Abstract Background Pregnancy is associated with profound physiologic alterations in the maternal cardiovascular system. This study aimed to investigate maternal cardiac performance during normal pregnancy by two-dimensional echocardiography parameters and various functional and structural alterations. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of 100 normal pregnant women who attended the antenatal clinic, and all participants had clinical history, physical examination, and 12-lead electrocardiogram. Two-dimensional, M-mode, and Doppler echocardiography was done. Echocardiographic parameters were compared with normal age-matched controls from previously published studies. Results The mean age of the study group was 23.35 ± 3.05 years, mean systolic blood pressure was 110.5 ± 8.69 mm Hg, and mean diastolic blood pressure was 71.6 ± 6.77 mm Hg. There was an increase in left atrial (LA) diameter, left ventricular end diastolic diameter, and interventricular septum (IVS) thickness as gestational age advanced. There was a gradual decrease in E-wave velocity, and E/A ratio increased during the second trimester and decreased during the third trimester. The E-wave deceleration time increased with gestational age There was no statistically significant difference between IVS thickness and E/A ratio (p = 1.000). Conclusion Cardiac chamber dimensions, LV wall thickness, and LA size, most indices of systolic function although within normal range, were significantly higher in pregnant Asian Indian women than in the controls. This study shows that the subtle reduction in myocardial compliance appears as an adaptive response to changes of preload, afterload, and LV geometry.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the scope of reliability improvement of identified process industry and describe a method for evaluating the maintainability criticality index (MCI) which leads improvement in the maintenance plan. This paper deals with performance reliability of continuous process industries of interest to many applications in maintenance planning where multi-criteria decision-making approaches are very useful. It uses multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) based two different approaches: technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and grey-complex proportional assessment (COPRAS-G) in optimizing maintenance activities of the aluminium wire rolling mill plant.
The primary findings of this research work are prioritization of maintenance activities of critical components of targeted process industry by comparison of the results obtained through two different MCDM approaches. It is assumed that presented failure model may not represent failures due to the first point as adequate of design for such components are not checked for high failure rate. The proposed work is challenging and interdisciplinary; it will help to understand the working lives of components and associated failures. It leads to re-engineer the maintenance excellence for major process industries.


I. Assessment Fundamentals 1. Introduction to Modern Assessment 2. Historical Perspectives 3. Selection and Administration of Assessment Instruments II. Data Analysis & Evaluation 4. Nonstatistical Data Analysis 5. Descriptive Statistics 6. Inferential Statistics 7. Using Assessment Data for Grading III. Assessment of Physical Fitness & Motor Skills 8. Assessing Body Composition 9. Assessing Cardiorespiratory Fitness 10. Assessing Musculoskeletal & Motor Fitness 11. Assessing Sport Skills IV. Special Assessment Concerns 12. Assessing Body Image 13. Nutritional Assessment 14. Practical Assessment of Physical Activity 15. Assessing Physical Activity Injuries 16. Assessing Risks in Sport & Recreation Facilities 17. Written Knowledge Testing 18. Assessment for Physical Education Teachers 19. Assessment of Special Needs Populations 20. Assessment for Dance Educators Appendix A Selected Physical Fitness Test Batteries for Children and Adults Appendix B Selected Sources for Measurement & Assessment Resources Appendix C Websites & ListServes for Exercise and Sport


"Active" television viewing has meant (among other things) selective exposure to types of content, attention to that content, and several different kinds of other activities during viewing itself. This study argues that such meanings are differently predicted by three types of predictors (individuals' gratifications sought from different television genres, their expertise with these genres, and their need for cognition), and also vary by genre. Two different instrumental reasons for viewing (mood and content preference) both predicted selective viewing and thinking while viewing, but only content preference predicted attentive viewing. Casual reasons for viewing were related to less viewing and more channel surfing behavior. Need for cognition was unrelated to variation in genre viewing, but it was related in differing but sensible ways to attention to different genres. These results support the utility of genre in differentiating processes in television viewing and further argue for making a number of distinctions in research: between genres, between gratifications, between gratifications and other predictors, and between selective viewing and during-viewing activities.


With increasing availability of mobile sensing devices including smartphones, online mobile data segmentation becomes an important topic in reconstructing and understanding mobile data. Traditional approaches like online time series segmentation either use a fixed model or only apply an adaptive model on one dimensional data; it turns out that such methods are not very applicable to build online segmentation for multiple dimensional mobile sensor data (e.g., 3D accelerometer or 11 dimension features like 'mean', 'variance', 'covariance', 'magnitude', etc).
 In this paper, we design an adaptive model for segmenting real-time accelerometer data from smartphones, which is able to (a) dynamically select suitable dimensions to build a model, and (b) adaptively pick up a proper model. In addition to using the traditional residual-style regression errors to evaluate time series segmentation, we design a rich metric to evaluate mobile data segmentation results, including (1) traditional regression error, (2) information retrieval style measurements (i.e., precision, recall, F-measure), and (3) segmentation time delay.


FIELD: process engineering. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to spraying of fluids and may be used in firefighting, agriculture, etc. Nozzle case is provided with fluid feed channel and comprises coaxial sleeve secured thereto with nozzle secured at its bottom section. Said nozzle is made up of cylindrical two-step sleeve with upper step thread-jointed to central core. Said ore comprises cylindrical part and hollow case aligned therewith and fitted with annular clearance relative to sleeve inner surface. Said circular clearance is communicated with, at least, three radial channels made in said two-step sleeve to communicate with circular cavity formed by sleeve inner surface and top cylindrical step outer surface. Circular cavity is communicated with case fluid feed channel. Sprayer made up of end face round plate is screwed to cone bottom. Plate edges are bent toward annular clearance between nozzle and hollow cone. Cone side surface has, at least, two lines of cylindrical restricting openings with axes located in planes perpendicular to cone axis. Each line has, at least, three holes. Axes of aforesaid throttling holes of one line are displaced relative to those of the other lines through the angle varying from 15° to 60°. EFFECT: higher efficiency of spraying. 2 cl, 1 dwg


1 Nitric oxide (NO) is known to stimulate soluble guanylyl cyclase, thereby eliciting an elevation of guanosine 3′:5′‐cyclic monophosphate (cyclic GMP) in target cells. Recently, a selective inhibitor of soluble guanylyl cyclase, 1H‐[1,2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3‐a]quinoxalin‐1‐one (ODQ), has been identified and characterized in vitro. We have investigated the in vivo effects of ODQ on the glutamate receptor/NO/cyclic GMP pathway by monitoring extracellular cyclic GMP during microdialysis of the cerebellum or the hippocampus of freely‐moving adult rats. 2 Intracerebellar administration of ODQ (1–100 μm) via the microdialysis probe inhibited, in a concentration‐dependent manner, the basal extracellular level of cyclic GMP. The maximal inhibition, measured after a 20 min perfusion with 100 μm ODQ, amounted to 80% and persisted unchanged as long as ODQ was perfused. When ODQ was removed from the perfusion stream after 20 min, the levels of cyclic GMP started to recover, suggesting reversibility of guanylyl cyclase inhibition by ODQ. 3 The cyclic GMP response evoked in the cerebellum by NMDA (200 μm) or by α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazolepropionate (AMPA; 100 μm) was largely attenuated by 100 μm ODQ. The pattern of the inhibition curves suggests competition for guanylyl cyclase between ODQ and the NO generated by NMDA or AMPA receptor activation. 4 ODQ (100 μm) prevented the elevation of extracellular cyclic GMP levels provoked by intracerebellar infusion of the NO generator S‐nitroso‐N‐acetylpenicillamine (SNAP; 1 mM). The inhibition of the SNAP effect was rapidly relieved when ODQ was removed from the perfusion fluid. However, ODQ (100 μm) was unable to affect the cyclic GMP response elicited by 5 mM SNAP, in keeping with the proposed idea that ODQ binds to the 'NO receptor' in a reversible and competitive manner. 5 Infusion of ODQ (10, 100 or 300 μm) into the hippocampus of freely‐moving rats diminished the basal extracellular level of cyclic GMP. The maximal inhibition amounted to 50% and was produced by 100 μm ODQ. 6 The cyclic GMP response observed when 1 mM SNAP was perfused in the hippocampus, similar in percentage terms to that seen in cerebellum, was dramatically reduced during co‐infusion of 100 μm ODQ. 7 ODQ appears to act in vivo as a selective, reversible and possibly competitive inhibitor of the soluble guanylyl cyclase targeted by NO. This enzyme may generate most (about 80%) of the cyclic GMP found under basal conditions in the extracellular space of the cerebellum. In the hippocampus, about 50% of the basal cyclic GMP does not seem to originate from the ODQ‐sensitive soluble guanylyl cyclase.


Diversity, dynamicity, and the huge volume of traffic in the network between datacenters has risen network administrators concerns on how to efficiently visualize their system in real-time. To deal with these challenges, we present in this paper a visualization framework based on advanced machine learning, traffic characterization, sampling, and graphical visualization algorithms, which aims to efficiently support inter-datacenter network monitoring. Experimental results show the framework is able to process real-time big flows and provides human-friendly interactive graphical representations.


The current focus of discussion on sustainable development centres around the various implementations of an agenda that is assumed to be accepted by all. Various proposals at the international level are accepted and implemented by various agencies at the local level many times without taking the local context into consideration. The assumption of uniformity, or at least similarity of values and priorities of cities drive current public and funding concerns.


Online video sharing sites are increasingly encouraging their users to connect to the social network venues such as Facebook and Twitter, with goals to boost user interaction and better disseminate the high-quality video content. This in turn provides huge possibilities to conduct cross-network collaboration for personalized video recommendation. However, very few efforts have been devoted to leveraging users' social media profiles in the auxiliary network to capture and personalize their video preferences, so as to recommend videos of interest. In this article, we propose a unified YouTube video recommendation solution by transferring and integrating users' rich social and content information in Twitter network. While general recommender systems often suffer from typical problems like cold-start and data sparsity, our proposed recommendation solution is able to effectively learn from users' abundant auxiliary information on Twitter for enhanced user modeling and well address the typical problems in a unified framework. In this framework, two stages are mainly involved: (1) auxiliary-network data transfer, where user preferences are transferred from an auxiliary network by learning cross-network knowledge associations; and (2) cross-network data integration, where transferred user preferences are integrated with the observed behaviors on a target network in an adaptive fashion. Experimental results show that the proposed cross-network collaborative solution achieves superior performance not only in terms of accuracy, but also in improving the diversity and novelty of the recommended videos.


A novel Radon–Nikodym approach to machine learning (ML) is developed, implemented numerically, tested on various datasets, and it's parallelization is discussed. It consists in building a "wavefunction" ψ(x), a linear function on input attributes x then constructing a classificator of the form ⟨ψ2f⟩/⟨ψ2⟩. The solution is obtained from a generalized eigenproblem |f|ψ[i]⟩ = λ[i]|ψ[i]⟩ with left– and right– hand side matrices calculated from the input dataset. A solution to classification problem (predict f on an unseen x) is found without using a norm testing how predicted f differs from the one observed. Possible outcomes and their probabilities are obtained separately using the Lebesgue quadrature technique, this makes the method robust to input data with outliers, spikes, etc. A remarkable feature is the knowledge of the invariant group (what input attributes transforms do not change the solution). Radon–Nikodym approach is typically slower than the other methods used, this is the cost of being a "norm–free". A parallel implementation is expected to improve this deficiency.


Canton Gualaceo, Province of Azuay, Ecuador, is characterized by the production of handmade footwear, artisans have seen the need to launch new products that capture the a" ention of customers. To this end, a group of experts in the manufacture of shoes has been assembled in order to apply a model based on fuzzy logic, using the STIM12 method, for the design and innovation of a new footwear in the ladies segment, in particular a boot, in which all the possible elements that catch the tastes and preferences of the female consumer are considered. This introduces an innovative method for the creation and acceptance in the market of a new product.


Markedly decreased fetal activity (akinesia/hypokinesia) is usually readily apparent to experienced mothers, and frequently this concern leads to attempts at prenatal diagnosis. We report prenatal diagnosis of two fetuses with congenital contractures, markedly decreased fetal movement, and microcephaly due to severe holoprosencephaly. Such familial recurrence to phenotypically normal parents suggests a newly recognized autosomal recessive or X‐linked syndrome that is readily detectable by prenatal ultrasonography.


This study examined the impact of widowhood cultural practices on perceived social support of widows. 185 widows purposively drawn from 16 Local Government Area in Anambra State participated in the study, with ages ranging from 26-90 years. Data collection was through the aid of a questionnaire consisting of widowhood cultural practices scale, the locus of control scale and perceived social support scale. Result indicated that widowhood cultural practices have significant effect on the perception of social support of widows; widows who experienced lenient form of widowhood practice have more positive perception of social support than those who experienced harsh form of practice. It was also found that widows with internal locus of control have more positive perception of social support than those with external locus of control. The length of widowhood and age of widows were also found to affect perception of social support by widows. Thus, it is suggested that a cultural reorientation that enhances acceptance of widows should be encouraged. This would reduce the prevalence of practices that dehumanize widows and reduce them to psychological wrecks. Also, assertiveness training and other psychological buffers should be made available to boost the self-esteem of widows and make them relatively psychologically independent.


This is the first case report of gangrenous co lon from volvulus of the sp len ic f lexure . It is also the first reported treatment of sp lenic f lexure volvulus by exteriorizat ion of the splenic f l exure as a loop co los tomy. Splenic f lexure vo lvulus has been a rare cause o f mechanica l obstruct ion, produc ing 1 per cent of co lon ic vo lvuluses . Fourteen detai led case reports of splenic f lexure volvulus were rev iewed. Patients averaged 53.2 years old. Eight of 14 were women. Previous abdominal surgery, anomal ies of fixation, and const ipat ion played important roles in the pathogenes i s . D iagnos i s was made before surgery in two-thirds of the patients. Treatment varied. One patient d ied without treatment. In two, the vo lvu lus reduced spontaneous ly . E leven required e m e r g e n c y surgery. Three underwent operat ive detors lon, one exteriorizat ion of the splenic f l exure as a loop co lo s tomy (the present report), and s ix partial co lec tomy. All treated patients surv ived without recurrence of vo lvulus . Thus , there was on ly one death in 14 cases, a seven per cent mortality rate. Thi s low mortal i ty rate was attributed to the rarity of gangrenous colon from splenic f lexure volvulus . [


Salary is form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee , which may be specified in an employment contract. it compute by some variable, for example center salary, salary of absent, bonus or insentive, transportation, lunch, dan healthy assurance. Salary of absent can be computed by hour, daily, or monthly.

One of example of manually system is saving data or identity of worker include data of absent (when they come or go home), finish, some people don't care at all, or the people who didn't have low loyalty and dedication to break the system in their work. Spreadsheet of Report of absent or salary filled by hand. If they are finished, the report will be reported to manager. In many time the report wll be full in the box, it will be difficult to look for the data or one of report in some years ago.

Using information system with computer system for saving or processing data will easier and eficiency work daily. It can do by making an portal system application of salary using PHP programming language and database MySQL.


In this paper, a development of a four-wheel-drive (4WD) omnidirectional wheelchair is presented. For enhancing the mobility of conventional wheelchairs, a new type of omnidirectional mobile mechanism with 4WD system is introduced. The mobile mechanism equips four wheels, two omni-wheels in front side and two normal tires in rear side. The normal wheel and the omni-wheel, mounted on the same side of the base, are interconnected by belt transmissions to rotate in unison with a drive motor, i.e. a synchro-drive transmission. To rotate a chair at the center of the mobile base about vertical axis, the third motor is installed on the platform. The prototype wheelchair with the proposed 4WD system is capable of climbing over a high single step and translating a chair in any direction with/without rotation. The developed 4WD system provides enhanced step climb capability compared with conventional wheelchairs, the maximum step height is restricted by the rear wheels. Namely, front wheels can climb up higher step than the rear. To enhance the step climb capability of the rear wheels, a chair tilting system is developed. The chair tilting system is effective not only for maintaining the static stability of the wheelchair but also recovering the load distribution ratio between rear and front which is required to climb up the high step. To verify the effectiveness of the developed system, step climb capability of a 4WD wheelchair prototype is tested in experiments. For varying a vehicle weight distribution ratio between front and rear wheel axes, we develop a chair tilting mechanism for the 4WD wheelchair with a linear drive mechanism controlled by a stability algorithm using an inclination sensor. In the experiments, both front and rear wheels of the prototype wheelchair can successfully climb a 9 cm step while the rear wheels fail when the chair tilting system is disabled.


Harmonic gear reducer is the key component of the electric servo system, its transmission error analysis and testing play a crucial role in the development, production, testing, assembly of gear reducer. According to the thin shell elastics deformation theory, the harmonic transmission principle is analyzed, and the harmonic transmission error sources. The calculation of transmission error is further discussed; the transmission error formula of harmonic gear reducer considering the case of gear backlash and stiffness is given. A harmonic gear reducer transmission error testing system is designed. This system can achieve the detection for the static and dynamic transmission error of harmonic gear reducer, the accuracy of measuring angular is batter than .


these cells were strongly positive for CD123, CD138, CD33 and myeloperoxidase, which are markers that are frequently expressed on leukaemia blast cells (Fig. 2b–d). A bone marrow biopsy confirmed the suspected diagnosis of AML (subtype M2 of the French–American–British classification). A diagnosis of unusual LC in AML was made, and chemotherapy with 5-azacytidin was initiated, resulting in a rapid reduction of peripheral blood blast cells as well as clinical improvement of the leg ulcer. However, the patient died 2 months later because of progression of his AML. LC most frequently occurs in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and AML. In a large study of 381 patients with AML, LC was found in 14 (3.7%), but only 1 had AML subtype M2. In the majority of cases, LC is observed in patients who already have a diagnosis of leukaemia, whereas simultaneous manifestation of cutaneous and systemic involvement is less frequent (approximately 25%). LC preceding haematological detection of leukaemia in the peripheral blood or bone marrow, as seen in our patient, is very rare. LC may present as localized or generalized lesions, with the latter occurring predominantly in acute types of leukaemia. Clinically, LC most frequently manifests as papules, nodules or plaques with a characteristic reddish or violaceous colour. Interestingly, specific leukaemic infiltrates also manifest at sites of previous trauma, within lesions of inflammatory skin diseases and in skin tumours. It has been reported that complex chemokine/chemokine-receptor interactions (e.g. CCR5, CXCR4, CXCR7, and CX3CR1) orchestrate the migration of leukaemic cells to the skin, a phenomenon called 'skin selective homing'. Accordingly, local trauma and venous insufficiency might have been predisposing factors for homing and retention of AML blast cells in our patient's leg ulcer. Prognosis of LC is usually poor, and it has been reported that up to 90% of patients will die within the first year after their diagnosis of LC, especially patients with AML.


Literary material and logical analysis are used to analyze the physical teaching seen from the postmodern perspective.The results show that teaching aims change from the explicit knowledge focusing on the skills into the comprehensive development focusing on students sports accomplishment,that the teaching contents Change from the set and unitary contents into the non-set and various ones,that the teaching process changes the traditional teachers demonstration and students imitation into the communication between teachers and students and learning through their personal experience and that the teaching evaluation transits from centering on reaching the standard to the diverse and comprehensive evaluation system.


The main purpose of my second visit to Patagonia in the summer of 1959-60 was to locate and investigate an active volcanic vent, which was believed to exist somewhere on the southern of the two main ice caps. The evidence that there was such a vent had accumulated over very many years. For example, nearly fifty years ago some travellers had described showers of volcanic ash falling near the western end of Lago Viedma; deposits of volcanic ejecta had been observed on the O'Higgins Glacier, the Chico Glacier and elsewhere in that area; and, according to de Agostini and others, settlers near the shores of Lago O'Higgins* had talked of seeing, on several occasions, great columns of smoke rising from the ice cap to the west. In 1933, a party led by Dr. Reichert reached the ice cap by ascending the O'Hig? gins Glacier from the southernmost branch of Lago O'Higgins. For sixteen days they were confined to their tents on the edge of the plateau by violent storms, and by the time these had abated their supplies were nearly exhausted. However, they pressed on westwards and reached a point near the main divide. Visibility was still bad, but when they were at about their farthest point it cleared for about a quarter of an hour and they saw, close at hand, a "volcanic cone," some 3000 metres high, from which clouds of steam were issuing. For some reason Reichert's discovery did not receive the recognition it deserved, and in the subsequent speculation about the existence and whereabouts of the volcano it seems to have been largely ignored. His route to the ice cap had been followed twice, in 1957 and 1958, by parties led by Hugo Corbela, but no fresh evidence had emerged. In 1944-5 the American Air Force made a series of survey flights over the range. Examining the photographs taken on these, Professor Keller of the University of Chile and Dr. L. Lliboutry found what they thought to be an active vent on a large rock outcrop in the accumulation area of the Viedma Glacier. In 1952 observations made by Lliboutry on another flight seemed to confirm this belief, and the outcrop came to be known as " Vulcan Viedma." It was not likely, however, that this was the origin of the volcanic deposits found in the vicinity of the O'Higgins Glacier; nor could it account for the eruptions seen by settlers on the shores of Lago O'Higgins. Lliboutry, who devoted a section of his book 'Nieves y glaciares de Chile' to a review of the question, was inclined to the opinion that the active vent or vents causing these phenomena were not located on any of the mountains rising above the ice cap, but rather that they were fissure volcanoes which erupted periodically and were covered by snow and ice during their intervening periods of quiescence. He noticed on the American Air Force photographs a number of peculiar markings # The eastern part of this lake, which lies in Argentina, is called Lago San Martin. 26


In the title compound, C12H15NO5, the dihedral angle between the benzene ring and the C atoms of the terminal isopropyl group is 83.48 (16)°. Intramolecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds generate S(5) and S(6) rings, respectively. In the crystal, molecules are linked by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, generating C(7) chains propagating in [001]. Weak aromatic π–π stacking [centroid–centroid separation = 3.604 (3) Å] is also observed.


Mars Express (MEX), Rosetta and Venus Express (VEX) are ESA interplanetary spacecrafts (S/C) launched in June 2003, March 2004 and November 2005, respectively. Mars Express was injected into Mars orbit end of 2003 with routine operations starting in spring 2004. Rosetta is since launch on its way to rendezvous comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. It has completed several test and commissioning activities and is performing several planetary swingbys (Earth in spring 2005, Mars in spring 2007, Earth in autumn 2007 and again two years later). Venus Express has also started routine operations since the completion of the Venus orbit insertion maneuver sequence beginning of May 2006. All three S/C are three axes stabilized with a similar attitude and orbit control system (AOCS). The attitude is estimated on board using star and rate sensors and controlled using four reaction wheels. A bipropellant reaction control system with 10N thrusters serves for wheel off loadings and attitude control in safe mode. Mars Express and Venus Express have an additional 400N engine for the planetary orbit insertion. Nominal Earth communication is accomplished through a high gain antenna. All three S/C are equipped with a redundant set of autonomous star trackers (STR) which are based on almost the same hardware. The STR software is especially adapted for the respective mission. This paper addresses several topics related to the experience gained with the STR operations on board the three S/C so far.


The opioid epidemic has become a serious public health crisis in the United States. Social media sources such as Reddit containing user-generated content may be a valuable safety surveillance platform to evaluate discussions discerning opioid use. This paper proposes a prior knowledge based neural attention model for opioid topics identification, which considers prior knowledge with attention mechanism. Experimental results on a real-world dataset show that our model can extract coherent topics, the identified less discussed but important topics provide more comprehensive information for opioid safety surveillance.


The present invention provides a method for preparing dental impression materials of the alginate, the alginate to select the appropriate method for the raw material, controlling digestion conditions, diluted with diatomaceous earth as a filter aid glue, alginic acid extract was acidified , and the liquid phase, using the combination of microwave energy and gas flow drying, pulverization. The present invention ensures that the stamp from the raw material has greater compression strength, elasticity and good deformation recovery; by controlling the extraction process, to ensure that products meet viscosity requirements, improves the purity of the product, beneficial to the properties of the impression material ; drying gas stream using the embodiment of the present invention can be combined with microwave reduced moisture within the alginate, to improve the stability of the product.


Signals and systems is a very important professional basic course in electronic information specialty. Based on the position of technology applied university, in this paper, the signals and systems course construction is planned, the relationship and interaction between theory and practice teaching are thought, and the course construction goal, content, principle, method, practice process and characteristics are presented. This course construction can improve the teaching effect. First, students can be in a deep understanding and grasp the signal expression and system description. Second, they improve abilities of the analysis and solving problems through computer simulations and practical application cases. What's more, learning signals and systems course well makes students have a solid foundation for learning the following courses and being engaged the electronic information technology development and application.


The invention discloses a piston type pneumatic powerful vibrator and relates to the field of vibrators. The piston type pneumatic powerful vibrator comprises a shell, an upper pressing cover is arranged on the upper portion of the shell, a lower pressing cover is arranged on the lower portion of the shell, a pneumatic hammer is arranged inside the shell, an upper left air outlet, a left air inlet and a lower left outlet are formed in a left sidewall of the shell from top to bottom, an upper right air outlet, a right air inlet and a lower right air outlet are formed in a right sidewall of the shell from top to bottom, an air passage I and an air passage II are formed in the pneumatic hammer, the air passage I is designed to be communicated with the right air inlet when the pneumatic hammer is positioned at the bottom of the shell, the air passage II is designed to be communicated with the left air inlet when the pneumatic hammer is positioned at the top of the shell, a cavity between the upper pressing cover and the pneumatic hammer serves as an upper air chamber, and a cavity between the lower pressing cover and the pneumatic hammer serves as a lower air chamber. The piston type pneumatic powerful vibrator has the advantages of simple structure, small size, light weight, convenience in mounting and low cost.


Our recently introduced stochastic method for molecular dynamics simulations at constant temperature [J. Chem. Phys. 100, 566 (1994)] which is based on impulsive collisions between system particles and heat bath particles of finite masses, is extended and analyzed for the case of an ensemble of harmonic oscillators as a simple but theoretically solvable model for interacting systems. This model case can be considered, e.g., as a single normal mode of a polyatomic molecule. Both position space properties and velocity space properties are investigated. Analytical expressions for stationary probability densities and autocorrelation functions are derived. The effect of the truncation of the Taylor series which is the basis of Verlet‐type algorithms, on the resulting temperature in position space and velocity space is quantitatively discussed. It is demonstrated that the system temperature in position space and in velocity space is controlled by complex parameter functions.


"Natural" regulatory T cells (nTregs) that express the transcription factor Foxp3 and produce IL-10 are required for systemic immunological tolerance. "Induced" regulatory T cells (iTregs) are nonredundant and essential for tolerance at mucosal surfaces, yet their mechanisms of suppression and stability are unknown. We investigated the role of iTreg-produced IL-10 and iTreg fate in a treatment model of inflammatory bowel disease. Colitis was induced in Rag1 2 / 2 mice by the adoptive transfer of naive CD4 + T cells carrying a nonfunctional Foxp3 allele. At the onset of weight loss, mice were treated with both iTregs and nTregs where one marked subset was selectively IL-10 deficient. Body weight assessment, histological scoring, cytokine analysis, and flow cytometry were used to monitor disease activity. Transcriptional profiling and TCR repertoire analysis were used to track cell fate. When nTregs were present but IL-10 deficient, iTreg-produced IL-10 was necessary and sufficient for the treatment of disease, and vice versa. Invariably, ∼ 85% of the transferred iTregs lost Foxp3 expression (ex-iTregs) but retained a portion of the iTreg tran-scriptome, which failed to limit their pathogenic potential upon retransfer. TCR repertoire analysis revealed no clonal relationships between iTregs and ex-iTregs, either within mice or between mice treated with the same cells. These data identify a dynamic


The world's oceans serve a critical role in absorbing CO 2 emissions, but this process contributes to rising ocean acidity. Northern coastal bodies of water like Massachusetts Bay are especially susceptible to ocean acidification. Massachusetts Bay supports a strong mollusk fishery, including the economically important Atlantic sea scallop ( Placopecten magellani-cus ). As oceans acidify, the saturation state of aragonite, a mineral critical in mollusk shell formation, decreases, impeding shellfish development. In this study, a program was designed to evaluate the impact of ocean acidification on sea scallop growth in Massachusetts Bay. Equations modeling shellfish growth from previous literature were analyzed, and relevant formulae extracted and compiled. The resultant program was coupled to an existing MIT-MSEAS PE model. Initial parameters were sourced from recent population assessments. A total of four experimental scenarios were run for 32.5 days, each scenario depicting a varying dependency on three variables: aragonite availability, temperature, and physical phenomena (e.g., tides, winds, solitons, density-driven flow, internal waves). Growth of Massachusetts Bay sea scallops was found to depend heavily on aragonite saturation. Examined in isolation, variations in initial temperature did not substantially affect sea scallop growth. The incorporation of physical phenomena, however, resulted in subtle changes in scallop growth, demonstrating that ocean dynamics play an important role in temperature redistribution. Similarly, when both aragonite concentration and physical phenomena were incorporated into the model, the resultant effect on scallop growth indicated that ocean dynamics are a crucial driver of aragonite distribution as well. Coupling a shellfish growth submodel to the MIT-MSEAS PE allowed successful modeling of the impact of aragonite, temperature, and physical phenomena on sea scallop growth in Massachusetts Bay.


One of the effective ways to speed up multiplication are by reducing the number of partial products and accelerating the accumulation. In this paper, a new architecture of hybrid Modified Booth Encoded Algorithm (MBE) and Carry Save Adder (CSA) is developed as fast multiplier architecture. Altera Quartus II platform is used to run the simulation. The architecture design is programmed into FPGA using Altera DE2 board to verify the synthesizability on physical hardware. This hybrid fast multiplier delivers good performance in term of higher speed as well as in term of less usage of logic elements.


Stuart A. Anderson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education, University of Chicago, Chicago 37, Illinois. IN THE United States, the quality of public schools is closely identified with community interest and ability to support a good educational program. The superintendent of schools, employed by an elected board of a school district, is expected to provide educational leadership. Usually state education codes and state departments of education policies establish only minimum standards of attainment for local schools. The influence of the Federal government on public education is more indirect. However, in most other countries in the world, public education is a direct responsibility of the Federal government. Curriculum, budget, personnel, and policies all are determined by a central authority. A


The acceleration of urbanization course has excised a coercion influence over ecological environment in cities of Jiangsu, which led serious crisis to urban ecological system. Problems of urban ecological construction in Jiangsu were analyzed in this paper. Based on urben ecology principle, opinions and thinking were put forward to urban ecological construction in Jiangsu.


The current study aimed to know the factors that affect university college student's acceptance and use of Mobile learning (ML), and to discover the relationships between these factors. The researcher used the relational descriptive approach through the questionnaire Instrument. The questionnaire consisted of (25) items distributed on (7) factors (Others Influence, ML Effort, ML Benefits, Usage Motives, Student capabilities, Usage Expectations and Usage rate). The study sample consisted of (2077) students from university colleges in Jordan, and they were chosen by the available sample method. Modelling the structural equation was used to extract the correct data using the statistical analysis program SPSS. The results of the study showed the validity of the study hypotheses and that the specific factors (ML Benefits, ML Effort, others Influence, Usage Motives, Student capabilities, Usage Expectations and Usage rate) affect the intention and use of the University's college students for Mobile learning. The use of Mobile learning in Jordanian university colleges is very low. Therefore, it is important to research the factors that can contribute to students' acquisition of information. This research contributes to determining the factors that affect university college student's acceptance and use of Mobile learning in Jordan. According to the results of the study, the researcher recommends the university administration to take attention to the factors affecting students 'intention to use educational funds to achieve academic program outcomes.


Short crested wave represents the wave in the real sea condition. In this
study, the inertia coefficient of a vertical cylinder subjected to short crested waves
was determined experimentally in a wave tank in Offshore Laboratory of Universiti
Teknologi PETRONAS. The experiment was conducted by considering four
different wave parameters pertaining to major offshore sites in Malaysian with two
different diameters i.e. 16 mm and 48 mm of cylinders to simulate the tubular
members of an offshore platform.


STUDY OBJECTIVE
The aim was to examine the effect of angiotensin II on the response of hypertrophic cardiac myocytes to the beta adrenergic receptor agonist isoprenaline.

DESIGN
Viable ventricular myocytes were isolated from hypertrophic hearts of Dahl S rats and hearts of Dahl R rats. Myocytes were stimulated with isoprenaline. cAMP content was measured by competitive binding radioimmunoassay.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Hypertrophic Dahl S myocytes had smaller cAMP response to isoprenaline than Dahl R myocytes (p less than 0.05). Angiotensin II inhibited cAMP stimulation in Dahl R myocytes. In contrast, angiotensin II increased cAMP accumulation in hypertrophic Dahl S myocytes compared to the effect of isoprenaline alone (p less than 0.05). Enhancement of isoprenaline stimulation of cAMP accumulation by angiotensin II was positively related to the degree of cardiac hypertrophy. Angiotensin II treatment in the absence of isoprenaline had no effect on cAMP levels.

CONCLUSION
The reversal of the normal inhibitory action of angiotensin II is evidence of a unique alteration in the signal transduction of beta receptor stimulation and is of potential importance in defining the role of angiotensin II in cardiac hypertrophy.


In this paper, we present a method for designing dual-channel bandpass filters (BPFs) using dielectric resonator (DR). Two BPFs are integrated as one dual-channel filter with two input ports and two output ports. By using a common quad-mode DR shared by two second-order BPFs, only one metallic cavity is needed, which greatly reduces the circuit size. By properly arranging the input and output feeding probes, two of the resonant modes are excited for one channel and other two for the other channel. Since the feeding probes of one channel filter do not excite the resonant modes of the other one, isolation between two filters is achieved. Three transmission zeros are generated near the passband, resulting in high selectivity and good out-of-band rejection. For verification, the dual-channel filter is implemented, which features good bandpass responses and offers a significant size reduction in comparison with conventional two DR filters.


Listiyaningrum, Reny. 2013. Improving Reading Skill Using Course Review Hooray Method in English Teaching of Tenth Grade in SMA Muhammadiyah I Ponorogo at The 2013/2014 Academic Year. Thesis. English Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty. Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo. Advisors: (1) Mrs.Niken Reti Indriastuti, S.S; (2) Miss.Risqi Ekanti Ayuningtyas Palupi, M.Pd.

Key Words: Reading skill, Course Review Hooray Method

Based on the data obtained in SMA Muhammadiyah I Ponorogo it was found the problem in teaching reading skill in the tenth grade. The students' achievement in evaluation process was not satisfying and student's ability in reading comprehension was lack. Teacher did not use an innovative learning model and the activities are not centered on students learning. Therefore, there is needed for action to improve the reading skill. One's of them by using Course Review Hooray method.
The problem formulation in this research were: 1).Did Course Review Hooray method improved the reading skill in English teaching of the tenth grade at SMA Muhammadiyah I Ponorogo on academic year of 2013/2014?; and 2). How the result of implementation the CRH method was improved the reading skill in English teaching of the tenth grade at SMA Muhammadiyah I Ponorogo on academic year of 2013/2014? The purposes of the study of this research were: 1). To know weather CRH method was able to improve the reading skill in English teaching of the tenth grade at SMA Muhammadiyah I Ponorogo on academic year of 2013/2014?; and 2).To know the result of implementation the CRH method was improved the reading skill in English teaching of the tenth grade at SMA Muhammadiyah I Ponorogo on academic year of 2013/2014.
The research was a classroom action research using CRH method. The research was started on July 30th, 2013 until August 22nd, 2013. It was conducted during two cycles, each cycle consisting of four stages including planning, implementation, observation and reflection. Research subject was students of tenth grade Class X-M.S 3 SMA Muhammadiyah I Ponorogo in academic years 2013/2014 with consisted of 23 students. Data collection technique used observation checklist, questionnaire sheet, and test.
The result of this research indicated that: the Cycle I the student's percentage who got the score from the test obtained KKM was 56.5% up to 100% in cycle II. The questionnaire result showed that the students were interested in this technique. It was seen from the total of the questionnaire I was 63.04% in cycle I up to 84.78% in cycle II. The observation check list result showed that the students became active during teaching learning process. It was seen from the total of observation check list was 43.48% in cycle I up to 91.30% in cycle II
Therefore, researcher gives suggestion that teacher should be creative in choosing the attractive and fun method, for the students should try to do exercise and forcr themselves to read more, for shool enriches the references about CRH method, and the next researcher should prepare the material well before implementing the method for the better result.


In-situ testing study on the mechanical behavior of soil nailing and the displacement characteristics of miscellaneous fill slope is carried out. A number of significant conclusions are proposed. For the first time,double arciform strain of the soil nailing is observed in the miscellaneous fill. It is considered as the result that there are two (or more) potential slide planes in the miscellaneous fill. The critical anchorage length is analyzed and determined for the first,which is 9 m in this experiment. The ritical anchorage length is formed because of the transfer of the peak value point,the zero value point of the stain (stress) and the wreck point at the same time. It is found out that all anchorage structure (anchor-bolt,anchor-cable and soil nailing) have this characteristic.


In this paper, we give an algorithm which, given at most n - 1 faulty nodes and non-faulty nodes s and t in the n-dimensional hypercube, H n , finds a fault-free path s → t of length at most d(s, t) + 2 in O(n) time, where d(s, t) is the distance between s and t in H n . Using this algorithm as a subroutine, we present another algorithm which, given at most 2n - 3 faulty nodes such that the faulty nodes can be covered by n - 1 subgraphs of diameter 1, finds a fault-free path s → t of length at most d(s, t) + 4 in O(n) time. The algorithms are optimal in the sense that both the upper bounds on the length of s → t and the time complexity are optimal.


Strength Design Verification demands for reliable failure conditions. Such a condition is the mathematical formulation of a failure curve or a failure surface. Existing conditions often map a course of multi-axial test data by one global equation not taking into account that data may belong to more than one failure mode. This means, it is located in a mode interaction domain and extrapolations out of the mapping domain may lead to erroneous results. Driven from the shortcomings of such a 'global fitting' the author looked for a 'failure mode-related fitting'. The author termed this procedure the Failure Mode Concept (FMC), (Cun04). The derived phenomenological, engineering- like, stress-based strength failure conditions for onset of fracture are invariant-based. These are applied for a wide variety of materials: Brittle and ductile isotropic materials, brittle unidirectional laminae, and brittle woven fabrics. The materials might possess a dense or a porous consistency. More than other theories (e.g. for UD material (Chr98, Has 80)) the FMC utilizes a strict failure mode thinking as well as the application of material symmetry-related invariants which are dedicated to a volume change or a shape change or to material internal friction the homogenized material element may experience. The choice of the material symmetry-related invariants for the formulation of a distinct stress condition can be based on Beltrami's strain energy density formulation ("At onset of yielding a material possesses a distinct strain energy". This strain energy is composed of two portions, the dilatational energy and the distortional energy, (Bel885) 1 ) and on Mohr-Coulomb ("Fracture is determined by the stresses in the fracture plane", (Mor00) 7 ), if material friction has to be considered. Some essential conclusions may be drawn from the investigations: °Very different but similar behaving materials can be basically treated with the same strength condition. This makes us to check in the dimensioning phase - in case of a new material - whether available information from results of a similar behaving material may be used. °The FMC has proven to be a helpful tool in simply fitting the course of various multi-axial material strength test data, and it finally can capture several failure modes in one pseudo-global failure condition avoiding the shortcomings of the usual 'global fitting' strength conditions. °It is applicable to brittle/ductile, dense/porous, isotropic/anisotropic materials, if a failure mode can be identified. °More representative multi-axial strength test data should be available, even for some standard materials.


Ecological common sense says that decreased solar energy should reduce herbivore production because of reduced energy flow through primary producers. However, a field experiment in a phosphorus-limited lake showed that production of zooplankton herbivores was increased by shading. This paradoxical outcome was caused by a decoupling of producer carbon fixation and nutrient uptake under high light that reduced food quality for herbivores. At low nutrient supplies, shading increased nutrient contents relative to carbon within algal food, outweighing effects of decreased primary production. Thus, light/ nutrient balance affects the degree of mismatch between primary producers and herbivores in nature, which in turn influences mass-transfer efficiencies along food chains. To predict how energy transfer efficiency and biological interactions will respond to perturbations, it is essential to take into account changes in light/nutrient balance and its effects on the stoichiometry of autotroph-herbivore interactions.


Today, crude oil trading industry is still an important industry in the world because it still has high fuel oil consumption. The crude oil prices tend to fluctuate causing the prediction of crude oil in the coming periods to be a challenge. Forecasting the price of crude oil can be done by various methods, one of them is ARIMA Box-Jenkins model with OLS method to estimate the parameter, but this method has several assumptions that must be met. As time goes by, many methods that discovered, one of them is artificial neural network which can combined with various parameter optimization methods such as Adaptive Simulated Annealing algorithm. Adaptive Simulated Annealing algorithm is an optimization method that inspired by the process of crystallization, the advantages of this algorithm has a running time faster than similar algorithms. The combination of artificial neural networks and Adaptive Simulated Annealing algorithms can be used to model the historical data without requiring assumptions in the analysis. Based on the analysis on this research, the best model is obtained FFNN 2-5-1 with MAPE value of 1.0042%. Keywords: neural network, Adaptive Simulated Annealing, crude oil.


During the past few years, the place of Religious studies has increased all over Europe, and sometimes it's in competition with Theology. There are plenty of reasons at the origin of this phenomenon. There is of course the increasing secularization of society with major Christian denominations losing their influence – re ligious practice is diminishing, vocations are scarcer, and theology institutions are gradually recruiting a much more diverse public than only from among the religious and clerics. Yet religions are not disap-pearing from society, Islam itself is experiencing a rise in strength, other religious references are emerging, and probably there has never been so much talk about religion as we now have. Within this context of radical pluralism, non-confes-sional Religious studies appear much more respectful of the principle of laïcité . The concept of the religious is expanded to, and thus influences or sacralises, new realities; traditional religions are reproached, probably like never before, and terrorist attacks turned them into scapegoats. Vandalism of confessional places and religious discrimination have become common.


The optimization problems associated with adaptive and autonomic computing systems are often difficult to pose well and solve efficiently. A key challenge is that for many applications, particularly interactive applications, the user or developer is unlikely or unable to provide either the objective function f, or constraints. It is a key problem encountered broadly in adaptive and autonomic computing.
This dissertation argues for using human-driven optimization techniques to solve optimization problems. In particular, it consists of two core ideas. In human-driven specification, we use direct human input from users to pose specific optimization problems, namely to determine the objective function f and expose hidden constraints. Once we have a well-specified problem, we are left with the need to search for a solution in a very large solution space. In human-driven search, we use direct human input to guide the search for a good solution, a valid configuration x that optimizes f(x).
My research happens in three contexts. The main context is the Virtuoso system for utility and grid computing based on virtual machines (VMs) interconnected with overlay networks. Virtuoso provides instances of optimization problems and a framework for evaluating solutions to them. In particular, the virtual execution environment of Virtuoso makes possible low-level, application- and developer-independent adaptation mechanisms such as CPU reservations, VM migration, overlay topology configuration and routing, and network reservations. The high-level optimization problem in Virtuoso is how to dynamically optimize, at run-time, the performance of existing, unmodified distributed applications running on existing, unmodified operating systems. These applications can be batch, batch parallel and interactive applications. The second context of my research is power management for laptops. Existing Dynamic voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) techniques are commonly used to reduce power consumption but they are conservative and pessimistic about both the user and the processor. How to further prolong battery life and reduce heat dissipation is the problem that is addressed. The last context of my research is IT configuration, a process whereby individual components are assembled and adjusted to construct a working solution. Visible complexity---of setting configuration knobs, installing and updating software, diagnosing and repairing problems, and so on---is a challenge for IT. How to reduce such complexity is a challenging problem. As the first step, I explored the decision complexity presented to the non-expert system administrator, which represents a significant part of the whole IT complexity.
To show the feasibility and effectiveness of my techniques, in this dissertation, I describe how I address increasingly difficult optimization problems in the Virtuoso context using human-driven specification or search. Those problems cover single machine CPU scheduling, multiple machine CPU scheduling, and multiple machine VM mapping for interactive (desktop), batch and batch parallel applications. I also present how I apply human-driven techniques to solving power management problems on laptop computers. In general, solving each of these problems involves the design and development of systems mechanisms, adaptive algorithms and user interfaces. I evaluate each element of my work through a user study. I also discuss my work on modeling user decision complexity in IT configuration systems, as the first step towards applying human-driven techniques in that domain.


Cross sections for production of target-atom carbon $K$ x rays in thin evaporated carbon films are determined from spectra obtained using a double-focusing soft-x-ray spectrometer with calibrated transmission. A maximum value of 2.3 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}19}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ is found for 18-MeV oxygen ions. A maximum ionization cross section of 4.8 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}17}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ is estimated from the data. Cross sections for x rays on both sides of the carbon $K$ edge are determined. Nitrogen ions produce more $L$-shell ionization at low energies than carbon or oxygen ions, both of which create very few $K{L}^{2}$ satellite x rays below about 9 MeV.


This paper describes the preliminary results of applying the EDUNE model (Kriebel 1989) to a dataset of 48 beach profiles in the Bay of Plenty. Parameters required to run the model include: storm duration, wave height, storm surge elevation, average gain size along the profile, wave runup, and beach geometry including the location of sea walls (if any). The model outputs include the time series plots of beach profile changes throughout the storm and provides cut and fill rates occurring on the profile as volume per unit length (m3m1) of beach. A storm scenario approximating a design storm equivalent to the Wahine storm was applied and the resulting profiles analysed to determine erosion effects. The application of the model allows (amongst other things) the identification of hazard prone zones for use in coastal management plans under the Resource Management Act 1991.


Background & Objectives: A retrospective study was performed to study the effects of passive smoking on the lipid levels of a healthy female. Materials and Methods: A retrospective case record based study was carried out amongst the healthy female attenders attending outpatient department for regular medical health check-up. Atotal of 200 women t the inclusion criteria. They were divided into two groups- A(case- at least one family member that smokes) and B (control non-smoking family members). The women in group were divided into three groups based on the number of cigarettes smoked by the family member. The lipid prole of the healthy women was then analysed. Results: signicant rise in the total cholesterol, LDL, TG and VLDL was noted. There was a statistically signicant reduction in HDL levels. This was also found to be directly proportional to the number of cigarettes smoked per day. Conclusion: Passive smoking is atherogenic in nature and can cause signicant derangement in the lipid levels in otherwise healthy women.


Inflammation is a response that protects the body from pathogens. Through several inflammatory signaling pathways mediated by various families of transcription factors, such as nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB), activator protein‐1 (AP‐1), interferon regulatory factors (IRFs), and signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs), various inflammatory cytokines and chemokines are induced and inflammatory responses are boosted. Simultaneously, inhibitory systems are activated and provide negative feedback. A typical mechanism by which this process occurs is that inflammatory signaling molecules upregulate mitogen‐activated protein kinase phosphatase‐1 (MKP1) expression. Here, we investigated how kinases regulate MKP1 expression in lipopolysaccharide‐triggered cascades. We found that p38 and c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitors decreased MKP1 expression. Using specific inhibitors, gene knockouts, and gene knockdowns, we also found that tumor necrosis factor receptor‐associated factor family member‐associated nuclear factor κB activator (TANK)‐binding kinase 1 (TBK1) and Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) are involved in the induction of MKP1 expression. By analyzing JAK2‐induced activation of STATs, STAT3‐specific inhibitors, promoter binding sites, and STAT3−/− cells, we found that STAT3 is directly linked to TBK1‐mediated and JAK2‐mediated induction of MKP1 expression. Our data suggest that MKP1 expression can be differentially regulated by p38, JNK, and the TBK1–JAK2–STAT3 pathway after activation of toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4). These data also imply crosstalk between the AP‐1 pathway and the IRF3 and STAT3 pathways.


The purpose of this study is to explore the screen reading behaviour of LIS master's degree students in Nigerian Universities. Descriptive survey using questionnaire as data collection method was employed. The study reveals that mobile phone followed by lap top are the mostly used technologies by the students for screen reading/accessing digital resources, most of the respondents prefer to printout electronic document for reading while only a few of them engage in non-linear reading. This study has shed light on the screen reading behaviour of LIS students in Nigeria. This will enable LIS practitioners to provide digital reading resources and devices for students in higher education (HE).


Abstract We introduce notions of Jordan–Lie super algebras and Jordan–Lie triple systems as well as doubly graded Lie-super algebras. They are intimately related to both Lie and Jordan super algebras as well as antiassociative algebra.


Author(s): Alvarez, Otto | Advisor(s): Guo, Qinghua | Abstract: Our understanding of how climate will change in the future is still very limited. There have been many studies conducted in trying to predict the future to obtain a rough idea of how climate will be. Understanding past climate is critical in trying to obtain an idea of how climate will be in the future. However, in order to analyze past climate, more accurate data needs to be generated. Climate surfaces, which are used in almost every environmental subfield, are critical to have. Most of the data available lack appropriate spatial attributes, such as, spatial extent and resolution, temporal resolution, and reduction in uncertainty. Therefore, one the objective of this research is to generate a dataset that will provide the necessary information to determine how climate has changed and the trends that have been experienced. A systematic evaluation was performed using different elevation and remote sensing products to improve the accuracy of climate surfaces. The results confirmed that remote sensing data significantly outperformed the commonly-used elevation product to generate climate surfaces, particularly for precipitation. This leads to determination of the optimal spatial resolution based on currently available weather data. Many high spatial resolution climate surfaces have been created without adequate understanding of how the generation of increasingly fine resolutions influences uncertainty. Findings show that regardless of the ecological zone, eco-region, or elevation zone, there were not any statistically significant differences among the uncertainties of all spatial resolutions. Although this indicates that interpolation of fine scale climate surfaces will generally not result in greater or lesser uncertainties, there will often be practical limits that dictate the logical limits of spatial resolution. For instance, the accuracy of a weather station location is often two or fewer decimal places (about 50% of the data), which makes the derivation of surfaces with resolutions l 1km inappropriate. With the appropriate climate surfaces a test was done to determine the uncertainty that has influence in ecological niche modeling. Ecological niche modeling is a popular tool that provides a probability of distribution for a species based on the connection made with the parameters that are fed in; yet, there has been a lack of consideration for uncertainty, especially for environmental surfaces. An experiment was conducted to determine the impact of uncertainty on species location and environmental surfaces. Utilizing the uncertainty information obtained from the climate surfaces and the uncertainty of species location obtained from GBIF, we will be able to include uncertainty in the ecological niche models. The test species were 43 well-known distributions of mammals in the United States. By running Monte Carlo simulation and sensitivity analyses, the findings were that uncertainty in climate surfaces has a significant difference compare to the base than DEM. Uncertainty in the three aspects (topography, climate surfaces, and point locality) are critical information to be include and consider when generating a species model. Without this information one cannot conclude the probability of any single species.


It is an idea that data, information and knowledge are different from intellectual capital. Data or information in a collection is more than knowledge. There is also no formality that intellectual capital is valuable organizational assets. However, intellectual capital is not only a set of information it does include expertise based on some degree of reflection. It is identified, managed and protected. In market view, the revolution of big data seems not giving impact to the development country such as Malaysia. Even there's highly usage of internet in communication through social media been adopted as Malaysian lifestyle. Study shows, Malaysia has busy traffic transaction of personal and business data and, the sensitive data stored in public cloud services exposed all the information to variety of risks in cyberspace. The revolution of information technology is never degreasing. As organizations are finding value in data, they realized the risk in handling information and the need of protection. In establishing information as tangible asset, this paper begins with cases of attack and security issues by applying analogy in framework. As the result, this paper suggests to ensure all the data, which can be, defined as tangible asset, with proven justification and acknowledge as a capital, will be protected by insurance policies with solid and concrete laws act.


Background: In this retrospective research, it was aimed to evaluate effects of botulinum toxin (BoNT) and factors on weight loss in normotonic and hypotonic pylorus patients at multivariate level.
Methods: A total of 671 patients attempted to our clinic between 2020 July to 2022 July were subjected to the study divided by two groups as NP (n=581) and HP (n=90).
Results: Most of patients were female in both groups were females, but male rate in NP group was significantly higher (p<0.05). BMI, weight, weight difference and BMI difference means were significantly higher in NP group (p<0.05). Ursactive rate was significantly higher in HP group (p<0.05). Weight difference was significantly correlated with group (r=-0.267; p<0.01), gender (r=0.161; p<0.01), BMI (r=0.303; p<0.01), BMR (r=0.267; p<0.01), height (r=0.143; p<0.01), weight (r=0.328; p<0.01) and medicine usage (r=-0.082; 0.05). BMI difference was significantly correlated with group (r=-0.262; p<0.01), BMI (r=0.305; p<0.01), BMR (r=0.158; p<0.01) and weight (r=0.239; p<0.01). Generalized Linear Model (Logit Model) results showed that NP (B=3.497; p<0.01), BMI (B=0.342; p<0.01) and BMR (B=0.004; p<0.01) had significant contribution on weight difference.
Conclusion: BoNT is more effective in normotonic pylorus patients than hypotonic pylorus for weight loss and BMI reduction.


This article explores three ways to design US empirical methods to be more valid and ethical in cross-cultural studies. First, intercultural researchers need to distinguish broad rhetorical and cultural patterns from regional, organizational, and personal patterns, a process that requires balancing the fact of difference with the need for generalization. Second, US researchers need to distinguish not only the differences in rhetorical patterns in a form of communication but also in the ways that form is used rhetorically. Third, researchers need to construct researcher-participant relationships that are sensitive to the values of organizational relationships in both cultures.


A control system of multi-waveform pulse power supply for electroplating was designed,which is controlled by single-chip microcomputer.With the system,amplitude,frequency,duty radio and working time of pulses can be adjusted continuously within a given range.Moreover,multi-group waveform can be setted.


This paper adopts the linguistic landscape approach to conduct longitudinal surveys about the linguistic landscape in Beijing Road in Guangzhou,in 2008 and 2011 respectively.The study discovers the cases of Chinese-Roman biscriptuals and describes the development of the unique characteristics in the non-official LL aspect.Through detailed analyses,a tendency of globalization in Guangzhou's linguistic landscape is discovered.


Efficacy of certain insecticides against cashew insect pests was tested in the experimental farm of the Regional Research Centre, BCKV, Jhargram during 2014-15 and 2015-16. Among the insecticides applied Lambda cyhalothrin @ 0.003% showed maximum efficacy to control leaf and blossom webber (9.57%) and leaf miner (8.4%) of cashew 30 days after first spray while acetamiprid @0.01% was also reported equally effective against the same insects and were statistically at par. Acetamiprid (0.01%) was recorded as most effective treatment to control apple and nut borer with 2.89% of damage which was closely followed by lambda cy-halothrin (2.97%) at 30 days after third spray. The trees treated with Neem oil soap @ 4% followed by Lambda Cyhalothrin @ 0.003% followed by again Neem oil soap was recorded superior to control thrips over the other treatments applied. However, imidacloprid @ 0.011% was recorded as least effective treatment to control cashew insects in the present study.


In this paper, we continue the study of complete dislocated and b-dislocated metric spaces and established some common fixed point theorems for one and two mappings. Our results generalizes and extend some existing results in the literature in a class effectively larger such as b-dislocated metric spaces, where the self distance for a point may not be equal to zero.


Background: Women's post-cesarean delivery pain satisfaction is still a problem. Accurate evaluation of post-cesarean delivery pain intensity aids in the selection of the most suitable anaesthetic method, drug, and dosage, and the enhancement of postsurgical pain therapy. Aim of the work: To compare between ultrasound guided TAP block and patient controlled analgesia after caesarian section as regard safety and pain control as well as patient satisfaction. Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study has been performed on 100 women at El-Sayed Galal University Hospital and El Hussein University Hospital, who were scheduled to have an elective C-section. They have been split into two groups, with "group 1" (n = 50) receiving TAP block and "group 2" (n = 50) receiving PCA. Results: The scores of pain, heart rate, rate of respiration, intestinal movement, nausea, and vomiting were all evaluated at 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, and 24 hrs following the operation. In all time intervals, "group 2" had significantly less pain than "group 1" (p < 0.001). At 2 and 4 hours after surgery, the heart rate of women in "group 2" was significantly higher than that of women in "group 1" (p < 0.001). Those in "group 2" experienced much more nausea and vomiting than women in "group 1." (P value 0.03 and 0.04, respectively). When it came to intestinal motility, "group 1" heard it first, followed by "group 2". Conclusion: TAP block and PCA are both efficient in relieving postsurgical pain following a caesarean operation. When the dosages have been adjusted, the complications and negative impacts of both are low.


Abstract Three new sesquiterpene quinones/hydroquinones, 20-demethoxy-20-isopentylaminodactyloquinone D (1), 20-demethoxy-20-isobutylaminodactyloquinone D (2), and 19-methoxy-dictyoceratin-A (3), and five known related compounds (4−8) were isolated from the marine sponge Dactylospongia elegans. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic analysis, ECD calculation, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and comparison with the literature. Compounds 3 and 5−8 exhibited activities against the human cancer cell lines DU145, SW1990, Huh7, and PANC-1 with IC50 values ranging from 2.33 to 37.85 μM. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


1 Effect of Prenatal Diagnosis on Hospital Costs in Patients with Complete Transposition of Great Arteries Dipankar Gupta, Meredith E. Mowitz, Himesh V. Vyas, Dalia Lopez-Colon, Connie S. Nixon, Jennifer G. Co-Vu. Congenital Heart Center, Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL; Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Background: Healthcare expenditure per capita in United States in 2012 was $8,895. Prenatal diagnosis (PD) leads to better clinical outcomes but the impact on resource utilization or health care cost is unknown. We sought to compare the total hospital cost of patients with PD of complete transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA) versus those without PD. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed to identify all infants with a diagnosis of d-TGA born or referred to our center from July 2006 to July 2014. The total charges of initial hospitalization were obtained. Charges for all patients were converted to 2013 equivalent dollars using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for medical care. Cost to charge ratio was used to convert the charges to costs. A direct cost comparison was performed between patients with known PD of d-TGA and those without PD. A subanalysis was also performed for the cost of pre-hospitalization fetal diagnosis. Results: 34 (26 without PD and 8 with PD) infants with d-TGA were identified. No statistically significant difference was present in mean weight (3.4 ± 0.53 vs 3.6 ± 0.39kg, p=0.328), gestational age (38.5 ± 1.2 vs 37.9 ± 2.6 weeks, p=0.947) and mean length of stay (28.4 ±16.4 vs 25.8 ± 7.2 days, p=0.968). 100% of infants with PD were born at our facility versus 3.8% without PD. Mean direct cost in infants without PD was $97,800 ± 45,900 vs $80,800 ± 21,100 in infants with PD. The mean transport costs were $7,300 ± 6,800 in patients without PD and accounted for the major difference in cost. The room and board cost in infants without PD accounted for a $5,000 difference in mean costs ($36,700 ± 20,700 vs $31,700 ± 11,300). Infants without PD had higher cost associated for mechanical ventilation and respiratory care ($5,400 ± 3,700 vs $4,000 ± 2,000). In a sub-analysis the cost of pre-hospitalization fetal diagnosis was <1% of total mean hospital costs. Conclusions: In the absence of PD, the cost of caring for infants with d-TGA was 21% higher compared to infants with PD. Primary factors reducing the cost in infants with PD of d-TGA include: transport costs, room and board costs and respiratory care costs. Prenatal diagnosis of d-TGA not only improves clinical outcomes but also decreases resource utilization and health care cost.


The aim of this study was the determination of lysine requirements based on digestibility of Japanese quail during the starter period. Graduation levels of common salt, sodium bicarbonate and L-lysine. HCL were added to the basal diet of the expense of corn starch until different levels of digestible lysine (0.75, 0.87, 0.99, 1.11, 1.23 and 1.35 % diet) have been obtained. In end experiment, performance and carcass composition were evaluated. Results showed that incremental levels of digestible lysine significantly affected the body weight gain, feed conversion and breast meat weight (P<0.05). Either linear broken- line or quadratic broken line model were used to determining break points of amount of digestible lysine requirement. Based on linear broken line analysis, the break point for body weight gain, feed conversion and breast meat yield were 0.99, 0.99 and 1.04 % of diet, respectively. Respected break points were 1.11, 1.04 and 1.15 % of diet using quadratic broken line. Also, the determination of digestible lysine requirements in diet influenced by modeling statistical methods and performance response.


The immediate southeastern and western vicinity of Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital, comprises the area of the Ljubljansko barje. The area is over 725 km 2 and has rich natural (karst phenomena, swamp, lakes, many kinds of birds) and cultural (archaeological sites from prehistoric and Roman times) heritage, with its mountainous hinterland. Ljubljansko barje, with its three main aquifers, Holocene, upper and lower Pleistocene, is also an important source of natural pure drinking water. In spite of good surface protection of the lower gravel and karstic aquifer, the water resource is a vulnerable, especially shallow, Holocene aquifer. Various human activities on the surface can result in groundwater pollution. A vulnerable water source means a vulnerability of society, as polluted water may cause real health and other problems. One of the last events that confirmed the concern and the need for immediate changes in the water management happened in spring 2005. An unusually high concentration of trichloroethene (TCE) was detected in active shallow wells that were immediately shut down. None of the remediation measures were carried out. It is still an open question whether the non-active behaviour was the most appropriate solution during this event, and how to act properly on such occurrences from the environmental and socio-economic point of view.


GUARDO, CAROL J., and MEISELS, MURRAY. Factor Structure of Children's Personal Space Schemata. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 1307-1312. Data from 431 children in grades 3-10 on a personal space task were pooled into 4 sex-age groups and separately factor analyzed. Findings were that girls have similar personal space schemata across grade level but that patterns were more highly schematized for older girls. These spatial patterns were seemingly more determined by the emotional tone of the interaction than the sex of the stimulus figure(s). Boys, however, evidenced development of spatial schemata across age. Older boys had more clear-cut personal space patterns, whereas younger boys apparently responded to situationspecific cues. Males were more likely to have schemata based on the stimulus figure's sex. Findings were consonant with knowledge of social development and appropriate sex-role identification.


This paper aims to elucidate the instruments used to coordinate social policy in Mexico in the food sector from the perspective of public policy transfer. In order to achieve this, documentary analysis of the National Crusade against Hunger was used in primary and secondary sources; in addition, the perspective of public policy transfer and institutional analysis was used. As a result, it is not clear how this Crusade contributed to the resolution of a social problem such as hunger, nor is it possible to identify its contribution in other fields. The absence of a food policy results in the design of fragmented and partial interventions, weakly defined. The design and implementation of the National Crusade against Hunger and the Brazilian Fome Zero program are studied as mechanisms for adaptation and institutional learning. In conclusion, it is established that there are inconsistencies in the interpretation and expression of the problem to be solved with respect to the origin of the policy and the system.


In paper present the modern technology of construction city geodetic base applying the combine method. The basic method is optimal combination of high precision modern permanent satellite network and high reliability and flexibility traditional line-angle construction. This method will build and develop a quality city geodetic base on all city territory, and produce the monitoring displacement of geodetic points, and provide performance of topographic and geodetic work.


Pharmaceutical product quality has always been a major source of worry for regulatory organisations around the world. Maintaining medication quality is critical since drugs and pharmaceutical items are provided directly to customers, and poor medicine quality is not only a health threat, but also a waste of money for both the government and individuals. As a result, the pharmaceutical industry's most significant goal is to adopt an effective quality policy. Total quality management (TQM) can efficiently attain quality. TQM plays an important role in the pharmaceutical sector, from the inception of the industry through the safety of the marketed drug till it is consumed. Total quality management is a multifaceted approach that entails adhering to quality standards in all aspects of pharmaceutical manufacturing. The purpose of this review is to provide a broad overview of the TQM concept and the many management strategies that contribute to pharmaceutical quality improvement. This review paper presents a quick overview of how various techniques and practises, such as the numerous regulatory criteria that lead to the practical application of this concept include quality by design, quality risk management. This review study will assist new researchers in gaining an understanding of overall Quality Management, since it discusses QMS, cGMP, Regulatory Guidelines, TQM, and ICH Guidelines. In addition, this article provides a brief overview of current TQM industrial practises as well as the various opportunities for technical breakthroughs in real-time quality management to improve TQM outcomes.


INTODUCTION Nanotechnology and ultra-precision engineering have progressed very rapidly. Displacement measurements with less than sub-nanometer resolutions have become essential and critical. A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) [1] is a popular tool in surface engineering and can be used to obtain images of atoms on a crystalline surface. A graphite crystalline surface has uniform and stable 2-dimensional symmetrical periodicity, i.e. two unit lattice vectors a 1 and a 2 , whose length and intersectional angle are 0.246 nm and 60 ̊ [2], respectively, over a wide mono-crystalline area of approximately 100 μm 2 , when the crystal is stressfree. Therefore, the two unit lattice vectors of the graphite crystalline surface can be used, in combination with an STM, as 2-dimensional references with sub-nanometer resolution or less [3-4]. In this article, we propose a new 2dimensional encoder using multi-tunneling-probes scanning tunneling microscope (MTP-STM) as detectors and the unit lattice vectors a 1 and a 2 on a graphite crystalline surface as references. The measurement principle, the instrumentation and the experimental results are discussed.


In 2019 as per Google analytics there are 1,974 page views from different countries like India, Usa , Uk, Italy and 25+ million website visitors also successfully published articles for Volume10 with issue 1. All the papers published in this edition underwent peer-review process involving a minimum of two reviewers comprising internal as well as external referees. This was to ensure that the quality of the papers justified the high ranking of the journal, which is renowned as a heavily-cited journal by authors and researchers around world.


The room-temperature growth of bismuth on the InAs(110) surface and the Bi-(1 ? 1) and Bi-(1 ? 2) ordered phases have been studied by means of high-resolution ultra-violet photoemission and high-resolution electron-energy-loss spectroscopy. A modified Stransky-Krastanov growth mode at room temperature and the stability of the (1 ? 2)-symmetry phase in the 480-580 K annealing temperature range are deduced by quantitative analysis of the core-level data and Auger spectra. A Bi 5d and In 4d core-level analysis is presented, and discussed according to a recently proposed model for the (1 ? 2) overlayer reconstruction. The formation of Bi-derived electronic states has been followed during the growth of the (1 ? 1)-symmetry phase, showing a semiconducting behaviour at the monolayer coverage, with a well-defined gap state at 0.39 eV binding energy related to the Bi p-like dangling bonds. The (1 ? 2)-Bi phase is metallic, as indicated by the well-defined Fermi edge and by the metallic-like quasi-elastic peak tail in the energy-loss spectra. The metallicity and the electronic structure of the (1 ? 2)-Bi phase are discussed in relation to the available geometric structure.


CEPC Pre CDR pointed that the 650 MHz 5-cell SRF cavity could be a candidate for the main ring of the single-ring pretzel scheme at the Higgs energy in 2015. Then EM design of 5-cell cavities were published later. So, the study on the fabrication of a 5-cell prototype cavity with waveguide HOM couplers were carried on at IHEP. In the paper, we will mainly report the mechanical design and fabrication progress of the 5-cell prototype. Besides, fabrication of a bare 2-cell prototype cavity was also carried on according to the further study after PreCDR. Challenges and possible solutions for the prototypes development will also be discussed.


Open Government Data (OGD) refers to the provision of data produced by the government to the general public, in a format that is readily readable and can be used by machines with ease. It can also promote transparency, improve decision-making, enhance accountability, create economic opportunities, and encourage civic engagement. The OGD can help citizens understand the government and its legitimacy and transparency. Thus, when the government shares its data with people, it helps to create trust by being transparent, accountable, and promoting innovative solutions that benefit everyone. However, each published dataset has no indication of its quality assessment at all; thus, making it difficult for citizens to assess the reliability of the data from the OGD. Therefore, a data quality assessment for OGD should be developed. This will help create effective datasets which in turn help users understand the data. This study proposes QUALYST, a system that assesses Thailand's OGD dataset and validates it for analytic and visualization purposes. The study focuses on designing the data storage and implementing the assessment system. Furthermore, the proposed data quality dimensions, the developed data pipeline, and the assessment process are elaborated. Finally, the prototype system is demonstrated using Thailand's OGD datasets with examples in a visualized format.


This paper presents a new method for semi-automatic detection of nature interventions inSentinel-2 satellite images with 10 m spatial resolution. The Norwegian Environment Agency ismaintaining a map of undisturbed nature in Norway. U-Net was used for automated detection ofnew roads, as these are often the cause whenever the area of undisturbed nature is reduced. Themethod was able to detect many new roads, but with some false positives and possibly some falsenegatives (i.e., missing new roads). In conclusion, we have demonstrated that automated detection ofnew roads, for the purpose of updating the map of undisturbed nature, is possible. We have alsosuggested several improvements of the method to improve its usefulness.


The term Nanofluids was first coined by Sir Stephen Choi in 1995 at Argonne National Laboratory ,U.S.A .Since the discovery, nanofluid have been explored as heat transfer fluids. Nanofluids increased the thermal conductivity of existing coolants (Water, Ethylene glycol) by a magnitude of hundred times which made them attractive for miniaturization of electronic devices .From 1995 till 2008 nanofluid research was focused on enhancing the thermal conductivity of the base fluid by various parameters like shape of nanoparticle, volume fraction of base fluid and material of base fluid and composition of nanoparticle. A lot of theoretical models have been evolved in an attempt to explain the basic mechanism of heat transfer in a nanofluid .Research has been with respect to viscosity, stability, thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer coefficients of nanofluids. From 2008 nanofluids have been investigated for their electrical properties and reported as electrical conductivity enhancers for base fluid. The latest trend in nanofluid is towards optical properties of nanofluid for direct absorption solar collectors.


An assay method in a reversed micellar system, which can be better characterized in physicochemical terms than that in an emulsion system, was investigated. The first-order rate constant when [S] « Km and the zero-order rate constant when [S]» Km for lipase reaction in the system show a linear relationship with enzyme concentration over a twenty-fold range, which is an important criterion for an enzyme assay. Based on the results, a three-point assay of lipase in reversed micelles was established. To ensure the initial rate, the assay time should be limited to the time during which about 4.5% of the substrate is utilized.


Introduction: Periodic fever syndrome (PFS) is a rare monogenic autoinflammatory disease group. The innate immune system abnormalities have a characteristic onset and spontaneous inflammation without any infectious or autoimmune trigger. It differs from autoimmune disorders (e.g., systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)) occurring due to a defect in the adaptive immune system with auto-antibodies. Case Presentation: The clinical features of three patients presented with a periodic pattern of fever and a different constellation of symptoms were investigated. The final diagnosis of Periodic fever syndrome was reached based on standard diagnostic criteria and genetic testing. All three cases were observed to present with recurrent fever episodes at an interval of 6 - 12 weeks, 3 - 4 weeks, and one month, respectively. The first patient, presenting with a diffuse erythematous plaque-like lesion along the calf with severe calf pain and tenderness with signs of meningeal irritation, was diagnosed with a tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated periodic fever syndrome (TRAPS) like phenotype. The genetic panel was negative in this case. The second patient presenting with recurrent pharyngitis, cervical adenitis, and tonsillitis unresponsive to antibiotics was diagnosed with periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and adenitis (PFAPA) syndrome. The last patient presenting with recurrent monoarthritis, hepatosplenomegaly, and a positive Mediterranean fever (MEFV) gene mutation was diagnosed with familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). All three patients had normal growth and development. Conclusions: Although periodic fever syndrome was an uncommon entity, it was recommended that this syndrome should be considered when a patient presented with recurring fever episodes with a characteristic constellation of symptoms.


The serial-predicate construction is composed of two or more than two predicative words which are used together as a whole to express the same subject.Each predicate and the same subject form the subject-predicate relationship in the field of meaning and demonstrate the same idea in the field of content.The serial-predicate construction is characteristic of the flexibility in ideogram and the ambiguity in structure.This paper firstly analyses the features together with the semantics and the syntax by citing some sentences,then puts forward four Chinese-English translation tactics in the serial-predicate construction.


A new intelligent algorithm, adaptive mutation particle swarm optimization algorithm (AMPSO), is presented to handle optimal substation locating and sizing problem. The proposed AMPSO, which combines the idea of GA in PSO, displays more excellent global optima searching performance than PSO. The model of the problem involving both the substation construction investment and the geographic information makes the given solution more practical in distribution planning process. The proposed approach is tested by a realistic planning project to show its effectiveness and efficiency.


Metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFET's) have been fabricated on a boron-doped diamond epitaxial film. This is the first report of a planar type transistor using a diamond film.


The editor warns that our scientific society is in trouble in the coming years as students are ill-prepared for a future in science.


We have performed a first-principles density functional theory investigation of the penetration of helium atoms through a graphene monolayer with defects. The relaxation of the graphene layer caused by the incoming helium atoms does not have a strong influence on the height of the energy barriers for penetration. For defective graphene layers, the penetration barriers decrease exponentially with the size of the defects but they are still sufficiently high that very large defects are needed to make the graphene sheet permeable for small atoms and molecules. This makes graphene a very promising material for the construction of nanocages and nanomembranes.


Abstract A novel chelating polymer has been developed using Merrifield Chloromethylated resin modified with Thenoyl trifluoroacetone (TTA), for the selective extraction of U(VI) and Th(IV). Characterization of the modified polymeric matrix was performed by FT-IR Spectrometer, CHNPS Elemental Analyzer. The synthesized resin showed superior ion-selective behavior even in the presence of high concentration of alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metal ions. Various physio-chemical parameters influencing the metal sorption on to the polymeric matrix was investigated and optimized by both batch and column method. Quantitative extraction of metal ions was effective in the pH range 4–5 and 2–4 for U(VI) and Th(IV) respectively. The system showed faster exchange kinetics for metal ion extraction, with complete saturation in <20 min. Maximum metal sorption capacity by the resin matrix, for U(VI) and Th(IV) was found to be 138.6 µmol g−1 and 117.2 µmol g−1 respectively. Sample break through volume and flow rate studies were performed by column method. Ion-selectivity behavior and preconcentrating ability was tested, using synthetic and real water samples. The system showed consistent trace recovery with an rsd value of ≤4.3% for all analytical data.


Background Oral Graft-versus-Host Disease (oGvHD) is a common complication of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Choosing the right topical application to be used intra orally can be a challenge. Consequently, the aim of this work is to review the effectiveness and safety of topical agents currently used in the management of the inflammatory mucosal lesions encountered in oGVHD. Material and Methods We carried out electronic searches of publications up to May 2015 of the databases Pubmed, National Library of Medicine's Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Clinical trials to identify potentially relevant studies (keywords: "oral", "graft", "versus", "host", "disease" and "treatment"). The main inclusion criterion was the reported use of a topical agent which was not intentionally swallowed when used for the treatment of oGVHD. A 3-point grading system, described by the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, was used to rate the methodological quality of the papers. Results From the 902 entries identified in the search, 7 studies qualifying for inclusion were analysed. Overall, there is limited evidence with regards to the effectiveness of topical steroids for oGVHD. However, the studies showed some effect of Budesonide alone and when combined with dexamethasone. Topical tacrolimus also appears to have some effect and clobetasol propionate mouthwash had a significantly better clinical response than dexamethasone mouthwash in treating oGVHD. Conclusions As the number of clinical trials conducted is limited, there is little evidence to support the use of topical therapies to treat the inflammatory mucosal lesions found in oGVHD. High quality randomised control trials are needed in order to measure the effectiveness of any topical application for the treatment of the inflammatory mucosal lesions found in oGVHD. Key words:Oral, graft versus host disease, topical, therapy.


A series of log-linear models were fitted in data to order to examine a hypothesized relationship between the Social Identity a decision maker assigned to an actor and the Type of Information he sought to resolve any doubts he might have about the actor f s being a member of the assigned class. Specifically, the study sought to determine if an assigned negative Identity predisposed the decision maker to seek information which would allow him to conclude that the actor was indeed a "bad" person. Likewise, the study sought to determine if an assigned positive Identity predisposed the decision maker to seek information which would allow him to conclude that the actor was in essence a "good" person. In contrast to previous studies, the deviant act examined here was that of allegedly writing pornography. The obtained data were not consistent with the hypothesized decision model. The majority of the respondents sought the same class of Information without regard to the Social Identity they assigned to the actor. The major finding of this study was that respondents "ignored" the individuating information they were provided with and instead relied on their own stereotype of a writer to determine the likelihood that the particular author in question was a pornographer .