of biofilm growth processes using a continuum model for transport of water and extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) and a discrete model for simulation of bacterial cells. The current paper focuses on development of accurate models for different forces acting between bacterial cells, which are represented by spherocylinder particles. The major forces acting on the bacterial cells include drag from flow of EPS generated by the bacterial colony, adhesion forces (e.g., van der Waals adhesion and ligand–receptor binding) between colliding cell surfaces, lubrication force due to cell growth and EPS production, and tension from the fimbria appendages that project outward from many types of bacterial cells. The lubrication force and drag force act to separate the cells and expand the bacterial colony, whereas the adhesion and fimbria forces act to pull the bacterial colony together. Simulations are performed to examine the effect on biofilm development of each of these forces individually. The significance of different forces depends on the cell shape and other specifics of the given computation. However, there appears to be an opposing influence at the scale of the bacterial colony between the outward-oriented EPS drag on cells and the inward-oriented fimbria force. These two forces were particularly found to be important for determining the degree of orientation alignment of the cells. On the smaller scale of individual cells, the actions of the cell surface adhesion force and the lubrication force similarly oppose each other, with the balance influencing cell clustering and the degree of contact.


In the Autograssmilk project funded by the EU-FP7 programme an experiment was conducted with the objective to study the potential of using new technologies for the optimisation and integration of automatic milking with cow grazing. Data were collected during the 2014 grazing season from a 60-cow herd. The herd was kept in the barn during the night (16:00-6:00) where 8.4 kg dry matter (DM) per cow per day of conserved forage was fed. During the day (6:00-16:00) the herd had access to a strip of grass with approximately 8 kg DM per cow per day. Cows were free to return to the barn for visiting the milking robot. Automatic milking-system visits and milk yields were collected per cow. The average milk yield was 26.1 kg milk per cow per day. Feeding time was measured with a sensor attached to the neck of each cow. The cows spent an average of 346 minutes per day for feeding/grazing. For forage fed in the barn, cows spent an average of 6.7 minutes feeding time per kg of milk, while for grazing 8.8 minutes per kg of milk was spent. Older cows were significantly more efficient than heifers in their feeding time in the barn, whereas for grazing the differences were smaller.


Big data technology can collect data, store it, mine it, and create an accurate portrait. It can assist financial institutions in resolving information asymmetry between banks and enterprises, as well as lowering the likelihood of default of small and medium-sized financing enterprises (SMEs). The credit risk system for SMEs in supply chain finance can realize "visualization" management of credit risk with the help of open public data in government affairs, collaborative development of various technologies, and the establishment of an ecological platform with transparent and accurate data portraits. The platform with accurate risk warning capability can reduce the risk monitoring cost and improve the risk management efficiency of financial institutions. The core enterprises are more willing to grant credit to SMEs through the big data technology supervision platform, which significantly improves the financing efficiency of SMEs. Moreover, a better financing credit circumstance also could improve transaction efficiency of enterprises and deeply connect the business relationship between enterprises. The main conclusion of this research: big data technology has a significant impact on supply chain in the digital economy era. Firstly, big data technology can identify credit risks accurately, which narrows the "information gap" between financial institutions and supply chain financing enterprises, and lower the likelihood of credit default. Secondly, financial institutions can allocate funds accurately based on the "visualization" information provided by the big data platform, and strengthen supervision of the use of funds. Lastly, the supply chain finance credit risk supervision system based on big data technology promotes the deep integration of big data and real economy. Therefore, in order to ensure the sustainable development of supply chain finance and financing risk management, it is necessary to create a digital ecosystem of supply chain finance with supply chain finance control tower as its core, as well as a supply chain finance credit risk control system based on big data in the context of the continuous development of big data technology.


The article presents a clinical case of coronavirus disease in a child, combined in time with infectious mononucleosis. Today there is a growing tendency in the prevalence of diseases caused by herpes viruses. At the same time there is an increase in the incidence of infectious mononucleosis. The level of Epstein-Barr virus infection among the adult population of Ukraine has reached almost 100%, and more than 50% among the children. The number of children confirmed by COVID-19 is growing with each passing wave, and coronavirus disease is dangerous for young children with a high probability of complications and hospitalizations. The first manifestations of the disease were not typical: fever, nausea, periorbital edema. A week later, typical mononucleosis complaints of sore throat, "nasality", raids on the tonsils and enlargement of the tonsils appeared. Additional examinations revealed an increase in ALT and AST, an increase in the liver. The diagnosis was made on the basis of detecting an increase in the level of specific immunoglobulins to SARS-Cov-2 and EBV. The coronavirus disease can initiate the manifestation of persistent viruses, in particular EBV


Symphonic suite for wind band and rock group based on a story inspired by Inferno, the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy.


Objective: To observe whether Ca(superscript 2+)-activated C1(superscript -) channels play a role in norepinphrine (NE)-induced contraction of rat tail artery. Methods: The tail artery was isolated from the anesthetized Wistar rats. Under a dissecting microscope the artery was cut helically into strip and then mounted vertically on a stainless steel holder in an organ chamber containing PSS aerated with a mixture of 95% O2-5% CO2. The isometric contraction was recorded. The contractile reactivity of the vessel strip to different chemicals was expressed as a percentage of 100 mmol/L KC1-induced contraction of the same strip. Results: ①The Cl(superscript -) channel blocker-niflumic acid (NFA) produced a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on NE-induced contraction of the rat tail artery strip. The Ca(superscript 2+) channel blocker-Verapamil (V) had an inhibitory effect on NE-induced contraction of the artery strip. The inhibitory effects of NFA and Vera were additive and coordinated. ② Decreasing the extracellular Cl(superscript -) concentration increased the contractile response to NE significantly ,which was still inhibited by NFA. Conclusion: The Ca(superscript 2+)-activated chloride channel activity contributes to NE-induced contraction of the rat tail artery.


e16750Background: GP-2250, a novel oxathiazine derivative, displayed apoptotic cytotoxicity against various tumor cell lines but not normal cells. It was therefore tested whether its antineoplastic...


Fuel cell catalyst layers contain the essential active catalyst, the support material for electron conductivity, ionomer for proton conductivity, and porosity for gas transport, which build up complex interfaces that determine the overall performance. Subtle variations in the processing of the catalyst layers can significantly alter the performance, demands intensive research efforts, and requires considerable amount of time. In the last few years, gas diffusion electrode (GDE) half-cell setups have been introduced as promising approach to speed up catalyst layer evaluation. However, advanced methods to thoroughly characterize transport phenomena within the catalyst layer have not been established for GDE half-cell setups. In the present work, we adapt electrochemical characterization methods, such as O2 transport resistance and CO displacement, which have been previously developed for single cell testing, to enable unique insights into catalyst layers' structure-performance relationships with the GDE method. Utilizing a commercial Pt/V catalyst as a test system, we identify the cause of mass transport limitations due to different ionomer contents. We show that an intermediate I/C ratio of 0.70, which forms a thin layer of ionomer, leads to an optimal performance for the Vulcan carbon support, due to an optimal compromise between O2 and proton accessibility.


[Abstract] To estimate parameters in a traffic accident reconstruction model, an analytical method was proposed. A twodimensional car-to-car impact model combined with a tire model and two-wheel equivalence model was developed for reconstructing traffic accidents. Normal and tangential restitution coefficients in an impact model, as well as the friction coefficient, slip ratio and steering angle of a tire model were adopted as unknown model parameters. The parameters were estimated so as to minimize the difference between the calculated and observed rest positions of vehicles. For evaluating the effect of tire model in reconstructing traffic accidents, three tire models were compared; Sakai's tire model, modified Sakai's tire model and Gim's tire model. After the validity of the estimation method was investigated for an artificial accident, the method was applied to two actual traffic accidents and the model parameters were evaluated. A computer animation system that works on the Windows system was also developed.


The invention discloses an auxiliary leaching agent used for reinforced leaching of ion-type rare earth ores and a leaching method thereof. The auxiliary leaching agent is water-soluble alpha-amino acid or alpha-amino acid salt, and ion-type rare earth ores are leached by adopting an ore leaching solution formed by mixing a leaching agent with the auxiliary leaching agent. The auxiliary leaching agent comprises structures of-COO- and-NH2 on alpha carbon, the -COO- can form an RE-O coordination compound with rare earth via oxygen atoms on the carboxyl, the leaching system has the effect of solution buffering under the existence of both the -COO- and the -NH2, and the pH of a leaching solution is kept stable during the leaching process. In addition, the water-soluble alpha-amino acid or alpha-amino acid salt has less influence on the environment, is a nutrient element essential for animals and plants, and is easily degradable. After the auxiliary leaching agent is used in the ore leaching process, the rare earth leaching rate is increased, the use amount of the leaching agent is reduced, the ammonia nitrogen pollution is reduced, and the auxiliary leaching agent is economical and environment-friendly.


ABSTRACT In 2002, the African Union (AU) inaugurated its Chinese-funded, designed, built, and furnished headquarters building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, receiving the admiration of African leaders. The building was hailed as a new material expression of pan-African unity. This article explores the affective potency of the AU built environment to unsettle and unfurl conceptions of pan-African identity. Beginning with an analysis of sensory impressions of the outer appearance and architectural forms of the built space, the article meanders through its inner structures to describe how these assemble affective intensities around the notion of pan-Africanism. In particular, it concentrates on the experiences of Addis Ababa residents and AU officials who express divergent sentiments and visions of pan-Africanism. It argues that affective reactions associated with sensorial encounters with built forms, mediated by pre-existing discourses, reveal the divergent modes of belonging to pan-Africanism. The affective potency of the AU is of acute interest because of its presumed role as a mediator in nationalist conflicts, not least those currently underway in Ethiopia itself.


Information communication between PC computer and several kinds of airborne bus.i.e.ARINC429.is real- ized through a PCI bus interface communication card.The design and realization methods are introduced from hardware and software aspects in detail.


X-ray mirrors are usually built in the Wolter I (paraboloid-hyperboloid) configuration. This design exhibits no spherical aberration on-axis but suffers from field curvature, coma and astigmatism, therefore, the angular resolution degrades rapidly with increasing off-axis angles. Different mirror designs exist in which the primary and secondary mirror profiles are expanded as a power series in order to increase the angular resolution at large off-axis positions, at the expanses of the on-axis performances. Here we present the design and global trade off study of an X-ray mirror systems based on polynomial optics in view of the Wide Field X-ray Telescope (WFXT) mission. WFXT aims at performing an extended cosmological survey in the soft X-ray band with unprecedented flux sensitivity. To achieve these goals the angular resolution required for the mission is very demanding, ~5 arcsec mean resolution across a 1° field of view. In addition an effective area of 5-9000 cm 2 at 1 keV is needed.


Part 1. Understanding Girl Bullying. 1. Introduction. 2. A New Way. 3. Girl Friendships and Girl Bullying: The Facts. 4. The Complexity of Girls. 5. Influences. 6. Understanding Relationships. 7. Using This Resource. Part 2. Activities and Resources. Theme 1: Being Me. Theme 2: Influences. Theme 3: Respect, Responsibilities, Relationships. Theme 4: Managing Relationships. Theme 5: Conflict Resolution. References. Index.


The West European collisional Alpine belts are the result of the inversion, initiated in the middle Cretaceous, of the complex western Neotethys and the Atlantic continental rift domains and closure of remnants of Tethys between North Africa and European cratons. While the kinematics of Africa relative to Europe is well understood, the kinematics of microplates such as Iberia and Adria, within the diffuse collisional plate boundary, are still a matter of debate. We review geological and stratigraphic constraints in the peri-Iberia fold-thrust belts and basins to define the deformation history and crustal segmentation of the West European realm. These data are then implemented with other constraints from recently published kinematic and paleogeographic reconstructions to propose a new regional tectonic and kinematic model of the Western Europe from the late Permian to recent times. Our model shows that the pre-collisional extension between Europe and Africa plates was distributed and oblique, hence building discontinuous rift segments between the southern Alpine Tethys and the Central Atlantic. They were characterised by variably extended crust and narrow oceanic domains segmented across transfer structures and micro-continental blocks. The main tectonic structures that are inherited from the late Variscan orogeny localized both rifting and orogenic belts. We show that several continental blocks, including the Ebro-Sardinia-Corsica block, have been key in accommodating strike-slip, extension, and contraction in both Iberia and Adria. Its existence further allows refining the tectonic relationship between Iberia, Europe and Adria in the Alps. By the Paleogene, the convergence of Africa closed the spatially distributed oceanic domains, except for the Ionian basin. From this time onwards, collision spread over the different continental blocks, allowing an efficient transfer of the deformation from Africa to Europe. The area was eventually affected by the West European Rift, in the late Eocene, which may have influenced the opening of the West Mediterranean. The low convergence associated with collisional evolution of Western Europe permits to resolve the control of the inherited crustal architecture on the distribution of strain in collision zone, that is otherwise lost in more mature collision domain such as the Himalaya.


A fter a long period of quiescence, growth economics has in the last decade (1986–1995) become an extremely active area of research— both theoretical and empirical. 1 To appreciate recent developments and understand associated controversies, it is necessary to place them in context, i.e., in relation to the corpus of growth theory that existed prior to this current burst of activity. This article's exposition will begin, then, by reviewing in Sections 1–4 the neoclassical growth model that prevailed as of 1985. Once that has been accomplished, in Section 5 we shall compare some crucial implications of the neoclassical model with empirical evidence. After tentatively concluding that the neoclassical setup is unsatisfactory in several important respects, we shall then briefly describe a family of " endogenous growth " models and consider controversies regarding these two classes of theories. Much of this exposition, which is presented in Sections 6–8, will be conducted in the context of a special-case example that permits an exact analytical solution so that explicit for helpful comments on an earlier draft. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond or the Federal Reserve System. A comprehensive and authoritative treatment of growth analysis has recently been provided by Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995).


The current context of the construction of dams in Brazil shows several controversies, mainly lined up with the existing contradiction between the official speech focused on the benefits resulting from such enterprises and the important, serious and irreversible socio environmental impacts caused by the construction of dams, which are attested by the experience of those people who pass through such transformations. In this sense, the present article proposes to analyze and discuss the interfaces between economic development, environment and health in the context of the construction of dams in Brazil.


Fractures of highly crosslinked acetabular liners appear to be caused by edge loading or impingement, resulting in high stresses at the liner locking mechanism. The risk of fracture may be reduced by improvements in implant design and use of crosslinked ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), which is annealed at less than the melting temperature. Methods to reduce free radicals in submelt annealed crosslinked UHMWPE, such as sequential irradiation or vitamin E, appear to be effective in vitro . However, recent studies of crosslinked UHMWPE annealed at greater than the melt temperature have identified in vivo oxidation, which raises a concern about the stability of highly crosslinked UHMWPE.


The Shane 3 meter telescope was recollimated in August 1998 to remove aberrations that were perceived to affect image quality in good seeing conditions. The Lick Adaptive Optics system is capable, indirectly, of measuring the static aberrations introduced by the telescope primary and secondary mirror pair. Since A0 runs were scheduled both before and after the collimation, this allowed a comparison of the pre and post collimation telescope aberrations. The absolute calibration of the wavefront measurement is complicated by the indirect measurement technique, which uses the shape of the deformable mirror in its closed-loop corrected position as an indicator of telescope wavefront. The shape of the deformable mirror is not measured directly, but is inferred from the voltages applied to its piezoelectric actuators. The actuators are known to have temperature-dependent hysteresis and is thus a source of error in this technique. In November, an interferometer was added to the A0 system which will allow more direct measurements of corrected wavefront in future tests. Data from six measurements in July (pre-collimation) and nine measurements in September and November (post-collimation) were analyzed. The resulting phase maps show a slight difference in the wavefront with some improvement in the coma and spherical zernike terms but essentially no change (except for rotation) in astigmatism and some degradation in tricoma.


This paper aims to use cascaded multilevel converters for connecting several battery modules to a single-phase AC grid or load. Electrical power is exchanged either from storage to AC side to discharge battery modules, or from AC side to the storage to charge battery modules. Charging and discharging operations are performed while battery modules' state of charges get equalized. AC side current is also controlled to follow its reference while high differential-mode dv⁄dt on load are avoided using adjacent voltage levels assignment. For these purposes, no additional controlling circuit is implemented and only one controlling block is defined to handle AC current reference tracking, and state of charge balancing tasks. Model predictive control, as a technique capable of multi-parameter controlling, is used to achieve beforementioned system objectives in a simple, efficient, and scalable manner. MATLAB Simulink simulations demonstrate the feasibility of proposed controlling strategy for this sort of application.


The relations between the academic community and the Hindu community have recently come to be characterized by a sharp debate, which has also spilled over into journalism and the Internet. This development has been prompted by the reservations expressed by a significant number of Hindus in North America and India over the way Hinduism is portrayed in the Western academia and by the vigorous response of the academic community to such criticism.
            As an academic, who is also a Hindu; or conversely, as a Hindu, who is also an academic, I (along with some of my other Hindu colleagues) stand at the volatile point of intersection between these two communities. This makes my role in the debate particularly fraught. I shall, nevertheless, try to address the issue or issues involved.


This review describes the potential of a variety of physiologically active natural dietary polyphenols (PPhs) and their analogues, including derivatives of flavonoids, stilbenes, lignans, curcuminoids, and tannins, for prostate cancer chemotherapy. The large number of scientific papers on PPhs published during the last decade, particularly those focused on their therapeutic potential against prostate cancer cell lines, indicates rising interest in this group of compounds. Sev- eral polyphenolic agents are currently being investigated in advanced clinical trials as prominent cancer drug candidates while hundreds of related compounds are being evaluated in early clinical and preclinical studies. The review also covers the key mechanisms of antitumor action of natural PPhs against cancer cells.


Experiences of adversity in the early years of life alter the developing brain. However, evidence documenting this relationship often focuses on severe stressors and relies on peripheral measures of neurobiological functioning during infancy. The present study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during natural sleep to examine associations between a more moderate environmental stressor (non-physical interparental conflict), and 6–12 month-old infants' neural processing of emotional tone of voice. The primary question was whether interparental conflict experienced by infants is associated with neural responses to emotional tone of voice, particularly very angry speech. Results indicated that maternal report of higher interparental conflict was associated with infants' heightened neural responses to very angry versus neutral speech across several brain regions implicated in emotion and stress reactivity and regulation (including rostral anterior cingulate cortex, caudate, thalamus and hypothalamus) – suggesting that even moderate environmental stress may be associated with brain functioning during infancy.


Social justice matters in education and it matters most when students struggle to complete and succeed at school. The central role of teachers' pedagogical practice in this process is well established, but what is less clear is how to support the kind of professional learning that contributes to students' success at school—the pedagogy of disrupting the default modes of schooling. This paper describes some existing structures in four schools working under challenging circumstances and how these structures function in ways to support different kinds of learning. Initiating and sustaining change requires fundamental disruptions to these modes of operation. In order for teachers to do new things, they need to be able to learn new things, but the difficulty is ensuring that teachers learn the kinds of practices and develop the kinds of beliefs that support students' success at school. We draw insights from our research into how this may be understood and achieved, and relate our findings to attempts to bridge the gap between the literature on learning organization and that of organizational learning.


Germany and Korea are looking back at a long common history, which can be divided historically as well as politically into two phases. The official establishment of diplomatic relations between the German Empire and the Kingdom of Korea in 1883 marks the beginning of the first phase, which comes already to its early end by the loss of Korea's sovereignty in 1910. The second phase, which begins after World War II, is marked by a common political destiny of divided countries and characterized by the relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) as well as the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The relatively short period of the first phase around the turn of the 19th and 20th century, which is focused on in this study, was marked by an extremely low ambition of imperial Germany in Korea. Commercially and politically Berlin orientated itself rather towards China and Japan, because these countries played an important power-political role in Eastern Asia and were the center of attention of rival western powers. Also the religious aspect, which remained reserved at the beginning of the religious spreading in the Far East rather to the Portuguese and later the French and Americans was at first not relevant for the German Empire. This situation only changed slightly with the appearance of the Benedictine monks from Saint Ottilien in Bavaria on the stage of Korean missions at the end of 1909. In the present study, three historical aspects of the German-Korean relations will be analyzed. First, contacts between Germans and Koreans already before the establishment of the diplomatic relations of both countries and their historical consequences are examined. The second aspect to be considered is the question, which activities German citizens have followed in Korea and to what extent they have influenced or formed the historical German-Korean relations. For this purpose, six individual people as well as a group of missionaries who have taken special positions of influence within the Korean government or society during their long-standing activities are exemplarily studied. In the last part, the role of the German Empire in the context of rivaling western powers in Northeast Asia is examined closer, followed especially by the question, which interest the Berlin government pursued in the Kingdom of Korea and the later Joseon Empire, respectively.


The limits of democracy - US policy and German labour, 1945-49, C. Eisenberg political re-orientation and democratization at the grassroots, H. Woller democratization efforts of the US High Commission, T. Schwartz German "vergangenheitshewaltigung" and "de-Nazification" from the American perspective, N. Frei resisting the pax americana - the debate among West Germany's industrial elite, V. Berghahn the americanization of daily life? early trends in leisure and consumption, A. Sywottek the German talks back - German responses to "americanism" and "americanization", M. Ermarth.


ABSTRACT We study a simple nanocomposite, consisting of a single spherical nanoparticle in a dense melt of coarse-grained copolymer chains, using molecular dynamics simulations. The polymers contai...


This paper designed a equipment of high-speed data transfer system based on the 1394 BUS,It also introduced the develop situation and protocol structure of high-speed serial BUS 1394 standard,and it discussed the design of hardware and software of transfer system.The experiment results proved that this kind of high speed transmission system is feasible.And it has the certain reference significance to other communication research.


The hybrid squeeze casting method combines the immense features of forging and casting processes. Ultimate tensile strength (UTS), surface roughness (SR), and yield strength (YS) are the important casting quality characteristics influenced mainly by input variables. Determining the set of optimal input variables (pressurized duration, squeeze pressure, pouring and die temperature) for conflicting requirement in casting quality (maximize: YS and UTS and minimize: SR) is considered to behave complex and non-linear. Multiple objective functions with conflicting requirements are modified suitably to single fitness function with different set of weight fractions for maximization to solve the optimization problem. Four scenarios are selected with different sets of weight fractions by assigning equal weights for all outputs, followed by assigning maximum weight fraction for each individual output function, after keeping the rest at fixed low equal weights. Teaching learning based optimization (TLBO) is selected to optimize the squeeze casting input-output parameters. TLBO results are found to be comparable with evolutionary algorithms (i.e. GA, PSO and MOPSO-CD). TLBO has outperformed the evolutionary algorithms with regard to computation time.


A cause for acute pancreatitis is not identified after a careful history, laboratory testing, and radiologic imaging in up to 30% of patients. The


Some people find communicating with bots so difficult and daunting that they avoid interaction, as they do with the obnoxious friend or colleague who has the answer to their question. Eventually, they communicate with the colleague to obtain the answer that will benefit them and the success of their endeavor. As technology advances, more businesses and households are computerized with the Internet of Things, robots, chatbots, virtual assistants and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI). Businesses are spending billions of dollars on AI, so it is imperative that today's workforce learns to communicate with bots despite the difficulties faced. Shankar states that by 2021 retailers will spend 6 billion dollars on AI [1]. Retail is one of many sectors investing in AI systems, so the 6 billion dollars is only a snippet of the total investment in AI. The purpose of this study is to assess human communication with bots and identify variables that improve communication between humans and bots by analyzing data from chatbots. Variables were identified through a review of the literature, data visualization and text mining. In reviewing the literature, there were obvious elements that engineers could implement to improve communication between humans and bots from enhance natural language processing to incorporating more data. Also, the analysis of the text data identified variables humans can implement to improve communication with bots. The significance of this study is to improve human and bot communication, especially as more and more careers will require human and machine collaboration. This study will benefit individuals who have a difficult time communicating with bots, so they can excel and be prepared for the future.


Few thinkers in the history of Western political thought are as widely cited as Alexis de Tocqueville. Among the legions of U.S. pundits and policy makers who have invoked the Frenchman's authority, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton all bolstered their speeches with choice quotes from Tocqueville's Democracy in America. Tocqueville is embraced across the political spectrum in the United States and Europe for his advocacy of civic engagement and civil society, his praise of religion's salutary role in public life, his warnings about the growth of the centralized state, and his sometimes biting observations about the leveling tendencies of democratic culture. His thoughts on democracy in America seem to resonate just as strongly today as when they appeared in the first half of the nineteenth century. Even so, Tocqueville's ubiquity may actually detract from the subtlety of his message. It is difficult enough to characterize Tocqueville's domestic political theory – as a nostalgic conservatism, skeptical liberalism, communitarianism, or radical participatory democracy – but the confusion is only amplified when one looks beyond the relatively settled frontiers of American or Western-European democracy.1 His insights into the challenges of a globalizing age are among the most neglected and misunderstood parts of his political theory. Despite a recent surge of interest


A new apparatus was constructed to deposit mass-selected molecular ions in cryogenic matrices. The successful mass-selection was demonstrated for CS2+ and C6F6+ cations in solid neon. These ions were examined using visible and IR absorption as well as laser excitation and laser induced fluorescence resulting in new insights into their spectroscopy. Additionally, the tungsten oxides WO and WO2 and the novel rare gas compounds HXeCl and HXeBr were characterized using conventional matrix isolation spectroscopy.


This paper proposes an operation framework for incorporating time-varying electricity rates into day-ahead distribution system operation. The day-ahead distribution system operation problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model, in which profit of the distribution system operator (DSO) from serving local loads is maximized. The impact of time-varying electricity rates on local loads is determined based on the estimated price elasticity of the customers and the historical consumption data. The customers' consumption behaviors in the absence of time-varying electricity rates are captured in terms of the customer baseline load (CBL). The proposed model is applied to a 33-bus distribution system. Numerous studies are conducted in order to analyze the impacts of incorporating time-of-use (TOU), critical peak pricing (CPP), and real-time pricing (RTP) on the operation decisions, load profile, profit of distribution system operator (DSO), and customers' bill.


The selenium dioxide oxidation of a series of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthrone and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthren-4-one semicarbazones afforded 4,5-dihydrophenanthro[4,3-d]-1,2,3-selenadiazoles and 10,11-dihydrophenanthro[1,2-d]-1,2,3-selenadiazoles. The latter series which represent a new type of selenaazasteroidal compounds were pyrolyzed and gave the corresponding 1,4-deselenine derivatives.


The phosphorylation of forkhead transcription factor FOXO3a in cells stimulated with reactive oxygen species requires the activation of Akt and p66Shc. We report here that the expression of the Rac1/Cdc42 guanine nucleotide exchange factor β1Pix induces serine 36 phosphorylation of p66Shc through Rac1 and ERK1/2 activation. Knocking down Akt by its specific shRNA completely abolished serum‐induced FOXO3a phosphorylation but did not inhibit β1Pix‐induced FOXO3a phosphorylation. The depletion of p66Shc by RNA interference inhibited β1Pix‐mediated FOXO3a phosphorylation, without affecting the cyclin‐dependent kinase inhibitor p27kip1 protein level. β1Pix‐induced p27kip1 downregulation was blocked by ERK1/2 inhibition. Both endogenous p66Shc and FOXO3a bind to the amino acids sequence 603–608 of β1Pix. Deletion of amino acids 603–608 prevented the formation of β1Pix/p66Shc/FOXO3a complex and impaired the ability of β1Pix to induce p27kip1 downregulation as well as cell proliferation. Our results identify p66Shc and FOXO3a as novel partners of β1Pix and represent the first direct evidence of β1Pix in inducing cell proliferation via an Akt‐independent mechanism.


Seed germination percentage of multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora Thunh.) was much higher under continuous white light than in complete darkness. Red light was the most effective in inducing germination, and far-red light was ineffective. Exposure to red light for 1 min increased germination; this effect was saturated at an exposure of2 min. The red-light effect was reversed by subsequent exposure to far-red light. The results indicate that rose seeds are positively photoblastic, and that the photoreceptor involved is most likely phytochrome. Rose seed germination has been considered unaffected by light, whereas, seed germination in many other species is induced or inhibited by light (Bewley and Black, 1982). Even if germination of rose seeds is influenced by light, detecting significant differ- ences in germination between illuminated seeds and those kept in darkness is difficult, because germination percentages are gener- ally quite low. Therefore, it is still uncertain whether seeds of rose are photoblastic. Leaching achenes with activated charcoal or treating them with macerating enzymes greatly improves seed germination of Rosa multiflora and R. hybrida 'Inspiration' (Yambe et al., 1992; Yambe and Takeno 1992). By using a macerating enzyme to dramatically increase germination potential, we can more definitively examine the influence of light on germination of rose seeds. The present work examined the effect of light on seed germination of R. multiflora using achenes treated with Driselase, a common macerating enzyme. Materials and Methods Plant material. Mature cynarrhodia (hips) of R. multiflora were harvested at the experimental farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Tohoku Univ., Sendai, Japan, in Winter 1991-92. The harvested hips were stored at room temperature, and achenes were excised from the hips immediately before use. All experiments were conducted within a few months after harvest of the hips. Enzyme treatment. The macerating enzyme used was Driselase (Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Tokyo), a product of Basidiomycete fungi with activities as cellulase, pectinase, glucanase, xylanase, amylase, and others. The enzyme preparation was dissolved in 10 mM 2-(N-morpholino) ethansulfonic acid buffer (pH 5.0) at 1% (w/ v). Fifty achenes were placed in a test tube containing 10 ml of enzyme solution. The dry achenes were placed in tubes wrapped with aluminum foil to prevent exposure to light before the start of imbibition. The tubes were rotated at 5 rpm on a rotary incubator at 30C for 36 h. After enzyme treatment, the achenes were washed with distilled water to remove the enzyme. The achenes were then placed on filter paper in a 9-cm petri dish containing 4 ml distilled water. Three replicate dishes, with 50 achenes each, were used for each experimental lot. All the procedures after incubation in the enzyme solution were done in complete darkness. Light treatment. The achenes treated with the enzyme were immediately exposed to light for various lengths of time. White light was provided by cool white fluorescent tubes (20W FL20SW; Toshiba, Tokyo). Red and blue light were provided by combining a sheet of red and blue cellophane, respectively, and white fluores- cent tubes. Far-red light was provided by combining sheets of blue and red cellophane and incandescent lamps (110V/110W; Toshiba) and a water layer (3 cm deep) as a heat-cut filter. Optical charac- teristics of the cellophane sheets used are shown in Fig. 1. The intensity of the light used in each experiment is described in the text. After the light treatment, the dishes were wrapped with aluminum foil and a light-proof plastic sheet and incubated at 25C in darkness until germination percentage was determined. Each experiment was repeated at least twice.


FIELD: information technologies. SUBSTANCE: signal of a preamble of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) (C, A, B) with cyclic extensions, having frequency shift. Together these cyclic expansions form a frequency-shifted version of the OFDM preamble signal. The value of frequency correction and time shift are assessed and efficiently corrected using concatenation in the time area, after which the OFDM preamble signal is coherently summed in the frequency area. Assessment and correction of phased errors in the frequency area are carried out after quick Fourier transformation of received signals. The actual preamble is detected, and additional parameters are extracted from this OFDM preamble, which are required for further reception of transmitted OFDM symbols. EFFECT: improved accuracy of synchronisation. 35 cl, 12 dwg


Digital biomarkers are the physiological and behavioral measures collected via connected digital devices or wearable and mobile computing systems. A set of accurately and reproducibly measurable digital biomarkers can be used to predict and influence various health conditions, outcomes, and to generate actionable insights. In recent years, we observed a rapid growth in adoption of digital biomarkers in the medical literature, computer science research, and digital health industry. Advancing the translational science of digital biomarkers requires the continuous integration of key technological innovations from the areas of mobile computing, machine learning, health sciences and medicine. This editorial aims to lay out a brief overview of the current state of digital biomarkers research, recent initiatives taken by researchers to promote research and development of this area, and the key challenges and opportunities in this field.


Voyager mission study considerations including launch opportunities, trajectory design, performance capability of Saturn V launch vehicle, and vehicle load relief control


With the increasing diversity of content as well as user preferences, and the heterogeneity of devices and network technologies, content adaptation has been widely acknowledged as an effective strategy to deliver services and content to users in a variety of contexts. This paper presents an evaluation of the response time of large scale content adaptation systems being developed under the auspices of the Mobile VCE, using the high-level modelling formalism -performance evaluation process algebra (PEPA). The relevant factors of the system performance, including the operation speed of individual entities, loading and resource conditions of the system, are determined and analysed.


The present invention discloses a system for controlling access to a computer network, a method and a computer program product. Exemplary network access controller is configured to intercept transmissions sent from a computer or data network access policy and identifies the associated computer. If the network access policy associated with the computer does not exist, the controller administrative agent deployed on the computer, the administrative agent is configured to collect configuration information and information about the topology of the network from the computer information structure. The controller based on the collected information to determine a network access policy for the computer. The controller also activates the anti-virus software on the computer, to detect any malicious activity on the computer. If malicious activity is detected, the controller limits the data transmission to or from the computer, malicious activity is eliminated until the anti-virus software, to prevent the spread of malicious activity to other computers on the network.


Abstract A model for the uncertainty of straight lines extracted from digital images is proposed, which accounts both for the image discretization and for the scattering of the line points from the true line. First, some results about uncertainty are derived for the discrete model, in which the point scattering is neglected. Then, the proposed model is compared with the continuous model, in which the image discretization is neglected: experiments show that the continuous model underestimates uncertainty.


The critical analysis of the foundations of classical mechanics is proposed. Methodological basis of the analysis is the unity of formal logic and rational dialectics. The main results of the analysis of concepts "force", "work" and "work of force" are the following statements: (1) the standard concept "work of force" contradicts to dialectics (practice) and formal logic because the concept "force" is a general abstract concept. The concept "force of interaction of material objects" is a general concrete concept because this concept expresses the property (feature, sign, quality) of the interaction of material objects. But the property does not perform the work because the property is not a material object. Work is performed by a controllable (operated) material object. Consequently, the standard mathematical definition of work is an incorrect relationship; (2) the concept "force of interaction of material objects" can only be defined in a genetic way: one should measure the force of interaction with the help of a dynamometer. The dynamometer reading represents the value of the measured quantity (force). If the measured quantity (force) is a variable quantity, then a change of this quantity (force) is called the movement of this quantity (force). But if the force is a constant quantity, then the movement of the force does not exist. Consequently, the standard mathematical definition of work is an incorrect relationship; (3) the position of the force in the coordinate system cannot be determined because a force is not a material object, and the quantity of the force does not have the dimension (measure) "meter". This signifies that: (a) a force does not exist in the material coordinate system; (b) a force does not exist on the material path; the path length (distance) for force does not exist. Consequently, force cannot move over a distance that has the dimension "meter". This signifies that the standard mathematical definition of work is an incorrect relationship; (4) in point of view of dialectics, work and energy are nonidentity concepts. Work is the activity of man, a robot, a controllable machine created by man. Work represents a rational, reasonable, well-directed, purposeful, purposive activity which manifested in the informational and material change of reality. This activity is the impossible if intellectual, informational, energy, and material resources do not exist. Thus, the standard mathematical definition of the work of force is a formal-logical, dialectical (practical), and physical errors.


T his work employed end-grafted poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and hydroxyl-terminated poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP) polymer chains for selective immobilization and patterning of plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs). A soft lithographic method which called micromolding in capillaries (MIMIC) used in this study. The polymers are deposited the capillary flow by the channels which formed by an elastomeric mold and substrate. The localized coatings are referred as polymer brushes and show great promise in the assembly of NPs due to the tunable interaction between the polymer chains and particles. The results show that the width of patterns defined by the channels is smaller than 1.5 µm with a length of around 0.5 cm. Also, the heights of the patterns are ~3.5 nm for P2VP and ~10 nm for PEG. The fabricated structures exhibited high levels of plasmonic activity and surface enhanced Raman scattering due to the immobilized Au NPs. The patterning polymer brushes and plasmonic NPS over large areas by a low-cost process show great promise for a variety of applications that range from molecular sensors to biotechnology. fined by the elastomeric stamp through the capillary of the polymer solutions followed by evaporation and removal of the stamp. The polymers were then end-grafted through a fast thermal annealing step to silicon oxide terminated substrates. The localized grafting of P2VP and PEG brushes was studied via optical and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The fabricated patterns served as binding sites for colloidal gold NPs. The functionality and uniformity of the plasmonic NP arrays were demonstrated by mapping their activity in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS).


In the first of these two papers we looked at a number of issues associated with the wording, bias, and ambiguity of questions for use in questionnaires. In this second part we go on to discuss in a little more detail some of the different question formats which are available, together with some of their weaknesses. This paper, however, should not be seen just as a 'cook book' method for those wishing to design their own questionnaires: it cannot be stressed enough that questionnaire design requires careful piloting, validation, and reliability assessment ideally with a major input from a psychologist and statistician.


Considered is a lossless dielectric slab excited by a two-dimensional E-polarized complex source point (CSP) beam. This constitutes an accurate and experimentally realizable model for estimating the power transferred from a finite directive source into the slab's guided waves. The guided-waves fields as well as the space-wave (scattered) fields are analytically determined by employing a Fourier-transform-domain approach. The guided-modes powers and efficiencies and the space-wave powers are calculated as functions of problem's parameters. Some preliminary numerical results on the variations of these powers are presented.


Collaborative learning is considered to be one of the most promising meta paradigms of the postmodern age. The article seeks to answer the following problem question: how can student collaborative learning be empowered considering the aspects of legitimacy, competence, and inclusion in the learning process? Based on the analysis of research literature, explanations are provided on how to educationally empower collaborative learning in the studies.


The preliminary calculation of the mechanical behaviour of two-roll systems and the influences on their performance derived from this are important for the efficient development and design of these kind of systems. This article describes the stages in a procedure which may be used to design the roll system taking into account the geometrical and physical non-linearities which occur and to determine the parameters which are important for the performance of this system, e.g. the nip width or the pressure distribution in the contact surface. The design procedure is explained using the example of a specific roll pairing. The numerical and analytical results are verified by experiments.


In this paper, integrated quantum neural network (QNN), which is a class of feedforward
neural networks (FFNN's), is performed through emerging quantum computing (QC) with artificial neural network(ANN) classifier. It is used in data classification technique, and here iris flower data is used as a classification signals. For this purpose independent component analysis (ICA) is used as a feature extraction technique after normalization of these signals, the architecture of (QNN's) has inherently built in fuzzy, hidden units of these networks (QNN's) to develop quantized representations of sample information provided by the training data set in various graded levels of certainty. Experimental results presented here show that (QNN's) are capable of recognizing structures in data, a property that conventional (FFNN's) with sigmoidal hidden units lack. In addition, (QNN) gave a kind of fast and realistic results compared with the (FFNN). Simulation results indicate that QNN is superior (with total accuracy of 97.778%) than ANN (with total accuracy of 93.334%).


Melt-crystallized films of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) with M v in the range of 3.8∼46 × 10 4 consisting of α-form crystals were uniaxially drawn by solid-state coextrusion. The effects of M v , extrusion draw ratio (EDR), and extrusion temperature (T ext ) on the crystal/crystal transformation from α- to β-form crystals and the resultant tensile properties of drawn products were studied. The crystal transformation proceeded with EDR and more rapidly for the higher M v 's. Furthermore, the crystal transformation proceeded most rapidly with EDR at a T ext around 130°C, independently of the M v 's. As a result of the optimum combination of processing variables influencing the the crystal transformation (M v , T ext , and drawability), highly oriented films consisting of β-form crystals alone were obtained by coextrusion of higher M v samples at T ext 's slightly below the melting temperature (150 ∼170°C) and at higher EDR's > 11. Both the tensile modulus and strength increased rapidly with EDR. The modulus at a given EDR was slightly higher for the samples with higher M v 's. In contrast, the strength at a given EDR was remarkably higher for the higher M v 's. The highest tensile modulus of 8.0 GPa and strength of 500 MPa were obtained with the sample of the highest M v of 46 x 10 4 coextruded at 170 °C to the highest EDR of 14.


The following article aims to present the psychological meanings that are built around legal psychology, by psychologists, lawyers and students of psychology. Natural Semantic Networks were used to collect and process data. It was found that the words associated to the expression "Legal Psychology" are consistent with the traditional definitions; that the definers used by each group are close together, that the hierarchical organization each group assigns to the definer is different, and that the predominance is to relate legal psychology to the practice of forensic psychology.


It is analyzed that productivity and impact of scientific article produced by authors in Heilongjiang knowledge factory, retrieval of database such as full test database of Chinese periodicals, Chinese citation database. The aim of this kind of analysis is to provide evidence for the administration of scientific research, according to which evaluation and decision of scientific research is to be done. And also the conclusion is to be drawn, which is constructive to the scientific research in Heilongjiang knowledge factory.


The rust disease resistance of groundnut has inherited pattern 9 : 7, indicating that was controlled by double resessive genes. From this fact needs an explanation of gene action, so it can be used as information in the breeding system and selection. The purpose of this research is to know the gene action control, if resistant the rust disease in groundnut. The design used in this experiment was randomized block design with three replications. There were 29 genotypes as treatments (5 genotypes parents, 6 genotypes F1, 6 genotypes F2, 6 genotypes BC1.1 and 6 genotypes BC1.2). The result of the experiment showed that there was a gene non-allelic interaction, mean effect (m) and a dominant gene effect (h) in progeny of Muneng x ICGV 87358 (Six Parameters Mode). However, the gene non-ellelic interaction did not occur in other progenies. Meanwhile progenies of Gajah x ICGV 92088, Gajah x ICGV 87358, Gajah x ICGV 91227 had a mean effect (m) and a aditive gene effect (d), and Muneng x ICGV 92088, Muneng x ICGV 91227 had only a mean effect (m).


This article introduces a procedure that it is advisable to follow in the forensic comparison of texts with a view towards ascribing authorship. The current state of the methodology in this branch of forensic linguistics is presented below. The article concludes with a discussion of the measures that should be taken to be able to compare the methodological framework for the attribution of authorship with that of other forensic sciences.


The Book of Joel 1) consists of three parts. The first (Joel i 2-ii 17) is a beautiful poem which describes an invasion of locusts and exhorts the Jews to penitence. The second (Joel ii 18-27) is a poem similar to the first, but written shortly afterwards, when the call to penitence had been obeyed. It promises agricultural prosperity to make up for the damages inflicted by the locusts. The third (ii 28iii 21), which is partly in verse and partly in prose, promises various blessings to the Jewish people and punishments to the foreign nations. Most modern scholars agree that the invasion of locusts is to be understood literally and refers to an actual historical occurrence. The locusts are compared to lions (Joel i 6), horses (ii 4), warriors (ii 5, 7), and thieves (ii 9). It would be very strange if they were allegorical, for we should have similes within a simile, which would be awkward and confusing and would defeat the very purposes of allegory 2). Moreover, the prophet tells us that he saw the calamity with his own eyes (Joel i 16). Locusts can cause very grave disasters in the Near East. In a small agricultural nation, such as Judea was in the days of Joel, they can destroy the crops completely, bring starvation to men and animals, and result in catastrophes comparable to an inundation in the Netherlands, an earthquake in Japan, or an economic depression in the United States. Therefore the subject should not be considered beneath the dignity of prophecy, prayer, and religious rites. Indeed it was a doctrine of the Torah that a plague of locusts was a punish-


Integrated optical beamforming networks (OBFNs) are critical for photonics-assisted wideband microwave phased array antennas. Here, a 1x4 integrated OBFN based on low loss silicon nitride waveguide technology was demonstrated for millimeter wave (mmW) communications. Three cascaded optical ring resonators serve as tunable true time delays (TTDs) for each channel, which overcomes the beam squint issue associated with wideband communication. The tuning of rings was carefully calibrated using the lossless ring delay response theoretical model, and experiments were performed verifying the tuning accuracy. Theoretical simulations were performed to optimize the delay response of the OBFN using a genetic algorithm, which revealed tradeoffs among the delay response flatness, absolute delay value, and TTD bandwidth. Two topologies of the OBFN were theoretically and experimentally compared. A lookup table of the optimized ring parameters was generated, based on which single-delay channels with dynamic tuning ranges of 208.7 ps and 172.4 ps for TTD bandwidths of 6.3 GHz and 8.7 GHz were achieved, which correspond to phase shifts of 37.5π and 31π for a 90-GHz signal, respectively. Moreover, all four channels were tuned to a delay distribution with a differential delay around 4.2 ps, which is equivalent to a 49° beamsteering angle for a 90 GHz half-wavelength dipole antenna array. Using heterodyne upconversion and a single delay path, a 41 GHz mmW signal with 3-Gbps NRZ OOK data modulation was generated and delayed. Future work will focus on higher frequencies into the W-band and on beamsteering experiments.


Acknowledgements 1 Introduction: People, Animals, and Mobility in India's Environmental History, Mahesh Rangarajan and K. Sivaramakrishnan 2 Conceiving Ecology and Stopping the Clock: Narratives of Balance, Loss, and Degradation, Kathleen Morrison 3 From Eminence to Near Extinction: The Journey of the Greater One-horned Rhino, Shibani Bose 4 Lions, Cheetahs, and Others in the Mughal Landscape, Divyabhanusinh 5 Environmental Status and Wild Boar in Princely India, Julie Hughes 6 The Imperial Ambition of Science and Its Discontents: Animal Breeding in Nineteenth-Century Punjab, Brian Caton 7 Making Room Inside Forests: Grazing and Agrarian Conflicts in Colonial Assam, Arupjyoti Saikia 8 Nature and Politics at the End of the Raj: Environmental Management and Political Legitimacy in Late Colonial India, 1919-47, Daniel Klingensmith 9 How to Be Hindu in the Himalayas: Conflicts over Animal Sacrifice in Uttarakhand, Radhika Govindrajan 10 Logjam: Loss of Commons in Mewas from 1930 Onwards, Vikramaditya Thakur 11 The 'Tiger Crisis' and the Response: Reclaiming the Wilderness in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, Ghazala Shahabuddin Select Bibliography About the Editors and Contributors Index


Background Bipolar disorder challenges bilingual students' oral and written communication skills. Traditional teaching methods may need to be more effective in meeting their needs. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of online interactive business English teaching combined with English music therapy on alleviating bipolar disorder in bilingual students. Subjects and Methods This study recruited 50 students with bipolar disorder as research subjects, and the subjects were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group received online interactive business English teaching combined with English music therapy for 12 weeks, while the control group only received online interactive business English teaching. A standardized communication disorder assessment scale was used to evaluate the status of the subjects before and after the intervention, and SPSS23.0 software was used for statistical analysis. Results The communication ability of the experimental group was significantly improved compared with that of the control group (P<0.05). The experimental group showed enhanced verbal and written communication skills, increased knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, and improved understanding and expression of ideas. The control group also improved somewhat, but less than the experimental group. Conclusions Combining online interactive business English teaching and English music therapy can effectively alleviate bidirectional disorder in bilingual students. The inclusion of music therapy in the teaching program positively impacts oral and written communication skills, vocabulary acquisition, and overall thinking skills.


I recently saw – sat through – what has to count as one of the worst movies I've ever endured. I could find only a single review, from the Rotterdam Film Festival of 1996, which described it as an 'hysterical orgy of indictments of everything that smells of political correctness... distasteful yet original rubbish'. christoph Schlingensief made Die Spalte (The Slit) on location in Zimbabwe, from which the crew was forcibly deported, barely rescuing the film itself. The pretext for the deportation was suspicion of making a porn movie – not without reason, as it stars voluminous sex queen Kitten natividad and an evilly overactive baby with an oozing vagina in its head – but the antipathy might well have been political: the film savagely lampoons a black leader, who looks more like Idi amin than robert Mugabe, but whose suicidally manic attack on the White House in a makeshift self-manned IcBM does parallel Mugabe's unremitting but probably self-destructive invective against the West and global capital.1 In a country where it has become illegal to snigger at the president, humour – even literary creativity generally – has become both essential for survival and increasingly dangerous. Zimbabwe has lost, amongst the millions in its new diaspora, its best cartoonist (Tony namate), one of its best musicians (Thomas Mapfumo) and one of its best poets (chenjerai Hove). as is so often the case under dictatorship, laughter is a threat. Trudy Stevenson, just out of hospital after suffering a controversial assault, has written: