In the search for the optimization of heat transfer systems, Ionanocolloids (INCs) as we have termed here, have revealed as very attractive choices due to their increasingly potential applications in thermal energy areas. By definition, INCs are suspensions of nanoparticles (NPs) into Ionic Liquids (ILs). Besides a high degree of versatility and enhanced thermal properties, these new class of fluids are considered as green solvents due to their negligible vapor pressure, non-flammability and recyclability. Despite the great advantages of using these INCs, their industrial application is still a challenge due to low stability and high viscosity issues attributed to them. In this work, different Ionanocolloids were prepared by two-step method, using 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide ([C2mim][DCA]) together with deionized water as base fluids and 3 different NPs: Titanium(IV) Oxide, Silicon Oxide and Aluminum Oxide. The stability and viscosity of these mixtures were then evaluated and the results are reported.


BACKGROUND AIM: To evaluate the mechanisms involved in acquiring the TRAIL drug-resistance gene in human colon cancer DLD1 cell line. MATERIAL AND METHODS: DLD1 cells were repeatedly treated with adenovirus-mediated TRAIL gene(Ad/gTRAIL),and DLD1-TRAIL/R cells resistant to Ad/gTRAIL were obtained. The cell growth was measured by MTT method. The expression of proteins involved in TRAIL-mediated apoptosis pathway was also showed by western blot analysis. Then the possible mechanisms involved in acquiring resistance were analyzed. RESULTS: DLD1-TRAIL/R cells resistant to TRAIL were obtained from TRAIL-sensitive DLD1 parent cells. But they were still sensitive to adenovirus-mediated Bax gene therapy. Further studies demonstrated that expression of Bcl-XL was dramatically increased whereas caspase-8 was significantly decreased in DLD1-TRAIL/R cells. Simultaneously,there was no cleaved caspase-8 found in the DLD1-TRAIL/R cells. CONCLUSION: After repeated treatment,DLD1 cells could acquire the specific resistance to TRAIL gene. The involved mechanisms may involve up-regulation of Bcl-XL and down-regulation of caspase-8.


Psoriasis (PsO) is a common disorder with its prevalence ranging from 1.5–3.0% among European and Scandinavian countries to just 0.15% in Chinese studies. Among those individuals with PsO, at least 10% are expected to have psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Both PsO and PsA impact on social, physical and psychological function, resulting in impairment of quality of life (QoL). This can be measured by a generic instruments such as Medical Outcomes Survey – Short Form 36 (SF36) or disease-specific QoL measures such as the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) as well as the PsAQoL assessment tool. SF36 has been validated and found reliable and responsive to change both in PsO and PsA. The DLQI was developed and validated among PsO patients, and it is also responsive to change. PsAQoL, a 20-item questionnaire provides information about disease state; it is sensitive to change following therapy. It has also been translated and validated in various languages. Generic QoL measures such as SF36 have the additional strength and utility of allowing comparison of QoL in patients with other diseases in normal population. PsO results in debilitating psychiatric morbidity, stigmatization, embarrassment and impaired self-esteem. 8 Female gender, duration of disease and treatment type has been shown to correlate with a poorer QoL. A systematic review of 17 studies showed that patients with PsO reported physical discomfort, impaired emotional functioning, negative body and self-image, limitations in daily activities, reduced social contacts, fewer activities involving skin exposure and reduced work. As the severity of PsO increases, so does the financial impact by way of health costs and impaired earnings, leading to impairment in global QoL. As a chronic psychological and physical disorder, it has been proposed that a measure of the cumulative QoL burden may have more utility. 'Cumulative life course impairment' considers overall physical, psychological and social damage while coping with psoriasis over a patient's lifetime. In support of this, it has been shown that life-time DLQI is a better predictor of patient outcomes related to weight, discrimination and depression than last-week DLQI. PsO has also been shown to be associated with symptoms of emotional distress, especially insomnia and general anxiety. Fortunately a number of therapies for PsO have also shown positive changes in QoL measures. Notably, biological therapies for PsO have been shown to result in better mental health than other systemic and topical treatments. PsA is a multifaceted disease, presenting with arthritis, enthesitis, dactylitis, skin and nail involvement. All of these manifestations have the potential to affect the assessment of QoL, thus confounding the assessment of QoL in these patients. Sleep disturbances have been reported in patients with PsO and PsA. Sleep disturbance was shown to be associated with generalized pain, anxiety, enthesitis and levels of C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate in patients with PsA. It has been shown that health-related QoL in patients with inflammatory arthritides, including PsA, improves with newer therapies like anti-tumor necrosis factor agents, and it has also been shown to worsen on withdrawal of therapy. While one study in 2012 showed greater impairment of QoL in PsA as compared to PsO, Tezel et al. in this issue of the Journal report a similar PsAQoL in both their groups, although the patients with PsA had worse functional state than those with PsO alone. As discussed by the authors in the current paper, their patients with PsO and PsA, on average, had similar degrees of skin disease. This may explain the similar impairment of QoL when measured by the PsAQoL instrument which otherwise seems to reflect predominantly the cutaneous facet rather than the arthritic facet of PsA. In spite of the modest sample size as a weakness of this study, the findings provide relevant information. In fact, survey data collected by the National Psoriasis Foundation, USA, from 2003 to 2011 also have shown significant impairment of QoL and work productivity in PsO. In that survey, 52.3% of patients with PsO and 45.5% of patients with PsA were dissatisfied with their treatment, thus highlighting significant impairment of QoL. In the current study as well, QoL was significantly impaired in both PsO and PsA as compared to controls. These observations emphasize the need for advocacy and education, so that these patients have access to effective treatment options.


In the paper,the operational principles and effects of all slag blocking modes are systematically compared through analyzing the process of putting slags into converter. The slag blocking with slider is based on the flow control system of slide gate nozzle for ladle through dislocation motion of holes between sliding and fixed sliders to realize the effective control for pre- slags and late slags. The success rate could be 100%,the slag quantity into converter could be controlled to about 60 mm and the average rephosphorization of ladle could be controlled within 0. 000 5% so that the cleanliness of molten steel could be improved,which could lay a good foundation for manufacturing steels with high added value and reducing production costs.


Discloses an inflatable article with puncture-resistant layer, for example pneumatic tire of the puncture-resistant layer comprises a self-sealing composition of the composite elastomer, the elastomer composite comprises at least: an elastomer as a main thermoplastic styrene (TPS) elastomer, greater than and greater than the extender oil 200phr 20phr of hydrocarbon resin, the hydrocarbon glass transition temperature (Tg) of the resin is greater than 0 ℃. The puncture-resistant layer advantageously e.g. airtight layer of butyl rubber-based composition, thereby forming a gas-tight in a pneumatic anti pierce the laminate object.


This chapter focuses on Article 51 of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR). Article 51 of the ACHR closes up Section 4 of the Chapter VII dedicated to the "Procedure" before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, applied when dealing with an individual petition (Article 44) or an inter-State communication (Article 45). The provision describes the potential results of the procedure, that is, the adoption of a report that would contain the "opinion," "conclusion," and "recommendations" of the Commission. The article must be understood in light of Article 49 (Friendly settlement) and Article 50 ("preliminary report"). An Article 51 report is adopted when the friendly settlement process has failed, and in case of violations stated by the Commission, when the case is neither brought to the Court nor fixed by the Commission itself. Accordingly, the Article 51 report is said to be "final," as it terminates the litigation proceeding before the Inter-American organs.


Connection element (10) with fastening means (40) for on a circuit board (19) arranged light-emitting diode (20) (LED), wherein the terminal element comprises an in a chamber (12) imprisoned terminal contact (13), on the one hand holding a terminal conductor and on the other hand to be placed on a contact surface (18) of the board (19) is formed and with a receptacle for a fastening means (40), by means of which the circuit board (19) engaging over and holding connection element (10) is secured to a lamp component (22), characterized in that the fastening means (40) comprises an anchor member (41), which engages through the receiving of the connection element (10) for purposes of its determination on the lamp component (22), and that the fastening means (40) comprises a spring restoring elastic clamping element (45), which is designed for fixing the connecting element (10) on the lamp component (22) under a defined contact pressure.


The synthesis of four new azo‐Schiff base ligands from 2‐hydroxy‐3‐methoxy‐5‐(phenyldiazenyl)benzaldehyde and 4‐aminoantipyrine is described in this study. The molecular structures of all the scaffolds were confirmed using NMR spectroscopies such as 1H and 13C, as well as FT‐IR and Mass spectroscopy. After successful synthesis and characterization of all the ligands, their in vitro antibacterial, antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory activities were carried out by using standard protocols. Results revealed that all the four ligands (L1‐L4) possessed excellent biological potency.


A REACTIONARY DOCUMENT. JuTsT ov(r a week ago the British Medical Association and the Societv of Medical Officers of Health became aware of the existence of a most important document, issued bNthe Ministrv of Health, wN-hich affects the position and dcuties of large numbers of medical practitioners, and may have rnost serious effects on the health services of the nation. No official intimation of the issuing of this docurnent had been given, either to the Association or to the Society, and a requiest by-


The proposed problem is motivated by recent studies that show that loss of consciousness is associated with the spectral evolution of the (linearized) function that models cortical activity capture by electroencephalography. In this paper, we conduct a similar study for epileptic seizure-onset where features of interest are also captured by the spectral evolution. Subsequently, one can envision a scenario where stimulating some specific brain regions (through static output feedback) one could either induce loss of consciousness, for instance, anesthesia, or prevent an epileptic seizure.


Objective To investigate the effect of Narcotrend monitoring in fast-track anesthesia for endoscopic thyroidectomy,and evaluate the feasibility of application of Narcotrend monitoring in fast-track anesthesia.Methods One hundred patients who undergoing endoscopic thyroidectomy were divided into group N (Narcotrend monitoring group,50 cases) and group C (control group,50 cases) by random digits table method.All patients were induced and maintained with propofol,remifentanil and atracurium while monitored by Narcotrend,propofol and remifentanil infusion rate were adjusted in two groups according to Narcotrend index (NI) and the clinical standard practice during operation.Steward score was assessed postoperative to test for success of fast-track anesthesia (Steward score≥4 points within 10 min).NI in two groups were recorded at time points:before induction of anesthesia (T1),at laryngeal mask airway(LMA) insertion(T2),skin incision (T3),10 min(T4) and 30 min(T5) after CO2 sufflation,at the end of operation (T6),just before LMA removal (T7),5 min after LMA removal (Ts).Anesthetic dosage,recovery time,LMA removal time,intraoperative awareness,postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV),postoperative agitation were recorded and the success rate of fast-track anesthesia of each group was calculated.Results NI of group N was higher than that of group C (F =192.363,P =0.000),and there was interaction between groups and time points (F =48.254,P =0.000).NI of group N was significantly higher than that of group C at T3,T4,T5,T6 (58.2 ± 5.3 vs.44.6 ± 6.7,55.3 ± 6.8 vs.39.5 ± 7.1,54.6 ± 6.6 vs.36.3 ± 6.7 and 65.2 ± 5.5 vs.56.3 ±7.4),and there were statistical differences (P <0.01),but there was no statistical differences between two groups at T1,T2,T7,T8 (P > 0.05).There was no statistical difference in amount of remifentanil and atracurium between two groups (P > 0.05).The amount of propofol,recovery time and LMA removal time of group N were significantly less than those of group C [(462 ± 86) mg vs.(635 ± 120) mg,(5.2 ± 1.3) min vs.(8.9 ± 2.2) min and (7.3 ± 2.5) min vs.(12.5 ± 3.1) min,P < 0.01].The success rate of fasttrack anesthesia of group N was significantly higher than that of group C [84.0%(42/50) vs.44.0%(22/50),P < 0.01].The rate of PONV of group N was lower than that of group C [4.0%(2/50) vs.16.0% (8/50)],and there was significant difference (P < 0.05).There was none of intraoperative awareness in group N while 3 cases in group C,but with no statitical difference between two groups (P> 0.05).There was no statistical difference in postoperative agitation between two groups(P > 0.05).Conclusions Narcotrend monitoring in fast-track anesthesia for endoscopic thyroidectomy is conductive to optimizing depth of anesthesia,may avoid deep or light anesthesia and prevent intraoperative awareness; at the same time,it can reduce the anesthetic dosage,speed up recovery and increase the success rate of fast-track anesthesia,also reduce the rate of PONV.

Key words:
Laparoscopes;  Thyroidectomy;  Narcotrend monitoring;  Depth of anesthesia; Fast-track anesthesia


Constitutional changes effected to Singapore's Constitution in 1991 transformed the office of President from a purely ceremonial one chosen by the Parliament, to one directly elected by the people exercising certain discretionary powers. Among other things, the President may now veto attempts by the Government to deplete the nation's past financial reserves, and to effect unsuitable appointments to or dismissals of key public officers. Now, the Government is proposing to tweak the system further.


More and more fans have been used in industry. Miniaturization and high speed are the main development direction of the current fan. The small high-speed fan has the characteristics of small volume and high efficiency. However, the noise problem of the small high-speed fan is more prominent, especially for the intake port, which seriously affects the quality of the product. In this paper, the noise of the intake duct of the small high-speed fan is studied. By designing effective noise elimination devices, analysing of transmission loss and pressure loss of muffler and selecting the optimal structure form, the purpose of reducing noise can be achieved.


PURPOSE
Signal intensity (SI) and image contrast on postmortem magnetic resonance (MR) imaging are different from those of imaging of living bodies. We sought to suppress the SI of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sufficiently for fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence in postmortem MR (PMMR) imaging by optimizing inversion time (TI).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We subject 28 deceased patients to PMMR imaging 3 to 113 hours after confirmation of death (mean, 27.4 hrs.). PMMR imaging was performed at 1.5 tesla, and T1 values of CSF were measured with maps of relaxation time. Rectal temperatures (RT) measured immediately after PMMR imaging ranged from 6 to 32°C (mean, 15.4°C). We analyzed the relationship between T1 and RT statistically using Pearson's correlation coefficient. We obtained FLAIR images from one cadaver using both a TI routinely used for living bodies and an optimized TI calculated from the RT.

RESULTS
T1 values of CSF ranged from 2159 to 4063 ms (mean 2962.4), and there was a significantly positive correlation between T1 and RT (r = 0.96, P < 0.0001). The regression expression for the relationship was T1 = 74.4 * RT + 1813 for a magnetic field strength of 1.5T. The SI of CSF was effectively suppressed with the optimized TI (0.693 * T1), namely, TI = 0.693 * (77.4 * RT + 1813).

CONCLUSION
Use of the TI calculated from the linear regression of the T1 and RT optimizes the FLAIR sequence of PMMR imaging.


Saturn's moon Titan has seas of liquid hydrocarbons that are an important target for future exploration. The largest of these seas, Ligeia Mare and Kraken Mare, are ~400km and ~1000km in extent, respectively, and are composed of liquid methane at ~94K, with likely traces of ethane and other organic compounds. Titan's seas represent a novel laboratory for air:sea exchange and other hydrological and oceanographic processes. Observations from the Cassini spacecraft, in particular its radar instrument, have measured the depth of Ligeia Mare to be ~160m, consistent with terrestrial basins of similar size. The tidal amplitudes have been predicted to be some tens of centimeters, and as surface windspeeds grow to 1-2 m/s as we approach northern summer in 2017, waves are expected to form. Cassini observations of sunglint and with radar/radio generally show the sea surface to be flat up to now, but some time-variable patches of reflectivity show that dynamic processes are active, and perhaps that waves are just beginning to form. The final observations of Titan's seas by Cassini in April 2017 are eagerly anticipated and a brief report may be made at this meeting. During Titan's rainy summer, 10m or more of liquid may be added to the seas by rainfall. Some initial model results on the seas' response to this input will be presented –Ligeia may overflow rather quickly through the channel Trevize Fretum into Kraken. Several proposals have considered future missions to Titan's seas, including a floating capsule, the Titan Mare Explorer (TiME). This envisaged a radioisotope-powered capsule in Ligeia Mare in 2023, which it would traverse over several weeks blown by the wind. More recently, the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) has sponsored a study of a robot submarine to explore Titan's seas circa 2040. Aspects of these and other future exploration concepts will be discussed.


The paper is devoted to the analysis of three selected women's biographies. These three remarkable women featured in the article were representatives of the generations that took part in creating a model of women's emancipationist aspirations (from the second half of the 19th century to the times of the "Second Polish Republic"). All of them were engaged in many various fields, their socio-political, educational and scientific activities were quite well described. On the other hand, there is the need to show their social achievements, writing, scientific careers and personal experiences as an excellent example of their individual attitudes, beliefs, personal dilemmas and difficult life choices. Our paper is the attempt to present these female biographies from two perspectives: public and private. We believe that it allows us not only to show how these women were fighting for equal rights, but also to present their way of understanding the whole set of concepts, ideas and postulates that make up the issue of women's emancipation. The point of reference for these considerations are three stories of women of Lviv: Zofia Romanowiczówna (1842–1936) – a participant of the January Uprising, activist and writer; Maria Dulębianka (1861–1919) – a social activist, publicist and writer, the founder of the Association of Women's Equality in Lviv in 1908; and Łucja Charewiczowa (1897–1943) – a social activist, historian at the University of Jan Kazimierz in Lviv and the curator of the Lviv City History Museum (from 1931).


The present invention relates to alkoxylated nitrogen-containing compounds, polycarboxylic acids and polyfunctional chain sikineunde enriching the organic and solvent base composition comprising a terminal unit particularly useful injectable liquid rheological additives. Additives of the present invention exhibit excellent thickening efficiency and ease of dispersibility for a system containing no adverse effect on the gloss, the ink flow, epoxies, polyesters, paints acids, grease and other systems. Additives of the present invention acts by association and reaction mechanism provides the rheological properties of viscosity in the system, it is useful in the same manner can star system.


On the basis of Theory of Six Forces on Factors of Production put forward by Xu Shoubo,reviewing the classification of traditional production factors and factor markets,the paper raises the new classification of production factors and some constructive suggestions on the development and improvement of factor markets in Hebei.


Practical content-based image retrieval systems require efficient indexing schemes for fast k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) searches. Researchers have proposed many tree-based methods using space and data partitioning for similarity searches. However, traditional indexing methods perform poorly and will degrade to simple sequential scans at high dimensionality - that is so-called "curse of dimensionality". Recently, several filtering approaches based on vector approximation (VA) were proposed and showed promising performance. However, VA-based approaches need compute the bound of the distance between each feature vector and the query. It will consume the same computational overhead as the brute-force sequential scan. In this paper, a novel hierarchical indexing scheme is proposed. This approach integrates VA-based index structure with approximate NN (ANN) searches and performs probabilistic ANN searches on approximate vectors. Experiments show the proposed approach achieves a remarkable reduction of computational overhead and disk accesses for k-NN searches. This presented approach supports quadratic-form distance metric and can integrate with relevance feedback techniques for practical large-scale image retrieval systems.


In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) technology has the very attractive advantages-noneed for new spectrum allocations, backward and forward compatibility, and a low-investment upgrade to digital systems─that will drive adoption of digital sound broadcasting technology in the market place. Two companies are now developing competing versions of IBOC DAB technology, Lucent Digital Radio and USA Digital Radio. In this article we describe different aspects of IBOC technology, including code, decode and modulation. But the future of digital radio hangs in the balance.


This paper describes a practical parser for unrestricted relations. These relations are computed between chunks and speci ed within a unique formalism. They are represented by means of labeled and directed links. The present implementation handles dependency, coordination and antecedence relations.


Poster: "ECR 2016 / C-1199 / Is there any correlation between the severity of a patient's diarrhoea and the prevalence of bile acid malabsorption in patients who have had a cholecystectomy? " by: " V. M. Rhodes , N. Moffitt, T. Toma; SOUTHEND ON SEA/ESSEX/UK"


A method was developed for the isolation of nevadensin (5, 7-dihydroxy-4',6,8-trimethoxyflavone) from biological specimens and its quantitative determination by polyamide TLC and UV spectrophotometry. By means of this method analysis of pharmacokinetic characteristics of the drug in rats, dogs, and monkeys was made.
Patterns of decline of the plasma level of the drug in these animals after iv and ig confer upon the body the characteristics of the two-compartment open model.
Kinetic analysis indicated that nevadensin was distributed fairly rapidly, and eliminated rather quickly. The absorption of ig nevadensin in suspension was very poor. However, when given in aqueous solution, the absorption was fairly rapid, but its bioavailability was low.


The aim of this paper is presentation of an approach for modeling , control and optimization of a photovoltaic pumping system which contains a PV generator , DC-DC boost converter, MPPT controller, DC-AC inverter and a BLDC motor. We use an intelligent control method for searching the maximum power point (MPP). This method uses a fuzzy logic controller applied to a drive a DC–DC converter to an optimal operating point using PV panel's measured variables. The PWM signals are generated by the interaction of the motor speed closed-loop system and the current hysteresis. The motor reference current is compared with the motor speed feedback signal. The considered model has been implemented in Matlab /simulink environment. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed method under variation irradiation ,in order to increase the performance of the water pumping system. Key-Words: Pumping system, photovoltaic, MPPT, BLDC, Fuzzy logic, Optimization


The Z boson transverse momentum, p Z T , can be decomposed into two components, aT and aL, that are transverse and parallel, respectively, to the di-lepton thrust axis. Using the aT distribution of Z decays observed with the DØ detector, we measure g2, a phenomenological parameter in the BLNY non-perturbative form factor. In a combined measurement with di-muon and di-electron decay channels, using approximately 2 fb −1 of data, we measure g2 = 0.63 ± 0.02 ±0.04 GeV 2. The first uncertainty is experimental and the second uncertainty is due to the PDF dependence of the theoretical prediction. The shape of the Z Boson momentum distribution transverse to the beam direction (p Z T) at a hadron collider tests the predictions of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), since non-zero p Z T is generated through radiation from the initial state partons. A good understanding of electroweak vector boson production is important in precision measurements (e.g., top and W mass). At low p Z T (p Z T Q, where Q is the mass of the di-lepton system and Q ≈ M Z , the Z mass) the emission of multiple soft gluons is important and calculations in fixed order perturbative QCD diverge. There exist resummation techniques, in which contributions from all orders of α s are resummed to give a finite result. Resummation was first applied to the Drell-Yan process by Collins, Soper and Sterman (CSS) [1]. The resummation is carried out in impact parameter (b) space and includes a non-perturbative (NP) form factor that needs to be determined from data. As discussed in Ref. [2], various forms have been proposed, including the Brock-Landry-Nadolsky-Yuan (BLNY) form: S NP (b, Q 2) = g 1 + g 2 ln Q 2Q 0 + g 1 g 3 ln(100x i x j) b 2 , (1) where x i and x j are the fractions of the hadron momenta carried by the initial state partons, Q 0 = 1.6 GeV is an arbitrary scale and the parameters g i need to be fitted from data. (GeV) T * a γ Z/ 0 2 4 6 8 1 0 2 g FIG. 1: The normalized aT distribution for events generated with ResBos [3] for two different g2 values. Using the BLNY NP form factor, the CSS formalism was able to describe universally Tevatron Run I Z data and Drell-Yan data from lower Q 2 …


The present invention is a sliding member, in particular a piston ring for an internal combustion engine, at least from the outside: a first carbon-based layer, a second carbon-based layer of the first Oyobi harder than the carbon-based layer / or providing a layer with fewer H ratio, including a coating comprising a PVD layer and and bonding layers, the sliding member.


Recent Studies of person-situation correspondence demonstrate that people actively select environments that are congruent with their personality, attitudes, motives, and goals (cf. Emmons, Diener, & Larsen, 1986). But do these individual difference variables also influence a person's propensity to remain in an environment over time? To answer this question, we administered the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; Tellegen, 1982; Tellegen & Waller, 1990) and the Age Universal I-E scale (Gorsuch & Venable, 1983) to a sample of 103 lay-ministers from a large, evangelical church in the upper Midwest. Subjects were participants in a church-sponsored disciple-making program, and our dependent variable was length of involvement as a disciple-maker. Results indicated that the lay-ministers endorsed an intrinsic religious orientation and had high scores on the MPQ dimensions of Control, Harmavoidance, and Traditionalism. Using survival analysis, a statistical technique for modeling event durations, we found that disciple-makers who were both low on Aggression and Harmavoidance remained in the program for the longest period. Our findings are discussed in terms of a temporally oriented model of person-situation correspondence.


The aim of the present study is to assess the communication and cultural context constructs through the development and validation of communication measures for the Malaysian workplace.The item analysis involved 200 state development employees, followed by the construct and criterion-related validation using 590 employees, representing three organizations in Malaysia, resulting in the development of communication and cultural context scales for the Malaysian workplace.The results provided support on the use of language (pekerti) and communication and interaction (bicara), which are identified from the items generation procedure.This study also develops a multi-level model to advance research on how the cultural context in a workplace moderates the relationship between servant leadership and team-level organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in a collectivist workplace setting.We tested the model by using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) with data
obtained from 590 employees representing 82 workgroups in three organizations.The cross-level analysis indicated that the relationship between servant leadership at the individual level is strongly related to team-level OCB at the group level and moderated by the use of language (pekerti), communication and interaction (bicara)
in a collectivist cultural context.Practical implications are also discussed.


Abstract : The idea that warfare is changing drastically has garnered significant attention over the past few decades. Some commentators contend that such change is revolutionary, that warfare is entering a new era. Indeed, many historians, sociologists, and even practitioners of warfare argue that the entire history of humankind is entering a new era. A plethora of descriptors exist to describe such change, including terms such as the information age, the end of history, fourth generation warfare, or the postmodern epoch. Current events often serve as the basis for pundits to sound these calls of change. New technologies, developments in international politics, and changes in civil-military relationships seem to arrive quickly and promise unending alterations to society. However, a proper assessment of these developments must rely on a theory-based analysis. Furthermore, this assessment must be cognizant of great historical continuities in war and politics.


0.1. Aim of Ms research. In recent years, the formal elements of Dutch Intonation have been laid down in two comprehensive models ('t Hart, Collier and Cohen 1990, Gussenhoven and Rietveld 1992). With these two formal models at our disposal, the stage seems set for further explorations, notably of the relationship between form and function. The present study focused on acoustic correlates of a major functional contrast', viz. the contrast between declarativity and interrogativity, two functions featuring prominently in everyday communication. Generally speaking, declarative utterances are used for making announcements, relating events, stating conclusions and so on. By contrast, interrogative utterances make a direct appeal to a listener for a reply. While declarative utterances usually have the most basic form of clause available in a language, interrogativity may be marked by special syntactic and/or lexical means, in particular by Inversion of subject and finite verb or by the presence of a question word. These, however, are by no means the sole indicators of the contrast between declarativity and interrogativity. It is assumed that Intonation, also, plays an important role, notably in interrogative utterances lacking the lexico/syntactic devices of interrogativity ('declarative questions'). Thus, if Dutch interrogativity has intonational characteristics of its own, it seems plausible for such characteristics to be stronger as lexico/ syntactic marking for interrogativity is weaker. For the purpose of our research, declarativity and interrogativity are seen as forming a continuum, with Statements (S) at one extreme end, and declarative questions (D) at the other; in between are the wh-questions (W, marked both by question word and Inversion) and yes/no questions (Y, marked by Inversion only). Our objectives were (i) to determine to what extent the acoustic properties of interrogativity· are different from those of declarativity, and (ii) to pinpoint possible acoustic differences among the question types themselves. Also, we wished to ascertain to what extent such acoustic characteristics still need to be incorporated into the two formal models of Dutch Intonation mentioned above.


Heavy metals are known to seriously injure land plants and animals, including humans, as well as marine species when present in contaminated water. For the batch adsorption technique used in this study, Cu(II) ions were removed from an aqueous solution using an inexpensive  environmentally friendly adsorbent prepared from the extracted pectin of ambarella fruit peel. The functional groups of the extracted pectin were studied using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). Operational conditions like pH, contact time, and initial adsorbate concentration were investigated. FTIR characterization showed that pectin was successfully extracted from ambarella fruit peel with the appearance of the peaks at 3331.36 cm-1, 2924.02 cm-1, 1727.38 cm-1, 1626.20 cm-1, 1329.31cm−1, 1232.43cm−1, 994.18 cm−1 and these peaks have similar characteristic with a commercial pectin. The maximum uptake of Cu(II) ions was obtained at a pH of 4, a contact time of 90 min, an initial metal concentration of 150 ppm. The extracted pectin has an adsorption capacity of 6.5860 mg/g for the removal of Cu(II) ions from aqueous solution under the optimum adsorption conditions. In addition, the data obtained from contacting the extracted pectin of ambarella fruit peel in Batang Arau River water showed an adsorption capacity of 0.0376 mg/g. Therefore, the pectin that was extracted from the peel of the ambarella fruit could be used to filter out Cu(II) ions from aqueous solutions.


Otiorhynchus ovatus is an insect which, during the last decade, has become decidedly more numerous in Canada than was formerly the case. Little seems to be known about its habits. It has been sent to me occasionally with complaints of its attacks upon various crops. Among these may be mentioned injuries to the growing stems of potatoes, and also injuries to fruit in the fruiterer's shop. The beetles have been also sent in frequently as having been found in considerable numbers huddled together in dwelling houses late in autumn. Perhaps the most interesting complaint which has been made comes from Prof. W. L. Goodwin, of Queen's University, Kingston, who writes: "I send two specimens of a small beetle which caused so much annoyance in camps on Wolf Island, in the St. Lawrence, near Kingston, Ontario, in July last. It attacked us at night and bit with unpleasant severity."


erative bleeding (4). Immunoadsorption plasmapheresis removed IgG more modestly than DFPP did. The column that was used for the current IAPP has the maximum limitation of plasma processing, which is less than the 1.0– 1.5 plasma volume of DFPP, especially for patients with a large physique. Although IAPP has such limitation, IAPP can offer its benefit if applied properly (e.g. to the patient with a small to normal physique). When shortcomings of IAPP exceed its benefit, we choose DFPP. This is the aim of the ladder of modality choice that we propose. We used fractional reduction for comparing the respective reduction of two substances. The concept can work where two or more modalities have different efficiency or adverse reactions and where their properties must be compared. The value is the adverse reaction that is normalized by the efficacy, which depicts the benefit of IAPP more clearly. Although the present study presents several limitations such as differences in processed volume, observational manner, and diverse primary diagnoses, the results indicated that IAPP might reduce F13 modestly compared to DFPP. Modality choice should be undertaken with consideration of the benefits and shortcomings of modality options.


Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) is a photovoltaic technology that generates electricity from sunlight. Contrary to conventional photovoltaic systems, it uses lenses to focus the sunlight onto small, but highly efficient, multijunction solar cells. Two modules of CPV with a capacity of 6.4 kW (3.2 kW for each) were imported from AzurSpace Solar Power GMBH (Germany) and installed in Middle East University, Jordan, for testing purposes as a pilot project for this niche technology. It is worth mentioning that the installation of the units had been carried out by the faculty members. A range of technical obstacles were encountered in the process due to unclear instructions/steps from the manufacturer. A series of maintenance techniques and corrective measures were implemented in the system after one year of installation since the power output was unsatisfactory. Accordingly, the units were dismantled, and various procedures were conducted in order to ensure that the conditions of the system were on optimum level. In this paper, technical reviews and preventive setup were explained and presented.


We would like to show the existence of nite energy SU(2) Yang-MillsHiggs particles of one-half topological charge. The 't Hooft Abelian magnetic elds of these solutions at spatial innity correspond to the magnetic eld


Non-heading Chinese cabbage(Brassica campestris ssp.chinensis Makino) varieties(003-R-6,Y3-R-4,109-S-9 and 003-S-7) with different resistance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum were selected as materials.At seedling stage,leaf agar disk inoculation method was used to test resistance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.Leaves were used to analyze the physiological and biochemical changes such as the content of malondialdehyde(MDA),free amino acid(FAA),the activity of chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase.The results showed that leaf agar disk inoculation method was highly correlated with field induction,and it could well represent the resistance and susceptibility of the tested varieties.In addition,physiological and biochemical changes were observed after the inoculation.The increase of MDA,FAA in the susceptible variety 003-S-7 was higher than that of resistant variety 003-R-6.On the contrary,the increase of chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase activity in the resistant varieties was higher than that of the susceptible ones.The results also indicated that change of the content or activity of the physiological and biochemical characters after inoculation is correlated with Sclerotinia sclerotiorum resistance to some extent.


Chapter 1: Failures due to long-term behaviour of heavy structuresIntroduction The collapse of the Civic Tower of Pavia: search for the cause Long-term behaviour of masonry structures Collapse and damage of towers due to long-term heavy loads The role of investigation on the interpretation of the damage causes Comparison between the two towers ConclusionsChapter 2: Experimental researches into long-term behaviour of historical masonryIntroduction Tests on the masonry of the Civic Tower of Pavia Tests on the masonry of the crypt of the Cathedral of Monza CommentsChapter 3: Collapse prediction and creep effectsIntroduction Short-term compression: failure analysis and collapse prediction using numerical simulations Long-term compression: experimental assessment Conclusions and future workChapter 4: Effects of creep on new masonry structuresIntroduction The step-by-step in time approach to modeling time-dependent effects Case 1: An axially loaded column Case 2: Composite structural element subject to bending New mathematical approaches to modeling creep Discussion ConclusionsChapter 5: Experimental study on the damaged pillars of the Noto CathedralIntroduction The collapse and the decision for reconstruction On-site investigation on the remaining parts of the collapsed pillarsChapter 6: Monitoring of long-term damage in long-span masonry constructionsIntroduction Monitoring and long-term damage Role of monitoring in the study of ancient constructions Monitoring: methodology and requirements Measuring damage and deformation related to historical or long-term processes Structural modelling and monitoring Case studies ConclusionsChapter 7: Modelling of the long-term behaviour of historical masonry towersIntroduction A continuum damage model for masonry creep Structural analyses of two masonry towers Remarks and future perspectivesChapter 8: Repair techniques and long-term damage of massive structuresIntroduction The bed reinforcement technique The experimental campaigns Case studies Final remarksChapter 9: Simple checks to prevent the collapse of heavy historical structures and residual life prevision through a probabilistic modelIntroduction The safety of ancient towers A probabilistic model for the assessment of historic buildings Fragility curves from the experimental data Application to the bell-tower of Monza Conclusions


Mechanochemistry studies chemical processes in far-from-equilibrium conditions driven by the transfer of mechanical energy from a milling body to a reactive substrate.
The objective of this Thesis is to explore how such mechanical forcing induces and controls the onset of complex dynamics and self-organized chemical patterns.
To this aim we develop a numerical model able to simulate the kinematics of one or more milling bodies within a mechanochemical reactor. We show that, depending upon the elasticity of the collisions and the mechanical forcing, a milling body can undergo a transition from periodic to chaotic behaviours. By characterizing the set of collisions between the milling body and the reactor walls, we point out a strong spatial heterogeneity of the collision distributions (and, accordingly, of the kinetic energy dissipation) consistent with a multifractal topology.
We finally propose a new mechanochemical mechanism for promoting collective behaviours in an ensemble of coupled chemical oscillators, in which the chemical information is transferred non-locally through a milling body and the chemical oscillators are placed at the reactor walls. Our analysis reveals the crucial role played by the spatio-temporal dynamics of the signal carrier in the global chemical coupling. A switch from synchronized to desynchronized scenarios can thus be controlled by tuning the mechanical properties of the device.


This article is a literature review of the letters and declarations about the strategy of health promotion, since the Ottawa letter of 1986. Its objective is search for a historical restoration of their currents and conceptions in order to offer subsidies for understanding the present reality. This article concludes that the Ottawa letter continues to remain a central piece of direction for the health promotion strategy all over the world. It has oriented other conferences, principally when they emphasize social dimensions and the importance of five essential strategies for achieving full health: public policies, healthy environments, reinforcement of communitarian action, creation of personal abilities, and reorientation of health services.


The article is devoted to one of the manifestations of post-mastectomy syndrome - cerebrovascular disorders that develop in patients after radical treatment of breast cancer. The literature review considers the pathogenetic aspects of cerebrovascular disorders, clinical manifestations, methods of diagnosis and treatment of this pathology.


The 8th WSLS marked a further step in the development and advancement of lymphedema treatment. The new supermicrosurgery hands-on course provided par cipants a valuable learning experience of indepth prac ces of supermicrosurgical skills with experts. Live surgery demonstra ons with a wide range of lymphedematous condi ons presented the most state-of-the-art microsurgical and supermicrosurgical procedures by world-renowned surgeons.


In addition to their benefit for prevention of variceal bleeding, recent evidence points to non-haemodynamic effects of nonselective beta-blockers (NSBBs) in decreasing intestinal permeability to microbes and thus reducing the risk of infection. However, clinical studies have shown mixed results. A meta-analysis including three RCTs showed a significant decrease in risk of SBP in patients on NSBBs; however, a prospective cohort study of patients with refractory ascites showed increased mortality in patients on NSBBs. Bajaj and colleagues address this controversy in a large retrospective cohort study of veterans with cirrhosis. Propensity score matching was used to compare patients on beta-blockers with controls. This powerful technique allows patients to be matched on a number of important variables to isolate the effect of NSBB therapy and in effect, model a randomised study. Despite an apparently lower rate of infections in compensated and decompensated cirrhotics using NSBBs, no difference was found once patients were matched on propensity score. The time to death or transplant was significantly shorter in patients on NSBB; however, propensity matching was not performed for this outcome. The major strengths of this study are the large number of patients and the use of propensity scores to ensure that comparisons were made between patients with similar characteristics. However, this methodology is not foolproof. It is unclear, for example, why patients with high propensity scores for NSBB use were not on NSBB therapy. This may be an important confounder. For example, patients in this group may have had poor follow-up or had EVL (endoscopic variceal ligation) instead, either of which may have affected the outcomes. In addition, the study only looked at in-hospital infections and could not account for patients who stopped NSBBs due to intolerance. Ultimately, this study suggests that NSBBs have minimal effect on the rate of infections and an unclear effect on mortality. An RCT would be required to answer the question definitively, but is unlikely to be deemed ethical due to the proven efficacy of NSBBs in variceal haemorrhage prophylaxis. Follow-up of previous randomised trials of NSBBs vs. EVL may be useful to assess the risk of infection with these therapies but would like be underpowered to definitively answer this question. Thus, although these data reassure and support the continued use of NSBB in patients with varices, some looming uncertainty remains.


Amitai Etzioni has recently criticized the (neo)realist paradigm for overplaying military and economic factors and overlooking the independent power of normative ones. Relying on empirical evidence and moral reflection, Etzioni claims his communitarian paradigm to have the distinct quality of acknowledging a major role to global values sharing and political community formation, boosted by a realistic and legitimate American foreign policy that promotes "security first" universally. This essay claims that Etzioni's communitarianism offers no compelling reason for neorealists to consider abandoning their theory - rather the contrary. Etzioni's analysis confirms neorealist core propositions about states as primarily egoistic security-seekers under anarchy, strongly suggesting the actual relevance of a moderate, flexible neorealism that attributes clear priority to national security.


Gentisic Acid (GA) is an endogenously synthesized quinonoid phenolic acid in plants, where it functions as an immune molecule against viral plant pathogens via modifying microRNAs. In mammalians, GA is both consumed from exogenous sources (from fruits and vegetables) and produced endogenously as an endogenous siderophore and as a byproduct of tyrosine catabolism. Besides the edible plants, aspirin is also an important source of GA, since its catabolism produces GA. Noteworthy, humans with variant alleles of CYP2C9 which are incapable to produce GA during aspirin catabolism do not benefit from aspirin in reduction of adenomas in the large bowel. In past, GA was succesfully used in the treatment of rheumatological diseases in humans with high biosafety. GA has an affinity to connective tissue proteins and a higher retention of exogenous GA was demonstrated in humans with cancer. GA has both direct and indirect strong antioxidant effects as a free radical scavenger molecule and as an agonist of NRF2 (Nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2-like 2), an important transcription factor which regulates synthesis of antioxidant molecules. GA blocks cancer promotion in animal models in association with reduction of free radical products and stimulating antioxidant molecules. GA also exerts prominent antiinflammatory effects while stimulating elements of acquired immunity, lymphocytes; which likely occur due to its strong efficacies to block cyclooxygenases, 12-lipoxygenase and acting as a ligand of GPR35/CXCR8. GA also specifically inhibit protumorigenic signaling of Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) and cyclin dependent kinase-1 (CDK1). Sulfonated derivative of GA (2,5-dihydroxyphenylsulfonate, dobesilic acid) blocks subcutaneous growth of C6 glioma; and GA also acts as an agonist of Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide (VIP) pathway, which suppresses invasion of glioma cells in vitro. GA also inhibits OAT3/ SLC22A8, which involves efflux of chemotherapeutics from the brain which may help to achieve therapeutic concentrations of anticancer agents in brain tumors. In future, combined aspirin-GA preparates may be tested for potential activity in cancer prevention and treatment.


Impedance matching between waveguide and slow-wave structure is significant for performances of travelling wave tube.A ladder transition waveguide is designed for the coupled cavity Travelling Wave Tube(TWT).Its parameters meet design requirement.The transmission parameters without electron beam of two cavities loaded waveguide are simulated and were analyzed.The good matching between slow-wave structure and waveguide is demonstrated.


The optimization technique is used for the identification of some best values from the various populations. The Evolutionary algorithm is used as a basic concept of the Evolutionary Programming Strategy. To solve many of the numeric and combinatorial problems the evolutionary programming is applied. The optimization problem is obtained using the crossover and mutation. The mutation operation is performed to identify the best fitness values and solution so as to obtain the result. This paper focuses on Optimization technique which is based on the solution selection process. This process helps to enhance the performance of the optimization technique. This paper mainly helps to identify the best fitness values from the various other populations.


Objective: to analyze the risk factors for sexual dysfunction in stoma patients.Methods: The study was an analytical descriptive design with a cross-sectional approach. Thirty-sevenwere respondents selected by consecutive sampling. Data were collected using demographic, ASEX scalequestionnaires, and questionnaire of risk factors for sexual dysfunction, and Analyzed using chi-square andlogistic regression.Results: The results show that there were correlations among fear to performance (p=0.00;RR=14.66),inadequate counseling (p=0.00;RR=33.33), alcohol consumption (p=0.01;RR=10.12), and biological causes(p=0.00;RR=27.14) with prevalence of sexual dysfunction in stoma patients. The results also show thatthere was not significant correlation among psychosexual trauma (p=0.56;RR=0.37) and socio-culturalfactors (p=0.12;RR=4.26). The factors which was most significantly correlated with the prevalence ofsexual dysfunction in stoma patients were inadequate counseling (p=0.03;OR=20.84 95% CI=1.25-347.47),alcohol consumption (p=0.04;OR=14.66 95% CI=1.05-204.30), and biological factors (p=0.04;OR=19.4595% CI=1.09-346.98).Conclusion: The sexual dysfunction in stoma patients is possibly influenced by a variety of factors, theselection of the right intervention plays a very important role to minimize the risks for sexual dysfunction instoma patients so that the nursing care quality will be improved to be better.


This paper presents a real-time algorithm to predict the energy consumption of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system at home. The autoregressive model with exogenous inputs (ARX model) is used to identify the house thermal model. The ARX model, with the thermostat controller, is simulated to obtain the future state of the HVAC system with the knowledge of the weather forecast data obtained from a weather server. The utility bill for the HVAC system can be estimated if a real-time price model is provided, thereafter. The proposed method is validated by experimentation in a particular home using GE Nucleus energy management system for data aggregation and algorithm implementation. The experimental results show that the energy prediction error is around 15% in both heating and cooling mode of the HVAC system.


The fact that a high level of plasma cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of premature coronary heart disease is no longer in dispute.


Service-learning (SL) was a relatively unknown term in South African (SA) Higher Education (HE) until the late 1990's. In response to the call of the White Paper on the Transformation of Higher Education for "feasibility studies and pilot programmes which explore the potential of community service in higher education" the Joint Education Trust1 (JET) launched the Community - Higher Education - Service Partnerships (CHESP) initiative in 1999. The major focus of this initiative was to assist SA Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to conceptualise and implement SL as a means of giving expression to the mandate given in the White Paper. This paper tracks the development of the CHESP initiative and its contribution towards embedding SL in SA HE. The paper highlights some of the key outcomes at an institutional and national level and underpins these through the results of a comprehensive external review of CHESP undertaken in 2007, eight years after the initial launch.


This paper describes the importance of the Interoperability between the wireless local area network (WLAN) Equipment, then derives how Wi-Fi Alliance solves the compatibility of different types of WLAN equipment through Wi-Fi certification, furthermore introduces procedure, methodology and projects for Wi-Fi testing.


In the present study,anodic films on aluminium alloy was used as the dielectric layer for Cu thinfilm temperature sensor,and then Cu film was deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering ion plating as the sensitive layer.Microstructure and surface morphologies of Cu film were investigated by optical microscope(OM),atomic force microscope(AFM) and scanning electron microscope(SEM).Electrical properties of Cu thin-film temperature sensor were tested by four-point probe technique and Digit Multimeter.The results showed that the surface roughness of anodic films can be reduced from Ra 58.096 nm to Ra 16.335 nm by proper polishing.Continual Cu stripes can be obtained both on polished anodic alumina film and smooth alumina wafer by etching after Cu film annealing.The resistivity of Cu films before and after 300 ℃ as well as 400 ℃ annealing are 12.48 mΩ·cm,5.48 mΩ·cm and 4.83 mΩ·cm,respectively.The resistances of Cu thin-film temperature sensor in 70 ℃ and 0 ℃ are 946.5 Ω and 761.15 Ω respectively.The temperature coefficient of resistivity(TCR) of the sensor is 3479 × 10- 6 /℃.


Various ocular disorders remain a major concern for medical care providers and health policy makers. Only in the US more than 6.6 million people were affected by blindness in 2011 (1). Meanwhile, even though people mostly inhabit low or moderate altitudes, about 140 million people worldwide live above 2500 meters (2). Therefore, association between various vision disorders and high altitude remains a significant health concern for millions of people throughout the world.

Residents of high-altitude areas are affected by reduced oxygen supply conditions. This, on one hand, results in higher levels of a hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1), which increases expression of vascular endothelial grow factor (VEGF). In turn, this promotes pathological neovascularization and subsequent deterioration of such eye conditions as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) (3). On the other hand, high-altitude hypoxia triggers the release of erythropoietin (EPO), a general tissue-protective cytokine which was shown not only to protect neurons following retinal ischemia in vivo, but also to improve their recovery following injury (4). Other findings supported the hypothesis that EPO can be used to treat atrophic AMD (5). EPO administered systemically was shown to protect retinal ganglion cells somata from an optic nerve crash (6).

EPO was also found to be effective in treating various sensorimotor disorders in a rat model of diffuse traumatic brain injury (TBI) and, very importantly, these beneficial effects occurred only under hypoxic conditions (7). Finally, EPO has a wide range of favorable effects in diabetic retinopathy, such as direct protection of retinal neuronal cells and the blood-retina barrier function (8). Those coupled with complex anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects exerted by EPO as well other beneficial properties described above could potentially impact the overall epidemiology of various ocular disorders as well as non-refractive vision impairment.

Undoubtedly, further studies are needed to estimate the prevalence of various ocular disorders at different altitude levels. Currently, however, no population studies have examined this issue. Moreover, I hypothesize that not only the prevalence, but also prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of various forms of vision and ocular disorders can be influenced, in part, by geographic altitude and the major mechanism is the excessive release of EPO in the high-altitude area.

A special consideration should be placed on traumatic and war-related injuries (i.e. blast-related ocular trauma) that occur in the high-altitude level. Ocular injuries as well as trauma to other anatomical structures related to vision (i.e. optic nerve) are often viewed as accidental mechanical impact with prevalence that cannot be influenced by internal substances such as hormones (i.e. EPO). However, ocular and adjunct structures' injury is complex entity with several pathophysiological events such as ischemia from vasospasm, apoptosis, inflammation, etc. An increased EPO production in the high-altitude is likely to affect many of these stages (i.e. cellular apoptosis). Therefore, not only the prevalence of ocular and optic injuries, but also various complications following trauma (i.e. vision impairment) are likely to be influenced by geographic altitude.

Why is this important? Evidence that prevalence of important vision and ocular disorders, ocular injuries and their outcomes may vary at various altitude areas may open up new avenues for treatment, including emergency ocular trauma and optic nerve injury care. Such studies may help to identify various factors (i.e. age, gender, etc.) related to prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of patients diagnosed with a number of vision and ocular disorders at various altitudes. In addition, evidence that the prevalence of some vision and ocular disorders as well as ocular injury outcomes is lower in the high-altitude area would help to identify a new line of treatment with similar effect such as various EPO regimens, etc. Another research direction is to clarify the role of hyperbaric treatment as well as its possible complications in the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of various vascular pathologies. It may also help to establish new research directions in this area as well as contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanism of certain complex eye conditions (i.e. optic nerve injury, vision complications following TBI), which are currently not well understood. Since, on one hand, wartime theaters of operations have occurred in various parts of the Earth and very often much above the sea level and, on the other hand blast-related ocular trauma is one of the most common injuries encountered by military combat today it may also help to improve the initial treatment of ocular trauma, optic nerve injury as well as vision and ocular disorders following TBI from the point of impact (i.e. blast) to the point of medical evacuation (9). Furthermore, there is a need to examine the relationship between various ocular pathology and both acute and chronic exposure to high-altitude. This is of particular importance since a short, more likely than a long-term hypoxia, has been hypothesized to promote the protection to neuronal cells (10). Finally, knowledge of geographic altitude increasing the risk of certain ocular conditions may help physicians and health policy makers to identify new at risk groups.


A mouse model for monitoring rotavirus virulence has been developed. Virulence was age dependent and dose dependent. Virulence was not restricted to a given serotype (s). The porcine OSU strain was found to be the most virulent of the strains used followed by bovine B223 and UKtc strains. Different host strains showed varying degrees of susceptibility to rotavirus induced disease. The CD-1 was found to be the most susceptible and C57/BL the least susceptible strain for infection with rotavirus.


Bioethics and human rights were conceived in the aftermath of the Holocaust, when moral outrage reenergized the outmoded concepts of "medical ethics" and "natural rights," renaming them "bioethics," and "human rights" to give them new purpose. Originally, the principles of bioethics were a means for protecting human rights, but through a historical accident, bioethical principles came to be considered as fundamental. In this paper I reflect on the parallel development and accidental divorce of bioethics and human rights to urge their reconciliation.


Summary: The authors report a new method of detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood. The N terminus of epidermal growth factor (EGF) peptide was bioconjugated to a nanoparticle that can be readily detected by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Initial experiments were conducted with 4 'EGFR-positive' tumor cell lines and with 'EGFR-spiked' mouse blood in order to demonstrate the specificity of the EGF-SERS nanoparticles. The detection specificity was greater than 10 4 :1. Then, blood samples were collected from 20 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head-and-neck (SCCHN) and 3 healthy donors in order to assess EGFR expression, since 90% of SCCHN cells overexpress EGFR (1, 2). Lower density CTCs and leukocytes were isolated from whole blood by density-gradient centrifugation, and then incubated for 30 minutes with EGF-SERS nanoparticles. The SERS spectra were then measured using a handheld Raman system. Positive SERS signals that were greater than background were detected in 17 of 19 patients. Among the 17 patients who showed positive SERS signals in the peripheral blood, 11 were found to express EGFR in the corresponding primary carcinoma. Verification that the EGF-SERS signal originated from CTCs was determined microscopically in blood smear slides. Comment: Previous approaches to measure circulating tumor cells have used fluorescent-labeling technologies or microchip technology that have required additional separation steps (3-5). This was necessary to eliminate particulates and other cell type populations that interfered with the fluorescent readings from the CTCs. The advantage of this EGF-SERS technique is that no prior preparation and sample separation is needed, which increases the efficiency without affecting assay sensitivity. This assay is both simple and specific to detecting CTCs in peripheral blood, characteristics which are likely to lead to the development of a clinically applicable tool to assess metastatic potential. Moreover, it is possible to change the peptide on the nanoparticle to assess different biomarkers which improves the value of this simple assay further.


As the first stage of developments of our statistical theory of turbulence, fundamental aspects of the similarity laws are investigated through the three cases of isotropic turbulence (A), turbulent wake (B) and turbulent boundary layer (C). In (A), it is first interpreted as the essential character of shearless turbulence that the distribution function F 0 ( u , v , w ) takes the form of Gauss function without correlation. Next, the hypothesis of isotropic turbulence due to G. I. Taylor is proved to hold in the case of shearless turbulence with a uniform mean velocity distribution. Then, the hypothesis of similarity preservation introduced first by Karman-Howarth is derived as one of our theoretical result under the supposition of ideal state. Under this supposition we get the diffusion law \(L^{2}{\nbacksim}t\). The decay law in the initial period \(\textbf{\itshape u}^{2}{\nbacksim}t^{-1}\) is derived by taking the vortex chaos motion of α=1. Further, some interpretations are made on the problem of ene...


The relative failure of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to access the benefits of global trade despite several attempts at a variety of international economic models is common knowledge. This paper subjects the trade relations between the United States and SSA within the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to a historical, interpretive, and analytical examination to ascertain the contributions of the preferential trade agreement to international trade of Sub-Saharan African countries. Paper finds that the two-way increases in the trade of the U.S. and SSA under AGOA safeguard the continuous access of the U.S. to cheap produce of African countries. The paper concludes that SSA countries would continue to depend on preferential trade agreements for their international trade.


The structures and spectroscopic properties of SenS8–n ring molecules have been studied by the use of ab initio molecular orbital techniques and density functional techniques involving Stuttgart relativistic large core effective core potential approximation with double zeta basis sets for valence orbitals augmented by two polarization functions for both sulfur and selenium. Full geometry optimizations have been carried out for all 30 isomers at the Hartree-Fock level of theory. The optimized geometries and the calculated fundamental vibrations and Raman intensities of the SenS8–n molecules agree closely with experimental information where available. The nuclear magnetic shielding tensor calculations have been carried out by the Gauge-independent atomic orbital method at the DFT level using Becke's three-parameter hybrid functional with Perdew/Wang 91 correlation. The isotropic shielding tensors correlate well with the observed chemical shift data. The calculated chemical shifts provide a definite assignme...


We introduce a new field theory for studying quantum Hall systems. The quantum field is a modified version of the bosonic operator introduced by Read. In contrast to Read's original work we do not work in the lowest Landau level alone, and this leads to a much simpler formalism. We identify an appropriate canonical conjugate field, and write a Hamiltonian that governs the exact dynamics of our bosonic field operators. We describe a Lagrangian formalism, derive the equations of motion for the fields and present a family of mean-field solutions. Finally, we show that these mean field solutions are precisely the Laughlin states. We do not, in this work, address the treatment of fluctuations.


Endophytic Bacillus subtilis were isolated from mangrove plants of Avicennia marina in Sethubavasathiram - Tamilnadu, India. These bacteria has potential source of compounds especially Nattokinase enzyme.  Bacteria were screened for enzyme activity, antimicrobial activity, fibrinolytic activity.  These findings suggest that the isolated nattokinase enzyme may act as excellent source in pharmaceutical industry.


A number of prior studies have assessed the incidence and reporting of occupational sharps injuries by healthcare workers, noting both a high incidence


Based on insecticidal strains of Bacillus thuringiensis, highly active melanin-synthesizing producer strains were obtained. A waste-free technology has been developed that provides the simultaneous production of biologically active substances - melanin and insecticidal toxins in one production process, which increases the profitability of their production. Due to the photoprotective property of the synthesized pigment, the insecticidal activity of melaninogenic strains was increased. The biostimulating effect of bacterial water-soluble melanin has been shown on a number of different (including important agricultural) plants.


A wireless sensor network (WSN) for distribution bus protection is presented. Architecture of the WSN and bus protection principles are presented in this paper. Based on the traveling-wave generating in power system when a fault occurs, a novel time synchronization scheme is presented. Simulation results indicate that the scheme can acquire US synchronization time and reduce the energy consumption.


Chen and Grapes propose that granites form in situ through the melting of mid-upper crustal rocks to produce a convecting magma layer. This is in contrast to the more widely accepted intrusion model where fusion occurs in the lower to midcrust (with or without the involvement of mantle material), followed by emplacement and crystallization (and local assimilation) in the mid- to upper crust. In the proposed in situ model, the mid-upper crust becomes a closed system requiring only heat input mainly supplied through plate convergence. The implication is that granites represent no net addition of material to the crust, but of reorganization of material within it; hence, they are intracrustal. Individual granites exposed at the current land surface represent the protuberances within the upper surface of this extensive granite layer.

The book is divided into nine chapters. These cover a statement of the problem and related definitions; the experimental, geochemical, geophysical, and geologic …


Approximately 10% of infants in the U.S. are born prematurely1 . Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), the primary respiratory complication of preterm birth, is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, especially in the first few years of life2 . Previous studies have demonstrated that low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with an increased risk of mortality, emergency department visits, and hospital admissions in this population 3-6 . However, the underlying mechanism of how SES affects outcomes and the pattern of outpatient follow-up in this population are poorly understood. We sought to investigate whether the number of outpatient subspecialty visits, a proxy for care received, is associated with SES in a population of infants and young children with BPD, and thus might partially explain the difference in outcomes by SES. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


The orators can be seen to deploy as paradeigmata past events whose particular salience or recency made them more familiar to the audience and thus more plausibly relevant and persuasive.


The standard model of online prediction deals with serial processing of inputs by a single processor. However, in large-scale online prediction problems, where inputs arrive at a high rate, an increasingly common necessity is to distribute the computation across several processors. A non-trivial challenge is to design distributed algorithms for online prediction, which maintain good regret guarantees. In \cite{DMB}, we presented the DMB algorithm, which is a generic framework to convert any serial gradient-based online prediction algorithm into a distributed algorithm. Moreover, its regret guarantee is asymptotically optimal for smooth convex loss functions and stochastic inputs. On the flip side, it is fragile to many types of failures that are common in distributed environments. In this companion paper, we present variants of the DMB algorithm, which are resilient to many types of network failures, and tolerant to varying performance of the computing nodes.


The effects of the behaviour of joints on the distribution of internal forces and moments within a structure and on the overall deformations of the structure are generally neglected [1]. However, where such effects are significant, they should be taken into account. Provisions are given in Eurocode 3, Part 1‐8 [2] for analysis, classification and modelling of joints with respect to rotational degrees of freedom. Provisions for translational degrees of freedom are missing.


inhabits the Sava River basin. We found significant morphological differences between specimens inhabiting the Kupa River and those from its right tri-butary the Petrinjcica River. Results of ANOVA analysis were statistically significant for 17 measure-ments and all statistically significant parameters were considerably higher at the Petrinjcica River sites. These differences are probably caused by the spatial isolation of these two populations due to artifici-al and natural barriers on the Petrinjcica River and different ecological features of habitats in the Kupa and the Petrinjcica River.Key words:


Objectives: To Know the Medical Expulsive Therapy for Ureteral Stones; Beyond Alpha Blockers & Steroids.Material and Methods: This prospective cohort study was carried out to see the effects of adding Serratiopeptidase tothe already established drug therapy, 'alpha blockers' in patients with the ureteral stones size from 05mm up to 10mm,for the medical expulsion therapy. It consisted of a total of 80 patients. There were 63 male patients (78.80%) as comparedto 17 female patients (21.30%). The mean age of the patients was 25.80 ± 06.43 years (Range = 15 to 41 years).Results: In our study the stones were cleared in a total of 68 patients (Total stone clearance = 85.00%). IVU was carriedout in 12 patients (15%). The stones clearance was achieved in 08 patients (10%) by Extra Corporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy(ESWL) and four patient needed surgical intervention (5%). A total of 12 (15%) patients had failed attempt at MET.Conclusion: Majority of the clinicians accept the effectiveness of the anti inflammatory and analgesic properties of serratio-peptidase & this role can be exploited in the medical expulsion therapy of the ureteral stones substituting steroids.


The reformation time of the temperature gradient within the thermal skin layer of the sea surface (top few hundred microns to a few millimeters) after a disruptive event such as wave breaking was calculated. A theoretical model of the heat transfer mechanisms in the skin layer was developed which takes into account molecular conduction, emission of infra‐red (IR) radiation within the water, the evaporation of water, sensible heat flux and net IR emission at the water–atmosphere interface. The time for the skin to develop fully after the cessation of a disruptive event such as wave breaking, was found to be dependant upon the skin thickness. Using equations developed by Fedorov and Ginsberg for the skin thickness, the skin reformation time was calculated for different net heat fluxes, wind speeds and water temperatures. It was found that the reformation time could be as large as 40 s for small values of net heat flux, low wind speed and low water temperature, and on the order of 1 s for higher wind speeds and higher water temperature. In order to determine if the skin would reform fully, it was necessary to determine if the mean time between disruptive events was greater or less than reformation time. It was concluded that the wide range of the coefficient of proportionality λ′ in the equation ΔT = (λ′H tυ)/(kU*) reported in the literature may be partly attributable to measurements being taken when the skin layer was not fully developed.


The natural microbes applied for L-lactic acid fermentation were introduced in this paper.The classic and rational breeding methods were illuminated,and the perspective and development were discussed.


"Pacific" was the key term in the name of San Francisco9s Panama Pacific International Exposition. The fair presented a vision of an increasingly unified Pacific region under the control of American economic and political power. Of course, California had been part of a coherent Pacific region for hundreds of years. Facing the Pacific was a key orientation for both the fair's organizers and visitors. This article accompanies a portfolio of objects from the collections of the Oakland Museum of California