Popular advice for healthy diets that may promote health and longevity include the daily consumption of at least three servings of fruits or vegetables and the variation of foods to include items derived from different plants and those plants should belong to different botanical families (Thompson H.J. et al., 1999). Ancient civilisations in the Middle East and in America included grain legumes and cereals in well-balanced diets. In the funeral offerings found in the Egyptian pyramids various legume seeds were present, including lentils and grass pea. Apparently, legumes were a food of special consideration to be offered to kings, in contrast to the present day reputation of being the meat of the poor, with 75% of all legumes now being produced in developing countries. Excavations of ancient settlements indicate the use of both cereals and legumes (Mahler-Slasky & Kislev, 2010). A well balanced food basket promoting health and strength may have given an evolutionary advantage. The benefits of legume cultivation for soil fertility were already recognised in the 4th century BC (Flint-Hamilton, 1999). Legumes are important factors in the natural cycle of nitrogen, being able to fix atmospheric nitrogen in symbiosis with Rhizobium bacteria. This enables the leguminous plants to thrive on poor soil, which makes them essential partners in the maintenance of soil fertility, and to produce protein-rich seeds. However, maintenance of optimum rates of nitrogen fixation requires continued attention by plant breeders (Provorov & Tikhonovich, 2003). Legumes are also unusually diverse in their defence against predators by producing a large array of secondary metabolites forming their chemical armoury. Those metabolites include anti-nutrients such as inhibitors of digestion and compounds interfering with predator's metabolism reaching as far as brain function and hormonal control (Rozan et al., 2000). Interestingly, some of these metabolites are beneficial by their inhibition of human cancer cells or by antioxidant activity that can delay ageing. Although legumes have many beneficial properties, they are not a well balanced food by themselves because of deficiencies in some essential amino acids, and should not be the sole component of the food basket. In combination with cereals that are richer in those essential amino acids which are deficient in legumes such as methionine, cysteine and tryptophan, legumes are beneficial for human health and for the world's ecology. The optimum protein quality is approximated when 60-70% cereals are mixed with 30-40% cooked legumes. This would produce a combined quality of protein comparable with meat (Bressani & Elias, 1974).


The purpose of this study was to determine the results of content validation of the TENVOL training model to improve volleyball smash skills. The media used is a tennis ball. The data used in this study are qualitative data and quantitative data. The data analysis technique used in this study used quantitative descriptive analysis techniques. The validity of this training model was obtained based on the assessment of two experts, namely 1 material expert in volleyball and 1 expert in volleyball coaching. The results of the expert assessment were then formulated with the Gregory formula. Based on the results of the assessment, it was found that the TENVOL training model to improve volleyball smash skills can be declared valid and relevant to use because the Vr value is 3.26 and is included in the range of 2.5 Vr 3.5. Therefore, it can be declared valid and feasible to be used at the next stage. The validation of this exercise model includes aspects such as objectives, material, presentation method, and the form of the exercise model. The suggestion from this research is that it can be tested further, both on small-scale product trials to large-scale usage trials, so that a better product for developing a smash training model using tennis ball media is obtained. And it can be developed further by adding more varied and interesting exercise models.


Human urine has a great fertilizer potential due to having high concentration of nutrients. The storage and application of human urine as fertilizer are the significant concerns in this respect. The objective of present study was to quantify the N loss from stored human urine under three storage conditions namely – small mouth open container, big mouth open container and aerated big mouth open container during month long investigation. The investigation was carried out for 39 days long at room temperature (28°C). The results revealed that 93.69% N loss occurred in 39 day from narrow mouth, 93.81% in 24 days from wide mouth and 94.93% in 9 days from wide mouth aerated condition. The rate of N loss in wide mouth aerated was 3 folds of the rate in wide mouth and 4.9 folds of the rate in narrow mouth. The % of N loss was proportionately linear to pH rise of urine in all three conditions. Storage of urine in narrow mouth container is the best option to minimize N loss. Furthermore, a comparative study is required on fertilizer efficiency of urine stored in open and closed conditions considering the role of associated microorganisms.


(A. Nagaoka et al., unpublished data). In the present study, we examined the effects of CV-2619 on lipid peroxidation in brain homogenate. Lipoperoxide (LPO) produced in the brain homogenate was determined according to the method of Stocks (10). In brief, brain tissue from male Wistar rats (about 10 weeks of age) was obtained after decapitation and homogenated in ice-cold phosphate saline buffer (50 mM, pH 7.4). The homogenate was centrifuged for 10 min at 1,000 •~ g, and the supernatant was stored at -20•Ž until used. The stock brain homogenate was diluted three-fold with the same phosphate saline buffer. The diluted homogenate (1 ml) was incubated at 37•Ž for 30 min with or without the testing compound dissolved in 10 ƒÊl of ethanol. The reaction was stopped by adding 200 ƒÊl of 35% HCI04, and the mixture was centrifuged at 1,300 •~ g for 10 min. The LPO of the supernatant was measured by the thiobarbituric acid (TBA) method and expressed as malondialdehyde


Discloses a method for determining the nature of the patient's anatomy, the patient having a mouth and throat, said method comprising: a) at least one structured light pattern is projected onto the mouth of the patient; b) detecting at least a reflected light pattern, the reflecting emitted from each light pattern reflected structured corresponding to the projected light pattern in; c) in view of the at least one light pattern to analyze the structure of the at least one reflector and a structured light pattern, thereby determining the nature of the patient anatomy; and an associated image forming apparatus.


Today's software systems are more frequently composed from preexisting commercial or non-commercial components and connectors. These components provide complex and independent functionality and are engaged in complex interactions. Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) is concerned with composing, selecting and designing such components. As the popularity of this approach and hence number of commercially available software components grows, selecting a set of components to satisfy a set of requirements while minimizing cost is becoming more difficult. This problem necessitates the design of efficient algorithms to automate component selection for software developing organizations. We address this challenge through analysis of Component Selection, the NP-complete process of selecting a minimal cost set of components to satisfy a set of objectives. Due to the high order of computational complexity of this problem, we examine approximating solutions that make the component selection process practicable. We adapt a greedy approach and a genetic algorithm to approximate this problem. We examined the performance of studied algorithms on a set of selected ActiveX components. Comparing the results of these two algorithms with the choices made by a group of human experts shows that we obtain better results using these approximation algorithms.


The nanofluids, the fluid interruptions of nanomaterial, have presented lots of ex-citing properties and characteristic structures offer unique potential to the various applications. The article recaps the latest development of revision of nanofluids, for example the method of evaluation of strength of nanofluids, method of preparation and methods of enhance the stability of nanofluids. Finally, this paper finds the chances for future development of research work.


This paper analyses the reasons that cause the receivable account problem and its influence on enterprises,and put forward the countermeasures to solve this problem.


China lacks practical operation experience of anti-dumping law absolutely than advanced nations. In this study, I grasped whether Chinese anti-dumping legislation is agreed in WTO roles or not with Chinese current anti-dumping laws and WTO rules through comparative analysis. As China is one of WTO member nations, It has an obligation to have to certainly keep a standard regarding anti-dumping systems deciding in WTO agreements. Nonetheless the Chinese anti-dumping laws is causing legal uncertainty because of insufficient details regulations about the calculation of dumping margins, the termination of an investigation in case of negligible imports, and sunset review And a part of regulations are disagreed with WTO anti-dumping agreement about price undertakings. Therefore, our government should indicate them and urge the Chinese government to revise them so that its anti-dumping Law is agreed with WTO agreement. Aside from this, if the anti-dumping investigation is initiated , our government must observe how the Chinese authorities operates its anti-dumping law that do not agree with WTO agreement, and should prepare the countermeasure accordingly. Also, Including our export company, government agencies, academic circles being related, and international trade advisory agencies must expand opportunity of information sharing. And they will have to watch attentively operation of Chinese anti-dumping system and change direction of connected legislation continuously.


A process for producing a bipolar plate (100) for a fuel cell unit, wherein the bipolar plate (100) in a contact pad (108) disposed of the bipolar plate (100) contact elements (106) for electrically conductive connection with a cathode-electrolyte-anode unit (120) and wherein the method comprises the following steps: - coating a metallic base material (102) of the bipolar plate (100) which does not form chromium oxide, with an electrically conductive coating material (104) forming electrically conductive oxide upon oxidation prior to operation or during operation of the fuel cell unit, a at the operating temperature of the fuel cell unit, in the region of contact zones (110) of the contact elements (106); - Eindiffundierenlassen of coating material (104) in the base material (102).


In this paper,we consider a single-supplier multi-retailers supply chain with single-product facing price-sensitive deterministic demand,and the supplier has complete information about retailers' cost structure,the retailers have same cost structure.We examine strategic alliances among retailers acquiring decision rights leadership,and study the reflection of the strategic alliances among on the performance of retailers in and out of the alliance,the supplier and the total supply-chain.It is shown that the strategic alliances retailers can't be profitable to all members of the supply-chain,but may be profitable to some members of the supply-chain in some case.


In the conditions of the high underground water level and the strong water pressure,in the construction of the super deep underground structure,the waterproof construction is a key of the vital concernment,it will affect the security and the endurance,so it is quite important in the whole construction.This article introduces the ways of waterproof construction in the deep underground structure from the choice of waterproof materials and the parts of piles,corner,construction joints,post-cast joints,movement joints.There is a value of engineered application and function of direction.


The fixed-line and mobile telephony network is one of the crucial elements of an emergency response to a disaster event. However, frequently the phone network is overwhelmed in such situations and is disrupted. It is not cost-effective to maintain an over-provisioned IT infrastructure for such rare events. Cloud computing allows users to create resources on-demand and can enable an IT infrastructure that scales in response to the demands of disaster management. In this paper, we introduce a system that uses the Amazon EC2 service to automatically scale up a software telephony network in response to a large volume of calls and scale down in normal times. We demonstrate the efficacy of this system through experiments based on real-world data.


Background: Phrenic nerve pacing isa recognized substitute topositive pressure ventilation via tracheotomy inpatients withhigh cervical cordlesions or central hypoventilation. Although itsin¬ dications areinfrequent, reliable strategies needtobeusedinthedeterminations ofpatients who maybenefit fromthis treatment; contraindications should becarefully respected. Study objectives: Todetermine whether modernandnoninvasive means tostudy themotorpath¬ waytothediaphragm, namely cortical magnetic stimulation (CxMS) andcervical magnetic stimu¬ lation (CMS), can contribute totheselection ofpatients whomaybenefit fromphrenic pacing. Design andsetting: Prospective study (18months), on a consecutive basis, ofpatients referred for possible phrenic pacing toa 10-bed ICUassociated with arespiratory neurophysiology laboratory. Patients: Sevenpatients (high cervical cordinjury, n=5; central hypoventilation following neurosurgery, n=l;idiopathic acquired central hypoventilation, n=l). Intervention, measurements, andresults: Electromyography ofthediaphragm andtransdiaphragmaticpressure were assessed inresponse toCxMSandCMS.Inthree cases, no interruption ofthe corticodiaphragmatic pathway was evidenced, thedecision ofpacing waspostponed, andthepatients eventually recovered a spontaneous breathing activity. Intwocases,thediagnosis ofirreversible peripheral phrenic dysfunction was reached andpacing was denied. Intwocases,complete inter¬ ruption ofthecorticodiaphragmatic pathway andintegrity ofperipheral conduction ledtothede¬ cision ofphrenic pacemaker implantation. Conclusion: CxMSandCMS can beused torefine theassessment ofpatients proposed forphrenic pacing. CxMScanpossibly identify those inwhomthere isapossibility foreventual recovery, and therefore substantiate a decision topostpone thepacing. (CHEST 1996; 110:1551-57)


This paper introduces the new qualitative dimensions that smart materials bring in industrial and product design with the aim of stimulating designers to take a more proactive attitude in the choice and application of these materials. Chromogenic materials enable designers to make visible, by emitting colour signals, what is happening under certain environmental conditions, normally invisible to our eyes. This allows the increase of comfort and safety of the designed environment. The possibility to create kinetic elements and dynamic products that change their expression over time allows design to contribute to a pleasant user-product interaction.


BARNES, SPENCER RYAN. The Effects of Worked Examples on CAD Performance and Learning Efficiency. (Under the direction of Dr. Eric N. Wiebe.) The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how undergraduate engineering students use constraint-based solid modeling (SM) software to successfully engage in computer-aided design (CAD) tasks charged to them in the context of an introductory engineering graphics course. Several designers, educators, and practitioners have suggested that CAD education needs reformation in order to better support learners' application of SM software to the engineering design problems they encounter, and to adequately prepare them for the engineering workforce (Ault & Giolas, 2005; Branoff, Hartman, & Wiebe, 2003; Hamade & Artail, 2008; Ye, Peng, Chen, & Cai, 2004). It was these sentiments that provided impetus for the dissertation presented here—the central aspects of how SM is practiced and how SM instruction can be formulated and delivered are considered in the manuscripts of this study. The first manuscript examines the application of a novel SM instructional regimen that employs worked examples in the form of tutorial videos. The study occurred over nine weeks in two sections of an introductory engineering graphics course that each met once a week. The cognitive load, performance, and the amount and type of transfer of learning experienced by the participants in the two experimental conditions (treatment and control) were used as determinants for the efficacy of the regimen. The results indicated that the treatment instruction was indeed more effective for reducing cognitive load and promoting transfer of learning, and there was a relationship that existed between the amount of germane


The effect of continuous application of organic manures to soils on the adsorption and desorption of sulphate-sulphur was studied in a Typic Ustochrept soil. Soil samples were collected from permanent research experiment where FYM and Sesbania green manure have been applied continuously as treatment to every kharif crop. The amount of sulphate adsorbed by the soil in the presence and absence of organic manures increased with the rise in sulphate concentration in equilibrium solution, the magnitude of increase varied between the treatments. The organic amendments appreciably increased the adsorption of added sulphate and the increase was higher in Sesbania green manure than farmyard manure treatments. Sulphate adsorption conformed very well to Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms as well as extended Freundlich and Temkin equations. More than 90% of adsorbed sulphate was desorbed with 0.15% CaCI2.


Alkens are transformed to their corresponding epoxides in high yields and with high selectivity by ultrasonic irradiation and sodium periodate in the presence of catalytic amounts of manganese porphyrin supported on Amberlite IRA-400 ion-exchange resin (MnTPPS-Ad).


Background:  Intraoperative combinations of volatile and opioid agents are used to achieve unconsciousness, hypnotic sparing, haemodynamic stability and uneventful recovery. This study describes the influence of different remifentanil concentrations on these variables when combined with desflurane during abdominal surgery.


Abstract : A combined environment research chamber has been designed and built to provide the capability of irradiating test samples with protons, electrons, and electromagnetic radiation, individually, sequentially, or simultaneously, in a clean high vacuum utilizing a multisample holder and an in situ spectral reflectance measurement technique. The chamber performance was evaluated on the basis of a combined environment test conducted on a titanium dioxide-methyl silicone thermal control coating and was found to be completely satisfactory. In the combined environment experiment, samples of the thermal control coating were exposed individually to vacuum, protons, electrons, electromagnetic radiation, and to all of these constituents simultaneously. No synergistic effects were noted. However, a combined environment interaction was noted wherein the sum of the individual effects was greater than that obtained in the simultaneous exposure.


Air pollution is one of the main environmental problems in developed and developing countries. Epiphytic cryptogams (bryophytes and lichens) are proposed as a reliable indicator to detect environmental changes, given to their sensitivity to pollutants. In this study we evaluated air quality in the city of Ambato using bryophytes and epiphytic lichens on three land uses (urban, peri-urban and control). In each zone we selected ten trees (a total of 90 trees) for each station (a total of nine stations), where we recorded the frequency and cover of epiphytic cryptogams in a quadrat of 10 × 50 cm that was divided into 5 × 5 cm squares. Differences in richness, index of atmospheric purity (IAP) and diversity were analyzed using a generalized linear model (GLM) and changes in species composition using multivariate analysis. We recorded 39 species of cryptogams (25 lichens and 14 bryophytes). Richness, diversity and index of atmospheric purity were higher in the control zone compared to the urbanized zones. Community composition changed between the different zones, with increasing differences between the control and urban zones. The urban areas of the city of Ambato were identified with high levels of air pollution due to their lower diversity related to higher vehicular traffic and industrial activities (e.g., footwear and textile factories, tanneries). Thus, epiphytic cryptogams are a fast and low-cost method for air quality assessment in tropical areas.


AbstractStructurally hardened safe rooms are a proven strategy for enhancing life safety during tornadoes and other severe wind events. Performance criteria for safe rooms include resistance to both wind pressure and impact from wind-borne debris. This paper presents the results of a test program evaluating debris impact resistance of light-gauge steel decking for use as roof cladding on safe rooms. Particular attention is given to the modes of damage caused by debris impact and strategies for controlling and mitigating such damage. Recommendations are provided for detailing lap joints and bearing connections and for selecting appropriate support spacing. This information will aid design engineers in detailing light-gauge steel roof decks for use in tornado safe rooms. Recommendations provided in this paper are also applicable to other scenarios where steel roof decks are at risk of wind-borne debris impact.


Cystic fibrosis–related diabetes (CFRD) is considered the most common comorbidity in patients affected by cystic fibrosis (CF), with a prevalence increasing with age (1). Recently, more attention has been turned to other less severe glucose metabolism derangements (GMD), since prediabetes may be related to increased morbidity (1), and early treatment may improve the clinical course in patients with CF (2). According to recent guidelines released by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the American Diabetes Association, and the Pediatric Endocrine Society, the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is recommended yearly in patients with CF over 10 years of age (3). Some authors recommend annual OGTT after the age of 6 years in CF patients with pancreatic insufficiency (4).

In …


This research is aimed to study a two-step iteration process defined over a finite family of σ-asymptotically quasi-nonexpansive nonself-mappings. The strong convergence is guaranteed under the framework of Banach spaces with some additional structural properties including strict and uniform convexity, reflexivity, and smoothness assumptions. With similar projection technique for nonself-mapping in Hilbert spaces, we hereby use the generalized projection to construct a point within the corresponding domain. Moreover, we have to introduce the use of duality mapping and its inverse to overcome the unavailability of duality representation that is exploit by Hilbert space theorists. We then apply our results for σ-asymptotically quasi-nonexpansive nonself-mappings to solve for ideal efficiency of vector optimization problems composed of finitely many objective functions. We also showed that the obtained solution from our process is the closest to the origin. Moreover, we also give an illustrative numerical example to support our results. Keywords—σ-asymptotically quasi-nonexpansive nonselfmapping, strong convergence, fixed point, uniformly convex and uniformly smooth Banach space.


Quantum wells (QWs) are nanostructures consisting of alternating layers of a low and high band-gap semiconductor. The band gap of QWs can be tuned by changing the thickness of the low band-gap layer, due to quantum confinement effects. Although this principle is well established for crystalline materials, there is still controversy for QWs fabricated from amorphous materials: How strong are the confinement effects in amorphous QWs, where, because of the disorder, the carriers are localized to start with? We prepare an atomistic model of QWs based on a-Si:H to gain insight into this problem. The electronic structure of our atomistic QWs model is described with first-principles density functional theory, allowing us to study the confinement effects directly. We find that the quantum confinement effect is rather weak, compared to experimental results on a similar system.


A new generalization of the configurational-bias Monte Carlo method is presented which avoids the problems inherent in a Boltzmann rejection scheme for sequentially generating bond bending and torsional angles. The TraPPE-UA (transferable potentials for phase equilibria united-atom) force field is extended to include Lennard-Jones interaction parameters for methine and quaternary carbon groups by fitting to critical temperatures and saturated liquid densities of branched alkanes. Configurational-bias Monte Carlo simulations in the Gibbs ensemble were carried out to determine the vapor−liquid coexistence curves (VLCC) for six alkane isomers with four to eight carbons. Results are presented for two united-atom alkane force fields:  PRF [Poncela, et al. Mol. Phys. 1997, 91, 189] and TraPPE-UA. Standard-state specific densities for the TraPPE-UA model were studied by simulations in the isobaric−isothermal ensemble. It is found that a single set of methyl, methylene, methine, and quaternary carbon parameters g...


Objective To study the association between dyslipidemia and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetic patients with obesity. Methods Serum TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C, Insulin antibody levels are determined in 66 T2DM patients with obesity and in control groups. Results The serum Glu, Insulin, TG, TC, LDL-C levels of T2DM patients with obesity were significantly higher than the levels of normal people (P 0.01). The positive rates of insulin antibody in T2DM patients with obesity were also significantly higher than those of normal people(P 0.01). Conclusion There are certain relationships between dyslipidemia and insulin resistance in T2DM patients with obesity. It's important to improve insulin resistance and control dyslipidemia in T2DM patients with obesity.


A new non-fullerene small molecule with an acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) structure, FDNCTF, incorporating fluorenedicyclopentathiophene as core and naphthyl-fused indanone as end groups, was designed and synthesized. Compared with the previous molecule FDICTF with the phenyl-fused indanone as the end groups, the extended π-conjugation at the end group has only little impact on its molecular orbital energy levels, and thus, the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of its solar cell devices has been kept high. However, its light absorption and mobility, together with the short-current density (Jsc) and the fill factor (FF), of its devices have been all improved simultaneously. Through morphology, transient absorption, and theoretical studies, it is believed that these favorable changes are caused by (1) the appropriately enhanced molecular interaction between donor/acceptor which makes the charge separation at the interface more efficient, and (2) enhanced light absorption and more ordered packing at solid state, a...


This is the thirty-ninth epidemiological report for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), reported in Australia as at 23:59 Australian Eastern Standard Time [AEST] 11 April 2021. It includes data on COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Australia.


Objective: To assess the therapeutic outcome of combined ozone chemonucleolysis and radiofrequency heating on lumbar disc herniation.Methods: 60 patients were randomized to Ozone chemonucleolysis alone(group A) or combined with radiofrequency heating management(group B).Group A: received an intradiscal and lateral recess injection of an oxygen-ozone mixture.Group B: received,the radiofrequency heating targeting of the herniated disk material additionally.Results: At 3 days,2 weeks,2 months after treatment,there were statistically significant differences between the groups A and B for leg pain scale(15.3±7.3,12.8±4.3,8.6±4.3 VS 6.2±3.9,5.0±3.9,4.5±3.8,P0.01);back pain scale(26.7±9.6,15.7±6.3,11.2±5.0 VS 16.3±5.6,8.8±8.6,8.0±5.2,P0.01);Oswestry disability scale at 2 weeks and 2 months(18.6±6.7,13.5±6.1 VS 13.2±6.6,10.2±6.1,P0.01,P0.05).At 3 days,2 weeks,leg pain scale in subgroup B1(8.9±4.4,7.8±4.9) and B2(10.0±5.2,9.2±2.9) were lower than in subgroup A2(16.9±7.9,13.8±4.7),P0.01,P0.05.Conclusion: The effect of ozone therapy combined with radiofrequency heating is greater than that of ozone alone.


Includes descriptive metadata provided by producer in MP4 file: "Science and Technology - Videos - David Weinberger, expert on impact of technology on society."


Bevel gear is a complicated curved surface parts, the traditional measuring method of bevel gear is by three coordinates measuring instrument for related parameters measurement and there are problems such as reload, high cost and waste of time. In this paper, development of Bevel gear on-machine measurement system based on open CNC system so that the manufacturing and measuring of bevel gear on the same machine tools. This article mainly has studied on structure and function of the system, analyzed the method of pitch deviation and the tooth surface error of the bevel gear and developed bevel gear on-machine measurement system by combining the method of MATLAB with VC++ mixed programming.


Purpose of the study. To assess the effectiveness of elimination diet therapy using therapeutic formulas in children with cow's milk protein allergy according to a 5-year follow-up. Materials and methods. A prospective, single-center, open, uncontrolled study was conducted. We observed 99 children with atopic dermatitis and allergy to cow's milk protein (CMP), the average age at the beginning of the study was 4.6 ± 0.8 months. The results of clinical observation, clinical assessment of the function of the digestive organs, and the level of the IgE to CMP were used as control methods. The selection of formulas for clinical nutrition at the stage of elimination diet therapy was carried out differentially, depending on the severity of the skin syndrome and gastrointestinal manifestations. The follow-up period was 5 years. Results. Food allergy manifested itself in 34 (34.3%) children only as a skin syndrome (atopic dermatitis), in 65 (65.7%) children as a skin syndrome in combination with gastrointestinal symptoms. In 67.7% of children, the use of therapeutic formulas based on highly hydrolyzed cow's milk protein and amino acids led to the normalization of the level of specific IgE. In mild atopic dermatitis, the average duration of the elimination period was 9.43 ± 2.7 months, in moderate atopic dermatitis, 19.3 ± 9.0 months, and in severe, 35.5 ± 14.8 months (p < 0.05). The number of patients with an exacerbation of an allergic disease with of the introduction of dairy products in mild, moderate and severe form of atopic dermatitis constituted 2 of 7, 6 of 48 (12.5%), 6 of 12 (50.0%) respectively (p < 0.05). Conclusion. In children with atopic dermatitis caused by food allergy to cow's milk proteins, the elimination diet in most cases (67.7%) leads to the normalization of the level of specific IgE, which makes it possible to start expanding the diet by introducing dairy products. The duration of the elimination period depends on the clinical manifestations of the allergic disease and the level of sensitization. When expanding the diet, patients should be provided with careful clinical and laboratory monitoring, including the determination of specific IgE to CMP. The high probability of persistent sensitization to CMP must be taken into account when prescribing elimination measures and drawing up rehabilitation programs for children with allergic diseases.


This paper describes a unique and innovative synthesis technique for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by a one-step liquid-phase process under ambient pressure. Vertically aligned multi-walled CNT arrays with a maximum height of 100 µm are prepared on stainless steel substrates, which are submerged and electrically heated in straight-chain primary alcohols with nC = 1–4 (nC: number of C atoms in the molecule) containing an appropriate amount of cobalt-based organometallic complex as a catalyst precursor. Structural isomers of butanol were also used for the synthesis to examine the effects of structural factors on the morphology of the deposited products. Notably, 2-methyl-2-propanol, which is a tertiary alcohol, produced only a small amount of low-crystallinity carbonaceous deposits, whereas vertically aligned CNTs were grown from the other isomers of butanol. These results suggest that the presence or absence of β-hydrogen in the molecular structure is a key factor for understanding the dissociation behavior of the carbon source molecules on the catalyst.


This article describes a framework for thinking about consumer engagement in Australian health policy. It presents eight interacting issues that influence the practice of consumer engagement: purpose, type, initiator, who is engaged, timing, techniques, practical issues, and contextual issues. Evaluation is recognised as a separate but important factor. These issues can be used to review consumer engagement practice, plan consumer engagement programs, and identify the trade-offs that must be made when conducting consumer engagement.


In this paper, we present a microwave absorber based on carbon nanotubes (CNT) dispersed inside a BenzoCycloButen® (BCB) polymer. The high aspect ratio and remarkable conductive characteristics of CNT give rise to good absorbing properties for electromagnetic protecting in microelectronic devices with very low concentration. In this article, nanocomposites are prepared using a solution-mixing method and are then evaluated and modeled by means of coplanar test structures. First, CNT concentrations are quantified by image processing. The nanocomposites implemented with coplanar test waveguides are then characterized using a vector network analyzer from 40 MHz to 20 GHz. An algorithm is developed to calculate the propagation constant "γ", attenuation constant "α", and relative effective complex permittivity (ɛreff = ɛreff′ − jɛreff″) for each CNT concentration. The extracted effective parameters are verified using the electromagnetic FEM-based Ansoft's® high frequency structure simulator (HFSS). Power absorption (PA) of 7 dB at 15 GHz is obtained with only 0.37 weight percent of CNT concentration in the polymer matrix. The resulting engineerable and controllable composite provides consequently a novel degree of freedom to design and optimize innovative microwave components.


To evaluate the efficacy of the Virtual Fracture Clinic (VFC) in terms of patient satisfaction and clinical outcome, pre and during COVID at Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI). The impact of the pandemic on the quality of patient management was assessed by comparing two sets of patients who (1) presented to the clinic when British Orthopaedic Association Standards for Trauma and Orthopaedics (BOAST) COVID-19 guidelines were first introduced (Pre-Lockdown Cohort) and (2) presented after practitioners were familiar with these guidelines (Lockdown Cohort).

 This was a retrospective review of VFC patients. Data extracted included demographic information, management plans and three-month follow-up outcomes. Patients discharged without further follow-up underwent a telephone questionnaire to assess patient satisfaction.

 286 patients were included in this study. 96.7% of patients in the pre-lockdown cohort presented to the VFC within 3 days of presentation as opposed to 93.3% of the lockdown cohort. 54.1% of the pre-lockdown cohort were referred to face-face/specialty clinics as opposed to 44.8% of the lockdown cohort. 6.9% of a subset of the lockdown cohort had an unplanned re-attendance to hospital for associated pain as opposed to 1.12% of a subset of the pre-lockdown cohort. 72% of the pre-lockdown cohort reported they were 'very satisfied' as opposed to 40% of the lockdown cohort.

 The data reflects that there was a net shift from face-face consultations to discharge with nurse call between the pre-lockdown cohort and lockdown cohort however, this came with a substantial drop in patient satisfaction and an increased re-attendance rate.


Recommendation system plays an important role in the rapid development of micro-video sharing platform. Micro-video has rich modal features, such as visual, audio, and text. It is of great significance to carry out personalized recommendation by integrating multi-modal features. However, most of the current multi-modal recommendation systems can only enrich the feature representation on the item side, while it leads to poor learning of user preferences. To solve this problem, we propose a novel module named Learning the User's Deeper Preferences (LUDP), which constructs the item-item modal similarity graph and user preference graph in each modality to explore the learning of item and user representation. Specifically, we construct item-item similar modalities graph using multi-modal features, the item ID embedding is propagated and aggregated on the graph to learn the latent structural information of items; The user preference graph is constructed through the historical interaction between the user and item, on which the multi-modal features are aggregated as the user's preference for the modal. Finally, combining the two parts as auxiliary information enhances the user and item representation learned from the collaborative signals to learn deeper user preferences. Through a large number of experiments on two public datasets (TikTok, Movielens), our model is proved to be superior to the most advanced multi-modal recommendation methods.


Summary
The amylase, protease, cellulase and hemicellulase activities were determined in the flour of untreated quinoa seeds, and again after mechanical abrasion and after water and heat treatment to remove saponins. Optimum pH for amylase activity was approximately 5.0 and for protease activity it was 4.2

In comparison with a non-malted wheat flour, which generally would have a Braben-der unit (BU) reading of over 2000 in the Amylograph, values for quinoa were very low, indicating a high α-amylase activity. Mechanical abrasion, which removed about 18% of kernel weight, increased α-amylase and protease activities of the seeds because of removal of layers low in activity. Only toasting of seeds at 170°C after saponin removal reduced activities of these enzymes substantially.

Total amylase, cellulase and hemicellulase activities were highest in the unprocessed seeds. Activities decreased after mechanical abrasion of seeds. Heat treatment after saponin removal caused a further decrease in activity of these enzymes.


Infrared countermeasures systems used to protect aircraft must produce a powerful infrared radiation pattern spread over a wide range of angles, and with a complicated modulation in time. The measurement of this radiation with respect to the parameters of time, angle, and wavelength is described. The radiometer measurement equation is examined to see what approximations are necessary for a solution in the terms desired. The measurement apparatus is described along with how it satisfies the measurement equation approximations. A two-step procedure was required for measurement of the spectral radiant intensity. First, the relative spectral output was determined using a monochromator, and then a scaling factor is determined for converting this to absolute units. An electrically activated shutter was used for the radiometer reference rather than the usual chopper. The detector was used in the DC coupled mode and a digital oscilloscope was used under computer control to acquire data. The results obtained were intended mainly for setting parameters for simulation studies of the effectiveness of these countermeasures systems. The manu-facturers of these systems also have measurement facilities in their own plants. A comparison is made between these different techniques, discussing the different approximations required and the advantages or disadvantages of these different methods.


Nowadays the mainstream of postgraduate CPC members' belief in Marxism is positive.However,there are still some tendencies such as the indifference to belief in Marxism,the lack of theoretical knowledge,the impurity of motives and the shortage of the courage to defend Marxism.Furthermore,it is more visible in postgraduate CPC members who major in science and engineering than those in liberal arts.It is not only because the postgraduate CPC members are affected by various ethos in the open and pluralistic society,but also because the research and education on Marxism theory lag behind.Enhancing postgraduate CPC members' belief in Marxism needs to joint the efforts of society,school,family,media and the members themselves.


Several biogeochemical models have been applied to understand the potential effects of management practices on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration, crop growth, and yield. In this study, the denitrification and decomposition (DNDC) model was used to simulate soil SOC dynamics and harvested C-biomass in rice–wheat rotation under organic/inorganic fertilization with conventional tillage (CT) and reduced tillage (RT). Before calibration, DNDC underpredicted harvestable grain C-biomass of rice where percent difference (PD) varied from 29.22% to 42.14%, and over-simulated grain C-biomass of wheat where PD was −55.01% with 50% nitrogen–phosphorus–potassium (NPK) and 50% animal manure applied under the CT treatment. However, after calibration by adjusting default values of soil and crop parameters, DNDC simulated harvestable grain C-biomass of both crops very close to observed values (e.g., average PD ranged from −2.81% to −6.17%). DNDC also predicted the effects of nutrient management practices on grain C-biomass of rice/wheat under CT/RT using d-index (0.76 to 0.96) and the calculated root mean squared error (RMSE of 165.36 to 494.18 kg C ha−1). DNDC simulated SOC trends for rice–wheat using measured values of several statistical indices. Regression analysis between modeled and observed SOC dynamics was significant with R2 ranging from 0.35 to 0.46 (p < 0.01), and intercept ranging from 0.30 to 1.34 (p < 0.65). DNDC demonstrated that combined inorganic and organic fertilization may result in higher C-biomass and more SOC sequestration in rice–wheat systems.


This study investigates the acquisition pattern in Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, College Library, Noforija-Epe. The study covers a period of twenty years, from 1995 when the College was established in 2014. The study revealed that two methods of materials acquisition were employed in the library. They are purchase and gift; purchase accounted for 48.5 and 51.5% was acquired through gift in the library. Also it could be elicited that 52.2% of the books in the library were through gift, 47.8% were acquired through purchase, while 51.9% of the journals were acquired through purchase and 48% through gift,   Book Aids International offered the highest gift of 32.3% to assist in building the library collection. The collection development pattern in the college library is low compared with the population the library is serving. Recommendations were made for improvement.

 Key words: Library resources, material acquisition, collection development.


This report synthesizes current research relating atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition to effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the United States and to identify empirical critical loads for atmospheric N deposition. The report evaluates the following receptors: freshwater diatoms, mycorrhizal fungi and other soil microbes, lichens, herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees. The main responses reported fell into two categories: (1) biogeochemical; and (2) individual species, population, and community responses. The range of critical loads for nutrient N reported for U.S. ecoregions, inland surface waters, and freshwater wetlands is 1 to 39 kg N ha-1 y-1. This range spans the range of N deposition observed over most of the country. The empirical critical loads for N tend to increase in the following sequence for different life forms: diatoms, lichens and bryophytes, mycorrhizal fungi, herbaceous plants and shrubs, trees.


Exponentially multiplying cells were exposed to 0.25-2.5% ethanol (v/v) in the growth (PP) medium. Acute exposure was studied during a 6-h period, i.e. two normal cell generations, whereas chronic exposure was determined after 24 h, or more, in ethanol. The effects of low ethanol concentrations (0.25-1.0%) were modest as the rate of endocytosis was almost normal and the rate of cell proliferation only slightly decreased. In high concentrations (>1.0%) the acute effects of ethanol were dose- and time-dependent with respect to a lag period before proliferation resumed at a decreased rate and to the capacity of cells to form food vacuoles. After 24 h in the low ethanol concentrations the cells appeared to have adapted. In the high concentrations, however, chronic effects of ethanol were a much decreased rate of endocytosis and a distinct separation of the cells into two populations: normal sized cells and small mostly round cells. The small round cells were lying at the bottom af the culture dish, motionless or slowly moving with no visible oral structure but with somatic cilia, some cells lacked cilia and had a refractive outline or layered wall structure. These cells looked like precystic stages among which a few resting cysts were seen with pores in the cyst wall. Promotion of encystment in Tetrahymena pyriformis is surprising as the phenomenon is not considered a feature of this organism.


567 Epidural abscess, subdural empyema, and cerebral abscess are infrequent but threatening complications of sinusitis. These conditions have not been the object of any epidemiological studies. Because individual surgeons accumulate limited personal experience with this disorder and because there is wide variation from case to case in terms of the volume and distribution of intracranial pus, many practical management decisions are left to clinical judgment largely unsupported by useful evidence. Evolving patterns of antibiotic sensitivity among offending bacteria add additional uncertainty. The current study was undertaken to assess the population-based burden of this condition, the spectrum of its severity, and the intensity of neurosurgical care required for its management. Such data may provide guidance in the design of prospective, cooperative, clinical trials.


In current era of globalization, the information technology moving rapidly in various fields. As for developing the information was an information will be used again for making a decisions. Existing system in Hotel Bonita at the moment still manually, starting from data collection room to store other data associated with the process of ordering and rental of up to making its report. It is quite possible the occurrence of error in recording, made less accurate reports and delays in the search data that is needed. Base description upon, therefore done by service step-up at makings ordering area futsal's field. Field makings system futsal in here previous manual which will be developed as information system (computerized) in form one application . Desktop Application this was made by use of script PHP and Mysql database. Kata Kunci— Sistem Pakar, Penyakit Gigi, Dempster-Shafer .


The paper explores the bounded query complexity of approximating the size of the maximum clique in a graph (clique size) and the number of simultaneously satisfiable clauses in a 3CNF formula (MAX3SAT). The results show that for certain approximation factors, approximating clique size and MAX3SAT are complete for corresponding bounded query classes under metric reductions. The completeness result is important because it shows that queries and approximation are interchangeable: NP queries can be used to solve NP-approximation problems and solutions to NP-approximation problems answer queries to NP oracles. Completeness also shows the existence of approximation preserving reductions from many NP-approximation problems to approximating clique size and MAX3SAT (e.g., from approximating chromatic number to approximating clique size). Finally, since query complexity is a quantitative complexity measure, these results also provide a framework for comparing the complexities of approximating clique size and approximating MAX3SAT.<<ETX>>


Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) have caused severe damage to the core information infrastructure of many governments and organizations. APT attacks usually remain low and slow which makes them difficult to be detected. In this case, the way of correlatively analyzing massive logs generated by various security devices for effectively detecting the new type of cyber threat turns out to be more and more significant. In this paper, on the basis of analyzing the principles and characteristics of APT, we propose an intelligent threat detection method based on the expanded Cyber Attack Chain (CAC) model and the long short-term memory network (LSTM) autoencoder to extensively correlate malicious behaviors from spatial and temporal dimensions, which provides a brain new idea for the application and practice of complex network attack detection.


The central nervous system contains the posttranslational modification enzyme, peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD; EC 220.127.116.11) type II. This enzyme catalyzes the deimination of arginine residues of proteins in a calcium ion-dependent manner, thereby, forming citrulline residues. Previously, we found postmortem deimination of glial fibrillary acidic protein in rat spinal cord. In the present study, therefore, we studied the deimination further as a possible cause of neurodegeneration in cerebrum. Additionally, as a model oftissue damage, the effect of oxygen deprivation on protein deimination in rat cerebral tissue was also analyzed by applying systemic perfusion with an emulsion of perfluorochemicals. In the presence of sufficient oxygen, such perfusion caused only negligible formation of citrullinated proteins. However, deprivation of oxygen produced by the perfusion medium resulted in preferential deimination of many kinds of high-molecular-weight (>55 kDa) proteins. Deiminated protein immunoreactivity was found in all regions of the cerebrum but was relatively more intense in the hypothalamus and the lateral amygdaloid nucleus. Most of the deiminated protein-positive cells seemed to be astrocytes. Some neuronal cells in the lateral amygdaloid nucleus became positive after prolonged perfusion with oxygen-deprived medium, although the PAD immunoreactivity appeared only in astrocytes. These results indicate that PAD type ll localizes mainly in astrocytes of the cerebrum and that a consequence of hypoxia is enzyme activation that deiminates proteins in astrocytes and some neurons. Such


We have monitored the optical spectra of six T Tauri stars, AA Tau, BP Tau, CI Tau, DR Tau, RY Tau and SU Aur, approximately hourly over five successive nights. Our spectral range extends from 3800 to 7300 A, including the Balmer series lines from H α to H δ, CaII H+K and various Fe II lines. We construct time series of equivalent widths for each species to study the variations of the strengths of the different lines, and the correlations between them. We can discern a range of physical processes at work, such as the slow rotation of the stars (time-scales of days), magnetic flaring activity (time-scales of about an hour), variable accretion (time-scales of several hours) and obscuration by circumstellar material (again, time-scales of several hours). The sample objects show a range of activity in each of these categories, from DR Tau (dominated entirely by hour-time-scale activity) to those with only slowly varying line activity consistent with rotation (AA Tau). For objects between these extremes, we differentiate the activity according to time-scale, short time-scale events often appearing superimposed on longer time-scale variations. We examine the correlation in time between the rapid activity of the different emission features, which are formed under a wide range of excitation conditions. The lower Balmer lines (H α and H β) and Ca II K are usually strongly correlated with one another, as are the higher Balmer lines (H γ and H δ), but the behaviour of these two groups sometimes becomes decoupled. In one particular case, for the active object DR Tau, we see well-correlated but time-lagged activity, occurring sequentially with the high-energy lines varying first, followed by lines of successively lower excitation temperature. We tentatively conclude that this may be the signature of an accretion shock moving over the stellar limb.


PHYSICAL REVIEW X 1, 021001 (2011) Engineering a Robust Quantum Spin Hall State in Graphene via Adatom Deposition Conan Weeks, 1 Jun Hu, 2 Jason Alicea, 2 Marcel Franz, 1 and Ruqian Wu 2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z1 Canada Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 (Received 17 May 2011; published 3 October 2011; corrected 30 March 2012) The 2007 discovery of quantized conductance in HgTe quantum wells delivered the field of topological insulators (TIs) its first experimental confirmation. While many three-dimensional TIs have since been identified, HgTe remains the only known two-dimensional system in this class. Difficulty fabricating HgTe quantum wells has, moreover, hampered their widespread use. With the goal of breaking this logjam, we provide a blueprint for stabilizing a robust TI state in a more readily available two-dimensional material—graphene. Using symmetry arguments, density functional theory, and tight-binding simulations, we predict that graphene endowed with certain heavy adatoms realizes a TI with substantial band gap. For indium and thallium, our most promising adatom candidates, a modest 6% coverage produces an estimated gap near 80 K and 240 K, respectively, which should be detectable in transport or spectroscopic measurements. Engineering such a robust topological phase in graphene could pave the way for a new generation of devices for spintronics, ultra-low-dissipation electronics, and quantum information processing. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.1.021001 Subject Areas: Condensed Matter Physics, Graphene, Topological Insulators I. INTRODUCTION When certain physical properties of a system depend on global topology—and not on local details, such as disor- der—then the system is said to realize a topological phase. By virtue of their universality, rooted in this independence of microscopic details, topological phases are both para- digmatically interesting and thought to possess seeds of important future technologies. Until rather recently, experimental studies of topological phases were confined to the quantum Hall effect, seen in high-quality two- dimensional electron systems subjected to strong magnetic fields. The advent of topological insulators (TIs), a class of two- and three-dimensional nonmagnetic crystalline solids enjoying strong spin-orbit coupling [1–3], opened a fasci- nating new chapter in the field. Two-dimensional TIs are commonly referred to as quan- tum spin-Hall (QSH) states [1–3] due to their similarity to integer quantum Hall liquids. A defining signature of a QSH state is the existence of gapless edge states which are protected from elastic backscattering and localization by time-reversal symmetry ðT Þ. This feature, combined with the spin-filtered nature of the edge modes, renders such systems technologically very promising. Furthermore, when in contact with a superconductor, the edges are predicted to host Majorana fermions [4], which play an important role in topological quantum computation schemes [5]. The QSH state was first predicted to arise in graphene [6], although later it was realized that, due to Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distri- bution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. carbon's small atomic number, spin-orbit coupling is too weak to produce an observable effect under realistic con- ditions. (First-principles calculations [7–11] on pristine graphene all predict sub-Kelvin gaps for this phase.) The QSH state was subsequently predicted in several other materials, including HgTe and InAs/GaSb quantum wells [12,13] and bilayer bismuth [14]. While landmark experi- ments indeed observed this phase in HgTe [15], experi- mental activity on the QSH effect has remained limited by notorious practical difficulties associated with HgTe- based structures. Given the comparative ease with which graphene can be fabricated, it would be highly desirable to artificially en- hance graphene's spin-orbit coupling strength to elevate the gap protecting the QSH state to observable levels. A prac- tical means of doing so would pave the way to a new generation of QSH experiments accessible to a broad spec- trum of researchers worldwide. Previous work has explored the possibility that strong interactions [16–18] or radiation [19] might drive graphene into a robust topological phase. Our goal in this manuscript is to explore a practical new route to this end. Specifically, we ask whether graphene can ''inherit'' strong spin-orbit coupling from a dilute concen- tration of heavy adatoms (whose innate spin-orbit coupling strength can be on the electron-volt scale) deposited ran- domly into the honeycomb lattice. The basic principle underlying our proposal can be understood by considering processes in which an electron from graphene tunnels onto an adatom—whereupon it ''feels'' enormous spin-orbit coupling—and then returns to the graphene sheet. Such processes in effect locally enhance graphene's spin-orbit strength manyfold. A viable proposal must, however, address numerous competing ef- fects. For instance, adatoms often form local magnetic Published by the American Physical Society


The conception of the operation of intraperitoneal cystotomy and the successful performance of the operation by Dr. F. B. Harrington of Boston in the year 1893 opened the way for the ideal surgical procedure for the removal of intravesical tumors of the bladder. Harrington's detailed descriptive technic of the operation,1and full explanation of the feasibility of his method gave to the profession an operation in bladder surgery of great advantage over other methods now in vogue. It is now eighteen years since Harrington first performed this operation, and only a very few surgeons have recognized its safety and ease of performance. The high rate of mortality in the surgery of the bladder for the removal of tumors, either by the suprapubic or perineal route, whether the growth be malignant or benign, does not give very encouraging results. Watson,2of Boston, in his tabulated report of 653 cases,


In this paper, we propose a method to automatically assign attributes to guidance information and automatic authoring method of information according to user attributes. This makes it possible to provide an information guidance system with low cost. Also, we describe the problem of "reading" occurring in Japanese and its solution. Our work has not completed yet. We just completed the system development. We are planning to carry out evaluation of our system from now on.


In the construction and the operation of concrete pavement,cracking deformation,joint damage and surface damage often happen.According to analysis on the performance of raw materials,mixed ratio and damage types,the paper presents preventing countermeasures to guarantee the normal function of concrete pavement construction.


Objectives: to analyze the existing scientific literature to determine best evidence about the prevention of pulmonary embolism (PE) associated with surgery and propose the creation of a clinical protocol that guides attitudes and specific care. Methods: Systematic Literature Review by computerized literature search. Results: it was found that PE is a serious postoperative complication because the relationship between surgery and limited / impaired mobility (blood stasis) prior to the formation of a thrombus. Conclusions: It is possible to prevent the EP through the adoption of nursing interventions through the impact of pre and post operative nursing guidelines that ensure the patient is aware of your general condition and actions that he can take to avoid complications such as For example, early ambulation. The need to create a clinical protocol that directs the nursing conduct in order to provide safe and quality care was evident.
Key-words: Pulmonary Thromboembolism; Pulmonary Embolism; Venous Thrombosis; Nursing; Patient Safety; Intensive Care Unit; Preventive Therapy.


The reconstruction of the surface is a basic problem in CG field.And the current research focuses on the reconstruction surface and the mesh optimization.Most processes a continuous surface.In order to reconstruct the broken surface,a new method is presented in this paper to approach the object surface with the subdivision method first and then calculate the discontinuous mesh automatically.This algorithm has been used in the 3D seismic data scientific visualization.


The post-war American atmosphere and the never well-seen social problem cinema -especially thriller film noir- are the major reasons to understand why during the Forties Hollywood was purged by the self- called the most liberal and democratic government of the world.


Cantonese Abstract Connectives are important cohesive devices in organizing discourse text. This study focuses on evaluating how form and function evolve across age for the multifunctional Cantonese conjunction gen1 zyu6 "and then". There were many studies of inter-clausal connectives "and" in western languages, but the study of inter-clausal connectives development and acquisition in Cantonese is limited. This study tried to explore the developmental trend of connective gen1 zyu6 of Cantonese speaking children. It will further contribute to examine how typology affects the acquisition of connectives and thus organization and development of language. A total of 80 subjects (20 in each group) were recruited: 3, 5,7 years old children and adults. Data were elicited by asking the subjects to narrate a wordless story book " Frog, where are you ?". Results revealed that Cantonese speaking children followed the acquisition trend of connectives similar to Mandarin and western languages in general. However, differences were noticed between Cantonese, Mandarin and western languages.


This paper to address the central issue on the main governance mechanisms for achieving the financial performance in the microfinance sector.Firstly it is attempted, to understand the different mechanisms of governance of microfinance institutions previously analyzed by the literature. Then, we will present our methodology and our fundamental assumptions. Finally we will try to locate and diagnose the main mechanisms which are expected to have a positive impact on the rate of reimbursement and that, in the specific case of Tunisia.


Refactoring is the method of code factor's restructuring but it is not changed its external behavior. The reason for this method is to improve software quality. However, it may be an unintended impact of software security level changes. The system analyzes code refactoring with two perspectives such as access level principles and measure security index that informs the refactoring is more secure or not. Access level principles emphasize the target class and its members' access level changed. Security index measures readability and writability from code structure. By combining these two methods, the refactored code is precisely analyzed security level changes.


The need for optimal video quality over low delay communication networks is very crucial as their demand increases dramatically. Analysing, evaluating and exploring the codec metrics which can enhance the video quality when transporting the video over low delay communication networks has been a key issue of concern which requires thorough simulation and experimentation. Metrics such as quantization size, frame rate and frame size can significantly enhance the quality video. In this paper, the impacts of frame size, frame rate and quantization parameter on the compressed video quality has been investigated. More extensive simulations have been conducted in order to experiment different scenarios using various video samples at different frame sizes, quantization parameters, loss rate and encoding rate as well. More importantly, both low, medium and high complexity video samples have been examined to determine the impact of the aforementioned parameters on fundamental basic parameters which are essential toward yielding high-quality video while compressing videos. The experimental results show that increase in quantization parameter reduces the bits size and consequently leads to high compression.


Plates, 1990 - 2000 Introduction by Madeleine Grynsztejn Eliasson and Relational Aesthetics A Conversation Your Light and Space Light Politics Photography and Photocinema Eliasson and Architecture Plates 2001 - 2006.


exuberance, The Big Lebowski (1998) alludes to elements as disparate as film noir, Wagnerian opera, and the German band Kraftwerk, begging the question of how it all hangs together. Indeed, in good cult film fashion, the film bombed at the box office and befuddled critics often stuck on issues of narrative continuity. Richard Schickel of Time deemed the plot ''incomprehensible,'' while Jack Kroll of Newsweek labeled the Coen brothers the ''two-headed monster of postmodern film'' based on Lebowski's ''overboiled cinematic stew.'' Over time, however, as David Edelstein documented in a 2004 New York Times article, the film inspired an obsessive, word-of-mouth following, culminating in a national convention, the Lebowski Fest, which attracted 4,000 people in New York City the same year. Clearly untroubled by textual disarray, the Lebowski ''achievers''—the correct nomenclature for the film's huge fan base—spent three days dressing as film characters and props, like severed toes, bowling at local lanes, and drinking White Russians. Since the film's release, excessive identification has also stripped the film's narrative down to its zanier quotes, and perhaps for this reason the Internet Movie Database lists pages of memorable text from the film. But if fervent fandom has edged The Big Lebowski into the mainstream, one wonders, to speak in the parlance of film theorists, how it sutures its viewers beyond quirky, quotable humor.


The history of housing in Australia is a textbook example of socio-spatial exclusion as described, defined and analysed by commentators from Mumford to Lefebvre. It has been exacerbated by a culture of home ownership that has led to an affordability crisis. An examination of the history reveals that the problems are structural and must be approached not as a practical solution to the public provision of housing, but as a reshaping of lives, a reconnection to community, and as an ethical and equitable "right to the city". This "Right to the City" has underpinned the Common Ground approach, emerging in a range of cities and adopted in South Brisbane, Queensland Australia. This paper examines the Common Ground approach and the impacts on its residents and in the community with a view to exploring further developments in this direction. A clear understanding of these lessons underpins, and should inform, a new approach to reconnecting the displaced and to developing solutions that not only enhance their lives but also the community at large.


We investigate quasi-local energy distribution and thermodynamics of the Reissner—Nordström black hole space-time surrounded by quintessence. We use the quasi-local energy distribution from Einstein energy-momentum complex. We plot the variation of the energies, temperature and heat capacity with the state parameter related to the quintessence ωq. We show that due to the presence of quintessence, the total energy of the outer region as well as the temperature and heat capacity decreases with the increase of the density of quintessence, while the total energy of the black hole region increases.


A heating element design is described, applicable to graphite or sheet metal, which has an electrical resistance comparable to a helix and a structural rigidity comparable to a cylinder. Incomplete cuts perpendicular to the axis create a number of electrically long paths in parallel, each with relatively short distances between regions of mechanical support.


The Hunt for Observable Signatures of Terrestrial planetary Systems (HOSTS) program on the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) will survey nearby stars for faint exozodiacal dust (exozodi). This warm circumstellar dust, analogous to the interplanetary dust found in the vicinity of the Earth in our own system, is produced in comet breakups and asteroid collisions. Emission and/or scattered light from the exozodi will be the major source of astrophysical noise for a future space telescope aimed at direct imaging and spectroscopy of terrestrial planets (exo- Earths) around nearby stars. About 20% of nearby field stars have cold dust coming from planetesimals at large distances from the stars (Eiroa et al. 2013, A&A, 555, A11; Siercho et al. 2014, ApJ, 785, 33). Much less is known about exozodi; current detection limits for individual stars are at best ~ 500 times our solar system's level (aka. 500 zodi). LBTI-HOSTS will be the first survey capable of measuring exozodi at the 10 zodi level (3σ). Detections of warm dust will also reveal new information about planetary system architectures and evolution. We will describe the motivation for the survey and progress on target selection, not only the actual stars likely to be observed by such a mission but also those whose observation will enable sensible extrapolations for stars that will not be observed with LBTI. We briefly describe the detection of the debris disk around η Crv, which is the first scientific result from the LBTI coming from the commissioning of the instrument in December 2013, shortly after the first time the fringes were stabilized.


East Timor became independent as a new nation in 2002 after the twenty-four-years conflict. Environmental resources in this country had been exploited for a short-term profit in the history of the colonization and conflict, and the country has faced the serious environmental problems following the independence as a result. Subsequent to the independence, there was a strong movement to reestablish customary practices on land and natural resource management. Local communities had faced urgent needs to restore the nature which has been destroyed during the conflict, and have taken initiatives to revive customary law to manage natural resources. The government recognized the movement rather positively for several reasons. The new government considered it as a cost-effective way to manage natural resources, and also had a political impetus to support local participation and ownership by explicitly differentiating new governmental policy from Indonesian administration.


We have acquired a set of audio-visual recordings of induced emotions. A collage of comedy clips and clips of disgusting content were shown to a number of participants, who displayed mostly expressions of disgust, happiness, and surprise in response. While displays of induced emotions may differ from those shown in everyday life in aspects such as the frequency with which they occur, they are regarded as highly naturalistic and spontaneous. We recorded 25 participants for approximately 5 minutes each. This collection of recordings has been added to the MMI Facial Expression Database, an online accessible, easily searchable resource that is freely available to the scientific community.


Using the Two-way composite loading experimental device, the bearing performance of post-grouting drilled shaft under lateral and axial load is studied by full-scale field test. The result of this research reveals that the lateral critical load Hcr and lateral ultimate load Hu are improved when the axial load is applied to post-grouting drilled shaft, the settlement of post-grouting drilled shaft and not grouting drilled shaft increase while the axial load is close to ultimate load, because the settlement of a foundation pile has a relationship with the size of axial load on the top of pile in the damage process of drilled shaft under lateral load, as well as the variation of vertical settlement of normal drilled shaft is more than that of post-grouting drilled shaft, since the non-grouting drilled shaft is more sensitive to the lateral load than the post-grouting drilled shaft.


In this article we consider the way the speech variant of the lexical semantic field FACE functions in the novel by Br. Stocker "Dracula", the precedent text in vampire literature. We focus on the depiction of the vampire characters to identify the set of typical traits as they are represented in the novel, special attention is paid to the traits attributed to Count Dracula. We adopt the definition of the portrait offered by Elena Kalinjuk, where portrait description is understood as a variation of the compositional speech forms "description" which studies a literary character, his/her appearance, clothes, manners, speech and psychoemotional behavior. In our article we have analysed physiognomy and countenance proceeding from the fact that the constituent elements of the lexical semantic field FACE denote face with its parts and facial expressions. The latter describe emotional experience and act as means of nonverbal communication. The detailed portrait description prevails in our selection of 102 portrait descriptions. All the constituent elements of the LSF FACE are classified according to the parts of the face they denote. As a result, we've obtained seven groups, the most frequently used constituent elements indicate the following parts of the face: "mouth", "face proper" and "eyes". Some of the specific traits are foregrounded through the distant repetition of the lexical units. These traits have become the descriptive details in the novel, they are "red lips", "peculiarly sharp white teeth", "burning eyes", "sharp aquiline nose", "the scar on the forehead". All the constituent elements of the LSF FACE represent the conceptual opposition FRIEND-ENEMY.


ARTICLE INFORMATION ABSTRACT Original Research Paper Received 19 June 2015 Accepted 26 September 2015 Available Online 01 November 2015 A Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) is a graph which depicts the major strains versus values of the minor strains at the onset of localized necking. Experimental determination of a FLD is usually very time consuming and requires special equipment. Many analytical and numerical models have been developed to overcome these difficulties. The GursonTvergaardNeedlemann (GTN) damage model is a micromechanical model for ductile fracture. This model describes the damage evolution in the microstructure with physical equations, so that crack initiation due to mechanical loading can be predicted. In this work, by using the GTN damage model a failure criterion based on void evolution was examined. The aim is to derive constitutive equations from Gurson's plastic potential function in order to predict the plastic deformation and failure of sheet metals. These equations have been solved by analytical approach. The Forming Limit Diagrams of some alloys studied in the literature have been predicted using MATLAB software. The results of analytical approach have been compared with experimental and numerical results of some other researchers and showed good agreement. The effects of GTN model parameters including , as well as anisotropy coefficient and strain hardening exponent on the FLD and the growth procedure of void volume fraction have been investigated analytically.


Automated continuous technological processes and complexes are multidimensional, multiply connected, tangibly unstable dynamic objects functioning under the conditions of intense random noise. There is a big variety of such objects and therefore at present there is no versatile approach to high-performance control systems development. It leads to the necessity in developing problem-oriented technologies of multidimensional stochastic control systems construction with prescribed dynamic properties. In the work herein there is offered the approach based on the method of comparison with Lyapunov's on vector function. Keywords: stohastic, control system, multidimensional, systems construction, technology;


This paper describes a Jewish healing group, referred to as 'Yehi Ohr', and discusses strategies for constructing religious authenticity employed by Yehi Ohr's leader and the rabbis who have assisted in leading Yehi Ohr's service. A discussion of the participants in the healing service follows, with an outline of their criteria for authenticity and a focus on the range of their healing experiences. By demonstrating the centrality of these strategies for achieving authenticity in the work of Yehi Ohr, the paper points to the importance of issues of authenticity to the success of this religious healing group and proposes that authenticity may well be central to the work of other healing groups in pluralistic, postmodern settings.


The Mining of the association rules are used to find the rules of the association between a

combination of items, to detect a collection of attributes that occur together in the often frequency, and

establish some rules of the multitudes. Extracting a single association rules, measuring the quality of the

generated rules are usually based on a single evaluation criterion alone, that's confidence factor /

predictive accuracy. In this case, the researchers want to know what the difference could affect the

outcome from the process of Data Mining. Is there a process of the difference of natural, cultural,

temperature or any other so-called parameters or abstract fields that can't be written in much detail for a

database. On the basis of production's data system used in this Giant MOG to record data and

generalizations or by any other name OLAP (On-line Analytical Processing). The database is already

displaying processed data specifications, that will be research as well. Association for the method should

be harmonized with the Apriori method, because it's emphasized here again that Giant MOG is a kind of a

high department store. So it should be able to utilize all of database information that has accumulated, in

order to make the information useful for subsequent decision making.


The purpose of this practical research work is to design the Asphalt Concrete with materials from the Municipal Plant of Santa Rosa using the Marshall Method. For the design samples of stony material of 3/4 ", 3/8", sand and rock crushing were taken, for each aggregate sample was made its respective granulometric analysis. For the dosage, 3/4 "40% was assigned to the aggregate, 3/8" to 20%, sand 30% and rock crushed 10%, with this dosage the design curve is within the belt granulometric complying with the technical specifications of the asphalt institute. Tests of specific gravity and consistency of asphalt cement were carried out, densities for each of the aggregates, whose values are within the established parameters complying with the specifications. With the aforementioned we proceeded to prepare the asphalt mix with percentages of asphalt cement from 5% to 8%, in order to apply the Marshall Methodology that aims to determine the optimum content of asphalt required for the road surface to comply with the properties of stability, durability, flexibility, workability, impermeability and resistance to fatigue. The results of the Marshall Design presented 5 curves that were analyzed, for maximum density, stability and percentage of voids in the mixture the optimum percentage of asphalt was known, as well as the stability, flow, voids with air and voids in the mineral aggregates.


Be to in for conducting the curing of the resin layer at the same time as the curing of the fiber-reinforced composite material, suppress the movement in the number of fiber-reinforced resin layers and to provide a method of manufacturing a fiber-reinforced composite material to maintain the thickness of the coating layer after the curing process. Further, the present invention is to provide a preform for producing a resin-based material and a fiber-reinforced composite material forming the coating layer a challenge. Heating a preform formed by stacking a number containing the additive and an inorganic filler or the porous sheet-like substrate of the solid-phase resin in the prepreg, a method for manufacturing a fiber-reinforced composite material for pressing.


The single-cell base case based on 500 W high-temperature PEM fuel cell was proposed by theoretical calculation from flow channel and flow field levels,and the performance of single cell was simulated by Fluent software.Three optimal programs were proposed considering the influence of different parameters of flow channel structure.The results show that: the design criteria of low-temperature PEM fuel cell is difficult to apply to the high-temperature PEM fuel cell.For 95 ℃ PEM fuel cell,it is the best to adopt parallel flow channel.An optimum 1 mm is found for both channel width and rib width,while the best value of channel height is 0.4 mm according to the numerical simulation.


The invention belongs to a medicinal instrument, and particularly relates to a magnetic vibration capsule method. A capsule, a permanent magnet and a control mechanism are adopted in the method. The method is characterized in that: the permanent magnet is positioned in the cavity of the capsule, the control mechanism is positioned outside the cavity, and the control mechanism is connected with the permanent magnet field of the capsule through a magnetic field; the control mechanism consists of a coil and a control circuit for controlling reverse switching motion of the current of the coil, wherein the control circuit is used for regular switching; when the current passes through the coil, the magnetic field is generated around the coil; when the magnetic field is interacted with the magnetic field force generated by the permanent magnet to generate a magnetic field force, the permanent magnet moves in the cavity of the capsule; and because of repeated alternating change, the capsule produces vibration. The invention provides the magnetic vibration capsule method with good process property, high capsule vibration strength and good treatment effect.


TiO2 nanotube arrays prepared by the anodization of Ti plate exhibited underwater superoleophobicity. The surface almost completely repelled the oil droplet in water, even after storage in dark for...


This study identifiesthe potentials of Shariah non-compliance risk exposures of takaful industry in Malaysia based on previous studies.Besides, this study also examines the areas of expertise of the Shariah Committee ofthe Takaful Operator (TO) in Malaysia with a total of 62 members. Bank Negara Malaysia (2003) requires the expertise and experience in fiqh and usul fiqh, or Fiqh Muamalat among the Shariah Committee in TO. The expertise and experience in the field of fiqh and usul fiqh or fiqh muamalat are extremely important in managing Shariah non-compliance risk. Keyword: Shariah non-compliance risk; Shariah non-compliance risk management; Shariah committee; takaful operators; takaful industry.


The paper purpose is to demonstrate the opportunities of the Jacobi probability distributions for fitting the statistical populations. The universal Pearson and Johnson systems of the distributions, the generalized lambda distribution and the Gram-Charlier distribution, which are widely used for fitting statistical populations, are analyzed. It is pointed out that the main disadvantage of these distributions is that they do not take into account real limited ranges of variations in the random variables. The paper considers the theoretical problems of the construction of the one-dimensional Jacobi probability distribution, based on the expansion the unknown density function in the term of the system of the orthogonal Jacobi polynomials with variations in a limited interval. The optimality principles of the Jacobi distribution are formulated to approximate the statistical data, and practical recommendations are given for its construction. In particular, the best fitting results are obtained for the Jacobi distribution constructed with the ultraspherical orthogonal Jacobi polynomials. The application of the Jacobi distribution is determined, which is significantly wider than the application of the Gram-Charlier distribution. Methods for determining the limited points of the Jacobi distribution are presented. Examples demonstrate the advantages of the Jacobi distribution for fitting the statistical populations in comparison with the universal distributions used in practice.


In this paper, the Bayesian prediction intervals (BPI 0 s) of future observations are obtained under Modifled Weibull Distribution (MWD) in case of one and two-sample prediction schemes. Based on a type-II censored sample from a real data set, the BPI 0 s of the remaining observations are obtained.


In this paper, we discuss nonlocal Cauchy problems for fractional order nonlinear differential systems. Firstly, an important matrix associated with fractional order and two functionals are constructed. Further, some sufficient conditions which guarantee such matrix convergent to zero matrix are presented. Secondly, by using three fixed point theorems via the techniques that use convergent to zero matrix and vector norm, some existence results for the solutions of such fractional order nonlinear differential systems are given under different conditions. Finally, some examples are given to illustrate the results.


Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest public health challenges of our time, primarily due to inappropriate antimicrobial use. Addressing this threat is a public health priority that requires a collaborative global approach in all areas. The rational use of antimicrobials is the main strategy for the prevention of antimicrobial resistance, which can be achieved by changing the behavior and knowledge of the prescribers. So, for the success of any problem management program, the most important prerequisite is community participation. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of the samples of community members, pharmacists and health professionals in the city of Al-Suwaria, in the province of Wasit, in the Middle East of Iraq, with respect to antimicrobial resistance, which helps to rationalize the use of antimicrobials. In this survey, a cross-sectional study of 102 random contributing samples was performed. From January to March 2020. Knowledge and attitudes were assessed using a typical self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive analyzes were used to express the results. A total of 102 participants answered the questionnaire. Overall, collaborators have established good knowledge and positive attitudes toward antimicrobial resistance based on 13 knowledge questions and nine attitude statements. Gaps were identified in the knowledge of the possibility of addressing resistance through the discovery of a new drug (21.6%), the possibility of using antibiotics as an effective drug against viral diseases (36.3%) and the possibility of accelerate the treatment of diseases with antibiotics (38.2%). The majority of respondents (72.5%) agreed that antibiotic resistance induces serious global problems that affect public health. Furthermore, the majority of those interviewed (69.6%) believe that this phenomenon affects our health and that of our families. Similarly, (13.7%) of the participants totally agreed, while (65.7%) agreed that pharmacists played an important role in the appearance of this problem, and (37, 3%) of the participants fully agreed, while (58.8%) agreed that it is necessary to follow the recommendations and guidelines for life-saving antibiotics in the hospital. In contrast, 27.5% of the participants expressed a weak attitude towards the possibility of fighting antimicrobial resistance in their region through infection control practices by health professionals. Contributors in this study had good knowledge and positive attitudes toward antimicrobial resistance. Although the data is indicative of gaps in the knowledge of residents of the city of Al-Suwaria/Wasit province.


: Past earthquakes in India and other countries have shown that hilly areas are subjected to higher losses as compared to the flat areas. This is due to combination of a number of factors, including topographic amplification, earthquake triggered ground failure hazard and higher vulnerability of hill buildings due to irregular structural configurations. This study identifies the role of these parameters through a case study of two cities in Indian Himalayas. An extensive field survey of the test-bed cities is conducted to identify different structural configurations prevalent in Indian Himalayas. Topographic amplification factors using three codes which deal with this issue, are compared and it is found that the Italian code (ICMS 2008) results in the most conservative amplification factors at the ridge. Seismic performance of the most commonly found hill building configuration is studied using Incremental dynamic analysis. The analysis shows that the hill buildings collapse at much lower PGA than their flat terrain counterparts, designed for the same hazard level, using Indian codes.


A paradigm shift in the management of bacterial diseases of food animals is needed; a shift from pharmacologic interventions to disease risk identification and mitigation. The interaction between disease and its risk factors follows the disease triangle, a conceptual model that incorporates host, pathogen, and environmental factors as a tool to understand different aspects that influence disease. A sustainable approach to bacterial disease mitigation in production settings includes a comprehensive assessment of host, pathogen, and environmental factors of disease to build a prevention platform for multiple syndromes of bacterial disease in cattle. Using bovine respiratory disease as a model, the current chapter will focus on the state of the art of disease prevention in dairy cattle, and investigations into interactions between the host, environment and pathogen which can provide robust information on which to build a prevention platform for multiple syndromes of bacterial disease in cattle.


Prescriptive Space was a temporary public installation of three ceramic figures on city benches in Gainesville, Florida. The installation was a comment on how the city controls space for the homele...


There has been a growing interest in the topic of loneliness and social isolation over a number of years and a recognition that they have an impact on the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Local strategic organisations have an important role to play in tackling the problem of loneliness and social isolation in older people. Stage 1 of the report reviews current literature and examines the concepts of loneliness and social isolation, how they are understood, their impact on individuals and communities and why they should be important concerns of local strategic organisations such as health and wellbeing boards. The type and range of interventions aimed at alleviating loneliness and social isolation are examined and evidence about their effectiveness reviewed. Findings are related to the national and local demographic context. Stage 2 of the research aimed to identify the range of statutory and third sector organisations in North Yorkshire that could or should be able to identify older people at risk of loneliness and/or social isolation. Through these organisations, the sorts of activities that exist across North Yorkshire and some of their characteristics were described.


By the Republic of China,the anti-opium association pushes forward the ban of opium in China.This article analyzes the relationship between non-governmental organizations and governments in modern China.They cooperate to result in an effective mechanism.However,non-governmental organizations often need to protest or fight for monitoring the governmental attempts and policies to result in a great balance.


With the aid of molecular simulations, a new aluminum organic framework structure is designed, and the hydrogen storage capability of the designed structure is studied using grand canonical Monte Carlo technique. Results show that the hydrogen storage capacity of aluminum organic framework at 77 K and 1 MPa is about 430 hydrogen molecules per unit cell, the corresponding weight density be equivalent to 17.45 wt.%. The preferential adsorption site is located at the aluminum-oxygen cluster. Hydrogen molecules are preferentially distributed on the surface of Al ions. The complexation of organic linkers with Al ions is found to be in favor of the adsorption of hydrogen.


In order to promote revitalization of Northeast old industrial base, we must change people's backward conception. We must integrate southern culture and northern culture, and make northeaster take in southerner's peculiar consciousness of commodity economy , rebuild thought and conception conforming to feature of the times .


Objective—Diabetes is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Accumulation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) attributable to hyperglycemia in diabetics promotes the development of atherosclerosis. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Methods and Results—The advanced glycation end-product of low-density-lipoprotein (AGE-LDL) induced proinflammatory cytokine production in human coronary artery endothelial cells and human- and mouse-macrophages. AGE-LDL stimulated cytokine synthesis was markedly reduced in mouse macrophages with a TLR4 loss-of-function mutation. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments indicated AGE-LDL interacts with TLR4, RAGE, and CD36. Incubation of cultured macrophages with TLR4, RAGE, or CD36 antibodies inhibited AGE-LDL stimulation of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)&agr; production. A competitive binding inhibitor of TLR4 blocked AGE-LDL binding to the receptor. After transfection of a HEK293 cell system with wild-type TLR4, AGE-LDL activated a signaling pathway including p38&agr;, JNK, and ERK1 kinases and AP1, Elk1, and NF–&kgr;B transcription factors; the net result being increased cytokine production. These effects were absent when cells were transfected with empty plasmid. Two common polymorphisms in TLR4, D299G and T399I, reduced the response of TLR4 to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) but had no effect on AGE-LDL signaling. Conclusions—These results indicate that AGE-LDL activates a TLR4-mediated signaling pathway, thus inducing proinflammatory cytokine production. This mechanism may partly explain the increased risk of atherosclerosis observed in diabetics.


Growth inhibition in rats has been produced by the incorporation of a variety of toxic compounds into the diet.2" 22, 23, Further, it has been possible to demonstrate that stimulation of growth occurs under these experimental conditions when one of the sulfur-containing amino acids, cysteine, cystine, or methionine, is superimposed on the basal diet still containing the growth-inhibitory compound. Under these conditions the animals resume growth at a rate comparable to that observed on the basal diet alone. In addition, other substances, e.g., glutathione and cystine disulfoxide, which are known to stimulate growth in rats stunted by one of the so-called "cystine-deficient" diets, have also been shown to be effective growth stimu-lators when added to the basal, growth-inhibiting diets. Inasmuch as these growth-promoting dietary supplements exert their action when injected subcutaneously, as well as following oral administration , it has been concluded that their effect is a true metabolic one and not due to a reaction occurring in the intestine prior to absorption. The specific and unique capacity of the sulfur-containing amino acids, and of substances behaving in nutrition experiments in a manner similar to these amino acids, to stimulate the growth of animals ingesting a growth-inhibitory basal diet has led to the suggestion that the inhibition of the growth of the rat by certain organic compounds "is a manifestation of the production of a specific deficiency in the sulfur-containing amino acids, probably by imposing on the organism an increased requirement for organic sulfur, in the form of cystine or methionine, for detoxication mechanisms."' However, although direct proof for the formation of a detoxication product (mercap-turic acid) is clearly established for the monohalogen benzenes, and


Abstract Every year billions of dollars are spent on advertising that uses humor to sell products. How is that spending decision made? Despite much research examining humor effects in advertising, many advertisers make the decision on faith. Many past studies lack a clear conceptual focus to guide the investigation of humor effects in advertising. The authors examine humor effectiveness by using a conceptual framework adapted from Speck along with a product-contingent focus. The resulting approach affords a clearer understanding of the appropriate use of humor through the examination of (1) the humor mechanisms employed, (2) the intentional relatedness of humor to the ad or product, and (3) the type of product advertised. The descriptive results of the study indicate that current practice for many advertisers is to employ incongruity-based humor in a humor-dominant context. That practice is contrasted with others to examine the influence of humor on the effectiveness of print advertisements for different ...


In the Sierra de Catorce, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, the regeneration process of microphyll desert scrub (MDS) dominated by Larrea tridentata (D.C.) Cov. was s...