Communal referral service (CRS) has grown to become very popular. CRS is an online community dedicated to sharing, rating, and reviewing deals and coupons across a variety of products and services. CRS usually entails the following properties: 1) real-time deals posted by users and editors; 2) user interfaces enabled by social media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, and WeChat); 3) collaborations among community members and editors enabled by community-based features. Despite the rapid growth of CRS, there is a lack of research about why and how consumers interact with CRS. Careful evaluations of the CRS are critical to ensuring that firms can effectively exploit its potential. This study uses the lens of affordance to examine consumers' attitudes toward the use of CRS and behavioral intention derived from CRS use. We first conceptualize the concept of affordances of CRS and then examine the relationship between CRS affordances and consumer behavioral intentions. We expand the concept of affordance statics interactions among material agent, human agent and the organization to tap into the hybrid form of social media and shopping websites. A two-phase approach research design will be used for the study. Given the limited literature on CRS, in the first phase, we utilize qualitative methods to gain an exploratory understanding of the key constructs and relationships by conducting semi-structured interviews and collecting user-generated text review data on CRS. As a result of the first phase, a research model will be developed. In the second phase, we utilize quantitative methods to operationalize the various constructs and to test the research model by developing measurement instruments and collecting survey data. We expect to test the mediating effect of CRS affordance between consumers' demographic differences and purchase intention. We expect to further build a predictive model on the willingness to buy using CRS affordance and relevant variables. The qualitative exploratory study phase will (1) demonstrate different sentiments towards CRS, (2) identify dimensions of affordance associated with CRS such as functional affordance, subjective affordance, and interactive affordance, and (3) reveal the advantages and shortcomings of CRS from the consumers' perspective. The quantitative model testing study phase will (1) develop and validate the measurement instruments for assessing different dimensions of affordance and the other key constructs in the research model, and (2) provide empirical evidence of the significant role that affordance plays in the interplays among consumers, CRS providers, and product/service providers, and (3) illustrate the mediating effects of CRS affordance on consumers' purchase intention. This research makes both theoretical and practical contributions. From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to the literature by providing insights into the concept of affordance regarding CRS enabled by hybrid social media and shopping websites, by modeling and testing affordance and shedding lights on its role in influencing consumer behavioral intentions. From a practical perspective understanding of affordance can be applied in interface design, in a better understanding of users' intention, interpretation, and evaluation of CRS. By demonstrating the effectiveness of understanding CRS perceptions and use through the lens of affordance, this study also provides product and service providers with insights on how to improve their decision-making processes and marketing strategies.


. A graph is said positively multiplicative when its adjacency matrix A embeds in a matrix algebra admitting a basis B with nonnegative structure constants in which the matrix multiplication by A coincides with A . The goal of this paper is to present basics on this notion and expose, through various simple examples, how it relates to highly non trivial problems like the combinatorial description of fusion rules, the determination of spectrum in Cayley graphs, the description of the minimal boundary of graded graphs or the study of random walks on alcove tilings.


This research conducted to explain the result from the role of Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Daerah (BAPPEDA) Semarang Regency and participation of society in sanitation development implementation in Jambu Village, Semarang Regency. The purposes of the research are society welfare enhancement through a planned effort, do an evaluation of accountable region development plan, do an assesment of region development potential analyticaly, do coordination of integrated planning, and do administration BAPPEDA Semarang Regency. This research is helpful for monitoring and evaluating implementation of sanitation development plan in Jambu Village including to assure policy, program, and project are implemented accordance with the determinded plan, and also to obtain feedback from policy, program, and project that is done as well as in progress. This research used qualitative descriptive method which supported by quantitative data and particularly used mix method research focused on purposive sampling technique to explain the role of BAPPEDA and participation of society in sanitation development implementation. Source of data were primary and secondary data. Collection of the data used observation, interview, and literature review. The result shows that implementation of sanitation development in Jambu Village Semarang Regency has worked well. The positive effect of this policy has achieved proved by society utilize irrigation canal easily for daily life, perceive 'gotong-royong' to other society, and easily get clean water so they have assured health and well field watering. The exist of sanitation development program in Jambu Village is expected affect to better social-economic and physic condition for society thus farmer's income will increase. Key words: village development, sanitation development, society's participation, and the role of BAPPEDA


Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disease characterised by elevated blood glucose levels. Good glucose control is critical to reduce the incidence of complications and improving quality of life for people with T1DM. The Bio-inspired Artificial Pancreas (BiAP), a handheld closed-loop insulin delivery system based on beta-cell physiology, has been developed to automatically control blood glucose in people with T1DM. One of the biggest challenges when controlling blood glucose levels in T1DM is the ingestion of meals. We demonstrate a hardware-in-the-loop platform that allows announcing various meals through an iPad application to the BiAP system replicating real-time feeding. For this purpose, a mixed-meal model library was developed to challenge the BiAP controller using an in silico simulator.


Global equity markets have dropped sharply since the technology stock bubble was punctured in March 2000. This two-year bear market has shaken many investors' faith in stock market investment.


Bamboo has wide distribution in China and great ornamental value.It has profound meaning both in Chinese and Lingnan culture.Combined with the Lingnan Culture and the characteristic of landscaping,the application of bamboo in the modern garden of Lingnan is discussed.


This research aims to explain the results of students' learning in integrated thematic learning using a cooperative model of Numbered Head Together (NHT) type in grade IV of state primary school 30 Desa Baru. This research is a class action study (PTK) using a qualitative and quantitative approach. The subjects of this study were class teachers as observer, researchers as practitioners, and 20 grade IV students of state primary school 30 Desa Baru. The results of this study are: (1) The percentage of RPP assessments increased from 84.6% in cycle I to 94% in cycle II. (2) In the teacher aspect increased from 82.7% in cycle I to 93.7% in cycle II. (3) In the student aspect increased from 82.7% in cycle I to 93.7% in cycle II. (4) Study results in cycle I obtain a completion percentage of 45% to 90% in cycle II.


A resilient link assembly with multiple springs, and a slider assembly for a sliding type mobile terminal having the link assembly are provided to provide a link assembly having mounting recesses in which compressive springs are accommodated, to simplify assembling and provide a thin link assembly. Springs(840) have stop portions(840b) each with a smaller outer diameter at both end portions thereof. The first link plate(810) has one side extending in a widthwise direction and includes spring fixing recesses(824) in which one end portions of the springs(840) are inserted to be fixed. The second link plate(820) has one side extending in the widthwise direction and includes spring fixing recesses(824) in which the other end portions of the springs(840) are inserted to be fixed. When the other sides of the first and second link plates(810,820) approach along a lengthwise direction, respective one surfaces of the first and second link plates(810,820) are combined in a facing manner so as to be slidably moved such that the springs(840) are stretched.


State Justice Institute (Grant SJI-97-N-247), the National Science Foundation (Grant SBR9818806), and the American Bar Foundation. The authors received additional support from Northwestern University Law School and Duke University Law School. The videotaping project was made possible by the interest of the Arizona judiciary in examining juries with an eye toward optimizing the jury trial. Initiated by Judge Michael Brown, then presiding judge of Pima County Superior Court, the project also owes a debt of gratitude to Judge Kenneth Lee, presiding judge of the civil division of the Pima County Superior Court; Judges Michael D. Alfred, Raner C. Collins, Edwin M. Gaines, Jr., Charles Harrington, John Kelly, John Malloy, Richard McAnally, Lloyd Rabb, Charles S. Sabalos, Gilbert Veliz, Stephan Villarreal, and Nanette Warner; the jurors, the attorneys and the litigants who took part in the research; Jury Commissioner Kathy Brauer; Paula Nailon, who shepherded the project through its early stages; and Judge Gordon T. Alley, the presiding judge in Pima County when data collection ended. Professor Richard Lempert provided very important insights to our project in its early stages, as did other members of our advisory committee, including Judge Bernard Velasco, Barry Davis, Andrew C. Dowdle, Thomas A. Mauet, Bruce MacDonald, and G. Thomas Munsterman. We are also very grateful to Robert Burns, Judge Michael Brown, Judge Michael Dann, and Nicole Waters for their expert input on this article. Our thanks also go to Melissa Fitzpatrick, Kim Francis, Betsy Judelson, Andrea Krebel, Monica Quinn, and Alix Rosenbaum, in addition to the other students acknowledged in Shari S. Diamond, Neil Vidmar, Mary Rose, Leslie Ellis & Beth Murphy, Jury Discussions During Civil Trials: Studying an Arizona Innovation, 45 U. of Arizona Law Rev 1 (2003); their work in preparing and coding the data for the Arizona Filming Project was crucial. Finally, we remain indebted to Neil Vidmar for his contributions to the development, execution, and analysis of the Project. Naturally, any errors or omissions are ours alone.


Objective To elucidate the structures of the constituents from the 95% ethanol extract of the pericarp of Sphaerophysa salsula DC.Methods To isolate the chemical constituents,the solvent extraction together with column chromatography was used.Physico chemical characters and spectroscopic analysis were employed for structural identification.Results Three compounds were isolated,and identified as (24 S ) 9,19 cycloart 25 ene 3 β ,24 diol (Ⅰ),(23 Z ) 9,19 cycloart 23 ene 3 β ,25 diol (Ⅱ),(24 R ) 7 β ,24,25 trihydroxyl 9,19 cycloart 1 en 3 one (sphaerophysone A) (Ⅲ).Conclusion Compounds Ⅰ and Ⅱ are isolated from Sphaerophysa genus for the first time.


Binocular fusion relies on matching points in the two eyes that correspond to the same physical feature in the world. However, not all world features are binocularly visible. In particular, at depth edges parts of a scene are often visible to only one eye (so-called half occlusions). Accurate detection of these monocularly visible regions is likely to be important for stable visual perception. If monocular regions are not detected as such, the visual system may attempt to binocularly fuse non-corresponding points, which can result in unstable percepts. We investigated the hypothesis that the visual system capitalizes upon statistical regularities associated with depth edges in natural scenes to aid binocular fusion and facilitate perceptual stability. By sampling from a large set of stereoscopic natural image patches, we found evidence that monocularly visible regions near depth edges in natural scenes tend to have features more visually similar to the adjacent binocularly visible background region than to the adjacent binocularly visible foreground. The generality of these results was supported by a parametric study of three-dimensional (3D) viewing geometry in simulated environments. In two perceptual experiments, we examined if this statistical regularity may be leveraged by the visual system. The results show that perception tended to be more stable when the visual properties of the depth edge were statistically more likely. Exploiting regularities in natural environments may allow the visual system to facilitate fusion and perceptual stability of natural scenes when both binocular and monocular regions are visible. Precis We report an analysis of natural scenes and two perceptual studies aimed at understanding how the visual statistics of depth edges impact perceptual stability. Our results suggest that the visual system exploits natural scene regularities to aid binocular fusion and facilitate perceptual stability.


This research was conducted to analyze IT Capability, Resilience, Self Leadership and Employee Engagement on employee performance as intervening variables at PT.IMR ARC STEEL. This study used the quantitative method of PLS version 3 and SPSS tools. Primary data sources using questionnaires or questionnaires. The population in this study were 70 employees. The sampling technique used is probability sampling technique. The analytical tools used include validity and reliability tests, normality tests, multicollinearity tests, heteroscedasticity tests, multiple linear regression tests, F tests, t tests, and tests of the coefficient of determination. The results of the statistical analysis explain that: (1) IT Capability has a negative effect on employee engagement on employee performance (2) IT Capability on employee performance at PT.IMR AMR ARC STEEL, which means that it has a significant negative effect if employees have good IT Capability, then employee performance will be higher. (3) Resilience has an effect on employees engagement at PT. IMR ARC STEEL. The researcher determines the effect of self-leadership on employee engagement that the variables of resilience and employee engagement have a weak but positive relationship, meaning that if resilience increases, employee engagement will increase. (4) Resilience affects employee performance at PT. IMR ARC STEEL resilience variable has a positive and significant impact on employee performance at PT. IMR ARC STEEL. (5) Self leadership influences employee engagement at PT. IMR ARC STEEL. Researchers established the effect of self-leadership on employee engagement that when employees have a high level of self-leadership, they will really feel excited and involved in their own work. (6) Self leadership has a significant positive effect on employee performance. (7) The significant negative effect of employee engagement on employee performance is proven.


The usage of microbial responses as an indicator of herbicide toxicity in soil residue is well known. The present study is aimed to analyze the heterotrophic and pesticide degrading bacteria in sediment samples of Cauvery River bed, where the farmers are using methyl parathions as a potent pesticide in paddy and vegetable fields. We report, higher incidence of methyl parathion degrading bacterial population in the river bed which can able to utilize the pesticide at a concentration of 5μl/ml. The heterotrophic and methyl parathion degrading bacterial counts in soil sediment samples was carried out on monthly basis from Oct. 2007 to Nov. 2008. The total heterotrophic bacterial count was in the range of 12-20 × 10 4 CFU / gm and the total pesticide degrading bacterial count was 50-90 × 10 3 CFU/gm. Among the pesticide degrading bacterial population, Bacillus sp. was found to be dominant followed by Pseudomonas sp., Micrococcus sp. and Yersinia sp. No marked fluctuation was noticed in total heterotrophic count and pesticide degrading bacterial count irrespective of seasonal variation. The pesticide degrading ability was studied in presence of various parameters. The optimum temperature for the methyl parathion degradation was 37°C, pH7 and there was no change due to the increase in glucose level. Cauvery is one of the main riparian water sources in South India supporting the agrarian activities and susceptible for pesticide contamination due to run off from the agri-lands during monsoon season. The study indicates the presence of pesticide contamination in the riparian water which is the source for drinking and agricultural activity. Hence there is a need for an alternate pest management in this area as environmental protection point of view.


Using density-functional theory with the on-site Coulomb correction (the LDA+U method), we perform the structural optimization of BiMnO3 by starting from different experimentally reported structures. We confirm that irrespectively on the starting condition, all calculations converge to the same centrosymmetric structure, in agreement with the previous finding. Nevertheless, the structural optimization substantially reduces the Jahn-Teller (JT) distortion in the system. We attribute this fact to the strong competition of local distortions around the Mn- and Bi-sites: while the local Mn-environment experiences the JT instability, the one of the Bi-sites favours the off-centrosymmetric displacements, which involves the same oxygen atoms. The existence of the second mechanism explains the difference between BiMnO3 and more canonical JT manganites, such as LaMnO3. Finally, being motivated by experimental studies, we have investigated the formation of different types of defects and obtained that BiMnO3 (contrary to other considered systems, such as LaMnO3 and BiFeO3) can relatively easily form oxygen impurities at interstitial sites. The impurity oxygen atom tends to form a pair with the host oxygen, which explains the insulating character of the oxygen-excessive BiMnO3+x. Moreover, we found that the BiMnO3+x samples experience the "memory effect", where the optimized crystal structure strongly depends on the starting configuration. We suggest that such a memory effect may explain stability of some of the crystal structures of BiMnO3, which have been previously reported experimentally.


Of the 228 patients entered. 25 had been previously treated leaving 203 patients for randomization. Of these. 69 patients are not evaluable for response because of insufficient data (24 patients), insufficient time of follow-up (44 patients), and non cancer related early death (1 patient). Thus 134 patients remain for evaluation of response and of these, 64 received high dose PVB (0.4 mg V/kg/cycle) and 70 received low dose PVB (0.3 mg V/kg/cycle). The 25 previously treated patients were not randomized but assigned to low dose PVB. Of the randomized patients 45 of 64 in the high dose PVB arm achieved complete response CR (71%), 13 achieved partial response PR (20%) and 6 showed progressive disease (P) (9%). Of the randomized patients in the low dose PVB arm 50 of 70 achieved CR (71%), 16 achieved PR (23%) and 4 had progression (6%). Five of the patients with complete response in the high dose group had a sub sequent relapse, but none of those in the low dose PVB group did so. This difference is not statistically different at this time.


Kupinse and Benjamin Lazier assess filth in the contexts of colonialism (the British sanitary campaigns in colonial India and the response to them in Indian fiction) and fascism (against which the abject, for Bataille and others, served as an alternative and disruptive regime of values, or even as a provisional basis for community). Displaying rare depth and coherence, Cohen's volume gives an excellent, eclectic look at the rich figurality of filth and makes a compelling case for its importance to an understanding of modernism.


This corrigendum intends to clarify some important points that were not clearly or properly addressed in the original paper, and for which the authors apologize. The original description of the first Acuros algorithm is from the developers, published in Physics in Medicine and Biology by Vassiliev et al (2010) in the paper entitled 'Validation of a new grid-based Boltzmann equation solver for dose calculation in radiotherapy with photon beams'. The main equations describing the algorithm reported in our paper, implemented as the 'Acuros XB Advanced Dose Calculation Algorithm' in the Varian Eclipse treatment planning system, were originally described (for the original Acuros algorithm) in the above mentioned paper by Vassiliev et al. The intention of our description in our paper was to give readers an overview of the algorithm, not pretending to have authorship of the algorithm itself (used as implemented in the planning system). Unfortunately our paper was not clear, particularly in not allocating full credit to the work published by Vassiliev et al on the original Acuros algorithm. Moreover, it is important to clarify that we have not adapted any existing algorithm, but have used the Acuros XB implementation in the Eclipse planning system from Varian. In particular, the original text of our paper should have been as follows: On page 1880 the sentence 'A prototype LBTE solver, called Attila (Wareing et al 2001), was also applied to external photon beam dose calculations (Gifford et al 2006, Vassiliev et al 2008, 2010). Acuros XB builds upon many of the methods in Attila, but represents a ground-up rewrite of the solver where the methods were adapted especially for external photon beam dose calculations' should be corrected to 'A prototype LBTE solver, called Attila (Wareing et al 2001), was also applied to external photon beam dose calculations (Gifford et al 2006, Vassiliev et al 2008). A new algorithm called Acuros, developed by the Transpire Inc. group, was built upon many of the methods in Attila, but represents a ground-up rewrite of the solver where the methods were especially adapted for external photon beam dose calculations, and described in Vassiliev et al (2010). Acuros XB is the Varian implementation of the original Acuros algorithm in the Eclipse planning system'. On page 1881, the sentence 'Monte Carlo and explicit LBTE solution, with sufficient refinement, will converge on the same solution. However, both methods produce errors (inaccuracies). In explicit LBTE solution methods, errors are primarily systematic, and result from discretization of the solution variables in space, angle, and energy. In both Monte Carlo and explicit LBTE solvers, a trade-off exists between speed and accuracy: reduced computational time may be achieved when less stringent accuracy criteria are specified, and vice versa' should cite the reference Vassiliev et al (2010). On page 1882, the beginning of the sub-paragraph The radiation transport model should start with 'The following description of the Acuros XB algorithm is as outlined by Vassiliev et al (2010) and reports the main steps of the radiation transport model as implemented in Eclipse'. On page 1880 the sentence 'A prototype LBTE solver, called Attila (Wareing et al 2001), was also applied to external photon beam dose calculations (Gifford et al 2006, Vassiliev et al 2008, 2010). Acuros XB builds upon many of the methods in Attila, but represents a ground-up rewrite of the solver where the methods were adapted especially for external photon beam dose calculations' should be corrected to 'A prototype LBTE solver, called Attila (Wareing et al 2001), was also applied to external photon beam dose calculations (Gifford et al 2006, Vassiliev et al 2008). A new algorithm called Acuros, developed by the Transpire Inc. group, was built upon many of the methods in Attila, but represents a ground-up rewrite of the solver where the methods were especially adapted for external photon beam dose calculations, and described in Vassiliev et al (2010). Acuros XB is the Varian implementation of the original Acuros algorithm in the Eclipse planning system'. On page 1881, the sentence 'Monte Carlo and explicit LBTE solution, with sufficient refinement, will converge on the same solution. However, both methods produce errors (inaccuracies). In explicit LBTE solution methods, errors are primarily systematic, and result from discretization of the solution variables in space, angle, and energy. In both Monte Carlo and explicit LBTE solvers, a trade-off exists between speed and accuracy: reduced computational time may be achieved when less stringent accuracy criteria are specified, and vice versa' should cite the reference Vassiliev et al (2010). On page 1882, the beginning of the sub-paragraph The radiation transport model should start with 'The following description of the Acuros XB algorithm is as outlined by Vassiliev et al (2010) and reports the main steps of the radiation transport model as implemented in Eclipse'. The authors apologize for this lack of clarity in our published paper, and trust that this corrigendum gives full credit to Vassiliev et al in their earlier paper, with respect to previous work on the Acuros algorithm. However we wish to note that the entire contents of the data and results published in our paper are original and the work of the listed authors. References Gifford K A, Horton J L Jr, Wareing T A, Failla G and Mourtada F 2006 Comparison of a finite-element multigroup discrete-ordinates code with Monte Carlo for radiotherapy calculations Phys. Med. Biol. 51 2253–65 Vassiliev O N, Wareing T A, Davis I M, McGhee J, Barnett D, Horton J L, Gifford K, Failla G, Titt U and Mourtada F 2008 Feasibility of a multigroup deterministic solution method for three-dimensional radiotherapy dose calculations Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 72 220–7 Vassiliev O N, Wareing T A, McGhee J, Failla G, Salehpour M R and Mourtada F 2010 Validation of a new grid based Boltzmann equation solver for dose calculation in radiotherapy with photon beams Phys. Med. Biol. 55 581–98 Wareing T A, McGhee J M, Morel J E and Pautz S D 2001 Discontinuous finite element Sn methods on three-dimensional unstructured grids Nucl. Sci. Eng. 138 256–68


A brief overview of history of land drainage improvement works in the Lviv region including the basin of river Vereshchytsia have been made. The features of functioning of Vereshchytsia drainage system have been determined. Measures of optimizing of the use of drained soils have been recom-mended. The current state of ameliorated lands of the basin of river Vereshchytsia have been analyzed.


Aminolevulinic acid synthasel (ALASI) is the first and normally rate-controlling enzyme for hepatic heme biosynthesis. ALASl is highly inducible , especially in liver, in response to changes in nutrtional status , and to drugs that induce cytochrome P-450. The critical biochemical abnormality of the acute porphyrias , a group of disorders of heme synthesis, is an uncontrolled up-regulation of ALASI. High intakes of glucose or other metabolizable sugars and intravenous heme are the cornerstones of therapy for acute attacks of porphyrias and both repress the over-expression ALAS, although their mechanisms of action have not been fully characterized. In this work, the chick hepatoma cell line, LMH, was characterized with respect to its usefulness in studies of heme biosynthesis and compared with chick embryo liver cells (CELCs), a widely used model for studies of heme metabolism. The inducibility of ALASI mRA and enzyme activity and accumulation of porphyrins by chemicals were used to evaluate heme biosynthesis in LMH cells. Repression of ALASl mRA and induced activity by exogenous heme (20 IlM) was shown to occur in LMH cells as in CELCs. In addition, a synergistic induction of ALASl enzye activity was observed in LMH cells , as shown previously in CELCs , by treatment with a barbiturate-like chemical , Glutethimide (Glut), in combination with an inhibitor of heme synthesis , 4 dioxoheptanoic acid (DHA). This induction of ALASl enze activity is analogous to what occurs in patients with acute hepatic porphyrias and LMH cells were used to further characterize effects of Glut, DHA, glucose, and heme on ALASA "glucose effect" to decrease Glut and DHA-induced ALASenzyme activity was obtained in LMH cells and CELCs in the absence of serum or hormones. This "glucose effect" was further characterized in LMH cells using a constrct containing approximately 9. 1 kb of chick ALASl S' flanking and S' -UTR region attached to a luciferase/reporter gene (pGcALAS9. Luc). Glut (SO IlM) and DHA (2S0 IlM) synergistically induced luciferase activity (S-fold) in LMH cells transiently transfected with pGcALAS9.1-Luc. Addition of glucose (11 or 33 mM), in a dose-dependent manner, decreased the Glut+DHA up-regulation ofpGcALAS9.1-Luc activity. Gluconeogenic or glycolytic substrates such as frctose , galactose glycerol and lactate, but not the non-metabolizable sugar sorbitol , also down-regulated pGcALAS9. Luc in LMH cells. The cAMP analog 8-CPTcAMP, augmented Glut induction of ALAS, indicating that the glucose effect may be partly mediated by changes in cAMP levels.


A new species of freshwater polyp collected from Zhaoqing City Guangdong Province was described,and was named as Hydra polymorphus sp.nov.The new species was a hermaphroditic polyp.It was similar to Hydra carnea(Hyman,1931a)and Hydra sp.(Campbell,1999),but many distinctions among them were still detected(Table 2).1)The new species' Tentacle /body was 5.5-6.0,while Hydra carnea's was only 1.5-3.0,Hydra sp.was only 1/3-1/2;2)the body length of Hydra polymorphus sp.nov.was 9(8-14)mm,while the body length of Hydra sp.(Campbell,1999)was 3-5 mm;3)the new species formed 1-7 unpapillang blunt cone-shaped testes and 1-6 eggs,while the Hydra carnea have a papillary shape.Holotype 20(hermaphroditic),Zhaoqing City(23.2085 N,112.5681 E),Guangdong Province,China,July 2007,collected by CHEN Zhong-Zhao.The type specimen is deposited in the laboratory of College of Life Sciences,Shenzhen University.


INTRODUCTION This study examines the factors that influence the judgement and decision of auditors when performing an audit of financial statements in Indonesia. Specifically, this study investigates the effect of individual risk attitude, experience, and organisational culture on the conservatism of auditors when performing audit procedures on items of financial statements of their clients. As the Indonesian financial accounting standards are moving closer to full adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), these Indonesian standards have become more principles-based, and less rules-based, in comparison to the previous versions of the standards (Maradona & Chand, 2018). Principles-based accounting standards demand extensive use of professional judgements and require company managers to make a significant number of accounting estimates in their financial statements (Nobes, 2005; Bennett, Bradbury, & Prangnell, 2006; Carmona & Trombetta, 2008; Bradbury & Schröder, 2012; Wehrfritz & Haller, 2014). As managers can exercise their judgments and discretions when determining accounting estimates, and as there have been cases where auditors have been held responsible for failure to properly evaluate such estimates, there has been a growing concern by authorities over the conservatism of auditors when evaluating these judgements and estimates (see Firth, Mo, & Wong, 2014). This issue, in turn, has also attracted growing attention in the auditing literature (Lu & Sapra, 2009; Feldmann & Read, 2010; Firth, Mo, & Wong, 2014; Lennox & Kausar, 2017). Conservatism is one of the oldest principles in accounting and auditing (Watts, 2003; Lu & Sapra, 2009). The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) (1980) defines accounting conservatism as "a prudent reaction to uncertainty to try to ensure that uncertainties and risks inherent in business situations are adequately considered" (par. 95). In a more elaborate manner, Gray (1988) defines conservatism in the context of financial reporting as ABSTRACT


This paper deals with the quasi-dynamic walk of a quadruped locomotion robot using a frequency-shaped optimal tracking control method. In the case of control for a locomotion robot, high feedback (FB) gain should be used in order to compensate the force and the moment from the body and the reaction force from the ground. But if high FB gain is used, high-frequency vibration occurs because of the backlash of the gear. Frequency-shaped optimal control is a control method to improve the robustness against disturbances of this kind. Frequency-shaped optimal tracking control is used to extend frequency-shaped optimal control to a servo system like the trajectory control of the robot. First, we show the design method of frequency-shaped optimal tracking control. Next, decentralized control is realized to apply frequency-shape optimal tracking control. Finally, frequency-shaped optimal tracking control is compared with optimal tracking control from the point of view of simulations and experiments.


Abstract In the recent time rubber has emerged as a very useful and suitable material for wider varieties of engineering and other applications which includes but not limited to domestic, sports and many more. It possesses large elasticity compared to metals, has greater damping capability, high internal friction and can accumulate energy to a greater extent compared to steel or other metals. During the deformation of rubber material, particularly by compressive force, internal damping of the material leads to energy dissipation. This is the cause of hysteretic friction of rubber. Friction of rubber has practical importance. At the same time it has many disadvantages too Use of rubber as engineering material is not new. However, in the recent time its application is gaining renewed importance as well as interest due to several engineering researches and property enhancement too. It is, however, needless to be mentioned that prediction of exact behavior of any viscoelastic material like rubber is very difficult. In the present work compression tests have been carried out to determine the flow characteristics of EPDM rubber of different hardness. Flat mild steel platens have been used to apply axysymetric compressive load on the specimen under dry working condition. The flow behavior like load – elongation curves, true stress – true strain curves and specific energy requirements have been computed from the experimental data. Statical hysteresis and the loss factors have also been obtained. Experimental results reveal that the hardness of EPDM rubber has significant effect on the flow behavior. Thus, it can be stated that the flow behavior can be governed by controlling the carbon black (CB) concentration in EPDM rubber as the hardness depends on it. It is proposed to extend the experiments with the application of different kind of lubricants.


We report the synthesis and characterization of original 'multishell' magnetic nanoparticles made of a soft core (magnetite) covered with two successive shells: a hard one (cobalt ferrite) and then a soft one (manganese ferrite). Our results show that contrary to expectations from simple models in which the coercivity of a bimagnetic core/shell nanoparticle depends simply on the proportion of soft and hard phases within that particle, the addition of a second shell made of a soft ferrite material enhances the coercivity. Taking into account the interactions between the shells themselves and the core may thus be necessary to understand the magnetic properties of such nanoparticles.


This paper sits with the understudied subgenre of the contemporary black maternal memoir in the Black Lives Matter era. We read Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin's Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin and Lezley McSpadden's Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy, and Love of My Son Michael Brown not only as performances of grief and of the birth of political subjectivity—even as they emphatically stage how respectable black maternal political subjectivity is born through loss. These black maternal memoirs also offer what we call strange intimacies, which strain the predictable scripts of the maternal memoir. We read the embeddedness of strange intimacies in these memoirs as a way of refusing the gendered logics of the reception of the black maternal, and as performances of intimacy that refuse and undo normative conceptions of familial intimacy and black maternal loss.


During 1997 and 1998 intensive land irrigation and clearance activities in Indonesia, combined with a greatly extended ENSO-related dry season, created conditions for several months of forest fires. Fires were particularly intense in the lowland peatlands of Kalimantan and Sumatra where both forest and peat fires occurred. A 24,910 km (2.491 MHa) study area in Central Kalimantan has been used to investigate the consequences of fire on peat swamp forest using LANDSAT TM/ETM and ERS-1/2 radar satellite images. By combining data from remote sensed images with GIS and field measurements, it has been possible to determine fire impact, carbon storage in the peatlands and carbon emission by fire. Results indicate that 32% of the study area has been fire affected (796,901 ha); the largest scars are in areas impacted by logging, forest clearance and peatland drainage. Systematic peat drillings showed that huge amounts of carbon are stored in this tropicl peatland (average peat thickness approx. 2.5m) suggesting that the contribution of tropical peat to the global resource is much greater than thought previously and could be as much as 20-30% of the total. Using GIS interpolation algorithms a 3 dimensional volume model was calculated showing that more then 9 Billion m peat are stored in Block C of the 1 Mio ha rice project area (4400 km). Field survey of burn scars revealed a loss of surface peat from a minimum of 0.20 m to a maximum of 1.50 m. A conservative overall estimate suggests that the thickness of peat lost by combustion during the fires averaged 0.40 m over the extensive peatland areas of Central Kalimantan resulting in approx. 3 Gm of burned peat calculated for Block C. Total carbon losses from the 1997 peatland fires in the study area are estimated to be in the range 0.218 to 0.491 Gt C, with the greatest contribution to emissions of atmospheric CO2 derived from peat rather than forest combustion.


Peeking into a classroom shortly before the 9:30 bell, a Connecticut high school student
spotted two teachers screwing each other.


A study of the imrnunogenicity of purified inactivated HFRS vaccine was conducted in sixty five young adults volunteers under randomized double blind conditions. Immunization carried out according to a 0 and 1month vaccination schedule, with a 0.5 ml (10,240 ELISA unit/ml) booster dose. Successive doses of the vaccine were tolerated and no significant adverse effects were observed. 1. By immunoflurorescent antibody technuque, all initially seronegative subjects had IgG antibody positivity in 62% (40 out of 65) in one month after first vaccination and IgM antibody positivity in 97% (53 out of 65) at 10th day after second vaccination. 2. Titers of IgG antibody were 1: 32 after first vaccination and 1: 80 after second vaccination. After completion of two period vaccination, titers of IgM antibody were 3141.1 unit and 2447.0 unit respecitvely. 3. Successive doses of the vaccine were well tolerated and no significant adverse reactions were observed except for redness, itching sensation, fever and myalgia. It was concluded that this vaccine was effective and safe for the prevention of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.


The detailed analysis of the phase transition of sulfur given its modifications is presented and sulfur parameters are analyzed taking into account the temperature and pressure. This information allows you to manage phase transition and produce the particles of a certain size, that is the most important in nanotechnology. The expression for calculating the number of heterogeneous condensation centers in the bulk of dusty gas mixture is proposed. The process of dispersed phase formation and its modes, which allow calculating the main parameters of the elemental sulfur de- sublimation, is described.


SummaryThe present study is the first description of the egg morphology, embryonic development, and time required for hatching, and longevity of the oncomiracidium of Heterobothrium ecuadori (Meserve, 1938) Sproston, 1946. Experiments found that hatching time fluctuated between 7 and 10 days with a mean of 7.5 ± 1 days at 23 ± 1° C and 35 ‰. Eggs were provided with a polar filamentous appendage. The body of the oncomiracidium was flattened dorso-ventrally, 156 ± 9 μm long and 65 ± 8 μm wide. A full description of the egg development and morphology of the oncomiracidium is provided. The longevity of the oncomiracidia was 4–7 days at 21 ± 1°C, with a mean survival time of 121.8h. The ability to rear diclidophorids like H. ecuadori and to record precise information on their development provides valuable data for further studies.


One common constraint in the practical application of speech recognition is Code Switching. The issue of code-switched languages is especially aggravated in the context of Indian languages - since most massively multilingual models are trained on corpora that are not representative of the diverse set of Indian languages. An associated constraint with such systems is the privacy-intrusive nature of the applications that aim to collate such representative data. To collectively mitigate both problems, this works presents CodeFed: A federated learning-based code-switching detection model that can be deployed to collaboratively trained by leveraging private data from multiple users, without compromising their privacy. Using a representative low-resource Indic dataset, we demonstrate the superior performance of a collaboratively trained global model that is trained using federated learning on three low-resource Indic languages - Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu and draw a comparison of the model with respect to most current work in the field. Finally, to evaluate the practical realizability of the proposed system, CodeFed also discusses the system overview of the label generation architecture which may accompany CodeFed's possible real-time deployment.


This study involves the determination of the impact of mutual coupling between antenna elements on the performance of a dual-polarized, wide-angle scanning, phased array antenna for weather radar applications. Weather radars require dual linearly polarized antennas with low cross-polarization, and a narrow beam phased array for wide scanning angle. For this simulation-based study, a microstrip dual linearly polarized 2x20 phased array antenna operating at S-band (2.65 to 3.0 GHz) is designed. This antenna has been designed to have a cross-polarization level less than -45 dB at both polarizations and for the scan angle range of -55o to 55o, which is better than most of the existing dual-pol phased array antennas. This antenna has been used to analyze the impact of mutual coupling on cross-polarization, beamwidth, and antenna gain at various scan angles. Mutual coupling is studied in terms of antenna active element pattern and the corresponding cross-polarization value as well as the active reflection coefficient and impedance values for inter-element spacings of 0.4λ and 0.5λ. It has been found in this study that cross-polarization levels of the whole array (at various scan angles) are affected significantly because of mutual coupling between elements.


One hundred seven ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with 0.3–10.0 keV luminosities in excess of 1039 erg s−1 are identified in a complete sample of 127 nearby galaxies. The sample includes all galaxies within 14.5 Mpc above the completeness limits of both the Uppsala Galaxy Catalogue and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite survey. The galaxy sample spans all Hubble types, a four-decade range in mass, 7.5 < log (M/M☉) < 11.4, and in star formation rate, 0.0002 < SFR(M☉ yr−1) ⩽ 3.6. ULXs are detected in this sample at rates of one per 3.2 × 1010 M☉, one per ∼0.5 M☉ yr−1 star formation rate, and one per 57 Mpc3 corresponding to a luminosity density of ∼2 × 1037 erg s−1 Mpc−3. At these rates we estimate as many as 19 additional ULXs remain undetected in fainter dwarf galaxies within the survey volume. An estimated 14 objects, or 13%, of the 107 ULX candidates are expected to be background sources. The differential ULX luminosity function shows a power-law slope α ∼ −0.8 to −2.0 with an exponential cutoff at ∼20 × 1039 erg s−1 with precise values depending on the model and on whether the ULX luminosities are estimated from their observed numbers of counts or, for a subset of candidates, from their spectral shapes. Extrapolating the observed luminosity function predicts at most one very luminous ULX, LX ∼ 1041 erg s−1, within a distance as small as 100 Mpc. The luminosity distribution of ULXs within the local universe cannot account for the recent claims of luminosities in excess of 2 × 1041 erg s−1, requiring a new population class to explain these extreme objects.


The usefulness of four signature schemes for detecting changes in environment of mobile robot is investigated. Computational and memory complexities of software implementations of the schemes are experimentally compared. Finally, the best of the schemes for considered application is chosen.


In the case of a single point interaction we improve, by using different methods, the existence theorem for the unitary evolution generated by a Schrodinger operator with moving point interactions obtained by Dell'Antonio, Figari and Teta.


Grasses (family Poaceae), which belong to the weeds growing in water habitat between inland swamp and land, have the ability to survive the inland swamp environment that is inundated and poor in nutrients due to acidic soil. Lowland between inland swamp and land experiences waterlogging condition that changes over time from a puddle of water, which is very high in the rainy season, to ebb, becoming dry especially during the dry season. The objective of this study was to find out the variation of biomass in some grasses growing in water habitat between inland swamp and land. The study was conducted from April to July 2009 in Banjar Regency, South Kalimantan, at the villages of Tungkaran, Sungai Rangas, Penggalaman, and Sungai Tabuk. The analysis of samples was carried out at the Basic Laboratory of Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Siences, Lambung Mangkurat University Banjarbaru. There were seven stations, which were determined purposively, with three plot replications; the smallest plot was 20 x 20 cm. Three types of grass samples were taken and measured for individual height, wet weight, dry weight, moisture content and ash content. Measurements of the environmental parameters included the pH of soil and water, and the analysis of total N, P, and K. The average dry weight biomass of Hymenachne amplexicaulis , Brachiaria plantaginea , and Brachiaria mutica ranged from 1,135.18 to 2,556.80 gm -2 , 1,854.88 to 2,480.63 gm -2 , and 1,353.98 to 3,204.9 gm -2 , respectively. These results indicate that the grasses growing closer to land, namely Brachiaria plantaginea and Brachiaria mutica , have higher biomass than the one growing a bit far from the land, namely Hymenachne amplexicaulis .


Cloud computing is a type of internetbased computing that provides shared computer processing resources and data to computers and other devices on demand. It is a model for enabling ubiquitous, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources which can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort. There prevails a difficulty in allocation of cloud resources efficiently. Allocating resources efficiently is the important strategy in cloud environment. Here we are considering the resource requirements of the user and analysing the type of the application based on the resource requirements using K-Means algorithm. Likewise the type of virtual machines are also analysed and made into different groups based on the resources. In a particular group on both side, the virtual machines that satisfies the cloudlet is taken. Then the virtual machines are sorted based on the failure rate and allocating the virtual machine with minimum failure rate to that cloudlet.[1] Thus the resources are allocated


From the Publisher:
Readers will learn the basic features of this popular spreadsheet in just 20 quick and easy lessons.
Each lesson can be completed in 10 minutes or less
Two-color interior highlights key information and makes referencing easy
Timesaver Tips, Plain English definitions, and Panic Button advice help readers achieve maximum productivity


Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) provides a framework for educators to assist children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to increase independence and positive social skills in the classroom (Reichow, 2012). Preschoolers with ASD who do not have access to programs tend to display negative and socially inappropriate behavior, such as acts of aggression, withdrawal, and inability to attend to lessons. Studies on program effectiveness documented that preschool children who received EIBI scored higher on IQ, language comprehension, imitation, expressive language, nonverbal communication, play, stereotyped behaviors and adaptive functioning compared to preschool children who do not receive EIBI. The literature revealed that children with ASD who received EIBI maintained successful relationships with peers through joint attention, displayed increased use of appropriate language, and demonstrated an interest in participating in group classroom activities (Barber, Saffo, Gilpin, Craft, & Goldsetin, 2015). The purpose of the study was to evaluate student development on language, behavior, and peer relationships by analyzing preand postassessments gathered over a three-year period. The study included data collected on a child in a general education non-profit preschool setting. The study was evaluative in nature and documented student progress toward behavior improvement as part of the agency's evaluation policy results indicated that EIBI contributed to increasing the child's socially appropriate behavior, language development, and peer interaction.


During the last three years or so, two slug species, Filicaulis bleekeri (Keferst.) dan Parmarion pupillaris Humb., were found often caused damage of several vegetable crops in Vegetable production central, Rejang Lebong, Bengkulu. Both species feed on and damage crucifrae (cabbage, petsay, and cauliflower), and solanaceae (chilli and tomato) crops and now are considered as important pests. Population abundance of both species range from moderate to high. Field observations were conducted in October 2002 and Januari 2003 in several locations and crops. Population density of both species varied considerably. In some locations F. bleekeri was more dominance than P. pupillaris, whereas in others, the opposite was the case. It seemed that the population growth of F. bleekeri was not affected by plant age, instead, it depend on the initial population before planting and on the population of the surroundings. P. pupillaris population growth, on the othe hand, seemed corelated to plant age.


The purpose of this phenomenological analysis was to describe perceptions of women with irritable bowel syndrome regarding the relationship of diet to their symptoms. Thirty-five women ages 18–45 with a medical diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome or symptoms compatible with a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome were interviewed and completed questionnaires as part of a larger study. During the interview, the women were asked what they thought caused their symptoms. Overall, women tried to adjust their diet to achieve a "Range of Comfort" so their symptoms were tolerable or manageable. To do this, women used a process of "Trial and Error." If a link could be made to diet, then women developed "Self-care Strategies" to maintain a "Healthy Diet." Women who failed to find a relationship during the "Trial and Error" process either felt the frustration of "Uncertainty" or, for a few women, decided that adjusting their diet was not worth the bother. This study suggests diet and eating behaviors are an important starting point for many women as they try to manage their irritable bowel syndrome symptoms.


A mechanism turned a vision camera around a fixed carrot taking 100 images of it. A 3D reconstruction finite element algorithm reproduced the volume using finite area triangles and morphological operations to optimize memory utilization. Volume from several carrots were calculated and correlated against real volume achieving a 98% success rate. Three images 120 degrees apart were acquired and the main features extracted. A neural network system was trained using the features, increasing the measuring speed and obtaining together with a regression algorithm an accuracy of 95% in predicting the real volume.


Equity focused Health Impact Assessment (EHIA). Sydney South West Area Health Service (SSWAHS)Overweight and obesity prevention and management plan. Published by SSWAHS and CHETRE. The SSWAHS plan provides a framework on which to build further strategies to address overweight and obesity issues. The SSWAHS Director of Population Health, Planning and Performance together with the team from SSWAHS Health Services Planning requested that an Equity-focused Health Impact Assessment (EFHIA) be conducted to add value to the implementation of the Plan. The purpose of the EFHIA was to: Focus on strategies that have been identified as having potential to create inequity Develop recommendations for the Implementation Planning Group to ensure that the plan is implemented equitablyProvide a flexible, yet structured approach to identifying and determining the possible impacts of the Plan on different population groups.


a b s t r a c t We consider a switched-capacitor DC/DC power converter with variable switching instants. The determinationofoptimalswitchinginstantsgivinglowoutputrippleandstrongloadregulationisposed asanon-smoothdynamicoptimizationproblem.Byintroducingasetofauxiliarydifferentialequations andapplyingatime-scalingtransformation,weformulateanequivalentoptimizationproblemwithsemi-


Many schemes have been proposed that incorporate an auxiliary buffer to improve the performance of a given size cache. One of the most thoroughly evaluated of these schemes, Victim caching, aims to reduce the impact of conflict misses in direct-mapped caches. While Victim has shown large performance benefits, its competitive advantage is limited to direct-mapped caches, whereas today's caches are increasingly associative. Furthermore, it requires a costly data path for swaps and saves between the cache and the buffer. Several other schemes attempt to obtain the performance improvements of Victim, but across a wide range of associativities and without the costly data path for swaps and saves. While these schemes have been shown to perform well overall, their performance still lags that of Victim when the main cache is direct-mapped. Furthermore, they also require costly hardware support, but in the form of history tables for maintaining allocation decision information. This paper introduces a new cache management scheme, Allocation By Conflict (ABC), which generally outperforms both Victim and the history-based schemes. Furthermore, ABC has the lowest hardware requirements of any proposed scheme –– only a single additional bit per block in the main cache is required to maintain the information required by the allocation decision process, and no swap-save data path is needed.


Abstract : A protection device for an electro-optical detector used in systems for making far field diagnostic measurements of a high energy laser beam comprises a solid silicon cone having a truncated apex which functions as the pin hole aperture for the detector. The large end of the cone has a surface defined by the radius drawn from the cone axis at the truncation. This surface is coated with a reflective attenuation layer which reflects a high percentage of the energy of the incident laser beam entering the pinhole aperture thereby minimizing the absorption of the beam by the cone. The high index of refraction of the solid silicon cone permits large off-axis angles of the laser beam to be directed onto the detector resultingly increasing the field of view allows a closer spacing of a plurality of detectors in the system ensuring a high spatial resolution of the laser beam for a desired field of view. (Author)


The purpose of the research was to determine whether there was an effect of online learning on the increase or decrease in students' interest in learning. The method used is a quantitative research method. The population in this research all students of class X at SMK Muhammadiyah Bungoro for the academic year 2021/2022. The sample in this research was determined by random sampling technique. In this random technique, class randomization will be used with the assumption that all populations are homogeneous. The sample in this research amounted to 30 people. In this research, the independent variable is online learning and the dependent variable is interest in learning. The instrument used in this research is a learning interest questionnaire. In the data analysis technique, this research uses the product moment correlation technique and simple linear regression with SPSS 16 for Window. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that there is an effect of online learning on interest in learning by showing significant results of 66.2%.


For the nondestructive testing of long objects at the Paton Electric Welding Institute (Ukraine), an X-ray detector was created that uses a digital medical mini sensor. To increase the testing area, adjacent digital X-ray images are stored and stitched together by software into a combined image. The thickness of the objects that can be tested with this type of sensor, which has a maximal voltage of 70 kV, is 6 mm for aluminum. This imaging process can be used in a wide variety of applications.
In a second approach, we developed a mobile detector with a remote control for radiographic testing (RT) of objects in limited and hard-to-reach spaces. One application utilizes a robotic car with independently controlled magnetic wheels that allows the detector to move in any direction over the entire surface of the object under test.


Production of sugarbeets has undergone.many technological changes and adjustments in the past decade. Specialized machinery, especially for sugarbeet harvesting, has been substituted for labor. Capital in the form of chemicals has been substituted for hand labor for weed control. The labor requirements have decreased, whereas the capital investment requirements in specialized machinery and equipment have substantially increased. These technological changes and advances in sugarbeet production have made previous information on production costs and capital investments out of date. Because of these numerous and rapid changes, it is very important that production costs data and investment requirements be realistic accurate, and current.


The results presented in this paper came from a field research, performed in order to explore characteristics of daily life and determination of poverty within rural population in the north of Kosovo. The sample consisted of women who live in villages in municipalities of Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvečan, Leposavić and Zubin Potok (N=12). During the performing of interviews with women, age from 14 to 65, in municipalities mentioned above, we noticed large scope of daily life problems those women are facing (as well as their families). Results acquired indicate apathy and the lack of faith in their own resources, which would promote their living conditions. Despite the fact that those women are greatly engaged in working within their family households, they believe that the role of their husbands, brother and fathers is to contact the representatives of different organisations, in order to seek for help. In very few cases, when family members did contact representatives of some of the organisations, they would be returning home without any concrete information on possibilities how to actually get any kind of help (aid). Having that said, it appears that the families belonging to a category of rural population in the north of Kosovo, are primarily left to their own, because according to interviewees' statements, the aid will receive only those "who have somebody in those organisations". Such statements, recorded in all in-depth interviews performed, indicate lack of transparency in work of all organisations (both state and civil sector), which, at the same time represents the very first step in necessary change of work policies of those organisations.


To overcome the problems associated with polypharmacy, which include medication non compliance, adverse drug reactions, drug–drug interactions and increased pill‐burden, various strategies, such as sustained‐release drugs and fixed‐dose combination regimens (polypills), have been developed. Out of these, a novel and very much promising approach is the use of dual‐action drugs. Amongst the dual‐action drugs, there is a class of compounds known as dual inhibitors, which possess the dual inhibitory activity. The most common examples of dual inhibitors are rivastigmine, ladostigil, asenapine, phenserine, amitriptyline, clomipramine, doxepin and desipramine. This review article focuses on the conventional drugs used in different diseases which possess dual inhibition activity as well as those which are still in the preclinical/clinical phase.


3625 Background: Recent publications have drawn attention to the escalating costs of drugs utilized for the treatment and supportive care of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. As more advanced chemotherapeutic and supportive agents are approved, the cost of treatment will likely continue to increase. The goal of this analysis was to estimate costs of frequently used CRC chemotherapeutics and other commonly prescribed agents.

METHODS
Costs of drugs in CRC regimens for patients participating in a prospective, observational study from 115 community oncology practices between March 2002 and March 2005 were calculated. Standard dosages and schedules were determined through literature review and an expert CRC oncologist. Trimmed mean (90%) costs were computed using average wholesale prices (AWP) retrieved from the Lexicon Database Drug Product (January 2005). All prices noted are 95% AWP. All chemotherapeutic drugs were combined to arrive at regimen specific prices. Other regimens were defined as regimens with less than four patients. Price per cycle was estimated based on a standard patient BSA of 2.0 m2 and standard regimen schedules. Growth factor costs were derived from expected per cycle utilization, while prices for other supportive drugs were calculated using dosages for single events.

RESULTS
Patients were categorized into the following regimens ( table below). The price of a commonly used monoclonal antibody is: Bevacizumab ($2613), based on every 2 week dosing. Growth factor prices (per cycle) were estimated: Filgrastim ($2499), Pegfilgrastim ($2928), Epoetin ($552), and Darbepoetin Alfa ($1002). Prices per event for other commonly used agents were: Atropine ($245), Loperamide ($3), Ondansetron ($931), and Granisetron ($232).

CONCLUSIONS
Prices of CRC regimens vary considerably, with newer agents and supportive drugs adding substantially to costs, particularly in late stage disease. Research on improved outcomes or treatment benefits associated with high cost treatment is warranted. [Table: see text] [Table: see text].


The most widely used technique for chronic dissection of the aortic arch and thoracoabdominal aorta is the "elephant trunk" (ET). A technique, in which an original modification of the ET technique was necessary to avoid visceral malperfusion due to the obliteration of the patent false lumen from where splanchnic arteries arose, is presented. doi: 10.1111/jocs.12267 (J Card Surg 2014;29:364–367)


During the first month, this infant vomited immediately after a teaspoon of scrambled egg on two occasions. The third time, at two months of age, he rapidly developed anaphylaxis after an egg-based feed: urticaria, edema of the ears, dyspnoea, wheezing, grunting, laryngeal edema, and delayed refill time. Intramuscular epinephrine and hydrocortisone, inhaled oxygen, and intra-osseous fluids were provided. Symptoms rapidly improved with therapy.


To achieve the accurate diagnosis of tumor with the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nanomaterials‐based contrast agents are developed rapidly. Here, a tumor targeting nanoprobe of c(RGDyK) modified ultrasmall sized iron oxide is reported with high saturation magnetization and high T1‐weighted imaging capability, attributed to a large number of paramagnetic centers on the surface of nanoprobes and rapid water proton exchange rate (inner sphere model), as well as strong superparamagnetism (outer sphere model). These nanoprobes could actively target and gradually accumulate at the tumor site with a time‐dependent T1–T2 contrast enhancement imaging effect. In in vivo MRI experiments, the nanoprobes exhibit the best T1 contrast enhancement at 30 min after intravenous administration, followed by gradually vanishing and generating T2 contrast enhancement with increasing time at tumor site. This is likely due to time‐dependent nanoprobes aggregation in tumor, in good agreement with in vitro experiment where aggregated nanoprobes display larger r2/r1 value (19.1) than that of the dispersed nanoprobes (2.8). This dynamic property is completely different from other T1‐T2 dual‐modal nanoprobes which commonly exhibit the T1‐ and T2‐weighted enhancement effect at the same time. To sum up, these c(RGDyK) modified ultrasmall Fe3O4 nanoprobes have significant potential to improve the diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity in MRI.


Objective To observe the protective effect of Shenfu Injection (SFI) on ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury of liver,small intestine and pancreas in rabbits with controlled hemorrhagic shock.Methods Eighteen healthy rabbits were randomly divided into the sham operation group,the control group and the treated group,six in each.Using Lam- son shock model,after mean arterial pressure (MAP) being maintained at 40 mmHg for 90 rain,followed with 90 min of reperfusion,levels of malondialdehyde (MDA),superoxide dismutase (SOD),tumor necrosis factor α(TNF-α) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) in liver,small intestine and pancreas tissue were measured.And the ultra- structure of terminal segment of small intestine was observed.Results After 90 min of reperfusion,levels of MDA, TNF-α and ICAM-1 in rabbits' liver,small intestine and pancreas were lower and level of SOD was higher in the treat- ed group than those in the control group (P0.01 or P0.05) respectively.Conclusion SFI could reduce the lipid peroxidation and inflammatory reaction to certain extent in celiac viscera of hemorrhagic shock rabbits after I/R in- jury.


Social media advertising has become an integral part of product promotion by many companies. This strategy has impacted the sales and revenue departments of many advertisers. Hence, a strategically targeted advertising is needed to maximise return on investment on advertising in the form of sales, revenue, and profit. Although most businesses recognise the value of social media advertising opportunities, not many have figured out how to execute this strategy accordingly. With many western corporations embracing social media advertising, it is high time for Malaysian businesses to delve into this advertising territory. In order to familiarise them to the attitude of customers' towards social media advertising, this study is timely to provide useful insights to guide Malaysian businesses.Findings from this study will help advertising managers to ensure efficient utilisation of their budget and development of more effective advertising strategy, especially when formulating strategies to cater to Gen Y in Malaysia. Based on the data collected from 1,087 Gen Y consumers in Malaysia, the effect of belief factors (lifestyle, privacy and security concern, entertainment and credibility) on attitude towards social media advertising was examined. Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to assess the hypothetical relationships between the belief factors and attitude towards social media advertising, purchase intention and actual purchase. The results revealed that the belief factors (lifestyle, privacy and security concern, entertainment and credibility) manifested a positive influence on attitude towards social media advertising.


Inspired by Peter Wegner's analysis of the paradigm shift fr om algorithms to interaction and of his conclusion that "proving correctn ess of interactive systems is not merely difficult but impossible," we outline some consequences that we see inevitable for the specification and design of interac ive systems. The technical feasibility of the proposed solutions has been ju stified by theoretical results and practical experimentation. Although many of th e claims have been widely accepted in academic research, and none of them is new , th ir practical significance has not yet been generally recognized in softwa re engineering. In particular, most proponents of object-oriented specificat on and design seem to be unaware of them. 1 From Algorithms to Interaction Interaction is an essential characteristic of modern software and of com plex artifacts constructed as embedded systems. As a consequence, the essence of computing is no longer in the output values computed for given input data, but in the temporal behaviorsthat a system is capable of generating in cooperation with its environmen t. In software design practice the new interactive paradigm is reflected inobject-orientation and in the use of scenariosanduse cases , embedded in novel approaches like UML [23], for instance. The algorithmic paradigm, which treats programs s input/output transformations, has clearly become insufficient, but is still commonly used a s the basis for understanding software. For instance, most formalizations of object-oriente d concepts are still essentially algorithmic in nature. In his CACM article "Why interaction is more powerful than al gorithms," Peter Wegner analyzes the theoretical significance of this paradigm s hift that "captures the technology shift from mainframes to workstations and networks, from nu mber-crunching to embedded systems and graphical user interfaces, and from procedureoriented to object-based and distributed programming" [20]. Defining "interaction machine s" as a generalization of Turing machines he notes an essential increase in the associated co mplexity of reasoning, concluding that "proving correctness of interactive systems is not merely difficult but impossible." The purpose of this paper is to analyze the significance that t his complexity has for the engineering of interactive systems. The main conclusion is that, since interactive systems are not natural phenomena but artifacts, it is possible to avoid the complexity that would be inherent in dealing with arbitrary interactive systems. This requires, however, integration of the theoretical foundations of interaction into the design methods that are used in practice, and effective use of proper abstractions. While "the irredu cibility of interaction to algorithms enhances the intellectual legitimacy of computer science a s a discipline distinct from mathematics" [20], we believe that a similar enhancement is then due in the intellectual basis of software engineering. The structure of the rest of the paper is as follows. The funda mental principles in the modeling of interactive systems are discussed in Section 2. Sec tion 3 is the core of the paper, where we outline how the complexity of interactive systems can be m astered by effective use of abstractions during the design process. The role of component s and object-orientation is revisited in Section 4, and the paper ends in some concluding remar ks in Section 5. 2 Modeling of Interactive Systems Before addressing how the inherent complexity of interacti ve systems can be mastered we give a brief analysis of some basic issues in their modeling. In pa rticular, we discuss the inadequacy of such basic principles as encapsulated methods and the ope n-system paradigm, which are usually accepted without criticism. 2.1 Interaction and Encapsulated Methods To emphasize interaction, the word "behavior" is used in obj ect-oriented terminology, for instance. The algorithmic paradigm is, however, still eviden t in defining "behavior" as the collection of methods – input-output transformations – availa ble for an object. It is a most elementary observation that temporal and cooperative aspects are essential in all interactive behaviors. As "it takes two to tango," an isolated object gener at s no behaviors. Claim 1 Temporal and collective aspects are in the very heart of inte ractive behavior. An inherent characteristic of the algorithmic paradigm is t hat software entities are described in isolation from the contexts where they are (inten ded to be) used. Whether this is useful or not depends on what one is interested in. Obviously , such descriptions are needed in the implementation of reusable components, for instance. F rom this one should not, however, draw the conclusion that the same would be true for earlier st ages of software development. Independent description of components requires detailed s p cification of their (static) interfaces, which is irrelevant in specifying what these comp nents are intended to do (dynamically) in cooperation. Therefore, from the viewpoint of sys tem specification, traditional specification of objects in terms of attributes and encapsulated m thods has two severe shortcomings: strong bias towards eventual implementation, and fai lure to describe the intended dynamic behaviors [11]. The awkwardness of such an approach to system specification would be evident in any attempt to describe tango by first defining th e encapsulated methods that the two partners would need. Claim 2 By requiring detailed interface definitions, the encapsula tion of methods in objects introduces unnecessary complexity in the specification and mo eling of interactive behaviors. Some recognition of these problems is reflected in current wo rk here dynamic behaviors are expressed as scenarios or use cases. The fundamental imp ortance of dynamic behaviors is, however, not fully understood when they are given an auxi liary or informal role only, as it usually is the case. Claim 3 Dynamic behaviors are more fundamental for rigorous reason ing on interactive systems than methods and interfaces, and should be treated as su ch. 2.2 Interaction and Concurrency Interaction and concurrency are intimately tied together. On one hand, coordination of concurrency requires interaction. On the other hand, the exist nce of concurrent parties is always inherent in interaction. Claim 4 Interaction and concurrency are inseparable. The notion of methods is essentially based on a sequential mo del of computing. Although degenerate temporal behaviors are possible, where only one of th cooperating parties is active at a time while all others are passively waiting, it is unreas onable to adopt such a sequential starting point in dealing with inherently interactive beha viors. This explains why conventional object-orientation leads to complications with concurren t objects. It is true that computer architectures – and hence also implementations of software – a basically sequential, but such implementation-oriented aspects should not constrain ear ly stages of system development. Claim 5 Adding concurrency control mechanisms to an essentially se quential model of computing is an unnecessarily complex way of dealing with inter active behaviors. Starting with an essentially sequential model of computing not only results in unnecessary complexity; it also leads to ignoring some essential pr ope ties. A prime example of this is livenessproperties. 1 In sequential computing one only needs the simple implicit l iveness assumption that a program never halts prematurely. Therefore , c ncepts derived from sequential models hide liveness properties, and all interest is then fo cused onsafetyproperties. 2 However, responsiveness in interactive systems is based on non trivial liveness assumptions, which have to be made explicit. Claim 6 Basically sequential models of computing ignore liveness p roperties, which are essential in interactive behaviors. By definition, algorithms are deterministic. However, lack and deliberate hiding of information, as well as postponement of design decisions, inevit ably lead to nondeterministic modeling. Dealing with concurrency, unknown relative speeds a nd communication delays make nondeterminism a necessity even at the programming-langua ge level. Claim 7 Nondeterminism is inherent in the modeling of interactive b ehaviors. 2.3 Closed-System Principle The development of theories is guided by the questions asked . Theories of computing have usually asked what programs, procedures, objects, etc., ar e as mathematical entities. Since the isolation of program units from their environments is in herent already in these questions, the answers cannot do otherwise. Focusing on interactive behaviors requires to ask what inte rac ions are, and what the entities are that generate them. Since open systems do not genera te b haviors by themselves, we conclude: 1Informally, a liveness property is a property of the form "so mething good will eventually happen." 2Informally, a safety property is of the form "nothing bad eve r happens." Every property of temporal behaviors is a conjunction of a safety property and a livenes s property. Claim 8 Dealing with interactive behaviors, the basic entities to b e described are not isolated program units, but closed systems that include also the environments in which such units are used. A common argument against closed-system specifications is t hat, since an implementation has no control over its environment, it makes no sense to try t o constrain it in a specification. However, also every open-system specification makes some as sumptions about its environment. In particular, every specification of an embedded syst em "constrains" its environment in this sense, because it can never specify all interactions hat are physically possible. In the light of this trivial observation, closed-system specifica tions only extend the possibilities to express such assumptions. They a


Equal opportunities for regions´ development is one of objectives of Czech Republic´s and European Union´s regional policy in order to guarantee that their demographic, environmental and economic potential is used to the utmost degree. With the lowering of disparities of regions and strengthening their economic and social conditions resources from structural funds play substantive role. Employing resources provided from structural funds should be aimed to efficient use of all conditions and factors to promote desirable development of region. The paper discuss possibility of assessment of injected funds 'overall impact to general conditions of region.


In this paper, a coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed planar fractal antenna for bandwidth enhancement is designed. The proposed antenna consists of two iterations modified Sierpinski square slots with hexagonal radiation patch and CPW feed line. The simulated results indicate an impedance bandwidth of 133.5% (over 2.86-14.36 GHz)and a maximum peak gain of 5.5 dBi with stable radiation pattern. This antenna is designed on Rogers RO4350B substrate with height of 1.524 mm and 26⨯25 mm2of size. The designed antenna has a good potential to be used for UWB applications with compact size and better performance.


Viewers of 40 30-second television commercials, tested in malls, reacted to various musical aspects of the advertisements, such as to the tempo, volume, melody, or mode (such as in a major or minor key). The mode caused the greatest number of reactions, as measured by a Viewer Response Profile (VRP). The commercials reflected eight products, including coffee and candy, and the study found that viewers did make an important association between the product and the music, but there were many complex interactions involving music and product.


The Subthalamic nucleus, a key node in the cortical-striatal circuitry that is involved in inhibitory control, is thought to delay or stop an unwanted motor plan. However, the precise cortical mechanisms and timing characteristics that drive the STN inhibitory signals remain unclear. Understanding how these pathways differentially contribute to inhibitory control is crucial for guiding emerging neuromodulatory therapies for neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases. An emerging hypothesis posits that Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) activity modulates STN activity to generate early global inhibitory signal to halt all ongoing action plans to afford more time to respond followed by a more targeted inhibitory signal projecting to the basal ganglia to selectively suppress the conflicting action impulse


An occluded or dark region in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, known as a shadow, is created when incident radar energy is obstructed by a target with height from illuminating resolution cells immediately behind the target in the ground plane. Shadows depend on the physical dimensions and mobility of a target, platform and radar imaging parameters, and scene clutter. Target shadow dimensions and intensity can be important radar observables in SAR imagery for target detection, location, and tracking or even identification. Stationary target shadows can provide insight as to the physical dimensions of a target, while moving target shadows may show more accurately the location and motion of the target over time versus Doppler energy which may be shifted or smeared outside the scene. However, SAR shadows prove difficult to capture as a target or platform moves, since the quality of the no-return area may quickly be washed-out in a scene over many clutter resolution cells during an aperture. Prior work in the literature has been limited to describing partial shadow degradation effects from platform or target motion of vehicles such as static target shadow tip or interior degradation during an aperture, or shadow degradation due to target motion solely in cross-range. In this paper, we provide a more general formulation of SAR shadow dimensions and intensity for non-specific targets with an arbitrary motion.


Double- J stent or ureteral stent is a commonly used prosthesis in post-operative cases of various urologic surgeries for adequate drainage of urine and also helps in passage of small and residual stones. This is a case report of a 32 year old female who came for follow-up for DJ stent removal after a successful and uneventful PCNL procedure. On cystoscopic examination the ureteral stent was found completely coated with urothelium. The urothelium was incised and ureteral stent removed.


Predicting the failure of companies is one of the important and influencing matters, whether for the companies themselves, competing companies or investors. In addition, to the effect of this on the country's economies. In our research, the logistic regression technique was applied to know the most important variables that have a significant effect on the failure or success of companies. The research also includes the arrangement of these variables according to their importance in influencing the dependent variable that represents the failure or success of companies. The application was applied to a sample with size of (33) companies that included (16) successful companies and (17) failed companies. However, four quantitative variables were specified as well as the dependent variable (Y), which is a qualitative variable. And that the model which was built proved the tests significantly and its ability to classify correctly by 84.8%.


Cytokines are protein molecules that cells from the immune system secrete in response to immune stimulation. There are different techniques to study their production and their action on individuals. This study consists of the development of a real time RT-PCR method for the detection of the expression of mRNA coding for six cytokines (TNF-α, IFNγ, IL-4, IL2, IL10, IL-12). The preliminary results were obtained from the study of lymphocites stimulated with Con A and LPS, showing the detection of ARNm, IL-4, IL-2, IFNγ and TNF-α, IL-12, IL-10, respectively. Its subsequent application in sheep that were vaccinated against Chlamydophila abortus, allowed the detection of mRNA expression for the six cytokines.


That images specifically are often ambiguous is without question. Here is one image that circulated the internet (Fig. 1). Of course, it is instructions from a hand dryer found in public bathrooms. However, the graffiti that is often found scratched on it reads, "Push button, receive bacon." Of course, no one gets bacon from the wall so there are no consequences to this joke. But there are plenty of times when images and diagrams need to be understood quickly and efficiently, which is no joke.How can we talk about this ambiguity? We have already noted the gulf separating the goals of the biology of art and visual studies. We have also already noted that the aims of each are decidedly different: one going after things (ontology) and the other our knowledge of what we think about things (epistemology) (Minnerup, 2007). Here, we can at least say that an approach based on nature or nurture will not suffice.Psychologists and biologists play into this ambiguity when they talk about a skill that is found in the genetic code rather than the expression of a genetic trait in a sentient being. Meanwhile, postmodernists believe that the only thing that is meaningfully scientific is genetic. And so the whole debate goes round and round. The approach I would take here is based on constancy in evolution, that is, the way in which organisms use the regularities they find in interaction with the environment, behavioral patterns of stasis, to do their living.According to such a view, understanding behavior is not about structure (histology) or learning (experience) but rather their dynamic interaction. Learning itself is a dynamic process that is systemdirected. To learn is to learn via a dynamic system. Some patterns of perception, of behavior, are preferred because it is easier for the organism to adopt them. For example, the difference between walking and running is not a linear change of speed and length of stride, but a phase change, a qualitative change from walking to running and in the middle is a chaotic bifurcation, or catastrophy.In the famous debate between Piaget and Chomsky (PiattelliPalmarini, 1981), this was the middle path outlined by the linguist Jean Petitot. The blanket notion of "enculturation" is overworked and is not much of an ally for the proponent of visual studies. Behaviors are not absorbed by whole populations but depend on interactions and require some form of intermediation, which is psychology.As noted in the Introduction, "Cognitive," "perceptual" and "psychological" are used here interchangeably to refer to psychological facts of the science of behavior (even though we are speaking mostly of sensory perception) true of all human beings, necessarily instantiated in, but not derivative, of culture (Mandelbaum, 1972/1984; Manicas, 1982; Hatfield, 2002; Moll, 2004). We must simply begin with the premise that there are psychological and societal contributions that make up a semiotic or communicative act. A naive conflationism, whether a pure mixture or a reductive psychologism or sociologism, will simply stall productive research. The missing psychological contribution to visual culture is precisely what I am calling "cognitive iconology": "cognitive" as a psychological indicator and "iconology" as a reminder that the "logic of images" includes both its historical context and its psychological effects upon perceivers.Arnheim's WoesThe sore need for an articulated cognitive iconology can be seen in the woes Rudolf Amheim has faced in the misunderstanding of his theories. It is often said that his psychology of art is too naive for present concerns in the analysis of images. David Carrier (1997) writes how "Amheim's essentially ahistorical way of thinking treats art from all cultures as immediately accessible right now" (p. 92). However, Amheim is merely the most distinguished proponent of "cognitive iconology" as utilized in its proper place.Amheim indeed outlines perceiving principles that he believes are operative for the artistic traditions of all people (i. …


Purpose: This study compared the effects of coating implants with hydroxyapatite (HA) using an ion beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) method prepared with machined, anodized, sandblasted and large-grit acid etched (SLA) surfaces in minipigs, and verified the excellency of coating method with HA using IBAD. Material and Methods: 4 male Minipigs(Prestige World Genetics, Korea), 18 to 24 months old and weighing approximately 35 to 40 kg, were chosen. All premolars and first molars of the maxilla were carefully extracted on each side. The implants were placed on the right side after an 8 week healing period. The implant stability was assessed by resonance frequency analysis (RFA) at the time of placement. 40 implants were divided into 5 groups; machined, anodized, anodized plus IBAD, SLA, and SLA plus IBAD surface implants. 4 weeks after implantation on the right side, the same surface implants were placed on the left side. After 4 weeks of healing, the minipigs were sacrificed and the implants were analyzed by RFA, histology and histometric. Results: RFA showed a mean implant stability quotient (ISQ) of 75.625±5.021, 76.125± 3.739 ISQ and 77.941±2.947 at placement, after 4 weeks healing and after 8 weeks, respectively. Histological analysis of the implants demonstrated newly formed, compact, mature cortical bone with a nearby marrow spaces. HA coating was not separated from the HA coated implant surfaces using IBAD. In particular, the SLA implants coated with HA using IBAD showed better contact osteogenesis. Statistical and histometric analysis showed no significant differences in the bone to implant contact and bone density among 5 tested surfaces. Conclusion: We can conclude that rough surface implants coated with HA by IBAD are more biocompatible, and clinical, histological, and histometric analysis showed no differences when compared with the other established implant surfaces in normal bone. (J Korean Acad Periodontol 2008;38:363-372)


We examine index compression techniques for schemaindependent inverted files used in text retrieval systems. Schema-independent inverted files contain full positional information for all index terms and allow the structural unit of retrieval to be specified dynamically at query time, rather than statically during index construction. Schemaindependent indices have different characteristics than document-oriented indices, and this difference can affect the effectiveness of index compression algorithms greatly. Our experimental results show that unaligned binary codes that take into account the special properties of schema-independent indices achieve better compression rates than methods designed for compressing document indices and that they can reduce the size of the index by around 15% compared to byte-aligned index compression. Moreover, we present a number of performance-enhancing techniques that may be used to very efficiently decode unaligned codes. Thus, their more compact index representation does not carry the cost of a substantially decreased query processing performance. This contradicts most earlier results on the decoding performance of unaligned codes.


A mathematical method is presented which leads in a direct manner both to an explicit expression for the frequency distribution of a disordered chain of atoms and to a powerful technique for the numerical evaluation of the spectrum. The application of the method to a model of a binary alloy is then considered.


Objective To evaluate image quality of aortic and coronary arteries and radiation dose in retrospective electrocardiography (ECG)-gated thoracal-abdominal dual-source computed tomographic angiography (CTA) of aorta. Methods Totally 45 patients who underwent aorta CTA from December 2009 to November 2010 were evaluated retrospectively. Among them 23 patients underwent retrospective ECG-gated thoracal-abdominal dual-source CTA of aorta, while 22 underwent conventional non-ECG-gated aortic CTA. The attenuation and image noise of 4 parts of aorta (aortic root, aortic arch, abdominal aorta, and aortic bifurcation) were evaluated. Image quality of aortic root and coronary arteries were assessed using a 3-point scale. Attenuation, image noise, image quality, and radiation dose were compared between two groups who underwent different scan protocols. Results Attenuation of 4 different parts of aorta showed no significant difference between two groups (P0.05). Image noise was significantly lower in conventional non-ECG-gated group than in retrospective ECG-gated group (P=0.002). The percentage of patients with diagnostic image quality was high in retrospective ECG-gated group: aortic root, 100%(23/23); coronary artery, 83%(19/23), which was significantly higher than in conventional non-ECG-gated group; aortic root, 5% (1/22); coronary artery, 0% (0/22) (P0.001). The effective radiation dose was significantly higher in retrospective ECG-gated group than in conventional non-ECG-gated group (P=0.038). Conclusions Retrospective ECG-gated thoracal-abdominal dual source CTA of aorta provides well attenuated whole aorta, well displayed aortic root, and assessable coronary arteries. However, the effective radiation dose used in this mode is higher than that in conventional non-ECG-gated aortic CTA.


We present a detailed investigation of atmospheres around accreting neutron stars with high magnetic field (B ≳ 1012 G) and low luminosity (L ≲ 1033 ergs s-1). We compute the atmospheric structure, intensity, and emergent spectrum for a plane-parallel, pure hydrogen medium by solving the transfer equations for the normal modes coupled to the hydrostatic and energy balance equations. The hard tail found in previous investigations for accreting, nonmagnetic neutron stars with comparable luminosity is suppressed, and the X-ray spectrum, although still harder than a blackbody at the star effective temperature, is nearly Planckian in shape. Spectra from accreting atmospheres, both with high and low fields, are found to exhibit a significant excess at optical wavelengths above the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the X-ray continuum.


Abstract Two groups of six subjects were equated on the Balke-Ware Test. One group gave 500 cc of blood, the other group did not but believed it had. The treadmill test was repeated (a) immediately following, (b) 24 hr. after, and (c) seven days after the donation or supposed donation. There were no statistically significant changes in treadmill performance time. Recovery measures were difficult to interpret because of variability in work capacity from trial to trial.


In the bruchid Caryedon serratus, life span of males was longer than that of females. Catalase showed an increasing trend with age in both the sexes but the increase was higher in males. However, an opposite trend was observed for lipid peroxide levels. A rapid decline of NADH and succinate dehydrogenases in females is indicative of early depletion of food reserves due to the higher metabolic rate. Thus, in C. serratus, the factors contributing to relatively higher life span of males are efficient homeostatic defence mechanisms and low oxidative damage in males, early maturity and more reproductive demands in females.


The paper describes the final technology of launching the steel bridge superstructure. The original
technology failed in the first construction stage. Local damage of steel webs caused by plastic buckling
stopped the procedure. In the effect of damage a new consulting team was employed to solve the problem and
redesign a technology of constructing. The key element of the new solution was developed with great help of
non-linear shell FEM model of a span. The paper presents construction methods, applied theoretical analysis
and a number of conclusions resulting from the collected experience.


This article is part of a doctoral dissertation developed in the context of Lêtece/Federal University of Mato Grosso [UFMT]. It is the result of a multidisciplinary research in the area of education in dialogue with the project "Learning and teaching with the information and communication technologies: trends, dilemmas and perspectives". We discuss the process of constructing the research that was developed in cyberspace, based on the Cyber-Ethnography (HINE, 2004). The research is ethnographic, and the internet configured itself as a vehicle for social changes (CASTELLS, 1999) and a proficuous space for research in all areas. We researched the conditions of existence of Haitian migrants in Brazil, from 2010 to 2016, from the demonstrations of Brazilians in the news portals G1, Folha de São Paulo and UOL and in the social networks Facebook and Twitter, focusing on racism.