Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) has the potential to augment the increasing demand for alternative fuels and for the production of input efficient, environmentally friendly bioenergy crops. Nitrogen (N) and water availability are considered two of the major limiting factors in crop growth. Nitrogen fertilization accounts for about 40% of the total production cost in sorghum. In cereals, including sorghum, the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) from fertilizer is approximately 33% of the amount applied. There is therefore extensive concern in relation to the N that is not used by the plant, which is lost by leaching of nitrate, denitrification from the soil, and loss of ammonia to the atmosphere, all of which can have deleterious environmental effects. To improve the potential of sweet sorghum as a leading and cost effective bioenergy crop, the enhancement of NUE must be addressed. To this end, we have identified a sorghum line (SanChi San) that displays about 25% increase in NUE over other sorghum lines. As such, the overarching goal of this project is to employ three complementary strategies to enhance the ability of sweet sorghum to become an efficient nitrogen user. To achieve the project goal, we will pursue the following specificmore » objectives: Objective 1: Phenotypic characterization of SanChi San/Ck60 RILs under low and moderate N-availability including biochemical profiles, vegetative growth and seed yield Objective 2: Conduct quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis and marker identification for nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in a grain sorghum RIL population. Objective 3: Identify novel candidate genes for NUE using proteomic and gene expression profiling comparisons of high- and low-NUE RILs. Candidate genes will be brought into the pipeline for transgenic manipulation of NUE This project will apply the latest genomics resources to discover genes controlling NUE, one of the most complex and economically important traits in cereal crops. As a result of the completion of the proposed work, we will have: 1) identified novel alleles in wild sorghum germplasm that is useful to improve both cultivated grain and sweet sorghum; 2) been able to select individuals plants that exhibit high NUE within a breeding population on the basis of these markers; 3) acquired essential information necessary to examine the roles of GS and GOGAT, AlaT, along with impact of transcription factor Dof1, on N assimilation in sweet sorghum; and 4) The information learned will provide new opportunities for improving NUE in sorghum and other cereals.« less


In order to reasonably protect and utilize natural enemies for comprehensive control of Frankliniella intonsa, a systematic investigation was conducted on F. intonsa and natural enemies in tea gardens in Hefei, Anhui Province, and the spatial following effect of natural enemies on F. intonsa was studied. The semi‐variogram of natural enemies and thrips was obtained by the geostatistics method, and the correlation degree between them was analyzed by the grey correlation degree analysis method. The higher the correlation degree between natural enemies and F. intonsa, the closer the relationship between natural enemies and F. intonsa was. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between 11 natural enemies of F. intonsa in tea gardens from October 28, 2020 to November 20, 2020 and from August 22, 2021 to November 19, 2021. The top five natural enemies with the largest closeness index to F. intonsa in Huangshan Dayezhong tea garden are Oxyopes sertatus, Theridion octomaculatum, Plexippus setipes, Xysticus ephippiafus and Erigonidium graminicolum. The top five natural enemies with the largest closeness index to F. intonsa in Pingyang Tezao tea garden are Erigonidium graminicolum, Plexippus setipes, Xysticus ephippiafus, Oxyopes sertatus and Clubiona japonicola. Among the top five natural enemies in the two tea gardens, those in common are Oxyopes sertatus, Erigonidium graminicolum, Xysticus ephippiafus and Plexippus setipes. According to the summation of the closeness index and the sum of the serial numbers, the top five natural enemies closely related to the spatial following of F. intonsa in the tea gardens were Oxyopes sertatus, Plexippus setipes, Erigonidium graminicolum, Xysticus ephippiafus and Theridion octomaculatum. One of the factors closely related to the space of F. intonsa in the same tea garden was the ratio of F. intonsa to a certain natural enemy. The smaller the ratio was, the closer the following relationship was. The results of this study provide scientific basis for biological control and natural enemy protection of F. intonsa.


International Organizations — Officials — Dismissal of — Termination of Permanent Appointment — Abolition of Post — Obligation to Find Alternative Post — Preservation of Rights as Permanent Official under Temporary Assignment.


In this paper, we employ nuclear magnetic resonance as a local probe to present the first experimental identification of the gapless quantum spin liquid ground state in the two dimensional triangular lattice antiferromagnet Yb(BaBO$_3$)$_3$. One evidence is the absence of any spin ordering or freezing with temperatures down to $T=0.26$ K, far below its Curie-Weiss temperature $\theta_w\sim2.3$ K. From the spin dynamics, precise temperature-independent spin-lattice relaxation rates is observed at low temperatures under a weak magnetic field, indicating the gapless spin excitations and the strongly correlated quantum disordered phase. This fact supplies the other more important evidence for the QSL in our samples. Under higher magnetic fields, a spin excitation gap is induced, whose gap size is directly proportional to the field intensity. The origin for this field induced spin gap is thoroughly discussed.


Background. The aims of this study were (1) to analyze the total number of interventionswith autologous or allogeneic bone transplantation as well as biomaterials, (2) to investigate the different types of biomaterials, autologous and allogeneic bone transplantations and (3) to analyze the additional use of an antibiotic additive in biomaterials. Methods. Data were obtained from the Federal Statistical Office for the year 2018. The surgery and procedure codes 5-784 "bone transplantation and transposition" and 5-785 "implantation of alloplastic bone substitutes" were used to analyze the procedure frequency of implantation of biomaterials, such as calcium phosphate ceramics, calcium sulphate, calcium phosphate cements and polymethyl methacrylate as well as autologous and allogeneic bone for defect reconstruction of the extremities and pelvis. Results. In 2018 a total of 99,863 procedures were performed using autografts (54,784, 55%), biomaterials (23,838, 24%) and allografts (21,241, 21%). For both autografts and allografts cancellous bone grafting was used most frequently (77% and 79%, respectively). For biomaterials, ceramics (42%) were used more frequently than bone cements (37%, other biomaterials 21%). In 16,027 cases (67%) with biomaterials no antibiotic supplement was used. Antibiotic supplementationwas mainly used for bone cements (6612 cases, 75%). Conclusion. In 2018 bone transplants or biomaterials were used in a considerable number of the 99,863 bone defect reconstruction procedures. Autologous bone was used in more than half of the cases (55%), biomaterials in approximately one quarter (24%) and allogenic bone in approximately one fifth (21%). Ceramics (42%) were more often used as biomaterials than cements (37%). The addition of antibiotics was mainly used with cements (75%).


For a family of meromorphic functions on a domain D, it is discussed whether F is normal on D if for every pair functions f(z),g∈F , f'–afnand g'–agn share value d on D when n=2,3, where a, b are two complex numbers, a≠0,∞,b≠∞.Finally, the following result is obtained:Let F be a family of meromorphic functions in D, all of whose poles have multiplicity at least 4 , all of whose zeros have multiplicity at least 2. Suppose that there exist two functions a(z) not idendtically equal to zero, d(z) analytic in D, such that for each pair of functions f and in F , f'–a(z)f2 and g'–a(z)g2 share the function d(z) . If a(z) has only a multiple zeros and f(z)≠∞ whenever a(z)=0 , then F is normal in D.


On Monday morning November 20, 2005 Peter Seitz, President of Dominion Hardware Inc. (DHI) headquartered in Windsor Ontario, wanted to start planning for the meeting with his two partners scheduled for December 11, 2005. It had been two months since the trio had bought the company. The purpose of the meeting was to find ways of financing the expansion of DHI over the next five years.


Objective: To determine the perceptions, attitudes and experiences among family caregivers of patients with musculoskeletal diseases (MSD). Methods: It is a descriptive, exploratory, qualitative study. Two discussion groups were organized with family caregivers of MSD patients, representing the caregiver profile: gender (men/women) and age (31–45 years/46–65 years); and patient profiles: MSD type (rheumatoid arthritis/ankylosing spondylitis), work status (yes or no for the variables housewife, at least 3 episodes of sick leave, patients who abandoned their work, and patients with permanent work disability). A content analysis based on the Grounded Theory was done to detect and explore emerging categories. Results: The emerging dimensions were: alterations in daily life activities, need for caregiver support, physical and psychological impact on the caregiver, characteristics of the patient, and several aspects of care. Relevant experiences mentioned were: the diagnosis of a MSD changes the patient and their family members' life affecting work, financial, social, psychological and physical spheres, making it necessary help for basic activities of daily living. Early age at onset or severe MSDs require dedication and effort on the part of caregivers which increases with time. This leads to a great emotional overload on the caregivers, which may be modulated by the support they receive when providing care. Conclusion: The primary consequences for caregivers are loss of purchasing power, work problems, social isolation and emotional stress. Programs for effective at-home support need to be developed with streamlined administrative processes to quickly classify the level of disability and provide official assistance. © 2012 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved. Percepciones, actitudes y vivencias de los familiares de pacientes con enfermedades músculo-esqueléticas: una aproximación cualitativa


Abstract : The New World Order--that articulated by former President Bush at the end of the Cold War era--remains yet unsettled and, in fact, undefined. It is filled with uncertainties and instabilities caused by traditional enmities now reemerging. This reemergence is a result of a world shift from bipolarism to polyarchism. The leadership role of the United States in this new era will, it is predicted, involve selective engagement. Additionally, the U.S. will exercise the role of a grand facilitator. In this altered security environment, this paper argues that coercive and cooperative military influence--especially that defined as military diplomacy--has a continuing place in the exercise of U.S. global leadership. This study reviews the historical record of military diplomacy and examines the past use of the four services individually and in joint operations. Particular analysis is given to the current adaptive planning construct established by the Joint Staff with regard to the employment of flexible deterrent options as an aspect of military diplomacy


Extraction of semantic relations from various resources (Wikipedia, Web, corpus etc.) is an important issue in natural language processing. In this paper, automatic extraction of hyponym-hypernym pairs from Turkish corpus is aimed. For extraction of hyponym-hypernym pairs, pattern and semantic similarity based methods are used together. Patterns are extracted from initial hyponym-hypernym pairs and using patterns, hyponyms are extracted for various hypernyms. Incorrect candidate hyponyms are removed using document frequency and semantic similarity based elimination methods. After experiments for 14 hypernyms, average accuracy of 77% was obtained.


This article examines how patent activities in metropolitan areas change using New England as a backdrop. Using U.S. patent data from 1975 to 1999, this article uncovers several patterns. First, some patent-lagging cities catch up with patent-leading cities. Second, one contributory factor for catch up is knowledge diffusion. Third, shakeouts in patent specialisations in leading cities are less dramatic compared to those in lagging cities. Fourth, invention activities among cities co-evolve. The co-evolution of invention activities among cities provides an incentive for city and/or state governments to coordinate policies that may affect knowledge creation in their jurisdictions. Copyright (c) 2006 the author(s). Journal compilation (c) 2006 RSAI.


I would like to begin by thanking for the opportunity to present on a very relevant subject in such an important organization. I do so as the Director for the Center for International Studies of the Catholic University of Chile. I understand that the foundation for this invitation is based in my experience as Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army, from March 2002 to March 2006. I wish to clarify that I am responsible for my opinions only in the personal sense.


Behavioral and morphological characters, as well as DNA hybridization and sequencing data strongly suggests that New and Old World Psittacidae evolved independently, supporting the tribe status for the American species (Arini). However, species and genera relationships within this group remain poorly known, and convergence was detected in various morphological characters, which could lead to artificial classifications. Most authors have subdivided Arini tribe in 2 monophyletic groups based on the comparative length of the tail, what is still controversial. In this paper we are describing for the first time the karyotypes of Pionites leucogaster and Pionopsitta pileata, both short-tail species which presented the same karyotypical pattern only previously observed to the long-tail genera. The remarkable karyotypical dichotomy presented by the Neotropical Psittacidae emphasize the existence of 2 distinct monophyletic groups within the Arini tribe. Nevertheless, the karyotypes of P. leucogaster and P. pileata short-tail species, suggests that the generalization long and short-tail is not valid to represent these both monophyletical groups, and there could occurs convergence in tail morphology character.


The aim of the current study is to investigate the first and second lumbrical nerves as potential fibers donors to the deep motor branch of the ulnar nerve to avoid intrinsic atrophy in high ulnar nerve injuries.


The desulfurization process of high-sulfur coal in Weibei was studied by flotation pretreatment and microwave combined with ultrasonic wave and oxidants. Through the single factor experiment which took Chenghe coal as the sample, the optimum conditions of this process had been concluded as follows: microwave power was 250 W, microwave time was 15 min, ultrasonic temperature was 60 °C, ultrasonic time was 30 min, coal slurry concentration was 0.083 g/ml, coal particle size was less than 0.074 mm, the dosage of agents was 8 mL/g, the radio of acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide was 1:3. After fractional release pretreatment, the sulfur reduction of Chenghe coal could reached to 53.10%. As to Hancheng coal, the value was 46.41%. By analyzing XRD and XPS spectra, it showed that most inorganic sulfur were removed by flotation pretreatment, and under the function of microwave combined with ultrasonic wave and oxidants, a part of organic sulfur was removed, such as mercaptan, sulfoxide and thiophene. However, as for sulfone, the removal effect was not obvious. The results proved that the experimental method could remove most of inorganic sulfur and part of the organic sulfur and significantly reduce the coal ash.


Daqing oilfield has entered the water cut rising stage of late polymer flooding, it is necessary for injection well to take measures of separate injection. With the increasing reduction of the main reservoir recoverable reserves, polymer flooding of the Class II reservoirs is an important replacement method to oil development, which has an important meaning to develop reasonable and efficient. However, due to the complexity of the geological conditions of the Class II reservoirs, the difficulty of selecting separate injection wells and layers is relatively large. According to the geological characteristics of the Class II reservoirs, the technical limits of layering polymer injection in the Class II reservoirs are studied by numerical simulation, which can provide scientific basis for the oilfield development decision.


Estimates of seismic hazard are strongly influenced by the location and recurrence of large earthquake events. Understanding such events is inherently difficult because recurrence intervals for large events in a given intra-plate region are typically much greater than the period over which earthquakes have been instrumentally recorded. Consequently, there is often very little data with which to robustly estimate seismic hazard. One way of enlarging the dataset is to study pre-historic large events using palaeoseismological methods, and there are many probable palaeo-fault scarps in the southwest of Western Australia. Studying these, along with historic fault scarps, places constraints on the geological setting of large events. The Southwest Seismic Zone is a belt of intra-plate seismic activity within the southwest of Western Australia. The local geological environment comprises deeply weathered Archaean granitoids and supracrustals. Outcrop is extremely sparse. The geological setting of large seismic events is best determined using high-resolution aeromagnetic data. These data allow bedrock geology to be mapped, and in particular identify structures that have been reactivated. This is the first step in establishing whether particular areas are more prone to large events than others. The 1968 Meckering earthquake (Ms 6.8) resulted in an extensive and complex pattern of surface faulting, comprising faults with a range of orientations with reverse and dextral lateral offsets. Interpretation of new aeromagnetic data show that the surface faulting correlates closely with linear magnetic anomalies, interpreted as dykes/faults and lithological contacts/faults. The geometry of the surface faulting can be explained in terms of the reactivation of northeasterly and northwesterly trending surfaces in a stress regime with an east-west oriented maximum principal stress. Space problems created where these two trends converge led to the creation/reactivation of a linking north-south trending thrust fault which accommodated the greatest vertical displacements recorded for the 1968 event.


Preface.- Principles.- Models of Systems.- The Modeling Process.- Qualitative Model Formulation.- Quantitative Model Formulation: I.- Quantitative Model Formulation: II.- Numerical Techniques.- Parameter Estimation.- Model Validation.- Model Analysis.- Stochastic Models.- Applications.- Photosynthesis and Plant Growth.- Hormonal Control in Mammals.- Populations and Individuals.- Chemostats.- Diseases.- Spatial Patterns and processes.- Scaling Models.- Chaos in Biology.- Cellular Automata and Recursive Growth.- Evolutionary Computation.- Bibliography.- Index.


Kurita Water Industries Ltd, only selected by NEDO as the water treatment company in Polymer Elecrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) project of Japan, is developing water treatment system essential for the stationary PEFC system based on experience from Phosporic Acid Fuel Cell (PAFC) . In order to attain maintenance-free demanded from the fuel cell maker etc. strongly, Kurita developed the original electric de-ionization unit, micro KCDI R which was developed and miniaturized with original technology and would replace ion-exchange resin unit used normally. We will report our new water treatment system for PEFC using micro KCDI R. This development of water treatment is subsidized by NEDO.


Las cuentas del Gran Capitán refers to the period following the death of Isabel, with emphasis on the dispute over Castile, the question of the title character's loyalty to Fernando, and the future of the crown ofNaples. The play provides a unique vision of the queen, presented through memory, and of the king, rendered here as more "fallible" (95) than in the other works. Lope's treatment of Fernando, who made every effort to prevent Habsburg rule in Spain, obviously will reveal some tension, which the critic, guided by the observations ofDonald Larson, relates to an increasing pessimism on the part of the dramatist. Ultimately, for Ostlund, however, Las cuentas extols the virtues of the Habsburg rulers as it "mourns the loss of an ever greater reign, that of the Catholic Monarchs" (107). The scrutiny of the plays, ordered by the chronology of the subject matter rather than by the date of composition, is effective and illuminating. Ostlund sustains the thesis that Lope de Vega views history as a function of drama, and her approach to the five texts delineates, in a straightforward manner, the transformation of source material into comedia. The study is quite brief, so that, while always suggestive, some of the arguments could be developed further, and I suspect that they will be complemented, in the future, by Ostlund and other scholars influenced by her readings.


The Strahov Codex (PragP 47) is usually dated as 1480, or between 1460 and 1480 (Census-Catalogue). A more precise dating for the codex's compilation can be gained by studying the watermarks. The author presents evidence showing that the codex's fascicles were written at different times around the end of the 1460s and he offers a new perspective on the manuscript in the light of this information. Strahov can now be seen as chronologically (and repertorially) close to the oldest fascicles of the Leopold Codex (MunBS 3154), bridging what has hitherto been a temporal gap between the two 'youngest' of the Trent Codices (TrentC 89 and TrentC 91).


The radio frequency size effect has been used to determine the temperature dependence of the electron mean free path in tungsten. A T-2 dependence is found for electrons on the jack surface, but results of the hole octahedron show deviations from the expected behaviour.


We present the two-loop helicity amplitudes for the scattering of massless quarks and massless gauge bosons in QCD. We use projector techniques to compute the coe-cients of the general tensor describing the two-quark two-boson amplitude in conven- tional dimensional regularisation and use these coe-cients to derive the helicity amplitudes in the 't Hooft-Veltman scheme. The structure of the infrared divergences agrees with that predicted by Catani while expressions for the flnite remainders for q" q ! gg, q" q ! g∞, q" ! ∞∞ and the processes related by crossing symmetry are given in terms of logarithms and polylogarithms that are real in the physical region. We have checked that the in- terference of tree and two-loop helicity amplitudes, summed over helicities and colours, reproduces the previous results for the flnite remainders for interference of tree and two- loop amplitudes given in refs. (1, 2). We also flnd agreement with the two-loop helicity amplitudes for quark-gluon scattering presented in ref. (3).


A polarization modulated spectroscopic ellipsometer is used in situ to measure the thicknesses of films in real time during semiconductor plasma etch processing. Utilizing the speed of phase modulation multichannel detection, and digital signal processing techniques, this ellipsometer is capable of acquiring spectral data in less than 75 ms. Efficient algorithms were developed for determining layer thicknesses from the measured spectra of multilayer film stacks in real time with a typical solution time of a few seconds. The measured thicknesses and etch rates are used to anticipate interfaces in multiple layer stacks and control process end points. The ability of the spectral ellipsometer to measure multilayer stacks during etching is demonstrated by the etching of a stack consisting of silicon nitride, polycrystalline silicon, and silicon dioxide. Such stacks are commonly used as masks for field oxidation for electrical isolation in memory device fabrication. An isotropic plasma etch is used to remove this film in a single‐wafer process environment.


Axillary osmidrosis has multiple causes, the most prominent of which is excessive apocrine gland secretion induced by androgens [1]. An unpleasant odor is produced when bacteria decompose the apocrine secretions [2]. The acrid odor produced by osmidrosis can cause social embarrassment in Korea, especially among teenaged students and working people. Removal of sweat glands, particularly the apocrine glands, has been introduced to treat axillary osmidrosis, with techniques inSung Won Jung, Seung Je Lee, Hye-Rim Park


Objective: The main objective of the study was to find out the commonest antipsychotics prescribed in schizophrenic patients in Southern India. Methodology: The present pilot observational study was done in psychiatry department at various hospitals in Southern India. The data were collected by using a data entry form which was about age, gender, education, occupation, marital status and drug details. The diagnosis of schizophrenia was based on ICD -10 (Tenth revision). A total of 80 prescriptions were analyzed. The statistical analysis was done by using SPSS 16 with the help of Z test, Chi square test and logistic regression. Result: Out of 80 cases of schizophrenia, most of the patients were less than 45yrs. Among them 78.75% were male, 21.25% were female and, 86.25% were unemployed. The study revealed that 46.25% of patients were students followed by 25% housewives. Risperidone was the commonest atypical antipsychotic drug prescribed (34.35%), especially by psychiatrist for male patients as compared to female patients. Moreover, risperidone was found to cause minimal extra pyramidal symptoms (EPS) with faster recovery rate. Conclusion: According to the utilization pattern of antipsychotics, it may be concluded that the atypical antipsychotics were used relatively more commonly than that of typical antipsychotics. Among the atypical antipsychotic drugs, risperidone was the preferred drug of choice for treating schizophrenia as compared to other atypical antipsychotic drugs in Southern India.


Objective : The authors investigated the expression of c-myc and N-ras mRNA in 21 cases paraffin-embedded tissue sections of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC). Metbods : In situ hybridization technique withbiotinylated cDNA probes was used. Results: The results showed c-myc mRNA to be positive in 9 cases(42.9%)and N-ras positive in 4 cases(19%)in the hepatoma cells. Four cases and 1 case, in the peritumorhepatocytes, were slightly positive for c-myc and N-ras respectively.C-myc and N-ras mRNAs were localizedwithin cytoplasms of both hepatoma cells and peritumor hepatocytes. However, the positive intensities of c-myc and N-ras mRNA were much greater than those in the peritumor hepatocytes. Conclusion : The resultsindicated that c-myc and N-ras oncogenes were overexpressed in HCC, and got involved in the hepatocar-cinogenesis and interfered in the transduction of signals in the hepatocytes of HCC and may play an importantrole in coordinatively maintaince of the malignant phenotypes in HCC.


An extensive literature exists on the estimation of the model parameters of time delayed processes. The objective of this paper is to review the main B-polynomial approaches to the delay estimation problem. More specifically, two algorithms are discussed and compared theoretically and in simulation. The algorithms involve various procedures to assess how the model relates to the observed data, to a priori knowledge, and to the algorithms' intended use. Simulation results indicate that both the algorithms can suitably identify the model parameters, including the time delay. This paper also discusses advantages and disadvantages of the methods and gives some guidelines for choosing the appropriate algorithm.


While a considerable amount of evidence has been accumulated about the history of oxygen on this planet, little is known about the relative amounts to which primitive cells might have been exposed. One clue may be found in the metabolic pathways of extant microorganisms. While eucaryotes are principally aerobic organisms, a number are capable of anaerobic growth by fermentation. One such eucaryotic microorganism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, will grow in the complete absence of oxygen when supplemented with unsaturated fatty acid and sterol. Oxygen-requiring enzymes are involved in the synthesis of both of these compounds. Studies have demonstrated that the oxidative desaturation of palmitic acid and the conversion of squalene to sterols occur in the range of 10-(3) to 10(-2) PAL. Thus, if the oxygen requirements of these enzymatic processes are an indication, eucaryotes might be more primitive than anticipated from the microfossil record. Results of studies on the oxygen requirements for sterol and unsaturated fatty acid synthesis in a more primitive procaryotic system are also discussed.


printing supported by . Visit Chiesi at Stand B2.10 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2ND 2012 P1255 Prognostic factors and survival in malignant pleural mesothelioma at a large tertiary referral center in Turkey Berna Komurcuoglu, Kadri A. Cirak, Nur Yucel, Gulru Polat, Ozan Usluer. Pulmonology, Dr. Suat Seren Education Hospital for Chest Disease and Surgery, Izmir, Turkey Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare tumor but increasing incidance and poor prognosis despite new therapy modalities. In this study we aimed to investigate the effects of various pretreatment clinical and laboratory characteristics on survival of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). During last five years, 125 histological proven MPM cases were evaluated at large tertiary refferal center in eastern part of Turkey. Patients age, gender, performance score, histology, asbestos exposure, smoking history, sympyoms, plasma platelet count, haemoglobin, white blood cell (WBC), plasma LDH level, stages were evaluted in both multivariate and univariate analysis. Univariate analysis showed that patients with extensive stage, N2 nodal invasion and M1 metastasis have a worse prognosis. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that sarcomatous histology has found to be indicators of worse prognosis (HR 1, % 95 CI 1.0152.19, p= 0.017). As a result; The patients with extensive stage, n2 nodal inavsion and M1 metastasis were found to related with shorter survival. Sarcomatous histology were found as an indipendent worse prognostic factor in MPM. P1256 Malignant pleural mesothelioma stage III and IV: Retrospective analysis of ten years in a central hospital Claudia Lares dos Santos, Ines Sanches, Ligia Fernandes, Filipa Cruz e Costa, Fernando Barata. Pulmonology Department, Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Coimbra, CHC, Coimbra, Portugal Introduction: Pleural mesothelioma (PM) is the most frequent malignant primary tumor of pleura. The incidence in Western Europe is still rising due to the prolonged latency of the disease. Aims: Determine demographic, epidemiological, histological and therapeutical aspects of malignant PM in stage III and IV. Evaluate survival rates. Methods: The study was conducted in an European central hospital covering approximately 475.000 inhabitants. We performed a retrospective analysis of cases diagnosed in our department over a period of 10 years. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan Meier method and Cox regression. Results: We diagnosed 32 cases in stages III/IV (91,5% of total), 84.4% men, mean age 65.5±10.2 years, 50% with current or past exposure to tobacco. Exposure to asbestos was reported in 56.3% and had occurred, on average, 41.4±10.8 years before. Approximately 56% of exposures were associated with building construction and mechanics. In 87.5% the diagnosis was obtained with videoassisted thoracic surgery. Histology was epithelioid in 84%. All patients received chemotherapy: 53.1% carboplatin+gemcitabine, 37.5% pemetrexed+cisplatin and 9.4% cisplatin+gemcitabine. Hematological toxicity occurred in 18.8% and non haematological toxicity in 12.5% (grade 3/4). Prophylactic local radiotherapy was performed in 75%. Median survival was 51.6±9.4 weeks. There was no statistically significant difference according to chemotherapy regimen. Conclusion: Malignant PM must be considered, particularly in men involved in mechanics, even with unrecognized or remote exposure to asbestos. In our series no difference was seen combining platinum analogs with gemcitabine or pemetrexed. P1257 Pleural atypical mesothelial hyperplasia: An early stage of pleural malignant mesothelioma? Thomas Vandemoortele1, Sophie Laroumagne1, Olivier Bylicki1, Sophie Giusiano2, Hervé Dutau1, Philippe Astoul1. 1Department of Thoracic Oncology, Pleural Diseases, and Interventional Pulmonology, Hôpital Nord, Marseille, France; 2Department of Pathology, Hôpital Nord, Marseille, France Mesothelioma is a neoplastic process most often secondary to asbestos exposure. Atypical mesothelial hyperplasia (AMH) is thought to be a benign process in reaction to various processes, including infectious pleurisy and recurring transudative pleural effusion. However, it is unknown if there might be a link between AMH and malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Herein, we present the case of a 69 year-old patient with documented asbestos exposure in whom MPM was diagnosed four months after a first diagnosis of AMH. Thoracoscopy showed inflammation of the posterior parietal pleura and white lymphangitis of the anterior pleura, without nodule or any other suspicious lesion. Biopsies taken from the anterior pleura showed AMH. Two months later, the patient returned with a recurring right sided effusion. CT-scan revealed a subcarinal lymph node measuring 15x8mm and a pleural effusion with partial atelectasis of the right lower and middle lobes. Repeat thoracoscopy was performed, four months after the initial one. The pleura was dramatically changed, with numerous nodules and neoplastic lymphangitis. Multiple biopsies were performed on the diaphragmatic and posterior pleura. Histologic features were compatible with epithelioid MPM. How MPM evolves from normal pleura is still debated, despite the acknowledgement of the causal relation with asbestos. Whether mesothelioma evolves from atypical hyperplasia, as epithelium-derived cancer of other origins, remains to be elucidated. Conclusion: Diagnosis of MPM relies on pleural biopsy specimens. Thoracoscopy is particularly useful in guiding pleural biopsies and in symptomatic improvement if talc pleurodesis is performed. P1258 Role of medical thoracoscopy in diagnosis of recurrent undiagnosed pleural effusion Ramadan Bakr, Ibrahim Elmahallawy, Osama Mansour, Ahmad Ali, Samy El-Dahdouh. Chest Department, Menoufiya University, Shebin Elkom, Menoufiya, Egypt Background: The urge for the resurgence of thoracoscopic techniques came essentially from the depressive situation of chronic exudates not diagnosed in 20-40% of cases after using the ordinary diagnostic methods. Methods: This study comprised 20 cases with exudative pleural effusion, all of them were subjected to full history taking, clinical examination, laboratory investigations, radiological examination (chest xray and CT), abdominal US, chest US if needed, tuberculin test, sputum for AFB, ABG and ECG. For all patients, pleural tapping and biochemical, cytological, bacteriological and immunological examinations for the pleural aspirates, as well as blind Abrams needle pleural biopsy and histopathological examination were done. The etiologic diagnosis of pleural effusion was not settled after all these investigations, and thus, medical thoracoscopy, under local anesthesia, was carried out for each patient. Results: The mean age of patients was 57.6 years. The diagnosis was achieved in 85% of cases, while 15% of cases diagnosed as non specific pleuritis. The result of biopsies were 65% malignancy (20% mesothelioma, 35% metastatic adenocarcinoma, 5% of either lymphoma or thymoma), and 35% of cases were nonmalignant, 15% undiagnosed, 10% TB, 5% of either empyma or RA). 20% of cases had complication in the form of 10% malposition of the intercostal tube and 5% of either hematoma or infection at the site of tube entry. Conclusion: Medical thoracoscopy, under local anesthesia and conscious sedation, is an effective procedure for diagnosing the underlying etiology of recurrent pleural effusion of unknown etiology, with minimal complications. P1259 Study of thoracoscopic pleural biopsy for nondiagnostic pleural effusion YuJin Kim, Sun Young Kyung, Sang Pyo Lee, Sung Hwan Jeong, Shin Myung Kang, Sang Min Lee, Jeong-Woong Park. Division of Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Gachon University Gil Hospital, Incheon, Korea Background: We performed thoracentesis and pleural biopsy by cope needle to find cause of exudative pleural effusion. Usually about 20% of them can't find cause. We study thoracoscopic biopsy for nondianostic patients and charateristics of diseases. Method: We enrolled patients from April 2004 to May 2010. We included patients with nondiagnostic pleural effusion through sputum study, thoracentesis, washing microbiologic study and cytology by bronchoscopy. Twenty-six patients were performed thoracoscopic pleural biopsy. Result: Twenty-four patients were identified. Their mean age was 60.5±15.3years, and 16(66.7%) of the patients were men. Four patients weren't performed thoracentesis. Charateristics of pleural effusion were lymphodominent (15; 75%), poly-dominent(2;10%), eosinophil dominant (1;5%) and unknown(2;10%). Final diagnosis of patients with undiagnostic pleural effusion were malignant effusion (n=14, 58.3%), Tb pleuray(n=3, 12.5%), chronic inflammation and fibrosis(n=5, 20.8%) and hemorrhagic effusion and eosinophilic effusion (n=2, 8.3%). The most common cause of malignant effusion was secondary not primary lung cancer. Metastatic effusion were 5 patients (35.7%). Malignant mesothelioma were 3patients (21.4%). adenocarcinoma of unknown origin were 2patients (14.3%). Primary lung cancer were 4patients (25.8%). Conclusion: Fifteen patients(58.3%) of nondianostic effusion were diagnosed malignant effusion. In These 15 patients, secondary malignant effusion were 10. patients(74.3%). In Conclusion, we consider thoracoscopic biopsy and systemic examination to identified nondianostic pleural effusion. P1260 Medical thoracoscopy experience: 3 years on Burhan Khan, Hamid Aminy Raouf, Majid Mushtaq. Department of Respiratory Medicine, Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford, Kent, United Kingdom Aim: To describe the qualitative and quantitative experience and outcomes at 3 years of medical thoracoscopy (MT) in a DGH. Methods: Retrospective case series review of all consecutive adult patients undergoing MT. Results: To date, 39 MTs have been done between Sept '09 and Sept '11. Median age 71 yrs (range:28.6-87 years); 28 (72%) male. Median age o


In this paper, the authors present hydraulic and electro-hydraulic simulations of the circuits needed for ALARS (Automated Launch and Recovery System).  In fact, the ALARS is used to launch the side-scan sonar into the sea. First hydraulic circuit has the following devices: tank, filter, fixed displacement pump, check valve, 4/3- way valve with two buttons, throttle valve, pressure relief valve and hand lever valve, tanks reservoir, filter and double acting cylinder (Cy 1-1). Afterwards, second hydraulic circuit has the following devices: pump unit, 4/2-way hand lever valve, throttle valve and two double acting cylinders (Cy 2-1 and Cy 2-2). Forward, the first electro-hydraulic circuit has the following devices: lamp, valve solenoid, pressure relief valve, double acting cylinder (Cy 3-1), throttle valve, 4/2-way solenoid valve, fixed displacement pump, valve displacement pump and tanks. Ultimately, the second electro-hydraulic circuit has the following devices: tank, pump unit, pressure relief valve, double acting cylinders (Cy 4-1 and Cy 4-2), relay, valve solenoid, and lamp.


In this paper the dispersion of a passive scalar contaminant within steady, incompressible and self-similar turbulent shear flows that are bounded by nonparallel straight walls is investigated. The...


Abstract A two-part annotated check-list of Pteromalidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) of Morocco aims to present updated information on this rather neglected group of parasitoid wasps. The first part includes 113 species belonging to 65 genera from 11 subfamilies – Asaphinae, Cerocephalinae, Cleonyminae, Eunotinae, Macromesinae, Miscogastrinae, Ormocerinae, Pireninae, Pteromalinae, Spalangiinae, and Sycoryctinae. One species, Cleonymus longigaster Mitroiu sp. nov., is described as new, and three species (Notanisus versicolor Walker, 1837 and Miscogaster maculata Walker, 1833 and Gastrancistus aff. vagans Westwood, 1833) are newly recorded for the fauna of Morocco. For each species, its distribution in Morocco and hosts are presented.


This edition of the South African Journal of Surgery has chosen to focus on oesophageal cancer. This is timely and appropriate as there has been a general paucity of research on this common and lethal cancer over the last two decades.1 The outcomes for oesophageal cancer in South Africa remain abysmal and lag behind those  reported in the developed world.2,3,4


Distinguishing the transmission status of the communication as line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) is of great importance for the wireless communication systems. It is known that for LOS and NLOS, some statistical characteristics of the transmission differ from each other. If the distinction between LOS and NLOS can be made as quick and accurate as possible, ranging based applications and adaptive radio systems like cognitive radios can make use of this information to increase their performances significantly. In this study, a numerical and computationally low complex method for coherent receivers is proposed to discriminate the LOS/NLOS status of the transmission depending on the autocorrelation properties of individual paths. The proposed method is tested for both noise-free and noisy conditions with sum-of-sinusoids (SoS) and inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) based simulation models. It is observed that the proposed method gives good results even for relatively low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values


In recent years, methods of treatment using medicinal plants and biologically active substances based on them have become increasingly common. Today, the search for plants with a long history of use and minor side effects is of interest to our society. The most promising for procurement and use in medical practice is a common throughout Ukraine – common agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria L.). The presence of tannins, which are represented by two groups: condensed and hydrolyzed tannins is indicated. There is insufficient information in the literature on the biologically active substances of Agrimonia eupatoria L. The common agrimony herb contains 1.2–1.6 % of flavonoids, which belong to different subgroups. Thus, from the group of flavones apigenin, luteolin, luteolin-7-glycoside have been identified. The herb of Agrimonia eupatoria L. as an insufficiently studied plant raw material is also a promising object of study, including carbohydrate composition.The aim. The aim of our study was to determine the content of carbohydrates in aerial parts of Agrimonia eupatoria L. collected from natural habitat.Materials and methods. The determination of carbohydrates of Agrimonia eupatoria L. was carried out by gas chromatograph Agilent 6890N with a mass detector 5973 inert (Agilent Technologies, USA). The amounts of water-soluble polysaccharides and pectin substances were determined by gravimetric method.Results. Three free carbohydrates were found in the studied grass of the Agrimonia eupatoria L., namely: D-glucose, D-galactose and D-fructose, the content of which was 15.02 mg/g, 0.28 mg/g and 12.90 mg/g, respectively. In the common agrimony, after acidic hydrolysis and derivatization with acetylated aldononitriles were identified 8 compounds. The predominant ones were D-glucose, D-galactose and D-xylose. The content of water-soluble polysaccharides and pectin substances in Agrimonia eupatoria L. was determined at 2.90 % and 8.54 % of total dry weight, respectively.Conclusions. In completion, the present results of GC/MS indicated the presence of certain carbohydrates both in free and bound form in Agrimonia eupatoria L., that have important medicinal activity, which answered to the knowledge about the therapeutic activity of this analyzed plant. We established that in Agrimonia eupatoria L. herb the predominant monosaccharide compound was D-glucose: 23.88 mg/g and 15.02 mg/g among monosaccharides after hydrolysis and free monosaccharides respectively. Our findings propose that carbohydrates from the studied raw material can be used for creating drugs by the pharmaceutical industry, and could be used for the development of nutraceuticals


The etiology of rachitic bone disease associated with hypophosphatemia, which requires large doses of vitamin D for treatment, has been a subject of dispute. Albright, Butler, and Bloomberg 1 have attributed the syndrome to parathyroid hyperplasia secondary to calcium malabsorption, whereas Fanconi and Girardet 2 have proposed an intrinsic and primary renal tubular defect in phosphate reabsorption. Evidence bearing on each of these mechanisms has been presented by Blackard, Robinson, and White 3 in a study of a kindred and the propositus who necropsy is described here. Secondary hype parathyroidism appeared clinically to fit the data obtained better than did a renal tubular defect. The present report describes the patient's course during subsequent follow-up for one year and includes the only necropsy findings in proved familial hypophosphatemia known to us. Summary of the Initial Case Report3 A 44-year-old electrician entered the Veterans Administration Hospital because of arthralgias and paresthesias.


Acquisition and tracking performance of a space-based optical communications system engineering model has been quantitatively measured using a dedicated optical test set. The test set includes a beacon with simulated angle jitter for tracking, a heterodyne optical receiver, and an accurate, calibrated line- of-sight monitor. The system has the capability of measuring each component of the pointing and tracking budget with angles down to approximately 1% of a diffraction-limited bandwidth. Acquisition and handover-to-tracking probabilities exceeding 99.9% are achieved at power levels 9-dB below expected on-orbit levels, and tracking rejection with jitter amplitudes comparable to expected spacecraft levels has been measured optically at -70 dB. Point- ahead angle repeatability over a POM 15 bandwidth range is found to be better than 0.01 beamwidths.


Little is known about the molecular regulation of skeletal muscle protein turnover during exercise in field conditions where energy is intake inadequate. Here, 17 male and 7 female soldiers performed an 8 days long field‐based military operation. Vastus lateralis muscle biopsies, in which autophagy, the ubiquitin–proteasome system, and the mTORC1 signaling pathway were studied, were collected before and after the operation. The 187 h long operation resulted in a 15% and 29% negative energy balance as well as a 4.1% and 4.6% loss of body mass in women and men, respectively. After the operation protein levels of ULK1 as well as the phosphorylation of ULK1Ser317 and ULK1Ser555 had increased by 11%, 39%, and 13%, respectively, and this was supported by a 17% increased phosphorylation of AMPKThr172 (P < 0.05). The LC3b‐I/II ratio was threefold higher after compared to before the operation (P < 0.05), whereas protein levels of p62/SQSTM1 were unchanged. The β1, β2, and β5 activity of the proteasome and protein levels of MAFbx did not change, whereas levels of MuRF‐1 were slightly reduced (6%, P < 0.05). Protein levels and phosphorylation status of key components in the mTORC1 signaling pathway remained at basal levels after the operation. Muscle levels of glycogen decreased from 269 ± 12 to 181 ± 9 mmol·kg dry·muscle−1 after the exercise period (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the 8 days of field‐based exercise resulted in induction of autophagy without any increase in proteasome activity or protein ubiquitination. Simultaneously, the regulation of protein synthesis through the mTORC1 signaling pathway was maintained.


Objective: To evaluate the effect of combined treatment of dual-lateral ventricle drainage and urokinase infusion with lumbar puncture for hypertensive intraventricular hemorrhage.Method: 106 cases were divided into two groups,simple set of front-line,two-ventricle puncture drainage holes urokinase perfusion in the combination group therapy combined lumbar puncture,the total effective of the two groups were compared,statistical concurrent disease.Result: The total effective rate was significantly higher than that in single group.Single group of stress ulcer,pulmonary infection,urinary tract infection and electrolyte imbalance were significantly higher than that of the combination group,the two groups had no statistics significance difference in the incidence of intracranial infection.Conclusion: For patients with severe cerebral hemorrhage,two-ventricle drainage line of high-dose urokinase infusion,it is safe and effective and especially suitable for patients with previous hypertension.


In this paper we present an approach for the task of author profiling. We propose a coherent grouping of features combined with appropriate preprocessing steps for each group. The groups we used were stylometric and structural, featuring among others, trigrams and counts of twitter specific characteristics. We address gender and age prediction as a classification task and personality prediction as a regression problem using Support Vector Machines and Support Vector Machine Regression respectively on documents created by joining each user's tweets.


According to the practical production control,the preparations of DCS system troubleshooting are proposed.The distinguishing methods of system hardware fault are introduced.The experiences of trouble shoot and treatment of DCS common faults are introduced in detail.


Hubert Howe (see Figure 1) received AB, MFA, and PhD degrees from Princeton University, where he studied with J. K. ("Jim") Randall, Godfrey Winham, and Milton Babbitt. As one of the early researchers in computer music, he was a principal contributor to the development of the Music 4B and Music 4BF programs. In 1968, he joined the faculty of Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where he became a professor of music and director of the electronic music studios. He also taught computer music at the Juilliard School in Manhattan for 20 years. Howe has been a member of the American Composers Alliance since 1974 and has served as its President from 2002 to 2011. He is also a member of the New York Composers Circle and has served as Executive Director since 2013. He is currently active as Director of the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, which he founded in 2009. Recordings of his music have been released on the labels Capstone and Centaur, among others. This conversation took place over Zoom during March and April 2022. It begins with a look at Howe's student years at Princeton and traces his pioneering journey through to his musical activity today. Aspects of his composition and programming work are discussed, as well as his thoughts on pitch structure and timbral approaches to composition. More information about his music and work can be found at http://www.huberthowe.org.


In this paper, we formulate a thermodynamic model of hemoglobin that describes, by a physical point of view, phenomena favoring the binding of oxygen to the protein. Our study is based on theoretical methods extrapolated by experimental data. After some remarks on the non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory with internal variables, some thermodynamic functions are determined by the value of the complex dielectric constant. In previous papers, we determined the explicit expression of a dielectric constant as a function of a complex dielectric modulus and frequency. The knowledge of these functions allows a new characterization of the material and leads to the study of new phenomena that has yet to be studied. In detail, we introduce the concept of "hemoglobe", a model that considers the hemoglobin molecule as a plane capacitor, the dielectric of which is almost entirely constituted by the quaternary structure of the protein. This model is suggested by considering a phenomenological coefficient of the non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory related to the displacement polarization current. The comparison of the capacity determined by the mean of this coefficient, and determined by geometrical considerations, gives similar results; although more thermodynamic information is derived by the capacity determined considering the aforementioned coefficient. This was applied to the normal human hemoglobin, homozygous sickle hemoglobin, and sickle cell hemoglobin C disease. Moreover, the energy of the capacitor of the three hemoglobin was determined. Through the identification of displacement currents, the introduction of this model presents new perspectives and helps to explain hemoglobin functionality through a physical point of view.


An overview of the factors affecting the teaching of engineering design is presented. The role of design within an undergraduate engineering course is also considered.


................................................................................................................................. 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER I ............................................................................................................................... 13 INRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 13 1.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................. 16 1.2 EDUCATION AS INSTITUTION, INSTITUTIONALIZING VIOLENCE ........................................................... 20 1.3 WAVES OF VIOLENCE IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA AND STUDY OF SCHOOL VIOLENCE .................... 21 1.4 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................................................... 22 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS................................................................................................................................... 24 1.6 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES .......................................................................................................................... 24 1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY .............................................................................................................................. 25 1.8 ORGANIZATION OF STUDY ...................................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER II .............................................................................................................................. 27 SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF PAKISTANI SCHOOLS .............................. 27 2.1 HISTORY OF SCHOOLS IN PAKISTAN .............................................................................................................. 28 2.2 CHALLENGES TO EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN ........................................................................................... 30 2.3 THE SCHOOLING SYSTEM IN PAKISTAN ................................................................................................. 32 2.3.1 Government Policy for Education in Pakistan ...................................................................................... 33 2.5 HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION IN SELECTED DISTRICTS OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA ............................ 36 CHAPTER III ............................................................................................................................ 39 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................................................................................... 39 3.1 CONCEPTUALIZING VIOLENCE ............................................................................................................... 39 3.2 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON VIOLENCE ......................................................................................... 46 3.3 THE STRUCTURE OF VIOLENCE .............................................................................................................. 54 3.4 VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS ........................................................................................................................... 56 3.5 THE GENDER BASED DYNAMICS OF VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS ................................................................ 69 3.6 GENESIS OF RESEARCH ON GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS ................................................... 73


Results of the study on psychologic features of adolescents whose parents suffer from alcoholism are presented in the paper. The study has been carried out using the Kettle questionnaire. The personality traits revealed in children can be used in the choice of various psycotherapeutic methods and for grounding medicosocial rehabilitation of children in families of alcoholics.


In this study, we examine the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between grit and self-determination in college students in order to provide basic data for ensuring the positive development required for college students to understand their collective, as well as their individual, abilities. This study comprised college students sampled from three cities in Chungcheong province: Daejeon, Sejong, and Cheonan. The collected data were analyzed using AMOS 22.0 statistical software. The results of this study are as follows. First, firmness of mind and courage in the face of hardship (based on the resilience of college students) was found to have a statistically significant, positive effect on that resilience. Second, this grit in college students has a statistically significant, positive effect on their self-determination. Third, the resilience from college students' self-determination revealed that resilience has a statistically significant, positive impact on their self-determination. Fourth, we found after verifying the mediating effect of resilience in the relationship between grit and self-determination of college students that resilience has a mediating effect in the relationship between grit and self-determination. This study is significant in that it provided empirical grounds for self-determination in college students by identifying the relationship between the motivational variables affecting their self-determination.


After a 4-year slide due to Trump administration immigration policies, enrollment of new international students fell dramatically in fall 2020 because of COVID-19, according to the Institute of Int...


Human trafficking, the commercial exploitation of individuals, is a gross violation of human rights and harms societies, economies, health and development. The related disciplines of Operations Management (OM), Analytics, and Operations Research (OR) are uniquely positioned to support trafficking prevention and intervention efforts by efficiently evaluating a plethora of decision alternatives, and providing quantitative, actionable insights. As operations and analytical efforts in the counter-trafficking field emerge, it is imperative to grasp subtle yet distinctive nuances associated with human trafficking. This note is intended to inform those practitioners working in the field by highlighting key features of human trafficking activity. We grouped nine themes around three broad categories: (1) representation of human trafficking, (2) consideration of survivors and communities, and (3) analytics related. These insights are derived from our collective experience in working in this area and substantiated by domain expertise.


Objective To observe the effect of anterior chamber perfusion extraction cataract extracapsularia(ECCE) through 8mm sclera tunnel sutureless incision. Methods Anterior chamber perfusion extraction cataract extracapsularia through 8mm sclera tunnel sutureless incision and intraocular lens implantation was performed in 140 cases(158 eyes) of cataract,compared with phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation in 140 cases(160 eyes).and the vision,patents' satisfaction degree and operative complications between the two groups were obseved one day and a month after operation. Results There no significant statistical differences were observed between the two groups in terms of satisfaction degree and operative complication. Conclusion The effect of anterior chamber perfusion extraction cataract extracapsularia through 8mm sclera tunnel sutureless incision and intraocular lens implantation is similar to phacoemulsification,the former is economic and practical,worthwhile to be popularized.


Copy right Idea Grou p Inc. Copy right Idea Grou p Inc. ABSTRACT The current best practice of providing reliable systems is to embody the development process in recent industry safety standards and guidelines, such as IEC 61508. These standards generally define practices in terms of constraints. The degree of standards compliance can be established by checking the execution of essential activities against these constraints. However, every application is different because of the differences in project details. The lack of the ability to ensure that a process is planned and performed complying with a standard necessitates the improvements in the current workflow management systems (WfMS). Our Compliance Flow research project aims to provide support for handling complex, ad-hoc, dynamic changing, and collaborative engineering design process. This paper describes the use of an intelligent compliance agent, called Inspector, in Compliance Flow to ensure a standard complied process. The standards that the design process intended to be complied with are modelled into a model of standards using the Standard Modelling Language (SML) we developed. The Inspector performs a number of matching processes between the model of standards and the development process to achieve the compliance. Some examples drawing on IEC 61508 are used to illustrate the mechanism of modelling and compliance checks. Managing Process Compliance With Standards


Shaped Ir-Ni bimetallic nanoparticles were synthesized and used for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The obtained bimetallic nanoparticles showed significantly enhanced Ir mass activity and durability compared with Ir nanoparticles.


Capsaicin causes the selective excitation of nociceptive C fibres via the release of substance P and other neuropeptides involved in pain transmission. After repeated exposure to capsaicin, the stimulatory effects are attenuated, possibly by depletion of substance P from storage vesicles, leading to a prolonged analgesic effect. The initial excitatory effect explains the sensations of burning and hyperalgesia that may occur during the first days of use of the cream. With continued treatment and subsequent desensitisation, this effect is diminished. It is useful in the management of post-herpetic neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy and arthritis. (non-author abstract)


This paper presents a method of improved design and MATLAB simulation of switching power supply PID.The experiment results indicate that the improved PID control,compared to the traditional PID control and the integral-detached PID control,has a lot of merits,such as fast transient response,small turn-on overshoot and simple control processing.


Ensuring the motion consistency of human and exoskeletons is the key to the research of wearable exoskeleton robots. However, as the complexity of the coupling of sliding and rolling motion in human joint tissue, it is hard to depict the dynamic states of the joint axis. Exploring the changed human joint axis can be significant in the process of studying the bionic joint of the exoskeleton robots. We proposed a method to build the biological joint model based on anatomy and used screw theory to explore the human biological joint axis on it. The humerus and ulna models were only reconstructed by scanning CT images of the elbow joint in any single position. According to anatomy, humerus trochlear and trochlear notch of models were tangent to build a movable elbow joint model. The screw theory was used to study the elbow joint axis based on the kinematic data of samples in the motion simulation of joint model. Comparing the motion between model and human experiment, the ${\boldsymbol{R}^{\boldsymbol{2}}}$ of the Euler angles were above 0.97, and $\boldsymbol{RMSE}$ were below 2.85, which showed the model following anatomical principles can reflect the human joints well. And the pattern that depicted joint axis travelled is similar to the shape of the Mobius Strip. This work provides a new method to study human joint axis, and the axis results provide references to the design of exoskeleton joints and bionic robots.


Titanium nitride (TIN) films were prepared by using rf magnetron sputtering technique. The films were deposited by a pure N2 plasma sputtering. Their mechanical properties, such as nanoindentation hardness, friction coefficient, and wettability have been investigated. XRD studies revealed that the orientation of TiN films changes toward the (111) orientation with decreasing working pressure due to a strong compressive stress during deposition . The strongest TiN(111) orientation is found when the film is deposited at working pressure of 1pa. This film shows a largest hardness of 15 GPa and a smallest friction coefficient of 0.17. This film was also found to be accompanied by a water-repellent surface with a water contact angle more than 100°


There is uncertainty about the type of mulch to use to reduce soil nutrient depletion and water loss and at the same time enhance crop yield that will also be influenced by the materials available locally for use and their management. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of mulch application on barley grain yield and physicochemical properties of soil in Negele Arsi district, Central, Ethiopia. Experimental plots were laid on farmers fields' in randomized complete block design by taking farmers field as a replication. Five farms of each with a currently mulched plot, a year ago mulched plot with perennial mulch and conventional fields as control (15plots of 10m in width and 20m in length in general) were selected for the establishment of the experiment. Subplots of 1mx1m at each corner and a center of each main plot were used for taking barley grain yield and soil data. A total of 30 soil samples collected from two depth layers: 0–20 and 20–40cm were air-dried and passed through a 2 mm sieve to remove roots, and large organic residues. Soil organic carbon concentration in the soil samples was determined by Walkley and Black method. The soil data were subjected to a two-way ANOVA analysis using the general linear model Procedures of SAS. The pairwise comparison method was also used to assess the mean difference of the treatment types and depth levels depending on soil properties. The average barley grain yield obtained from plots mulched with perennial mulch in 2018 (1.52±0.209kg) was higher than plots mulched in 2017 (1.48±0.135kg) and conventional farmland plots (1.44±.0962kg). The overall mean SOC stock was found to be higher under plots mulched in 2018(49.8291±17.9301) and lower in soils under conventional farm plots (39.1182±13.5183) than another treatment type. The highest overall mean of soil carbon stock under plots mulched in 2018 indicates that perennial mulch might be the remedy for replenishing the declining soil fertility on conventional farmlands and to increase barley grain yield on a sustainable basis.


hypo- hyperpigmentation, crusting, and/or poikiloderma any size skin lesion that is elevated or indurated. Presence or absence of scale, crusting, and/or poikiloderma should be folliculotropism, large-cell transformation positivity or negativity, as ulceration


. The essential oils from the leaves and stems of Atalantia buxifolia in Vietnam were obtained by hydrodistillation and analysed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of forty-six and forty-two components accounting for 98.80 % and 97.65 % of the leaf and stem oil, respectively, were identified. The major constituents in leaf oil were α-pinene (23.16 %), β-caryophyllene (19.36 %), limonene (16.18%), caryophyllene oxide (10.45 %), and sabinene (7.42 %), while the stem oil contained predominantly sabinene (32.14 %), limonene (14.92 %), β-caryophyllene (10.72 %), caryophyllene oxide (6.80 %), and α-pinene (4.29 %). The essential oils obtained were evaluated for antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, Escherichia coli ATCC 8739, and the yeast Candida albicans ATCC 10231, using the broth microdilution assay. Both leaf and stem oil exhibited moderate to weak antimicrobial activity against all tested microorganisms with the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value from 125 to 500 μg/mL. The results of this study have provided new data on the chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of A. buxifolia essential oil from Vietnam. sabinene, α-pinene. Tóm bằng phân và sắc ký khí khối phổ (GC-MS). Tổng số 46 và 42 thành phần lần lượt chiếm 98,80% và 97,65% trong dầu thân và lá đã được xác định. Các thành phần chính trong dầu lá là α-pinene (23,16%), β-caryophyllene (19,36%), limonene (16,18%), caryophyllene oxide (10.45%) và sabinene (7,42%), trong khi dầu thân chủ yếu chứa sabinene (32,14%), limonene (14,92%), β-caryophyllene (10,72%), caryophyllene oxide (6,80%) và α-pinene (4,29%). Các loại tinh dầu thu được đã được đánh giá về hoạt tính kháng vi sinh vật chống lại Staphylococcus Escherichia ATCC 8739, Candida nghiệm Cả tinh dầu lá và thân đều thể hiện hoạt vật trung đến cả các


This paper seeks to understand the factors that influence saving decision among small business owners in two municipalities in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, using the probit model. Through a multi-stage sampling technique, data was collected with the aid of structured questionnaire from 304 small business owners in the study areas. Results indicate that with different saving plans, 81 percent of the respondents have savings account and actually save, with majority of this proportion saving about GH¢16.00 daily. Interest rate on savings, knowledge about savings, available saving schemes to benefit from as well as motive of future purchase are the main factors that are more likely to positively and significantly influence saving decision of small business owners. Policy measures directed at providing small business owners with financial literacy on saving are recommendable. Also developing tailor-made saving products for small business owners to benefit from and increasing interest rate on savings should be considered. Keywords: saving decision, small business owners, Greater Accra, Ghana


This is an illustrated book to initiate discussion about sexual abuse in people with learning disabilities. There are 28 cartoons telling Jenny's story of when she moved into a new home, established a trusting relationship with her carers and began to discuss her experiences of sexual abuse.


This paper studies the potential benefits of traffic diversion in incident management for freeway operations of concurrent flow lane facilities. Techniques that exploit the capabilities of the component object module interface of the microscopic simulation tool, VISSIM, were devised for modeling freeway incidents and the implementation of diversion strategies. The potential for mobility improvement in general purpose lanes as a consequence of diverting traffic around an incident using existing managed lanes and the resulting degradation in managed lane performance are considered in a case study. Results from experiments employing the developed simulation tool show that the benefit to general traffic from implementation of a diversion strategy depends on the following factors: the location of the incident scene relative to the starting point of the diversion opening, the total length of access to the managed lane under the diversion strategy, incident duration, and number of lanes blocked (i.e., incident severity). When diversion implementation lags, travel time reductions achieved through diversion are diminished.


In this paper, we consider the problem of imputation (recovering missing values) in very high-dimensional data with an arbitrary covariance structure. The modern solution to this problem is the Gaussian Markov random field (GMRF). The problem with applying a GMRF to very high-dimensional data imputation is that while the GMRF model itself can be useful even for data having tens of thousands of dimensions, utilizing a GMRF requires access to a sparsified, inverse covariance matrix for the data. Computing this matrix using even state-of-the-art methods is very costly, as it typically requires first estimating the covariance matrix from the data (at a O(nm2) cost for m dimensions and n data points) and then performing a regularized inversion of the estimated covariance matrix, which is also very expensive. This is impractical for even moderately-sized, high-dimensional data sets. In this paper, we propose a very simple alternative to the GMRF called the pair wise Gaussian random field or PGRF for short. The PGRF is a graphical, factor-based model. Unlike traditional Gaussian or GMRF models, a PGRF does not require a covariance or correlation matrix as input. Instead, a PGRF takes as input a set of p (dimension, dimension) pairs for which the user suspects there might be a strong correlation or anti-correlation. This set of pairs defines the graphical structure of the model, with a simple Gaussian factor associated with each of the p (dimension, dimension) pairs. Using this structure, it is easy to perform simultaneous inference and imputation of the model. The key benefit of the approach is that the time required for the PGRF to perform inference is approximately linear with respect to p, where p will typically be much smaller than the number of entries in a m×m covariance or precision matrix.


The Mg/sup 24/(n,n' gamma ) reaction with 3.45-Mev neutrons was studied to determine the n'- gamma angular correlation. The correlation was measured by the intensity in a ring geometry. The experimertal apparatus and the evaluation of the results are described in some detail. It is shown that the measurements agree, essentially, with Satchler's statistical model for the angles 15, 25, and 45 deg . (J.S.R.)


Deforestation and land degradation are one of the major causes of low and declining agricultural productivity and continuing food insecurity and rural poverty in Ethiopia. To reverse the problems of land degradation and to make farmlands more resilient, the government of Ethiopia and various development partners have promoted agroforestry trees and land rehabilitation technologies since 1970s. Despite continued efforts, several studies in Ethiopia show persistently low adoption of agroforestry trees and land rehabilitation technologies. This paper applies the counterfactual outcome framework that models technology adoption as a selection processon a cross-sectional data from 416 farm households to explore adoption constraints and welfare impacts of agroforestry technologies in Ethiopia. Empirical findings show that gender of household head being male, high proportion of male family members, larger family size, larger land holding and household location being in higheraltitudesare positively associated with adoption of agroforestry technologies. The result suggest that large scale adoption of agroforestry technologies requires addressing the disparity between men and women in access to farm resources, and land and labour constraints. Furthermore, treatment effect estimates from matching and weighting estimators show that adopting agroforestry technologies confers additional household income and reduces food insecurity in this context. The result suggests that investment in land rehabilitations interventions such as agroforestry merits greater attention in the discourse on rural development.


In this study, the effects of ozone and electron beam radiation on color removal of dyes mixture were studied. According to the obtained results, the COD data denote that a first-irradiation process is a better one and the absorbency data denote that ozonation after irradiation will result in higher values of decolorization. Therefore, it can be said that a process that first applies an electron beam and then uses ozonation is better than the reverse process. Using a new approach for interpretation of the experimental decolorization results, it has been shown that the calculated dye removal percentages based on ozone consumption are near to experimental decolorization results.


The pricing problem in B2B electronic marketplaces is a continuous decision process,which can be seen as learning as well as inference.In stead of adopting the equilibrium policy,each pricing agent makes a decision by the pricing history of all agents.This paper proposes an efficient online learning algorithm,which integrates the observed objective behavior as well as the subjective inferential intention of the opponents.The algorithm is proven to be effective when it comes to the problem of seller's pricing in electronic market.


In order to change the current status of talents shortage in Wuxi software service outsourcing and software outsourcing industry,In last 4 years hard working,made "for serving the industrial development upgrading of software park" as the purpose,focused on cooperation of college and enterprise,finally found out the "Government,Industry and College" trinity talents training mode,and archived very good effect in software outsourcing talents training.This article introduces the main contents,training purpose,implementation methods and the assurance system of this mode.


Based on computational fluid dynamics and in connection with a dual film model of slurry droplet desulfurization a numerical calculation model and procedures for a spray drying based flue gas desulfurization were established by employing an Euler/Lagrange approach. In a relatively wide range of parameter variation the results of simulation are in fairly good agreement with the test data of Hill and Zank. Meanwhile, a simulation was conducted of some operating parameters, which may affect desulfurization efficiency. Such parameters include: particle diameter of atomized slurry droplet, outlet saturated temperature head, inlet SO 2 concentration and calcium/sulfur molar ratio. Relative to the commonly used one dimensional plug flow model the model under discussion can easily keep track of the motion trajectory of a single slurry droplet, desulfurization and evaporation process, thus visually displaying the flow field, temperature field and spatial distribution of constituent elements in the reactor as a whole.


The invention relates to a system for transporting workpieces (3, 3 '), such as wafers or solar cells. The system consists of a mainly vertical (10) and a downstream mainly horizontal (12) conveyor belt and may the workpieces (3, 3 ') transfer of the former to the latter by means of fluid flow generator means, which bring the workpiece to of the vertical to fall on the horizontal conveyor belt. The workpieces (3, 3 ') are aligned in a great degree with the upper edge portion of the vertical conveyor belt (10), whereby the need for expensive Orientierungseinstellmittel downstream reduced from the horizontal conveyor belt.


A case study of the Nandesari Industrial Estate in Gujarat, India, demonstrates the roles played by different agents in industrial water pollution abatement: affected parties, polluters, nongovernmental organizations, regulators, and the court. The study empirically estimates the "benefits" and "costs" of water pollution abatement for a cluster of 250 small-scale industries at Nandesari, and uses these estimates for a social cost-benefit analysis. Benefits are estimated using the contingent valuation method, with a "willingness to accept" format for the rural village areas, and a "willingness to pay" format for the urban area of the city of Vadodara. The study considers costs of command and control, market-based solutions, and the option of common effluent treatment as alternatives. It discusses how joint abatement 89 Smita Misra (email@example.com) is a Senior Environmental Economist in the South Asia vice presidency of the World Bank. This paper summarizes work from the author's other published papers and doctoral thesis, submitted to Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India. All references are given. The findings, interpretation, and conclusions are the author's own and should not be attributed to the World Bank, its Executive Board of Directors, or any of its member countries. World Bank Economists' Forum Vol. 2 (2002), pp. 89–113.


OBJECTIVE To investigate the requirement of knowledge of nursing students in medical practice, so as to provide the countermeasures for making protection. METHODS Fifty nursing students with questionnaire were surveyed. All students come from 5-year nursing college and 4-year middle educational nursing school. RESULTS A total of 48 nursing students (96%) have learnt the relevant knowledge of hospital infection control in the past learning years and considered that they didn′t get enough knowledge and skills of occupational protection. Few students (56%) want to get more chances in the skillful show which was practiced by the teacher and themselves. Eighty percent students hoped to acquire experience via the hospital; 96% students considered that their fingers would be injured most easily; 64% students were afraid of infecting AIDS; few students (44%) had vaccinated against hepatitis B; 60% students believed that the occupational protection education should be held before the medical practices. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that nursing students are short of knowledge in hospital infection control before they start their medical practices. It is necessary to give some special lectures about the students′ occupational protections.


We derive a large deviation principle for a stochastic Navier-Stokes equation
for the vorticity of a two-dimensional fluid when the magnitude of the random term tends
to zero. The key is the verification of the exponential tightness for the
stochastic vorticity.


Abstract : Funding from 2002 DoD Infrastructure support program for HBCU/MI under BAA No, DAAD19-02-R-002 provided support for Tennessee State University to purchase five (5) ATR robots with associated laser scanners, navigation and inertial sensors, communications and speech processing tools to enhance the research capabilities of existing robotics laboratory. The impact of this equipment led to completion of 9 undergraduate senior capstone design projects and 3 masters' theses during 2002-2004. In addition undergraduate research group is formed to enrich the electrical and mechanical engineering curriculum and enhance the career opportunities of our students. The addition of new robots has enhanced our research in the area of cooperative mobile robots. The robots are able to communicate with each other and humans through wireless communication, computers and hand held devices


Richards and his group showed, about 40 yr ago, that the blood is filtered in the glomerulus. The largest portion of the water and solutes of the filtered fluid is absorbed across the proximal tubular wall, toward the peritubular blood capillaries (see 17). Thus, proximal tubular absorption is a process of paramount importance in the maintenance of homeostasis (1, 16). I shall review here studies on the way in which this absorptive process is accomplished and refer to new experiments on the nature of the sodium pump in kidney proximal tubular cells.


A set of complete residential microgrid (MG) control scheme for China remote areas is proposed in the paper. Firstly, a residential MG, which mainly includes distributed generation (DG), energy storage (ES), controllable load (CL), key load (KL), and control system, is proposed. Considering some communication security issues, main control systems including prediction system (PS), energy management system (EMS), and DGs control system are then introduced. By the above design, the residential MG can provide reliable electricity for local residents. Finally, simulations in MATLAB indicate the feasibility of proposed scheme.


The aim of the conducted investigations was to determine the effect of drying temperature on the changes in free fatty acid, phytosterol and tocopherol (T) contents in yellow-seeded Brassica napus oils. Seeds were dried in a thin layer at 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120°C. Changes in phytosterols were assessed using GC-MS, while tocopherols were assessed by HPLC. Degradation of phytosterols and tocopherols and an increased content of free fatty acids followed the applied drying temperature. During drying at 40 and 60°C, changes were statistically non-significant, while at 120°C, losses of phytosterols reached 29% and tocopherols 23%.

Practical applications: Drying of rapeseeds is an important stage of its production. However, we need to remember that these seeds are biological material highly sensitive to thermal treatment. Thus we need to search for the most advantageous conditions for their drying, with special emphasis on the preservation of bioactive components affecting human health. The analyses conducted compared the range of losses of bioactive components—phytosterols, tocopherols and plastochromanol-8 during drying.

Yellow-seeded Brassica napus were dried in a thin layer at 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120°C. The effect of drying temperature on the free fatty acid, phytosterol and tocopherol content changes in oils was determined. Degradation of phytosterols, tocopherols and the increase in free fatty acid content were related to the applied drying temperature.


Thirteen Israeli patients with type I tyrosinemia were studied. To the best of our knowledge, this group represents all of the patients that were diagnosed in Israel during the years 1987‐1997. Their age of onset was variable but all the patients suffered from liver disease at presentation. Six died at 3 to 36 months of age, whereas the remaining 7, in whom NTBC was started at 5 to 30 months, are alive and well at 4 to 11 years. Three mutations were identified: a mis‐splicing IVS8‐1G>C mutation in a large Moslem kindred, Pro261Leu mutation in all Jewish patients, and the IVS12+5G>A mutation, commonly found in French Canadian patients. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


A highly selective cyanide probe with an imine functionality as binding site was introduced with fast response.The detection of cyanide was performed via the nucleophilic attack of cyanide anion on the imine group of the probe,resulting in obvious absorbance changes and color changes.The binding constant toward CN-is 1×106 L/mol for the probe.The competition experiments showed that the probe could detect CN-without interference of AcO-and other anions.


If lacks the dynamically digital backup as well as the management measures strengthened by the advanced information system, the work of costs management of a project will stay on the state of traditionally static style and easily fall into a passive situation. Thus, establishing the platform of information control system for costs management, timely understanding the dynamic state of costs, and strengthening enterprise's capacity of costs control are effective ways by which the management benefits of enterprise can be improved.


The results of a study of the effect of annealing at 150^oC in an inert atmosphere (Ar + 5% H2) on the electrical properties of organic field-effect transistors based on pentacene are presented. Crystalline pentacene films with a thickness of 95±5 nm were obtained using thermal vacuum deposition. The transfer and output characteristics of field-effect transistors before and after annealing for 15 hours are investigated. It was found that as a result of heat treatment, the hole mobility in the saturation regime increased by an average of 30%, and the threshold voltage decreased approximately two times. According to the data of atomic force microscopy, annealing led to a more than twofold decrease in the surface roughness of pentacene films, as well as to a noticeable enlargement of grains, which led to a decrease in the concentration of traps for hole electric transport in the channel of the field-effect transistor. Keywords: pentacene, vacuum thermal deposition, crystalline films, organic field-effect transistors, hole mobility, annealing in an inert atmosphere.


Ordered arrays of nanoporous gold nanoparticles were fabricated via a combination of solid‐state dewetting of Au/Ag bilayers on pre‐patterned SiO2/Si substrates and a subsequent dealloying process. AuAg alloy nanoparticles were formed after dewetting, and a subsequent dealloying process leads to the formation of nanoporous gold nanoparticles. The dewetting was carried at 700, 800, and 900 °C, respectively. The growth of Si or silicide particles occurred after dewetting at 800 and 900 °C, and these particles remains even after the dealloying process. This growth is supposed to occur via a solid–liquid–solid (SLS) mechanism, and mainly Ag serves as catalyst. A 20 nm thick thermal SiO2 is sufficient to avoid this reaction between the Au/Ag bilayers and the Si substrate when the dewetting temperature is 700 °C.


Moderately thick perfect cylindrical shells under axial compression first exhibit an axisymmetric buckling mode, where a localization of buckling patterns, referred to as an elephant foot bulge, is caused by the first plastic bifurcation. However, the transition from the axisymmetric buckling mode to a nonaxisymmetric buckling mode, referred to as a diamond buckling mode, may occur due to the next bifurcation if we continue the loading under displacement control. Herein, this phenomenon is examined, based on a rigorous plastic bifurcation analysis. As a result, it is observed that the circumferential wave number of the diamond buckling mode increases with the decrease of the wall thickness. The boundary conditions also considerably influence the occurrence of diamond buckling. It is found that the strain concentration is intensified for the diamond buckling modes, compared with the axisymmetric modes.


We estimate unknown rotation matrices $R_i$ in SO($n$) from a set of measurements of relative rotations $R_i^{}R_j^T$. Each measurement is either slightly noisy, or an outlier bearing no information. We study the case where most measurements are outliers. We propose a Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) approach, explicitly acknowledging outliers in the noise model. The MLE maximizes the log-likelihood function over the parameter space. That space is a product of rotation groups, possibly quotiented to account for invariance under a common rotation of the estimators. To compute the MLE, we use Riemannian trust-region methods to maximize the log-likelihood function over the parameter space. That space is a matrix manifold, hence tools and analyses from (Absil et al., \emph{Optimization Algorithms on Matrix Manifolds}, Princeton Univ. Press, 2008) apply gracefully. We derive Riemannian Cramer-Rao bounds for synchronization, valid for a broad class of problem dimensions and noise distributions. These bounds admit a simple expression in terms of an information-weighted Laplacian of the measurement graph. Numerical tests suggest the MLE is asymptotically efficient in many cases.


The present invention relates to a device (100) for determining a movement of a movable member (102) attached with a on the movable member (102) encoder (104) comprising a layer of magnetized material, wherein the magnetised material magnetized so is that a magnetic flux density (106) through the magnetized material is substantially formed only on one side of the encoder (104), a sensor (108) is constructed and arranged that formed by the magnetized material magnetic flux density (106) to be detected, wherein the trained through the magnetized material flux density (106), which is detected by the sensor (108) is changed by the movement of the movable member (102) and a processor (110) connected to the sensor (108) is, wherein the processor (110) is configured to determine the movement of the movable member (102) based on the detected magnetic flux density (106), the major ch is formed the magnetized material.


Abstract : The work reported herein concerns a game whereby two competing players are given aid interactively by a large scale computer. A naval war game is used as the vehicle in this research, the primary objective of which is to develop an understanding and a methodology using on-line computers. By using the game's environment, experiments with methods for interactive and real-time communications between user and computer in complex problem solving are demonstrated and analyzed. It is recommended that the Navy take note of this new methodology which could have potentially great influence on the development of tactics, the training of officers and the development of integrated control systems for naval vessels. This research demonstrates how a user defines information modules, manipulates them and selectively uses them as building blocks first for larger modules and ultimately for the solution of a problem. The computer is used as a repository for all data accrued in the game; this accumulated information is always available to a player. Because the game uses an on-line computer system to simulate the real life environment, the players can request computer computations at any time and expect responses almost immediately. (Author)


Pediatric psycho-oncology, like its related discipline, pediatric oncology, is a relatively recent phenomenon. The last 30 years encompass almost all of its history and it is only within the last 15–20 years that there has even been a critical mass of psycho-oncologists to merit occasional, independent professional meetings, usually quite small in number. Adult psycho-oncology meetings still have few pediatric sessions, but participation rates are meager. It has been difficult for the small but growing number of pediatric psycho-oncologists to find a place to share with similarly focused colleagues the exciting new areas of research which are developing and the results of the last decades of work on neuropsychological functioning, on quality of life, palliative care, and on family impact. The 1-day SIOP Psycho-Oncology (SIOP-PPO) Pre-Meeting in Boston on October 21, 2010 was a meeting in marked contrast. While it was only the second meeting organized by the founding committee SIOP-PPO (Martha Grootenhuis, Chair), it was attended by more than 200 professionals. Sessions were given by numerous international experts in the field and were well received by packed audiences. The scope of the sessions was broad, ranging from screening assessments for treatment-related distress to quality of life interventions, including creative exercise programs, interventions for and assessment of distress in children undergoing stem cell transplantation and their family members, genetic and imaging correlates of neurocognitive late effects, the pros and cons of using post-traumatic stress as a model for the burdens of childhood cancer on patients and parents, and recent emerging group-wide psychosocial research within the Children's Oncology Group to obtain psychometrically sound measures to carefully monitor late effects. It also included brief presentations by new investigators offering preliminary results of on-going research. The keynote lecture was given by Dr. Jimmie Holland of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the founder of the field of Psycho-Oncology. The abstracts of the sessions at this meeting are included in this issue. Pediatric oncologists attended this meeting along with psycho-oncology professionals, an important marker of the mutual interests which are served by psycho-oncology research. We are all interested in how treatments and professional interactions determine long-term quality of life for children with cancer and their families and we are optimistic that psycho-oncology outcome data can inform future clinical trials. SIOP is to be congratulated on supporting this important interchange, a commitment reflected in their planning of a similar meeting at SIOP 2012 in London (for information on London SIOP-PPO meeting email firstname.lastname@example.com).


In the title compound, [Li(C12H10O2P)(C4H8O)]n, the O atoms of adjacent and bridging diphenylphosphinate ligands and that from a tetrahydrofuran (thf) molecule are arranged in a tetrahedral manner around the Li atoms, resulting in a one-dimensional array (parallel to the a axis) of alternate eight-membered and rectangular planar four-membered rings [the two Li—O distances are 1.962 (6) and 1.991 (6) A, and the Li—O—Li and O—Li—O angles are 88.3 (2) and 91.7 (2)°, respectively]. The Li—O distances for the O atoms of the phosphinate ligand are 1.992 (6) (for the μ-O atom) and 1.897 (6) A, and the distance from Li to the O atom of the thf ligand is 2.028 (6) A.